Modernization of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Quality has been an important competitive strategy of organizations, especially since the 1980s when globalization became reality. In the USA, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) was established in 1987 to encourage organizations to deploy quality as a competitive strategy. It has recently been suggested that the MBNQA has lost sight of quality. This paper discusses the changing role of quality in the MBNQA criteria from 1988 to 2003 in approximately 5-year intervals in 1988, 1992, 1997 and 2003. The concept of quality is discussed in view of the changing global economy and technology. The evolving role of quality from order winner to order qualifier in the e-global economy is also discussed.