Five : SERVQUAL AS A SOCIO-TECHNICAL APPROACH TO MEASURING e-GOVERNMENT SERVICE QUALITY AND GUIDING e-GOVERNANCE STRATEGIES

e-Government services and e-governance have been embraced in many African countries. Nonetheless, measuring the value of e-government remains a challenge. Key to a successful evaluation of progress towards e-governance is the contextual approach, in which ICT is embedded as part of a holistic solution to governance. When carried through without considering the complementary influences of society on ICT and of ICT on society, e-government services can lead to little added value, or even to an exacerbation of societal problems and lack of progress towards e-governance. Although much has been written on e-governance in Africa, few authors have extended the discussion to measuring quality of service and lack of progress towards e-governance. In South Africa, the Batho Pele (People First) policy of service quality is the contextual approach within which e-governance is embedded, because of its good governance attributes. This article relates Batho Pele to SERVQUAL, a framework widely used to measure customer service quality in the retail sector, and adapts the framework for measuring service quality in community e-government service centres, known as Thusong Service Centres (TSC). The analysis, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), is consistent with what is known: service quality in TSCs is low and requires regular measurement and evaluation to inform future quality improvements. The article argues that an adapted SERVQUAL instrument, taking into account Batho Pele principles and situational context, can be used as a guide to innovation in e-government service delivery. It is an appropriate sociotechnical tool to collect data to inform e-governance strategies in African countries which share the same social context as South Africa.


INTRODUCTION: CITIZEN SERVICE CENTRES AND BATHO PELE
There is a strong global drive to move government online and to open it to public scrutiny using information and communication technologies (ICT), more popularly known as e-government.The aim of e-government is to create opportunities for government to be more efficient and effective to the business and organisational community (government to business -G2B) and internally (government to government -G2G), and more transparent to individuals (government to citizen -G2C).G2C and G2B interactions are largely dependent on the strength of G2G activities, because a stable ICT platform within government is critical for meaningful digital interaction with individuals and business.
It is generally well accepted that e-government adds value to the citizen, business and government constituencies when implemented well (Carter, Zhang & Schaupp, 2012).
However, the increasing demand for e-government to be translated into better governance, e-governance, is pressurising many African governments to uncritically introduce ICT without reflecting on the best approach to value creation in each unique context (Dwivedi, Weerakkody & Jansen, 2011).The weak results from e-government in Africa in the past decade (Muylkens, 2010) highlight the importance of reflecting on how ICT can add value to service delivery and governance.Further, few studies attempt to measure e-governance, which is a socially participative approach, but rather focus on measuring e-government which is a services push approach.
Like many countries, South Africa introduced multi-purpose community centres (MPCCs) to take government services to citizens.The programme, initiated in 1999, lost momentum and MPCCs were under-utilised.In 2006, MPCCs were re-branded as Thusong 1 Service Centres (TSC), with ICT considered as necessary to provide an integrated platform for government officials to offer citizen services and to act as a doorway for digital interaction between government and local communities (Republic of South Africa, 2007).The TSCs promoted computer literacy in an effort to motivate citizens to interact with government using email and the Internet.
South Africa introduced a citizen centric service delivery policy titled Batho Pele (Republic of South Africa, 1997), which means "People First".Batho Pele provides a good basis for addressing the important intangible benefits required from service delivery, beyond time and cost savings.The application of Batho Pele principles to public service delivery, for example the requirement for explicit service standards and value for money, offers a substantive architecture to inform the design of e-government, including citizen experiences at TSCs.The TSCs aim to give citizens access to government services within a five kilometre radius of their place of residence, while also providing electronic access to public services.
Each TSC offers basic services such as social grants, health, education, passports and     The

PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTION
The main purpose of the research was to understand how the SERVQUAL framework can be adapted to the e-government context, based on a study of Thusong Service Centres.Specifically, the study sought to answer the research question: How can service quality and citizen perceptions of the value of e-government be measured?

LITERATURE REVIEW: MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING STAGES OF E-GOVERNMENT AND E-GOVERNANCE
e-Government theory offers a range of maturity models, though these are not necessarily incongruent.Maturity models are conceptual reference models that are used as benchmarks within a given discipline to measure the maturity of an organisation and provide for the evolution of the organisation towards increased maturity (Becker, Niehaves, Poeppelbuss & Simons, 2010).Lee (2010, p. 5) compared and contrasted the 12 most distinctive e-government maturity models that have been developed and employed over the period 2000-2010, using a qualitative meta-synthesis analysis.Qualitative meta-synthesis is an approach which uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies, and attempts to bring together those findings into a single holistic framework that better reflects the different assumptions underlying each of the qualitative studies (Zimmer, 2006).Lee's (2010) meta-synthesis resulted in a common frame of reference model that revealed five distinct maturity processes (Table 2).It is apparent from Lee's model that some maturity models focus on citizens while others focus on the technology artefact.The model suggests that as the technology platform of e-government matures, it offers better opportunity for interaction with citizens (Figure 1).e-Governance therefore stands out as the highest maturity level of e-government where government processes and services are continuously improved, based on a vibrant exchange of ideas between citizens and government.It would be naïve to assume that government must progress from stage to stage towards e-governance.For example, social media has enabled governments to skip stages, moving from the absence of technology to using Web 2.0 platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to enable citizens to offer opinions and participate in government decision making.

REVIEW OF THE SERVQUAL METHODOLOGY AND ITS APPLICABILITY TO E-GOVERNMENT
When a service is rendered it follows that there is often a gap between what the service is expected to be like and what it turns out to be (Lewis & Booms, 1983) SERVQUAL is a service quality tool that has been widely used in the retail sector to measure customer experience of services rendered against their expectations (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988).SERVQUAL initially measured 10 dimensions of service quality, but was refined to the five dimensions of tangibles (equipment, appearance of service staff, visually appealing materials), empathy (caring, individual attention, understanding customer needs), reliability (service as promised, error-free information), responsiveness (prompt service, willingness to help) and assurance (instilling confidence, people feeling safe about their transaction) (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1994, p. 207).
The application of a SERVQUAL type approach would be an opportunity for government to develop ways to understand what type and quality of e-government is expected and how its value is perceived.Since SERVQUAL is a service quality tool that has been applied with respect to commercial transactions, it requires adaptation to an e-government context.One of the differences between business customers and citizens is that customers can leave when they perceive services to be poor, while citizens are often unable to choose an alternative government service point.
Furthermore, there are theoretical and operational criticisms of SERVQUAL that need to be addressed.Theoretically, SERVQUAL is criticised for not drawing on established theory, not considering the outcomes of a service encounter, and for its dependence on context, while operationally, the expectations component is regarded as being vague (Buttle, 1996).This study seeks to recognise the value of a structured  , 2009).The choice was therefore to create a government-wide enterprise architecture that will guide the adoption of ICT across government (GITOC, 2009).In this article, we argue that the creation of a complex ICT framework is misplaced, because most government ICT officers are not familiar with enterprise architectures (Twinomurinzi & Rambau, 2012).It would be more contextual to utilise an established approach such as Batho Pele to inform the framework for delivery at e-government services centres.This article therefore sets out to interpret, from Batho Pele, measures that can be used to determine the value of e-government.
It postulates that an adapted SERVQUAL tool can be applied to understanding customer expectations and experiences of e-government at citizen service centres, thus enabling governments to improve their service delivery and e-governance efforts.

MAPPING SERVQUAL DIMENSIONS TO BATHO PELE PRINCIPLES
Table 3 shows the five dimensions of service quality measured by SERVQUAL can be mapped to the Batho Pele principles of consultation, service standards, access, courtesy, information, openness and transparency, redress and value for money.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following five statements were hypothesised to represent the quality of service rendered in the e-government service centres: The DoHA ICT capabilities at each TSC are designed to offer the same services offered at any other DoHA regional office.Using the NPR and HANIS systems, officials can register births, but not amend the personal records in the system.The services offered are listed in Table 4.The e-government SERVQUAL questionnaire operates in the quantitative tradition, using a cross-sectional survey methodology based on 44 contextually adapted questions.In order to test the applicability of the survey, it was administered to a convenient sample of 168 citizens at three TSCs over a period of four weeks.The questionnaire was compiled in English and a verbal translation was offered to participants who preferred any other local language.Each questionnaire was administered before and after a user experience at the TSC.The responses were analysed and further adaptations were then made to the framework to ensure a contextualised instrument.The final adapted SERVQUAL framework is presented in Appendix A.

ANALYSIS VARIABLES IN THE ANALYSIS
Tables 5 and 6 describe the variables (items in each SERVQUAL dimension) for expectations and experience respectively.Respondents rated the statements on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree.The raw results were as follows:

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The researchers assessed the quality and adequacy of the proposed measurement model by investigating reliability and convergence validity.The convergence validity was supported as a result of the fact that the overall fit of the final model was good, and that all the path loadings were statistically significant at 5% level of significance.With respect to the structural components of the model (Figure 3 below), the results showed that all five SERVQUAL dimensions have a statistically significant effect on the quality of service.
The researchers therefore rejected the five null hypotheses at 5% level of significance and confirmed that there is a causal relationship among the SERVQUAL dimensions and the quality of service rendered in the TSCs.

COMPARISON OF ITEMS BETWEEN EXPERIENCE AND EXPECTATION
Tables 5 and 6 above describe the average scores of citizens' response to experience and expectations items respectively.The results imply that citizens' experience of all dimensions of e-government in terms of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy was below their expectations.The greatest difference between what citizens expected and what they experienced was with respect to the physical facilities of the centres, the timing of the services rendered, the employees instilling confidence and the best interest of the citizens.Each of these is described in more detail below.
As one measure of tangibles, the findings show that citizens have high expectations of the ICT infrastructure.Overall, they were disappointed with what they experienced (Figure 4).show that citizens expect the personnel at TSCs to understand their needs and make them feel like unique individuals (Figure 5) The results show the value that citizens attach to empathy as a key ingredient to successful e-government.Empathy is a skill that can be learned and does not require much effort to implement, especially when complemented with ICT systems.
In terms of assurance and professionalism, ICT can enable services to be rendered in trust and confidence, and to be treated as credible and secure.Assurance and professionalism can be ensured through enabling user participation in identification, for example by using biometric systems to authenticate citizens.The personnel can provide the citizen with a full trail of their interaction with the DoHA.Such simple measures can build trust and enable personnel to treat every matter with confidence and courtesy (Figure 6).ICT can enable reliability and responsiveness through keeping citizens updated regarding the status of the services they have applied for.Simple means, such as text messages sent to a citizen, instil a sense of a reliable and responsive government.
Additionally, keeping the citizen informed of the trail of activity would make citizens aware that their matters are being dealt with and when the matter will be resolved, illustrating the reliability of e-services and e-government.Such approaches can shift the existing negative experience of reliability and responsiveness (Figures 7 and 8).ICT can enable e-government services centres to give a fair estimate of the time in which every matter will be resolved and, in the event that timelines have not been met, to continually update the citizen of progress through affordable means such as a text message service.
identity documents.Any further government presence at a TSC is based on the needs of the local community.At least one TSC is envisaged for each of the 283 municipalities before the end of 2014 (Republic of South Africa, 2007).There are currently 142 TSCs in the nine provinces ( Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) is the most important department at TSCs because of the nature of the services they provide, including birth, marriage and death certification, and identity documentation.The DoHA ICT capabilities at each TSC are designed to ensure similar services are offered to those at any DoHA regional office.DoHA processes are executed through the National Population Register (NPR) system or the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS).NPR and HANIS are the main systems required for all TSC transactions.Citizens are able to access NPR and HANIS through DoHA officials at TSCs, or access e-services directly.These officials do not have full access to all NPR and HANIS functions.For example, they can register births, but cannot amend the personal records in the system.Through the Track and Trace web-based application, citizens can access the Internet to query the application status of identity documents, passports, marriage status and other matters, using a unique identity or reference number.This article adopts a social-technical perspective in viewing e-government as comprising people, data, processes, hardware and software interacting together in enabling government services and interactions.Specifically, it discusses an adapted SERVQUAL methodology and its value to building the elements of e-government needed to deliver effective and efficient services, based on a case study of services rendered by the Department of Home Affairs in Thusong Service Centres.SERVQUAL is a framework widely used in the retail sector to measure customer service quality.Batho Pele defines service quality for the public service as: to ensure consultation; and that there be standards for every government service rendered with an opportunity for redress where poor service is provided, access to information, openness and transparency in interactions with government and the perception that citizens receive value in their interactions with government.e-Government in South Africa would therefore need to take into account the Batho Pele principles.Most ICT implementation in African governments has focused only on implementing the ICT hardware and software, without consideration of the processes, people and data that holistically form e-government.In this article, we postulate that SERVQUAL, with its emphasis on users of a service, could be adapted to assist in enabling efficient and effective e-government.
FIGURE 1: A COMMON FRAME OF REFERENCE FOR E-GOVERNMENT STAGE MODELS . The gap can vary depending on the standards used to measure the quality of service, the difference between the recipient's expectations and the experience, the difference between what customers were told and what they experience, and the difference betweenwhat management think the service experience will be like and the actual experience(Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry, 1990).The degree to which the service experience conforms to the expectation is one way of defining service quality.Service quality is therefore a fair representation of the distinction between what an individual expects prior to experiencing a service and the perception or satisfaction after experiencing the service(Lewis & Blooms, 1983).For service-offering organisations such as government, citizen perceptions and degrees of satisfaction or dissatisfaction(Moorman, Blakely & Niehoff, 1998) are important to understand, in order to ascertain to what extent citizens are experiencing the value of the service.
service quality framework, while adapting the tool to the context and addressing the critique of theoretical weakness and vagueness.The adaptation of SERVQUAL was addressed by relating the design of the framework to theory on e-government, and to important contextual elements, namely the practice of e-government at TSCs and the Batho Pele quality approach to service delivery.Since the article focuses on the e-government experience, the outcomes of an individual service encounter, though important, were not considered.The Batho Pele policy defines eight principles for service delivery, including that there be consultation; standards for every government service rendered; access to information; openness and transparency in interactions with government; an opportunity for redress where poor service is rendered; and the perception that citizens receive value in their interactions with government.It should follow therefore that e-governance should be measured by the extent to which ICT is leveraged within each of the above elements, for example, the extent to which ICT enables consultation between government and citizens or organisations.While government attempted to use ICT in e-government(Republic of South Africa, 2001), it later recognised the challenge in making e-government work, citing especially the inconsistent ICT and public administration frameworks that are in use across different sectors of government (GITOC should be given fully, based on detailed and correct information.Explanation and/or options should be given for services not rendered.Empathy • Courtesy • Access e-Services should be given with empathetic consideration.The citizens have a right to services and should find the e-services easily accessible and communicated clearly Assurance • Openness and transparency .nformationshould be available about what government delivers and how it operates.e-Services should be given in trust and confidence, and should therefore be credible and securean awareness of the expected quality of the service and the benefits of ICT access to e-services.Users should be consulted about the quality of e-services rendered and given a choice about the e-services offered.Affordable e-services should be offered.Tangible • Infrastructure arrangements The ICT infrastructure and appearance of personnel should be above a minimum standard.

H10:
Tangibles experienced by the citizens have no influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H11: Tangibles experienced by the citizens have an encouraging influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H20: Reliability experienced by the citizens has no influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H21: Reliability experienced by the citizens has an encouraging influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H30: Responsiveness experienced by the citizens has no influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H31: Responsiveness experienced by the citizens has an encouraging influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H40: Assurance experienced by the citizens has no influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H41: Assurance experienced by the citizens has an encouraging influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H50: Empathy experienced by the citizens has no influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.H51: Empathy experienced by the citizens has an encouraging influence on the quality of service rendered in the TSC.SERVQUAL ADAPTATION AND TESTING The Batho Pele policy and the Thusong Service Centre experience provided the citizencentric context to inform adaptation of the SERVQUAL questions.The first adaptation of the framework was applied to the three TSC sites of Eldorado Park, Ipelegeng and Kopanong in Gauteng Province.The Eldorado Park and Kopanong TSCs are based in local community centres with dedicated rooms.The Ipelegeng TSC operates out of an Anglican Church that made available a building for community projects such as life skills training and youth development programmes.All three TSCs fall under the City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality and the Gauteng West Region of the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA).

ResponsivenessCV27:
Excellent e-government service centres will insist on error-free records. of excellent e-government service centres will tell customers exactly when the service will be performed.of excellent e-government service centres will give prompt service to customers. of excellent e-government service centres will always be willing to help customers.of excellent e-government service centres will never be too busy to respond to a customer's request.behaviour of employees of excellent e-government service centres will instil confidence in customers.3.52 0.50 CV11: Customers of excellent e-government service centres will feel safe in transactions.3.41 0.49 CV20: Employees of excellent e-government service centres will be consistently courteous with customers. of excellent e-government service centres will have the knowledge to answer customers' questions. of excellent e-government service centres will understand the specific needs of their customers.e-government service centres will have their customers' best interests at heart.e-government service centres will have employees who give customers personal service.e-government service centres will have operating hours convenient to all their customers.
FIGURE 2 THE HYPOTHESIZED STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL FIGURE 3: FINAL MODEL RESULTS FIGURE 4: AESTHETICS OF ICT AT E-GOVERNMENT SERVICE CENTRES FIGURE 5: EMPATHY IN RELATION TO E-SERVICES AND E-GOVERNMENT FIGURE 6: ASSURANCE AND PROFESSIONALISM IN E-GOVERNMENT FIGURE 7:RELIABILITY OF E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES centres will perform the service correctly the first time through the use of ICT 2 Government service centres performed the service correctly the first time through the use of ICT 3 Government service centres keep citizens regularly updated about the status of the service that has been applied for 3 Government service centres kept citizens regularly updated about the status of the service that was applied centres will use ICT systems which ensure error free records 4 Government service centres used ICT systems to ensure error-free records 5 Personnel using ICT can tell citizens exactly when the service will be performed 5 Personnel using ICT could tell citizens exactly when the service would be performed Assurance Openness and transparency 6 Citizens can participate in authenticating their personal details so they feel secure in using ICT to interact with government 6 Citizens were able to participate in authenticating their personal details and felt secure in using ICT to interact with government 7 Personnel of government service centres use ICT for knowledge to answer citizen questions 7 Personnel of government service centres used ICT for knowledge to answer citizen questions Empathy Courtesy and access 8 Personnel of government service centres use ICT to understand the specific needs of their customers 8 Personnel of government service centres used ICT to understand the specific needs of their customers 9 Government service centres will ensure that ICT and e-services are available at operating hours convenient to citizens 9 Government service centres have ensured that ICT and e-services are available at operating hours convenient to citizens Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa share similar social contexts to those in South Africa, with respect to the challenges of taking public services to the majority of citizens and ensuring good quality of service provision.This article argues that the adapted SERVQUAL instrument can be used as a guide to innovation using ICT to enhance service delivery through e-government services.It is an appropriate socio-technical tool that can be used to inform the design of broader e-governance strategies in African countries, including South Africa.The research was limited to measuring the services of one department at the Thusong community centres.It would be of value to public service managers designing e-government services and e-governance initiatives to conduct wider research covering a broader range of departments, public services and government-citizen interactions.As e-governance progresses, additional attributes should be measured.For example, a citizen should receive an integrated service and should not need to be aware of the different departments being dealt with but should be able to simply access services as and when they are needed.Furthermore, citizen service centres should promote participative democracy through e-governance

TABLE 3 :
MAPPING BATHO PELE PRINCIPLES AND E-GOVERNMENT TO SERVQUAL DIMENSIONSSERVQUAL dimensionBatho Pele principle Mapping to e-government

TABLE 4 :
DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS SERVICE OFFERING MATRIX

TABLE 5 :
EXPECTATIONS SCALE ITEM MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION (N = 168) CV13: Excellent e-government service centres will have modern-looking equipment.3.350.48CV15:Employees at the excellent e-government service centres will be neat in appearance.3.350.49CV16:Materials associated with the e-government services (pamphlets) will be visually appealing at an excellent e-government service centre.CV10: Excellent e-government service centres will perform the service correctly the first time.CV26: When excellent e-government service centres promise to do something by a certain time, they do.3.36 0.48

TABLE 6 :
EXPERIENCE SCALE ITEM MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION (N = 168) RV2: Employees in the centre tell you exactly when the services will be performed.RV18: Employees in the centre are always willing to help you.2.14 0.35 RV19: Employees in the centre are never too busy to respond to your request.RV3: The behaviour of employees in the centre instils confidence in you.2.40 0.49 RV7: You feel safe in your transaction with the centre.RV17: Employees in the centre have the knowledge to answer your questions.RV5: The employees of the centre understand your specific needs.