Ucbs the Malcolm Baldridge National

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The Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award is the only award given by the President of the United States, for excellent performance in both public and private American organizations. The purpose of the Baldridge Program is to:

Raise awareness about the importance of performance excellence in driving the U.S. And global economy

Provide organizational assessment tools and criteria

Educate leaders in businesses, schools, health care organizations, and government and nonprofit agencies about the practices of best-in-class organizations

Recognize national role models and honor them with the only Presidential Award for performance excellence ("Who We Are," 2010).

Education is just one sector the Baldridge Award focuses on use the Baldrige Criteria. Educational institutes use the Baldridge criteria "to improve their schools and their students' education" ("Baldridge by Sector: Education," 2010). To this end, criteria have been put into place for assessing organizations. This paper explores how the University of California Berkeley and University of Colorado at Boulder stack up against the Baldridge criteria for assessing strategic planning.

Baldridge Criteria for Strategic Planning:

The strategic planning facet of the Baldridge Award examines how the organization develops their strategic objectives and action plans. How these objectives and action plans are implemented and adjusted as circumstances arise, and how progress is measured by the organization, are also assessed. As part of this assessment, Baldridge looks at the organization's strategic planning process, including the key process steps and participants, as well as who the organization's process identifies potential blind spots. How the organization determines their core competencies, strategic advantages, and strategic challenges is reviewed. The Baldridge criteria also looks the planning horizons, both short- and long-term, in the planning process and how the organization's planning process addresses these time horizons ("Education criteria," 2011).

Strategy considerations are a second set of criterial the Baldridge Award looks at, in the strategy development process. How the organization collects and analyzes relevant data and information is also analyzed. This data and information should be gathered regarding: the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; early indicators of major technological shifts; the organization's long-term sustainability, including the needed core competencies; and projections about the organization's and their competitors' future performance. Lastly, how the organization addresses strategic challenges and advantages; opportunities for innovation in educational programs and services; capitalize on core competencies; and balance short- and long-term challenges and opportunities is considered ("Education criteria," 2011).

At University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), the Campus Technology Council works to identify the current and emerging trends, as they relate to the information technology needs of the university. This includes it needs for "critical areas of research, teaching and learning, student experience, and administration" ("Campuswide information," 2006). This meets the Baldridge criteria for identifying emerging opportunities and threats that may affect the university.

To further expound on this Baldridge criteria, the university identifies several areas where the campus faces critical opportunities or threats. These are listed as how technology can: support the teaching and learning activities at UC Berkeley; improve the student experience, from prospective students through alumni; support research in all disciplines; and make the it environment more reliable and secure. Other critical areas of potential opportunities and threats addressed in the it strategic plan include governance, funding and structure and the need to attract and retain talented it professionals ("Campuswide information," 2008).

UC Berkeley also clearly defines their key participants, per Baldridge criteria. The it strategic planning roles are listed on the UC Berkeley website. These include: IT strategic planning sponsor, it strategic planning co-chairs, it strategic planning chairs and directors, and it strategic planning process team ("Campus it strategic plan participants," 2008). The university also spells out a timeline and expected outcomes, with all phases of the planning process, another Baldridge criteria. This timeline establishes which critical it issue will be addressed and when.

The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) "solicited the opinions and expertise of faculty, staff and students to examine the plans and priorities for the use of information technology in support of the mission for CU-Boulder" ("Information technology," 2010), in 2010. Unlike UC Berkeley, CU-Boulder only lists that there are 17 planning committees, comprised of faculty, students, administrators, and it staff, key participants in the strategic planning process ("Planning process," 2010). These planning committees are not provided with further detail, on the university's website. Nor do they specifically list which key individuals are involved in these committees. CU-Boulder does detail an annual strategic plan timeline, which is in accordance with the Baldridge criteria.

In January, the university gathers committee members. During February and March, the committees meet. In April and May, the committees prepare subchapter reports, with additional reviewers reading and commenting on their work. During the months of June and July, the committees compile their reports. Campus-wide distribution of the reports occur in August, allowing the campus to make comments. Lastly, in September, the committees finalize their reports ("Planning process," 2010).