ABSTRACT
Major construction industry review reports as well as recent initiatives such as the Construction Best Practice Programme in the United Kingdom (UK) have identified performance improvement as a key issue. There is now a realization that business performance should not only be based on short-term financial measures but on a comprehensive range of measures incorporating long term objectives as well. The Excellence Model, developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) is an alternative, increasingly seen as a more robust approach for achieving a balanced performance, and for identifying the drivers of innovation in order to sustain long term strategic objectives. This paper addresses the key issues involved in the implementation of the EFQM Model and concludes with an outline of how the model can be used as an innovative tool to develop a recommended strategy for performance improvement.
