Developing an Agile Business Excellence Model for Organizational Sustainability

Abstract

Business excellence assessments—such as those proposed by the European Foundation for Quality Management and the administrators of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award—have enabled many organizations to identify key areas for improvement, ranging from the role of leadership in developing a service‐oriented culture to day‐to‐day waste reduction. Research over the last 15 years, however, has revealed serious shortcomings in the business excellence models that organizational leaders have turned to for guidance, particularly in addressing the challenge of remaining competitive in a fast‐changing environment. The six‐stage model proposed here offers a construct to address these gaps and serves as a basis for further inquiry and refinement. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.