Excellence in management and in economical and financial results: critical analysis of the performance of the national quality award winning companies

Resumen

This work aims at checking if the management practices of the companies awarded with the “Prêmio Nacional de Qualidade – PNQ” (National Quality Award), regarded as a standard of excellence, result in superior financial and economic performance. The basic methodological procedure is the analysis of the performance of the “PNQ” winning companies compared to other companies belonging to the same activity sector. The universe of the investigation is composed of the winners of the National Quality Award in the period from 1992 to 2004. The economical and financial indicators were taken from the “EXAME” magazine publication, “Maiores & Melhores”, that reports the major and the best Brazilian companies of the year. The research did not confirm the superiority of the “PNQ” winners in all of the economical and financial indicators, validating the studies performed in other countries, which demonstrated the importance of the Quality Management System for operational efficiency, clients’ satisfaction, and employees’ morale in the companies; not necessarily exerting great impact on economical and financial results.

Keywords: management practices, quality, economical and financial performance.