Service Quality and Its Impact On Citizen Service Satisfaction With Reference to Government of Karnatakas Right to Service Act Sakala

Abstract

newlineABSTRACT newlineService delivery is the main function of government. The government/public service delivery newlinesystem is responsible for providing a variety of services to citizens, including education, newlinehealthcare, infrastructure, public safety, and social welfare programs. The system is designed newlineto meet the needs of the public and to ensure that the government is fulfilling its newlineresponsibilities to society. One key challenge in the government/public service delivery newlinesystem is ensuring that services are accessible to all citizens, regardless of their income level, newlinegeographic location, or other demographic factors. Overall, the government and public newlineservice delivery system plays a vital role in promoting the well-being and prosperity of newlinesociety, and ongoing efforts are necessary to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of newlinecitizens in an efficient and effective manner. newlineFor measuring the success of government and its governance a well-founded theory is crucial, newlineas it could help governments to improve their service standards as well as service satisfaction newlineof citizens. Government services included services of each and every department under newlinegovernment. The services covered here begin from birth of individual as birth certificate newlineservice till the death of individual which includes death certificate and in between this life newlinecycle other important services such as educational assistance, marriage registration, bus newlinepasses, driving license registration of land, pensions and many other services impacting the newlinelife of citizens are included under government services, covering services related to all the newlinemajor events of one s life. Improved service quality enhances public service satisfaction newlinefurther resulting in better governance. In the state of Karnataka, the right to service bill was newlinepassed in the year 2011 and the act is popularly known as the The-Karnataka-Sakala- newlineServices-Act . It has been over a decade since implementation of this act and as on April 2023 newlinethe government of Karnataka has been delivering 1178 services through 100 government newlineinstitutions under this act, highest ever in the country when compared with 24 other states and newline5 union territories of India which have already adapted the Right to Service Act. However, newlinesince inception of this act till 30 April 2023 1,92,60,808 applications have been rejected, newline1,47,13,117 applications have been disposed post stipulated time. Hence it becomes important newlineto gauge Service quality and level of satisfaction attained by Citizens after availing these newlineservices. newlineThe purpose of this paper is to understand the citizen perception of service quality associated newlinewith public service delivery system of Karnataka and conduct an investigation in order to newlinedetermine the major factors which affect the quality of Government service delivery system, newlineaccess Citizen service satisfaction in the state of Karnataka. A model has also been proposed newlineand hypotheses have been formulated to test the proposed model. A survey was carried out newlineand 1027, valid responses were collected. Measures of each factor selected in this research were newlinemainly adapted from previous research studies. Tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, newlineassurance, empathy, valence and waiting time were the 7 factors which were grouped under newlinetwo dimensions functional quality and technical quality of service delivery. Factor analysis newlinehas been conducted to confirm factor structures as well as Cronbach s Alpha test conducted newlineto verify the reliability of variables along with regression analysis and Pearson correlation newlinecoefficient analysis. The analysis showed 52.2% of the variance in citizen service satisfaction newlineis captured by service quality and its dimensions. We found that service quality has a newlinerelationship with citizen service satisfaction. Waiting Time, responsiveness, assurance, and newlinetangibility were found to be of more importance when compared with remaining factors in newlinedetermining service quality. From the study it is evident that citizen service satisfaction can newlinebe expressed as proportional change in service quality. The results contribute towards newlineunderstanding of key issues which influence citizens service satisfaction and improve service newlinedelivery process. This research is of high value to research scholars who are interested in the newlinearea of public service delivery system, service quality of public services and public service newlinesatisfaction. newlineKeywords - Service Satisfaction, Service Quality, Government Services, Right to Service, newlineSakala, Citizen s Charter, Stipulated time, e-Governance, Citizen Services, Good newlineGovernance, Designated Officer.