CITIZENS' SATISFACTION WITH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AT
THE WARD PEOPLE’S COMMITTEES OF TAY HO DISTRICT

A Dissertation
Submitted to
Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration and
Central Philippine University Joint Program

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the degree
DOCTOR OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

By
HOANG VAN HAO

December 2016


i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is hard to imagine how this dissertation could have been completed without the
encouragement and support from my academic supervisor, family and friends.
Firstly, I wish to thank my academic supervisor, Dr. Reynaldo Dusaran. It is my
honor to receive his guide, suggestions and feedbacks on each chapter with great patience.
Although we live in two different countries, the academic discussion has not been
influenced. Both direct and indirect meetings between us have been really effective. These
have helped me improve my expertise and insights, which finally has improved the quality
of this study.
I am also deeply grateful to my family, who has provided me with unconditional
support throughout the whole process. Over the last four years, I have two sons. My wife
has taken the responsibility of taking care of our sons. She has never complained about it

vii

CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION

1

Background and Rationale of the Study

3

Objectives of the Study

7

Hypotheses

7

Theoretical Framework

8

Conceptual Framework

15

Operational Definitions

19

iii
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

46

Research Design

46

Population, Sample Size and Sampling Technique

48

Research Instruments

50

Data Gathering Procedure

59

Data Processing and Analysis

60

IV. DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Respondents’ Characteristics

62
62


REFERENCES

108

APPENDIXES

114


iv
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE

PAGE

1

Measuring Service Quality using SERVQUAL Model

12

2

Performance Only Model (SERVPERF)

14

3


LIST OF TABLES
TABLE

PAGE

1

List of Variables and Initial Items in the Survey Instrument

51

2

Results of Reliability Test of Scales

54

3

Result of the Seventh EFA with Scales of Independent Variables

56

4

Result of EFA for Citizens’ Satisfaction

57

5

10

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public Administrative

73

Services and Satisfaction by Gender
11

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public Administrative

74

Services and Satisfaction by Age
12

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public Administrative

75

Services and Satisfaction by Marital Status
13

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public Administrative

76

Services and Satisfaction by Educational Attainment
14



Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public Administrative

82

Services and Satisfaction by Paying Extra Fee
19

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public Administrative

83

Services and Satisfaction by Residence
20

Regression Results for Citizens’ Satisfaction

86


vii
ABSTRACT

CITIZENS' SATISFACTION WITH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AT
THE WARD PEOPLE’S COMMITTEES OF TAY HO DISTRICT

HOANG VAN HAO
This study was conducted to evaluate the citizens' satisfaction with public administrative
services at the Ward People’s Committees of Tay Ho District. The one-shot survey design
or the post-test only design was used to gather data from 440 randomly selected

1
CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Public administrative reform is an urgent as well as a lasting duty in order to step
by step build a clear and strong public administration which serves efficiently and
promotes greatly the process of reforming and developing the country. Administrative
procedures are an indispensable part in our social life. It is also a tool of the state in
administering the society and serving both organizations and individuals. After fifteen
years since the application of the comprehensive public administrative reform program, the
carrying out of administrative reform has had many positive changes, which have been
supported by most of the public. Basing on this, Hanoi People’s Committee in general and
Tay Ho District People’s Committee in particular, always set the requirement that they
should complete and improve the quality of serving citizens and operate the administrative
activities stably, quickly, effectively and legally.
Administrative procedure reform is not only one of the administrative reform
sectors but also the main program of the country. The carrying out of administrative
procedure simplification scheme on the fields of state management from 2007 to 2010
(Scheme 30) has importantly contributed to enhance the business environment, socioeconomic life and the process of global integration. Vietnam is continuing to promote the
program of reforming the administrative procedure in the period of 2010 - 2020 according
to the Governmental resolution, in which the duty of administrative procedure reform is
focused. Between 2011 and 2015, the administrative procedure reform has been


2
implemented to continue enhancing the business environment, boost all the social
resources and improve the competitiveness ability of the country, maintain the conditions
for the state economy to develop fast and sustainably. Hanoi City has been focusing on this
recently in order to contribute to the improvement of the citizens’ life standard, reduce the

carried out to find out the solutions to enhancing the quality of public services at grassroots
level with a hope to create more citizens’ satisfaction with public administrative services;
so that the citizens’ trust for the State management agencies can be enhanced.

Background and Rationale of the Study
Few would disagree with the premise that citizens want to be satisfied when
interacting with government. According to Oliver (1997:10), satisfaction itself was defined
as “a desirable end state of consumption and patronization” and “a reinforcing, pleasurable
experience.” Although this was mentioned by Oliver from a customer’s perspective, this
argument undoubtedly could be applied to citizens. Life satisfaction of citizens should be a
worthy goal for government.
In the academic researches on citizens’ satisfaction with government services,
while the emphases and perspectives kept varying (e.g., the ideal proxy for or measure of


4
satisfaction, models identifying process of the formation of satisfaction attitudes, the
primary outcomes of citizens’ satisfaction, to name a few), a popular theme penetrating a
majority of these works on this topic adopted the “performance - satisfaction - trust (or
confidence)” conceptual linkage (Bouckaert, Van de Walle, & Kampen, 2005; Fornell,
Johnson, Anderson, Cha, & Bryant, 1996; Heintzman & Marson, 2005; Van Ryzin, 2007).
Once satisfaction was determined, it in turn served as the main predictor of a series of
positive outcomes such as citizen trust on and confidence in government.
Despite the gained important results, public administration reform and
administrative procedure reform when compared to the requirements of the process of
innovation, socio-economic development and international integration, the speed of
administrative procedure reform has remained slow and not very effective. Public
administration has revealed some drawbacks. The administrative procedures have not been
simplified thoroughly. The clarity and openness have been still low; many administrative
procedures have still been improper, complex and troublesome to agencies as well as

recent years have had many advances in improving the quality of public administrative
service delivery, which concerns the public more than before. At the same time, applying
the administration and operation mechanism of quality management system according to


6
ISO 9001:2008 with a hope to providing the best service, creating favorable conditions for
the citizens and improve the effectiveness of public administration.
However, to evaluate the citizens’ satisfaction, Tay Ho District only participated
with Hanoi City to carry out a survey in a city general programme without having an
independent survey. For each district, Hanoi City selected only a unit (a commune, a ward
or a township) to collect the opinions. Therefore, determining the citizens’ satisfaction
towards the public administrative service at the wards belonging to Tay Ho District on a
larger scale (only referring to grassroots level) to solve the current drawbacks is a
meaningful research since the district and ward authorities have had many advances in
reforming activities towards the citizens. As a result, public administrative agencies should
understand and propose more practical solutions to meet the reasonable aspirations and
benefits of the citizens on the basis of implementing the social administrative functions and
duties of local authorities.
This study will carry out an evaluation of the citizens' satisfaction with the public
administrative services at grassroots level, which is a case study at Tay Ho District - Hanoi
(the delivery of the Ward People’s Committees).
This study is carried out to address these following research questions:
- How do citizens perceive public administrative services at the Ward People’s
Committees of Tay Ho District?
- What are the factors related to citizens’ satisfaction with public administrative
services at grassroots level?
- What are some recommendations for promoting the quality of public
administrative services at grassroots level as well as improving the citizens’ satisfaction?


attainment, occupation and monthly income, frequency of use, relationship, extra fee
payment and residence;
H2. There are no significant differences in the citizens’ perceptions of components
of public administrative services at the Ward People’s Committee of Tay Ho District
according to their personal characteristics;
H3. There is no significant relationship between the citizens’ perceptions of
components of public administrative services and the citizens’ satisfaction with the public
administrative services at the Ward People’s Committee of Tay Ho District;

Theoretical Framework
The topic of this dissertation is mainly focused on service quality and customer
satisfaction. So in this section, the dissertation proposal will review two models of
measurement of service quality and customer satisfaction.
SERVQUAL Model. The concept of SERVQUAL model is generally based on gap
theory of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985), which suggests that “the difference
between customers assessment of the actual performance of a specific firm within a
general class of service providers and their expectation about the performance of that class
(P-E gap) drives the perception of service quality.”
Service quality = Perception (of the attribute performance) - Customer expectation
(of the attribute performance)


9
k

SQi = Wj ( Pij  Eij )
j 1

Where:
SQi = SERVQUAL overall perceived quality of stimulus i

influence service quality perceptions by consumers.
Gap 5: Expected Service - Perceived service gap
From their study, it has showed that the key to ensuring good service quality is
meeting or exceeding what consumers expect from the service and that judgement of high
and low service quality depends on how consumers perceive the actual performance in the
context of what they expected.
SERVQUAL Dimensions. In 1988, Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml SERVQUAL
instrument consists of 22 attributes which can be classified into 5 dimensions: assurance,
tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, and empathy. The bases was on capturing the gap
between customers’ expectations and experience which could be negative or positive if the
expectation is higher than experience or expectation is less than or equal to experience,
respectively. These five dimensions are also known as RATER model with the
arrangement of Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness. The
explanation of each dimension is as follows:


11
- Reliability dimension: reflects the consistency and dependability of a firm’s
performance. In order to assess the service performance on this dimension, some questions
can be asked such as does the firm provide the same level of service time after time, or
does quality dramatically vary with each encounter? Does the firm keep its promises, bill
its customers accurately, keep accurate records, and perform the service correctly the first
time?
- Assurance dimension: addresses the competence of a firm, the courtesy it extends
to its customers, and the security of the service. This dimension refers to how a firm’s
personnel interact with customers and customers’ possession such as courtesy reflect
politeness, friendliness, and consideration for the customers’ property.
- Tangibility dimension: given the absence of a physical product, customers often
rely on the tangible evidence that surrounds the service in forming evaluation. This
dimension includes variety of objects such as desks, lighting, wall color, brochures,

expectation is negative, the customers are not satisfied. The smaller the gap between
attribute performance and customer expectation of the attribute is, the lower the quality is.
Therefore, there is more improvement needed for this attribute rather than others. As a
result, the priorities for improvement are associated with the magnitude of P-E gaps. The
larger the P-E gap is, the more benefits can be gained by closing the gap and the higher
priority to improve the attribute.
Many models of service quality, public service quality have been studied. These
models have both similarities and differences. Parasuraman and his colleagues (1991,
1993), said that SERVQUAL was a good method to measure the quality of the services. It
is reliable and can be applied to all types of different services. However, due to the specific
factors, the public administrative services are built on the basis of political regulations and
legal papers.
SERVPERF Model. Cronin and Taylor (1992) after their research on SERVQUAL
scale showed that it is better to discard E component and let P component alone be used.
According to the authors, whenever a customer rates their satisfaction/dissatisfaction level
(P), he or she implies a comparison with expectation of service attributes.
Service quality = Perception (of the attribute performance)
SERVPERF Dimensions. The model is based on SERVQUAL model, thus, RATER
is still used to develop a system of criteria to measure service quality. Service attributes
can be classified into 5 dimensions: tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and
empathy. The explanation of each dimension is same to SERVQUAL model.


14

Overall service
quality
(P)

Dimension l

Conceptual Framework
Although service quality and satisfaction has a relationship (Cronin & Taylor,
1992; Spreng & MacKoy, 1996), there had been few studies on investigating the
explanation level of the service quality elements to the satisfaction, especially for each
specific service (Lassar et al., 2000). Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) pointed out that
customers’ satisfaction is influenced by many factors such as the product/service quality,
price, situation and personal elements.
The SERVPERF model can be suitably applied to investigate service quality in
general and the customer satisfaction in particular. Public administrative services had their
own characters to distinguish them with other services. Public administrative services are
made by the state administrative agencies through their functions and the customers are
citizens. The questionnaire from SERVPERF model is shorter than that from SERQUAL
model, therefore it will not be boring and time-consuming for the respondents (Nguyen
Huy Phong & Pham Ngoc Thuy, 2007) and the concept of expectation can be quite
obscure to the respondents. At the same time, if being asked about their level of
perception, the citizens tend to make a comparison between the expectation and


16
performance in their answers.
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