Validation of the EFQM excellence model within construction organisations: A structural equation modelling (SEM) approach

The EFQM Excellence Model is the most widely used among organisations in Europe and can be used for a number of activities, where organisations assess themselves in order to identify where to focus improvement activity. Recent applications of the model within the UK Construction Organisations include its usage in the Supply Chain as a Management tool and a comparative basis for suppliers by clients in the tendering process. However, as with most frameworks, it's non-prescriptive and the weighting systems are not empirically tested and validated. Furthermore, quality management practices used in organisations are strongly correlated with one another; as such the relationship between the enablers and results of the EFQM Excellence Model is obscured due to multi-collinearity problems. The noted omissions are the motivation for this research which aims to empirically validate the EFQM Excellence Model through the usage of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to assess the actual factor loadings and their associated measurement errors. Secondly, the requirements of the Egan (1998) are matched with the revised model by reviewing and identification of inadequacies in terms of assessment and monitoring. The enablers and results components of the EFQM Excellence are matched with existing TQM critical success factors and the Business and Organisation Performance Indicators (BOPI) identified from literature. The Enabler part is thus renamed "TQM Deployment Constructs" and the Results Part "TQM Outcomes". The fundamental differences between the award based, such as the EFQM Excellence Model and the survey approach to self assessment used in this study are demonstrated. The revised model renamed as "TQ-SMART" is also juxtaposed on the EFQM Excellence Model to demonstrate the validation process. This is achieved through a comparison on the following criterion of method of assessment, criteria for assessment, evaluation tool, scoring system, classification, presentation, and finally process and outcome components. The present work explicitly discusses the interface between TQM principles and the PDCA cycle of continuous improvement. It successfully links the aspect of monitoring and assessment to the success in the implementation of TQM principles. The usage of SEM enables the explanation of the phenomena being observed by analysing causal relationships between variables (Filippini, 1997), and the interrelationship between factors provides evidence of treating the constructs as building blocks of TQM philosophy. Knowledge of the interactions among the ten deployment constructs can be a valuable diagnostic tool in addressing the effectiveness of each initiative alone to further enhance competitive success.