Can the Federal Baldrige Survey Measure Workforce Well-being in an Academic Health Center?

Abstract

Introduction. Experts suggest health care institutions switch focus
from measuring burnout to measuring positive organizational psychology.
Concerns include burnout being a late sign of organizational
decline. The Baldrige survey is promoted by the U.S. Department
of Commerce to measure positive worksite conditions (e.g., workforce
wellbeing of industries, including health care and education).
For years, the survey has been completed by managers within organizations,
but now the same survey is promoted for completion by
an organization’s workforce. We tested the structure of the Baldrige
survey when completed by an academic health care workforce. In
addition, we tested whether the results in an academic worksite correlate
with an example metric of an organizational mission.
Methods.xIn 2015, our academic health center surveyed faculty
and staff with the Baldrige survey. The validity of the Baldrige was
tested with confirmatory factor analyses. Within the School of Medicine,
responses for the Baldrige’s concepts were correlated against
a measure of organizational outcome: graduates’ assessments of
Departmental educational quality.
Results. The structure of the Baldrige survey did not validate when
assessed by a workforce (RMSEA = 0.086; CFI = 0.829; TLI = 0.815).
None of its concepts correlated with learner reported educational
quality.
Conclusions. The Baldrige survey, when administered to a workforce
rather than managers, did not appear to measure workforce
well-being within an academic health care center. We discourage use
of the current survey for this purpose. Kans J Med 2019;12(1):4-6.