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1 Introduction
Modernization of the public administration process, which today is still a fundamental requirement for many countries, is framed within the intense debate that started at the end of the 1970s, and developed during the 1980s and 1990s, around the problem of changing government systems and public sector management. A key reference can be found in the scientific management philosophy known as New Public Management, that has certainly influenced - in different ways, to both acclaim and criticism - the Public Administration change processes of several countries, notably Anglo-Saxon countries and first amongst these the UK, in turn drawing research inspiration from the practical experiences of these same countries ([2] Boston et al. , 1996, [10] Denhardt, 1981, [12] Dunleavy et al. , 2006, [27] Osborne and Gaebler, 1993, [32] Simon, 1976). In Italy, the start of the debate on Public Administration reforms was greatly delayed with respect to the precursory countries: for example, we recall that precisely in the 1980s - while other countries were undertaking harsh structural reforms of their public sectors - the Italian public debt explosion was talking place. Reinforcing the urgency of a radical change of the complex Italian Public Administration was brought about the European unification process and especially participation to the single currency, with the resulting constraints related to debt and public deficit. These problems, which a good part of European countries share with Italy, have been brought to the fore by some recent events (think of the Greek crisis and the difficult situations in Portugal and Spain). In this context, numerous instruments have been identified as useful references for the innovative management of public sector organizations. Amongst these several models inspired by total quality management (TQM), such as common assessment framework (CAF, to be discussed extensively below), have become widespread.
This present work, which has as its central theme several issues specifically linked to the use of CAF, draws its inspiration from two surveys developed by the authors: it thus has a strong empirical connotation and the aim of identifying the key factors that can promote the diffusion of the CAF instrument - such as internal and external benchmarking activities aimed at improving public organizations - largely but not exclusively referring to Italy. Both these objectives,...