Derived importance-performance analysis and diagonal model in a Spanish municipality
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| Author | Manuel Ortigueira-Bouzada,Luis Camilo Ortigueira-Sánchez,Dinaidys Gómez-Selemeneva |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852315585510 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Review of
Administrative
Article
Sciences
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2017, Vol. 83(3) 481–502
Derived importance-performance
! The Author(s) 2015
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analysis and diagonal model in a
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852315585510
Spanish municipality
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Luis Camilo Ortigueira-Sa´nchez
Universidad del Pacı´fico in Lima, Peru
Manuel Ortigueira-Bouzada
University of Jae´n, Spain
Dinaidys Go
´ mez-Selemeneva
Pablo de Olavide University, Spain
Abstract
This article presents and discusses empirical research into citizen satisfaction, con-
ducted to measure the performance and management of local public policies. The
object of the research is to evaluate the public safety policy of a Spanish city through
a survey measuring citizen satisfaction with the local public services. Regression and
‘importance-performance analysis’ (IPA) were applied to the views expressed by a
sample of citizens. One objective of the study reported is to use different derived
importance values, from correlation and regression analysis, to compare the results
of two ‘importance-performance analyses’. The concept of variant and invariant weights
and the three-factor theory of customer satisfaction were also considered for the
research. Results confirm that the ‘fire service’ is seen as a ‘dissatisfier’, a basic or
flat attribute; they suggest that negative coefficient values could be associated with
‘dissatisfiers’ and that inherent discontinuity is only partly resolved in the partition
importance-performance grid. The findings show that the results of the two IPAs
differ using the traditional IPA grid but are similar with diagonal models of the partition
IPA grid.
Points for practitioners
One of the main problems for political decision-makers in recent years has been the
reconfiguration of the budget for the entity managed, such as a municipality, in the
current situation of economic crisis. This article contributes to improving decision-
making on the reallocation of money and resources in the face of restrictions and
financial cuts.
Corresponding author:
Luis Camilo Ortigueira-Sa´nchez, Universidad del Pacı´fico, Av. Salaverry 2020, Lima 11, Peru´.
Email: lc.ortigueiras@up.edu.pe
482
International Review of Administrative Sciences 83(3)
Keywords
citizen satisfaction, derived importance, diagonal model, importance-performance
analysis, local public policies, partition importance-performance grid, safety policy
Introduction
Every organization needs to be able to answer three fundamental questions:
What should the organization do? How should it do it? and When should it
do it? The answers to these questions require information, knowledge and cre-
ativity (Ortigueira-Sa´nchez, 2006). The formal answers to these questions are
known as corporate strategy (in the private sector) or public policy (in the
public sector).
In any organization, the task of management can, in very broad terms, be
conceived as enabling the transition of the system being governed from its existing
configuration to a desired future configuration. For many reasons, it is difficult to
find
good
designers
of
public
policies
and
implementation
strategies.
Administration and management cannot be said to exist unless performance is
monitored, at all levels. Thus monitoring and measurement is an essential part
of a public manager’s job specification; if there is no such control, there is no
management, since the reality of any organization, public or private, is that its
functioning always tends, to a significant degree, towards the chaotic. Frequently, a
public organization degenerates into an autarchic ‘machine’ operating in the inter-
ests of its own personnel, activities and survival.
In the area of public administration, services are usually the product, and the
citizen occupies the role of customer or user in an analogy with the market situ-
ation (Sue, 1994). In every market, at the level of the individual consumer, com-
petition always exists, and if the competitor is not accurately identified, it will
continually gain presence, even within the public services. The application of the
business marketing focus and activities to the field of public administration is
leading to this reality termed ‘public marketing’ (Ortigueira-Bouzada, 1984).
Depending on the situation, this is a technique that can function as a positive or
negative catalyst in relation to customer satisfaction, internal changes or exchanges
with external agents that have been taking place in the life of public organizations.
Nowadays, marketing provides an extensive and valuable range of approaches and
knowledge of diverse kinds which, when considered integrally with the functional
needs and reality of public administration, becomes the relatively new field or
discipline known as public marketing.
The object of this research is to evaluate the public safety policy of one particu-
lar Spanish city through a survey measuring citizen satisfaction with the local
services for ensuring the safety of the public provided by the municipal authority.
The objective of this article is to cover the gap perceived in the relevant literature
regarding how to select the most accurate method for carrying out an importance-
performance analysis (IPA) in the field of public administration. For that reason, a
Ortigueira-Sa´nchez et al.
483
bibliographic justification for using an indirect vs direct importance measure in
IPA and a comparison between different derived importance values, from correl-
ation and regression analysis, were made in order to compare their results.
Theoretical background
Citizen surveys constitute a technique transferred from corporate practice to the
sphere of public organizations. Through these surveys the underlying purpose is
usually to improve the functioning of the municipal system as perceived by the
user: the citizens should consider that the taxes and contributions paid to the public
treasury are returned to them in kind. Those who are responsible, the public ser-
vants, whose efforts and skills have generated the benefits perceived by the citizens,
should gain recognition for their work. Their achievements should not only legit-
imize them as public servants but should collectively legitimize the organization in
which they serve (Carrillo, 1997). According to Yang and Holzer (2006: 114),
‘Performance measurement can improve citizen trust in government directly
through citizen participation in the evaluation process or indirectly by improving
citizens’ perceptions of government performance’.
Several authors have considered the relevance of citizens’ opinions for evaluat-
ing public policy in the important area of safety and security, particularly law
enforcement. Percy (1986: 80) studied the potential usefulness of citizen perceptions
in assessing the performance of public agencies, through a model of influences on
citizen evaluation of service delivery using data of police response; one of this
author’s findings was ‘that citizens have some ability to perceive the efforts of
service agencies’. Hawdon and Ryan (2003: 55) found in their study that ‘the visible
presence of officers in the neighborhood improved the residents’ opinions of the
police’. Frank et al. (2005: 206) suggest that ‘citizens focus on attributes of agencies
and encounters; some focus on the behavior of officers during interactions; and
others base their attitudes on general perceptions of the occupation of policing’.
Other authors (e.g. Kusow et al., 1997; Schafer et al., 2003; Smith, 2005) have
studied the influence of race on citizen opinion about policing, and Weitzer and
Tuch (2005: 279) state that ‘very little is known about Hispanics’ relations with the
police’. In fact, more can be learned from this article about the opinion of Spanish
citizens, on public safety policy and the police, taking into account that there are no
race differences in this case.
Problems detected in this policy area can affect the image of the city. Despite
this, many administrators are reluctant to accept assessment by the citizens. This is
because, according to Melkers and Thomas (1998: 327), ‘municipal administrators
tend to be pessimistic about citizen ratings, expecting more negative evaluations
than citizens actually report’, so there is a tendency not to accept or agree with
reported citizens’ assessments, although Cassia and Magno (2011) suggest that
‘resistances toward involving citizens in quality improvement processes could be
due to the differences between the perspectives of administrators’ and elected rep-
resentatives and officials’.
484
International Review of Administrative Sciences 83(3)
In order to conduct an evaluation by the citizens, Kelly and Swindell (2002a)
considered it necessary to have a sample distributed by neighborhood, in order to
identify any differences within the same policy based on differences in the location
of the respondents’ residence. Kelly and Swindell (2002a: 271) argued that ‘such
neighborhood-level feedback is useful and illustrates the importance to adminis-
trators of disaggregating traditional performance measures to the same neighbor-
hood level to target scarce resources more effectively where needed’.
The personal interview technique is also preferable in order to minimize the
sources of error (Kelly and Swindell, 2002b). According to Kelly and Swindell
(2002b: 612) and Lyons et al. (1992: 30), there are two types of error: assess-
ment errors and errors in attribution....
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