Evaluation and public service quality

Abstract

Scund J Soc Welfure IY9X: 7: llX-I25 Evaluation and public service quality Rieper 0, Mayne J. Evaluation and public service quality. Scand J Soc Welfare 1998: 7: 118-125 0 Blackwell, 1998 Public service quality is a recent trend in the context of new public management. During the 1990s, public service quality initiatives have been launched in numerous countries at various levels of government. These initiatives have involved a variety of approaches: professional standard setting, service excellence based on users' perception of quality, government granted rights and choice for consumers, and the activity of consumer movements. Public service quality is considered on three levels: the micro level related to the output of the service delivery, the meso level related to the outcome of the service, and the macro level related t o public values. Various stakeholders of evaluations of service quality efforts are identified and their expected use of evaluation is discussed. Three roles of education are described: one in the implementation of public service quality, another in evaluation of the success of service quality initiatives, and a third role of evaluating higher lev1 outcomes. It is argued that even if evaluation techniques are necessary tools for improving service quality at the micro level during implementation, it is even more important to evaluate these initiatives against higher level policy goals and social values. 0. Rieper', J. Mayne2 ' Institute of Local Government Studies, Denmark Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Perceptions towards the quality of public services in Romania. Poor outcomes of public administration reforms?

“…There are four main approaches regarding the methods that can be used to enhance the quality of public services, namely, ensuring standards set by experts, developing the customer-citizen's capacity to take on an active role in the process, creating tools to find out beneficiaries' opinions/ satisfaction, the role of interest groups' advocacy actions (Rieper and Mayne 1998):…”