INVESTIGTING TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT THROUGH E- GOVENCE PRACTICES. THE CASE OF REGIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ADMINISTRATIONS Ioannis Karavasilis, Administrator, Administration of Primary Education of Serres, Kerasountos 2, 62124, Serres, Greece, karavasil@sch.gr Kostas Zafiropoulos, Assistant Professor, Department of International and European Studies, University of Macedonia, Egnatia 156, 54996 Thessaloniki, Greece kz@uom.gr Vasiliki Vrana, Adjunct Professor, Department of Business Administration, Technological Education Institute of Serres, Terma Magnesias, 62124 Serres, Greece v_vrana@otenet.gr Abstract: Total Quality Management (TQM) and e-governance pursue some identical purposes and share an important set of core concepts and principles. Using a web survey, the paper examines the current state of e-governance practices of Regional Primary and Secondary Education Administrations in Greece (RPSEA). It identifies which information services are offered through the websites and using quantitative statistical methods describes the map of offered information services. Moreover, information services were examined according to TQM pillars. Findings indicate that RPSEAs have adopted to a certain extent quality management approaches, guided by the TQM principles. Keywords: e-governance, total quality management, regional education administration, Greece Research paper Introduction The transition from conventional government services to e-government services is becoming an international trend. This transition is an opportunity for governments to reorganize its services and reduce inefficiencies that may exist in its traditional services and facilitate a more joined-up style of government (Bakry, 2004; Gunter, 2006). In order to address this question these governments must “constantly reconsider and optimize the way they implement governance and change their information systems and applications to support evolving needs” (Mohapatra et al., 2005, p.220). Regional and local governmental organizations and public administrations play a key role in the provision of e-services as they are the closest to the citizens. Quality is a key strategy bringing Public Administration closer to the Citizens it serves. According to (Parker and Bradley, 2001) the quality movement in Public Administration is part of reform and modernization efforts aimed at replacing the bureaucratic model by a more citizen-oriented paradigm. Nowadays, Public