You are here

Communication Practices and Quality Service Delivery Tradition: Uganda’s Local Government Perspective

Journal Name:

Publication Year:

Abstract (Original Language): 
This study examined the relationship between communication practices (formal and informal) and quality service delivery in Uganda’s local Governments. The study findings are derived from a sample of 212 Local Governments in Uganda. Service delivery recipients - Heads of department and sectors comprised the unit of inquiry whose responses were aggregated to Local Government level, which formed the unit of analysis. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the respondents. Data analysis involved running correlations and regressing communication practices (formal and informal) on quality service delivery. The findings revealed that both formal and informal communication practices positively and significantly predicted quality service delivery in Uganda’s Local Governments. The major study implication is that Local Government authorities need to focus and reform communication practices for delivery of quality services to the people. The study was however, limited by the fact that it relied only on cross-sectional research design and only utilised a single methodological approach. The study offers empirical evidence on the sparsely investigated public sector. The evidence indicates the immense role of both formal and informal communication practices on quality service delivery in the Uganda’s Local Governments.
412
423

REFERENCES

References: 

[1] L. Robinson, Leigh, “Committed to quality: the use of quality schemes in UK public leisure services,” Managing Service
Quality, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 247-55, 2003.
Ibrahim Abaasi Musenze, John C. Munene, and Joseph M. Ntayi
ISSN : 2028-9324 Vol. 4 No. 2, Oct. 2013 421
[2] C. Talbot, J. Wiggan, N. Hendey, A. Rafferty, R. Calcraft, M. Freestone, and B. Wyatt, “Job centre plus Customer service
performance and Delivery: A qualitative review”, Department for work and pensions, Research Report No 276, UK,
2005.
[3] P. Verdegem, G. Verleye, “User-centered e-Government in practice: A comprehensive model for measuring user
satisfaction”, Government Information Quarterly, vol. 26, pp. 487-497, 2009.
[4] Y.H. Hung, M. L. Huang, and K.S. Chen, “Service quality evaluation by service quality performance matrix.” Total quality
Management & Business Excellence, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 79-89, 2003.
[5] A. Ueno, “What are the fundamental features supporting service quality?,” Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 24, No. 1,
pp. 74–86. 2010.
[6] J. Teicher, O. Hughes, and N. Dow, “e-government: a new route to public service quality”, Managing Service Quality, vol.
12, no. 6, pp. 384-93, 2002.
[8] World Bank Report, Devolution in Pakistan: Annex 2- Technical Considerations, DIFD, World Bank, pp. 1-29, 2004.
[9] S. Khan, “Local Government and Participatory Rural Development (PhD Thesis),” Department of Public Administration,
Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, pp. 157-182, 2004.
[10] M. Alam, New Local Government Reforms in Pakistan: A way forward toward inducing social change, University of
Birmingham, 2004. [Online] Available: http://www.idd.bham.ac.uk (February 15, 2009)
[11] J. Jutting, K. Celine, M.D. Ida, O. Holger, P. Nicolas, W. Lucia, Decentralization and Poverty in Developing Countries:
Exploring the Impacts, OECD Development Centre, Working Paper No. 236, 2004.
[Online] Available: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/40/19/33648213.pdf (January 7, 2009)
[12] U. Gustafsson, D. Stephen, “Parents, Power and Public Participation. Sure Start, an Experiment in New Labor
Government,” Soc. Policy and Admin., vol. 39, no 5, pp. 528-543, 2005.
[13] H. Canary, Communication and organizational knowledge: Contemporary issues for theory and practice, Taylor &
Francis, 2011.
[14] B.A. Nardi, “Beyond bandwidth: Dimensions of connection in interpersonal communication,” Journal of CSCW, 2005.
[15] B. K. Berger, Getting communications on senior management’s agenda, In: P. Williams (Ed.), Employee communication:
The comprehensive manual for those who communicate with today’s employees, Chicago: Ragan Communications, pp.
97-114, 2008.
[16] T. E. Harris, and M.D. Nelson, Applied organizational communication: Theory and practice in a global environment, New
York, Lawrence Erlbaum, 2008.
[17] D.W. Nader, M.A. Siebel, P. van der Zaag, Z. Mimi, H.J. Gijzen, “A Financial, Environmental and Social Evaluation of
Domestic Water Management Options in the West Bank, Palestine,” Water Resource Management, vol. 24, pp. 4445–
4467, 2010.
[18] P. Clampitt, and C. Downs, “Employee perceptions of the relationship between communication and productivity: a field
study”, Journal of Business Communication, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 5-28, 1993.
[19] O.Hargie, D. Dickson, and S. Nelson, “Working together in a divided society: a study of inter -group communication in
the Northern Ireland workplace”, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, vol. 17 no. 3, pp. 285-318, 2003.
[20] M. Manolias, Stress in the Police Service, ACPO Working Party, London, 1983.
[21] A. Parasuraman, V.A. Zeithaml,. and L.L. Berry, Leonard L., “SERVQUAL: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer
perceptions of service quality,” Journal of Retailing, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 12-40, 1988.
[22] J.J Cronin, and S.A. Taylor, “Measuring service quality: a re-examination and extension”, Journal of marketing, vol. 56,
pp. 55-68, 1992.
[23] S.A Hazlett, and F. Hill, “Policy and practice: An investigation of organizational change for service quality in public sector
in Northern Ireland”, Total quality Management, vol. 11, no. (4-6), pp. 515-520, 2000.
[24] J.E. Swiss, “Adapting Total Quality Management (TQM) to government”, Public Administration Review, vol. 52, no. 4, pp.
356-362, 1992.
[25] A. Nsibambi, (Ed), Decentralization and Civil Society in Uganda: The Quest for Good Governance, Fountain Publishers,
Kampala, 1998.
[26] S. Lawal, Local Government Administration in Nigeria, A practical Approach, 2000.
[27] K. Newton, and J.W. Van Deth, Foundation of Comparative Politic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
[28] H. Jenkins, Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century, Chicago, IL:
MacArthur Foundation, 2007.
[29] Kettl, D, System under Stress Homeland Security & American Politics, Washington D.C, CQ Press, 2007.
[31] O. Kwon, “The Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on Public Spending. The Korean Case,” Publ. Budget. Finance, vol. 23,
no. 4, pp. 1-20, 2003.
[32] J.P. Faguet, and F. Sanchez, “Decentralization’s effects on education outcomes in Bolivia and Colombia”, DEDPS, vol. 47,
2006.
Communication Practices and Quality Service Delivery Tradition: Uganda’s Local Government Perspective
ISSN : 2028-9324 Vol. 4 No. 2, Oct. 2013 422
[33] D.A. Rondinelli, J.S. McCullough, R.W. Johnson, “Analyzing Decentralization Policies in Developing Countries: A Political
Economy Framework,” Dev. Change, 20: 57-87, 1989.
[34] S. Ayuso, M.A. Rodriguez, R. Garcia, and M.A. Arino, “Maximizing stakeholders’ interests: An empirical analysis of the
stakeholder approach to corporate governance,” Working paper, University of Navarra, 2007.
[35] J. Steffensen, P. Tidemand and E. Ssewankambo, “A Comparative Analysis of Decentralisation in Kenya, Tanzania and
Uganda; Country Study- Uganda”, Final Report, Vol. 1, Main Report, DEGE Consult (DEGE) and Nordic Consulting Group
(NCG), Denmark, August, 2004.
[36] P.B. Crosby, Quality Is Free, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 1979.
[37] T. Levitt, “Production Line Approach to Service,” Harvard Business Review, vol. 60, no, 5, pp. 41-52, 1972.
[38] H.L. Gilmore, “Product conformance cost”, Quality Progress, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 16-19, 1974.
[39] V.A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, A. and L.L. Berry, Delivering Quality Service, The Free Press, New York, N.Y., 1990.
[40] A. Parasuraman, V.A. Zeithaml, and L.L. Berry, “A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future
research,” Journal of Marketing, vol. 49, p. 41-50, 1985.
[41] B.R. Lewis, and V.W. Mitchell, “Defining and measuring the quality of customer service,” Marketing Intelligence and
Planning, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 11-17, 1990.
[42] D. Garvin, “Managing Quality,” Harvard University Press, Boston, MA, 1988.
[43] J. Yong, and A. Wilkinson, “The long and winding road: the evolution of quality management”, Total Quality
Management, vol. 13 no. 1, pp. 101-21, 2002.
[44] R.L. Oliver, “A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions,” Journal of Marketing
Research, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 460-9, 1980.
[45] V.A. Zeithaml, L.L. Berry, and A. Parasuraman, “Communication and Control Processes in the Delivery of Service
Quality,” Journal of Marketing, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 35-48, 1988.
[46] J. Greenberg, and R. A. Baron, Behavior in organizations, (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2010.
[47] T.J. Christopher, “In Search Of Communication Satisfaction At The State Bar Of Georgia,” vol. 5, issue 3, Spring, 2006.
[48] C.W. Downs, and A.D. Adrian, Assessing Organizational Communication: Strategic Communication Audits, New York NY:
The Guilford Press, 2004.
[49] R. E. Kraut, R. S. Fish, R. W. Root, and B. L. Chalfonte, Information communication in organizations: Form, function, and
technology, In: R. M. Baecker (Ed.), Readings in groupware and computer-supported cooperative work, San Mateo, CA:
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 287-314, 1993.
[50] G. Cheney, Organizational communication in an age of globalization: Issues, reflections, practice, Long Grove, IL:
Waveland Press, 2011.
[51] C. Downs, Communication Audits, Harper Collins, London, 1988.
[52] R. Semler, The Seven-Day Weekend: The Wisdom Revolution: Finding the Work/Life Balance, London: Century, Random
House, 2003.
[53] The Role of Communication in Governance: Detailed Analysis, Coffey International Development 2007.
[54] R. E. Freeman, Strategic management: A stakeholder approach, Boston: Pitman, 1984.
[55] J.D. Johnson, W.A Donohue, C.K. Atkin, and S. Johnson, “Differences between formal and informal communication
channels,” Journal of Business Communication, vol. 31, pp. 111-122, 1984.
[56] M. Amin, Social science Research, Conception, Methodology and Analysis, Makerere University, Kampala, 2005.
[57] R.V. Krejcie, and D.W. Morgan, “Educational and Psychological Measurement,” vol. 30, pp. 607-610, 1970.
[58] L.R. Gay, Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application, 3rd ed., 1987.
[59] K.D. Bailey, Methods of Social Research, 4th edition, New York Macmillan Inc., 1984.
[60] J.T. Roscoe, Fundamental Research statistics for behavioral sciences, New York: Holt, 1975.
[61] J.A. Fitzsimmons, and M.J. Fitzsimmons, Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology, 5th Edition.
Singapore: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
[62] J. C. Nunnally, Psychometric theory, (2nd ed.), New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
[63] G. Philip, and S-A. Hazlett, “The measurement of service quality: a new P-C-P attributes model,” International Journal of
Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 14 no. 3, 1997, pp. 260-286, 1996.
[64] P. M. Podsakoff, S.B. MacKenzie, J-Y, Lee, and N. P. Podsakoff, “Common method biases in behavioral research: A
critical review of the literature and recommended remedies,” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 88, pp. 879-903, 2003.
[65] P. E. Spector, “Method Variance in Organizational Research: Truth or Urban Legend?,” Organizational Research
Methods, vol. 9, pp. 221-232, 2006.
[66] Y. Dodge, The Oxford dictionary of statistical terms, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.
[67] A. Field, Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (Introducing Statistical Methods Series Publication), SAGE Publications Ltd:
New York, 2006.
Ibrahim Abaasi Musenze, John C. Munene, and Joseph M. Ntayi
ISSN : 2028-9324 Vol. 4 No. 2, Oct. 2013 423
[68] M. Bailey, Hong Kong, EIU - International Tourism Reports, No. 4, pp. 5-21, Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing Company,
1995.
[69] D.A. Garvin, “Quality on the line”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 61, September-October, 1983.
[70] Government of Uganda, Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, G.O.U: Kampala, 1995.
[71] Ministry of Public Service, National Service Delivery Survey Report, Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2008.
[72] World Bank, World Development Report: Making Services Work for Poor People, World Bank and Oxford University
Press, Washington, D.C., 2004.

Thank you for copying data from http://www.arastirmax.com