Higher National Diploma In

Business
Managing Quality In Business
Week.
Self Assessment

Self-Assessment
for Continuous
Improvement:
Tools and
Techniques

Definitions
Continuous Improvement = making both incremental and strategic changes
to all the functions of an organisation to make it excellent
Self-assessment = a comprehensive, systematic and regular review by the
organisation of its activities and results referenced against a model of
Excellence which allows an organisation to discern clearly its strengths and
areas in which improvements can be made and culminates in planned
improvement actions that are then monitored for progress
Strategic planning = the plans that an organisation puts in place to enable it
to achieve its mission and vision

Relationship between Audit, Self-Assessment and

Award
Audit

Selfassessment

Award

- Can tend to be
negative-corrective
action

- Positioning against aframework

- Usually positivestrengths and areas for improvements

- Usually done by an
outsider or
specialist

- Best done by yourself,

- Involves a judging
perhaps facilitated by
process
a specialist

- Gives an historical
view

- Both historical and - Gives an historical

view
forward looking

- Auditor is often
looking to find fault

- Aim is to be motivating
- Motivating for those
for those involved
receiving the award

- Compliance against
a standard

Is a competition
Marketing tool/Publicity
Is a way of recognising
a level of achievement

Self-assessment - Potential Benefits List

1. Providing a highly structured, fact-based technique to identifying and

assessing your organisations strengths and areas for improvement.
2. Improving the development of your business plan and strategy.
3. Creating a common language and conceptual framework for the way
you manage and improve your organisation.
4. Educating people in your organisation on the Fundamental Concepts
of Excellence and how they relate to their responsibilities.

Self-assessment - Potential Benefits List

(contd)
5. Involving people at all levels/units in process improvement.
6. Identifying and facilitating the sharing of your Good Practice within
the organisation.
7. Facilitating comparisons with other organisations.
8. Providing opportunities to recognise both progress and outstanding
levels of achievement through internal or external awards.
9. Effecting sustained improvement in management practices.
10.Providing all of the information needed for external agencies. However, the
main purpose of gathering the information is for internal purposes.

Self-assessment - Potential Benefits List

(contd)

11. Helping plan what an institution aims to achieve and, crucially, how it will
achieve its aims.
12. Increasing peoples understanding of the organisations goals and bringing
people closer together.
13. The cost of quality savings made through acting upon the results of selfevaluation can be significant.

The Fundamental Concepts of Excellence

Results Orientation
Customer Focus
Leadership & Constancy of Purpose
Management by Processes & Facts
People Development & Involvement
Continuous Learning, Innovation & Improvement
Partnership Development
Corporate Social Responsibility

The EFQM Excellence Model:

European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)

Self-Assessment Techniques

BASED ON YOUR
DESIRED OUTCOMES
AND BENEFITS, HOW
WILL YOU?
Collect evidence/data
Document
evidence/data
Assess evidence/data

QUESTIONNAIRE
ASSESSMENTWORKSHOP
PROFORMA
AWARDSIMULATION

Document results
Present results

COMBINATIONS

Self-Assessment - Different Techniques, Same

Destination
QUESTIONNAIRE
ASSESSMENT WORKSHOP
PRO-FORMA
AWARD SIMULATION
COMBINATIONS

MANAGEMENT MEETING /
EVENT
To consider the S-A
outcomes
To prioritise actions
To produce improvement
plan
To agree what to
communicate
To recognise the efforts of
others

The Questionnaire Technique

Characteristics:
1.This technique can be one of the least resource intensive.
2. An approach that is completed very quickly, provided an existing and
proven questionnaire is used.
3. It is an excellent way of gathering information on the perceptions of
people within an organisation.
4. Some organisations use simple yes/no questionnaires, other slightly
more sophisticated versions that use a rating scale

The Questionnaire Technique Benefits

Quick and easy to use - basic awareness training being sufficient to get
things started
Can readily involve many people within the organisation
Enables the organisation to receive feedback which can be segmented by
function and by level
Can be used in conjunction with an Assessment Workshop to provide a
more balanced view of deployment for the management team
Can be used to facilitate group discussions between teams on the
opportunities for improvement within their unit

The Assessment Workshop Technique for SelfAssessment

Characteristics:
1.

An Assessment Workshop is an event, typically 0.5 and 1.5

days that involves members of a team in a discussion and
decision making process linked to assessing evidence and
data presented and reaching consensus on Strengths and
Areas for Improvement.

2. A second discussion and decision-making process would be

used to prioritise the list of potential improvement actions,
assign ownership and agree timescales for delivery of the
improvements.
3. The team involved can consist of anyone from within the
organisation one of main advantages of this selfassessment method is the opportunity to gain the active
involvement of the management team.

The Assessment Workshop Technique for SelfAssessment (contd)

Characteristics:
4. Typically, each member of the team will take responsibility for one
or more Criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model and will ensure that
data and evidence relevant to his/her area of responsibility is
gathered before the Assessment Workshop.

5. At the workshop team members present to their peers the data and
evidence gathered. This provides the start point for the team to
discuss and reach consensus.
6. Consideration needs to be given to the order in which the nine
criteria are addressed.

The Assessment Workshop

Benefits

Technique -

An excellent way to get the team to understand the Model and gain their commitment to
Discussion and agreement by the team on the strengths and areas for improvement
helps to build a common view
Ownership by the team of the outcomes, subsequent prioritisation and agreement to
action plans
An opportunity for team building
An agreed list of strengths and areas for improvement is produced
which will drive improvement actions

Pathway
Features:
Online tool that allows you to assess your
organisations performance straight from your desktop

Can be applied to the whole organisation or to specific

departments

User-friendly self-assessment tool that can be adapted

to reflect the needs of your organisation

Pathway - Benefits

Easy to use
Evidence-based
Can involve a range of people in the organisation
Output readily accessible
Enables the organisation to receive feedback and scores which can be segmented by function and by level
Can be used to facilitate group discussions between teams on the opportunities for improvement within their unit
Enables benchmarking to take place

Selection Criteria Input/Output Differences

Resource
effort

Knowledge
of Model

Trained
Assessors

Site
Visit

Strengths
& AFIs

Accuracy
of score

Questionnaire

Low/
Medium

No

No

No

No

Low

Assessment
Workshop

Medium

Yes

Yes
plus
Facilitator

No

Yes

Medium

Pro-forma

Medium/
High

Yes

Yes

Optional

Yes

Medium
- High

Award
Simulation

High

Yes

Yes

Optional

Yes

High

Selection Criteria Rigour & Evidence/Opinion Differences

Supported by
Award
Simulation

Evidence
Pro-forma

Low Process
Rigour

Assessment
Workshop
Questionnaire
Based on
Opinion

High
Process
Rigour

Selection Criteria - Maturity/Effort Differences

MATURE
ORGANISATION

Appropriate
Questionnaire

Pro-forma supported
by Peer evaluation

Award Simulation
or
Award Application

Pro-forma

Pilot Award
Simulation

Assessment
Workshop
ON THE WAY

STARTING ON THE
EXCELLENCE
JOURNEY

Questionnaire
& Workshop
Facilitated
Assessment
Workshop
Elementary
Questionnaire

Facilitated
Assessment
Workshop
More detailed
Questionnaire

Customised
Questionnaire
Facilitated
Assessment W/shop

LOW EFFORT

MEDIUM EFFORT

HIGH EFFORT

Total Quality Management

Commitment to quality throughout organization

Principles of TQM

Customer-oriented
Leadership
Strategic planning
Employee responsibility
Continuous improvement
Cooperation
Statistical methods
Training and education

Principles of TQM
Partnering
a relationship between a company and its
supplier based on mutual quality
standards

Customers
system must measure customer
satisfaction

Information Technology
infrastructure of hardware, networks, and
software necessary to support a quality
program

Quality Improvement
and Role of Employees
Participative problem solving
employees involved in quality management
every employee has undergo extensive training to provide
quality service. to

Quality Circle
Organization
8-10 members
Same area
Supervisor/moderator

Training

Presentation

Group processes
Data collection
Problem analysis

Implementation
Monitoring

Problem Identification

Solution

List alternatives
Consensus
Brainstorming

Problem results

Problem Analysis
Cause and effect
Data collection and
analysis

Principles of TQM in Service

Companies
Principles of TQM apply equally well to services and
manufacturing
Services and manufacturing companies have similar
inputs but different processes and outputs
Services tend to be labour intensive
Service defects are not always easy to measure
because service output is not usually a tangible item