Quality Management Field Service Quality - Analysis of Data - Science and Maths Assignment Help

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Assignment Task:

Introduction 
 

Within the Quality management field Service Quality has been the focus of much research, in particular, satisfaction for the customer; how the customers’ expectations balance out against their perceptions of the service received. One of the main developments in the field has been the SERVQUAL model designed by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry to help measure customers’ perceptions of service quality (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1990).  
SERVQUAL is a multi-scale item used by organizations to better understand the service expectations and perceptions of customers across five service quality dimensions; Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. SERVQUAL covers two sections, expectations and perceptions, with each section comprising of 22 statements in which the customer would assign a score between 1 and 7; 1 being Strongly disagreed and 7 Strongly Agree. It identifies an importance weighting of the quality dimensions from the customers’ perspective (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1990).  
SERVQUAL can be applied to both external as well as internal customers. 
Employee satisfaction is understood to be as important as customer satisfaction in influencing organizational performance (Chen et al, 2006). It has been discussed that internal customer needs must be met before external customer needs can be met (Gremler, Bitner and Evans, 1994) with fulfilled employees having increased morale and working more efficiently and effectively (Eskildsen and Dahlgaard, 2000). 

Aims and Objectives  
 
The purpose of this research is to examine whether SERVQUAL could be utilized or adapted successfully to measure internal service quality within the Police, Fire and Ambulance Service and to explore whether dimensions already steering the SERVQUAL model are appropriate for use in emergency service’s environment or whether dimensions require to be changed. Below lists the aims and objectives to be explored during this research;  
1. Analyze the importance of employee satisfaction in delivering service quality  - Understand the benefits of employee satisfaction on service quality  - Understand the profit chain  
 
2. Evaluate SEVQUAL and its applicability to internal service quality  - Explore SERVQUAL’s applicability for use in internal service analysis  - Identify any shortcomings of SERVQUAL tool  
 
3. Explore dimensions of service quality from an employee perspective, namely emergency frontline staff - Review current dimensions 

Data Collection 
 
A comprehensive literature review will assist Data collection. The original SERVQUAL dimensions will be used to guide a facilitated focus group to begin with.  
Three facilitated focus groups will be conducted, one for each service. Around 5 participants will be required for each. The method of data collection has been selected to encourage the sharing of perceptions between participants and allows for more accurate and reliable data, being facilitated will ensure the focus is more closely controlled and minimizes instances of questions being misinterpreted by participants.  
The primary form of identifying participants would be through the author's own business contacts and via the Linkedin Portal. It is the author's intention to identify participants that would attend voluntarily outside of the organizations in question. It is believed this would allow the participants to discuss and explore instances of service in a more relaxed, informal manner, within a natural environment. Although focus groups intend to be conducted out with the organizations in question, organizations would be consulted and made aware of the research being carried out to raise any issues prior to focus groups taking place. No results or details of participants would be discussed with the organizations.  
10 questions are intended to be asked (Appendix 1) guided by the literature review, these are currently working questions and may change during the literature review prior to ethical approval.  
Prior to the focus groups taking place, consent forms would be disseminated along with Participant Information Sheets.  
It is the author’s intention to collect data via hand-written notes taken throughout the focus groups and have each focus group audio recorded. This would maintain the participant’s anonymity. Notes, and audiotapes, would be transcribed by the author, with guidance sought from supervisor Dr. Evi Viza.  
 
Analysis of Data  
 
Thematic analysis will be conducted to draw themes from collected data. handwritten notes and transcriptions from the focus group will be analyzed to draw any additional themes that may arise. The author will review the data, ensuring familiarity with any colloquialisms from the services and will then pull out key themes. The author will be wary of assigning codes to certain words at first for fear that specific words were taken out of context or had different meanings within the different organizations. Coding would be done on a thorough analysis of the data.  

These questions aim to identify what you, as emergency service front line staff, perceive and expect from your organizations. Firstly, we will discuss Service Quality and then move on to your own experiences and perceptions of service within the Organisation.  
 
1. Can you please discuss what you perceive Service Quality to mean? 
 
2. How are Police Scotland/ Scottish Fire and Rescue/ Scottish Ambulance Service currently measuring service quality? 
 
3. How do you think your organization should measure this? 
 
4. What do you, as a Police Officer/Fire Fighter/ Paramedic, think are the important factors in evaluating service quality? 
  
5. Could you describe an ideal service – from the perspective of what you as a Police Officer/Fire Fighter/ Paramedic would describe as ideal service from Police Scotland/ Scottish Fire and Rescue/ Scottish Ambulance Service.  
 
6. Could you provide instances and reasons of satisfaction within the Fire/Police/Ambulance Service  
 
7. Could you provide instances and reasons of dissatisfaction within the Fire/Police/Ambulance Service? 
 
8. What are your expectations of the Fire/Police/Ambulance Service – as a front-line staff what do you expect from your employer to be able to do your job to the best of your ability? 
 
9. What are your priorities as a Police officer/Fire Fighter/ Paramedic when receiving and delivering service? 
 
10. Who do you think the key stakeholders are in the Police/ Fire/ Ambulance Service? 

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