diff --git a/pkg/util/config/config_test.go b/pkg/util/config/config_test.go
index f6e2c374c..d5d5730c5 100644
--- a/pkg/util/config/config_test.go
+++ b/pkg/util/config/config_test.go
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 package config
 
 import (
-	"testing"
-	"reflect"
 	"fmt"
+	"reflect"
+	"testing"
 )
 
 var getMapPairsFromStringTest = []struct {
-	in string
+	in       string
 	expected []string
 	err      error
 }{
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ var getMapPairsFromStringTest = []struct {
 	{`log_statement:none, search_path:'"$user", public'`, []string{"log_statement:none", `search_path:'"$user", public'`}, nil},
 	{`search_path:'"$user"`, nil, fmt.Errorf("unclosed quote starting at position 13")},
 	{"", []string{""}, nil},
-	{",,log_statement:all	,", []string{"","","log_statement:all", ""}, nil},
+	{",,log_statement:all	,", []string{"", "", "log_statement:all", ""}, nil},
 }
 
 func TestGetMapPairsFromString(t *testing.T) {
@@ -29,4 +29,3 @@ func TestGetMapPairsFromString(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
-
diff --git a/pkg/util/config/util.go b/pkg/util/config/util.go
index e07001381..05a956c3e 100644
--- a/pkg/util/config/util.go
+++ b/pkg/util/config/util.go
@@ -169,10 +169,10 @@ func processField(value string, field reflect.Value) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-
 type parserState int
+
 const (
-	Plain parserState  = iota
+	Plain parserState = iota
 	DoubleQuoted
 	SingleQuoted
 )
@@ -180,12 +180,12 @@ const (
 // Split the pair candidates by commas not located inside open quotes
 // Escape characters are not supported for simplicity, as we don't
 // expect to find them inside the map values for our use cases
-func getMapPairsFromString(value string) (pairs []string , err error) {
+func getMapPairsFromString(value string) (pairs []string, err error) {
 	pairs = make([]string, 0)
 	state := Plain
 	var start, quote int
 
-	for i, ch := range(strings.Split(value, "")) {
+	for i, ch := range strings.Split(value, "") {
 		if ch == `"` {
 			if state == Plain {
 				state = DoubleQuoted
@@ -205,12 +205,12 @@ func getMapPairsFromString(value string) (pairs []string , err error) {
 			}
 		}
 		if ch == "," && state == Plain {
-			pairs = append(pairs, strings.Trim(value[start:i]," \t"))
+			pairs = append(pairs, strings.Trim(value[start:i], " \t"))
 			start = i + 1
 		}
 	}
 	if state != Plain {
-		err = fmt.Errorf("unclosed quote starting at position %d", quote + 1)
+		err = fmt.Errorf("unclosed quote starting at position %d", quote+1)
 		pairs = nil
 	} else {
 		pairs = append(pairs, strings.Trim(value[start:], " \t"))
diff --git a/pkg/util/users/users.go b/pkg/util/users/users.go
index f4e41e8e8..1f83706fe 100644
--- a/pkg/util/users/users.go
+++ b/pkg/util/users/users.go
@@ -173,8 +173,8 @@ func produceAlterStmt(user spec.PgUser) string {
 func produceAlterRoleSetStmts(user spec.PgUser) []string {
 	result := make([]string, 0)
 	result = append(result, fmt.Sprintf(alterRoleResetAllSQL, user.Name))
-	for key, value := range user.Parameters {
-		result = append(result, fmt.Sprintf(alterRoleSetSQL, user.Name, key, quoteValue(value)))
+	for name, value := range user.Parameters {
+		result = append(result, fmt.Sprintf(alterRoleSetSQL, user.Name, name, quoteParameterValue(name, value)))
 	}
 	return result
 }
@@ -193,10 +193,25 @@ func quoteMemberList(user spec.PgUser) string {
 }
 
 // quoteVal quotes values to be used at ALTER ROLE SET param = value if necessary
-func quoteValue(val string) string {
-	if (strings.HasPrefix(val, `"`) && strings.HasSuffix(val, `"`)) ||
-		(strings.HasPrefix(val, `'`) && strings.HasSuffix(val, `'`)) {
+func quoteParameterValue(name, val string) string {
+	start := val[0]
+	end := val[len(val)-1]
+	if name == "search_path" {
+		// strip single quotes from the search_path. Those are required in the YAML configuration
+		// to quote values containing commas, as otherwise NewFromMap would treat each comma-separated
+		// part of such string as a separate map entry. However, a search_path is interpreted as a list
+		// only if it is not quoted, otherwise it is treated as a single value. Therefore, we strip
+		// single quotes here. Note that you can still use double quotes in order to escape schemas
+		// containing spaces (but something more complex, like double quotes inside double quotes or spaces
+		// in the schema name would break the parsing code in the operator.)
+		if start == '\'' && end == '\'' {
+			return fmt.Sprintf("%s", val[1:len(val)-1])
+		} else {
+			return val
+		}
+	}
+	if (start == '"' && end == '"') || (start == '\'' && end == '\'') {
 		return val
 	}
-	return fmt.Sprintf(`"%s"`, strings.Trim(val, " "))
+	return fmt.Sprintf(`'%s'`, strings.Trim(val, " "))
 }