An Empirical Investigation into the Validity of SERVQUAL in the Public Sector

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Growth in the service sector is rapidly establishing this portion of the economy as the largest economic influence in the United States. This sector encompasses roughly two-thirds of the gross national product (GNP). With more than two-thirds of the U.S. workforce employed in the service sectors (Gaither, 1992:13), the importance of this sector is illustrated by noting the creation of millions of jobs in spite of a decline in both farm and factory labor levels. importance of service sector quality was highlighted when it was included in the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award approved by Congress in 1987. SERVQUAL is a questionnaire designed to measure service quality. has been used in a variety of private sector applications. literature reports problems with the instrument. original authors have adjusted the and responded to the arguments. present research attempts to add to the available literature concerning the instrument's applicability in the public sector environment. TOTAL QUALITY BACKGROUND Total Quality Management traces its roots through centuries of management philosophy because of its basis in techniques of Good Management. As time passes, a singular on production quality has been replaced by a more global perspective where the customer/provider relationship has gained primary importance. A general definition given by Johnson and Winchell (1989:48) includes a customer-based orientation: The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. This definition is broad enough to include both products and/or services. Empirical investigation of customer focus, both internal and external, has developed slowly. It has only been in the last few years (since 1988 or so) that the customer component has taken shape on a large scale (Ciampa, 1991:44). This customer has proven to be an illusive concept for service sector firms. primary problem lies in the difficulty of identifying customer bases and the disparities between service perceptions and reality. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry model for service quality identifies five customer service gaps (Figure 1). Their SERVQUAL instrument provides a means of measuring the variance between expected and perceived service (Gap 5). Because of its extensive use in for-profit firms, it is believed that this instrument can be used for measuring the differences between expected and perceived service in the public sector as well. PUBLIC SECTOR Successes in the field of TQM have led to growing interest within the public sector. Increasing amounts of literature, public sector initiatives (Carr and Littman, 1990) and national awards such as the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, indicate a sincere and growing interest in the management of quality within the public sector. A recent survey by Carr and Littman reveals that two-thirds of executives in the public sector indicated that their agencies had taken steps toward implementation of quality management. Unfortunately, while recognized in the literature as important (Crosby, 1984; Peters, 1987; Singh, 1990; Schonberger, 1992; Feigenbaum, 1991), public sector quality issues have seen little empirical exploration. A possible explanation of this is provided by Carr and Littman (1990). They suggest that the reason is that quality management is a holistic management philosophy and not a set of isolated techniques. Obviously, many government organizations have yet to understand this. A major assumption in the quality literature is that TQM will fail without a laser sharp customer focus (Ciampa, 1992). differences between services provided and customers' needs plague even those organizations with well-defined service criteria and customer bases. For the public sector firm the task is even more daunting. …

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