Quality and Renewal of Public Administration: The TQM approach and the CAF European model

As the citizen/customer role and their satisfaction have gradually been embracing the specific issues of New Public Management, the public administration policy makers have begun to examine instruments and models that focus on quality. The attention has therefore fallen on approaches which aim to improve the ‘internal’ effectiveness and efficiency of organisations and the ‘external’ satisfaction of the customer through typical management procedures based on Total Quality Management (TQM). In order to introduce the principles of TQM in Public Administration, the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) model has been used. CAF is a management instrument for organisations, which has been specially made to promote the culture of quality, the adoption of instruments connected to TQM and the dissemination of self-assessment activities in European Union public administrations. The structure of the CAF has taken its shape and substance from the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model for excellence which, when the CAF was created, already represented a widespread, commonly used reference model by European businesses. Based on solid estimates, we can confirm that the CAF represents the EFQM model ‘translated’ for public administrations. Italy is one of the European countries where the CAF has received more significant attention and has been more widely disseminated. This paper aims to introduce the CAF model, highlighting its main structure and principles, in order to show how this may adequately meet the needs of quality coming from a public administration. The use of CAF model in the Italian public administration may, therefore, be considered as a benchmark for other administrations.