Opportunities to participate in research project surrounding 'SERVQUAL' (West Scotland)

The Project

One of our latest Academic Members, Deborah Bruce, is seeking participants for her MSc dissertation which comprises of primary research and a thesis outlining her research and findings.

Deborah is a MSc Student from the University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, studying Quality Management.  The focus of her research is on Quality Management principles within the public sector, namely Police, Fire and Ambulance services.

The main focus will be on whether a tool called ‘SERVQUAL’ could be used to measure internal customer service quality within the Police, Fire and Ambulance Services.

SERVQUAL is an established multi-scale item used to help measure customers’ perceptions of quality and used by organisations to better understand the service expectations and perceptions of customers across five service quality dimensions;

• Tangibles
• Reliability
• Responsiveness
• Assurance
• Empathy

SERVQUAL covers two sections, expectations and perceptions.

This research aims to establish whether the current SERVQUAL model and dimensions listed above are suitable for use within the Police, Fire and Ambulance Service, and can be used to measure Employees views on the service quality they expect from their organisation and are receiving.

This research project will be conducted by Deborah, assisted by her project supervisor, Dr Evi Viza, who is a member of faculty staff within the University.

Deborah hopes to talk to a number of front line staff from each organisation (both serving and ex staff) about their experiences of service quality and collect information through focus group discussions. This would take place within the University of the West of Scotland and would be voluntary to attend.  

It is hoped by conducting this research it can be determined whether SERVQUAL could be adopted as a standardised tool to be used within the emergency services and this could then be used to drive discussions with management, staff and enable improvement initiatives if applicable.

The research has been full ethical approval from the University of the West of Scotland’s ethics committee.

Participants

If you are a current, retired or ex Police Officer, Paramedic, Ambulance Technician or Fire Fighter and wouldn’t mind sharing your experience and views, as an employee, on Service Quality provided to you by your employer and what should be measured within your organisation then please contact Deborah by email below.

4-5 participants are required from each sector. Focus groups will be held within UWS Paisley campus, High Street, paisley, PA1 2BE, between the hours of 1630 and 1800 hours on 20th and 21st September 2018.

All participants will remain anonymous.

View other News