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IJEM
21,2

Baldrige theory into practice:

a generic model

114

The British University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Mohammed Arif
Abstract
Purpose The education system globally has moved from a push-based or producer-centric system
to a pull-based or customer centric system. Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award (MBQA) model happens
to be one of the latest additions to the pull based models. The purpose of this paper is to develop a
generic framework for MBQA that can be used by educational institutes to achieve Baldrige quality
operational excellence.
Design/methodology/approach This paper traces back the history of the modern Pull education
where the key driver is the latest research and needs of consumers through four major phases of
western education. The first phase is the idealist phase where education was primarily religious and
spiritual. The second is the realist phase where applied education was first introduced to solve
practical societal issues. The third phase being the pragmatic phase, where anything, that was not
needed, was put on the back-burner. The last of these phases being the existentialist phase, which
primarily started after the second world war and was needed to fuel the fires of rapid development and
progress. MBQA is a new pull-based philosophy operating in existentialist phase. This paper presents
a case of University of Wisconsin-Stout, which has won the MBQA. Based on the case, this paper
proposes a generic framework.
Findings Based on the analysis the generic Baldrige framework can be implemented using the
following six steps: identification of stakeholders; definition of goals; proposal of KPIs; setting target
KPI values; designing process; allocating resources; monitoring KPIs; and revising goals.
Originality/value This model can be used by any education institute to improve quality and align
itself under the pull-based model.
Keywords Educational administration, Quality, Baldrige Award, Management accountability
Paper type Research paper

International Journal of Educational

Management
Vol. 21 No. 2, 2007
pp. 114-125
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0951-354X
DOI 10.1108/09513540710729917

Introduction
The second half of the twentieth century, and now encompassing the first part of the
twenty-first century, has witnessed an unparalleled change in the ways US and world
communities exchange information. American citizens in the early 1900s relied first on
newspaper and then radio measures to learn about the information and cultures around
them. From the early 1950s forward, television became the instrument of mass media
transmissions. However, it was in the late 1960s to date the computer revolution
ushered in the information age, a time that complemented and eventually
transformed various print and television formats from American homes and libraries
to computer terminals instant message. Historians liken desk and lap top computer
stations as the modern reincarnation of Gutenbergs printing press and specifically,
the utilization of the internet.
Technology progress was accompanied by socio-economic growth as well. In the
1960s the business community utilized the term push/pull. The push concept referred
to the one size fits all scenario, where the producer was in control of the new products
and systems introduced in the society. Henry Fords famous quote You can have any
car you want, as long as it is black and model T is a good indicator of the push

concept. The pull concept referred to the customer is always right scenario, where
any product or system was driven by customer needs. The customer informed
producers about needs, and they reacted by producing what was needed (Arif et al.,
2005).
Education system historical perspective
Arif et al. (2005) draw an analogy with the educational philosophies and push/pull
concept. They break the entire pedagogy history in four periods and have a teaching
philosophy specified for those periods. The distinction is made based on metaphysics
(what was real), epistemology (how to gain knowledge), and axiology (what values
were most important).
The first of the four periods that Arif et al. (2005) describe is idealism. This is
the first of the two push philosophies. The idealism period existed at the time of
Socrates, in his monologues. Idealism maintained that reality was spiritual,
epistemology was about rethinking tried and true ideas, and axiology was absolute
and eternal, and man was seen as a temporal being. The teaching philosophy
originating from idealism was perennialism. According to this philosophy, there
were specific texts cultured people should read and study to become literate
(Ornstein and Levine, 2000, pp. 410-417).
The second push era is realism. This was popularized by Aristotle who suggested
that reality was objective as well as measurable and not spiritual, epistemology was
through the use of senses, while axiology were based on natures laws and thus could
be acquired. The teaching philosophy associated with realism was essentialism. The
emphasis of essentialism was to gain more useful job skills. Subject areas that made
learners more complete and productive consumers were emphasized in curriculum,
thus creating an efficient job-holding and tax-paying citizen (Kliebard, 1986,
pp. 260-264).
The first of two pull periods Arif et al. (2005) describe is pragmatism. Pragmatism
stipulated that if any factors in metaphysics, epistemology or axiology were found
useful, they were included and anything that was not found useful was dropped. Any
means that resulted in profitable ends were justified. The teaching philosophy that
originated out of pragmatism was progressivism. Progressivism was proposed by John
Dewey who mandated that public schools should teach using a series of activities or
projects that interested the students, anything they did not want to learn should not be
taught (Willis et al., 1994, pp. 251-253).
The last pull period Arif et al. (2005) describe is existentialism. Born after the
two world wars, this period suggested that existence precedes essence. In
existentialism, reality was subjective, epistemology was only a personal search of
choices and axiology was the expression of freedom. The educational philosophy
coming out of existentialism is social reconstructionism. This philosophy was
proposed by education reformers as William Counts and Theodore Brameld and
promoted students right for individualized and experiential learning. It also
proposed to include issues that lead to improvements at local, regional, national
and international levels.
The current quality models in education originate as existentialist models following
the social reconstructionist education philosophy. The following section documents
some of the reasons behind the popularity of quality models in education.

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Quality movement in education

Quality movement has picked up rapidly in the education sector. Arif and Smiley
(2003) note in their review of literature that the major reasons for incorporation of
quality in education system are:
.
declining enrollment (Ray, 1996);
.
declining quality (Chao and Dugger, 1996);
.
facilitating change (Wiedmer and Harris, 1997);
.
increasing tuition;
.
changing demographics;
.
advancing technology;
.
intensifying competition among institutions;
.
demanding better quality graduates by employers (Bosner, 1992; Rubach and
Stratton, 1994);
.
declining retention rates;
.
recording students dissatisfaction with the overall service quality (Montano and
Utter, 1999); and
.
increasing governmental concern of rising tuition costs (Bosner, 1992).
Arif and Smiley (2003, 2004) provide an in-depth analysis of Malcolm Baldrige Quality
Awards (MBQA) in education. Arif and Smiley (2004) further describe the case of
University of Wisconsin (UW) at Stout and their research documents five major
processes within the university based on the MBQA model. Even though Arif and
Smiley (2004) provide detailed information on this one working model, they do not
provide a generic framework that can be used by other organizations. This paper
develops a generic framework for MBQA, after analyzing the data from Arif and
Smiley (2004).
MBQA at University of Wisconsin at Stout
Arif and Smiley (2004) document the following five processes within the UW-Stout
system, based on MBQA:
(1) Strategic planning process.
(2) Budget planning.
(3) Career center.
(4) Information services.
(5) University outreach center.
The rest of this section documents these processes in detail, adopted from Arif and
Smiley (2004).
Strategic planning process
Strategic planning process is the first of five areas described (see Figure 1). It was
found that UW-Stout has an all-inclusive strategic planning process, one implemented
by the chancellor beginning in the Fall of 1996. This was a result of an initiative that

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Figure 1.
Illustration of the strategic
planning process

included inputs from the UW Stout regents, community, faculty, staff and students.
This consensual thorough-going approach to systems accountability is central to
Stouts Malcolm Baldrige successes. Those successes were predicated on more and
better services to be provided for the ultimate university product students. The
chancellor, using a series of focus groups and retreats regarding the definition of
mission, values and vision, chaired this movement. Over several group meetings and
brainstorming sessions, the current and future conditions of the university and the
external environment were analyzed.
It is important to note the UW-Stouts planning was not a one-time and/or top-down
procedure. Rather, these group meetings, germane with the mission, vision and values
defined earlier, have been and continue to be ongoing. For example, an anticipated
budget cut by the State of Wisconsin in 2003 resulted in these groups identifying
alternative funding sources, and hypothesizing possible remedies whether tuition
increases or supplemental service fees are needed. Based on these inputs from all
stakeholders, the goals and action plans have been systematically developed. After the
goals and action plans have been implemented, they will be, periodically reviewed and
adjusted for any changes in operating conditions.
These planned initiatives have had a big impact on the learning environment of
UW-Stout. Since this process includes inputs from all impacted groups, there is a sense
of ownership among stakeholders. Since members from all participants are involved
during decision-making processes, such as the above alternative funding initiative,
they do not question the rationale behind the decision. This inclusive decision-making
process results in higher job satisfaction among faculty and staff, which undoubtedly
results in the delivery of better learning experiences for students. The other major
impact of this process is the promotion of systemic thinking. Various stakeholders,
while contributing to the focus group and brainstorming sessions, are reinforced with
their important place in the universitys policies and procedures. They are asked to
examine their own role in the university, as well as their impact on other departments.
When a particular initiative from any stakeholder is not approved, there is immediate

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Figure 2.
Illustration of the budget
planning process

feedback given regarding why that idea or request was not granted. UW Stouts
system does not operate in a vacuum.
Budget planning process
The second process studied at UW-Stout was their budget planning (see Figure 2).
The budget planning process utilizes this universitys strategic plan as its starting
point. Since stakeholder groups participate in and define budget priorities, the budget
is allocated based on the consensus developed at various group meetings. This
consensus results in more transparency regarding resource allocations. As the
stakeholders realize and recognize that their personal inputs and needs are important,
they also understand and comprehend how their needs fit into the universitys big
picture. One particular student-authored incident summarized the success of this
process. Assessment of student fees is often a contentious issue, especially when those
fees result from top-down decisions. However, UW-Stout students recognized the need
for a career center that were both more accessible, professional and free to students and
alumni. Therefore, they requested for and received tuition increases to cover the
creation of the UW-Stout Career Center. All stakeholders shared the discussion, cost
and benefit the career centers function provides. This facility is an efficient operation
that includes modern, efficient and effective modes of career exploration, job
orientation and employer development. Stouts students have organized themselves
into efficient change agents, which mean short-term, out-of-pocket expenses. However,
those same students created an office and agency that would provide future UW-Stout
students long-term benefits. The career center now provides enhanced opportunities
for students to learn various job markets, write resumes and vitae, and practice
interview techniques, as well as compete for subsequent internships and jobs. When
UW-Stout students participated in the planning and allocation of the budgetary
processes, their extrinsic reward was their role in the UW-Stout Career Center.

However, their intrinsic reward was their own amalgamation into the greater society
they would live in and contribute to.
Career services
Career services function of the UW-Stout Career Center is the third operation in the
research (see Figure 3). In many ways, however, and from the accounts learned from
interviews with this universitys faculty, staff and students, this office is germane to
the operational philosophy this special purpose institution offers. UW-Stout extends a
wide spectrum of majors to its students, including engineering, management and
education, all of which are application-oriented. Before UW-Stout students obtain their
degrees and have their job interviews, they learn from real-world experiences in order
to enhance their learning, as well as increase the possibility of obtaining gainful
employment. Therefore, as a transitional step from textbook and classroom-based
instruction, the career center helps students gain service-learning experiences from
possible future employers in the form of field observations, placements and
internships. These procedures help students connect what they learned in classrooms
to the applications on job sites.
However, when the UW students have completed their pre-professional and on-site
exercises, and are approaching graduation, the career center adds complementary
services. In order to help students make the transition from in-class learning situations
to actual employment opportunities, the center acts as job-preparation seminar site. It
gives students practice in several important areas, beginning with learning how to fill
out application forms. They also offer help with writing resumes and practicing for the
all-important interviews.
Once the UW-Stouts students have practiced the necessary skills for
pre-employment, the center establishes a series of on-campus visits with regional
and national employers. From these meetings, the students gain more knowledge about
applying and winning job searches. Potential employers, also gain insight from the
students they interview, as well as the theory-based instructions those students have
received. The third part of this employment partnership includes the faculty.
Professors whose students have received pre-professional aid can evaluate, monitor
and change their coursework in order to update their classes and to help meet employer
needs. The UW-Stout Career Center then is an important integral hub. Students come

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Figure 3.
Illustration of the career
center role in the
operations

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to learn how to prepare for potential jobs, professors come to learn how their curricula
matches with employer expectations and employers come to learn about university and
student preparations, as well as hire productive employees.
Information services
Information services at UW-Stout plays three major roles to support student learning
(see Figure 4). Their first responsibility is to maintain class websites that use a
proprietarily-developed platform exclusively for UW Stout personnel. Professors use
these websites to post lecture presentations, class notes, student grades and contact
information. Students can access an array of features including in-class notes, on-line
exams and chat room discussions. The second major responsibility of the information
services department to develop in-house, special purpose software. If faculty members
need any software application package, and it can be developed in-house more
economically than buying an off-the-shelf product, then it is developed at UW-Stout.
Due to in-house development of instructional software, faculty can enhance their
instruction and lessons. They can use software to simulate various academic or
classroom situations in order to demonstrate and substantiate various theories. The
third major responsibility of the information services is to maintain a wireless campus.
All students are required to have laptops when they arrive as freshmen, and they can
access the Internet from anywhere on UW-Stout property. In order to keep this site
functioning with the various computer usages, information services also has the
responsibility to maintain and repair student laptops. These services have added
several major dimensions to student learning. First, students can communicate with
their teachers more efficiently through websites. As well, the students have lecture
notes and presentations accessible to them, can check for updates and/or can complete
professors questions or issues 24/7. Second, students can access the UW-Stout library
for information necessary for tests, papers or presentations from anywhere on campus.
Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center
The Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center (NWMOC) (see Figure 5)
plays a major role in supporting UW-Stout students and local industries. It offers an

Figure 4.
Illustration of the career
center role in the
operations

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Figure 5.
Illustration of the
Northwest Wisconsin
Manufacturing Outreach
Center role in the
operations

incubator facility for local entrepreneurs to start businesses, and it also supports
Stout-area industry through various consulting projects. Both students and faculty are
involved in these efforts through in-classroom into real world applications. This center
also provides consulting services to local industry, and these consulting assignments
provide faculty with applications of their knowledge into real-life problems. These
consulting projects also generate internship opportunities for students, thus exposing
them to industrial trends and practices.
This section has presented five processes at UW-Stout being run under MBQA
regime. The following section analyzes the common elements of all these processes in
order to propose a generic model for MBQA.
Analysis
Through the description of the five processes, some generic and common elements
emerge. The first element in all these processes happens to be the selection and
participation of stakeholders. It is this stakeholder driven approach that makes the
system a pull system. For both the strategic planning and budget planning the
stakeholders are board of regents, faculty, staff, students, employers and the
community. For the career services, the stakeholders are students, faculty, university,
and employers. For the information services the stakeholders are faculty, staff,
students and the university. For the NWMOC the stakeholders are the local industry,
faculty, students and the university.
The selection of the stakeholders leads to the planning of the short and long term
goals for the processes. After identifying the goals, it is important that they be
prioritized. This prioritization is also done by stakeholders. In strategic planning the
goals are related to the position of the university, its role with the community, its niche
areas in terms of disciplines and specializations, its ranking, its revenues, its size etc. In

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budget planning process goals are related to revenues, expenses, allocation of

resources, identification of additional sources of generating revenues, etc. In career
services goals are related to graduate finding employment and internships, faculty
interaction with industry, curricular modifications reflecting real social industrial
needs etc. In information services the goals are connectivity in terms of internet
connection, access to e-mails, access to the latest software applications, availability of
computer hardware, availability of a platform where students and faculty can interact
for a particular course etc. For NWMOC the goals include participation in community,
extending academic expertise to industry, availability of a platform to help
entrepreneurs and inventors start a new business, providing real life experience to
both students and faculty, more industry oriented curriculum.
All the goals specified in the previous step need to be monitored on a regular
basis. In order to facilitate monitoring, key performance indicators (KPIs) are
identified by the stakeholders. For strategic planning process some of the KPIs
are: student enrollment, ranking by independent agencies like US News, number of
patents, graduation rate, research dollars attracted, publications by faculty,
satisfaction of the community gauged through surveys etc. For budget planning
process, KPIs are: revenue generated, expenses, research grant amount, budget
deficit/surplus, endowments, federal financial aid obtained etc. For career planning
the KPIs are: percentage of students getting internships, number of companies
coming to campus for recruitment, number as well as percentage of students
obtaining full time employment on graduation, average salaries by each major,
number of faculty industry interactions etc. For information services, KPIs are:
percentage of students with computer access, percentage area of university covered
by wireless internet access, number of hits on different websites, turnaround time
for hardware and application complaints, dollars saved by in-house development of
applications etc. For NWMOC, KPIs are: number of patents, number of companies
consulted, number of students employed in companies, revenue generated for the
university, number of faculty participating, number of publications coming out of
the faculty-industry partnerships etc. After the identification of the KPIs, it is
important that the stakeholders also identify the target number they want the
KPIs to achieve: for example the number of students enrolled by the year 2010
should be 15,000 etc.
After the identification of KPIs, individual processes are designed in order to
achieve the goals intended, and the performance level required to be reached. Based on
the process design and goals, resources are allocated to each process. This process of
implementing MBQA is very data intensive. KPIs need to be tracked on a regular basis,
and if they are not meeting the target then processes or systems need to be modified.
This endeavor of collecting data requires a knowledge management system. This
knowledge management system stores all the data generated over time and generates
reports that stakeholders can review in their periodic meetings and assess the success
rate of their plans. If goals are not met then a root cause analysis is performed and
based on cause actions taken. These actions can be having additional stakeholders who
can provide inputs to the process, revising goals if they were unrealistic, allocation of
additional resources if currently they are inadequate, changing the strategic direction
of the process if national, international, economic, social, or industrial focus has
changed. Once any revision to goals is done at this stage, the corresponding KPIs need

to be revised and their target values reset to reflect the changed conditions. Figure 6
summarizes the generic model for MBQA. The following section presents the
concluding remarks for this research.
Concluding remarks
This paper has presented MBQA in the context of the historical perspective of
pull-based education system. The paper presents the history of education system by
dividing it into four phases. It further classifies the periods as push-based (producer
driven) and pull-based (consumer driven). The first being the Idealist phase where
education was primarily religious and spiritual. The second phase is the Realist phase
where applied education was first introduced to solve practical societal issues. The
third phase being the pragmatic phase, where anything, that was not needed, was
thrown on the back-burner. The last of these phases is the existentialist phase that
primarily started after the second world war and was needed to fuel the fires of rapid
development and progress. Idealist and realist phases are the push-based phases where
the teacher decided what to teach, whereas pragmatic and existentialist phases are the
pull-based phases where the consumers had a say in the design and delivery of the
curriculum. MBQA in education is an indication of further proliferation of pull-based
philosophy in education.

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Figure 6.
MBQA generic model

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This paper presents the case of MBQA implementation at UW-Stout. The paper first
documents the five processes at UW-Stout being run under MBQA regime. The
research indicates that the five components of UW-Stout operations create an
environment conducive to melding university teaching to student learning.
Participation of faculty, staff and students in strategic and budget planning
provides transparency to these operations. People working at UW-Stout feel satisfied
their voices are being heard. Increased job satisfaction results in more motivated
employees, who, in turn, provide higher quality services in classrooms. The career
center arranges internships and job interviews for students and alumni. It also
arranges meetings between faculty and employers. These opportunities, in turn, result
in faculty gaining input regarding their curriculum, and they can then implement any
changes needed to keep their students abreast with changing business and industrial
practices.
The information service at UW-Stout is responsible for maintaining class websites,
which give students immediate and constant access to class notes, presentation and
grades. This increased access results in more opportunities so those students can learn
and they can do it at times more convenient to them. Information service is also
responsible for developing specialized software needed by faculty in their classrooms.
Such software can help simulate laboratory experiments, perform select analytical
functions and provide graphical representations of concepts and practices covered in
classrooms. The third responsibility of information services is to support the wireless
UW-Stout campus and maintain student laptops. This facility has allowed students
having campus-wide access to class websites and library resources. The last of the five
parts of UW-Stouts operations covered in this research is the Northwest Wisconsin
Manufacturing Outreach Center. This center provides incubator facilities to budding
entrepreneurs and helps them bring to fruition their ideas regarding new business
concepts. In supporting these entrepreneurs, both UW-Stout faculty and students
apply theories to help new business practices. This partnership helps all parties
understand the theories better and increases the resultant learning experiences. This
center also provides consulting services to local industry, which are ameliorated
answers to real life problems.
Based on the analysis of the five processes, a generic MBQA model is proposed that
can be adopted by any educational institution. The first step in the model is to identify
the stakeholders for the process. These stakeholders define goals, both long term and
short term for that process. The goals are measured using KPIs and a target value for
KPIs is also identified. Processes are designed to meet the goals and then resources are
allocated. KPIs are then monitored periodically and any changes needed in goals or
processes due to changing conditions or non-performance of the process are made. This
whole endeavor is supported by a huge knowledge management system that stores
data, generates reports and tracks the KPIs. Through this case of UW-Stout this paper
has presented a roadmap for other educational institutions to implement pull-based
MBQA model.
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Corresponding author
Mohammed Arif can be contacted at: mohammed.arif@buid.ac.ae

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