ADOPTION OF TQM AND EXCELLENCE MODELS IN EUROPEAN PUBLIC SECTOR

The aim of this paper is to assess the current state of the application of Quality Management (QM) models in the public sector of six European countries: Romania, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, and Ireland. To achieve this objective a comparative analysis was conducted. The study evaluates the maturity of QM from the perspective of eight components that refer to political commitment, source of funding, training offer, communication, and rewarding mechanism. The research methodology implies a scoring model to determine the maturity level of QM in each country. The data was collected from international and national public sector reports, national and European strategies, official websites of governments and QM competence centres. The study results underline clear differences between the analyzed countries in the way of implementing QM in public services. Portugal, Greece, and Ireland have a more advanced level of QM institutionalization as a consequence of long-term support for QM and efficiently organized systems compared to Latvia, Romania, and Croatia with dependents on temporary EU funding and lack or underdeveloped QM support centres. The study emphasizes the importance of having dedicated centres and specialists that can provide training and help institutions develop their own QM abilities. The research results contribute to the literature by extending empirical research on QM in the public sector to six more European countries and underlining the progress of quality integration in public services. The originality of the study is given by the sample of countries selected that was not previously covered by the existing literature.