International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6

ISSN: 2222-6990

451 www.hrmars.com/journals

Performance Evaluation Based on EFQM Excellence
Model in Sport Organizations


Rasoul Faraji (Ph.Ds)
Islamic Azad University, Naghadeh branch, Naghadeh. Iran
E-mail: [email protected]

Kazem Danesh Sani (M.A)
M.A in Sport Management, Ghadr Institute of Higher Education, Kochesfahan. Iran

Hosein Poursoltani (Ph.D)
Sport Science Research Center, Tehran. Iran


Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate the performance of physical education (P.E.) general office
of Tehran province through model of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).
Questionnaire approach was used in this study. Therefore validity of the 50-item EFQM
questionnaire verified by the experts and the reliability also calculated in a pilot study
(=0.928). 95 questionnaires distributed between subjects (N=n) and 80 questionnaires
returned and concluded in the statistical analysis. From nine EFQM criteria, the highest scores
were gained in key performance results (37.62%) and the lowest gained in people results
(27.94%). Totally, this organization achieved 337.11 pointes out of a total of 1000. Additionally,
there was a strong relationship (r=0.827, p=0.001) between enablers and results (P<0.05).
Based on scores gained in the criteria, improving measures in all criteria is essential for this
organization, especially in the people criterion from enablers and people results criterion from
results domain. Furthermore, it is believed that the physical education area is one of the best
fields for application of the excellence model towards the performance excellence and gaining
better results and hence, it seems that the model has a high potential in responding to
problems commonly seen in sport sector.

Keywords: performance evaluation, sport, EFQM excellence model



International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6
ISSN: 2222-6990

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Introduction

Sport as a socio-cultural phenomenon has a tight relationship with social structures and it is
needed to be considered as human structural necessities. Planning for sport participation in the
developing countries is a key step toward advancement (Talebpour, 2006). Iran Islamic republic
physical education organization is the only responsible association for management of the sport
through country which has own general offices in each province (Sajjadi, 2006). It should be
noted that there are so many people in Tehran (as a capital) and therefore it is so necessary to
evaluate Tehran physical education general offices (PEGO) service quality.

To evaluate an instant office performance, it is necessary to recognize and apply the key points
in organizations, because they provide important information for organizational development
measurement within a conclusive box of data, there would be also information for reporting
and provide accessible data for decision making regarded to complicated affairs by recognizing
of the problems and also the change points (Hemmati nezhad & Ramezani Nezhad, 2009).
Therefore by recognizing of the key points in the executive level within sport context and also
designing quantitative indexes for them, we can evaluate the development process within
PEGOs by focusing on the areas we reach the previously estimated aims or not. It is also
possible to implement the reward/punishing process based on these evaluations (Hemmati
Nezhad et al., 2009). In the evaluation literature, multiple types of evaluating models such as
European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Total Quality
Management (TQM), Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and also systematic or strategic
approaches have been used (Asgharizadeh & Amin, 2007). In one study Asgharizadeh and Amin
(2007) concluded that EFQM model is the most appropriate model for Iranian organizations
(Asgharizadeh & Amin, 2007). EFQM is the reference criterion in many of the Europe countries
and it is possible to apply it for PEGOs. This model has two categories including enablers and
results. This models output includes on recognition of the organizations strength points and
also those witch need to be improved. This model also recommends a list of ranked plans in
order to accessing the better performance (EFQM, 2002). based on 9 criteria including
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6
ISSN: 2222-6990

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leadership, people, strategy & policy, resources & partners and processes (enablers category
which reflect an organizations elements and their interactions with together) and also people,
customer, society and key performance results (results category which introduces the optimal
results provided from enablers execution. All of the criteria provide 1000 scores (500 for each
category) (EFQM, 1999). Criteria and their scores in the EFQM model were introduced in figure
1.









Figure1: EFQM organizational excellence model criteria and their scores (Amiran, 2005)

With regard to the studies in the context of EFQM and physical education, Talebpour (2006)
finally selected the EFQM model as the best model for Iran colleges sport programs evaluation
(Talebpour, 2006). In UK Quality scheme for Sport and Leisure, the first attempt has been made
to adjust the EFQM Excellence Model for a relevant application in the sport and leisure sector
(Knop et al., 2004). There was also some works to analyze hospitals performance in Iran using
this model (Dehnavieh et al., 2008). Khodadad (2007) and also Akbari (2009) applied this model
to evaluate Irans Physical education faculties performance quality and reported that all of the
faculties have a low performance quality (Akbari Yazdi, 2009; Khodadad, 2007). Eghbal et al.
(2009) also reported that we can reach the improvable points using EFQM evaluation model to
earn the more benefits for organization (Eghbal et al., 2009). Another study also has reported
that there is a positive correlation between football clubs organizational excellence ranks by
their success level during football clubs (Zanganeh, 2009).
People
(90)
Strategy & policy
(80)
Recourses &
partners
(90)
People results
(90)
Customer results
(200)
Society results
(60)


Process
(140)


Leadership
(100)


Key
performance
result
(150)
Enablers (500) Results (500)
Learning & innovation
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6
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By a simple view on the aforementioned literature, we can conclude that many of the
organizations have reached optimal results using EFQM excellence model and since Recent
Researches underlined the need for total quality management (TQM) in the sport sector (Knop
et al., 2004), it would be possible to evaluate the Tehran PEGO performance quality using this
model.

Method

80 employee (47 female and 33 male) in PEGO of Tehran province (total member of staff = 115)
filled the EFQM questionnaire which includes 50-item four-point likert type rating scale. All
criteria provide as 1000 scores in this questionnaire in the following order (100 for leadership,
90 for people, 80 for policy & strategy, 90 for recourses & partners, 130 for process, 90 for
people results, 200 for customer results, 60 for society results and finally 150 for key
performance results). The questionnaires validity was verified by experts and its reliability was
evaluated in a pilot study too (=928). K-S test was used to assure normal data distribution
order. Descriptive statistical methods and also Pearson correlation test was used to analyze the
data at =0.05.

Results

Tehran PEGO scores in EFQM criteria and also percentage of goal accessing, based on EFQM
criteria, is presented in table 1, figure2.







International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6
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Table1: PEGOs final scores based on EFQM criteria

Total score
Enablers/
Results scores
Accessed level
(%)
P.E. office
scores
EFQM criteria
337.11
167.39
36.48 36.48 leadership
Enablers
34.78 27.83 Policy and strategy
28.82 25.94 people management
34.24 30.82 Resources and partnerships
32.80 45.93 processes
169.73
34.07 68.15 customer results
Results
29.90 25.18 people results
33.23 19.94 society results
37.62 56.44 key performance results

















Figure 2: Tehran FEGOs scores toward EFQM criteria
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6
ISSN: 2222-6990

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In this self-assessment leadership and key performance results criteria with respectively 36.48
and 37.62 percent were strength points of this organization. On the other hand, people and
people results criteria with 28.48 and 29.90 percent were improvable points and need more
attention. Total score for this organization was 337.11 from 1000 (167.39 and 169.73 scores for
enablers and results domains) figure 3.

Figure 3: Tehran FEGOs scores toward EFQM criteria

Also there was a strong relationship between enablers and results domains in Tehran PEGOs
organizational excellence model (r=0.872 and p=0.001) table 2.
Table2: Pearson correlation coefficient
enablers
R 0.872
Sig 0.001*
results
* : significant in p<0.01




International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6
ISSN: 2222-6990

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Discussion And Conclusions

Regarding gained scores and goal access percentage in excellence model of Tehran PEGO, it is
observed that leadership criterion from enablers and key performance results from results
domain, accessing respectively 36.48 and 37.62 percent of EFQM goals (highest scores based on
EFQM criteria) are the strength points of this organization. On the other hand, people and
people results criteria from respectively enablers and results domains with 28.82 and 29.90
percent (lowest scores) are improvable points of organization. On these lines, Akbari (2009);
Zanganeh (2009) and Rosa and Amaral (2005) showed similar results in their studies (Akbari,
2009; Rosa & Amaral, 2005). Previous studies has attributed to the non appropriate human
resources management (Akbari, 2009). Based on scores gained in the criteria, improving
measures in all criteria is essential for this organization, especially in the people criterion from
enablers and people results criterion from results domain.

In each organization there is necessity for orchestrate the multiple recourses to achieve the
best results. The human recourses are the problematic part from this point of view, because it
is only the staff who can whether convert the other factor to the recourses or not. In the EFQM
model the staff criterion reflects that how an organization can use its own staffs knowledge
and also their potential capabilities whether individually or collectively to support its own
policy, strategy, functional efficiency and also processing planning. By a simple view on this
fields scores a strong weakness appears which is needed to be considered by the responsible
managers. There some recommendations by EFQM regarding this problem e.g. delegation of
authority, cooperative management, education, reconsiderations in staff evaluation systems,
etc. The second criterion which remains to be improved in our study is the customer results in
line with the result of the Eghbal et al. (2009) which has attributed this weakness to the
motivational affaires. On this basis it is proposed that implementing some instructions can be
useful in this regard; e.g. planning appropriate systems to measure the consensus level
between staff, focusing to the individual skills maintenance and motivating them and also
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
June 2012, Vol. 2, No. 6
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recognition of the dissatisfaction points (Eghbal et al., 2009). Wong et al. (2006) concluded that
it is necessary for the staff to be aware of quality management concepts and their
implementation methods in order to increase their services efficiency (Wong & Dahlgard, 2006).

In the other part of the results, we observed a positive correlation between enablers and
results criteria which can imply that we can pay more attention to enablers in order to improve
them in accompany with better results to be achieved. Similarly Karlos have also reported a
strong relationship between the enablers and results (Karlos, 2009).

Based on the results of the recent studies, to emphasize for using EFQM model to evaluate
sport organizations it seems that this model can be considered as an appropriated model for
Tehran PEGO.

It can be proposed that the responsible authorities to pay more attention to the existing
shortcomings and also to improve the enablers in order to more improvements can be achieved
in the results domain.
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