Performance Measurement Versus City Service Satisfaction: Intra‐City Variations in Quality?^*

Abstract

Objective. This article illustrates the usefulness of citizen satisfaction surveys to account for variation in citizen satisfaction with public-service quality within a city's boundaries. Methods. The article examines data from 17 local governments and divided into 141 spatial areas to investigate the distribution of satisfaction within cities (as an outcome measure) and the effect of SES variables on variation in satisfaction with jointly consumed services. Results. Satisfaction varies within cities, not all of which is attributable to SES characteristics. This suggests substantive variation in service quality. Conclusions. Local governments interested in developing meaningful performance measures of service outcomes should incorporate properly designed citizen satisfaction surveys implemented at the service-district level. In addition, performance indicators of service inputs and outputs should be disaggregated to the service-district level and matched to citizen satisfaction results in order to allocate and tailor resource policy decisions in a more informed manner.

Outsourcing, bureaucratic personnel quality and citizen satisfaction with public services

“…On the other hand, although there has been a steady use of citizen evaluations as a measure of service delivery value, decades of research have not yielded a clear answer to the question of the validity of citizen evaluations as a measure of service quality. While some researchers point to problems of cognitive and desirability biases (James ; Calmar Andersen and Hjortskov ), others praise citizens for ‘intelligent and meaningful evaluations’ (Favero and Meier , p. 401; see also Swindell and Kelly ; Van Ryzin et al ; Charbonneau and Van Ryzin ).…”

“…From this point of view, the advantage of survey‐based quality indicators is that individuals can scan a range of quality concerns and consolidate their opinions in a few or even one meaningful indicator of quality (Van Ryzin ). Second, considering that most of the critique against citizen satisfaction as a measure of performance/quality is directed against their validity as a general evaluation of public sector performance, evaluations of specific locally provided services are deemed to be much less problematic (Swindell and Kelly ; James ; Van de Walle and Van Ryzin ). An additional advantage of citizens' consolidated judgements is that because service quality is generally seen as an outcome rather than an output measure, they are one of ‘the few available ways to assess service outcomes’ (Andrews and Van de Walle , p. 766).…”

Can't Get No Satisfaction? The Association Between Community Satisfaction and Population Size for Victoria

“…For example, an enduring debate continues over the optimal size of local government and the concomitant need for structural change through voluntary or forced amalgamation (see, for instance, Derksen ; Dollery et al ; Leland and Thurmaier ). Although this debate remains far from settled, comparatively little empirical effort has been devoted to exploring the link between measures of local government effectiveness and local government size (Swindell and Kelly ). The present paper thus seeks to contribute to this embryonic empirical literature.…”

Spatial statistical analysis of dissatisfaction with the performance of local government in the Gauteng City-Region, South Africa

“…They found out that the level of satisfaction with the services that local government provides varies across cities. Although, Swindell and Kelly (2005) caution that their weighted regression results for the magnitude of police and fire service satisfaction levels should not be taken as formal tests of statistical significance, because of a lack of random selection of neighbourhoods, their results showed that age, race, income, and length of stay in a neighbourhood, etc., are possible significant predictors. Some of the relationships between the response variables and predictors observed by Kelly and Swindell (2002a) are also mentioned.…”

“…A few examples are reviewed to provide information on candidate variables for modelling government performance. Swindell and Kelly (2005) and Kelly and Swindell (2002a) employed weighted least square regression and descriptive statistics to examine the relationships existing between socio-economic status and demographic variables as they determine the level of satisfaction with the quality of services (i.e., street repair, trash collection, police service) provided by local government. Demographic variables included race, age, and percentage of residents in the area that have lived in their neighbourhood for six or less years as a measure of neighbourhood instability, while social economic status was measured using income.…”