Improving the Quality of East and West European Public Services

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of current reforms in public sector quality management in Eastern Europe. Comparisons are made with trends in Western European countries to draw out the lessons emerging from current developments (including e-governance). The findings make essential reading for academics and students in public policy and public administration who are interested in modernization of the public sector from an international perspective.
Please check the NISPAcee homepage (www.nispa.sk) which advertises the book in the section 'recent publications'

Contents include:
Part I: Introduction: The current quality agenda of East and West European public services;
Aims, approach and structure of the book
Part II: Implementing Quality Management in Service Delivery
The effect of organizational structures and cultures on quality management in Estonian local authorities;
Improving the quality of services delivered in Ireland;
Can teamwork improve public services? An empirical analysis of two Spanish public agencies;
Implementing quality management in service delivery.
Part III: The Usefulness of Quality Accreditation Systems for Public Service Improvement;
Do Western quality models work in CEE countries? Some insights from the Hungarian perspective;
Finnish local authorities’ experiences with the use of ISO 9000;
‘ ISO 9001 by Decree’;
Quality assurance of public administration programmes in Poland;
Why do Belgian public agencies use the common assessment framework (CAF)?;
Measuring local government productivity in a quality-oriented environment;
The usefulness of quality accreditation systems for public service improvement.
Part IV: E-Government and Citizen Engagement as New Approaches to Public Service Quality;
Benchmarking the quality of Slovenian life-event portals;
A strategic approach to improving service quality without high levels of stakeholder ownership;
Citizen and user participation in the UK;
Improving public services through e-government and citizen engagement;