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Application of the SERVQUAL instrument in a social work organisation

Thesis (MTech(Business Administration))--Cape Technikon, Cape Town,1996 / All organisations, profit as well as nonprofit, are increasingly coming to the realization that
trying to compete solely on costs leads to ineffectiveness and a weaker financial position.
Competing on the basis of product or service differentiation is becoming increasingly futile
because products and services are becoming less and less unique. To ensure survival,
effectiveness and competitiveness, organisations must provide services of exceptionally high
quality. Providing services of high quality has proven to be the single most important factor
contributing to organisational success and well-being. Providing services of superb quality
also presents an important opportunity for organisational differentiation. A major
requirement for successful management is effective measurement. This study is motivated
by the limited research and resulting limited literature available on this subject in social
work. The development of the SERVQUAL instrument offers a possible reliable and valid
device for the measurement of service quality in social work. However, SERVQUAL has
not been subjected to rigorous testing for reliability and validity in a social work
organisation. In this research SERVQUAL was used to measure the quality of services in
a social work organisation. The aim of this research was to determine the applicability,
reliability and validity of the instrument in a social work organisation.
Attention was given to literature that focuses on service quality, its measurement and
management. The empirical research involved executives, social workers and clients of the
social work organisation. It was found that SERVQUAL can be applied to social work
services and it proved to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring service quality.
However, further research is necessary to improve the quality of services to clients and
directions for future research are indicated.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/1022
Date January 1996
CreatorsVan Niekerk, Hendrik Johan
PublisherCape Technikon
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Rightshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/

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