Self assessment: Use at operational level to promote continuous improvement

Abstract

The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence 2000 Model is widely adopted by organizations as a means of self-assessment to enhance performance. This self-assessment has focussed mainly on the company or strategic level, but it is argued here that the self-assessment process can be modified to more appropriately suit the different needs of continual improvement at an operational or departmental level. This paper reports a generic process, applicable to the majority of situations, whereby self-assessment can be developed to meet the continual improvement needs of individual departments. The development process involves the application of Grounded Theory Learning Activities to generate a set of departmentally relevant constructs or issues which are then reviewed against a simple five-step model of self-assessment to determine the most appropriate departmental approach. The process is illustrated through a case application showing the use of the methodology.