Using Servqual to Examine Service Quality in the Classroom: Analyses of Undergraduate and Executive Education Operations Management Courses

Cyril Foropon,Laoucine Kerbache,Ruth Seiple

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v8n20p105

Abstract

This article examines service quality provided in the classroom, by applying the Servqual instrument in twooperations management (OM) courses located at the two extremes of the higher education spectrum. The firstServqual gap analysis assessed an OM undergraduate course (at the low end of the spectrum), whereas thesecond Servqual gap analysis appraised an OM executive education course (at the highest end of the spectrum).This paper also reviews the theoretical background of service quality in higher education, and associatedassessment methods identified in the literature. Findings indicate that the use of Servqual results could lead toimproving the performance of service quality dimensions in the classroom at the undergraduate level, andexpectations of undergraduate students and executive education participants could be exceeded on multipleservice quality dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness, and tangibles.

Highlights

The first studies focusing on service quality in higher education were published during the mid-1990s (Ford, Joseph, & Joseph, 1999; Harrop & Douglas, 1996; Harvey & Knight, 1996; Shank, 1995)
Stodnick and Rogers’s (2008) study applied the Servqual instrument to measure student perceptions of service quality in a classroom setting, and the results demonstrated that a customer-centric quality scale such as Servqual could be applied in a classroom setting
The first Servqual gap analysis aims at analyzing the extent to which the use of Servqual results improves the service quality in the classroom at the undergraduate level, whereas the second Servqual gap analysis aims at measuring the service quality in the classroom at the executive education level

Summary

Introduction

The first studies focusing on service quality in higher education were published during the mid-1990s (Ford, Joseph, & Joseph, 1999; Harrop & Douglas, 1996; Harvey & Knight, 1996; Shank, 1995). Stodnick and Rogers’s (2008) study applied the Servqual instrument to measure student perceptions of service quality in a classroom setting, and the results demonstrated that a customer-centric quality scale such as Servqual could be applied in a classroom setting. Our paper uses the innovative Servqual approach to examine the classroom service quality in two operations management (OM) classroom settings located at the extremes of the higher education spectrum: an undergraduate course and an executive education course. Ours is the first Servqual study to assess OM higher education courses; in this paper, we use the Servqual approach to examine the service quality of two distinct OM higher education courses. The section of this paper presents the theoretical background of www.ccsenet.org/ijbm

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