Including sustainability in business excellence models

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the adequacy of business excellence models (BEMs) to address corporate sustainability, which is conceptualised in terms of economic, social, and environmental bottom lines. How organisations may manage corporate sustainability in the absence of a comprehensive sustainability management system standard is also explored. A survey of literature has been carried out. The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (BCPE) are analysed with regard to their considerations of sustainability. The findings reveal that while triple bottom-line considerations are addressed to some extent in the studied BEMs, the models per se do not comprehensively address sustainability issues and economic prosperity remains a dominant consideration. Suggestions for the improvement of the EFQM excellence model and BCPE are discussed. To provide a comprehensive approach for addressing corporate sustainability, an integrated quality-sustainability framework is proposed. The essence of the framework is that sustainability indicators, such as those provided in the Global Reporting Initiative framework, could be integrated with core business processes using the structures and infrastructure provided by BEMs. The proposed improvements should be considered in future revisions of the EFQM excellence model and BCPE.

Keywords:

• corporate sustainability
• business excellence models (BEMs)
• European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model
• Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (BCPE)
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)