Knowledge creation and the advancement of organizational excellence

The Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organizational Excellence (MAAOE) was formed in late 1998 with a vision of creating, disseminating, and applying knowledge relevant to the advancement of organizational excellence. MAAOE sees next-generation quality management as being multinational, multidisciplinary, and performance focused and its participant profile is consistent with that view, numbering approximately 250 individuals from a broad array of disciplinary backgrounds that hail from more than 20 nations on 5 continents. The MAAOE vision is supported by three strategic intentions, each with several supporting goals and objectives. Herein, MAAOE's first strategic intention, that of creation of knowledge relevant to the advancement of organizational excellence, is investigated. Organizational excellence is regarded as the overall way of working that balances stakeholder concerns and increases the probability of long-term organizational success through operational, customer-related, financial, and marketplace performance excellence. Parallels and analogies to the development of scientific theory are used to illustrate the development of quality management and to suggest directions that must be taken to move into the aforementioned `next generation.'