Public undergraduate higher education institutions face a number of seemingly intractable problems. Among those problems are cost, accountability and access. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process is designed to help organization of any type address problems of organizational performance. This process has been used by manufacturing, healthcare, and educational institutions among others. The purpose of this study was to explore performance differences between award recipients and non-recipients on measures related to these three challenges in public higher education. Two major research questions were postulated, and tested using historical data. The first questions asked if award recipients performed better than non-recipients against measures related to these three challenges at the time of the award. The second question asked if the rate of change in this performance was different for award recipients and non-recipients in the time period leading up to the award. A theoretical framework was proposed, composed of the three challenges as constructs. Each construct was associated with multiple measures. The first question was tested using MANCOVA procedures to test the theoretical framework. Each construct was then tested with the same procedure. Finally, univariate results were analyzed for each of the 12 dependent variables. The same model and levels of analysis applied to the second question using repeated measures MANCOVA. Significant differences at alpha 0.05 were found for several spending variables, minority success, and for two year institutions, graduation rates. Support for the theoretical framework as a whole was not found. However, it was also concluded that award recipients performed better on some measures where management actions had a direct effect such as cost. Accountability measures were affected indirectly by management actions, and the results for this construct were more mixed. Finally, it was concluded that access was not responsive to management solutions, and may be more strongly affected by public policy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]