From these, the authors created a 137-item survey they sent to senior Baldrige
examiners for review, which resulted in Grandzol and Gershon (1998) paring the survey
to 68 items. A pilot test was conducted using this final product and responses were
received from 306 individuals (Grandzol & Gershon, 1998). The survey was then used to
sample suppliers doing business with the U.S. Department of Navy in 1994. The
92
population included 1,947 organizations from which 582 were sampled. The survey was
mailed to the senior executive in charge of each organization, and responses were
received from 275, a response rate of 47%.