An empirical study of continuous process improvement (CPI) regarding public management in Spanish municipalities

Abstract

Certain Spanish city authorities updated and improved public management by adopting a continuous process improvement (CPI) approach during the late 1980s and early 1990s to enhance their public services and operating procedures. This qualitative research regarding Spanish town councils presents the findings of an exploratory study which tried to understand how CPI was applied to public management and ascertain the impact of implementing CPI on public management. It was found that CPI was being applied during evolutionary stages and improvement activities; its impact on public management in the Spanish town councils being studied here led to both positive and neutral result