Strategy and Planning: UCB’s and Baldrige’s Criteria

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Table of Contents

Introduction
UCB’s Vs Baldrige’s Criteria for Strategic Planning
Costs of Participation
UC Boulder and UC Berkeley
Differences s between the UCB’s and Baldrige’s Criteria for Strategic Plans
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The main function of Baldrige’s criteria for analyzing a strategic plan is to assist in enhancing competitiveness in organizations by ensuring they deliver value as per the specified management system that acts as a role model. The role of the assessment criteria is to assist organizations in assessing their improvements and trigger efforts for setting up an improving system for the organization. The analysis criterion, therefore, focuses more on rewarding performances and capabilities of firms or organizations without specialty.

UCB’s Vs Baldrige’s Criteria for Strategic Planning

The Baldrige criteria for analyzing strategic plans is part of the national quality program managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and acts as a test for the overall performance of organizations (NIST, 2009). The non-prescriptive nature of Baldrige criteria for assessing strategic plan indicates that the strategy acts only as a guidance, checklist, or a prescription that provides an outline or sample of how firms ought to manage resources or generally run their programs (NIST, 2009).

The elimination of quality from the earlier forms of criteria to include performance provisions makes the organization’s focus shift from the responsibility of enhancing the quality of products or services for customer satisfaction. Firms are now more concerned with ensuring that all aspects of the organization are balanced.

Unlike the strategies of UC Berkeley and the University of Colorado at Boulder, Baldrige criteria currently focus on the performance of organizations particularly on matters about business profitability. It also forms a plan on how to boost employee morale, business growth, market shares, trade safety, and business innovations (UC Boulder, 2002).

Costs of Participation

The Baldrige criterion has become tougher and has raised expectations thus causing the assessment procedure to become very expensive for most firms compared to its counter-productivity. There is still very little evidence of company improvement because of Baldrige’s criteria for assessing strategic plans. This is arguable because firms fail to follow the paradigm model after the awards are given. The firm’s focus shifts immediately to engage innovative ideas for subsequent awards.

The Baldrige projects are therefore often sidelined to quality assurance departments in various firms. As opposed to UC Boulder and UC Berkeley plans, the criterion fails to provide the procedures of incorporating analysis feedback back to the firms’ strategic plans (UC Berkeley, 2007). Plans from the award-winning firms are well prepared but there are no procedures to enhance implementation. This is a clear indication of a success criterion that lacks execution transcription procedures.

UC Boulder and UC Berkeley

UC Boulder and UC Berkeley analysis criteria for education systems involve analysis of budgetary measures, the financial performance of institutions, and marketing measures. In marketing, the firm checks on shares in the market, the growth rates that involve a measure of students’ enrollments and programs progression. The growth analysis also includes a measure of new education services such as distance or web-based learning and a measure of market positions. Measuring how pupils are in a position of utilizing the available resources and programs (UC Boulder, 2002).

The UC Berkeley strategic plan mainly involves the identification of technologically related needs, especially in urgent areas such as research learning and teaching, as well as innovative experiences and administration. The UC Berkeley strategic plan provides the context required for an update of information and any other use relating to the identification of technological priorities for the university (UC Berkeley, 2007).

Differences s between the UCB’s and Baldrige’s Criteria for Strategic Plans

Environment

Baldrige’s criterion lacks support for information/knowledge dissemination and the openness required for accessibility of information beyond the physical classroom, library, or lab setting. Contrary, UCB’s strategies enhance environments made of campus communities that supply members with knowledge, data, and services at all times (UC Berkeley, 2007).

The IT strategic plans enhance support for implementation of basic technological resources such as web-based interactive mechanisms to adequately support and refresh users in their day-to-day tasks such as research, teaching, learning and other administrative duties. The University IT plans therefore provides and implements prospects that relate to continuous access to self-services and direct information.

The criterion for university also involves implementation of various technological tools in support for robust collaboration and access for data, tools or information that enables development and sharing of solutions through community programs.

Challenges Facing Baldrige’s Criteria for Strategic Plans

In comparison to UCB’s strategies, Baldrige’s criteria for assessing strategic planning meet various challenges relating to requirements. The newly emerging technology requires capability to have updated solutions for capacity building such as ability to incorporate latest web technology, social networks, and various technological aspects.

The future planning must necessitate empowerment where people (staff, faculty and students) have the ability to make unique decisions regarding management without need to understand the technical aspects of the IT programs. It is a change from the traditional mode of planning, which raises challenges of setting up IT systems that can meet current and future needs.

Baldrige’s Criteria for Strategic Plans are generalized for all types of products and services. The plan therefore fails to focus attention on implementation of electronic resources, which is a key requirement for teaching and learning programs. Such systems enhance the workflow of programs and information to various sectors depending on specialty. For that reason, UCB’s strategic plans stands out in the education sector because it fosters creativity and effective use of IT resources to meet the sophisticated teaching plans, research and reports (UC Berkeley, 2007).

UCB’s strategic plans focus on more complex regulatory measures and environments compliances to ensures security and management of risks. The plans at the Universities ensure preparedness at reduced costs, zero-rated redundancy, enhanced flexible options and integrated or researched data across campus (UC Berkeley, 2007). On the other hand, the Baldrige’s criteria ensure resumption of businesses and collaborations among the involved departments by creating a competitive edge (NIST, 2009).

According to UC Berkeley (2007), the strategic plan of an organization emerges from need to assess the environments and therefore assessment has materialized as an effective style especially for performance excellence.

In line with NIST (2009), Baldrige’s framework deploys an “effective, systematic, aligned, and integrated approaches in the areas of leadership; strategic planning; student, stakeholder, and market focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; faculty and staff focus; and process management.” Baldrige’s criteria are also considered generally effective in implementation of strategies since, the organizations performance is a measure in terms of shareholders applications and satisfaction after deployment.

Baldrige’s criteria for assessing strategic planning provides various core values of guiding leadership, allowing customer-based excellence and private learning. Being agile over employees’, clients’ and stakeholders’ needs, focusing on the future requirements through acceptance of innovative ideas, using facts to manage, being socially responsible and being results oriented by having a growth perspective are some of these key values (NIST, 2009).

In comparison, UCB’s strategies have visionary form of leadership where senior managers are in a position of creating student-focused form of learning. There universities have values that focus on implementation of organization’s activities, behaviours, values and decisions based on expectations. Baldrige’s criteria failure to focus on implementation plans

The education sector faces constant and rapid diversity of technology as well as requirements for students and teachers. Plans must create awareness of future projections, expectation and come up with a clear outline for the computerized programs requirements. There are high expectations on leaning standards that can cater for individual needs and expectations.

Conclusion

One of the major area that posses as a huge challenge for Baldrige’s criteria involves students’ organizational learning. A future plan must entail details for improving the existing programs by suggesting and implementing significant technological changes. Having a clear objective of learning calls for a criterion that assist to understanding individual’s needs.

Generally, a criterion that caters for organizational learning must show continuous innovative ideas over the existing approaches and other significant changes that can assist in upgrading the existing education system, environment and curriculum. UCB’s strategic plan focuses on learning objectives, and progressive innovation of the learning environment. The main aim is to have a system that caters for innovative, flexible, responsive, and adoptive styles for students, staff, and stakeholders of the institutions in-order to enhance innovative growth in firms.

References

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2009). Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award: 2009-2010 Education Criteria for performance excellence. Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology. Web.

UC Boulder (2002). The University of Colorado at Boulder IT Strategic Planning (ITSP). Web.

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