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Article Excerpt
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The challenge of bringing leaders together from across sectors and geographic locations to address issues from a broad, regional perspective can be dauntig. However, an effective organizational structure for such work can be of great benefit as regional leaders strive to come together and develop strategies for innovation. This paper will discuss using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Criteria as a framework for designing an organizational structure to facilitate such efforts and will cite the case of the Highlands P-16 Quality Initiative as a model for this approach. Implications for practice and future directions will conclude the discussion.
Literature Review
Competitiveness, innovation, and regional development are rapidly converging, propelled by a sense of urgency and having apparent staying power. Increasingly, universities are being drawn into national and regional efforts, within and beyond their traditional rules in higher education and R&D. As in any period of significant change, there is confusion over "basics," faddist responses, self-serving solutions (such as more funding), and initiatives of many types and forms. Such initiatives increasingly involve new organizations or partnerships--ones that often create or reveal formidable institutional barriers.
Challenges in economic development are especially acute in rural areas. Stauber, 2001, summarizes a variety of key problems, including policy, past focus, and resources. In a recent series of articles in The Main Street Economist (a publication of the Center for the Study of Rural America), the authors take a systems view of rural development. In the lead article entitied "Racing Toward New Frontiers: Helping Regions Compete in the Global Marketplace," author Stephan Weiler emphasizes that "the foundations of rural America's economy are changing" and that "each region is effectively in a race, not with other regions, but with the quickly evolving frontier of the global market itself" (Weiler, 2004). Weiler argues that "a scorecard by which a region can understand its strengths in this race would be welcomed by all rural commuities. A good starting point would be to find a way of evaluating the competitive capacities of a particular region." Weiler further stresses the importance of "forward-looking measures" of regional competitiveness. He summarizes five broad categories for developing measures and indicators. These are: (1) workforce, (2) lifestyle, (3) innovation, (4) financial, and (5) informational.
Although Weiler's article does not stress the many challenges associated with marshaling regional cooperation, it makes a compelling case for the utility of performance management concepts in development. Also, in its 2003 annual report, the Center for the Study of Rural America highlights some promising innovations in rural goverance (Center for the Study of Rural America, 2003).
We hold the view that major change is under way and that a great deal can and must be learned from the past three or four decades as we move forward in new directions. However, we also believe that universities now must learn to play multiple roles and become more intellectually engaged and active in regional initiatives. Important facets of university involvement are "sense making," "action-learning," convening of and involvement in local and regional partnerships, with sharing of experiences and results with peers. In this article, we seek to bring perspective to these issues and describe several regional efforts intended to achieve "learning by doing," using a performance management framework as a device in design, operation, and assessment.
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria: An Overview
Historical Perspective
In 1987, during what many regard as the high point in competition with Japan, the United States launched the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, akin to Japan's Deming Prize created almost four decades earlier. The U.S. award was created to promote quality excellence and to share successful strategies. Initially open only to U.S. businesses, the award has since extended eligibility to education, health care, and nonprofit organizations.
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In launching the new U.S. award, designers sought to focus on overall management requirements for quality and productivity across organizations, not narrowly on...
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