Service quality gap in Ethiopia: expected and perceived services in the public sector

Figures & data

Table 1. Empirical studies in Ethiopia about service quality.

Author(s) (year)	Method	Findings
Mersha et al. (2012)	SERVQUAL method	The level of service performance provided by banks did not meet the expectations of their customers.
Lodesso et al. (2019)	SERVQUAL and importance performance analysis (IPA) model.	The majority of service quality attributes were very poor according to student perception.
Negi (2009)	The seven modified dimensions of SERVQUAL	The largest gap in service quality was identified in relation to network aspects.
Ubah and Davi (2015)	SERVQUAL and Bank Service Quality (BSQ)	Private banks indisputably outperform their public counterparts across dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, effectiveness and price.
Potluri and Mangnale (2011)	In-depth interview and questionnaire	The employees of the Ethiopian service sector are failing to meet the customers’ expectations in terms of their interaction skills, leading to significant dissatisfaction among the customers.
Afework et al. (2003)	Cross-sectional descriptive study	The private facilities examined exhibit superior quality in both structural and process attributes.
Beshah and Kitaw (2014)	The Ethiopian Quality Award (EQA) self-assessment model	The quality of services offered in underdeveloped countries like Ethiopia is often compromised due to numerous challenges.
Fisseha et al. (2017)	Facility based survey	Out of the 32 health facilities, only 10 had good process quality.
Negi (2010)	SERVQUAL	Service quality gaps were computed for all dimensions and found to be negative
Markos (2013)	Literature review	Despite successes in service delivery, Ethiopia’s public sector reform program faces challenges like lack of transparency and accountability, inadequate incentives for employees and low stakeholder participation.
Tadesse (2019)	Exploratory qualitative	The public sector reform program in Ethiopia faced challenges due to top-down implementation lacking ownership and participation from lower-level leadership and employees, resulting in low stakeholder commitment.
Chanie (2001)	Qualitative study	The civil service reform measures cannot be implemented effectively due to the absence of necessary preconditions.

Figure 1. A model for this study amended from Parasuraman et al. (1985).

Table 2. SERVQUAL dimensions, items and their codes.

Dimensions	Code	Items
Tangibility (T)	T1	Excellent institutions should have up-to-date equipment
	T2	The physical facilities at excellent institutions should be visually appealing
	T3	Employees of excellent institutions should be well-dressed and appear neat
	T4	The appearance of the physical facilities of excellent institutions should be in keeping with the type of services provided
Reliability (R)	R1	When excellent institutions promise to do something by a certain time, they should do so
	R2	When customers have problems, excellent institutions show a sincere interest in solving it
	R3	Excellent institutions should perform the service right the first time
	R4	Excellent institutions should provide their services at the time they promise to do so
	R5	Excellent institutions should keep their records accurately
Responsiveness (Res)	Res1	Employees of excellent institutions tell customers when services will be performed
	Res2	Employees of excellent institutions should give prompt service to customers
	Res3	Employees of excellent institutions should always be willing to help customers.
	Res4	Employees of excellent institutions never are too busy to respond to customer requests
Assurance (A)	A1	Customers should be able to trust employees of excellent institutions
	A2	Customers should be able to feel safe while getting service from employees
	A3	Employees of excellent institutions should be polite
	A4	Employees of excellent institutions know to answer customer questions
Empathy (E)	E1	Excellent institutions should give customers individual attention
	E2	Excellent institutions should have employees who give customers personal attention
	E3	Excellent institutions should have the customers’ best interests at heart
	E4	Excellent institutions should have operating hours convenient to all their customers

Table 3. Reliability and validity test of the constructs.

Dimensions	Items	Perception			Expectation
		Loading	α	α item deleted	Loading	α	α item deleted
Tangibility	T1	0.714	0.74	0.953	0.891	0.92	0.952
	T2	0.718		0.953	0.812		0.952
	T3	0.730		0.953	0.874		0.952
	T4	0.534		0.953	0.738		0.953
Reliability	R1	0.746	0.83	0.953	0.815	0.94	0.952
	R2	0.677		0.953	0.800		0.952
	R3	0.680		0.956	0.865		0.952
	R4	0.688		0.952	0.843		0.952
	R5	0.709		0.952	0.826		0.952
Responsiveness	Res1	0.638	0.87	0.953	0.767	0.92	0.952
	Res2	0.607		0.953	0.857		0.952
	Res3	.757		.953	.846		.952
	Res4	0.758		0.953	0.876		0.953
Assurance	A1	0.752	0.91	0.952	0.708	0.93	0.952
	A2	0.739		0.952	0.769		0.952
	A3	0.772		0.953	0.819		0.952
	A4	0.735		0.952	0.801		0.952
Empathy	E1	0.705	0.84	0.952	0.892	0.92	0.952
	E2	0.763		0.953	0.919		0.952
	E3	0.573		0.953	0.823		0.952
	E4	0.662		0.953	0.831		0.952

Loading: factor loading; α: Cronbach’s alpha; α item deleted: Cronbach’s alpha if item deleted.

Table 4. Perception, expectation and gap score for each item and dimension.

Dimensions	Items	Perception		Expectation		Mean gap score
		Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Tangibility	T1	2.97	1.12	4.29	1.05	−1.32
	T2	2.96	1.13	4.26	1.07	−1.29
	T3	3.08	1.15	4.39	1.02	−1.31
	T4	3.04	2.25	4.34	0.99	−1.29
Reliability	R1	2.91	1.09	4.33	0.95	−1.42
	R2	3.11	1.23	4.37	1.01	−1.27
	R3	3.18	2.17	4.38	1.01	−1.19
	R4	2.86	1.12	4.34	1.02	−1.48
	R5	3.05	1.17	4.37	1.08	−1.32
Responsiveness	Res1	3.15	1.10	4.24	1.15	−1.08
	Res2	3.15	1.18	4.35	1.09	−1.20
	Res3	3.21	1.11	4.29	1.13	−1.08
	Res4	3.09	1.09	4.06	1.08	−0.96
Assurance	A1	3.11	1.13	4.19	1.06	−1.08
	A2	3.21	1.15	4.31	1.06	−1.11
	A3	3.12	1.11	4.29	1.06	−1.18
	A4	3.19	1.15	4.32	1.08	−1.12
Empathy	E1	2.76	1.11	3.94	1.24	−1.17
	E2	2.88	1.09	3.95	1.31	−1.07
	E3	2.82	1.08	4.21	1.17	−1.39
	E4	3.07	1.11	4.28	1.13	−1.21
Total		3.05	1.23	4.26	1.08	−1.25

Table 5. The gap score of the five dimensions (expectation minus perception).

Variables	Perceptions	Expectations	Gap scores
Tangibility	3.02	4.32	−1.31
Reliability	3.02	4.36	−1.34
Responsiveness	3.15	4.24	−1.08
Assurance	3.16	4.27	−1.12
Empathy	2.88	4.09	−1.22
Total	3.05	4.26	−1.21

Table 6. Paired samples t-test of perceived service and expected service.

		Mean	Std. Deviation	t	ρ Value
Pair 1	PT – ET	−5.26667	5.25221	−21.272	0.000
Pair 2	PR – ER	−6.79556	6.38190	−22.588	0.000
Pair 3	PRes – ERes	−4.37251	4.83814	−19.193	0.000
Pair 4	PA – EA	−4.56250	4.61062	−20.945	0.000
Pair 5	PE – EE	−6.01774	6.37039	−20.061	0.000

A paired-sample t-test was conducted to evaluate whether the difference between PS and ES among the customers was significant or not. There was a statistically significant difference between perceived and ESs in all dimensions p < 0.001 (two-tailed).

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Data availability

All the data analyzed and reported in this study is available and may be accessed on request.