The theory of quality management has been studied from different areas: quality leaders' ideas, empirical research and formal evaluation models. This has helped identify a set of critical factors for a successful implementation, as a way to improve customer satisfaction and performance.Our study reviews the literature from these three points of view, in order to identify measures for change towards a quality culture, which can be empirically tested from the answers provided by those responsible for quality in 106 certified firms. The results yield a valid, reliable scale and provide empirical support so that managers know what to do in order to advance towards total quality management.

This paper analyzes how public administration may improve the service it offers to citizens through a suitable organizational culture; for this purpose, it starts by studying the specific features of the culture of public administration. In this respect, it analyzes the existing taxonomies in public administration, the role of culture in these agencies and how a diagnosis of such culture is made. Then, it describes the problems of bureaucratic culture, typical of many public agencies, and briefly describes the features of a public service, citizen‐oriented culture. Finally, it proposes a specific methodology for the modification of a bureaucratic culture into a culture based on the notion of serving the citizen, together with an analysis of when modification is necessary.