International Journal of Pure and Applied Management Sciences;

Vol. 2016.1.2; pp. 15-21, ISSN: 2456-4516

Service Quality of Public Sector Organization in India

*Dr. Nidhi
Assistant Professor, U.I.L.M.S. Gurgaon,
**Krishna

Kumari

(Correspondent author) Research scholar U.I.L.M.S, Gurgaon,

.
Date of revised paper submission: 15/12/2016; Date of
acceptance: 24/12/2016
Date of publication: 31/12/2016; *First Author/Corresponding Author; Paper ID:
MS16204.
Reviewers: Dr. A. K. Singh; Dr. S. Husain (India).

Abstract
Indian economy is mixed economy. It is the combination of public and private sector.
By so Indian customer enjoys the services of both the sector. But customer does not show equal
satisfaction or buying intention for these two sectors. In other words there is discriminate in customer
preference of service from public or private sector. Present study is purpose to find the service quality
of public sector organization and customer satisfaction from service quality of public sector
organization and the reasons for poor service public sector organization. Primarily three service
sector organization school, hospitals and bank was selected for study. It is a review based study.
Research paper and articles related to study was analysis. Research result comprise with poor service
quality of public sector as compare to private sector organization. Customer satisfaction was also low
from public sector service quality.
Keywords: Service Quality, Mixed economy Public sector organization, Customer satisfaction,
Dissatisfaction.
1. Introduction
Public sector organizations are those where ownership and control remain in the hand
of the government. And private sector organization comprise more than 50% share in private
individual. In services industries both public sector and private sector show tremendous growth. After
globalization services industries are equipped with advances technology, such as internet facilities,
customer care services, online banking etc. Customers are the important stakeholder in the
organization. Particularly in the service sector customer is the key element in the business. In service
industry product are identical and no duplication of service are allowed the only factor for the success
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International Journal of Pure and Applied Management Sciences;

Vol. 2016.1.2; pp. 15-21, ISSN: 2456-4516
is the quality of service. Customer satisfaction is a term defines under marketing management. It is
degree to which customer perceive their demand are fulfill by the product and services. Customer
satisfaction from product is reflected from its buying behavior or repeated use of services. Customer
will be satisfied if he/she gets the quality service.
Service quality and customer satisfaction go hand by hand. In todays business
environment non-pries competition prevailing everywhere. Marketing management are in race of
lunching product and providing customer services at fastest speed. In such a mess it is the quality the
single most important feature in services that help the business survives. According to Juran, Deming
and Crosby its the quality of the product or service, that satisfies a customer.
Customer perception is so important for the product success in market. If the
customer perception regarding the quality of the product is positive it will leads to customer
satisfaction with the product. Thus customer satisfaction depends on product service and quality
(Gupt, Mishra and Rahman, 2013). Public sector represents the countrys interest on public welfare.
Thus Public sector is responsible to provide quality services as it was accountable to citizens and
communities as well as to its customers (Munhurrun, Lukea-Bhiwajee, Naidoo, 2010). Thus present
study purposed to find service quality of public sector organization.
2. Literature Review
Peoples perception about the quality of government services is the evidence of
performance of government institution (Chingos, Henderson, and West, 2012). Service quality is a
multidimensional construct. In developing country Consumers evaluate service quality as comparing
to the developed country such as European and American country (Brahmbhatt Baser and Joshi,
2011). Dimension of service quality were positively relate with the customer satisfaction. Such as
reliability, responsiveness, tangibility and empathy were related with the customer satisfaction.
Service quality dimensions are dependent factors to the relationship between customer satisfactions
(Jenet Manyi Agbor, 2011).
Through SERVIQUAL instrument it is possible to find the service quality gap in
public department, and latter on government department can improve those area where its lacks in
provide quality service to customer. Customers are not satisfied from the service of public sector
organization. There was gap between the customer expectation and perception about the service
quality of the public sector organization.

The difference between the customer expectation of

idealistic service department and the perceived service quality represent the service provider gap. This
gap shows that government departments are not meeting the need of the customer. Larger gap
represent the poor service quality or service shortfall in public department. Their expectation was not
fulfill by the employee of public sector department, because the Front line employee public sector
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Vol. 2016.1.2; pp. 15-21, ISSN: 2456-4516
department do not understand the need of customer. Public service department were lacking in
provide adequate internal system, optimum capacity to deliver service (Munhurrun, Bhiwajee, and
Naidoo, 2010). Customer satisfaction from the public sector services was measured through Peoples
Satisfaction Index. This index comprises 14 items specified in the Apparatus of Empowerment
Ministry. Customer gave highest score to even service charge means that the consumer/public needs
transparency to the cost of service of government services Customer perceive lowest element in
public service in terms of speed of service. Overall result show that service quality was of B grade in
public sector (Hadiyati, 2014).
To stay competitive it is very important for public sector department to understand the
customer need and design the customer service accordingly. Public sector department should be aware
about all service objects for customer, after that must know how their customers are and use scientific
method to identify the customer need. The public department only provides quality service to
customer when it merges the customer expectation or need with the department service policy. To be
competitive in business environment public sector also need to focus on customer oriented service
system just like the private sector (Chih-Tung Hsiao and Jie-Shin Lin, 2008).
3.1 Service Quality of Public Sector Banks
There is gap found in the customer expectation and perception about the service
quality of the public sector banks as compare to the private sector. Service quality gap revealed that
the public services are not able to satisfy customer need. It means employees do not understand the
need of the customer. Study also asses the perception of front line employee and expectation of
customer towards the service quality of public sector. This Gap is termed as service provider gap.
Service provider were lacking in provide adequate internal system, optimum capacity to deliver
service (Munhurrun, Bhiwajee, and Naidoo, 2010). A comparative study was carried out to find the
customer satisfaction from the service quality on public and private sector bank in India through
SERVQUAL method. It was found that service quality of private sector banks was superior to public
sector banks. Because private scoter banks have more modern equipment therefore customer of
private sector banks are more satisfied as compare to public sector. Also customer was satisfied with
the private bank employee behavior (Gupt, Mishra and Rahman, 2013). A study on Sepah Bank
branch in Tehran, Iran found that Banks performance was higher than expected by the customer, but
its service quality does not satisfy customers expectations. It was also found that Customer
satisfaction and loyalty from services are affected by the five dimension of service quality that was
Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurances, Empathy and Tangibles. These dimension ere categorize into
two general dimension, result dimension (reliability) and processed dimension (Responsiveness,
Assurances, Empathy and Tangibles). In other words processed dimensions are positivity relate with
customer satisfaction and loyalty (Mosahab, Mahamad and Ramayah, 2010).
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Vol. 2016.1.2; pp. 15-21, ISSN: 2456-4516
3.2 Service Quality of Government Hospitals
Indian health care service is rank at the second place in the worlds. But various study
on the service quality reveled an entire different picture. An empirical study on service quality of four
homeopathic hospitals in West Bengal was found difference between perceptions and expectations of
patients towards service quality of four government homeopathy hospitals. Perceived quality of
services was lower than expectations that mean service provider does not meet the need of patients.
Thus significant service gaps exists government homeopathy hospitals (Koley, Saha, Arya, Choubey,
Ghosh, Das, Ganguly, Dey, Ghosh, Nag, Ali, Saha, Bhattacharyya and Singh, 2015). However the
expectation of management and patient also do not match. There is gap exist between the
management perception about the patients expectation and patients expectation about the service
quality of hospitals. These gaps indicate that doctor that represents the management was not clearly
understand or meeting the customer patients expectation towards the service quality of the hospitals
(Kavitha, 2012). A research on two city of Gujarat state reveled similar result as customer expectation
accedes the customer perception towards the service quality of public and private hospital. Through
the semi-structured questioner consist of 41 statements under 5 heads namely the Physical Aspects,
Encounter, Process and Policy and reliability. Public hospital was only good in terms of reliability and
not good in any other dimension as comparing to private hospital. Thus it can be conclude that service
quality of public hospital was not better than private hospital (Brahmbhatt, Baser and Joshi, 2011). In
healthcare sector reliability dimension is the most crucial factor influencing service quality. And
overall service quality is related with the customer satisfaction. Service quality was measured the
patients' expectations and perceptions toward the service quality of the health sector. Thus by
systematic assessment of patients' perceived service quality and their satisfaction, it is possible to
design the marketing strategy for health care services over time (Ramez, 2012). There is clear
difference in the service quality of private and government hospital. Most of the people receive
medical services from private hospital and perceive the service quality of private hospital is much
better than government hospital (Karekar, Tiwari and Agrawal 2014).
3.3 Service Quality of Government Schools
Satisfactions of students also depend on the service quality of school. It was found the
all dimension of service quality was positively related with the student satisfaction accept empathy
(Bharwana, Bashir, Mohsin, 2013). There was research on Indian public and private schools in urban
Lucknow district of UP. Through comparative study of the service quality of three different type of
school that was government school, private added school and private non-added school. It was found
that government school and private added school are good in cost efficiency but private no-added
school are best in quality service offer. Service quality of government school was fund satisfactory but
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Vol. 2016.1.2; pp. 15-21, ISSN: 2456-4516
less than private school (Kingdon 1996).Study on private sector higher education intuition provide
evidence that student satisfaction was positively related with the overall service quality of private
higher education institution and its dimensions such tangibility, assurance, reliability, responsiveness,
and empathy. The student satisfaction was accounted more by apathy. Empathy and assurance was
the most critical factor of service quality in private institution for student satisfaction. Even the
relation of student and overall service quality was stronger. Also all the dimensions are highly
correlated and very significant with one another. Thus by improving service quality, it may potentially
improve the students satisfaction (Hasan, Ilias, Rahman and Razak, 2008). It is possible only when
present level of service quality of higher education is known. For that an instrument called Higher
Education Service Quality (HiEdQUAL) was developed through in-depth interview, focus group and
expert opinion an instrument was prepared to measure service quality especially in higher education.
It was validated by survey of 358 questioners with 87.3% response rate. It includes six factors labeled
as Teaching and Course content, Administrative Services, Academic Facilities, Campus Infrastructure,
Internationalization and Support Services. After confirmatory factor analysis final HiEdQUAL scale,
consisting of 27 items loaded into five factors emerged (Annamdevula and Bellamkonda, 2012).
An another study on the Florida residents has been carried out to find the basis of the
perception about the service quality of the local school with the help of two sample one of those
parents having school age children and other parents those children are not at school age. It was found
that direct experience with school and information provided to citizens through public accountability
system both have influence on citizens perception. But strong relation found between the perception
and expectation of parent having school going children. Thus people those having direct experience of
service is right sample to evaluate service quality (Chingos, Henderson, and West, 2012).
3. Reasons behind Poor Service Quality of Public Sector
Many comparative studies were carried out between public sector and private sector
organization. Most of the results highlight poor service quality of public sector. There are some of the
factors/ courses responsible for their low quality of services.
1. Less Speed of service- speed is one factor that customer prefer to avail service. Customer
provide lowest grade to speed (Hadiyati, 2014) of government service especially in case of
hospitals.
2. Absence of Add-on services- private sector provides add-on services, customize service to
customer. Public sector lacks in this type of service.
3. Insufficient Equipments and resources- comparing to private sector public sector are less
equipped or resource less. Lacing of resource hinders the capability of public sector to meet
the need of customer. Whereas private sector are well equipped and technically efficient.

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Vol. 2016.1.2; pp. 15-21, ISSN: 2456-4516
4. Poor management efficiency- management of public sector organization was not efficient as
compare to private sector. Due to corruption, autocratic style, inflexibility in management
service quality of public sector remains poor.
5. Lack of transparency- working environment of public sector was not transparent. Lack of
discloser of material facts and other information becomes drawback to earn public trust. Thus
customer assumes their service unable to meet quality standard.
4. Conclusion
Research object was to find service quality of public sector and related customer
satisfaction from that service. Evidence from three different service sector school, hospital and bank
found that service quality of public sector organization was not so good or it was less then private
sector organization.

There was significant relationship between service quality and customer

satisfaction. In that context satisfaction of customer was also low from service quality of public sector
organization. Reasons behind poor service quality of public sector organization was lack of resource,
poor management, low transparency and lack of customize services. It has been suggested that by
improving the service quality it is possible to improve customer satisfaction I public sector
organization.
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