Business excellence in New Zealand: continuous improvement, learning, and change

Abstract

This paper discusses a multiple case study of business excellence in New Zealand organisations. It uses category scoring data from all applicants over the period 1993–2008. It examines the approach, performance, and progress in those organisations that had made multiple applications for the NZ Business Excellence award. The results show that implementation of business excellence involves similar steps and requirements to implementation of quality management. The paper develops a model showing at what levels barriers to scoring progress seemed to occur and how they were overcome.

Keywords:

• business excellence
• Baldrige
• New Zealand
• learning