Provide a summary in your own words on the article A Comparative Analysis Of National and Regional Quality Awards by Robert Vokurka, Gary Stading, and Jason Brazeal
Robert Vokurka, Gary Stading, and Jason Brazeal discuss the merits of awards, their implications, and the award programs that the participants have to complete to become a candidate for one of the awards in question. According to the author, the design and administration of the specified awards leave much to be desired, since it has been quite long since the given components were upgraded.
The authors emphasize the fact that the given awards, as well as the majority of the awards all over the world, are influenced greatly by the so-called total quality management (TQM), which leads to major improvements of the given awards. According to the authors, once the TQM principles are followed in the future, the National and Regional Quality awards are going to become the key means of defining the most appropriate practices, conducting self-evaluation, and working on one’s strengths and weaknesses, therefore, ultimately succeeding.
Critically analyze the main ideas or the approach used in the article and mention if you agree or do not agree with the ideas and justify your opinion
The authors of the article have covered several good points concerning the concept of awards and how awards should be upgraded. Vokurka, Stading, and Brazeal must talk about the changes that have been occurring to the concept of awards, as well as the implications that awards in the UAE finally gained in the first decade of the XXI century. For instance, Vokurka, Stading, and Brazeal explain that awards are no longer associated solely with winning, but also concern such issues as skills acquisition, achieving new results, and a chance to evaluate one’s level of professionalism adequately. With that being said, it can be considered that the authors of the article have done a very good job, describing the changes that are currently taking place in the given area and commenting on the advantages of the recently adopted approach.
Besides, it is necessary to stress that Vokurka, Stading, and Brazeal provide an analysis of the existing awards, actually comparing them to each other and evaluating the obtained data, which is quite a hard task to accomplish in such a short article. Surprisingly enough, Vokurka, Stading, and Brazeal even manage to produce a table of comparative analysis for the most popular awards, specifying the flaws and advantages of each and, thus, explaining the pattern of a typical competition. A very impressive element of the article, that detailed analysis is worth giving the authors credit for.
However, the article also has several weak points, some of which stem from the limitations of the study. To start with, it is clear that analyzing each of the awards in the UAE was practically impossible, which means that the data obtained in the course of the research is not as precise as it should be.
How the relevant concepts in the article can benefit organizations in UAE?
Although the article seemingly concerns only the issue of competition and award-winning, it also touches upon some practical aspects of managing an organization. For example, Vokurka, Stading, and Brazeal stress the necessity for a person to develop as a professional and upgrade his/her skills once in a while to make sure that (s)he knows about the latest tendencies in his/her professional field. The given idea can be considered the fundament for the HRM practices in the UAE organizations, where the private entrepreneurship demand that the employees should have the skills of the highest quality and know the latest theories and approaches on the specified issue.
It is also important that the authors split the criteria for awards into several categories, such as leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, etc. Thus, the framework for improving the performance of the UAE major companies is provided.
What have you learned?
The given research has shown the importance of learning from past experiences and being able to come up with suggestions for improving the existing system. Sometimes to invent something new, it is crucial to take a retrospective at the past achievements and disappointments and evaluate them objectively to offer the best possible solution for the problem. Besides, the given research has shown that it is possible to compare the frameworks adopted of a specific issue in different states, therefore, analyzing several different approaches from economic, political, and even cultural perspectives.
Moreover, Vokurka, Stading, and Brazeal teach how to achieve excellence in one’s business by developing an elaborative business plan; according to the authors of the article, the key to a successful business plan is stating the goal and the major objectives. Therefore, by conducting this research, the authors teach the readers the basic rules of successful entrepreneurship.