Service Quality &amp; its Impact on Citizen Service Satisfaction: With Reference to Governance in Karnataka, India

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2066108/v1

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Service Quality & its Impact on Citizen Service Satisfaction: With Reference to Governance in Karnataka, India

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Good Governance is essential for socio-economic sustainability. Delivery of government/citizen services to citizens is the main functionality of any government. For measuring the success of government and their governance well-structured theory is necessary which could assist governments to improve the quality of their services and identify the factors which could enhance the citizen service satisfaction. This research provides understanding about citizen perception of service quality with regard to Government of Karnataka’s service delivery system under ‘Right to Service Act’. The right to service act ensures in-time delivery of notified government/citizen services to citizens. The right to service is act in Karnataka is named as ‘The Karnataka Sakala Services Act, 2011 and (Amendment) Act, 2014’ popularly known as ‘Sakala’. The word Sakala is derived from state’s official language ‘Kannada’ which means in ‘in-time’ or ‘good time’. It has been over a decade since implementation of this act in the state and as on August 2022 the government of Karnataka has been delivering 1124 services through 99 government institutions under this act at intime disposition rate of 95.06%, highest ever in the country when compared with 24 other states and 5 union territories of India which have already adapted the Right to Service Act. However, the cumulative statistical evidence shows that the service rejection rate in Karnataka has been 6.41% and delayed disposition rate has been 4.94%. Therefore, it becomes necessary to gauge the quality of service delivered by Government of Karnataka under Right to service act. A survey was conducted and 1027 valid responses were received. The study found that factors Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy are the primary determinants of functional quality whereas the factors Valence & Waiting Time are the primary determinants of technical quality. Thus, functional quality and technical quality contributing as dimension of service quality. This research is of high value to scholars who are interested in the area of government service delivery system in India and other developing countries where government delivers its services to citizens through citizen charter, stipulated time line or through right to service act.

Right to Service

Citizen Charter

Sakala

Stipulated time

e-Governance

in-time service

Government Service

Citizen Service

Service Quality

Service Satisfaction

Transparency, Accountability and responsiveness of the administration are the three crucial aspects of good governance. Efficient and prompt service delivery has always been a matter of concern for Governments. Citizens who are entitled to avail hassle free & timely public service have to face a lot of problems and obstructions to receive the needy service mainly because of the bureaucratic apathy, red-tapism & unjustified delays. ‘Right to Service Act’ is a response to the quest for solving problems which citizens face day-in & day-out while availing the services from Government institutions. The act enshrines the trust between the Government’s service providing institution/department and the service availing citizens. The concept of ‘Right to Service’ was first articulated through Citizen’s Charter in United Kingdom in the year 1991 with a national programme to gradually improve the quality of public services delivered by the government organizations and institutions. The charter focused on 6 principles, which included improving the quality of public service delivery system, Setting up standards in service delivery in-terms of what to expect and how to approach when an government organization fails to meet the standards, introduction of choices and alternatives wherever possible in the service work flow, valuing the tax payers money, accountability of officials and government organizations, Transparency in handling government rules, procedures, schemes and grievances. The objective of citizen’s charter was to strengthen the position of citizens while availing the public services. In the year 1981 the same program was re-launched with name “Services-First”, with a focus to deliver public services which align to the needs of the citizens. The Service first followed nine principles in United Kingdom – Setting up service delivery standards, Government encouraged openness and delivery of full information associated with services, encouraged consultation and involvement of citizens, ease of access, fair treatment to all individuals, setting things right when they go wrong, effective utilization of resources, innovative and improved service delivery and work in synchronization with other service providers.

Prior to the implementation of right to service act in India, citizens had to move from pillar to post to avail the basic government/citizen services as there was no time limit fixed for delivery of these services. The government services include from issuance of ‘Birth certificate’, ‘Diploma certificate’, ‘Marriage certificate’, ’Registration of land/property’, ‘Old age Pension’ to issuance of ‘Death certificate’. These services cover issuance and verification of all the important documents necessary for citizens of a country, thus covering services associated with all the major events of an individual’s life cycle. The Government of India thus felt necessity to introduce service delivery reforms. In India the Citizen’s Charter was structured with similar principles of that of United Kingdom. The process began with the inclusion of sectors which had greater public interfaces. The Charter were expected to include, service delivery standards, stipulated time for delivery of these services, and grievance redressal models. The instructions/guidelines for structuring the charter were provided by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, India. The country legislated Citizen’s rights & in the year 2005 the country passed a Right to Information Act and also declared right to food, education, housing among others. The state of Madhya Pradesh was the first state government to implement “Right to Service Act in India”. The states of Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka followed by other states gradually started to pass the ‘Right to Service’ bill. Till the first half of 2022 ‘Right to Service Act’ has been adapted by 24 states and 5 union territories. The state of Karnataka has been the most successful state delivering highest number of notified services under this act with highest ever service in-time disposal rate of 95.06%. There has been instance where various teams representing different state governments have visited Government of Karnataka to study and replicate the formula of successful implementation of right to service act. The popular visits include visit by government of Bihar (2014), visit by Government of Assam (2019) and Visit by Government of Tamil Nadu(2022). The major impact of right to service act has been provided in Table I

As on 30-06-2022 the state has received over 276,063,319 service request applications and disposed 274,311,533 applications. This research shall access quality of service delivered by the government and the service satisfaction achieved by citizens by availing services under this act in Karnataka. And based on the survey inputs a model shall be developed to understand the relation between quality of service delivered and its impact on service satisfaction.

The foundation to understand, measure and improve service quality was laid by the research and study conducted by Shostack (1982, 1984), Gronroos (1984) & Parasuraman et al. (1985). Perceived service quality model (Groonroos 1984,1990) and SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1985) were the two models to gain maximum attention among the research scholars. It has been suggested that ‘perceived service quality model’ replaces the product feature of physical product during consumption of services (Groonroos, 1988). Further two service quality dimensions have been identified by Gronroos, which include the functional aspect involving “how” service has been delivered and technical aspect “what” service has been provided. Consumers perceive what they receive as process outcome of service delivery in which resources have been utilized i.e. technical/outcome quality dimension of the service delivery process. At the same time consumers also perceive how the process itself functions, i.e functional or process quality dimension. For some services like that of health care it would be difficult for patient/consumer to evaluate technical dimension of service quality as immediate results of a treatment. Lacking ability to access technical quality consumers rely upon functional dimension of service quality “how’s” of health care service delivery system. The functional factors like reliability and empathy would be handy under such circumstances.

Service quality is based on multiple dimensions (Groonroos, 1984, 1990; Parasuraman et al., 1985), also there is no consistency in agreement to nature and content of these dimensions (Cronin & Brady, 2001). European scholars have exerted greater influence on study of dimensions of service quality. Functional quality, Technical quality and image have been considered as three dimensions of service quality(Kang & James, 2004). Service quality has been defined in-terms of interactive quality, physical quality and corporate (image) quality (Lehtinen & Lehtinen, 1982). Interactive quality relates to interactive nature or two-way flow of interactions involved with service whereas, physical quality relates to tangible aspects of service delivery and corporate quality is about image attribute of service provided by its current as well as potential customers. It has also been suggested that image quality is tended to be more stable with time.

The major focus on functional quality is the main criticism of SERVQUAL model (Baker & Lamb, 1993). The dimensions of service quality were synthesized by illustrating the research work on service quality dimensions by Groonroos (1984) and Lehtinen (1982). The important contribution was identification of service quality based on literature study and categorizing then to “what” – service evaluation post its delivery and “how” – evaluation of service during the delivery process. The research work of Swartz (2003) does not reflect the work of Groonroos. Recent conceptualization of service quality has been proposed by Rust and Oliver (1994). The model was a 3-dimensional model which emphasizes on consumer’s evaluation of 3 dimensions of the service encounter: a) Customer employee interaction (function quality); b) Service environment and c) outcome (technical quality). The research suggests that service environment affects the perception about service quality (Spangenberg et al., 1996). However, it is not easy to distinguish the notion of service environment from functional quality which has been suggested in the literature. Brady & Cronin (2001) had proposed 4 factors comprising the service environment, facility design, ambient condition and social factors. The explanation stated by Brady & Cronin (2001) tells that service environments are actually the elements of the service delivery system. To summarize it seems favorable to include the elements of service-environment as components of functional dimensions.

Technical quality attributes are least explored (Wilkins et al., 2007; Wu & Ko, 2013; Yu & Ramanathan, 2012). The literature suggests that most of the researcher scholars have ignored technical dimension of service quality (Ladhari, 2012; Tamwatin et al., 2016). However, a few scholars have conducted qualitative studies to develop the factors of technical quality (Brady & Cronin, 2001; Ladhari, 2012). For instance, Powpaka (1996) conducted in-depth study to analyze pertinent dimensions of technical quality followed by open-ended surveys conducted by Brady and Cronin (2001). Wu and Ko (2013) proposed three dimensions of technical/outcome quality which are presented as follows: a) Sociability: It refers to the number, type and behavior of the people within the service-setting. b) Valence: It refers to customers’ post-consumption assessments of whether the service outcome is acceptable or unacceptable. c)Waiting time: It refers to the amount of time that customers spend waiting to be served.

There have been various studies carried out either by supporting or challenging the existing models or by adding knew knowledge to the existing repository. The importance of e-Governance in upholding government’s accountability & transparency has been vital and a system of rewards has been put in place in most of the states of India (Chandra & Malaya, 2011). Government of India's interoperability to uphold citizen centric service delivery system has been commendable. The integration of Enterprise architecture concept with technology in e-Governance has been well planned (Paul & Paul, 2012). Digitizing government services by redefining, restructuring outdated service delivery process with the help of information & communication technology to provide more citizen centric service delivery system is necessary and government process re-engineering has been the key (Shwetha & Muralidhar,2018). e-Governance has three main contributors which include e-administration, e-citizens, e-services and e-society. Services must be aligned with hanging needs of citizens and stake holders to develop the economy of the country (Wang & Hou, 2010). Effective implementation of e-Governance services in India considering the poverty, awareness, literacy, basic infrastructure, bandwidth, multilingual and cultural issues has been challenging (Gupta & Bansal, 2013). Availability of information remains key in good governance, which can be achieved only through good co-ordination between sub departments (Singh & Bhatia, 2016). The dimensions of service quality are mutually re-enforcing (Garvin, 1987). Whenever a survey is done to measure service quality and satisfaction dimensions, it has been found that respondents give replies on the spur of the moment and not always right. To ensure correctness of the survey and also the consistency in the replies of the respondents, similar questions have been posed to the respondents under justified dimensions to get most reliable answer Diener (1985).

Very few studies have been carried out related to Government service delivery in developing countries like India and the studies which have been conducted have focused on government perspective rather than the citizen perspective (Lee et al, 2011). Therefore, there is a need to carry out greater number of research and bring about reform in government’s citizen service delivery system by examining the exiting models and developing new models to address the government service delivery challenges faced by the developing countries across the globe.

The core of the Karnataka’s right to service act has been captured as– “The services notified under the act shall be disposed within the stipulated time frame. In case of default the applicant is empowered to raise an appeal and obtain compensation for the delay. The paid compensation is recovered from the salary of the defaulting designated-officer, in instances where it is proved. The compensation for delay is fixed as Indian Rs. 20/ day upto a threshold of Rs.500/.

Government has provided multiple platforms to avail these services – there are more than 543 online services in Sakala which can be applied through government’s online platform known as Sevasindhu. Applicant can physically go the designated office and apply for the service or visit various government authorized service delivery centres and raise service application. Government has also facilitated home delivery of citizen services through its initiative known as ‘Janasevaka’, which is available in selected locations. Applicant must make a phone call to government’s helpline number and book a slot, the government’s representative known as ‘Janasevaka’ will visit the applicant’s house, receive the documents by providing acknowledgment and within the stipulated time deliver the service certificate to the applicant. It is duty of the applicants to provide their cell phone numbers at time of registration for government/citizen services, by doing so applicant shall be intimidated about the interim status of their service request through an automated process. The system is so sophisticated that every time a service request is made a 15-digit unique acknowledgement number gets generated. This number is popularly known as GSC (Guarantee of Services to Citizen) number/Sakala number. This GSC number helps applicant to track status of their service application either by visiting the Sakala website and entering the GSC at provided text fields or by calling the helpline number. Applicant can directly track the reason for delay and rejection. If approved, applicant can either download or receive the service certificate manually. The Sakala online system has self-registered cell-phone numbers of all the 31,496 designated officers of government departments respectively and the system automatically send, the service due for disposal reminders on twice a day basis to the cell-phone numbers of designated officers. Hence ensuring smooth flow of service delivery process (Figure:1).

A survey was conducted to evaluate the service-satisfaction among citizens who had applied for service through Sakala. As many as 27 variables were included in a survey instrument in order to access the quality of service delivered. These variables were developed and categorized under 7 factors based on various literature review outcome. These 7 factors were categorized under two dimensions functional quality and technical quality which influenced the quality of service delivered to citizens. Focus interview was carried out with public servants involved in service delivery process. A 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was used for rating service quality variables. The details of 7 factors and 27 variables mapped to them are provided below .(Table II).

4.1 Data Collection

The sample population were citizens who had applied/availed for citizen services through Sakala. To ensure credibility of response received, the respondents were requested to share their unique 15-digit GSC number which they had received while raising application through Sakala. Sheets were circulated through digital medium as well as phone calls were made to applicants who had applied/availed for the citizen services through Sakala and response was collected. The valid sample size obtained was of 1027. As we had selected top 5 services for this survey it was ensured that at-least 200 survey response was collected for each mentioned service respectively. The details of services have been provided in Table III.

4.2 Data Analysis

Profile of the Respondents. The respondents included from all over the state of Karnataka. The demographic details of the respondents have been provided below (Table IV). Greater response was received from districts with greater population. Exploratory factor-analysis and Cronbach’s-Alpha tests have been conducted to test reliability and consistency of variables. The results are explained in Table V.

For extraction of factorial groups Kaiser criteria (1960) has been adopted. The criteria states that factors with eigen-value greater than one to be accepted. Therefore, factors with eigen-value greater than “1” and their obtained variance value have been provided in Table VI.

4.3 Regression Analysis

Regression analysis assists in predicting relationship between “dependable variables” and one or more “independent variables”. The outcome is represented by the dependent variable, while inputs/predictors are represented by the independent variables. Here the dependent variable is ‘Citizen Service Satisfaction’, whereas independent variables are ‘service quality’ which constitute functional quality as well as technical quality. Therefore, regression analysis is carried out with citizen service satisfaction on service quality and citizen service satisfaction on functional quality and technical quality. The results are provided below:

4.3.1 Citizen Service Satisfaction on Service Quality

On conducting regression analysis to analyse impact of service quality on citizen service satisfaction, as represented in table VII, it has been found that 74.3% association is existing between service quality and citizen service satisfaction. Also, it has been found that 55.2% of variation in citizen service satisfaction is captured by service quality. Regression model is significant, which indicates that citizen service satisfaction can be expressed as proportional change in service quality.

Therefore, CSS = β * SQ

CSS -> Citizen Service Satisfaction

SQ -> Service Quality

Constant value was insignificant & hence has been removed from the developed model. β coefficient corresponding to table VII is 0.743, this indicates that for every unit change in service quality, there shall be a corresponding change of 0.743 units in Citizen Service Satisfaction. It has been found that model is significant.

4.3.2 Citizen Service Satisfaction on Functional Quality &Technical Quality

On conducting regression analysis to assess the impact of functional quality and information quality on citizen service satisfaction as represented in table VIII, it is found that 74.4% association exists between functional quality and technical quality on Citizen service satisfaction. Also, it has been found that 55.2% of variation in citizen service satisfaction is captured by functional quality and technical quality. Regression model is significant and indicates that citizen service satisfaction can be expressed as proportional change in functional quality and technical quality.

Therefore, CSS = β1 x FQ + β2 x TQ

CSS -> Citizen Service Satisfaction

FQ -> Functional Quality

TQ -> Technical Quality

The constant was insignificant hence removed from existing model. From table VIII, it can be noted that the β coefficient corresponding to functional quality is equal to .457, this indicates that for every unit change in functional quality there will be a corresponding change of 0.457 units in citizen service satisfaction. It can also be noted that β coefficient corresponding to technical quality is equal to 0.294, this indicates that for every unit change in technical quality there will be a corresponding change of 0.294 units in citizen service satisfaction. Hence, we infer that contribution of functional quality and technical quality are significant to citizen service satisfaction. However, functional quality has a greater impact on citizen service satisfaction when compared with impact of technical quality.

From the research mean and standard deviation values it is evident that a larger part of the applicants are satisfied with the quality of service provided by the government. Citizens have expressed their faith in government of Karnataka’s right to service act. The research suggests that government can further enhance the level of service satisfaction among the citizens by providing accurate justifications for delays as well as rejection of service applications.

The functional quality had 5 factors and among these 5 factors, ‘Responsiveness’ has been the factor which explains 82.555% of the variance and has maximum impact on Government’s Right to service delivery system as justified in table VI. The service delivery helpline number has been effective in assisting applicants at various stages of service delivery and Government’s citizen query resolving online platform has helped many citizens to resolve their queries associated with service delivery system. The willingness of the officials and query resolving system of the government involved in service delivery has been effective in providing prompt service to the citizens. “Responsiveness” has also been found to be crucial indicator of service quality in a research study conducted by Griffith & Krampf (1998).

The next factor which has greater impact on functional quality has been Assurance. The factor explains 82.385% of the variance. The government initiatives like home delivery of Government services within stipulated time, online system to apply and download the services, quick assistance through email communication has assured citizens of receiving the service within stipulated time and hence this factor has received second most importance as it talks about inspiring trust and confidence among the citizens.

Tangibility has been the third impactful factor, which explains 80.677% of the variance. The display of standardized workflow, information exhibiting display boards on office premises and visual notifications received by applicants related to status of their application on their handheld devices have been effective in helping applicants to track and know the status of their service applications, which further promotes transparency in service delivery system of the government.

Fourth impactful factor influencing functional quality has been Reliability, which explains 79.951% of the variance. The whole ‘Right to Service Act’ speaks about delivering the services in promised time by the government to its citizens and the statistics prove that Government of Karnataka has been successful in doing so through its in-time disposition rate of 95.06%. This clearly proves that the service delivery system has been accurate as well as dependable and hence citizens feel the Government’s service delivery system is reliable. The finding of this study is in track with study conducted by Wolfinbarger and Gilly,2003 who defined reliability as prominent predictor of service satisfaction, quality & also a predictor of loyalty among customers to reutilize/reapply the service.

The fifth factor to influence functional quality of service delivery has been Empathy which explains 77.201 of the variances. Government’s citizen friendly initiatives like ‘Citizen Happiness Index’ – Where government makes a feedback call to citizen with help of call centre executives and asks citizen to rate the service received by them has been one of the most unique and first of its kind initiatives of Government in India where Government actually reaches the citizen to know about the quality of service received by them. ‘Sakala Mitra’ (The word Mitra in kannada as well as hindi language means friend)– this is the initiative of Government of Karnataka where volunteers assigned by the government create awareness about government’s service-related initiatives through door-to-door campaigns. Through this initiative Government is also conducting citizen requirement survey to access the needs of the citizens. These initiatives of government have been successful to provide individual attention to its citizens requirement and needs.

The above mentioned five factors of functional quality help us to understand that government of Karnataka has been successful in implementation of Right to Service Act within the state and also inspire trust and confidence among its citizens.

The second dimension influencing service quality has been technical quality which is largely influenced by two factors valence and waiting time.

The factor ‘Waiting Time’ had a greater impact on technical quality. The factor explains 83.865% of the variance. The main purpose of “Right to Service Act’ has been in-time delivery of services to its citizens. Sakala has ensured that citizens are receiving services in-time through providing exclusive timelines to each of its services and introduction of digitization in service delivery process has further assured that these services reach citizen at quicker phase. Sakala has also been flexible in amending the timelines for services with assistance of Government process re-engineering of these services. All these initiatives assure that the waiting time of service delivery is reduced with advancement of technology.

Valence is post consumption assessment of service delivery which influences technical quality. Valence explains 78.253% of the variance. The Right to service act has been exclusive “for the people” initiative by the Government. The pre-defined time line and mechanism to file appeal in case of defaults through self-raised appeal system has ensured that citizens get justification for disposal of their applications. The measures under this act have standardized the workflow for service delivery and introduced transparency to certain extent in the service delivery system as a result more than 260,760,543 citizens have been benefited by receiving their services within promised stipulated time by the government.

All these results highlight that government has been able to provide greater service satisfaction to its citizens by enhancing the quality-of-service delivery. The efforts of Government in enhancing the quality of services delivered have been citizen oriented. The initiatives of Government of Karnataka under Sakala- Right to Service Act are benchmark for other governments delivering services under “Right to Service Act”, Citizen Charter or any such acts or initiatives.

Challenges faced by Government and further scope for research

From the year 2017 the Government of Karnataka has shifted its focus towards digitization of services through its e-Governance initiatives. Digitization has had its advantages as well as dis-advantages. The main advantage is of faceless and cashless delivery of services to citizens. Citizens can apply from the place of their comfort through their handheld or desktop devices for these services. The digitization has also caused an alarming trend in rejection of applications. Prior to year 2017 the states average cumulative rejection rate was 5.77% (considering 2012-2016 data). However, since digitization the average rejection rate has increased to 8.52% (considering 2017- 2021 data), it has been found that larger part of increase in the rejection rate is due to incomplete or unclear documents uploaded by applicants while applying for these online services. Hence IT literacy plays a crucial role in such cases. The use of sophisticated technological equipment’s, scanners, printers, monitors especially in some parts of rural Karnataka is directly proportional to IT literacy in those areas. With Government planning to increase the number of end-to-end online services, introduction of self-help Kiosks to enhance the user experience of availing services, IT literacy would play a crucial part in success of these initiatives and this shall be major scope for research scholars as we move forward.

This study is of paramount importance to personnel associated with government service delivery system as this study assists officials in understanding the common perception of citizens in defining factors influencing the service quality as well as its impact on achieved service satisfaction. The results obtained from this research will be beacon for officials of Government, future research scholars to understand the importance of Government’s service delivery system and factors which contribute in enhancing the quality of service delivered to citizens.

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Table I: Impact of Right to service act

Situation prior to implementation of right to service act	Situation after implementation of right to service act
Lack of accountability among officials	Designated officers are held responsible for delivery of service
No separate mechanism or body to monitor the service delivery	Government has constituted an exclusive organization called as Sakala Mission to monitor the time line of service delivery
No timeline fixed for delivery of services and no compulsion for justification of rejections	Each notified service has its own stipulated time and officials are instructed to provide justification for rejections.
No appeal process against delay or rejections	Each service has competent officer as well as appellate authority to address the appeals raised against delays and unjustified rejections
Lack of transparency in service delivery system	The application status can be tracked online
No appreciation for better performing officers	Better performing officials are acknowledged and appreciation certificates are issued on regular basis.
Complex procedure to avail services	Simplified and standardized service delivery system with predefined workflow for each of the notified services.

Table II: Details of variables and factors

S.N	Independent variables which constitute factors	Factors which contribute to dimensions of service quality	Dimensions Constituting Service Quality	Influencing
VAR01	Standardized Work flow -defined for every sakala notified service by the government	Tangibility - Visual appearance and Physical facilities (Parasuraman et al., 1985)	Functional Quality	Service Quality
VAR02	Display Boards exhibited in designated offices of Government
VAR03	Visual Service Notification – status updates received on mobile phones
VAR04	Service Status Tracking – Web based service (Visual Appeal)
VAR05	Accuracy at which service is approved	Reliability- Perform promised service accurately and dependably (Parasuraman et al., 1985)
VAR06	Accuracy at which service delivered
VAR07	Service delivery is reliable under Sakala
VAR08	Service delivery under Sakala instils confidence
VAR09	Quality of Service delivered under Sakala was able to meet the in-time needs	Responsiveness- Willingness to help, assist and provide prompt service (Parasuraman et al., 1985)
VAR10	Assistance received while availing the service
VAR11	Designated officers/officials’ willingness to support while availing the service
VAR12	Public servants/representatives treated you Chivalrously	Assurance- Courtesy of employees, knowledge and ability to inspire trust and confidence. (Parasuraman et al., 1985)
VAR13	Did you feel safe while doing transaction through Government’s service delivery system
VAR14	Quality of information communicated by the department while availing service
VAR15	Government’s ability to resolve the service-related queries	Empathy-Individualized attention provided by firm to customers and care. (Parasuraman et al., 1985)
VAR16	Assistance received while availing service
VAR17	Sakala delivers services which meet citizen requirements
VAR18	Sakala understands citizen specific needs
VAR19	Sakala values interest of citizens
VAR20	Rate the experience of availing service through Sakala	Valence - It refers to post consumption assessments of whether the service outcome is acceptable or unacceptable. (Wu& Ko,2013)	Technical Quality
VAR21	Provide rating for department involved in service delivery
VAR22	Provide rating to public servant/representative who disposed or involved in disposal of your service application
VAR23	Promptness of delivered service
VAR24	Your willingness to re-apply for services through Sakala
VAR25	Was the service disposed in promised time	Waiting Time – It refers to the amount of time that customer spend waiting to be served. (Wu& Ko,2013)
VAR26	Accuracy of Sakala in claiming to be a in-time service delivering entity
VAR27	Rate Sakala as a dependable service delivering system

Table III: Details of top 5 services with highest application in-take selected for this survey

Service Name	Stipulated time notified for disposal of service (as on August 2022)	Department Name (January 2019 to September 2021)	Applications Received (January 2019 to September 2021)
Caste Certificate	21 working days	Revenue Department	7,918,783
Registration of Land or property	1 working day	Inspector General of Registration and Stamps (IGRS)	5,322,018
Modification in Ration Card	7 working days	Food, civil supplies, consumer affairs and legal metrology department	4,261,575
Income Certificate	21 working days	Revenue Department	3,864,428
Issue of Bus Pass to School Children	15 working days	Transport Department	2,991,593

Table IV. Demographic details of Respondents who participated in the survey

District Name	Respondents Percentage wise distribution	District Name	Respondents Percentage wise distribution
Bengaluru Urban	26.87%	Chikkamagaluru	1.36%
Mysuru	11.00%	Koppal	1.36%
Dakshina Kannada	9.93%	Tumakuru	1.27%
Belagavi	9.06%	Raichur	1.17%
Bengaluru Rural	5.74%	Uttara Kannada	1.17%
Vijayapura	3.51%	Chitradurga	0.88%
Bidar	3.41%	Kalaburagi	0.88%
Yadgir	3.12%	Kolar	0.88%
Hassan	3.02%	Shivamogga	0.88%
Chamarajanagar	2.73%	Ballari	0.78%
Mandya	2.34%	Kodagu	0.78%
Haveri	1.95%	Davanagere	0.39%
Bagalkot	1.75%	Udupi	0.29%
Dharwad	1.75%	Total	100%
Gadag	1.75%

Table V. Descriptive statistics, communalities and Cronbach’s Alpha values for Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, Valence, and waiting time

Descriptive Statistics of Tangibility & Communalities of Tangibility
S.N	Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Initial	Extraction	Factor Loading	Cronbach's Alpha
VAR01	Tangibility	3.18	1.112	1.000	.825	.908	.920
VAR02		3.20	1.091	1.000	.787	.887
VAR03		3.22	1.110	1.000	.806	.898
VAR04		3.33	1.174	1.000	.809	.900
For the factor Tangibility, communalities values have been greater than .5. Component-matrix value squared for an item gives the value of communalities for that item/variable. For the item “Standardized Work flow -defined for every sakala notified service by the government” component matrix value is of .908, when squared indicates 82.5% of variance in item VAR01 is explained by factor 1 we retained (regression r square is correlation square which indicates the amount of variance which was accounted for). This comes to .825 which is the value of communalities for same item. Similarly, relationship holds good for all the other items.
Descriptive Statistics of Reliability and Communalities of Reliability
S.N	Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Initial	Extraction	Factor Loading	Cronbach's Alpha
VAR05	Reliability	3.20	1.107	1.000	.799	.894	.916
VAR06		3.26	1.124	1.000	.802	.895
VAR07		3.21	1.117	1.000	.786	.887
VAR08		3.29	1.053	1.000	.811	.901
For the factor reliability, communalities values have been greater than .5. Component-matrix value squared for an item gives the value of communalities for that item/variable. For the item “Service delivery under Sakala instils confidence” component matrix value is of .901, when squared indicates 81.1% of variance in item VAR08 is explained by factor 2 we retained (regression r square is correlation square which indicates the amount of variance which was accounted for). This comes to .811 which is the value of communalities for same item. Similarly, relationship holds good for all the other items.
Descriptive Statistics of Responsiveness and Communalities of Responsiveness
S.N	Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Initial	Extraction	Factor Loading	Cronbach's Alpha
VAR09	Responsiveness	3.23	1.092	1.000	.818	.904	.894
VAR10		3.24	1.088	1.000	.828	.910
VAR11		3.25	1.098	1.000	.831	.912
For the factor responsiveness, communalities values have been greater than .5. Component-matrix value squared for an item gives the value of communalities for that item/variable. For the item “Designated officers/officials’ willingness to support while availing the service” component matrix value is of .912, when squared indicates 83.1% of variance in item VAR11 is explained by factor 3 we retained (regression r square is correlation square which indicates the amount of variance which was accounted for). This comes to .831 which is the value of communalities for same item. Similarly, relationship holds good for all the other items.
Descriptive Statistics of Assurance and Communalities of Assurance
S.N	Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Initial	Extraction	Factor Loading	Cronbach's Alpha
VAR12	Assurance	3.26	1.119	1.000	.819	.905	.893
VAR13		3.22	1.088	1.000	.824	.908
VAR14		3.23	1.100	1.000	.829	.910
For the factor assurance, communalities values have been greater than .5. Component-matrix value squared for an item gives the value of communalities for that item/variable. For the item “Quality of information communicated by the department while availing service” component matrix value is of .910, when squared indicates 82.9% of variance in item VAR14 is explained by factor 4 we retained (regression r square is correlation square which indicates the amount of variance which was accounted for). This comes to .829 which is the value of communalities for same item. Similarly, relationship holds good for all the other items.
Descriptive Statistics of Empathy and Communalities of Empathy
S.N	Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Initial	Extraction	Factor Loading	Cronbach's Alpha
VAR15	Empathy	3.21	1.089	1.000	.742	.861	.926
VAR16		3.26	1.089	1.000	.789	.888
VAR17		3.19	1.074	1.000	.779	.882
VAR18		3.25	1.098	1.000	.779	.883
VAR19		3.26	1.090	1.000	.771	.878
For the factor empathy, communalities values have been greater than .5. Component-matrix value squared for an item gives the value of communalities for that item/variable. For the item “Assistance received while availing service” component matrix value is of .888, when squared indicates 78.9% of variance in item VAR16 is explained by factor 5 we retained (regression r square is correlation square which indicates the amount of variance which was accounted for). This comes to .789 which is the value of communalities for same item. Similarly, relationship holds good for all the other items.
Descriptive Statistics of Valence and Communalities of Valence
S.N	Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Initial	Extraction	Factor Loading	Cronbach's Alpha
VAR20	Valence	3.19	1.201	1.000	.803	.896	.930
VAR21		3.20	1.091	1.000	.772	.878
VAR22		3.17	1.092	1.000	.768	.876
VAR23		3.29	1.163	1.000	.804	.897
VAR24		3.31	1.136	1.000	.766	.875
For the factor valence, communalities values have been greater than .5. Component-matrix value squared for an item gives the value of communalities for that item/variable. For the item “Promptness of delivered service” component matrix value is of .897, when squared indicates 80.4% of variance in item VAR23 is explained by factor 6 we retained (regression r square is correlation square which indicates the amount of variance which was accounted for). This comes to .804 which is the value of communalities for same item. Similarly, relationship holds good for all the other items.
Descriptive Statistics of Waiting Time and Communalities of Waiting Time
S.N	Factor	Mean	Standard Deviation	Initial	Extraction	Factor Loading	Cronbach's Alpha
VAR25	Waiting Time	3.25	1.203	1.000	.842	.917	.903
VAR26		3.22	1.131	1.000	.848	.921
VAR27		3.28	1.118	1.000	.826	.909
For the factor waiting Time, communalities values have been greater than .5. Component-matrix value squared for an item gives the value of communalities for that item/variable. For the item “Accuracy of Sakala in claiming to be an in-time service delivering entity” component matrix value is of .921, when squared indicates 84.8% of variance in item VAR26 is explained by factor 7 we retained (regression r square is correlation square which indicates the amount of variance which was accounted for). This comes to .848 which is the value of communalities for same item. Similarly, relationship holds good for all the other items.

Table VI. Variance Experienced for Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, Valence and Waiting Time

Dimension Constituting Service Quality

Functional Quality

Technical Quality

Factors

1 (Tangibility)

2 (Reliability)

3 (Responsiveness)

(Assurance)

(Empathy)

(Valence)

(Waiting Time)

Variance Experienced (%)

80.677%

79.951%

82.555%

82.385%

77.201%

78.253%

83.865%

Table VII: Impact of Service Quality on Citizen Service Satisfaction – Regression Analysis Results

Correlation Coefficient ( R )	.743
Adjusted RSquare	.552
β Coefficient (t value, p value)	.743 (t = 35.552; p <.000)
ANOVA – f value (p value)	1263.910 (p <.001)

Table VIII: Impact of Functional Quality and Technical Quality on Citizen Service Satisfaction – Regression Analysis Results

Correlation Coefficient ( R )	.744
Adjusted RSquare	.552
β Coefficient (t value, p value)	Functional Quality is .457 (t = 6.082; p = <.001)
β Coefficient (t value, p value)	Technical Quality is .294 (t = 3.908; p < .001)
ANOVA – f value (p value)	633.042 (p < 0.001)

No competing interests reported.

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Service Quality & its Impact on Citizen Service Satisfaction: With Reference to Governance in Karnataka, India

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Abstract

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1. Introduction

2. Review Of Literature On Service Quality & Satisfaction

3. An Overview Of Government Service Delivery In The State Of Karnataka

4. Research Methodology & Data Analysis

Discussion And Conclusion

References

Tables

Additional Declarations

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