Citizens satisfaction with public administrative servicesat the ward people's committees of Tay Ho district

CITIZENS' SATISFACTION WITH PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE

SERVICES AT THE WARD PEOPLE’S COMMITTEES

OF TAY HO DISTRICT

A DISSERTATION PAPER

Presented to

the Faculty of the Graduate Program

of the College of Arts and Sciences

Central Philippine University, Philippines

In Collaboration with

Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF MANAGEMENT

HOANG VAN HAO

MARCH 2017

i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is hard to imagine how this dissertation could have been completed without the

encouragement and support from researcher’s academic supervisor, family and friends.

Firstly, he would like to thank his academic supervisor, Dr. Reynaldo Nene

Dusaran. He was greatly honored to receive his guide, suggestions and feedbacks on each

chapter with great patience. Although the researcher and his academic supervisor live in

two different countries, the academic discussion has not been affected. Both direct and

indirect meetings between them have been really effective. These have helped researcher

improve his expertise and insights, which finally improve the quality of this study.

The researcher also deeply grateful to his family, who had provided him with

unconditional support throughout the whole process. Over the last four years, his wife had

taken the responsibility of taking care of their two sons. His wife had never complained

about it, so that he fully focused on studying. Furthermore, she had read and given valuable

opinions about this dissertation so that the content was expressed more precisely and

professionally. Next, the researcher would like to send his gratitude to his parents. They

had helped much in looking after his sons. He is deeply indebted to his parents as they

provided such help while they were in worse health than before. His parents had only heard

about the university from him, but they have been always ready to try their best to ensure

his sisters' educational quality as well as his.

Finally, the researcher would like to thank his friends who had shared their research

experience, especially in collecting and analyzing the data. He also sends his loyal thanks

to his peers in this PhD course who had brought to him many more experiences in study,

work and life as well. He really looked forward to working with them in the future.

The Researcher

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i

LIST OF FIGURES ii

LIST OF TABLES iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

ABSTRACT vi

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION 1

Background and Rationale of the Study 2

Objectives of the Study 6

Hypotheses 6

Theoretical Framework 7

Conceptual Framework 12

Operational Definitions 16

Significance of the Study 19

Scope and Limitations 20

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES 21

Related Literature 21

Related Studies 32

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 37

Research Design 37

Population, Sample Size and Sampling Technique 39

Research Instruments 41

Data Gathering Procedure 49

Data Processing and Analysis 50

IV. DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 52

Respondents’ Characteristics 52

Respondents’ Perception of the Components of the Public Administrative

Services 57

Respondents’ Perception of Satisfaction with Public Administrative Services60

Differences in Citizens’ Perception of Public Administrative Services and

Satisfaction according to their Personal Characteristics 61

Relationship between Citizens’ Perception of Public Administrative Services

and their Satisfaction 71

V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 77

Summary of the Key Findings 78

Conclusions 79

Policy Recommendations 81

REFERENCES 91

APPENDIXES 97

ii

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

Figure 1.1 Measuring Service Quality using SERVQUAL Model 9

Figure 1.2 Performance Only Model (SERVPERF) 11

Figure 1.3 Conceptual Framework of the Study 14

Figure 1.4 Conceptual Framework of the Study (Adjusted after EFA) 15

Figure 2.1 The Nordic Model by Gronroos 23

Figure 2.2 The Kano Model 26

Figure 3.1 Research Process 38

iii

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

Table 3.1 List of Variables and Initial Items in the Survey Instrument 42

Table 3.2 Results of Reliability Test of Scales 44

Table 3.3 Result of the Seventh EFA with Scales of Independent Variables 46

Table 3.4 Result of EFA for Citizens’ Satisfaction 48

Table 3.5 Names and Abbreviations of Variables after EFA 49

Table 4.1 Distribution of Respondents as to their Characteristics 54

Table 4.2

Distribution of Respondents as to Information Related to the Use

of Public Administrative Services

56

Table 4.3

Descriptive Statistics of the Different Items and Components of

Public Administrative Services

59

Table 4.4 Descriptive Statistics for Different Items of Citizens’ Satisfaction 61

Table 4.5

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Gender

62

Table 4.6 Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Age

63

Table 4.7 Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Marital Status

64

Table 4.8

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Educational

Attainment

65

Table 4.9 Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Occupation

66

Table 4.10 Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Income

67

iv

Table 4.11

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Frequency of Use

68

Table 4.12

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Acquaintances in

Ward People’s Committees

69

Table 4.13

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Paying Extra Fee

70

Table 4.14

Mean Scores on the Different Components of Public

Administrative Services and Satisfaction by Residence

71

Table 4.15 Regression Results for Citizens’ Satisfaction 73

v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Symbol Explanation

ANOVA Analysis of Variance

EFA Exploratory Factor Analysis

ISO International Organization for Standardization

IT Information technology

KMO Kaiser - Meyer - Olkin measure

NPM New Public Management

OLS Ordinary Least Square

OSS One - Stop - Shop

QFD Quality Function Deployment

Sig. Significance

SIPAS Satisfaction index of public administrative service

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

VFF The Vietnam Fatherland Front

VAVN The Veterans Association of Vietnam

vi

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 respondents allocated proportionately to the eight wards of Tay Ho District. The

survey instrument was tested for its reliability using the Cronbach’s Alpha. Exploratory

Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to reduce the number of items and factors from the initial

seven factors with 33 items to five factors with 27 items after the EFA. The instrument

was translated to Vietnamese to allow easy understanding of the respondents and

distributed to the randomly selected respondents. All the data collected were processed

using SPSS 20. Analysis made use of descriptive statistics and Multiple Regression

Analysis, t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to test the hypotheses of the study.

The study revealed that most if not the majority of the respondents were females,

not more than 45 years old, married, university educated , working as employee, civil

servant or freelancer; and with a monthly income of 3 to 5M VND. The majority of the

respondents were occasional users of public administrative services, without acquaintances

in the Ward People’s Committee, have not paid extra fee to avail of the services and

residents of the ward where they avail the public administrative services. The respondents

generally have “Good” perception of the different components of the public administrative

services and have “high” perceived satisfaction of the public administrative services.

There were no significant differences in the perception of the respondents of the different

components of public administrative services and their satisfaction according to their

gender, age, marital status, income, acquaintances in the Ward People’s Committee,

payment of extra fee and residence. However, significant differences were observed

according to educational attainment, occupation and frequency of use of public

administrative services. All the five components of public administrative services were

vii

found to be significant determinants of satisfaction. Civil servants’ capacity and public￾duty ethics appeared to be the major determinant followed by time and cost and facilities

while transaction and process of delivery showed to be the least.

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

procedure is 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, socio￾economic 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

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

money and time waste, which makes the public feel more satisfied and closer when

working with state agencies.

Nowadays, the duty of administrative reform in Tay Ho District has created the

standards in the way of serving the citizens, especially in the fields, according to the “One￾Stop-Shop” (OSS) mechanism, with a more clearly and simply built system of procedures.

In the wards, the enterprises as well as the citizens are offered the convenience and ease in

2

some tasks which need to be acted by state agencies such as notarization, business

registration, procedures of civil status and law surveying. Administrative procedure reform

has contributed to changing management and leadership thinking and the process of

supervising and administering in administrative agencies, thus, improving the capacity,

validity and effectiveness of state administrative practices.

Since its establishment in 1995, Tay Ho District has always paid attention to the

task of reforming the administrative procedures at the grassroots level. Eights wards

belonging to this district have had many improvements and positive changes in the

administrative machinery. However, it is hard to tell whether or not the citizens are really

satisfied with the results of the current administrative reform. The enterprises as well as the

citizens have still had troubles and nuisances in many fields such as asking for estate or

accommodation ownership right, allowing construction and so on. Therefore, the renewal

of delivering public administrative services and improvement of the delivery quality at the

grassroots level are crucial. Besides the function of state management, the serving function

of the state aims at providing necessary services for the citizens so that they can carry out

their rights and duties appropriately is now given more attention than before. As a

consequence, the question as to how to evaluate the public administrative service quality as

well as the citizens’ satisfaction is still raised. Thus, the researcher decided to choose the

study entitled, “Citizens' Satisfaction with Public Administrative Services at the Ward

People’s Committees of Tay Ho District”. In this chapter, Back ground and Rationale of

the Study was presented. The author aims at determining and evaluating the citizens’

satisfaction with the delivery of the public administrative services at the wards of Tay Ho

District at present. Dissertation developed a model and empirically tests their applicability

in delivery of public administrative services at grassroots level. The components of public

administrative services were found so that the conceptual framework of the study was

therefore adjusted to suit the research results. Also, this chapter showed scope and

limitations of this study, as well as the significance of the study was mentioned.

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

3

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

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

citizens. The organization of the state administrative apparatus has been still bulky with

many hierarchies. The rankings in branches and fields between the centre and region and

among the local government levels have been still slow and not very distinctive in

functions, duties and the organization in the urban government with the rural one. The civil

service records of public servants are slowly compiled. The quality of officials has not met

the demands of innovation and socio-economic development. The public service staffs are

still not very good at new management skill; also lack the flair and their responsibility for

implementing their duty is not high.

One area of public services that has been provided by the state is the performing of

necessary public administrative tasks such as birth and death registration, armed forces

enlistment, marriage registration, passport and identity card issue, licenses, patents, permits

for activities relating to public order, and so on. The administrative procedures in Vietnam

are institutionalized in various legal documents, especially the Government Resolution No.

38/CP of May 4, 1994, on reforming administrative procedures in the settlement of affairs

4

of citizens and organizations, Prime Minister Decision No. 136/2001/QD-TTg of

September 17, 2001, on approving the overall program on state administration reform in

the 2001- 2010 period and Government Resolution No 30C/2011/NQ-CP of November 08,

2011, on the overall program on state administration reform in the 2011- 2020 period. At

present, the administrative procedural relationship between the government and citizens is

through the use of the new mechanism OSS and Inter-agency OSS (Inter-sector/Inter-level

OSS). The administrative reform has been carried out in Vietnam for more than twenty

years. The reform of administrative procedures is considered as a breakthrough because

they are directly related to the exercise of power by state administrators and to the rights

and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations. Moreover, the administrative

procedures are seen as the weakest link in Vietnamese administration.

Tay Ho District is an administrative unit of Hanoi established by Decree No. 69/CP

of the Government issued 28/10/1995. Tay Ho District includes 8 wards, among of which

there are 3 wards previously belonging to Ba Dinh District - Buoi, Thuy Khue, Yen Phu

and 5 wards previously belonging to Tu Liem District - Tu Lien, Nhat Tan, Xuan La, Phu

Thuong and Quang An. The People’s Committee of Tay Ho District in recent years has 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 ISO 9001:2008 with a

hope to providing the best service, creating favorable conditions for the citizens and

improve the effectiveness of public administration. According to the current requirement,

the Ward People’s Committees of Tay Ho District have been providing more 170 public

administrative services belonging to eleven sectors. Most of the public administrative

services (more than 150 public administrative services) are delivered by the Wards of Tay

Ho District via OSS mechanism and Inter-agency OSS mechanism. Some remaining public

administrative services are implemented at specialized parts of Wards. The list of public

administrative services is officially published and widely announced to citizens by the

Ward People’s Committee. The type of public administrative services which citizens often

use at the Ward People’s Committee is public administrative services of certification and

authentication. Specifically, that is certified copies and signatures. And then we can name:

birth certificates, marriage registration, notary… Because public administrative services

are provided according to OSS and Inter-agency OSS, citizens only have to submit the file

as requested and receive the result of public administrative services at the only part at