Assessing citizenss satisfaction with the public administrative services at chuong my district, hanoi city

ABSTRACT ASSESSING CITIZENS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AT CHUONG MY DISTRICT, HANOI CITY NGUYEN VAN DUY This study was conducted to evaluate the citizens' s

ASSESSING CITIZENS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AT CHUONG MY DISTRICT,

HANOI CITY

A DISSERTATION

Presented to

the Faculty of the Graduate Program of the College of Arts and Sciences

Central Philippine University, Philippines

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

During the learning process, carrying out the research and completing the dissertation, the researcher has been given the precious guidance and support from his professors, relatives and friends With his deepest gratitude, he would like to send his regards to:

The administrative board of Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration has created many favorable conditions to support him in the process of study and fulfilling the dissertation;

Dr Reynaldo Nene Dusaran, his academic supervisor as well as his beloved teacher, has enthusiastically supported, guided, encouraged and created the convenient conditions for me during the process of learning and completing the dissertation;

Dr Hoang Van Hao, his friend, is a respected person in his job as well as in his life He has encouraged, supported and consulted him much so that he can complete this dissertation;

MA Dang Thi Nam, Vice Chief of Office and all the staff at the Shop Part of the People’s Committee of Chuong My district have guided and created every favorable condition for him in the process of investigating and collecting data

One-Stop-so that I can complete this dissertation;

He would like to express my special thanks to the teachers in the dissertation evaluation committee who have given many valuable contributions to fulfill this dissertation;

He would also like to send his regards to the citizens using the public administrative services at Chuong My District People’s Committee who have answered the questionnaires in order to provide him with the research data;

His special thanks are also sent to his classmates in the PDM1 doctor class who have encouraged and helped him in his difficult times

Last but not least, he would like to express his gratitude to his parents, siblings and his beloved wife who are always by his side to help him with his study and this dissertation completion

The Researcher

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES 26

Data Processing and Analysis 54CHAPTER IV DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND

Information Related to Usage of Public Administrative Services 58Respondents’ Perception of Quality of the Public Administrative

Respondents’ Percieved Satisfaction with Public Administrative

Relationship between Quality of Public Administrative Services,

Differences in Citizens’ Satisfaction by their Demographic

Differences in Citizens’ Satisfaction by their knowledge, experience and

CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY

`

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality by Parasuraman 10

Figure 1 2 Performance Only Model (SERVPERF) (Martinez and Martinez, 2010) 14

Figure 1 3 Four Dimensions of PERVAL by Jillian C Sweeneya and Geoffrey N Soutar 17

Figure 1 4 Conceptual Framework of the Study 20

Figure 2 1 The Kano Model 33

Figure 2 2 The American Customer Satisfaction Index Model 35

Figure 4 1 Sources of Information about the Public Administrative Services which Citizens Used 61

Figure 4 2 Result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis 71

Figure 4 3 Result of SEM at the Second Analysis 74

Figure 4 4 Model of Factors Affecting Citizens’ Satisfaction with Public Administrative Services 76

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3 1 List of Variables and Initial Items in the Survey Instrument 50

Table 3 2 Results of Reliability Test of Scales 53

Table 4 1 Distribution of Respondents as to Demographics Characteristics 57

Table 4 2 Distribution of Respondents as to Information Related to the Use of Public Administrative Services 59

Table 4 3 Descriptive Statistics of the Different Items in the Components of Public Administrative Services Quality and Emotional Value 64

Table 4 4 Descriptive Statistics for Different Items of Citizens’ Satisfaction 69

Table 4 5 The Result of Standardized Regression Weights of CFA 72

Table 4 6 The Results of Testing the Effect of Six Factors to Satisfaction 73

Table 4 7 The Results of Testing the Effect of Four Factors to Satisfaction 75

Table 4 8 The Result of Standardized Regression Weights of Final SEM 75

Table 4 9 The Result of affects of independent variables 76

Table 4 10 Mean Citizens’ Satisfaction Score by Demographic Characteristics 78

Table 4 11 Mean Citizens’ Satisfaction Scores by Sectors, Experience and Knowledge of Public Administrative Services 81

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AMOS the Analysis of Moment Structures

ISO International Organization for Standardization

KMO Kaiser - Meyer - Olkin measure

RMSEA The root mean square error of approximation

SIPAS Satisfaction index of public administrative service

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

VAVN The Veterans Association of Vietnam

ABSTRACT

ASSESSING CITIZENS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AT CHUONG MY DISTRICT,

HANOI CITY

NGUYEN VAN DUY

This study was conducted to evaluate the citizens' satisfaction with the public administrative services at People’s Committee of Chuong My district Data were gathered from 460 respondents who used the public administrative services

at One-Shop-Stop (OSS) part of Chuong My district The survey instrument was tested for its reliability using the Cronbach’s Alpha Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to test how well the measured variables represent the number of constructs The instrument was translated to Vietnamese to allow easy understanding of the respondents and conducted in two month – February and March 2017 All the data collected were processed using SPSS AMOS version

22 Analysis made use of descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to test the hypotheses of the study The study revealed that most if not the majority of the respondents were females, not more than 45 years old, university educated and working as employee, civil servant or freelancer The majority of the respondents at Chuong

My district used public administrative services of Certification of house ownership and land use rights, once used public administrative services at OSS part of district and have little knowledge of the services The perceived satisfaction of the respondents of the public administrative services of Chuong My district is considered as “high” There are no significant differences in the satisfaction of respondents with the public administrative services by their demographic characteristics, experience and knowledge level of public administrative services

as well as by sectors of public administrative services Only four components of public administrative services quality including Tangibility, Assurance, Empathy and Emotional Value were significant determinants of satisfaction Among the

four factors, Assurance appeared to be the major determinant followed by Empathy while Tangibility and Emotional Value showed to be the least

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Few would disagree with the premise that citizens want to be satisfied when interacting with government According to Oliver (1997), satisfaction itself was defined as “a desirable end state of consumption and patronization” and “a reinforcing, pleasurable experience.” Although this was mentioned by Oliver from a customer’s perspective, this argument undoubtedly could be applied to citizens Life satisfaction of citizens should be a worthy goal for government

One of the most significant challenges facing services organizations today is

to provide consistently high quality services The delivery of consistent service quality is arguably the most vital factors that contribute to the establishment of credibility and reputation of the organizations in the eyes of the public It is well recognized that providing high quality services has a beneficial effect on the bottom-line performance for the organization Indeed, there is a growing body of empirical evidence indicating that providing top quality services enhances profitability, improves productivity, spreading positive word-of-mouth, increases market share and return on investment, and reduces costs (Sachdev & Verma, 2004) Like many other services organizations, public services organizations specifically those ones operating

at local government level, are not immune to the pressures to improve the quality of their services on a continuous basis Municipal authorities for example, face more daunting tasks than those in the private sector in their efforts to provide excellent service and maintain citizen satisfaction A wide variety of influences are effectively bringing about awareness of quality issues, and of concepts such as quality management Some of these influences arise directly from local authorities’ genuine desire to enhance their public image by improving the quality of those services provided to the community, while others come “imposed” or “forced” either by means of public initiatives or through an increase in consumers’ awareness of their rights Quality is a pivotal factor for the transformation of municipal services and a critical driving force for better citizen satisfaction (Rodríguez, Burguete, Vaughan &

Edwards, 2009) Efficient and effective delivery system becomes the main focus of the government of many countries due to insistence and hopes from society for local authorities giving their services up to the quality standard as expected by the tax payers (Wan Yusof, Ismail & Newell, 2008) However, providing high quality and cost-effective public services is not an easy task It involves creating organizations with the right approaches, establishing clear ways of how to deliver services and putting the right people in place to respond to the needs of citizens It also requires a combination of good policy development, successful implementation, a good understanding of citizens’ needs and expectations, appropriate resources and technology, a responsive organizational culture and well trained staff At the same time, municipalities must balance the revenue they received with the high cost of providing more efficient services demanded by citizen Understanding exactly what the citizens expect is the most important step in defining and delivering quality service Gaining citizen feedback provides valuable insight into how well the municipal authority meets their customers’ needs The information can be used in quality improvement programs to help municipal councilors recognize opportunities

to improve services and creation of a positive perception among citizen Quantitative assessments of service quality can also identify gaps between citizens’ perceptions of municipal services and that of councilors Finally, service quality assessments can be used as a strategic tool for marketing municipal services

Expectations regarding the role of public administrations in modern societies have radically changed during the last decade Globalization and the rapid development of information and communication technologies have contributed to a new dynamics of social development, as well as to a new perception of the methods

of public administration Instead of the traditionally hierarchical, authoritative and regulatory model of public administration, a new model is gaining importance; one based on negotiations, dialogue and partnership with various social actors working jointly for public good Vietnam, as well as many other countries, has been trying to reform public administration It is both urgent and long work Public administration reform in Viet Nam, which was embarked on from the 1990s, has aimed to improve the country’s public administration system to make it respond better to the needs for more effective governance when Vietnam is building the socialist oriented market

economy The ultimate objective of the reform process is to build a public administration system that is democratic, clean, strong, professional, modernized, effective and efficient; a socialist rule by law state of the people, by the people, and for the people; a force of civil servants capable and qualified to fulfill assigned tasks, contribute to develop a healthy and well-oriented society, proactively serving the people in their daily life, and promote the lifestyle of obeying the law in work and life In order to achieve the reform goals and objectives, public administration reform has been put in place as an objective requirement with a view to creating preconditions for and promotes economic reform (Le Dan, 2011)

Chuong My is a suburban district situated in the southwest of Hanoi and 20 kms far away from the centre of Hanoi capital; with a population size of 337,600 citizens The overall natural size of this district is 232.9 km2 and is the third largest size district of the city This district has 32 administrative units at communal level including 30 communes and 2 townships The Kinh ethic group accounts for the majority, the Muong ethnic group has a hamlet (Dong Ke hamlet belonging to Tran Phu commune); besides, there are some minor ethnic groups living unevenly in communes and townships The administrative centre of this district is situated in Chuc Son township

Currently, Chuong My District People’s Committee has announced and carried out the quality management system at the District People’s Committee compatible with the national standard TCVN ISO 9001:2008 in delivering the public administrative services As the current requirement, Chuong My District People’s Committee delivers public administrative services at district level on main fields such

as justice, culture-sport and family, planning-investment, traffic-transportation, environmental resources, industry and trade, labour-society and some other fields Among of them, the field resources-environemnt (mainly Certification of house ownership and land use rights), finance-planning and urban management are the fields with most deals Some public administrative services are implemented at specialized parts of district and most of the public administrative services are delivered by Chuong My district via OSS mechanism and Inter-agency OSS mechanism, under Regulation to implement OSS and Inter-agency OSS mechanism

at public administration agencie (Decision No 07/2016/QD‐UBND dated March 08th 2016 of People’s Committee of Hanoi City) According to this, at the District People’s Committee has “Receiving and Giving Back the Results Part” (OSS part) in delivering public administrative services This part is under the control and management of People’s Committee Office and Chuong My District People’s Committee A deputy chief of this office is responsible for activity of this part Carrying out the regulations of Hanoi city, The People’s Committee of Chuong My District has delivered the decision No 7066/QD-UBND on the 27th of September in

2016 which promulgates the rules and regulations in delivering public aministrative services to citizens In 2016, OSS part of Chuong My District has received 36 433 files of citizens (has solved 36 232 files and 201 files have been received to be solved) Among 36 232 files which have been solved, the number of files with results given back to the citiens on time is 36 200 files (accounting for 99,9%) and there are only 32 files (accounting for 0,1% of the files solved)

Realizing the difficulties and obstacles in delivering the public administrative services, the District Committee Permanent Board has decided a matter considered to be a decisive change to the new “face” of the current ‘one-stop shop’ part The resolution number 05 - NQ/HU (2011) clearly pointed out the disadvantages and weaknesses as the requirements of innovating the administrative procedures in district areas The objective of innovating the administrative comprehensively with a focus is to create a remarkable improvement and enhance the effectiveness of the state agency The District People’s Committee has built and carried out the project of innovating and completing the cooperation mechanism clearly, boosted the building, arrangement the apparatus and staff; innovated the public administrative; modernized the administrative mission on the basis of applying the IT

At Chuong My district, public administration reform over the past years have resulted in significant improvements and step-by-step change in the organization and operation of the public administration apparatus, which have promoted reform and renovation in every walk of life and significantly contributed to social - economic development of the City However, considering seriously, people and local leaders

still have not been satisfied with the result of the administrative reform at present There are still shortcomings and weaknesses, such as unsystematic and inconsistent institutions, unclear mandates and tasks in public administration at the macro level, backward operation styles and manners The propaganda is still weak in the public administration system which is embedded with legacy of the central planning period and which fails to keep pace with the requirements of the new era People and businesses are still having trouble, inconvenience in many areas, such as applying for

a certificate of residential use, residential and building permits

Therefore, innovating public service delivery and improving quality service delivery in the public sector are extremely important Besides state management function, the serving function of the state to provide necessary services for people to realize their rights and their obligations should be focused now more than ever In recent years, even though administrative procedures have been reformed, but they have still caused difficulties, inconveniences and troubles to citizens and organizations For these reasons, the evaluation of the quality of public services that

government agencies provide is still an important concern Thus, the topic “Assessing

Citizens’ Satisfaction with the Public Administrative Services at Chuong My District, Hanoi City” as a dissertation to assess the quality of the public

administrative services and level of satisfaction of citizens with these services at Chuong My district, Hanoi city is deemed necessary

This study is carried out to address these following research questions:

- How do citizens perceive public administrative services at the People’s Committee of Chuong My district?

- What are the factors related to citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services provided by the Chuong My district?

- What are some recommendations for improving the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services at Chuong My district?

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the citizens' satisfaction with public administrative services at People’s Committee of Chuong My district The

results would be used to identify appropriate solutions to improve the quality of public administrative services, improve the citizens' satisfaction in the future

Specifically, the study aimed to:

1 Describe the socio-demographic profile of the respondents;

2 Determine the perceived quality of public administrative services of the People’s Committee of Chuong My district in term of Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Asurance, Empathy and Emotional value;

3 Determine the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services

at the People’s Committee of Chuong My district;

4 Examine the differences in the citizens’ satisfaction according to their personal characteristics;

5 Identify the factors affecting the satisfaction level of citizens with public administrative services at the People’s Committee of Chuong My district;

6 Propose appropriate recommendations to increase level of satisfaction of citizens who use the public administrative services at Chuong My district

HYPOTHESES

Based on the objectives of the study, the following hypotheses were tested: H1 There is no significant relationship between the citizens’ perceptions of dimensions of public administrative services quality (as reliability, tangibility, responsiveness, assurance, empathy) and the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services at Chuong My district;

H2 There is no significant relationship between the citizens’ perceptions of emotional value and the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services

at Chuong My district;

H3 There are no significant differences in the satisfaction of the citizens with public administrative services at Chuong My district by their demographic characteristics such as gender, age, educational attainment, occupation;

H4 There are no significant differences in the satisfaction of the citizens with the public administrative services at Chuong My district by sectors of public administrative services, their knowledge about and their experience on public administrative services

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Customer satisfaction has been recognized as one of the most important elements of contemporary marketing thought, particularly in the case of service sector and one of the main goals in marketing Because satisfied customers tend to maintain their consumption pattern or consume more of the same product or service, customer satisfaction has become an important indicator of the future behavior Due to its centrality, various theories and models have been developed in an effort to define the construct and explain satisfaction in different products/services and consumption stages

Marketing scholars are divided over the antecedents of service quality and satisfaction Some researchers believe that service quality leads to satisfaction while others think otherwise Empirical studies regarding this issue support the assertion that service quality is the antecedent of satisfaction Within this causal ordering, satisfaction is described as a post-consumption evaluation of perceived quality It is

an emotional state that results from experiencing a service quality encounter and comparing that encounter with what was expected Rust and Oliver (1994) offer support for this position in their suggestion that quality is “one of the service dimensions factored into the consumers’ satisfaction judgment” As consumer perceive a widening gap between expected and desired levels of service, feeling of dissatisfaction will increasingly develop

As a result of the prominence given to service quality evaluation, the leading models used are destined to come under close scrutiny with respect to applicability and serviceability application This is because no one model will be ideally suited to

a particular application Extensive research has been conducted to improve on the service quality measurement The problem of service quality evaluation is

complicated for two reasons: human presence and service intangibility, and the

dependence on the delivery process (Parasuraman et al., 1996)

Defining an evaluation standard independent of any specific service context has resulted in several methodologies (Carman, 1990) According to Franceschini, Cignetti and Caldara (1998), a vast array of literature provides insight to the service quality evaluation methodologies typically used in practice Several models have been developed, and it seems that no one model has been adjudged superior and applicability is determined after final data analysis Of the models most recommended, a process of analyses and elimination was duly followed and resulted

in a choice between the SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988) and SERVPERF

(Cronin & Taylor, 1992) models

SERVQUAL model

SERVQUAL is a conceptual model that was originally developed in 1985 It

is a concise multiple-item scale with good reliability and validity that firms can use

to better understand the service expectations and perceptions of their customers

(Campbell, 1960 and Peter, 1981 in Parasuraman, et al 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1990)

Service quality is evaluated by calculating the gap difference between what the customer expects and what they really perceive Following SERVQUAL refinement,

Parasuraman et al., (1991) added an extra section that is designed to measure the

importance of each service quality dimension This refined model also saw the removal of the nine negatively worded (reverse scoring concept) statements in the responsiveness and empathy dimensions The development of the SERVQUAL instrument followed a similar process which resulted in a generic instrument with good reliability and validity and broad applicability It was designed to serve as a diagnostic methodology to identify areas in an organization’s service quality

shortfalls and strengths (Parasuraman et al., 1991) According to Parasuraman et al

(1988), the conceptual foundation for the SERVQUAL scale was created by a small

group of researchers (Sasser, Olsen & Wyckoff, 1978) Thereafter, Parasuraman et

al (1985) undertook a vast qualitative study that enabled them to define service

quality and develop the dimensions to facilitate consumer perception and evaluation

measurement They assert that service quality can be understood, measured, and positively changed

One of the most useful measurements of service quality is the dimensions from the SERVQUAL model In the creation of this model for the very first time,

“Parasuraman et al (1985) identified 97 attributes which were condensed into ten

dimensions They were found to have an impact on service quality and were regarded

as the criteria that were important to assess customer’s expectations and perceptions

on delivered service The scale purification verification can be conducted by the statistical technique of factor analysis (amongst others, for example multiple regression) Typically, a test study is conducted with a sample and the listed individual attributes will be grouped and loaded into a number of categories or factors which will later acquire appropriate labels relevant to that particular factor (dimension) The relative strength of the relationship between the single item attribute and the variable can then be identified The dependent variable is usually a customer satisfaction index The individual attributes showing a weak relationship with overall customer satisfaction can then be removed from the list The closer the relationship and distinctive factor grouping, the better the indication of validity (Naumann & Giel, 1995).

Factor analysis is described (Asubonteng et al., 1996) as a tool used to

determine which of the individual item statements are measuring dimension number one, number two and so on, and which questions do not distinguish between dimension or the number of dimensions in the data set As mentioned previously, questions that were not clearly related to a dimension are deleted

The SERVQUAL scale which is also known as the gap model (Figure 1.1) by

Parasuraman, et al (1988) has been proven to be one of the best ways to measure the

quality of services provided to customers This service evaluation method has been

proven consistent and reliable by some authors (Brown et al., 1993) They held that,

when perceived or experienced service is less than the expected service; it implies less than satisfactory service quality; and when the perceived service is more than expected service, the obvious inference is that service quality is more than

satisfactory (Jain et al., 2004) From the way this theory is presented, it seems that

the idea of SERVQUAL best fits the evaluation of service quality from the customer’s perspective This is because when it is stated “perceived” and “expected” service, it

is very clear that this goes to the person, who is going to or is consuming the service; who definitely is the consumer/customer

Management Perceptions of Customer Expectation

PROVIDER

Gap 1

Gap 4 Gap 5

Gap 3

Gap 2

Figure 1 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality by Parasuraman

Gap 1: The first gap is about the difference between actual customers’ expectation and the idea of the management team about customers’ expectations The reasons for the gaps may be the lack of marketing orientation The organizations are not able to provide their customers a clear view of the services they are going to provide It may be also inadequate information from the company to the costumers The other factor is the structure of the organizations which includes too many levels

of management In order to reduce the first gap of the model, the organizations should enhance the research activities so that they can observe and recognize the customers’ needs and wants

Gap 2: This gap is about the wrong service quality standards provided by the organizations In other words, it explains the inconsistency of quality specifications with supplier’s perceptions of the quality expectation of the customers The reason for this gap is the insufficient dedication towards the service quality The planning in the organizations may be poor and also it may lack of goal-setting This problem is also associated with the first gap of the model It can also be possible that the management has the sufficient information about customers’ expectations, but the planning may still fail The management of the organizations should be in good contact with the service provider when making plans so that the plans that they make can be smoothly implemented

Gap 3: This gap is about the uncertain role and role conflict It also means that the quality services are not met by employing unskilled or wrong person in the organization They should be well trained and highly skilled for the jobs The reason

of the existence of the gap could be lack of technology and perceived control Lack

of team work also affects the service of the organization The improvements can be made through changing the control systems to be more uniform by training the staff and good team work

In many cases, even the skills and attitudes of the staff cause problems As there could be the people who cannot adapt to the requirements of the systems, it is necessary to make the improvement in the recruiting procedures

Gap 4: This gap in the model illustrates the inconsistency of the promises of the delivered service to the customers A gap may be formed if the marketing and

production are not managed in a proper way Mostly the customers are influenced by what they hear and see about the company Therefore, the people will go for it rather than choosing other organizations hoping to get the quality service But sometime the company cannot fulfil all the requirements of the customers which are mentioned in the campaigns This could be another reason for widening the gaps For the improvement, there should be external marketing communication campaigns with service production and service delivery Over promising should also be avoided in order to narrow the gap If this gap is not taken into consideration, then it can lead to negative customer perception

Gap 5: This gap shows the difference between the customers’ expectation and their perceptions of the delivered service Customers expect certain kind of services from certain companies Customers’ expectations are influenced by personal needs, word of mouth recommendation and experience of past service This gap in the companies can bring negative influences on the image of the company

The use of the SERVQUAL model makes it easier to assess the service quality from the customer’s perspective and also helps in tracking the customers’ expectations and perceptions over time and also the differences between them It also allows the organizations to compare their service with other competitors providing the same service and hence to improve in their service for better quality and customer satisfaction In the SERVQUAL model there are five different gaps which show the weaknesses of the company in fulfilling customer needs Gap analysis is used to identify and correct gaps between the desired level of the customers and the actual level of performance provided by the organizations

In practice, the SERVQUAL instrument forms the service quality framework and when utilized, it should as far as possible be maintained in its entirety

(Parasuraman et al., 1991) The same authors further suggest that it may be

appropriate to make minor changes to the original wording in order to align it to a specific application They also state that during such a refinement process, specific content may need to be added to supplement the instrument These new items would

however need to be similar in form to the existing items Parasuraman et al (1998)

advise that while items may be relevant to a specific application, the same may not

be true for a different service provider’s application which may require the rewording

to some of the item statements This adaptation comes under regular scrutiny and criticism, and is associated with the positive and negative wording dilemma of the original SERVQUAL 22-item pair statements The negative wording format is in accordance with the recommendations for scale development This requires approximately half the 22-item statement pair to be worded positively and the remainder negatively (Churchill, 1979) According to Babakus and Boller (1992),

“this procedure is assumed to reduce the potential “yea” and “nay” saying from respondents” Babakus and Boller (1992) claim that this procedure could produce method factors that will ultimately lead to the two SERVQUAL dimensions of responsiveness and empathy being completely loaded with negatively worded items They also claim that this aspect could compromise the factor structure and trait validity of the SERVQUAL instrument In order to evaluate the effects of negative wording on factor structure, Babakus and Boller (1992) conducted factor analysis test that produced evidence to illustrate distinctive loading patterns for the positively and negatively worded statements From their findings, they suggest that the direction of wording can create data quality problems and the potential for respondent errors which could generate a method factor Together with their own study results, and based on their observations on the factor structure of SERVQUAL as provided by

Parasuraman et al (1988), Babakus and Boller (1992) suggest that SERVQUAL may

have validity problem and that users must exercise caution According to their research on the measurement literature, they also suggest caution with respect to analysis of data obtained from mixed item wording (negative and positive) and the use of the difference scores approach (difference scores = perceptions – expectations)

According to the developers (Parasuraman et al., 1991), SERVQUAL can be

used as a diagnostic measure to identify all areas of a company’s service quality

strengths and weaknesses The intent of Parasuraman et al., (1988) during scale

purification of the original SERVQUAL instrument was to produce a scale that would have general applicability across a broad spectrum of service organizations Apart

from its many potential applications, Parasuraman et al., (1988) suggest that

SERVQUAL can be used periodically to track service quality trends which in turn will supplement other forms of service quality measurement

SERVPERF Model

Service quality can be measured by the performance-based SERVPERF scale

as well as the gap-based SERVQUAL scale Cronin and Taylor (1992) developed SERVPERF which is a performance-only model for measuring service quality with empirical studies in banking, pest control, dry cleaning, and fast food sectors They have developed a service quality scale in respect to the dimensions of expectation (22 items-same as SERVQUAL), performance (22 items-same as SERVQUAL), importance (22 items-same as SERVQUAL), future purchase behavior(1 item), overall quality (1 item), and satisfaction (1 item) which were measured by seven-point semantic differential scale This study showed that service quality was measured as an attitude, the marketing literature supported the performance-based measures, and the SERVPERF explained more of the variation in service quality than SERVQUAL SERVQUAL had a good fit in banking and fast food sectors whereas SERVPERF had an excellent fit in all four industries-banking, pest control, dry

cleaning, and fast food Brady et al (2002) mentioned that SERVPERF was the most

superior model among all service quality models and they performed a replication and an extension of SERVPERF and supported the results of Cronin and Taylor (1992) in different sectors such as spectator sports, entertainment, health care, long-

Overall service quality (P)

Dimension l

(P)

Dimension k (P)

Figure 1 2 Performance Only Model (SERVPERF) (Martinez and Martinez, 2010)

distance carriers, and fast food Stafford et al (2011) assessed the fit and stability of

service quality models, and emphasized that service quality can be measured using both expectations and perceptions (SERVQUAL) or perceptions alone (SERVPERF)

Emotional Value by Jillian C Sweeneya and Geoffrey N Soutar

The use of the concept of perceived value has become an interested topic since decades ago, yet the consensus regarding its definition and the concept has not been obtained and remains unclear It has been proven that the use of the concept of customer perceived value does not only result in creating more satisfied customer, but more importantly it is also found to have direct effect on customer repurchase

intention and loyalty (Lin et al., 2005) In simple words, the more benefits the product

or the service offer, the more satisfied the customer, thus the higher chances that lead

to positive behavior According to Hartnett (1998), if a company contents its customers’ wants, it can be said that this company is supplying value that gets it in a much powerfull status in the long term

The lack of agreement related to the definition and conceptualization of perceived value among the scholars have indicated that perceived value can be described as the complex construct (Lapierre, 2000) The differences of opinions can

be seen from two major perspective or view of perceived value; those are as unidimensional construct and multi-dimensional construct (Sanchez-Fernandez and Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007) Although the majority of the researchers agree that perceived value should be considered as multi-dimensional construct Sanchez-Fernandez and Iniesta-Bonillo (2007) concluded that the critics among the researchers have contended that multidimensional construct are conceptually ambiguous, the dimensions explained are less variant and the relationships between the dimensions and other construct somehow are confound However, this lack of agreement does not mean to have no consensus at all in conceptualizing perceived value The general concept that can be understood is that perceived value involves the relationship between customer and the product (Holbrook, 1996) which is strongly related to the utility or benefits the customer get in return for the money or any other cost they spend (Zeithaml, 1988) including both cognitive and affective aspect Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) As defined by Zeithaml (1988), perceived value is “ the

consumer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product based on perceptions of what

is received and what is given” The receive components can be referred to the benefits get from using the product while the given component can be referred to the customer sacrifice in acquiring the product including monetary and non-monetary aspect In this regard, Zeithaml (1988) described value in four different ways: (1) value as low price, (2) value as whatever the consumer wants in a product, (3) value as the quality derived from the price the customer pay, and (4) value as what is taken for what is given

On the other hand, Burden (1998) asserted that thriving companies inclined their product or service towards two consumer forms: those with a stress on value and those for whom time urgency is the clue Although value concept becomes an important one, a few empirical survey to improve throughout knowledge of the perceived value is recommended Especially, in public environment, there is no investigation about perceived value Soutar, and Johnson (1999), Sweeney and

Soutar (2001) and Sanchez et al (2006) consider perceived value as a collection of

functional, social and emotional parts On the other hand, Grönroos (1997) and Mattson (1991) seperate perceived value into two sections: emotional and cognitive All of the mentioned researches consider emotional section as a single construct

Jillian C Sweeneya and Geoffrey N Soutar (2001) described the development

of a 19-item measure, PERVAL, that can be used to assess customers’ perceptions of the value of a consumer durable good at a brand level The measure was developed for use in a retail purchase situation to determine what consumption values drive purchase attitude and behavior Four distinct, value dimensions emerged that were termed emotional, social, quality/performance and price/value for money The reliability and validity of the scale was assessed in a prepurchase situation, using exploratory and confirmatory analyses All four value dimensions were found to help significantly in explaining attitudes and behavior They are: emotional, social value, quality and price

The scales of their study were also tested in a postpurchase situation and found

to be both reliable and valid in this context as well The scale demonstrates that consumers assess products, not just in functional terms of expected performance, value for money and versatility; but also in terms of the enjoyment or pleasure derived from the product (emotional value) Additionally, the scale was found to be reliable and valid in a post purchase situation, as well as in a prepurchase situation According

to Jillian C Sweeneya and Geoffrey N Soutarb, emotional is the utility derived from the feelings or affective states that a product generates

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Customer satisfaction is a general concept of expressing satisfaction when consuming a service, and when regarding the service quality, it means the specific elements of service (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000) Oliver (1993) supposed that service quality can have an influence on the level of customer satisfaction It means that service quality is identified by many different factors and is a part of factors determining satisfaction Therefore, to improve the customer satisfaction, the service supplier has to enhance the service quality In other words, service quality and customer satisfaction have a close correlative relation, in which service quality is first created and then determining customer satisfaction The cause – effect relation between these two factors is the main issue in most of the researches on the customer

Perceived Value

Emotional

Functional value (performance quality)

Function value (price/value for money)

Figure 1 3 Four Dimensions of PERVAL by Jillian C Sweeneya and

Geoffrey N Soutar

satisfaction Besides, according to Bachelet (1995), the customer satisfaction is an emotional reaction of customers to their experience of a service or product

Local government, in order to provide public value for their citizens, has madeimproving local public sector service quality a high priority However, there is realdebate about whether quality concepts can be successfully transposed from the private to services provided by the public sector Therefore, to ensure that qualityconcepts are successfully transposed, it is important to establish how this can bedone most effectively and the conditions for doing so For example, high-quality local services and attention to an areas physical appearance can affect economicinvestment decisions Thus, the valuecreated in local settings is directly affected by the quality of local service delivery A very important measure of this value is citizen satisfaction, one of the reasons beingthe strong relationship between quality and satisfaction Recent research indicates that these concepts are quite distinct Customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction results from experiencing a service quality encounter and comparing that encounter withwhat was expected Perceived service quality can be defined as the customers’ judgment about the superiority or excellence of a product, while perceived value is the customers overall assessment of the utility of a product based on perceptions of what is received and what is given

The disconfirmation paradigm provides the theoretical basis for the link between quality and satisfaction Quality can be considered as one component of satisfaction Empirical evidence for the link is availablefrom a number of studies Since its inception, SERVQUAL has been widely used in replication studies in a variety of industrial, commercial and not-for-profit settings, to assess quality of service provision in terms of what customers expect and what they actually receive The scale has been applied to measure service quality in healthcare, hotels, tourism, public transports, library, banking, courier service A number of research studies have applied SERVQUAL method to examine the quality of services in public sector

Based on these findings, Cronin and Taylor (1992) stated that “the performance-based scale developed (SERVPERF) is efficient in comparison with the SERVQUAL scale.” In reality though, SERVPERF is merely a subset of SERVQUAL That is, it only measures the perceived service process performance

and disregards expected service process level The rationale for doing so is because a) measuring the customer’s expected service level before the service is rendered is not always possible, leaving the firm to measure it instead at the end of the service and b) measuring the expected service level after the service has been rendered is inaccurate as the customer’s expectation, by then, has already been biased by the service rendered On the other hand, a number of questions also arise regarding the validity of Cronin and Taylor’s findings Customer satisfaction and perceived service quality are entirely different constructs, where the former is an evaluation based on a specific transaction while the latter is a general assessment developed over a period

of time Since SERVPERF is designed to measure customer satisfaction, and SERVQUAL is designed to measure perceived service quality, it is not correct to compare the two, that it is not a valid comparison Cronin and Taylor’s paper is questionable at best in its conceptual, methodological/analytical, and practical aspects

Although service quality and satisfaction has a relationship (Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Spreng & MacKoy, 1996), there had been few studies on investigating the explanation level of the service quality elements to the satisfaction, especially for each

specific service (Lassar et al., 2000) Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) pointed out that

customers’ satisfaction is influenced by many factors such as the product/service quality, price, situation and personal elements

By qualitative research methods based on prior studies, the author adjusted and supplemented the instrument to get components affecting the quality of public administrative services There are five dimensions of service quality of public administrative services and emotional value Thus, a research model is proposed to discuss the possible relationships among the citizens’ perception and their satisfaction In this study, the independent variables included the perception of the citizens of quality of the public administrative services by SERVPERF model including Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Asurance, Empathy and Emotional value The dependent variable is the citizen’s satisfaction with the public

administrative services at Chuong My district

Antecedent

Variables

Independent Variables

Dependent Variable

Some factors that possibly had effects on citizen satisfaction were included in this framework as antecedent variables One was about demographic characteristics, and the others were sector of public administrative services, knowledge and experience of citizens with public administrative services at district level Citizens with different demographic characteristics might demonstrate differences in perception of satisfaction The time, procedure and complication level of public administrative services at district level are different The field relating to the issue of land using rights and house ownership certificates are more complicated than others Therefore, there can be differences among the fields of public administrative services that are provided by the district People’s Committee The understanding level about public administrative services can impact on their perception and satisfaction of the services It means that if the citizens have more knowledge about the services and easier access to them, then they will be more satisfied (Hoang Van Hao, 2017) The possible flow of relationships and differences among variables are presented in the following Conceptual Framework (Fingure 1.4)

Citizens’ Satisfaction

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF VARIABLES

In the conceptual framework of the study, variables with some terminologies that the author has used in this dissertation need to be unveiled

Citizens’ satisfaction with public administrative services is the satisfaction

about the public administrative services provided to the citizens The satisfaction of the citizens is a subjective status Additionally, the public administrative service is a state specific service that the citizens have to use Therefore, to examine the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative service, this study has employed the method to measure the citizens’ perceptions towards the public administrative service Specifically, this was measured by three items: Satisfied with procedures of delivery public administrative services; satisfied with the working method of People’s Committee of Chuong My District and overall satisfied with the public administrative services at People’s Committee of Chuong My District In each item, citizens give their level of satisfaction with 1) Highly Dissatisfied; 2) Dissatisfied; 3) Neutral; 4) Satisfied; and 5) Highly Satisfied Based on the scores, the mean satisfaction score was computed The higher the mean score, the higher is the satisfaction of the respondents For description purposes, mean scores were classified as; Very Low (1.0-1.80), Low (1.81-2.60), Fair (2.61-3.40), High (3.41-4.20) and Very High (4.21-5.00)

Tangibility include the factors related to the places of services delivery, the

order and arrangement of the places, equipment, tools and technological, the forms used to meet the requirements of performing the duties of state bodies as well as the citizens’ demands This was measured by a five-item index answerable by 1) Strongly Disagree; 2) Disagree; 3) Neutral; 4) Agree; and 5) Strongly Agree Based on the scores, the mean score was computed The higher the mean score, the better is the tangibility as perceived by the respondents For description purposes, mean scores were classified as; Very Poor (1.0-1.80), Poor (1.81-2.60), Fair (2.61-3.40), Good

(3.41-4.20) and Very Good (4.21-5.00)

Reliability is the citizens’ perceptions about the commitments of the People’s

Committee to the citizens in maintaining the function of successfully delivering the public administrative services This was measured by a four-item index answerable

by 1) Strongly Disagree; 2) Disagree; 3) Neutral; 4) Agree; and 5) Strongly Agree Based on the score, the mean score was computed The higher the mean score, the higher is the reliability of the committee as perceived by the respondents For description purposes, mean scores were classified as; Very Poor (1.0-1.80), Poor (1.81-2.60), Fair (2.61-3.40), Good (3.41-4.20) and Very Good (4.21-5.00)

Responsiveness is the willingness to help citizens and provide prompt services,

which specifically in this study is the delivery of public administrative services to the citizens This included the delivery of information as to its timeliness, support and actions on citizens’ request The citizen’s levels of request for services and types are quite varied; thus, the guidance of public servants is rather important so that public administrative services can be delivered quickly and effectively This was measured

by a four-item index answerable by 1) Strongly Disagree; 2) Disagree; 3) Neutral; 4) Agree; and 5) Strongly Agree Based on the scores, the mean score was computed The higher the mean score, the higher is the responsiveness as perceived by the respondents For description purposes, mean scores were classified as; Very Poor (1.0-1.80), Poor (1.81-2.60), Fair (2.61-3.40), Good (3.41-4.20) and Very Good (4.21-5.00)

Assurance means knowledge and courtesy of public servants and their ability

to inspire trust and confidence Specifically, this included the politeness, appropriate attitude, knowledge to answer complaints, not causing troubles and nuisances to the citizens, fair behavior to all citizens and sense of responsibility This was measured

by a five-item index answerable by 1) Strongly Disagree; 2) Disagree; 3) Neutral; 4) Agree; and 5) Strongly Agree Based on the scores, the mean score was computed The higher the mean score, the higher is the assurance as perceived by the respondents For description purposes, mean scores were classified as; Very Poor (1.0-1.80), Poor (1.81-2.60), Fair (2.61-3.40), Good (3.41-4.20) and Very Good (4.21-5.00)

Empathy refers to the civil servants’ concern for the needs and problems of the

citizens as part of their expression of committed service by looking for proper solutions in situations to solve the citizens’ requirements This was measured by a four-item index answerable by 1) Strongly Disagree; 2) Disagree; 3) Neutral; 4)

Agree; and 5) Strongly Agree Based on the scores, the mean score was computed The higher the mean score, the higher is the empathy as perceived by the respondents For description purposes, mean scores were classified as; Very Poor (1.0-1.80), Poor (1.81-2.60), Fair (2.61-3.40), Good (3.41-4.20) and Very Good (4.21-5.00)

Emotional Value is the utility derived from the feelings or affective states that

public administrative services generates The emotional value in this research has been measured by eagerness, expectation, pleasure, excitement and being respected This was measured by a five-item index answerable by 1) Strongly Disagree; 2) Disagree; 3) Neutral; 4) Agree; and 5) Strongly Agree Based on the scores, the mean score was computed The higher the mean score, the positive emotions as perceived

by the respondents For description purposes, mean scores were classified as; Very Negative (1.0-1.80), Negative (1.81-2.60), Fair (2.61-3.40), Positive (3.41-4.20) and Very Postive (4.21-5.00)

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Administrative reform is one of the key programs of the national government This should contribute to improving people's living standard, reduce costly waste in terms of money and time, make people feel better and closer contact with the public authorities It is very difficult to measure citizens’ satisfaction because it is a subjective experience and depend on the perception of citizens using these services

By assessing the satisfaction of the people with the public administrative procedures

at Chuong My District People’s Committee, the level of people’s satisfaction with public administrative services may not be only determined, but the level of provision

of public services of the state administrative apparatus can be also assessed

This research could be significant to the following sectors:

The People’s Committee of Chuong My district This study can provide

valuable information about the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services of the district The quality of public administrative services of Chuong My district has been pointed out and analyzed The factors affecting the citizens’ satisfaction have also been examined and analyzed This can be useful for the District People’s Committee to see the weaknesses in delivering public administrative

services as well as the matters necessary to be enhanced Therefore, it can be used as

a reference to improve the citizens’ satisfaction

The administrators The administrators in general and the leaders of Hanoi

City in particular can know the context of the citizens’ satisfaction with the delivery

of the public administrative services at district level The administrators can see the effectiveness of the efforts in innovating the activities of the district level authorities This can be used as a reference with a more comprehensive view about some issues and adjustments which are needed in implementing the administrative procedure

reform in the future

The researcher The author of this study can gain more in-depth knowledge

about the public administration in general and specifically, public administrative service delivery The author can also improve his ability to carry out a study, qualitatively as well as quantitatively and can implement new studies at a higher level

in the future

Future researchers This can be a useful reference with a relatively abundant

amount of information about the field of public management and citizens’ satisfaction measurement The finding, conclusions and recommendations in this study can be used as their basis when conducting similar or related studies in the future, especially the researches on the topic of public administrative services

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

The author conducted a survey in February and March 2017 The survey was conducted in the People’s Committee of Chuong My district The respondents of the survey were the citizens who used the public administrative services at the People’s Committees This study focused on the public administrative services which were carried out via the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) part (including OSS and Inter-agency OSS)

To measure the citizens’ satisfaction with the public administrative services at Chuong My district, the survey was carried out on the citizens’ using the public administrative services It includes the services relating to the confirmation of land using rights and house ownership which is implemented by Hanoi Land Office - Chuong My branch Citizens can come to People’s Committee many times at the

same time to use different public administrative services; however, the surveyed only gave their evaluations and feelings about one specific surveyed service Perhaps some respondents were hesitant with the evaluation of the public administrative agencies; therefore, some people may not be able to express their real opinions of the context

of the public administrative services at the People’s Committee of Chuong My district

In this study, the author has analyzed the relationship between components of public administrative service quality, perceived value and citizen satisfaction The five dimensions of SERVPERF model are regarded as separated factors in considering the effects on citizens’ satisfaction Hence, in this study, they are independent variables in the Conceptual Framework Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural equation modeling (SEM) are modern methodologies but the author has not considered further the factors as moderating variables affecting the relation between independent variables and dependent variable (Citizens’ Satisfaction) That is the limitation of this research because the moderating variables can change the initial relations of independent variables which have been identified with dependent variable Besides, the scale in this study has been proposedly built with only three items They have mentioned the satisfaction with procedures of delivery the public administrative service, working method of People’s Committee of Chuong My district and overall overall satisfied with the public administrative services Therefore, this cannot cover totally and can have certain limitations in assessing the citizens’ satisfaction when the respondents expressed their perception

Chuong My district belongs to Hanoi rural areas Thus, the findings gained can be most useful to the rural district The other districts of Hanoi City and other provinces can use the results as a source of reference

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presented the review of literature and studies related to the study The author started with the review of public administrative service, service quality, some other models of service quality measurement, emotional value, and then review

of customer satisfaction and citizens’ satisfaction In the next section, a review of some researches about citizens’ satisfaction with public administrative services was presented

RELATED LITERATURE

Public Service and Public Administrative Service

New public management applies the business customer service model to government where citizens are seen as customers and the administrative role is streamlined by converting policy alternatives into market choices Public service is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing private provision of services Public service tend to be those considered so essential to modern life that for moral reasons their universal provision should be guaranteed, and they may be associated with fundamental human rights (such as the right to water) Public administration is

an essential link between citizens and governments (G Shabbir Cheema, 2004)

A widely - accepted concept in Vietnam has identified the definition and the scope of public service on the basis of differentiating relatively two State functions, basing itself on the deal between the State agencies and organizations or citizens All citizens approve to this approach From this, the delivery of public administrative services demand organizations and providers have a specific deal relation with organizations and citizens On the other hand, since the State administration activities have been implemented separately, administrative agencies can themselves build and issue documents and administration decisions basing on their own rights without communicating with organizations and citizens Public services are understood as specific deals between the State and citizens as the State’s customers Of course, these

specific deals can be implemented directly or indirectly via communication means such as Internet, telephone or email (Le Chi Mai, 2003)

The concept about public services in the specic condition of our country relates

to the two following basic services:

First, it is the service which serves the general and necessary demands of all the community and each citizen Given the feature of serving common demands of the whole community, this kind of service is also called community service The differentiation between the word “public” and the word “community” is that public services emphasize on State rights including administrative services; whereas, community services mean the services served all the community (not only provided from the State, although the State needs to interfere the delivery to maintain the equality for every citizen)

Second, the activities meet freedom rights and legal benefits of organizations and citizens To carry out the State administration function, the State also has to implement direct serving activities for organizations and citizens These activities are called administrative services (or public administrative services) The State has responsibilities of delivering to the society to maintain that the society can develop

in discipline and order When delivering these services, the State uses public power and rights to create such services as issuing licenses, registration, confirmation and certification

In her study, Le Chi Mai (2003) claimed that Public Service is a service which

is provided by the government to people living within its jurisdiction, either directly (through the public sector) or by authorizing provision of services in order to maintain the effectiveness and justice in the society With the view of the state managers, administrative researchers believe that public services are the activities of state agencies to implement the state management and ensure the supply of necessary public services for citizens and government This emphasizes the role and responsibility of the state for the public service delivery that the main factor of public services is to meet the basic needs of both society and community, while the implementation is undertaken by the state agencies or private sector

The concept and scope of public services will be changeable because they depend on the context of each country In Vietnam, the views of public services focus more on the social serving functions of the government Then, the role of the government in public service delivery to community can be highly appreciated It is important that public services should be separated from public administration activities, including public policies involved in eliminating the subsidy mechanism, seeking for potential resources in society, and enhancing the quality of public services

to well serve the citizens

In Vietnam, it is sometimes argued that there is no kind of public administrative service since the concept of public service only includes the kinds of services serving common necessary benefits of the whole society The understanding

of public services of these people is similar to the above mentioned concept of community service However, the categorization and naming this particular service

is essential to differentiate with the services meeting the demands of social benefits

Public administrative service is a form of public service provided by the state

to serve the citizens’ and organizations’ specific requirements basing on the legal regulations It expresses the relationship between the state and citizens in which the citizens performing this service do not have choices but to receive the obligatory services regulated by the state The final result of this service is normally in the form

of documents that organizations or citizens demand (Le Chi Mai, 2006)

Public administrative services are made by the state administrative agencies through two basic functions: managing all areas of eco-society and providing the public services for organizations and citizens In other words, "public administrative services are activities for state administrative agencies to serve the basic rights and obligations of organizations and citizens, based on legal and administrative authorization of the government” (Le Chi Mai, 2006) Some countries use the concept

of “public services” for all types of services instead of “public administrative services”; however, these countries admit that public services are supplied by state agencies to citizens and organizations

Public administrative services have their own characters to distinguish them with other public services:

Firstly, the delivery of public administrative services is related to the

administrative - legal rights of the State administrative agencies

Secondly, public services can only be provided from the State administrative

agencies

Thirdly, public administrative service serves for the administrative activities

of the State The public administrative services themselves do not belong to the state

management functions, but it is aimed to back up the state management functions

Fourthly, public services are non-profit activities; if charged, it is in the form

of fees submitted to the State budget (only for the people who need the services) The service implementing place does not directly benefit from this budget The public administrative service can be taken over by the State administrative agencies, which

is closely related to the legal administrative right of the State

Fifthly, every citizen has the equal right in receiving and using these services

as the served subjects, not discriminating who they are

The view of public services and the scope of public services are different among countries in the world; hence, the differentiation of public services and the listing of kinds of specific public services are not parallel However, when considering the specific conditions in our country and basing on the concept and the above mentioned features of public administrative services, it can be seen that the activities delivering public administrative service of the State administrative agencies

in our country currently include these following basic types:

First, is the activity of issuing licenses License is a kind of document issued

by the State administrative agencies for organizations and citizens to admit legally the rights of these subjects to implement a certain activitiy compatible with the legal requirements in this field License is a tool for the State to control and regulate the activities of subjects according to the policies and laws in the fields having great influences on the social life; and if the State cannot take control of these activities, then it can lead to serious consequences to the society

Second, is the activity of issuing the confirmation and certification documents

This activity include: notarization; issuing identity card, birth certificate, death

certificate, marriage certificate, driving license, vehicle registration certificate These kinds of documents are issued on the following principle:

- This is legal proof to confirm the legality of the incident or the activity written

on the document

- Certify that the owner of these documents has the right to use these documents as a legal proof to implement deals or relevant activities

Third, is the activity of collecting amounts of money contributed to the budget

and funds of the State These activities relate to the responsibility that the State requires the subjects in society to implement The fact that the State collects tax and the above mentioned contributed amounts of money is a kind of public administrative service that any State has to carry out According to the legal regulations, collecting tax is devolved on various levels from the central to the local with different kinds of taxes Colleting tax is a kind of compulsory service and it relates to the benefit of subjects who pay the tax; therefore, it is a sensive field and easy to cause negative reactions of the subjects who pay tax for the State

Fourth, is the activity of solving citizens’ complaints and accusations and

treating the actions against the administrative agency Solving the complaints and accusations is a kind of service which the State administrative agencies having responsibity to implement in order to solve the issues in the relation between the State agencies or public servants towards citizens according to letters of complaints or accusations from citizens This activity is also a kind of deal between the Sate administrative agency and citizens to protect the fundamental rights of citizens in the relationship between the State administrative agency and citizens

Service Quality

Service quality is considered an important tool for a firm’s struggle to differentiate itself from its competitors (Ladhari, 2008) The relevance of service quality to companies is emphasized, especially in the fact that it offers a competitive advantage to companies that strive to improve it and hence bring customer satisfaction Service quality has received a great deal of attention from both academicians and practitioners (Negi, 2009) In services marketing literature, service