Resumen
The implementation of total quality management (TQM) in public organizations is usually associated with the rise of New Public Management (NPM). Together with NPM, TQM has encountered a lot of criticism. The underlying argument has been that NPM and TQM undermine civil service ethos since they advocate entrepreneurial approaches in providing public services. Apart from the discussion of TQM?s suitability for public agencies, there is an ongoing discussion about the downsides of TQM as such. One of the most serious objections to TQM is that it creates mechanistic solutions (Godfroij 1995) and increases bureaucracy (Hill and Wilkinson 1995, 19).