Internalization of quality in public organizations

PurposeThis paper examines the relationships between: (1) motives for internalization of a quality system, (2) the internalization of a quality system and (3) customer results, employee results and social results in public organizations by means of replication researchDesign/methodology/approachFirst, the work applies a quantitative study to test hypotheses using structural equations based on the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. Then, a qualitative study is carried out to support the quantitative results obtainedFindingsResults show that internal and external motives affect internalization, and that the most important issues for internalization are commitment, communication, training, recognition and follow-up. In addition, continuous improvement is key in order to enhance customer results, employee results and social resultsOriginality/valueThe contribution of this work is that it provides empirical support to prior research on internalization focused on manufacturing and service organizations, and extends these results to the case of public organizations