To achieve sustained success in management the European
Foundation for Quality Management propose the integration of
three components (Fig. 1): fundamental concepts of excellence,
EFQM Excellence Model criteria and the RADAR logic
scheme.
The eight fundamental concepts of excellence outline the
foundation for achieving sustainable excellence in any organisation.
They can be used as the basis to describe the attributes of an
excellent organisational culture and help to establish a common
language for senior management. The fundamental concepts of
excellence are: results orientation; customer orientation; leadership
and consistency; management by processes and facts;
development and involvement of people; development of
alliances; continuous process of innovation, learning and
improvement and responsibility of the organisation.
The above principles are translated and summarised into nine
dimensions or criteria which serve as a guide for the implementation
of the management system and the measurement of the
results that are being achieved by the organisation. The nine
criteria that the model proposes represent the indicative elements
of the degree of progression which a certain organisation follows
to achieve excellence.
These criteria are specified in five key implementation factors
or enablers (leadership, policy and strategy, partnerships and
resources, people and process), and the four remaining dimensions
reflect the results which the organisation attains, concerning
their customers, employees, society and other key results. Each of
the nine criteria are accompanied by a definition which explains
its significance. To develop each criteria with more detail, these
contain a variable number of sub-criteria (for example, the
leadership criterion has 5 sub-criteria, whilst the Results criterion
in Customers has two sub-criteria). In total, the EFQM
Excellence Model considers 32 sub-criteria to approach when
making a complete self-assessment of the organisation (Fig. 2).
Finally, each sub-criterion includes a non-exhaustive nor
obligatory list of elements to take into account, the objective of