Self-assessment using the business excellence model: A study of practice and process

This paper reports a study of self-assessment practices in 10 organisations. The research was carried out by semi-structured interviews directed towards a range of issues related to the process, practice and management of self-assessment. Amongst the "ndings are that organisations are becoming more aware of the role of self-assessment in in#uencing strategy and are including the outputs of self-assessment in their business planning process, and selfassessment is seen as making the organisation a more viable commodity. It was also found that the potential of self-assessment for analysing organisational performance and identifying areas for improvement is underestimated by managers. On the other hand, it is pointed out that the increasing commercial aspects of self-assessment and the Quality Award process is diluting their e!ects. Based on the "ndings, two matrices have been developed which de"ne the organisational and TQM related characteristics that an organisation should exhibit before adopting a particular approach to self-assessment. ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.