Principal Management Concepts in Greek Public Sector: Part I – The Common Assessment Framework

In the modern era of internationalization, interconnection and rapid technological changes the obligation of the public sector to provide the best possible services to citizens have become challenging tasks. The incorporation of Total Quality Management principles and tools in public services can prove to be decisive given that they contribute to the improvement of the services provided, offer better customer service, help in understanding how the agency is organised and operates, as well as contribute in changing the attitude of employees towards the adoption of a quality culture. Since the mid-00’s, several programmes have been implemented in Greece in order to improve the quality of public services which was, up to that point, dictated only by the need to consolidate relative EU financial resources. This paper is the first part of a study about the application of principal management concepts in Greek public sector since year 2004 when Law 3230/2004 was introduced. In particular it tries to record and assess the experience of the implementation of the “Common Assessment Framework” in Greek public services. Towards this end, the views and opinions of experts from the public sector are analysed with the use of interviews and questionnaires.