Quality Management

The fourth edition of the Handbook on Public Sector Reforms (Handbuch zur Verwaltungsreform) includes a chapter on the state of the art of quality management written by Elke Loeffler. The chapter providers service managers with an overview on how the concept of quality management has changed over the years in the public sector. Indeed, in the UK we now speak of customer orientation and CRM! Elke also provides the reader with an overview of key quality assurance tools such as ISO 9001, the EFQM Business Excellence Model and Common Assessment Framework (CAF). The chapter ends with an outlook into the role of social media and approaches using the expertise and ideas of the public sector staff and customers to bring about innovations in the public sector

For more information and order forms click here.

Public service charters are becoming very topical worldwide. This toolkit provides public managers with lots of examples and illustrations of how they can develop service charters. It helps project managers to understand the key stepping stones from winning staff support all the way through to defining meaningful service pledges and targets.

The toolkit has been co-designed with the Czech Ministry of Interior and funded by SIGMA (a joint EU/OECD programme). 

Download the service charter toolkit.

In Spain, train passengers are repaid the full fare if the train is more than 90 minutes late. In the Netherlands, local councils give users flowers or other gifts if they cannot keep to the promised standard. Salvador Parrado and Hanspeter Knirsch report in their lead article for the Austrian journal Innovative Verwaltung how public agencies can use service charters “to think outside in” in order to improve the quality of priority services.

Download the full article in German.