Evaluating Citizen Satisfaction With The Performance Of Local Government In Terms Of Public Service Delivery:A Study Of West Bengal,India

During the last three decades accountability and performance measurement of govermment in terms of public services has been identified as the key research domain in the field of public administration.This dissertation exclusively focuses on the relationship status of citizen satisfaction with the expectations of citizen and anticipation of performance related to the basic services provided by the local government in the district of West Bengal,India.Citizen feedback about service delivery can act as a promising tool to reallocate resources for the socio-economic development of the community.This study aimed to explain the formation of satisfaction with the help of expectancy disconfirmation model combined with the social exchange theory.However,the current model has only been tested in its most basic form in developed country context.This study here for the first time applies the model in developing country perspective and expands the core model of expectancy disconfirmation with the moderating role of trust and transparency.The result of this study is compared with the result of the developed country.This study also tries to find out whether any discrepancy persists within the urban and rural areas related to the satisfaction with the public services.This empirical research is based on the survey of common people through structured questionnaire.The survey has been conducted both in urban and rural jurisdictions.Primarily two aspects of citizen satisfaction are reviewed.This includes citizen evaluation of overall performance of local government and opinion of the citizen with individual service delivery.The collected data has been analyzed with the help of SPSS and AMOS software.Descriptive statistics,correlation,confirmatory factor analysis,hierarchical regression,structure equation modeling has been employed to interpret the data to meet the objectives and check the hypothesis of the current study.The results of this study confirm the applicability of expectancy disconfirmation model with the services of local govermment within developing country.Except age,all other demographic factors like-gender,educational qualification,and living place have shown significant relationship with the formation of satisfaction.Interestingly this study reveals that the relationship between perceived performance of service quality and citizen satisfaction is not statistically significant.Instead of direct effect performance(related to services),it exerted its effect on satisfaction through disconfirmation.On the other hand expectations specifically the disconfirmation of expectation plays a fundamental role in the formation of satisfaction judgment.Therefore to enhance citizen satisfaction policy makers should promote high expectations.Furthermore,the analysis of the expanded model finds a significant moderating role of trust and transparency to enhance citizen satisfaction which opens a whole new direction for future research using this model.The practical implications for the literature as well as for practice have also discussed here thoroughly.