An exploratory study of the results of the implementation of EFQM in private Spanish firms

Forecasting the Future Excellence: 30 Years of Evaluating Service Organizations in Slovakia

The aim of this paper is to model and interpret the results obtained from the assessment of the Level of Excellence of Slovak service organizations using the criteria of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model. The Gompertz logistic function is effectively employed to fit the incremental improvement and predict the values of future Levels of Excellence. The EFQM model is usually used to improve organizational development and performance. The study focuses on the problem of the slow growth or even stagnation of Slovak service organizations towards Excellence. The questionnaire method was used to assess the Level of Excellence of the selected organizations, and the approach of measuring efficiency as a ratio of results and enablers was used to evaluate the organization’s ability to transform inputs into outputs. Data were collected from 30 service organizations over a period of 20 years. The first finding of the study is the demonstration of the applicability of the Gompertz function to model the evolution of the Level of Excellence. The accuracy of the model is very high, and this predisposes this function to be used to forecast the scores of organizations over time. Examining efficiency yielded a second finding, that organizations were failing to capitalize on the effort put into translating it into results. After the first few years of growth, efficiency stagnates and then even declines. This suggests that the application of the original EFQM excellence model has reached the end of its ability to improve the effectiveness of organizations as a whole. Individual firms may have been growing or declining, but the average service score across the country had no longer the capacity to improve anymore.

Analysis of the interrelationships between enablers and results in King Abdullah II award for excellence model

Purpose

This study aims to validate the KAIIAE model in the public sector and analyse the interrelationships between Enablers and Results in the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence (KAIIAE) model to better understand the dynamic logic behind improving excellence results.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used is structural equation modelling (partial least squares technique), and the data were obtained from the assessment processes for the KAIIAE for 98 Jordanian public organisations.

Findings

The findings showed that the award model has proven to be a reliable and valid framework, as the criteria and sub-criteria were highly correlated. The set of Enablers was strongly related to the set of Results, and the synergies between the critical criteria confirmed the importance of leadership, strategy, and processes for the organisation's excellence results. It was found that the new significant and direct relationships between “People” and “People Results” and between “Partnerships and Resources” and both “Society Results” and “Key Results” improved the understanding and implementation of the model. There was a significant interrelationship between model criteria, excluding the relationship between “Society Results” and “Key Results”, since the government's main objective is to serve society. A new structural model for the KAIIAE with the new relationships was suggested.

Research limitations/implications

This paper concentrated only on the public sector, although the excellence model has been implemented in the private sector. Features of the different types of organisations were not tested. Furthermore, the variations in size, covered fields, number of employees and provided services need to be investigated further.

Practical implications

Government award bodies can use these research findings to develop a new model version for public sector awards by combining a cohesive array of elements for any government organisational need or application. The study suggested adding new criteria or relationships or eliminating those that are not significant and have no impact on public sector organisations. The findings will assure the organisations' managers that the KAII excellence model criteria are highly correlated and synergised for public sector organisations. These criteria perform efficiently once they are considered and implemented in an interconnected manner rather than managing them independently, which makes up their management framework. This knowledge about the validity of the structure of the model allows public sector organisations to benefit fully from the self-assessment processes and improve the organisation's management, enhancing their faith in excellence award models.

Social implications

This study has contributed to the existing literature on the reliability and validity of business excellence models as a framework for implementing, evaluating, and improving excellence, particularly in the government sector. Several important insights have emerged from this study. The relevant analysis supports a new model structure for excellence in the public sector. Among the model structure relationships, the study identified the existence of new direct relationships between enablers and results. New significant and direct relationships are added to the model that advances the implementation and understanding of the model. Moreover, it informs theory about Excellence Award implementation in developing countries within the context of Jordan – a topic that has previously received limited attention in the international business excellence literature. Since there is limited research on the suitability of implementing the KAIIEA excellence model (that is based on nine criteria of the EFQM model) in public organisations, this work suggested introducing a new modification to the model to suit the characteristics of the public sector.

Originality/value

The considerable prominence of the government sector has drawn attention to the excellence parameters within its organisations. Hence, a lack of studies and inadequate knowledge in the governmental management system have limited testing excellence in the public sector. This paper provides support that the excellence model (KAIIAE model that is EFQM based) is an appropriate framework by identifying direct and significant model interrelationships for the public sector based on the actual and sufficient performance of its entities so as to drive the changes of the next model generation. This is the first study that attempts to comprehend and describe the validation of the KAIIAE model in the public sector.