ABSTRACT
In the public sector there has too often been the experience of low quality services, generating and perpetuating low expectations. The result has been great dissatisfaction and frustration, but not much action. Using Pollitt's research framework to unpack public service quality agendas and reforms provides some revealing insights into patterns of convergence and divergence. The level of difficulties faced by public officials in the implementation of quality approaches seems to be much higher in most public agencies in Central and Eastern Europe countries than in Western European public agencies. There is a widespread belief in Western Europe but also in Eastern Europe that the private sector is a positive model for the public sector. Public service quality now figures in most public sector reform programmes, both in Eastern and Western Europe. In spite of the longer experience of Western Europe with the implementation of quality approaches in the public sector we still know little about results.
