Impact of Employees Motivation on Service Excellence in the Public Sector - Research Proposal Example

The impact of employee motivation on service excellence in the public sector Background information As Bill Gates (1999) once said, in the new digital age, customer service is the competitive differentiator for all organisations. According to Beevers (2010), customer service experience can be simply defined as how well an organisation can be able to meet the needs of the customer in a consistent and constant way. In other words, excellence in customer service experience is demonstrated when an organisation is able to give a good value of money, is honest, meets deadlines, and has high reputation as well as encouraging complaints, responding to criticism, handling them well and demonstrates being passionate about customers. In addition, people are well trained, respected, flexible, knowledgeable, friendly, stable, involved as well as being consistent at all levels. This is where a culture of efficiency, professionalism, caring, teamwork, but with a touch of fun and character is perceived. Davidson (2006) also states that a model such as Porter’s diamond theory as well as Mann’s three legs is linked to service excellence with representation of committed customers, motivated employees and satisfied providers of resources. This is more important because customer service begins with the customers and with a wide variety of customers in the public sector; customer service can achieved through combination of motivation and satisfaction. It is very important for an organisation to understand well who its customers are. This can be achieved through various methods where stakeholder analysis is a popular one. According to Kotler and Lee (2010), a stakeholder is an individual or a group affected or can affect the achievement of the purpose of an organisation. Public sector stakeholders are crucial to the success of customer service excellence and are numerous because they include internal and external customers. This implies that public sector is responsible for key societal functions such as education and health among others as well as being a major employer and need to be motivated to ensure success in provision of services. Key Literature review According to Speller and Ghobadian, (1993), the public sector must place more importance to customer service because it has to. There is little choice for public sector but to consider the satisfaction of its customers because this is a key plank for the success of the government and the sector is also taken into account. This call for strategies that are customer-led instead of being service led and also calls for exceeding minimum standards for achievement of high quality service but for less. Thus, this presents a clear picture that there is a rise in the expectations of public services but because of the current volatile environment, reaching such expectations is important. Thus, the expectations of customers and what they can do when standards are below acceptable levels has been empowered by information such as use of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (Chen, C et al. 2004). Current volatile environment has resulted to more emphasis on customer service excellence due to its potential to create efficiency savings. For instance, if customers are unsatisfied, there will be more complaints or repeated service requests leading to a costly and time consuming process. Poor customer service experience can result to low morale for employees and this greatly affects productivity and as result; employees can easily leave the organisation for better satisfaction (Kotler & Lee, 2006). As Speller and Ghobadian (1993) state service excellence is very important given that public sector has non-profit areas mandatory services. As a result, loosing revenues from profitable areas makes the resources more stretched. According to Jarrar and Schiuma (2007), the gap between the public and private sector is closing with public organisations focusing more on its customers as well as justifying the its need for existence. If such gap further closes and services are also opened up for more competition, there is no other choice for public sector but to move in line with the private sector in regard to the levels of customer service. Otherwise, the public sector will face losses in revenue. According to Robbins and Judge (2008), motivation plays a significant role in the performance of employee as the employees who are motivated becomes the greatest organisational assets. Thus, motivation is crucial in improving the performance of employees. This can be achieved through many ways which include working environment, work-life-balance, training, rewarding, recognition, feedback, commitment, goal setting, responsibility and interpersonal relationship among others. According to Van Wart (2008), listening to the personal problems that affect the work of employees while taking time to counsel them is essential. This is important in police sector as warm encouragement and a friendly ear in regard to their issues will improve performance. In addition, ensuring that there is right quality and quantity of equipment in their work is an active motivator (Bowey, 2005). Training in this sector also motivates employees by increasing their chances of doing a good job and increasing competencies. According to Greenberg and Baron (2003), rewarding in form of promotions, superior work assignments, increase in pay and additional responsibility among others is a prime motivator. This may involve finding out what motivates the employees in this sector, then matching the offered rewards and the desires of employees. Recognition in the police sector has a positive connotation and leads to acknowledgement of good actions or behaviour. According to Lazeby (2008), shaping employee performance continuously requires a structured feedback that enables employees to accept comments, to be motivated and to improve their actions. A feeling of belonging increase commitment as the employees are caused to take actions for the sake of the sector based on unity and a common focus. In the police sector, responsibility is a great motivator as everyone will be answerable to any action taken (Vandenabeele, 2007). According to Durant et al., (2006), goal setting and interpersonal relationship are effective tools for motivating an improving performance of public employees. Showing courtesy and interest in the police sector would mean valuing and appreciating basic humanity. Research objectives: The purpose of this proposal is to examine the impact of motivation of employees on service excellence in public sector. This study will address the following objectives: 1. To determine the need of customer service excellence in the public sector. 2. To examine the motivation factors that affect employees in the police sector. 3. To investigate the roles of different parties in regard to work motivation preferences in running public sectors. Research questions: 1. Why is service excellence crucial for public sector? 2. How does motivation improve the performance of employees? 3. What is the relationship between these parties in regard to motivation? Research methods The data to be used will be based on questionnaires developed by the researcher. Although considerations surrounding cost, convenience and timing will influence decision in regard to the choice of methodology, quantitative research design will be most appropriate based on the descriptive nature of the project. This will allow for objective and precise measurement of the dimensions of employee motivation as will be experienced by the respondents. The study will be guided based on theory and literature survey. Quantitative method will be regard to well-structures questions to be asked to all respondents. This will be combined with open questions where the respondent will have the flexibility of answering based on different perspectives. However, quantitative and qualitative aspects will also be combined in order to complement each other by bringing the width and depth in the research. A mix of quantitative and qualitative studies will provide the best ideal to follow in regard to focusing on previous research and secondary data that I intend to create with research questions. At some level, I will employ knowledge based on the topic conducted in previous research. The combined approaches will provide the most meaningful way in regard to probing the research topic and assessing the dimensions of motivation in enhancing the performance of employees in public sector. The instrument that will be applied to measure the construct concerned will be motivation questionnaire in regard to measuring the dimensions of motivation of employees. The combination of the analysis of survey results with a combination of statistical applications will allow the researcher to draw conclusions based on the objectives of the study. Ethical considerations In reporting of the results, it will be important to make sure that I will accurately present what I will be told as well as what I will observe. The responses will not be out of context and I will discuss observations by putting them into appropriate context. Getting permission from the people that I will involve in conducting research will be crucial. It will also be important to be careful in regard to how I will frame challenging questions. This will ensure that my subjects will not be hurt either emotionally or physically. I will ensure that my own personal opinions and biases will not get in the way of my research and that I will provide fair consideration in any circumstance. During my research I will ensure that while conducting surveys, I will let my subjects know whether my research results will either be anonymous or not. Work plan STEPS IN THE RESEARCH PLAN COMPLETION DEADLINE Proposal submission Designing of research plan Gaining access to data Literature review Defining of a sample frame and setting up of selection criteria. Design and testing of questionnaire Design of a final questionnaire Posting of questionnaires Editing of completed questionnaires, entering data into a computer Draft analysis of qualitative data Analysis of data Report up of findings Presentation of final research References Beevers, R 2010, Customer Service Excellence in the Public Sector, accessed from: http://www.customerplus.co.uk/downloads/service_excellence.pdf Chen, C et al. 2004, “A customer-orientated service enhancement system for the public sector”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 414-425 Clark, A 1990, Building a culture of quality and service. Lifeskills Management Group UK, pp. 14-17 Davidson, H 2006, The Committed Enterprise – Making Vision, Values and Branding Work, Revised Edition. Durant, RF, Kramer, R, Perry, JL., Mesch, Debra, & Paarlberg, L 2006, “Motivating employees in a new governance era: The performance paradigm revisited”, Public Administration Review, Vol. 66, No. 4, pp.505-514 Gates, B 1999, Business at the Speed of Thought. NY: Warner Books. Greenberg, J, & Baron, RA 2003, Behavior in organizations, 8th ed., Prentice-Hall. Jarrar, Y & Schiuma, G 2007, “Measuring performance in the public sector: challenges and trends”, Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 4-8 Kotler, P, & Lee, N 2006, Marketing in the Public Sector – A Roadmap for Improved Performance. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Lanzeby, S 2008, “How to Motivate Employees: What Research Is Telling Us, PM”, Public Management magazine, Vol. 90, No. 8, pp.22-25. Robbins, SP, & Judge, TA 2008, Organizational Behaviour, 13th ed., Prentice-Hall. Speller, S, & Gohabian, A 1993, “Change for public sector”, Managing service quality July, pp. 29 – 32 Van Wart, Montgomery, P, Suino 2008, Leadership in Public Organizations: An Introduction, M.E. Sharpe. Vandenabeele, W 2007, “Toward a Public Administration Theory of Public Service Motivation”, Public Management Review, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp.545–556. Read More