Business self‐assessment: A strategic tool for building process robustness and achieving integrated management

The net effect of the discussion on business process re‐engineering and total quality management has been to focus attention on cross‐functional business flows‐the processes by which organizations actually function. The relative success or failure of an organization can therefore be seen in terms of the relative robustness of its business processes to the dynamics of both its internal and external environments. The increasing use of cross‐functional and multidisciplinary teams to identify and manage process improvement opportunities is a characteristic of the increasing need for an integrated management approach to successful process management. In recent years, the European Quality Award (EQA) model has been used increasingly by organizations to undertake self‐assessments of their business and organizational performance. Describes the framework of the EQA model, and how organizations can use self‐assessment against the EQA model as a strategic tool to build process robustness and achieve integrated management.