Roc flying theory: An empirical analysis of
customer-oriented service activities in the public sector
Chi-Kuang Chen
Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Yuan Ze
University, Taiwan, ROC
Chang-Hsi Yu
Lecturer, Department of Business Administration, Yu Da College of Business, Taiwan,
ROC
Doctoral student, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Yuan Ze
University, Taiwan, ROC
Hsiu-Chen Chang
Lecturer, Department of Accounting, Yu Da College of Business, Taiwan, ROC
Doctoral student, Department of Management, National Kaohsiung First University of
Science and Technology, Taiwan, ROC
ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to investigate the performance of customer-oriented
service activities in the public sector. As we know, customer-orientation is one of the
most important components in total quality management (TQM). Although it has been
popular in industries since 1980, the suitability of using it in the public sector has
been debated for years. However, no empirical study is found to deal with this
controversy. In this paper, we used a customer-oriented service-enhancement system
(COSES), which was developed by Chen and his associates in 2004, as conceptual
framework to investigate 24 Taiwanese public agencies. The result reveals that the
performance among the five phases of the customer-oriented service system
management does exist the significant gap. Because the shape of the performance gap
looks like a big bird flying in the sky, we named this phenomenon as ‘roc flying’. The
implication of this finding is further illustrated in the following.
Keywords: customer orientation, public management, public service, service quality
1
INTRODUCTION
In respond to the increasing demands which are requested by customers, many
public services, such as health care, education, security, social welfare, and various
governmental service activities, have adopted the philosophy and the practice of TQM
to enhance the service quality and performance (Marson, 1993; Cohen and Brand,
1993; Chi, 1994; Morgan and Murgatroyd, 1994; Milakovich, 1994/95; Font, 1997;
Younis et al., 2000; Saint-Martin, 2001). According to Beer’s interpretation (2003),
TQM is the continuous improvement of work processes to enhance the organization’s
ability to deliver high-quality products or services in a cost-effect manner. It was
originated in industrial production, but now also popular in the service industries
(Scharitzer and Korunka, 2000). A TQM program typically involves a number of
interventions, such as, the identification of customer requirement, cross-functional
teams, the use of scientific method to enhance analysis and process management, etc.
As we know, to meet the customer’s needs is always one of the most important
components in TQM. The terminology of ‘customer orientation’ usually implies an
organisational culture that stresses the customer as the focal point of strategic
planning and execution (Deshpande et al., 1993; Jaworski et al., 2000; Steinman et al.,
2000).
Although customer orientation is prevailing in practical arena, we found it has
been given little research attention. Furthermore, no research has been conducted to
examine the public sectors involving what and how the customer-oriented service
activities are developed and implemented. Based on the organizational mission
standpoint, we know many differences exist between the private enterprise and the
public sector in promoting a TQM project (e.g., Wamsley, 1990; Carnevale, 1995;
Mintzberg, 1996; Zeppou and Sotirakou, 2003). That is, a way of doing things in the
private enterprises may not be suited for the public sector. In effect, the public service
encounters more challenges in meeting the customer needs than the private enterprise.
The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the performance of
customer-oriented service activities in the public sector. In order to fulfill this research
purpose, we used a customer-oriented service-enhancement system (COSES) model
as research framework to investigate Taiwanese public agencies. The COSES model
was proposed by Chen and his associates in 2004. This model employed a
dual-dimension approach in developing a customer-oriented service system: (1)
design and management of a customer-oriented service system; and (2) the fostering
of organisational service culture. The introduction of this model is given in the section
of research framework.
2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Previous Research on TQM and Customer-Orientation
TQM is not only a philosophy but also an approach to management that can be
characterized by its principles, practices, and techniques (Dean and Bowen, 1994),
and its main goal is satisfying the customer needs now and future. For instance, the
customer focus, continuous improvement, and teamwork are most of what has been
written about TQM is explicitly or implicitly based on these principles. The first and
most important principle is customer focus (Dean and Bowen, 1994). Isakson and
Spencer (2000) pointed out that four components are the most commonly cited for
critical TQM components: a customer focus, top management support, employee
fulfillment, and continuous improvement. From the practical perspective, Douglas and
Judge (2001) identified seven key practices to implement a TQM project. These key
practices are: top management team involvement, adoption of a quality philosophy,
emphasis on TQM-oriented training, focus on the customer, continuous improvement
of processes, management by fact, and use of TQM methods. Among them, the
customer orientation is one of the most important components in TQM. Based on the
reviewed literature, we found customer orientation was named in various ways, such
as customer driven, customer focus, customer centered, customer first, or customer is
Gods.
As shown in the previous studies, it is widely acknowledged that a successful
organization needs to have a customer-oriented business culture (Brady and Cronin,
2001). This should be pervasive throughout an organization, such that employees
consistently exhibit customer-oriented behaviors, and consumers thereby become
accustomed to this philosophy (Dobni et al., 2000). It has also become a general
acceptable principle that an organization should be more customer-orientated to
deliver better service quality and enhance customer satisfaction (Hartline et al., 2000).
By comparing the performance of firms who have received quality awards with a
matched control group of firms who have not, Hendricks and Singhal (1997) have
shown that firms receiving quality awards outperform the control group in operating
income and revenues over a ten-year period. The second study done by Hendricks and
Singhal (2001) showed that the long-run stock performance of firms who receive
quality awards is far higher (38% to 46%) than a matched control group of companies
who did not receive such an award.
Although the studies stated above evidenced the existence of the causality, the
effect of TQM on the organizational performance remains some controversy in both
academic and practical communities. For example, Nwankwo (1995) pointed out that
insufficient understanding of customer orientation can lead to problems or, at best,
3
superficial changes in organizational practice. Such changes contribute little to the
organization's strategic development but rather endanger it by creating an illusion of
proactivity which leads to organizational smugness and strategic drift. The widely
reported reverses in the fortunes of ‘excellent’ companies serve as a timely reminder
that a customer orientation is essential but difficult to sustain (Capon et al., 1991). In
addition, Dean and Bowen (1994) identified a number of areas in which the TQM
perspective must be seen as incomplete or simply incorrect in light of extensive
management research. In such areas, the implementation of TQM, and the practice of
management in general, would be enhanced by incorporating the insights of
management theory. These implications for practice include: (1) managers should
beware of overreliance on formal analysis of information, especially in ambiguous
and political settings, (2) strategy formulation must include careful assessment of
organizational strengths and weaknesses, not just customer expectations, (3) selection
should play a bigger role among human resource practices in organizations practicing
TQM, especially with respect to assessing person-organization fit, (4)
customer-supplier relationships and employee involvement and empowerment
initiatives should be designed using a contingency approach, rather than assumed to
be universally appropriate.
Based on the review of the previous literature, it is acknowledged that TQM has
been shown to be effective in numerous companies and industries, but is not easy to
be implemented and to be institutionalized in an organization, especially in public
service organizations (Robertson and Seneviratne, 1995; Yusof and Aspinwall, 2000).
Compared to the private organizations, we found there are many dilemmas for public
service organizations to implement a TQM project to become a customer-oriented
organization. However, this is an area that has been paid little attention by researchers
so far. In the following we will first review the dilemmas from three aspects: (1) the
mission of the public service, (2) the customers of the public service, and (3) the
organizational characteristics of the pubic service.
Dilemmas for the mission of the public service
In the last two decades, a great deal of opinions from academic and practical
communities supported government needs to be reinvented to become more private
enterprise orientation. However, the mission between two parties are noticeable
different while defining the nature of the public sector and private enterprise.
Generally speaking, market share and profit are always the most concern in a private
enterprise, on the other hand, fair and justice are often the ultimate consideration to
the public sector. The so-called entrepreneurial government indicates the government
needs to learn some mechanisms from the private enterprise. However, in order to
transform the constitution of the government organization to be more competitive,
4
ecomonic incentive and market oriented, it is often in contradiction to the mission of
public service: the fair and the justice conservation. Therefore, on the one hand, it
may be worth pointing out that we can not always set the criteria of cost-benefit
analysis in public service, and on the other hand, it must be noted that it could not be
conflict with the nature of the public sector while take advantage of the mechanisms
from the private enterprises (Jan, 1999). This is perhaps one of the most challenges to
re-invent the government.
Dilemmas for the customers of the public service
The other dilemma for the public service is in defining customers (Swiss, 1992;
Morgan and Murgatroyd, 1994). Unlike the private enterprise is able to decide the
market to invest and the customers to serve by their own will, the public agency needs
to satisfy the different kinds of customers. That is public sectors have to provide the
services to the customers who keep different purpose even mutual conflict in mind.
Besides those obvious customers, governments also need to consider the different
opinion of silent customers. It should be concluded, from what has been said above,
that the contents of public service were compromised among the needs coming from
the numerous interest groups.
Especially, a couple of types of public services would not be satisfied by their
citizen due to the purpose of the service being regulating the people’s behaviors, such
as traffic offense, environmental protection, and jail. Hence, some studies indicated
that it is not suitable for many public sectors about initiating ‘putting the customer
first’ in the organization in TQM (Lerner, 1992). This is a real challenge to promote
TQM in the public sector.
Dilemmas for the organizational characteristics of the pubic service
The third dilemma for the public service is that the organizational structure of the
public sector is based on Weber’s (1978) contention that bureaucracies are capable of
attaining the highest degree of efficiency. And, the control mechanism in public sector
has to follow the structures and processes put in place by bureaucratic agencies or
government legislation, while the mechanism in the private sector is, in the main, set
by market and specific regulatory processes (Cole, 1988). Besides, Kearsey and Varey
(1998) identified the dilemmas of the pubic service in adapting service quality
management techniques from the private sector, including: (1) multiple, non-financial,
conflicting and ambiguous goals; (2) lack of agreement on means-end; (3)
environmental turbulence; (4) immeasurable outputs and (5) effects of management
intervention unknown. All of the dilemmas are the challenges to the public sector to
promote the TQM project.
5
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK - COSES MODEL
According to the argumentation stated above, we know that it still has a great
deal of dilemmas in implementing a TQM in the public sector, even it has been
succeeded in industries. The present study uses a COSES model to investigate the
performance of customer-oriented service activities in the public sector. COSES
model indicates customer-oriented service-enhancement system, which was
developed by Chen and his associates (2004). This model is basically derived from
examining the golden model of Taiwanese public agencies. Instead of using the single
dimension in developing a customer-oriented service model in the previous studies,
Chen et al. argued that a comprehensive model has to employ two dimensions: (1)
customer-oriented service system design and management, (2) organizational culture
fostering.
Figure 1 presents the conceptual framework of the COSES model. In the first
dimension, a sequential five-stage of customer-oriented service system management is
proposed. It is comprised of: (1) customer identification; (2) customer-needs survey;
(3) service-system design; (4) service delivery; and (5) service recovery. In the other
dimension, a three-layer organizational culture fostering is proposed. It is comprised
of: (1) basic assumptions; (2) organizational values; and (3) system and behavior.
Based on the investigation of the three best practices of Taiwanese public agencies, a
total of 18 customer-oriented service activities were identified. They were then
systematically deployed in the COSES model. The COSES model offers an insight to
understand what and how a customer-oriented organization is developed.
Service-system design & management
Service recovery
Service delivery
Service-system design
Customer-needs survey
vision, policy,
and strategy
Customer identification
Organizational
Service quality
& Customer
satisfaction
Organizational culture
Figure 1 Conceptual framework of COSES model
The empirical findings of the 18 customer-oriented service activities from the
6
three best practices are present in Table 1. The details of COSES model are referred to
Chen’s publication in 2004. In the present study, we will use the 18 customer-oriented
service activities to conduct a field study. It is intended to investigate how well the 18
service activities are recognized and implemented in the general public agencies.
Table 1 COSES model for the public sector
Customer-oriented service system design and management
Dimension I
Customer
identification
Dimension II
Basic
assumptions
Customer
definition
Customer needs
survey
Consideration of Designed
environmental
service items in
change in
accordance with
strategic planning customer needs
Customer needs
Organization Organizational Customer
values
classification recognition
cultural
fostering
System and
behavior
Benchmark
learning
Service system
design
Service
standards fit
customers’
needs
Service delivery Service recovery
Willingness to
help customers
deliver their
requests
Customers’
benefit first
Multiple
Cross-functional channels for
cooperation
good
communication
．Service quality
audit system ．The use of
Survey customer
．Employee
ICTs
needs
．Teamwork and
education
periodically
．Incentive
empowerment
system
Building
customers’
complaints
process
RESEARCH DESIGNS
The section presents the research designs of this study, which include research
subject selection, research instrument design, and reliability and validity check. To
achieve the research objective stated above, the non-participation observation
approach is chosen. The reason for using this research approach is that the
non-participant observation approach can give the researcher to be a passive observer
for a group, and not to involve in activities for the group. Then, making the
conclusion due to observe and listen in their activities objectively.
Research Subject
Research subjects for this study were chosen from four types of governmental
agencies: (1) department for the general citizen service; (2) department for the
particular group service; (3) technical and engineering department; and (4) supporting
department. The departments for the general citizen service provide the direct service
of household administration, land administration or finance. The departments for the
particular group service are such as education, business or social welfare. Technical
and engineering departments indicate the agencies taking charge of public
construction or maintenance. Supporting departments represent the agencies that
7
provide services to the internal customers, such as personnel, accounting, or strategic
planning office. The sampling strategy provides a representative picture of the whole
public organizations in Taiwan.
In accordance with four government department types mentioned above, we pick
24 Taiwanese public agencies in randomization. The 24 public agencies also were
accepted the CISQ assessment. The quality program of public sectors in Taiwan,
called Comprehensive Improvement of Service Quality (CISQ), was strongly
influenced by the Deming approach and has been in place since 1996. Many
employees have received training in customer service and quality techniques. The
content of quality program includes: (1) innovation management, (2) procedure
management, (3) customer relationship management, (4) outsourcing management,
and (5) image management. The appraisal-group of CISQ for public sectors is
composed of both the research and practice in this area. For clearing and brightening
the present state of customer-oriented service quality for the whole public sectors, we
apply for observing followers and proceed scoring the COSES checklist
simultaneously. Cause of grasping the actual circumstances of customer-oriented
service activities in 24 public agencies, based on the COSES model scores, we divide
24 public agencies into four types (excellent, good, medium, and poor). After that,
two dimension analysis of COSES model such as service-system design and
management dimension, and organization culture dimension were conducted.
Research Instrument
All researchers of this study participate in the process of assessing the service
quality for public sectors. At the same time, we use the COSES checklist as the record
of observation and make a brief interview with the assessed employee of public
agencies.
Based on the COSES model proposed by Chen and his colleagues in 2004, we
developed the COSES checklist for the public sector. This checklist enables a public
agency to examine its customer orientation profile. In addition, the results of this
examination provide a comprehensive analysis for continuous improvement. The
checklist is presented in Table 2.
8
Table 2 COSES Checklist
Phase of COSES model
Items
˙ The public agency has been aware of different customers.
˙ The public agency has classified customers into different categories.
Customer identification
˙ The public agency has learned organizational operations and public
service practice from other excellent business or public agencies.
˙ The public agency has taken account of environmental change in strategic
planning.
˙ The public agency has recognized that different groups of customers have
Customer-needs survey
different needs.
˙ The public agency often surveys customers’ needs and analyzes this
comprehensively.
˙ The public agency designed service items in accordance with customers’
needs.
˙ The public agency has set service standards to fit customers’ needs.
˙ The public agency has a service quality audit system and conducts it
Service-system design
periodically.
˙ The public agency strongly emphasizes employee education and training.
˙ The public agency has an effective incentive system to motivate their
employees.
Service delivery
Service recovery
˙
˙
˙
˙
Everyone has the willingness to help customers deliver their requests.
The public agency has a cross-functional cooperation culture.
The public agency has heavily used ICTs to delivery services.
The public agency uses teamwork, responsibility sharing and information
to deliver services.
˙ The public agency puts the customers’ benefit first instead of just taking
into account the convenience of their operations.
˙ The public agency always maintains accessible communication channels.
˙ The public agency has standard procedures for customers’ complaints.
In Table 2, there are five parts (customer identification, customer-needs survey,
service-system design, service delivery, and service recovery) and 18
customer-oriented service activities in this checklist, 3-5 items in each part. A 5-point
Likert scale is used to assess the degree of each statement: 1=not at all; 2=to a small
extent; 3=to a moderate extent; 4=to a great extent; 5=to a very large extent. This
profile reflects how customer orientation is implemented by the public agency. The
overall customer-orientation score is the sum of the scores of all five parts. The total
score should be between 18 and 90, and may be used in self-assessment for
longitudinal study or benchmark against other agencies.
Reliability and validity
To increase reliability and validity of this study, some methods were used. First,
we discuss the COSES checklist with academics and practitioners constantly on the
checklist of developing stage. Second, in order to pursuit the data completely, we are
not only to use the COSES checklist for data collection but also to gather the written
9
information and to make a brief interview with the assessed employee of public
agencies. Moreover, to decrease the problem possibly of field observation such as the
bias of observer, the different explanations with different observers, and the
observation were uncompleted, researchers determine scores of the COSES checklist
after mutual discuss in full.
RESULTS ANALYSIS
Based on the score of COSES checklist, this section we will analysis the score
correlation between the appraisal group of CISQ for public sectors and the researcher
of COSES checklist, and results from the COSES study respectively.
Correlation analysis
In order to eliminate the subjective diversity of raters and researchers, the score
of the appraisal group of CISQ for public sectors and the researcher of COSES
checklist were standardized, then, to calculate the correlation coefficients. The value
of the Pearson correlation is 0.71 (p-value < 0.001). This indicates that the COSES
checklist as an instrument for data collection in this study is appropriate.
Results from the COSES study
Rely on the score of COSES checklist; we divide the performance of
customer-oriented service activities of our research objects into four types: excellent,
good, medium, and poor. Each type has 3, 7, 7, and 7 public agencies. Table 3
presents the average score of four types in the five-stage of service-system design and
management (customer identification, customer-needs survey, service-system design,
service delivery, and service recovery) of the COSES model. The average score of
four types distribute among 2.4 to 4.2, and it appears the sequential distribution. For
example, the average score of ‘excellent’ public agencies is higher than ‘good’,
‘medium’, and ‘poor’ public agencies in the five stages of service-system design and
management; the average score of ‘good’ public agencies is higher than, ‘medium’,
and ‘poor’ public agencies but lower than ‘excellent’ public agencies in the five stages
of service-system design and management. The situation of ‘medium’ and ‘poor’
public agencies are as the same.
10
Table 3 COSES model scores - service-system design and management
The average scores of five-stage of service-system design and management
Dimension
Customer
Type
Customer-needs Service-system
Service
Service
identification
survey
design
delivery
recovery
Excellent
3.8
4.1
3.8
4.2
4.1
Good
3.3
3.9
3.3
3.8
3.6
Medium
2.9
3.2
3.0
3.3
3.2
Poor
2.4
2.7
2.5
3.0
2.8
Based on Table 3, we draw the Figure 2. This Figure shows the variation
regularly for four types (excellent, good, medium, and poor). The four types present
the patterns of two high and three low. In other words, the four types all present the
saw-toothed shape of ‘low-high-low-high-low’. In the four types, the average score on
the stage of customer-needs survey is higher than the customer identification of
service-system design and management. Later, the score presents the trend of drop off
when making the customer-needs survey to transform the stage of service-system
design. The stage of service delivery and service recovery also present the situation of
rising and dropping respectively. The results show that performance gaps exist among
the five-stage of system-design and management of those public agencies. Here we
name this research finding as ‘roc flying’ due to its shape of the gaps, and illustrate as
follows.
Performance score
4.5
4.0
3.5
Excellent
3.0
Good
2.5
Medium
2.0
Poor
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Customer
identification
Customer-needs Service-system
survey
design
Service delivery Service recovery
Dimension of service-system design & management
Figure 2 Roc flying
Roc in Arabian and Persian folklore was an enormous bird of prey capable of
performing prodigious feats of strength. On the other hands, it was a big being of
11
fish-bird complex in Chinese folklore. This phenomenon implicates Taiwanese public
sectors show the height to vary on the five-stage of service-system design and
management. It can enhance the customer-oriented service activities effectively via
reinforcing the connection of five-stage of service-system design and management,
further to achieve the ideal type such as Roc flying to great heights.
Table 4 presents the average score of four types distribute among 2.4 to 4.1 in the
three-layer of organizational culture, and it also appears the sequential distribution.
For instance, the average score of ‘excellent’ public agencies is higher than ‘good’,
‘medium’, and ‘poor’ public agencies in the three-layer of organizational culture; the
average score of ‘good’ public agencies is higher than ‘medium’, and ‘poor’ public
agencies but lower than ‘excellent’ public agencies in the three layers of
organizational culture. The situation of ‘medium’ and ‘poor’ public agencies are as the
same.
Table 4 COSES model scores - organizational culture
Dimension
Type
The average scores of three-layer of organizational culture
Basic assumptions
Organizational values System and behavior
Excellent
4.1
3.8
4.0
Good
3.9
3.5
3.4
Medium
3.4
3.1
3.0
Poor
3.0
2.7
2.4
Based on Table 4, we draw the Figure 3. In this Figure, we find the four types
(excellent, good, medium, and poor) all presents dropping situation from the layer of
employees’ basic assumptions for providing high service quality to form
organizational values in the dimension of organizational culture. In addition, only the
public agencies of excellent type shows rising from the layer of organizational values
to visible system and behaviour. This situation indicates the public agencies of
excellent type have better capability to build that employees recognize the importance
of public services, further to enhance that all members have a common belief in the
organizational values of public services, finally that the customer-oriented system has
been well established in the organization, and that customer-oriented behavior have
become part of employee life. In other words, the public agencies of excellent type
have more contribute to promote participation in a TQM organization than other three
types.
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Performance score
4.5
4.0
3.5
Excellent
3.0
Good
2.5
Medium
2.0
Poor
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Basic assumptions
Organizational values
System and behavior
Dimension of organizational culture
Figure 3 Profile of organizational culture
Secondly, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were conducted to examine
the classified applicability (excellent, good, medium, and poor). The analytic results
show that the F-test on five-stage of service-system design and management was
statistically significant (p-value < 0.001). In addition, the F-test on three-layer of
organizational culture was also statistically significant (p-value < 0.001). The results
indicate that the researcher’s classification is appropriate.
DISCUSSION
Based on the description above, below we will explore the implication of two
dimensions of service-system design and management, and organizational culture
from COSES model respectively.
Service system design and management
Based on the ‘Roc flying theory’ proposed by the evaluation from COSES
checklist, although the four-type public agencies have a significant difference on the
scores of COSES checklist, all of them represent the “low-high-low-high-low”, which
shows a ‘saw-tooth’ shape on the five-stage customer-oriented service-system design
and management (please see Figure 2). It is a very interesting phenomenon and
worthy to explore deeply. In we proposed the ‘Roc flying theory’, we think that the
ideal type is soaring to great heights (the Figure should represent a horizontal and
smooth line). It indicates the public agency has to focus on the perfect linkage on the
five-stage of service-system design and management to achieve the highest level of
TQM performance. In the opposite case, if the roc’s wings were collected, then roc
would fly down. It indicates that when significance gaps exist in any two consecutive
stages of service-system design and management, the performance of the public
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agency’s service management would be going down.
For example, the excellent-type public agencies in Figure 2, its score points in
the COSES checklist is higher than other three types. That is the excellent-type public
agencies in the stages of service-system design and management all to have the full
preparation to be able like Roc flying to great heights. This expressed it already to
arrange all conditions well; therefore they present the excellent performance for
public services. This also demonstrated that, the different ambition and effort, then the
organizational service quality performance also will have a difference levels.
Especially in the nowadays regarding the service quality performance of public
agencies majority is based on the legal lowest level request, how to inspire the
government officials’ wish of serving for people to raise the degree which the entire
organization customer orientation is an important issue.
In addition, according to the analytic results, we found the stages of
‘customer-needs survey’ and the ‘service delivery’ in the COSES model, four types
score points all were higher than other three stages. For example, in the
‘customer-needs survey’ stage, although the customer-oriented degree of public
agencies of this study are different, but it all known realized the policy draws up must
have based on the public opinion, also is positive and regularly proceeds with the
customer-satisfaction survey to understand the populace to the public service
appraisal. Also like the ‘service delivery’ stage, this public agencies of this study
majority of has all realized must have friendly with the information technology, and
affiliation by cross-department cooperation and the team spirit to promote the
efficiency and effectiveness of public services.
However, we found the public agencies of this study possibly to link on the
various stages of service-system design and management has the problem, only then
can cause the graph to have the situation occurrence that the height fluctuates. First,
the public agencies of this study regarding the connotation of the ‘customer
identification’ is not certainly clear, this is most universal also serious issue, because it
can affect the level of entire service-system design. The majority of governmental
agency thought only has directly faces the populace to provide the service the
governmental agency only then to need the customer orientation; this kind of situation
is especially serious in the central government agencies and the staff unit. This
situation may due to the dilemmas of diverse customers of public services more than
the private enterprise. In fact, governmental agency all stakeholders all should regard
is the customer, for example, parallel and vertical institution (between the
organization and organization), organizational outside and organizational interior.
Between the governmental agencies should form the ‘customer-service chain’, each
institution all to hold the important status in the service chain, has the direct or
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supportive responsibility to provide the populace the high quality service. It maybe
can have the good effect to study the supply-chain management and customer
relationship management (CRM) from the enterprise.
Next, on the stage of the ‘service-system design’, the ability of how to transform
the customer-service needs in the second stage into the service-system design of the
service-system design and management still waits for strengthening. This situation
may due to the dilemmas of organizational characteristics of public services more
than the private enterprise. This stage should coordinate the perfect staff education
and the excitation system, to assist all workflow to give the standardization, the
institutionalization, reduces the gap between the stage of customer-needs survey and
the service-system design. With specific and by-the-book rules, job standardization
can help to eliminate variation in a specific task that is performed by different
employees (Cohen and Brand, 1993). Hsieh et al. (2002) also point out a significantly
positive relationship between job standardization and service quality in the public
sector. In addition, according to the researcher participated in the government
department service quality appraisal and the counselling experience in the past years,
we thought that if the public sector wants to enhance customer satisfaction, the service
quality is a key; the service quality needs to promote, the service process is a key; the
service process needs to consummate, establishes the system is a key; wants to
establish the system, then the flow standardization is a key. Managers should put more
emphasis on developing standard services operational procedures that match
customers’ needs. Thus, they should adopt a customer-oriented approach to ‘service
system design’ and obtain customer input in their ‘service system design’ programs.
We suggested may use quality function deployment (QFD) in this stage. This tool
may help public agencies make the key trade-offs between what the customer wants
and what the public sector can afford to build.
Furthermore, we also found that the stages linking to be also insufficient in the
service delivery and service recovery of the dimension of service-system design and
management. The governmental agency is possible because has not established the
standardized workflow or the quality system, and causes the performance of service
delivery to be low. In addition, governmental agency even if has the standardized
workflow or the quality system, but is actually possible because of to neglect factor
and so on staff's identification, suitable education and training as well as effective
excitation system causes the performance to be low. However, this situation may due
to the dilemmas of mission of public services more than the private enterprise. As for
in the stage of service recovery, Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA) management circle
has been known to have the capability of collecting various resources within an
enterprise to complete a common-set goal (Lee and Dale, 1998). The public agencies
15
of this study in the PDCA circulation, usually after proceeding on C (check) of PDCA
to carry on the performance rewards and punishment, following rectified the
movement regarding the service flaw still not to carry out, that is A (action) has not
been valued which should have, causes the continuous process which the public
service continued to improve not to be perfect, and between the stage of service
delivery and service recovery appears gap, to duplicate in the service defeat
circulation, lacked the mechanism of service recovery. The public agency should have
the belief of customer’s benefit first to provide good communications with their
internal and external customers.
Organizational culture
Looked from the dimension of organizational culture, the public agencies of this
study regarding to the level of effort for service quality to formative organizational
culture is still to wait for strengthening. In Figure 3, the scores points of four-type
public agencies in the two levels of basic assumptions and the organizational values to
be similar, but in the layer of system and the behavior, four types public agencies each
other then presents the relative change significantly (the gap to become big). To
explore the reason, the governmental agency regarding promotes the staff all has the
high service quality consciousness and shaping the organization common beliefs are
existed the very clear thought, but when it turns the obviously system and the
behavior then appears ‘to know easy, to start actually very difficult’ phenomenon. In
order to effective addressing this question, the organization should encourage all staffs
to participate in the activities of quality management, and raising the faith of
‘completes the matter’, again coordinates the PDCA circulation. In organization's
each level, the department or the staff, all must carry on PDCA to the oneself
responsible work, deepens the quality system to the organizational inside, in order to
meets the customer needs or the customer orientation which guides the TQM highest
goal carries on continuous improvement.
Second, Merton (1940) suggests that the rigid rules and systems inherent in a
bureaucracy act as cues to inform employees about the lowest level of performance
that is acceptable to an organization. In other words, setting minimum standards will
encourage employees to reach only the absolute minimum level of quality required by
the management system. This may lead to the development of a culture of
bureaucratic inertia that reduces flexibility and discourages innovation (Cohen and
Brand, 1993). Hsieh et al. (2002) point out the performance level set by the
management system is positively related to the degree of job standardization. That is,
by gradually setting a higher minimum level of quality, the organization can create a
high-quality oriented culture. Besides, employees would be more likely to report high
16
quality institutionalization if several work environment factors are present, such as
high job involvement, peer support, staff support, autonomy, task orientation, task
clarity and innovation (Korunka et al., 2003).
CONCLUSIONS
The objective of this paper is to investigate the performance of customer-oriented
service activities for the public sector. In order to achieve our research purpose, we
adopted the non-participant observation as research method, and used the COSES
model as research framework of this study to investigate 24 Taiwanese public
agencies’ customer-oriented service activities. Based on the evaluation from COSES
model, we categorized the total performance of the 24 public agencies into four types:
excellent, good, medium, and poor, and we name this research finding as ‘Roc flying’.
The results show that the public sector still needs continuing improvement among the
five-stage of service-system design and management, and it also needs all the
members involving entirely in the organizational culture fostering of this study. As the
findings in this study, we recognized Taiwanese public sector is facing the challenge
to transform its service quality from rigid bureaucracies to a more flexible and
competitive. As a result, this Roc flying theory also means that a public agency must
conduct a breakthrough change before its wings being fully spread. While soaring to
great heights, you may see far, and may liberally soaring.
Although the contributions of this paper are significant, it still needs to be very
cautious to use the findings of this study. After all, the results are derived from
twenty-four cases only. In addition, it remains some issues that are worth further
studied: (1) to propose a holistic procedure that help practitioner in public sectors to
develop and to assess a customer-oriented service system; and (2) a comprehensive
cause-effect study is also necessary, which is intended to further examine the
relationship among the different patterns of customer-oriented service systems and the
organizational factors. The organizational factors may include internal marketing,
organizational commitment, job satisfaction, service quality, and customer satisfaction
for the public sector, etc.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study is funded by National Science Council, Republic of China on Taiwan
(NSC 92-2213-E-007-046). And special thanks are extended to Miss Shiow-Jiuan
Yang, Miss Li-Fang Wang, Miss Wen-Lan Chang and Miss Mei-Hsiu Chen for their
great contribution to this research.
17
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