ACKNOWLEDGING QUALITY
Defining Criteria
Prof. Theekshana Suraweera
Q: What do you believe is the most important facet of an award – recognition, validation or motivation for continued excellence?
A: All aspects of awards are equally important. When presenting an award, it’s crucial to recognise the recipient’s achievements, as this can significantly impact their future development, marketing efforts and overall reputation. However, this recognition must be validated to ensure credibility.
Without proper validation, an award is simply a prediction without any real satisfaction or impact.
Awards should be thoughtfully created, designed and presented to serve as motivators. They should set benchmarks that inspire others to strive for excellence. This approach aligns with the principle of continuous improvement, a core concept in total quality management (TQM) and Japanese quality principles.
When it comes to quality, especially sustained improvement, the philosophy of continuous enhancement is vital. Standards must be raised annually for better recognition, which will drive organisations and individuals to achieve even greater accomplishments.
Q: What role do awards play in recognising and motivating businesses and working people?
A: Awards play a significant role in recognising and motivating businesses and individuals. In some cases, people even focus their efforts solely on winning an award, which highlights the importance of such recognition.
The Sri Lanka National Quality Award (SLNQA) recognises organisations but also values the contributions of employees. This is modelled along the lines of the international Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), a globally recognised standard.
This framework is rigorous, encompassing several criteria across categories such as leadership, strategy, customers, measurement, analysis, knowledge management, workforce, operations and resources.
Having clearly defined criteria is crucial for any quality measurement. Awards based on such standards not only recognise achievements but also motivate businesses and individuals, by fostering improvement in leadership, operations and customer engagement.
Q: In your opinion, how do awards contribute to elevating standards and practices within organisations or institutions?
A: Recognition plays a significant role in motivating people and improving standards within organisations.
When it comes to quality standards, the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) operates under the principle of being the ‘guardian of quality’ for the nation. While this is an ambitious goal, it reflects the responsibility we strive to uphold.
For awards such as the SLNQA, applications are only accepted from organisations that meet certain criteria. It’s important that applications undergo a stringent review process to ensure adherence to high standards.
For instance, the completed application must demonstrate compliance with the criteria of recognised frameworks such as the MBNQA. This ensures that only organisations already aligned with particular standards are eligible to apply.
Rigorous approaches are mandatory – while they are demanding, it is essential to maintain credibility and drive organisations to continually improve. By adhering to these frameworks, awarding bodies contribute to elevating the quality and standards within organisations.
Q: What measures should be taken to maintain transparency and impartiality in the evaluation and selection criteria?
A: Transparency and impartiality should be key principles in awarding processes. Systems should be designed to be rigorous and fair, ensuring that no one can bypass the procedure through undue influence or payments.
The selection processes must involve five distinct stages, ensuring thorough evaluation at every level. Applicants should be provided with detailed criteria in the form of a comprehensive booklet outlining the requirements. The SLNAQ process begins with a desktop evaluation conducted by teams of three to six examiners.
Following this, physical site visits are conducted for all eligible organisations. And subsequently, the evaluations are reviewed and finalised by a panel of judges comprising independent experts, ensuring objectivity and unbiased decision making.
The multi-stage process upholds the credibility and integrity of the awards. While the procedure is thorough, there’s room for discussion on streamlining the application and evaluation stages to enhance efficiency and make the process user-friendly.
Nonetheless, the emphasis on fairness and impartiality remains the cornerstone of the process.
