Factors affecting citizents satisfaction with the public administrative services of public administrative agencies in thai nguyen province

11 LIST OF ABRIVIATIONS SERVQUAL Service Quality SERVPERF Service performance SAT Citizen‟s Satisfaction ATT Governmental Servant‟s Attitudes COM Governmental Servant‟s Competency COST

THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES OF PUBLIC

A DISSERTATION PAPER

Presented to School of Graduate Studies Central Philippine University, Philippines

In Collaboration with Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam

DECLARATION

I pledge that this is my own research The data stated in the thesis is true, all citations are indicated origin The research results of the dissertation were published in the scientific journal, not identical with any other works

Trần Phạm Văn Cương

LỜI CAM ĐOAN

Tôi xin cam đoan đây là công trình nghiên cứu của riêng tôi Các số liệu nêu trong luận án là trung thực, mọi trích dẫn đều được chỉ rõ nguồn gốc Những kết quả nghiên cứu của luận án đã được tác giả công bố trên tạp chí khoa học, không trùng với bất kỳ công trình nào khác

Tran Pham Van Cuong

To the leadership of International Cooperation Center for Training and Study Abroad and their staff for their enthusiasm to support executive for the participants completed the study program

To the faculties and researchers of Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration and the respondents of the study, for their active involvement and cooperation which made the conduct of the study possible;

To my family and friends for their love and support in one way or another, and to all who have contributed to make this study a success

Thank you so much!

Thai Nguyen, May 2020

PhD student

Cuối cùng, tôi xin bày tỏ lòng biết ơn tới đồng nghiệp, bạn bè và gia đình đã luôn kịp thời động viên, chia sẻ và tạo điều kiện tốt nhất giúp tôi hoàn thành luận án của mình

Trần Phạm Văn Cương

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAMPAIGNS Error! Bookmark not defined

LỜI CAM ĐOAN ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

LỜI CẢM ƠN iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background and Rationale of the Study 1

1.3 Theoretical Framework 7

1.4 Conceptual Framework 9

1.6 Significance of the Study 18

1.7 Scope of this study 18

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEWS 20

2.1 Public Service 20

2.2 Citizen‟s Satisfaction 23

2.3 Service Quality 28

2.4 Quantitative Approaches to Measuring Service Quality 34

2.5 Service Quality in Public Sector Organizations 36

2.6 Factors Affecting Public Service Quality and Citizen‟s Satisfaction 39

2.7 Related Studies 43

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 48

3.1 Research Design 48

3.2 Population 48

3.3 Population, Sample Size, Sampling Techniques 48

3.4 Data Collection Procedures 51

3.5 Measurement 51

3.6 Data Analysis 54

3.7 Sample Profile 55

3.8 Scale Descriptive Analysis 56

3.8.1 Item Descriptive Analysis for Servant‟s Attitude and Responsibility 56

3.8.2 Item Descriptive Analysis for Servant‟s Competency Scale 56

3.8.3 Item Descriptive Analysis for Cost Scale 58

3.8.4 Item Descriptive Analysis for Time Scale 58

3.8.5 Item Descriptive Analysis for Facilities Scale 59

3.8.7 Item Descriptive Analysis for Satisfaction Scale 60

3.8.8 The Summary of Variable Descriptive Analysis 61

3.9 Scale Purifications 62

4.1 Measurement Model 70

4.2 Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Scale 79

4.3 The Analysis of Factors Affecting Citizen‟s Satisfaction 81

4.4 Hypothesis Testing 84

CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 87

5.1 Summary and Conclusion 87

5.2 Policy Recommendations 90

5.2.1 Improve Servants‟ Attitude and Responsibility When Contacting with Citizens 90

5.2.2 Improve Servants‟ competence 91

5.2.3 Improve the service procedures to save the time and cost of citizens 92

5.2.4 Improve the facilities to support public service providing 93

5.2.5 Supervising the delivery of public administrative services 94

5.2.6 Improve the Public Service Quality Management 95

5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research 96

REFERENCES 97

APPENDIX 102

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 List of Items 52

Table 3.2 Characteristics of Sample 55

Table 3.3 Descriptive Analysis for Servant‟s Attitude and Responsibility Scale 56

Table 3.4 Descriptive Results for Servant‟s Competency Scale 57

Table 3.5 Descriptive Results for Service Cost Scale 58

Table 3.6 Descriptive Results for Time Scale 58

Table 3.7 Descriptive Results for Facility Scale 59

Table 3.11 Item Purification for Citizens‟ Satisfaction Scale 62

Table 3.12 Item Purification for Servant‟s Attitude and Responsibility Scale 63

Table 3.13 Item Purification for Servant‟s Competence Scale 64

Table 3.15 Item Purification for Time Scale 66

Table 3.16 Item Purification for Facility Scale 67

Table 3.17 Item Purification for Procedure Scale 67

Table 3.18 Scale Reliability 69

Table 4.1 Measurement Model Results for Citizens‟ Satisfaction Scale 71

Table 4.2 Measurement Model Results for Servant‟s Attitude and Responsibility Scale 72

Table 4.3 Measurement Model Results for Servant‟s Competence Scale 73

Table 4.4 Final Measurement Model Results for Servant‟s Competence Scale 74

Table 4.5 Measurement Model Results for Reasonable Cost Scale 75

Table 4.6 Measurement Model Results for Service Time Scale 76

Table 4.7 Measurement Model Results for Facility Scale 77

Table 4.8 Measurement Model Results for Procedure Scale 78

Table 4.9 Final Measurement Model Results 79

Table 4.10 Construct Correlation Matrix 81

Table 4.11 The regression results 82

Table 4.12 Model Summary 83

Table 4.12 Summary of Hypothesis-Testing Results 86

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Conceptual Framework 11

LIST OF ABRIVIATIONS

SERVQUAL Service Quality

SERVPERF Service performance

SAT Citizen‟s Satisfaction

ATT Governmental Servant‟s Attitudes

COM Governmental Servant‟s Competency

COST Cost for public service

TIME Time for receiving public services

FACT Service facilities

KMO Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin-Kriterium

ANOVA Analysis of Variance

GFI Goodness-of-fit Index

AGFI Adjust Goodness-of- fit Index

CFI Comparative Fit Index

RMSEA Root Mean Square Error of Approximation

EFA Exploratory Factor Analysis

CFA Confirmatory factor analysis

RMR Standardized Root Mean Square Residual

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background and Rationale of the Study

Public sector reform movements around the world in the 1990s, codified as New Public Management (NPM), have been aimed at „fostering a performance- oriented culture in a less centralized public sector‟ (OECD, 1995) Such reforms are characterized by key elements including increase in the use of markets and competition providing public services and in emphasis on performance, outputs and customer orientation One consequence of these reforms has been the reorientation of public services towards their consumers This has brought with it pressure for better public service quality, from service users as their needs change and their expectations rise in respect of how well services can be performed (Flynn, 1995)

In recent years, the reform of state administration in Vietnam has achieved significantly positive results Decree 38-CP of the Vietnamese Government dated 04.05.1994 has marked

an important step in the development process: implying the administrative procedures and improving the relationship between administrative agencies and citizens The regulations for implementing the "one- stop shop" in the state administrative agencies, issued with the application of quality management system in operation of the administrative agencies initially, are efficient On 22/6/2007, the Vietnamese Prime Minister had Decision No 93/2007/QD-TTg on promulgating the regulations to implement OSS at the local administrative agencies in order to further improve the implementation of "one stop shop" to suit each type of administrative procedures The government has been implementing projects

on not only training and retraining to enhance the capacity of staff, especially those who directly communicate and solve the requirements of citizens but also modernizing the state administration as well as accelerating the construction of spacious administrative offices Public administration reforms include organizational reform, reform of cadres and civil servants training and financial reform These are the internal problems of public

administration But the reform of administrative institutions, including administrative procedures, is a non-state issue, but also related to the lives of the social classes This is the reason why the Vietnamese State has to pay more attention to the reform of administrative procedures in order to meet the service requirements, serve the society and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the house management in the context of economic transformation

Thai Nguyen is a mountainous province located in the northern of Vietnam In recent years, the business investment environment of Thai Nguyen province has been constantly improved The PCI of the province for 3 consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016) ranked among the 10 provinces with the highest PCI in the country, many big investors chose Thai Nguyen

as the destination to build their headquarters , such as Sam Sung Group, Vingroup; In 2018, Thai Nguyen ranked 18/63 provinces, ranked second in the ranking of PCI index of Northern mountainous provinces, after Lao Cai In 2019, the rank of Thai Nguyen still at 18/63 provinces In order to improve the investment environment, Thai Nguyen needs to improve the provincial competitiveness index In which administrative procedure reform and citizen's satisfaction are important to contribute to improving the investment environment

Up to this point, Thai Nguyen province is ranked at 7th place on the PCI rankings in the country, continuing to be in the top 10 rankings of provinces and cities with the best operating quality and standing at 2nd place in the Northern mountainous provinces with a total

of 61.21 points To achieve this result, the entire political system has taken steps to direct and implement drastically and synchronously many solutions, especially tax administrative reform, customs, insurance, construction licensing and land investment procedures, to strongly attract domestic and international investment Administrative reform has created favorable conditions for the production and business activities of organizations and

individuals, contributing to job provision for laborers, boosting the province's economic growth rate (up 25% Per annum) and raising the GDP per capita

The provincial People's Committee has implemented the one-stop, one-stop shop mechanism to receive and return results of handling administrative procedures in nearly 100% of state administrative agencies in the locality The province also organized the Steering Committee for Administrative Procedure Reform (PAR Steering Committee) to strengthen measures to improve and improve the administrative procedure reform index (PAR INDEX), the provincial administrative and public administration performance index (PAPI); Announcing the results of the survey on the level of satisfaction of people with regard to the service of state administrative agencies in all communes and wards in the province

The clearest evidence for the PCI results in recent years is that Thai Nguyen province has had a remarkable growth in socio-economic development, the economic growth rate always ranks among the group of provinces with only The number increased (in 2018, the total budget revenue reached over VND 15,000 billion) Thai Nguyen is an attractive environment to attract many investors and large corporations with financial potential such as Samsung Group, Vingroup, T&T, FLC; Masan and FDI businesses; Since the 2018 Investment Promotion Conference, so far, it has attracted 64 projects of 44 investors, with a total registered investment capital of about VND 115,670 billion The average economic growth rate (GRDP) of Thai Nguyen in recent years has reached over 12%, one of the top nationwide; The state budget revenue in the first 6 months of 2019 reached VND 7,325 billion, equaling 48.8% of the yearly estimate, up 5.1% over the same period, striving to balance revenue and expenditure by 2020 (Thai Nguyen Statistic Yearbook, 2019)

In addition to the achieved results, the province's business and investment environment still reveals some limitations that need to be overcome soon, such as: The stability of the PCI

component indicators is not high, the collection investment attraction has no long-term strategy; reform of administrative procedures is still slow and not really effective, the mechanism of coordination among levels and sectors in guiding, urging, inspecting, monitoring and solving difficulties and obstacles With the low-yielding projects, there are still harassment of cadres, civil servants and officials in handling jobs for people and businesses, infrastructure of some industrial parks and clusters have not been invested synchronous, not yet created a lot of land for investment, development

At present, the administrative procedures still exist some common phenomena such as cumbersome, overlapping, rigid In addition, the issuance of administrative procedures at some time, even where arbitrary, including the issuance of "sub-license"; Procedures for resolving procedures are still the phenomenon of rights, harassment, delays in the way of

"people need, not in a hurry" and still through many intermediate stages; unclear

With the goal of providing better administrative services to citizens and organizations, leaders of Vietnamese government have implemented policies besides conducting reforms to strengthen the investment attraction and improve the satisfaction of the people in provinces

Citizen's satisfaction is the most honest and accurate measure of every administrative reform effort This will not only fundamentally change the nature of the reform but also establish a higher accountability regime for administrative officials Therefore, in order to improve provincial competitiveness, it is important to continue to accelerate the reform of administrative procedures at the concerned departments and branches at all levels, ensuring quick, neat and favorable conditions Maximum benefit for organizations and individuals, ensuring 100% of the dossier received at the one-stop section At the same time tighten discipline, administrative discipline, improve the responsibility of each civil servant and official in handling administrative procedures; elaborate internal procedures for settling administrative procedures on natural resources and environment at provincial, district and

commune levels according to the Government's regulations; to build synchronously the land database in the whole province in association with adjusting land fluctuations and granting land use right certificates; invest in building and implementing a modern one-stop shop, one-stop shop system From improving people's satisfaction, the provincial competitiveness index will also be improved From there, attract investment capital into Thai Nguyen province

In recent years, the province has had many advocates of administrative procedure reforms to attract investment and improve the satisfaction of the people However, the reform

of administrative procedures has not achieved the desire and satisfation of citizens with the government agencies There is a large number of published studies on the quality of public administration services; however, no study on the quality of public administration services and citizen‟s satisfaction at the Thai Nguyen Province

Previous studies about citizens‟satisfaction also refered to some components of administrative service However, there is no study that focus on citizens‟ satisfaction in Thai Nguyen province

Studying the factors affecting the satisfaction of citizens and organizations with the service of state administrative agencies is a necessary task, not only helping state administrative agencies to grasp the perception of citizens, organizations on the quality of handling administrative procedures; The requirements and expectations of people and organizations for the quality of handling administrative procedures so that state administrative agencies can work out appropriate solutions to improve the quality of handling administrative procedures, Improving people's and organizations' satisfaction, contributing to the development of an administrative service but also creating conditions and opportunities for people and organizations to contribute their comments and supervise the process of

construction and organization Implementing policies, especially in the field of providing public services to people and organizations

When public administration services are not improved, it is annoying for people to reduce investment attraction in Thai Nguyen province There are many investors who intend

to come to Thai Nguyen to invest but they have moved elsewhere because the procedure is too complicated This is the reason why author choose to do this research

In Thai Nguyen, although administrative reform has been implemented for many years, but in general still complicated and troublesome for citizens The rate of paperwork on time has increased, but the status of the dossier is delayed In addition to the objective reasons

of procedural process, due to the limited capacity of professional cadres and civil servants, some specialized agencies still have the status of a number of cadres and civil servants who are ignorant of their responsibilities, have not fulfilled all responsibilities in settling troublesome and annoying jobs for the citizens

In addition, some previous studies has identified factors affecting people‟s satisfaction with public administrative services, however, no study has identified the factors affecting people satisfaction based on service quality management approach This study goes further when determine the factors according to the service quality management approach, as well as the typical factors of Vietnam's public administration

1.2 Objectives of the Study

In general, this study identified factors affecting citizen‟s satisfaction with public services of administrative agencies in Thai Nguyen province, and proposed some policy implications for Thai Nguyen government to increase citizen‟s satisfaction in Thai Nguyen province

Specifically, the research objectives which correspond to therefore mentioned issues are shown below

1) Systematizing the theories on factors that affect citizens‟ satisfaction with public administrative service

2) Determine the factors that significantly affect citizen‟s satisfaction with public administrative service of public administrative agencies in Thai Nguyen province

3) To recommend some policy suggestions to increase the citizens‟ satisfaction with public administrative services of administrative agencies in Thai Nguyen province

1.3 Theoretical Framework

Appraisal theories

Appraisal theories of emotion are theories that state that emotions result from people's interpretations and explanations of their circumstances even in the absence of physiological arousal (Aronson, 2005) There are two basic approaches; the structural approach and process model These models both provide an explanation for the appraisal of emotions and explain in different ways how emotions can develop In the absence of physiological arousal we decide how to feel about a situation after we have interpreted and explained the phenomena Thus the sequence of events is as follows: event, thinking, and simultaneous events of arousal and emotion Social psychologists have used this theory to explain and predict coping mechanisms and people's patterns of emotionality By contrast, for example, personality psychology studies emotions as a function of a person's personality, and thus does not take into account the person's appraisal, or cognitive response, to a situation

Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) recommends that an individual will choose to perform or act in a particular way because they are inspired to select a precise action over

other actions due to what they accept the result of that selected performance will be Because

of the desirability of the outcome, the behavior has been selected By applying expectancy theory, the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction will be explained

Social Exchange Theory

According to social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), individual would adopt exact behaviors based on the norm of reciprocity to express appreciation to the group or business Within this situation, individual perform in a assured way and they understand the sense of the activities and they form their behavior to achieve goal and bring benefits for them to adopt

a specific behavior to express the gratitude to the industry By applying social exchange theory, the relationship between customer satisfaction, tourist loyalty and word of mouth will

be explained

Disconfirmation Theory

A discussion on customer satisfaction and customer expectations cannot be complete without discussing the disconfirmation theory The disconfirmation theory stands out as the primary foundation for satisfaction models in marketing literature (Churchill and Surprenant, 1982; Oliver, 1980)

According to this theory, satisfaction is determined or measured by the discrepancy between perceived performance and cognitive standards such as expectations and desires (Khalifa and Liu, 2003) Customers or clients expectations can be defined as customer‟ s partrial beliefs about a product or service (Mckinney et al, 2002)

According to Zeithaml and Berry (1988), expectations can be viewed as predictions made by consumers about what is likely to happen during impending transaction or exchange.Perceived performance on the other hand is customers‟ perception of how product

or service performance fulfills their needs, wants and desire (Cadotte et al, 1987)

Perceived quality is the customer‟ s judgement about an entity‟ s overall excellence

or superiority (Zeithaml, 1988) Disconfirmation is therefore defined as the customer‟ s subjective judgements resulting from comparing their expectations and their perceptions of performance received (Mckinney et al, 2002; Spreng et al, 1996) The disconfirmation theory states that satisfaction is affected by the intensity (or size) and direction (positive or negative)

of the gap (disconfirmation) between expectations and perceived performance

1.4 Conceptual Framework

The provision of public administrative services is always linked to the authority and operation of state administrative bodies - with legal power - in the exercise of the legal rights and obligations of organizations and citizen Activities such as the granting of permits, birth certificates, notarization, civil status Legal administrative jurisdiction is expressed in the form of public administrative services to address the rights and legitimate interests of the human resource It is the activity of serving citizens from the State administrative agencies These activities cannot be delegated to any organization other than a public administrative agency and will only be valid when administered by a public administrative agency Thus, the need to provide public administrative services to the public (consumers) is not a requirement

of their own but derives from the compulsory nature of the state The State obliges and encourages people to implement these regulations in order to ensure social order and safety and perform the function of managing all aspects of social life

The prior studies focused the components affecting citizens with public administrative services which are: Reliability, Capacity of civil servants, Serving attitude, Empathy, Facilities and the Process of delivery In fact, citizens must pay fee for using some public administrative services at the grassroots level (but some no payment) Citizens won't be satisfied if they have to wait for their turn or spend much time for settling their documents Therefore, time and cost of using public administrative services should be considered It is

also possible that the citizens' perception of time and cost of public administrative services would influence their satisfaction of the public administrative services

The prior studies concentrated the components affecting citizens with public administrative services which are: Reliability, Capacity of civil servants, Serving attitude, Empathy, Facilities and the Process of delivery In fact, citizens must pay fee for using some public administrative services at the grassroots level (but some no payment) Citizens won't

be satisfied if they have to wait for their turn or spend much time for settling their documents Therefore, time and cost of using public administrative services should be considered It is also possible that the citizens' perception of time and cost of public administrative services would influence their satisfaction of the public administrative services By qualitative research methods based on prior studies, combining with legal writings and the actual status

of public administrative services delivery at the grassroots level, the author adjusted and supplemented the instrument to get components affecting the quality of public administrative services They are: (1) Reliability, (2) Capacity of civil servants, (3) Civil servants‟ serving attitude, (4) Empathy, (5) Facilities, (6) Process of delivery and (7) Time and Cost Thus, a research model is proposed to discuss the possible relationships among the citizens‟ perception and their satisfaction

By qualitative research methods based on prior studies, combining with legal writings and the actual status of public administrative services delivery at the grassroots level, the author adjusted and supplemented the instrument to get components affecting the quality of public administrative services They are: (1) Servant‟s Competency, (2) Servant‟s Attitude, (3) Procedures, (4) Cost, (5) Time, (6) Service Facilities Thus, a research model is proposed

to discuss the possible relationships among the citizens‟ perception and their satisfaction The proposed model also had some changes comparative to SERVQUAL and SERVPERF model

Figure 1.1 Conceptual Framework

From the study of Zeithalm and Bitner (2008:85), “Service quality is a focused evaluation that reflects the customer‟s perceptions of specific dimensions of quality: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangible” However, in public service context, service quality may be affected by some other factors This study developed some other dimensions different from those of Zeithalm and Bitner These factors were as following:

Servant’s Attitudes and Responsibility

Servant‟s attitudes affect public service quality When Servants have suitable attitudes with citizens, they may easily accept some inconvenience in service process These are officials and specialists directly handling the dossiers and communicating with citizens who have improper attitude will create bad image in the eyes of the citizens, reducing the satisfaction of the citizens with the authorities Friendly, sincere, courteous, sympathetic, sharing in the process of handling work, reception of civil servants, officials greatly affect the satisfaction of the people Civil servants also need to behave confidently, properly, in accordance with code of conduct When people communicate with each other, the urge to

calm, gently explain, motivate, share, not angry, insult or use force to others If civil servants show their high responsibility with the service that help citizens to solve problems, they may

feel satisfied From above discussion, some following hypotheses were proposed:

H1: Servants’ attitude and responsibility has a positive effect on citizen’s satisfaction with

public services

Servant’s Competency

Staff competency is the ability to perform well-assigned tasks, this is very important criteria, showing the decisive in the public administrative service Based on previous research, the author uses the qualitative methodology to build the "Employee Competency" factor Capacity is the synergy between knowledge, skills and attitudes that affect work; They are interrelated in the execution of the task The capacity of civil servant civil servants to perform their duties includes a number of factors, such as their qualifications, their capacity for training, skills and experience in their work as well as the spirit and attitudes of civil servants Civil servants' capacity to perform public service tasks greatly affects the satisfaction of the citizens From above discussion, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H2: Servants’ Competency has a positive effect on citizen’s satisfaction with public services

Cost for public service

Even though, the costs for public service are not very high, however, the other costs that the citizens have to pay for using public service may be expensive Transparency of service charges will increase the satisfaction of local people with public administrative services in the Thai Nguyen province If citizens have to pay the unreasonable fee, they may feel very dissatisfied with public service This discussion leads to the hypothesis that:

H3: Cost for public service has a effect on citizen’s satisfaction The lower the cost for

public service is, the more satisfied the citizens feel

Time for receiving public services

Waiting time is the big problem with public service quality When people have to spend so much time for public services, they may lose other opportunities In case of time is very important for them, the long waiting time may cause them dissatisfied with the services When citizens have to wait for their turn for a long time, they may feel dissatisfied Therefore,

it leads to the following hypothesis:

H4: The service time has a effect on citizen’s satisfaction The shorter the service time

is, the more satisfaction the citizens feel

Service facilities

Beside the cost and procedures, public service quality also can be affected by facilities that help employees provide the services Facilities help providing services better and faster Facilities providing services include such factors as: service providing place, equipment, tools and other technical facilities; especially those in the reception room where the citizens are in contact with the civil servants representing the administration

H5: Service facilities have a positive effect on citizen’s satisfaction

Procedures

In public service, procedures are very important If clients or citizens understand the procedures of service provision, it is easy for them to deal with employees during service process If the procedures are not well designed, citizens may feel inconvenient The administrative procedures include the requirement for the composition of the application dossier, the process of processing the dossier, and the contact between the processor and the individual using the service This is a mandatory principle and a procedural process that requires improvement in the application process and requires objectivity from the fact that

administrative procedures are cumbersome, Continuity is an important requirement for improving service quality From above discussion, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H6: Procedures to provide public services has a effect on citizen’s satisfaction The

easier the procedures are, the more satisfied the citizens feel

1.5 The Operational Definitions

Citizen’s Satisfaction

Citizen‟s satisfaction is defined as an output resulting from the client‟s pre-purchase comparison of expected performance with perceived actual performance and incurred cost In this study, citizen‟s satisfaction was measured through the perception of citizen about their feelings when consuming public services To measure citizen‟s satisfaction, four items were used, adapted from Szymanski et al (2001) with Likert scale 7 point

Table 1.1 The items used to measure Citizen’s Satisfaction

SAT1 In general, I am satisfied with service I received from this administrative agency SAT2 Overall, I think the service offered by employees in this agency is good

SAT3 This service offered by employees of this agency meet my expectation

SAT4 I think the service is good

Servant’s Attitudes and Responsibility

This scale aims to assess the perception of the citizens about the attitude and responsibility of servants when receiving the application How enthusiastic the officiers are to answer questions for the people How fair employees are to contact with citizens and the responsibility for the record Servants‟ attitude was measured by six items (7-point scale) These items were adapted from SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, 1988)

Table 1.2 The items used to measure Servants’ Attitude and Responsibility

ATT1 Employees are enthusiastic

ATT2 Employees are considerate and thoughtful

ATT 3 Employee are always on time

ATT 4 Civil servants are friendly and helpful

ATT 5 Civil servants enthusiastically guide and advise citizens

ATT 6 Civil servants create trust

Servant’s Competency

This scale aims to assess citizen's perceptions of servans‟ competencies, such as their ability to communicate, their expertise, their skills, their knowledge, their skills and their concerns To measure servants‟ competency, eight items were used adapted from SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, 1988)

Table 1.3 The items used to measure Servants’ Competency

COM1 Employees in offices are well-qualified

COM2 Employees in administrative agencies are professional

COM3 Employees have ability to explain laws and policies for citizens

COM4 Civil servants with clear badges and name tags

COM5 Civil servants comply with work schedule

COM6 Civil servants implement the procedures flexibly

COM7 Civil servants accept the recommendations and suggestions from customers COM8 Comments are accepted respectfully by Civil servants

Cost for public service

This scale aims to assess citizen's evaluation about the cost for using public service The cost for using public service may be measured by both illegal and legal cost To measure the cost, four items were used adapted from Nghi, N Q & Nhat, Q M, (2015) The more the cost is suitable, the more citizens agree with the statements

Table 1.4 The items used to measure the cost for public services

COST1 Costs are very low

COST2 Publicity and transparency concerning costs

COST3 Reasonable transaction fees

COST4 Full charge receipts

Time for receiving public services

This scale aims to assess citizen's evaluation about the time for using public service

To measure time factor, four items were adapted from SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, 1988) The shorter the time for service, the greater the satisfaction of citizens is

Table 1.5 The items used to measure the time for public services

TIME1 I does not have to wait for long time

TIME2 I do not have to spend hours for public service at this agency

TIME3 The time for public service is very short

TIME4 I do not have to wait for my turn for long time

Service facilities

Beside the cost and procedures, public service quality also can be affected by facilities that help employees provide the services Facilities help providing services better and faster This scale was used to measure citizen‟s perception about facilities that used for providing

public services Six items were used to measure this scale adapted from SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, 1988)

Table 1.6 The items used to measure the facilities for public services

FACT1 Convenient parking

FACT2 Place to wait for transactions

FACT3 Clear guidance diagrams

FACT4 Good support equipment (sanitary conditions, water, fan, etc.)

FACT5 Clear guidance tables

FACT6 Quality of computers and other supporting devices

Procedures

In public service, procedures are very important If clients or citizens understand the procedures of service provision, it is easy for them to deal with employees during service process If the procedures are not well designed, citizens may feel inconvenient To measure this scale, seven items were used adapted from from SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, 1988) The easier the procedures, the greater the satisfaction of citizens are

Table 1.7 The items used to measure the procedures for public services

PRO1 Records and procedures requested are reasonable

PRO2 Forms are designed scientifically

PRO3 Transaction procedures are simple

PRO4 Transaction sequences are conducted reasonably

PRO5 Guidance activities to revise incomplete or unsatisfactory records

PRO6 Clear appointments to get results

PRO7 Simplifying procedures

1.6 Significance of the Study

The study was to provide outcomes as follows:

- This study was the first step in the systematic revision of citizens‟ satisfaction concept application in public service delivery, leading to more comprehensive knowledge of patterns, methods, and procedures of improving public service quality in governmental agencies in Thai Nguyen province in Vietnam

- The outcomes from the study were utilized as guidelines for studies on public management concept application in public service delivery in the case of other government agencies This was useful in terms of more extensive coverage of study results and more comprehensive knowledge regarding marketing concepts in public service delivery such as the procedures of applying these concepts and factors influencing the success of applying these concepts targeted at the well-being of the public, and following the citizen-centered approach

- The implications from this results can help administrative agencies in Thai Nguyen improve public service quality and then increase citizens‟ satisfaction Improving the citizens‟ satisfaction also leads to the increase in investment in Thai Nguyen province Thai Nguyen government may applies this research‟s results in improve citizen‟s satisfaction The implications of the study served as guidelines for the government and improvement of public management in order that missions and duties of each government agency were achieved and public service delivered to the public for their well-being, following the citizen-centered approach

- The results from this research, if applied, may help citizens in Thai Nguyen province feel satisfied with public administrative service They may save their time and effort when using public administrative

1.7 Scope of this study

This study was undertaken within administrative agencies in Thai Nguyen province in Vietnam However, the administrative agencies‟ offices in Thai Nguyen province, due to time and other resource constraints, author selected randomly some offices, in which some of them

in Thai Nguyen City, and others in other districts This study used survey as the main data collection method The participants were citizens who visited the administrative agencies offices for public services The study covered the factors and identified how they affected citizens‟ satisfaction The study was conducted within a limited period of five (5) months

Content scope: The study focuses on identifying factors affecting citizens‟ satisfaction

in Thai Nguyen province

Time scope: Research was conducted from 2015 to 2019

- Secondary data was the data from Thai Nguyen government reports for the period 2010-2015

- Primary data was collected in 2018

- Space scope: The research was conducted at Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEWS

2.1 Public Service

Public services are services the state government provide to citizens living within its

jurisdiction, either directly (through the public sector) or by authorizing provisions of services

in order to maintain the effectiveness and justice of 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 There are two basic kinds of public services in Vietnam These are:

- Public services which have public characteristics to meet the common and necessary needs to serve the community and citizens

- Public administrative services associated with the authority of the state to meet the legal rights and obligations of organizations and citizens

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 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

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, public administrative service delivery is associated with the legal authorities

and activities of the state agencies in implementing the rights and obligations of organizations and citizens, such as: licensing, birth certificates, notary, and civil status Legal authorities are shown as the forms of public administrative services to deal with the legal rights and interests

of people These activities cannot be given to any other organizations but to the state administrative agencies to implement In addition, they take effect only being done by state agencies Therefore, the demand on using the public administrative services of the people (clients) did not originated from their own needs, but from the compulsory regulations of the

government The government force and encourage people to implement these provisions in order to ensure the security and perform management functions in the society

Secondly, public administrative services serve the state management activities The

public administrative services themselves do not belong to the state management functions, but it is aimed to back up the state management functions So, legal scientific research should separate the administrative functions from management functions in the operation of state administrative agencies

Thirdly, public administrative services are non-profit activities, whose fees and

charges are put in the state budget (under the strict regulations of the related state agencies) The agencies which supply these services are not directly benefited from this revenue source

Fourthly, all citizens and organizations have equal rights in receiving and using

public administrative services as a role of objects to serve of the government The state has responsibility and obligation to serve the citizens equally to ensure the stability, equity and efficiency of social management activities

The following are some of the basic types of public administrative services:

- Licensing such as: building permission, excavation permission, parking permission, investment permission, immigration permission, business licenses and professional practice certificates and so on

- Licensing some types of certification and authentication such as eligible practice confirmation; birth certificates, death note, marriage registration; certified copies and signatures; notary and so on

- Collecting fees and charges then put them into the state‟s budgets and funds

- Dealing with the complaints and denunciations of citizens, and handling administrative violations

Results of these kinds of public administrative services make many types of documents and administrative papers increase They themselves reflect concrete results of the public administrative services To manage and implement related administrative procedures easily, public administrative services are classified as above

Public Service Agency

In modern democracies, public service is often performed by employees called civil servants hired by elected officials Non-profit governmental agencies and their employees are highly motivated Public administrative agencies are units that provide public services to citizens that are government designated places to provide services to the public Public administrative agencies are usually People's Committee offices at all levels, one-stop offices, and departments serving people's needs

2.2 Citizen’s Satisfaction

Citizens’ satisfaction with public services has emerged as a focus of research and as a

major subject of governmental interest in recent years, corresponding roughly to the increased focus on government providing “citizen-centric” public services Thinking of citizens as customers or consumers of government services was one of the core ideas of the New Public Management (NPM) reform movement Although the NPM movement encompassed a broad range of public sector reforms, such as public-private partnership in delivering public services and the massive use of new management techniques such as process re-engineering, a substantial portion of government reforms was targeted at making the public contact experience more efficient and holding officials accountable for their performance in delivering public services

The customer-citizens‟ divergence also made a difference in terms of the satisfaction measurement With public administrative services, citizens are interested in the process of delivery, the documents required when taking part in the process of

settlement and how they waited for settling However, the study of citizen satisfaction with public administrative services could learn from the theoretical models that have been developed in the market research

In Vietnam, this is very important for People‟ committee to know their perceptions of services offered In this study, the author considered satisfaction as a part of overall citizens' attitudes towards the public administrative service provider that makes up a number of measures In this way, service quality could be assessed and thereby evaluating customer satisfaction The Ward People‟ committee must take improvement actions on the components

of public administrative services that have a lower satisfaction level

The need for adopting a new approach of public sector administration, which is more concerned with the citizens and the quality of service delivery, has emerged in the nineties of the last century Many scholars have advocated for this shift, yet in different amount and scope of change Some scholars have called for the adoption of the private sector tools in the public sector One important demand was to shift the way the public sector deals with the common citizens to more of the private sector approach in serving customers The issue of achieving efficient citizen-oriented performance, with the lowest costs has represented a main objective of the new shift

The academic literature postulates that customer satisfaction is a function of the discrepancy between a consumer‟s prior expectations and his or her perception regarding the patronage of the service There is a general consensus among most researchers that satisfaction is an attitude or evaluation that is formed by the customer or client comparing their pre-purchase or pre-patronage expectations of what they would receive from the product or service to their subjective perception of performance they actually did receive

Kotler (1996) has defined customer satisfaction as the level of a person‟s felt state resulting from comparing a product‟s perceived performance or outcome in violation to his or

her own expectations So as Wang et al puts it, “customer satisfaction could be considered a comparative behavior between inputs beforehand and post obtainments” (Wang et al 2006) In other words, customer satisfaction measures how well an organization‟s product or service meets or exceeds customer expectations These expectations often reflect many aspects of the firm‟s activities, including its products or services, physical environment, facilities, staff etc

Kotler has further defined satisfaction as a person‟s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product or service perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations (Kotler, 2007) In line with this thinking, Yi (1990), also stated that customer satisfaction is a collective outcome of perception, evaluation and psychological reactions to the consumption experience with a product or service It is important to recognize the different types of satisfaction Previous studies by Johnson et al, 2008, Omachonu et al, 2008 have all clearly established the distinction between two types of satisfaction - overall satisfaction and encounter satisfaction

Overall satisfaction can be explained as the totality of the experiences the customer or client goes through or receive throughout his or her interaction with the organization Encounter satisfaction on the other hand, is about specific experience the customer receives at the various stages or points of the service delivery process Depending on the nature of service industry, either of the two will be more dominant (Fatima and Razzaque, 2010) For example, in the banking industry, as the nature of the service is of an ongoing nature, and long term, overall satisfaction will be more applicable rather than encounter satisfaction It is therefore established that expectation plays a key role in customer satisfaction The confirmation/disconfirmation theory posits that satisfaction can be achieved through the fulfillment of expectations (Ndubisi and Wah, 2005)

According to Fatima and Razzaque, (2010) expectation is therefore the parameter of satisfaction and this may be the foremost reason for using the, role theory “as a background

theory in most of the customer interaction (service encounter) literatures The role theory posits that the “study of a role – (cluster of social cues that guide and direct an individual‟s behavior in a given setting) – is the study of the conduct associated with certain socially defined positions rather than of the particular individuals who occupy these positions It is the study of the degree to which a particular part is acted appropriately (role enactment) as determined by the reactions of fellow actors and observers (the audience)

This implies that customers have role expectation from the employees of an organization – especially, frontline staff and that successful meeting of those expectations will reflect in their satisfaction

Customer expectations are formed by many uncontrollable forces which include previous experience with other organizations and their advertising, customers psychological condition at the time of service delivery, customer background and values and the images of the purchased product or service Zeithaml et al (1990), added that customer service expectation is built on complex conditions, including their own pre-purchase beliefs and other people‟s opinions Similarly, Miller (1977) stated that customers “or clients” expectations related to different levels of satisfaction It may be based on previous product or service experiences, learning from advertisements and word-of-mouth communication In other words, expectation can be seen as a pre-consumption attitude before the next purchase, it may involve experience

Consequently, it demanded a similar shift from the customer satisfaction to the citizen satisfaction (Shah Abdullah & Kalianan, 2008) This shift has introduced the citizen satisfaction as a key metric of performance, and in some cases, a prerequisite for running for elections Later on, some national and local governments have adopted the performance measurements, yet the inclusion of the citizens' views in such measurements stayed limited

The focus was more on assessing the inputs feeding the governance process, how the process itself goes, and what outputs have been achieved

Very limited attention has been given to the outcomes and the impact of the services on communities, although this is the main concern of the citizens, and accordingly, the citizens and stakeholders will not likely support the performance measurements, if they were not included or considered from the start

Performance measurements need to include citizens and other stakeholders in the assessment process, in order to be able to achieve a higher level of trust and reliability among government and citizens Studies have found that the more performance measurements fail to respond to the citizens' needs and concerns, and neglect their evaluation to the services provided, the less attention citizens will give to it and consequently public officials will be less encouraged to use them Therefore, the measurement will be less effective and less relevant in the governmental decision making process

With the beginning of the 21st century, and the introduction of the good governance concept, many assessments have considered citizen satisfaction as one important criterion for measurement Usually, it comes under the principle of Effectiveness Effectiveness is essentially concerned with measuring the outputs of the policy formulation and implementation It focuses on outcomes rather than what is being done in the process itself Therefore, this outcome, cannot be recognized unless, the quality of the final product or services is assessed from the perspective of recipients, and their level of satisfaction

Currently, some countries use the citizen satisfaction in their performance indicators, such as in Malaysia and Japan, while some other countries have taken a further step by linking any additional payments over the basic salary to the performance and citizen satisfaction For example, in the United Kingdom, starting 2004, patients' satisfaction has

been approved as one of the key criteria that affect 25% of physicians' salaries In this study, citizen‟s satisfaction is defined as an output resulting from the client‟s pre-purchase comparison of expected performance with perceived actual performance and incurred cost (Aydin et al., 2005)

2.3 Service Quality

Service quality and customer (client) satisfaction are important concepts to academic researchers studying consumer evaluations and to practitioners as a means of creating competitive advantage and consumer loyalty

The academic literature postulates that customer satisfaction is a function of the discrepancy between a consumer‟s prior expectations and his or her perception regarding the patronage of the service

When an experience is better than expectation then a favorable customer evaluation is predicted Service quality is defined similarly as a comparative function between consumer expectations and actual service performance In the customer satisfaction literature, this model is referred to as the Disconfirmation (Theory) Paradigm In the service quality literature, it is referred to as the Gap Model

The terms quality and satisfaction are sometimes used interchangeably, as if they are essentially one evaluative construct From the definitions given above, one may conclude that the two are highly similar However, several researchers are interested in how they differ Some service quality researchers describe satisfaction as a more specific, short-term evaluation (for example, evaluating a single service encounter) and quality as a more general and a long-term evaluation

On the other hand, some customer satisfaction researchers posit quality as the more specific judgement and a component of satisfaction the broader evaluation According to

Iacobucci et al (1995), if these two concepts are distinct, then they are worthy of further separate pursuits, but if they are the same, then more efficient theoretical progress would be made if these concepts are studied via convergence in a shared literature

In studying the concepts of service quality and customer satisfaction, Iacobucci et al (1995), found no difference between quality and satisfaction for disconfirmation, keeping promises, customization, empathy, friendliness or purchase intentions (Iacobucci D., Grayson K and Ostrom A 1995) They established that overall, the disconfirmation gap concept is a plausible antecedent for both quality and satisfaction and that purchase intentions are a plausible consequence for either

Service quality has been described as a form of attitude related to but not equivalent to satisfaction that results from the comparison of expectations with performance According to Omachonu et al (2008), quality has a long term impact on the satisfaction of customers Customer satisfaction and service quality are certainly interlinked and these create value for the customer or client and help him to make decisions as to whether the service justifies the cost

The scale for service quality had been observed and critically evaluated as it uses gap scores, measurement of expectations, positively and negatively worded items, the generalizability of its dimensions and the defining of a baseline for good quality

Five specific dimensions of service quality have been identified – tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy Cavana et al (2007) agreed that the dimensions of service quality are five but different in that they introduced a different dimension and dropped „tangibles‟ According to them service quality dimensions are - assurance, responsiveness, empathy, reliability and convenience

However, as earlier noted the dimensions as conceptualized by Parasuraman et al (1985) are the most universally acclaimed Generally, two schools of thought have been

espoused regarding the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction (Ahmed et al, 2010) The first school argued that service quality is the ancestor of customer satisfaction (Antreas and Opoulos, 2003)

The other school is of the view that customer satisfaction helps to develop perception

of high quality According to Deng et al (2004), among the contributions of customer satisfaction, perceived service quality is a significant determinant Anderson et al (2004), stated that quality leads to satisfied customers or clients

The research works on the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality has also been extended to customer loyalty (Ahmed et al, 2010) Coner and Gungor (2002) established that higher service quality will lead to more loyal customer Lai (2009) also found that there is a positive relationship between service quality dimensions such as tangibles, empathy and assurance on one hand and customer satisfaction on the other He further established a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and intentions of usage or patronage (retention) among satisfied customers Barnes (1997) emphasized that a loyal client would keep recommending to others his experience This obviously creates a positive image and draws more potential clients to the organization

In a study by Ahmed et al (2010), in assessing the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction among telephone subscribers, it was found that all the service quality dimensions had a significant relationship with customer satisfaction Specifically, tangibles and assurance scored much higher than the other dimensions, with empathy scoring the lowest Also the study showed that with the exception of empathy, all the other four dimensions were positively related to customer satisfaction

Regarding the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality, Salazar et al (2004), also agree that there are two opposing views Satisfaction is seen as

an antecedent of service quality, when the last one is seen as a global perception

However, service quality has also been seen as a cause of customer satisfaction (Spreng and Mackey, 1996)

According to Salazar et al (2004), one of the main debates in the literature is about the similarities and differences between service quality and customer satisfaction constructs There is a great deal of consensus that satisfaction is a result of individual transactions and global service, whereas service quality is the general impression of the relative superiority or inferiority of the organization and its services (Bitner and Hubbert, 1994) In other words, service quality is a general attitude before the service When measuring perceived quality, the comparison level is what the customer should expect However, in the case of satisfaction, the appropriated standards are what the customer is probably expecting

In a study by Sriyam (2010), he observed that generally service quality impact on customer satisfaction He found out that, specifically, the assurance dimension raised the highest level of expectation, whereas tangibility fulfilled the highest level of perception In assessing the service quality of front office staff by customers, these results were found Overall mean score of perception was higher than expectation in all dimensions, yielding a positive servqual gap Hence customers were satisfied with all dimensions of service quality The findings also identified tangibility as the most important dimension in determining customer satisfaction (Sriyam A., 2010)

This was in contrast with a study of service quality in Mauritian hotels by Juwaheer and Ross (2003) The findings were that assurance and reliability were the two most important determinants of customer satisfaction Thus by focusing on assurance and reliability, a hotel could achieve high levels of service quality and consequently customer or client satisfaction Tan et al (2010), also studied the relationship between service quality and knowledge sharing in a private educational institution in Malaysia Using the SERVQUAL, they concluded that the assurance dimension has significant influence on knowledge in the