Examining Citizens’ Expectations and Perceptions About Service Quality in Public Sector: Adapting a Hybrid Public Service Quality Model to the Local Context

Abstract

ABSTRACT The empirical study examines citizens’ expectations and perceptions about service quality in three major public institutions. The article adopts a quantitative approach. Citizens’ expectations and perceptions about service quality in the context of public institutions were examined through a questionnaire, utilizing a hybrid model of SERVQUAL with private and public service quality dimensions. The article presents the results of a quantitative study (sample of 310 citizens), distributed across three public institutions, illustrating factor, gap, paired correlation and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) of survey data. For factor extraction, rotation and interpretation, the Oblimin rotation technique was used, determining inter-correlation among the public service quality factors. As for ANOVA analysis, Levene’s test was used to verify the homogeneity of variance assumption (the variance in scores for each group of customers). The findings of the study suggest the re-distribution of components under the refined service quality factors. Different items of initial service quality dimensions are rotated under newly created factors. Gap analysis reveals no variations in terms of citizens’ expectations across public institutions, but suggests significant differences among public entities in regard to perceptions of services acquired. Adapted Hybrid Public Service Quality model will assist public institutions in developing and tailoring service quality management systems to citizens’ needs. This is the first attempt to carry out a quantitative approach to researching Service Quality in public institutions. The primary contribution of the study is that it has tested a hybrid model for measuring perceived public service quality, integrating service quality dimensions both from public and private sectors and proposed a refined model fit for the local context considering citizens’ characteristics and the current state of the public sector experiencing a shift toward modernization of services.