An Exploratory Study of Employees’ Perceptions on Service Quality in the Examinations Council of Zambia

Sammanfattning: Service quality has been recognised as an important aspect for service organisations, however few studies have focused on service quality in public organisation, especially from the employee’s point of view. Employee perceptions are considered vital to the service quality in organisations as employees directly interact with customers and provide the services. Thus, this thesis aims to provide an understanding of how employees perceive service quality in public organization and to gain deeper insight of the dimensions influencing employees’ perception by using SERVQUAL instrument, a model used to measure service quality, as theoretical base. Considering the aim of the study, a qualitative strategy was used in order to reveal different aspects of service quality from employees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees who were involved in service delivery at service centers of Examinations Council of Zambia. This study found ten themes on how employees perceive service quality. Five themes were revealed from the five original dimensions of SERVQUAL which are Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy and the remaining five were based on the new dimensions added, revealed from the empirical data, analysis, and literature reviews which are Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Employees Empowerment, Convenience and Manpower. This thesis indicates that service quality is a complex issue which should be researched using special sets of dimensions depending on the organization’s setting. In a practical view, the ten dimensions are needed to be addressed in the organisation in order to deliver a quality service. Over and above this, the study thereby enhances knowledge regarding the employees’ perception on service quality and further contributes to the service quality literature in employees’ point of view.