Quality Management Journal

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Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners:

A quantitative analysis between strategic planning
and human resource variables

Patricia A. Lapoint

To cite this article: Patricia A. Lapoint (2022) Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners:
A quantitative analysis between strategic planning and human resource variables, Quality
Management Journal, 29:4, 289-298, DOI: 10.1080/10686967.2022.2112929

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10686967.2022.2112929

Published online: 15 Sep 2022.

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QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
2022, VOL. 29, NO. 4, 289–298
https://doi.org/10.1080/10686967.2022.2112929

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners: A quantitative analysis

between strategic planning and human resource variables
Patricia A. Lapoint
Walter F. and Virginia School of Business, McMurry University, Abilene, Texas

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The United States Congress in 1987 voted to enact the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Received 2 June 2022
Award (MBNQA) with the goal of encouraging U.S. businesses and other types of organiza- Revised 14 July 2022
tions to approach and deploy effective quality processes in the delivery of their products Accepted 22 July 2022
and services. The MBNQA provides a framework of internal assessment for companies to
KEYWORDS
use in their planning and implementation of quality initiatives. Through this internal assess- alignment; Baldrige; human
ment process, company leadership gains a better understanding of the alignments/linkages resource planning; quality;
within its operations to modify its processes for meeting or exceeding customer expecta- strategic planning
tions and requirements.
The purpose of the research is to examine the extent of the alignment between strategic
planning processes and human resource processes. Eleven manufacturing companies were
selected for a site visit. Each of these eleven companies represents a different industry sec-
tor, geographical location, and organizational size. A survey, documents search, and per-
sonal interviews were used to collect the data.
The observations of the alignment between the two construct categories show mixed
results and are dependent upon the specific statistical analysis used. Therefore, research
questions R1 and R2 are not confirmed.

Introduction Since the MBNQA’s inception in 1987, additional

sectors of the economy have been added—education,
Background and purpose
healthcare, nonprofits, service, small businesses, and
The highly competitive global environment in the government. able 1 identifies the number of applica-
1980s spurred a major quality revolution for compa- tions received and the number of winners by sector
nies in the United States. In response, the United since 1988.
States Congress in 1987 voted to enact the Malcolm From 1988 to 2020, 1661 applications were
Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) with the received. Three hundred sixty applications are in the
goal of encouraging and empowering U.S. businesses manufacturing category (NIST 2021). As Table 1
and other types of organizations to develop and shows since 2005 the number of applications and
deploy effective quality processes in the delivery of awards in the manufacturing sector has declined; since
their products and services. The MBNQA provides a 2013 no applications were received. The additions of
framework of internal assessment for companies to the education, service, health care, and nonprofit sec-
use in their planning and implementation of quality tors show increases in applications and awards. These
initiatives (refer to Figure 1). Through this internal changes may reflect the shifting sectors of the overall
assessment process, company leadership gains a better United States economy during this period.
understanding of the alignments/linkages within its Thirty or more independent state and regional
operations to modify its processes for meeting or award programs covering nearly all 50 states, and 80
exceeding customer expectations and requirements. international programs based in whole or part on the
According to the NIST website, “ … the Baldrige Baldrige Program have emerged (National Institute of
Excellence Framework has empowered organizations Standards and Technology 2017; Lee and Dong 2013).
to accomplish their missions, improve results, and MBNQA interest has grown since 1987. Over the
become more competitive” (NIST 2022). years the framework categories are constant, but the

CONTACT Patricia A. Lapoint [email protected] Walter F. and Virginia School of Business, McMurry University, Box 398, Abilene, TX 79697.
ß 2022 American Society for Quality
290 P. A. LAPOINT

Figure 1. Baldrige excellence framework.

Table 1. MBNQA applications and award winners (applica- Education sector was added, much of the terminology
tions/awards). needed to change from that of Manufacturing, private
Small Health sector. Thousands of organizations use the MBNQA
Year Manufacturing. Service business Education care Nonprofit framework to guide and drive their improvement,
1988 45/2 9/0 12/1 n.a. n.a. n.a. innovation, and alignment of their internal processes
1989 23/2 6/0 11/0 n.a. n.a. n.a.
1990 45/2 18/1 34/1 n.a. n.a. n.a. without applying for the award.
1991 38/2 21/0 47/1 n.a. n.a. n.a. Eriksson’s study shows several outcomes of quality
1992 31/2 15/2 44/1 n.a. n.a. n.a.
1993 32/1 13/0 31/1 n.a. n.a. n.a. management practices by comparing public, private,
1994 23/0 18/2 30/1 n.a. n.a. n.a. large, small, manufacturing and service organizations
1995 18/2 10/0 19/0 n.a. n.a. n.a.
1996 13/1 6/1 10/2 n.a. n.a. n.a. (Eriksson 2016; Raharjo and Eriksson 2017). For
1997 9/2 7/2 10/0 n.a. n.a. n.a. example, Raharjo and Eriksson findings show that
1998 15/2 5/0 16/1 n.a. n.a. n.a.
1999 4/1 11/2 12/1 16/0 9/0 n.a. endogenous constructs are more difficult to explain or
2000 14/2 5/1 11/1 11/0 8/0 n.a. predict for private organizations than for public
2001 7/1 4/0 8/1 10/3 8/0 n.a.
2002 8/1 3/0 11/1 10/0 17/1 n.a. organizations. Performance tends to be approximately
2003 10/1 8/2 12/1 19/1 19/2 n.a. the same for both types of organizations. “The effect
2004 8/1 5/0 8/1 17/1 22/1 n.a.
2005 1/1 6/1 8/1 16/2 33/1 n.a. of leadership on business processes are higher in pub-
2006 3/0 4/1 8/1 16/0 5/1 n.a. lic than in private organizations. In public organiza-
2007 2/0 4/0 7/1 16/0 42/3 13/2
2008 3/1 5/0 7/0 11/1 43/1 16/0 tions, however, the management of processes do not
2009 2/1 4/0 5/1 9/0 42/2 8/1 seem to translate into results. The effect of strategic
2010 3/2 2/0 7/3 10/1 54/1 7/0
2011 2/0 3/0 2/0 8/0 40/3 14/1 planning on creating business results is negative for
2012 1/1 3/0 2/1 3/0 35/1 5/1 public organizations and remains inconclusive for pri-
2013 0/0 0/0 0/0 2/2 15/1 5/0
2014 0/0 2/1 0/0 2/0 12.2 6/1
vate organizations” Raharjo and Eriksson 2017). The
2015 0/0 0/0 2/1 4/1 12/1 4/1 authors suggest that practical implications may exist if
2016 0/0 n.a. n.a. /2 n.a./0 n.a./2 n.a./0
2017 0/0 n.a. n.a./2 n.a./0 n.a./2 n.a./1
the excellence model fits specific sectors. The Raharjo
2018 0/0 n.a. n.a./1 n.a./2 n.a./1 n.a./1 and Eriksson research studies relate to this article by
2019 0/0 n.a. n.a./0 n/a./1 n.a./2 n.a./4
2020 0/0 n.a. n.a./1 n.a./0 n.a./2 n.a./1
exploring the constructs and respective surrogates for
2021 0/0 1/1 0/0 1/1 0/0 1/1 strategic planning and human resources alignment in
Total 360/31 198/17 384/30 183/17 455/30 81/15 the manufacturing sector.
NIST website 2022
From the list of approximately 31 Malcolm Baldrige
Award winners in the manufacturing sector, 11 manu-
criteria sections, subsections, and questions have facturing companies in the United States are chosen
changed. These changes reflect the changing dynamics for site visits. Different sources of internal information
of organizations. An example of this is when the provided empirical data during the site visits. Much of
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 291

the literature details the implementations of quality Review of the literature

improvement programs and discusses “systems
Over time, the criteria have changed, but the
thinking” as part of their process (Rajagopalan and
“underlying focus of the Core Values and Concepts
Midgley 2015; Leonard 2009). However, without
upon which the criteria are built remain” (NIST 2022.
empirically observing systems approaches firsthand, Figure 2 shows the role of Core Values and Concepts
it is difficult to determine whether or not “systems integrated with the framework categories and aligned
thinking” and “alignment,” two of the core values into a Systems Perspective (NIST 2022).
of the MBNQA Program are the actual approaches Although there has been a high level of practitioner
taken in these companies planning processes or attention, theoretical and empirical research that
merely a foundational assumption underlying their focuses on the Criteria for Performance Excellence
quality initiatives. More importantly, organizations (CPE) has been negligible. However, Ford and Evans
with 20–30 years of experience of quality manage- (2000) examined the relationships between the core
ment systems in place, may have modified their values and the managerial processes that are
systems approach or eliminated it altogether in embedded in the criteria and proposed a causal mod-
favor of the more “traditional” hierarchy manage- eling approach to describe the key linkages in the cri-
ment paradigm. The purpose of this research is teria. Several variables used by Evans and Ford such
to examine the extent of the alignments among as goals, strategies, staffing, teamwork, leadership etc.
different variables related to developing and were found to strongly correlate to the performance
deploying cohesive and effectively aligned quality criteria set forth in the MBNQA criteria. Ford and
initiatives for the MBNQA winners in the manu- Evans argue that by viewing the Criteria for
facturing category. Performance Excellence as an “ … integrative model

Figure 2. The role of core values and concepts.

292 P. A. LAPOINT

of organizational effectiveness that encompasses a than academic, self, or multi-rater review” (381).
number of cross-functional disciplines,” a large body Duarte examined 15 Baldrige recipients. The results of
of research related to the CPE framework actually the research show that the 15 health care winners
does exist (13). An in- depth examination of the base their performance management system on stra-
CPE’s strategic planning category was conducted. The tegic goals, outcomes, and competencies (Duarte,
authors demonstrate that the strategic planning frame- Goodson, and Arnold 2013). These strategic-level
work represented by the CPE aligns considerably with activities cascade from the organization level to the
the conceptual literature. The authors suggest that individual level. At the individual level, goals, out-
despite the lack of direct scholarly validity of the CPE, comes, and competencies are reinforced through the
the Malcolm Baldrige framework embodied by the organizations’ performance appraisal process which
CPE is grounded in research-based principles. then align to the reward system within the organiza-
Many of the classical frameworks of strategy devel- tion. Bradley Winn applied the MBNQA framework
opment as a deliberate undertaking incorporated to educational institutions. His validity study of pro-
much of the early theoretical conceptualizations of posed relationships among the MBNQA dimensions
strategic management. These classical frameworks and resulted in the identification a modified and more
generally portrayed the strategist as boundary scan- simplified model for managing quality initiatives
ners, assessing opportunities and threats in the exter- (Winn and Cameron 1998).
nal environment, systems theory assessing the internal Much has been published throughout the quality lit-
strengths and weaknesses capabilities, and developing erature regarding the Malcolm Baldrige Performance
a strategic plan that capitalized on the firm’s resource Excellence Criteria and the various winners of the
capabilities to achieve the organization’s objectives. A Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since its
number of research streams support the consideration inception in 1987 (Department of Commerce 2020).
of human resources in the strategic planning process. For example, Clarke American, Inc., a Texas Award for
One such stream relates to management development Performance Excellence in 2001 and a Malcolm
and has been cited as important for both strategy for- Baldrige winner in 2002 states “Clarke not only expects
mulation (Andrews 1971; Bartlett and Ghoshal 1993; members of management to set direction, plan, com-
Hambrick and Mason 1984; Norburn and Birley 1988; municate and align, but also demands they demon-
Rumelt 1974, and for strategy implementation, (Kerr strate commitment and passion for FIS (First in
and Jackofsky 1989). Niehoff and Whitney-Bammerlin Service) behaviors” (Daniels 2002, 44). The quality-ori-
(1995) argued for a comprehensive and integrated ented culture at Clarke American, Inc. is centered
approach to training all employees on quality manage- around its values of customer first, integrity and
ment concepts. Through the process of training all mutual respect, knowledge sharing, quality workplace,
employees, the firm significantly leverages its human recognition, responsiveness, and teamwork. The various
resources to achieve the organization’s objectives. The aspects of the human resource focus at Clarke
empowerment of employees is strongly emphasized as American, Inc. is predicated on a deliberate philosophy
a cultural requirement of quality management systems. of individual advancement that enables its employees
Closely linked to the concept of empowerment is the to rotate to positions throughout the company. As
goal of generating new ideas. In addition to giving Daniels (2002) cites one of Clarke’s corporate vice-pres-
employees the authority to make decisions, Baldrige idents, he indicates that “a comprehensive and system-
winners encourage employees to be creative and atic approach to recruitment and selection at all levels
innovative (Hodgetts, Kuratko, and Hornsby 1999). assures the hiring of flexible, values-based staff who fit
Kaplan et al. (2009) suggests that the MBNQA cri- in with Clarke’s unique accomplishment- oriented cul-
teria can be applied to healthcare administration by ture. We are fully aware of the strong positive correl-
focusing on evidence-based education. The author ation between high employee satisfaction and superior
argues that due to the rapid changes in healthcare, performance” (45).
material improvements in practice and results are Texas Nameplate Company (TNC), a company in
necessary. “The ‘gold standard’ of education must be Dallas, Texas and winner of the Malcolm Baldrige
excellent organizational performance, not simply cow- award in 1998 identifies seven key business drivers
orkers’ or superiors’ satisfaction. That is, evidence of that lead to the achievement of strong business per-
healthcare delivery—quality, effectiveness, patient sat- formance: employee satisfaction, fair profit, environ-
isfaction, worker satisfaction, and efficiency—should mental consciousness, controlled growth, customer
be the ultimate criterion for managerial skills, rather satisfaction, process organization, and external
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 293

interface. Stratton (1998) states “by fulfilling employ- has been a big change in the spirit in the work envir-
ees’ desires and expectations of the work environment, onment (41)).
benefits, coworkers, and management, we can satisfy In an article by James F. Huggett, the author states
and retain the most important key to our success: our “the key to meaningful change in your organization is
employees. These desires and expectations include job to align every thought, action, and behavior (the man-
security, equal and fair compensation, respect, and ifestations of an organization’s culture) with the
appreciation for meeting requirements identified in clearly defined and communicated vision you have
the job description” (31). established. … managing context is a process of
Wainwright Industries, a Malcolm Baldrige winner establishing clear frameworks for decision making
in 1994 identifies its strategic planning process as (based on the organization’s vision and strategy and
“quality measures are aligned with five strategic indi- the work group’s specific objectives), and then
cators: safety, internal customer satisfaction, external empowering employees to make decisions within
customer satisfaction, six-sigma quality, and business those frameworks. … embedded in your organization
performance. The senior management team leads a are a number of systems that shape the behavior of
planning process that sets company goals, develops your employees. Some are obvious and intentional;
underlying implementation strategies, and sets key others are subtle and unintentional. … Any soft sys-
quality requirements for products, services, and oper- tem that is in conflict with the outcomes you desire
ational performance. Responsibility for meeting those will act as a barrier to change. The sooner these sys-
goals and requirements lies with employees, who work tems are identified and aligned, the better” (37).
in teams to design and implement improvement plans In a study by Brian Fynes and Chris Voss on a
model of quality practices, quality performance, and
and make spending decisions” (Bemowski 1995). As a
business performance, the authors suggest that man-
result of the significant emphasis on employee
agement needs to consider other measures of manu-
involvement and commitment, Wainwright invests up
facturing performance beyond those variables used in
to 7% of the company payroll on training and educa-
the research study (Fynes and Voss 2009). The results
tion so that employees have the requisite skills and
of their study and other studies have indicated that
knowledge needed to achieve quality and perform-
quality performance alone does not explain business
ance objectives.
performance. The Fynes study is also supported by
The 1996 Baldrige winners, ADAC Laboratories,
Ghosh et al. (2003). Indeed, other disciplines such as
Custom Research Inc., Dana Commercial Credit
marketing and human resource management suggest
Corporation (DCCC), and Trident Precision
the potential effects of a wide range of intervening
Manufacturing, Inc. stress the importance of employ-
variables on business performance (Fynes and Voss
ees. DCCC calls their work system the “Dana Style”
2009). In a related article by M.A. Huselid, the author
which has nine components: earnings, growth, people, discusses the impact of human resources practices on
planning, organization, quality, customers, communi- turnover, productivity, and financial performance. In
cation, and citizenship. DCCC believes that its most this research study, Huselid suggests that organiza-
important asset is its employees. Employees respond tional context factors such as employee satisfaction
to the freedom to participate, the opportunity to with management, rewards and recognition, commu-
develop, and recognition. Karen Bemowski (1997) nication, teamwork, empowerment, and training and
quotes DCCC’s people-related value as “there are development play a significant role as intervening var-
many ways to help employees to participate and iables on organizational effectiveness (Huselid 1995).
develop: provide education, on-the-job training and The work of G.A. Yukl in the development of a tax-
cross training, promote from within, involve employ- onomy of workforce management practices builds
ees in setting their own goals and judging their own upon earlier conceptualizations such as Mintzberg,
performance, and recognize and reward successes” Morse and Wagner, Stogill, Bowers and Seashore, and
(36). In an interview with the President and CEO of others. Yukl’s taxonomy has been characterized as
STMicroelectronics, Richard Pieranunzi (2001), the “state-of-the-art” due to regency and comprehensive-
interviewer asked “how did your goal of empowering ness). The operational variables used by Yukl are net-
employees affect the process? Pieranunzi’s responded working, team building, supporting, mentoring,
by stating that it has been a continuing effort to help inspiring, recognizing, rewarding, consulting, delegat-
maintain the good spirit of the employees toward the ing, planning, clarifying, problem solving, monitoring,
business process and various programs and that there and informing (Yukl 1989).
294 P. A. LAPOINT

Ravi Kathuria and Elizabeth B. Davis noted in their resource variables are strong. There are two research
study that objective measures of organizational per- questions guiding this research study. They are:
formance are difficult to obtain and to compare across RQ1: alignments exist between/among the strategic
different organizational sectors and contexts, and we planning variables and the human resources variables
in large part factors beyond the direct control of man-
RQ2: strong alignments exist between the strategic
ufacturing managers. As a result, the authors defined planning variables and the human resources variables
seven factors of managerial performance: accuracy of
work, quality of work, productivity of the group, cus-
tomer satisfaction, operating efficiency, quantity of Methodology
work, and timeliness in meeting delivery schedules;
Sample
16 key variables were operationalized for the study.
The authors found a .55 and .48 correlations between The specific sample selected for this research study
teamwork and planning and teamwork and rewards; a are business sector manufacturing companies who
.51, .69, and .42 correlation between consulting (seek- have won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
ing input from employees) and planning, teamwork, Award—31 total winners. This sector was chosen
and rewards respectively; a .37, .45, .62, and .64 because it represents the largest total number of
between delegating and planning, rewarding, consult- Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winners
ing, and teamwork respectively; and a .32 correlation since 1988. Eleven manufacturing companies were
between planning and rewards. The authors conclude selected for a site visit. Letters were then sent to each
that manufacturing managers who praise and recog- organization requesting a site visit with follow up tele-
nize effective performance, consult with their employ- phone calls and scheduling of the visit. Each of these
ees before making important decisions, and plan well eleven companies represents a different industry sec-
can more effectively manage the group when the tor, geographical location, and organizational size.
emphasis on quality is high. However, the study was Table 2 identifies the manufacturing companies
unable to support the hypothesis of positive relation- according to their breakdown across sector, geog-
ships between delegating and team building practices raphy, and size.
for the high emphasis on quality group (Kathuria and For the large and small manufacturing companies,
Davis 2009). 30 and 20 employees respectively are systematically ran-
In an article by Richard M. Hodgetts et.al., the domly selected from each plant’s employee list. Table 3
authors examine perspectives on several small business shows the demographic breakdown of the survey ques-
Malcolm Baldrige award winners. These small busi- tionnaire respondents within the 11 companies.
nesses emphasize the importance of creating a culture
conducive to and supportive of strategically aligned Data collection
quality systems, part of which are a sense of
empowerment by the employees and employee recog- Site visit information is collected from several sources:
nition and rewards. The authors state “small busi- documents, personal interviews, survey, and observa-
nesses implementing high-performing quality efforts tion. These multiple sources of information are used
(Baldrige Award Winners) are able to achieve their
Table 2. Manufacturing company profile by economic sector,
objectives and outpace the competition because they geography, and size in sample.
have created the right conditions for their success. Sector Location Size
… Baldrige winners have an overall philosophy and Foods 2 East 1 Large 6
strategy that encompasses all areas of product and ser- Automotive 3 Midwest 4 Small 5
Electronics 3 West 1
vice delivery. They do not emphasize one area to the Chemicals 2 South 5
exclusion of others. Additionally, all employees are Health Care 1
involved in the effort and understand what is expected
of them. As a result, each Baldrige winner is a unified Table 3. Demographic data for gender and employee classifi-
organization” (42). cation in sample.
The review of the literature suggests that align- Male Female Management Professional Employee
ments exist between and among the strategic planning Gender 157 123
and human resources variables. More importantly, as 56% 44%
Employee 51 61 168
winners of the MBNQA, it would be expected that the Classification 18% 22% 60%
alignments between the strategic planning and human 1 1 280 total survey respondents
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 295

primarily as a means of cross validation of data as Table 4. Summary of percentages of directly aligned strategic
well as mutually exclusive sources of data. Initially, planning and human resource variables for all companies.
thirty-four independent variables that represent stra- A-B B-C C-D D-E F-G F-H F-I F-K F-P F-Q
55% 27% 73% 27% 18% 27% 45% 27% 9% 36%
tegic planning and human resources factors are exam-
ined at each of the companies. The survey instrument F-AC C-F D-F G-H J-K I-J H-K Q-P Q-K Q-H
27% 45% 9% 18% 9% 18% 18% 18% 36% 36%
contained 41 items representing the 34 independent
variables studied and respondent demographic data. Q-G P-S AC-G AC-H AC-I AC-J AC-K AC-Q AC-S
To determine which of these companies are large and 45% 36% 27% 36% 18% 18% 0% 9% 27%

which are small, the same standard as stated in the

national or state award application eligibility
is applied. (Q), Operating Performance/Key Measures (R), Career
Opportunity (S), Teamwork (T), Communication
Input (U), Empowerment (V), Customer Focus (W),
Measurement and data analysis Visionary Leadership (X), Organizational Learning
Measurement and scoring procedures vary according (Y), Partnerships (Z), Focus on Results (AA),
to the source of information used. For example, data Innovation (AB), HR Plans (AC), Information and
collected from surveys are measured on a five-point Analysis (AD), Work Environment (AE), Motivation
Likert scale; information from personal interviews are (AF), Employee Satisfaction (AG), Customer
measured using content analysis procedures; and data Satisfaction (AH).
from both documents and observation are measured For those variables directly related to the areas of
using frequencies. Statistical techniques are applied for strategic planning and human resources, Table 4 sum-
those measures where appropriate. For example, cor- marizes the relationships between the areas of stra-
relation statistical procedures are used to analyze the tegic planning and human resources variables
pairwise relationships between each of the thirty-four by company.
variables; analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to The results of Table 4 suggest that there is a small
analyze any significant differences between each of the number of directly aligned strategic planning and
eleven companies for each of the thirty-four variables, human resource variables across all companies that
company averages for all thirty-four variables, and are in the strong positive correlation category
comparison of means for each variable for all eleven (þ.50–1.00). In general, the findings reported in Table
companies. In addition, t-tests are used to analyze any 4 do not support the notion of strong alignments
statistical differences in means between large and between the strategic planning and human resource
small manufacturers. Frequencies are used as the variables, i.e., RQ2.
method for collecting data from documents and first- Data is gathered from company documents such as
hand observations. The basis used for the calculations policies and procedures manuals as well as corres-
of these frequencies is determined as a function of the pondence to generate frequencies for either the pres-
total presence and absence of alignments for the spe- ence or absence of the studied variables. Table 5
cific variables examined. summarizes the aggregate frequencies of relationships
between selected strategic planning and human
Results of the statistical analysis resources variables (A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, P, Q,
and AC).
Pairwise correlation The results from Table 5 suggest that for the sam-
To analyze the strength of the alignments between the ple companies their strategic planning processes and
34 variables within each sample, a statistical pairwise their human resources processes have moderate to
correlation is performed for each sample company. To weak alignments. These findings are somewhat puz-
better read Tables 4 and 9. The variables are: Vision zling since it is expected that companies which have
(A),Mission (B), Goals (C), Strategies (D), Operating won the MBNQA award would have a higher percent-
Policies (E), HR Policies (F), Training (G), age of positive correlations in the strong alignment
Development (H), Selection Practices (I), Job Design ranges for strategic planning and human resource
(J), Monetary Compensation (K), Actions Plans/ practices. To better understand this finding, I con-
Mechanism (L), Communication/Feedback (M), ducted a more focused analysis on the data. Since the
Rewards, Non-Monetary (N), Decision Making (O), aggregated frequency data included all counts, positive
Termination Practices (P), Performance Appraisals and negative, (all counts mean those variables directly
296 P. A. LAPOINT

Table 5. Summary of the aggregate frequencies of relation- Table 8. Summary of the frequency of means between 1.5
ships between strategic planning and human resources varia- and 3.5 by variable for the 11 companies.
bles (A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, P, Q, AC) for each company. Aggregate means by variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Company 1.5 3 2 3 0 2 4 1 0 5 0 2 1
Strength STM SOL JC DC EC 3D SFF WI TX ZY MI 2.0 5 1 4 4 3 0 4 2 0 1 0 6
S 1 1 4 0 0 0 1 1 2 3 4 2.5 0 3 2 4 0 3 6 5 3 2 3 0
M 27 42 34 29 24 24 31 25 34 28 33 3.0 2 5 2 0 5 2 0 4 3 2 4 2
W 56 41 46 55 60 60 52 58 48 53 47 3.5 1 0 0 3 1 2 0 0 0 6 2 2
þþ W ¼ Weak (þ0.0 - .19); M ¼ Moderate (þ.20 - .49); S ¼ Strong (þ.5 Aggregate means by variable 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
- 1.0)
1.5 0 0 0 3 2 0 2 3 0 3 0 0
2.0 5 4 3 0 0 4 0 5 7 1 4 3
2.5 0 1 4 1 4 3 5 0 3 1 4 5
Table 6. Frequency percentages for the strategic planning 3.0 3 0 1 4 4 3 3 3 0 5 1 3
variables vision, mission, goals, and strategies. 3.5 3 6 3 3 1 1 1 0 1 1 2 0
STRONG 9% Aggregate means by variable 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
MODERATE 47%
WEAK 44% 1.5 0 3 0 2 5 3 0 0 0 2
2.0 4 0 5 0 0 4 5 6 3 3
2.5 0 0 2 4 4 1 3 2 5 0
3.0 5 4 1 3 2 1 2 0 2 4
Table 7. Frequency percentages for human resource variables 3.5 2 4 3 2 0 2 1 3 1 2
hr policies, training, development, selection practices, job þþ mean ranges: 1.50-2.00 ¼ weak; 2.01-3.00 ¼ moderate; 3.01-3.50 ¼ strong
design, monetary compensation, termination practices, per-
formance appraisals, and HR plans.
all companies for all variables are 51 (17%), 66
STRONG 1%
MODERATE 37% (22%), 62 (21%), 61 (20%), 58 (19%) respectively.
WEAK 62% Based on the category measures of strong, moderate,
and weak alignments, these results would suggest
connected to each other and those not directly con- that the variable means across all companies in the
nected to each other), it appeared that the large research study are strong ¼ 20%, moderate ¼ 41%,
amount of moderate and weak correlations might and weak ¼ 39%.
occur because of the indirect linkages between varia-
bles. For example, one might expect a strong, direct
Analysis of variance
positive relationship/alignment to exist between a
company’s vision and its mission, or between its goals Table 9 summarizes the p-values for each variable.
and human resource plans. On the other hand, the The results from Table 9 show that there are 15
further removed a variable is from its antecedent, the variables (A, B, C, G, I, J, M, N, O, P, R, V, Y, AF,
more likely the relationship/alignment is smaller. and AH) that are statistically significant to reject the
Tables 6 and 7 respectively summarize the results of hypothesis that all population means are equal, and to
the frequencies expected for directly aligned relation- support the conclusion that not all population means
ships for the selected strategic planning and human are equal, but at least two means are equal. Similarly,
resource variables. there are 19 variables (D, E, F, H, K, L, Q, S, T, U,
The frequencies displayed in Table 6 show that W, X, Z, AA, AB, AC, AD, AE, and AG) for which
91% of the relationships/alignments are moderate to the null hypothesis of equal population means failed
weak for Vision, Mission, Goals, and Strategies to be rejected. The conclusion drawn from these latter
whereas, only nine percent of these selected variables variables suggests that there is no reason to doubt
have a strong alignment. that some of the population means could be equal. To
Compared to the results displayed in Table 6. determine which of the population means are equal,
Table 7 shows a similar result for the selected human additional statistical tests should be performed on
resources variables. The frequencies in the Moderate the data.
to Weak categories total 99% whereas, only one per-
cent of the HR variables are strongly aligned.
Large versus small company analysis
Further examination of the aggregated data
revealed the frequencies for all 11 companies and the A comparison of the large company group mean to
34 variables. The aggregated mean data is shown in the small company group mean revealed the following
Table 8. results in Table 10.
The summary frequencies reported in Table 8 The results of the t-test on group means for large
show that the means of 1.5, 2.0. 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 for and small companies show that the null hypothesis of
 QUALITY MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 297

Table 9. Analysis of variance summary p-values for each variable.

A B C D E F G H I
6.57E-07 9.35E-06 .029338 .054209 .284781 .513834 .000252 .050019 .000698
J K L M N O P Q R
2.12E-28 .739094 .7686 1.31E-05 .003037 5.81E-33 5.92E-05 .052051 .000616
S T U V W X Y Z
.859289 .202506 .300806 .003246 .285319 .113751 2.64E-08 .995983
AA AB AC AD AE AF AG AH
.449876 .988824 .191681 .456741 .857646 4.57E-07 .773825 .006493
þþ alpha ¼ .05

Table 10. Comparison of the large versus small company organizations; the results are a starting point for
group means. future refinements in the research.
Company size Means Variances
Large company 3.97 .966
Small company 3.81 1.05 Limitations of the research and
t-statistic t-crit. ¼ .16; t ¼ 1.677 future research
11alpha¼.05
There are limitations of the research. The sample is not
equal population means failed to be rejected at the .05 random, but a convenience sample. Of the 31 manufac-
alpha level. turing companies which have won the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award since 1988, only 11 of
these companies agreed to the on-site research. No
Conclusions/implications other sectors both public and private were selected for
the study. The decline of manufacturing applications
The purpose of this research study is to determine the since 2005 and no applications since 2013 indicate a
existence of the alignments and the strength of the lack of generalization across other sectors. The results
alignments between strategic planning and human from this study may be different in education, services,
resources. In general, the different methods of statis- health care, and nonprofits. Future research would
tical analysis show mixed results related to the two include studies of other private and public-sector
research questions: RQ1—alignments exist between organizations such as education, service, small business,
the strategic planning variables and the human health care, and nonprofits.
resources variables; and RQ2—strong alignments exist For changes to the Baldrige criteria specifically
between the strategic planning variables and the Category 2.0, section 2.2, Action Plan and
human resources variables. In addition, the statistical Deployment Item 4 references workforce plans and
results from the pairwise correlations and frequencies engagement of the workforce. Item 4 asks for align-
show moderate to weak alignments; therefore, the ment between the strategic objectives and action
RQ2 is not supported by the data analysis. The Ghosh plans, and the impact on workforce members. Item 5
et al. (2003) structural equations model research vali- addresses the KPIs and their effectiveness. This is an
dates this conclusion as well. The ANOVA and t-tests example of the cascading process among the various
on the data show that less than half of the variables elements of strategy and human resources and linked
to the criteria and subsections 1.1, 3.0, 4.0., 5.0, 6.0,
are statistically significant. Both tests suggest that
and 7.1. Future research could address the cascading
there is no reason to doubt that some of the sample
elements and interaction effects.
population means could be equal.
The importance of the findings in this study sug-
gests that further refinements to the research variables Disclosure statement
are required. The surrogate variables used for the stra- No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
tegic planning and human resource constructs in this
study are too ill-defined to be operationalized. Further
statistical analysis using structural equations or part About the Author
and partial multiple regression analysis might define Dr. Patricia A. Lapoint, Ph.D. Received a Bachelor of
the variables more narrowly. Multicollinearity analysis Science in Production/Operations Management and a
Master’s of Business Administration focusing on Decision
could further define the interaction effects amongst Sciences, Miami University of Ohio. Received the Doctor of
and between the variables. The use of the analytics as Philosophy in Management from the University of North
they stand in this study offer no practical value to Texas. Worked for two Fortune 100 companies in several
298 P. A. LAPOINT

management positions: Procter & Gamble Company and Huselid, M. A. 1995. The impact of human resource practi-
Hewlett Packard Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. For the past ces on turnover, productivity, and financial performance.
34 years, I have taught management courses in the Walter The Academy of Management Journal 38 (3):635–72.
F. and Virginia Johnson School of Business at McMurry Kaplan, S. H., J. L. Griffith, L. L. Price, L. G. Pawlson, and
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