Skip to navigation Skip to content

Criteria for Performance Excellence

No matter the size or nature of your organization, the Criteria are a guide in your journey toward performance excellence. They can help your organization align resources; improve communication, productivity, and effectiveness; and achieve strategic goals.

The Criteria work as an integrated framework for managing an organization. They are simply a set of questions focusing on critical aspects of management that contribute to performance excellence:

  • Leadership
  • Strategic planning
  • Customer focus
  • Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management
  • Workforce focus
  • Operations focus
  • Results

The Criteria serve two main purposes:

  • Identify Baldrige Award recipients to serve as role models for other organizations
  • Help organizations assess their improvement efforts, diagnose their overall performance management system, and identify their strengths and opportunities for improvement

There are three versions of the Criteria for Performance Excellence: