Quality in the public sector from an employee's perspective: Results from a transnational comparison

This exploratory study presents results from a transnational comparison of the evaluation of quality institutionalization from an employee's perspective. The study analyses quality institutionalization, as it relates both to perceptions of the work environment and quality of working life, in two organizations that differ significantly in their history of quality implementation. The American organization has been a pioneer among public sector organizations in adopting and implementing quality principles. The Austrian organization, similar in basic organizational characteristics to the American organization, makes its first steps toward quality implementation. The results suggest that the American employees, with their longer history of quality implementation, developed more critical perceptions of quality institutionalization, compared with their Austrian counterparts. A successful implementation of quality was characterized in the American sample by a stronger integration of quality institutionalization, perceptions of work environment and quality of working life. All in all, our data confirm a context-dependent approach to quality, confirming a principally positive potential of quality implementation from an employee's perspective.