Survey questionnaires and interviews

The institutional capacity of local government agencies in this study is defined as the capacity of local government agencies to deliver quality services as assessed by their clients. Information regarding clients’ or service receivers' assessment of the quality of public services delivered by the four local government agencies was obtained through questionnaires adapted from the SERVQUAL instrument and through short interviews. The

SERVQUAL instrument was considered appropriate for this study because the studies conducted by Parasuraman et al. for over 15 years concluded that the service quality dimensions from which the instrument has been developed can be used to assess service quality regardless of the type of service (Fitzgerald et al. 1994:Chapter 3; Parasuraman et al. 1994, 1993, 1991, 1988, 1985).

In addition, after analysing the instrument and using it to measure service quality in a public library service, Wisniewski and Donnelly (1996:363) concluded that ‘the SERVQUAL appears to offer considerable potential to the managers and other decision-makers of a public sector organisation in the search for rigorous measures of service quality’. The instrument has been used by a number of researchers to measure the quality of different services delivered by both public and private organisations all over the world (see, for example, OPSR 2002; Wisniewski 2001; White and Rudall 1999; Gabbie and O'Neill 1997; Lam and Woo 1997; Lam, Wong and Yeung 1997; Mels, Boshoff and Nel 1997; Buttle 1996; Cuthbert 1996a, 1996b; Gabbie and O'Neill 1996; Wisniewski and Donnelly 1996; Donnelly et al. 1995; Chaston 1994; Chandlin and Day 1993).

The instrument assesses quality service by measuring the gap between clients' expectations and clients' perceptions of service quality along five dimensions of service quality as set out in Table 4.3. The instrument is based on the theory

that clients judge service delivery using the following formula; that is, clients' perceptions should equal or exceed clients' expectations. Therefore, a negative gap score between client's expectations and perceptions means the agencies do not have the capacity to deliver quality services as expected by their clients. A positive gap score, on the other hand, means the agencies have the capacity to deliver quality services as expected by their clients. The higher the negative gap score the lower the institutional capacity. The higher the positive gap score the better the institutional capacity. The instrument is also based on assumption that the service receivers are able to articulate both their expectations of the general characteristics and determinants of quality service and their perceptions of actual and current service quality for a specific service provider (Williams 1998:99).

Table 4.3 Service quality dimensions measured

Dimension Definition

Tangibles Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials

Reliability Ability to perform the promises service dependably and accurately

Responsiveness Willingness to help clients and provide prompt service Assurance Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability

to convey trust and confidence

Empathy Caring, individualised attention that the organisation provides its clients

Source: Zeithaml, V.A., Parasuraman, A., Berry, L.L., 1990. Delivering Quality Service: balancing customer perceptions and expectations, Free Press, New York:26.

questionnaires of 22 statements, using a seven point Likert scale. The first set of questionnaires measured clients' expectations, whereas the second set measured clients' perceptions. As shown in Table 4.4, there were four statements for the tangibles, responsiveness and assurance dimensions, and five statements for the reliability and empathy dimensions. The complete questionnaires used in this study can be seen in Appendix A.

Table 4.4 Questionnaire statements pertaining to each quality

dimension

Dimension Statement

Tangibles Having modern equipment

Visually appealing physical facilities Neat-appearing employees

Having clear, easy to read written materials Reliability Doing service by a certain time as promised Sincere interest in solving clients' problem Performing service right the first time Providing service at the time promised Insisting on error-free records

Responsiveness Informing when service will be performed Giving prompt service

Willing to help clients Readiness to respond

Assurance Instilling trust and confidence Feeling safe in transactions Being consistently courteous

Empathy Giving clients individual attention Having convenient operating hours Dealing with clients caringly

Having clients' best interests at heart Understanding clients' specific needs

Source: Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. and Zeithaml, V.A., 1991.

'Refinement and assessment of the SERVQUAL scale', Journal of Retailing

67(4):446-7.

Client assessment of service quality delivered by the four agencies was also undertaken through short interviews. In the questionnaires, respondents were asked if they would like to participate in a follow-up short interview. As presented in Table 4.5, of 121 respondents of the Revenue Office who returned questionnaires, 47 respondents (38.8%) agreed to participate in the interviews. Of the 102 returned questionnaires from the Bank customers, 80 respondents (78.4%) were subsequently interviewed. Among the 104 customers of the Clean Water Company who responded to the questionnaires, 39 respondents (37.5%) participated in the interviews.

Table 4.5 Respondents' interview rate

Agency Questionnaires returned Respondents interviewed Interview rate (%) Revenue Office 121 47 38.8 Bank 102 80 78.4 Clean Water Company 104 39 37.5 Registrar Office 101 44 43.6 Total 428 210 49.1

follow-up interviews. Therefore, from the figures presented, of the 428 questionnaires returned 210 respondents (49.1%) participated in the follow-up short interviews. The interview participants were asked to express their opinions regarding the quality of services delivered by their respected agency based on the five service quality dimensions used in the survey questionnaires. The main objective of the short interviews was to give the respondents an opportunity to express their opinions about the quality of services they received from the agencies which they could not express in the survey questionnaires. In addition, the information gathered was also used to examine whether respondents’ assessment about the quality of services through the short interviews was consistent with the respondents' assessments about the quality of services undertaken through the survey questionnaires.