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Born as a statistical control methodology in manufacturing, the concept of quality has evolved during the 1950s in the US and Japan from product to process orientation and from ex post evaluation to ex ante planning, up to continuous monitoring of business activities. Still the notion takes on several different meanings:
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conforming to specifications (ISO 9000, Service Charter);
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meeting corporate and social objectives (Balanced Scorecard I),
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aligning inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes (EFQM, Balanced Scorecard II),
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meeting or exceeding customer expectations (the ServQual instrument),
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producing emotional, passionate commitment on the part of users.
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Assessing the quality of public services and the citizen/customer satisfaction have been major concerns for the promoters and supporters of the Government ‘reinvention’ movement in the past 25 years. Together with the goal of continual improvement, these are also known as the three main pillars of a Quality Management System.
During the 1990s, the wide diffusion of service charters has started to provide the citizen/customer with a ‘prior information’ about the kinds and levels of service (s)he can expect from a public authority, as well as a private organisation supplying public services (e.g. garbage collection). This was more related with the original notion of quality as product performance control than with the modern one of process and activity management. However, it has helped integrate the targets of efficiency and effectiveness with a greater attention to end users in the Public Administration ‘process’.
More recently, the need has arisen for a more integrated view of the process and its results, in light of the recognition that not necessarily a good Government leads to good results, or to results that are perceived as such by its constituency; this is partly related to the ‘networked’ nature of modern Governments, being at the centre of complex relationships involving other public institutions, some private/business entities, and the citizens themselves. Shifting from the quality of services concept to the quality of government/governance is like ensuring that “good pianos play good music” together.
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