With public services operating as monopolies, dissatisfied users cannot exit from the relation without changing patronage. Apart from exit from the region, voicing their dissatisfaction in order to influence the service offer becomes the only alternative. Industries and companies may be...

To meet the management challenges of the 1990s, governments must fundamentally reexamine their approaches to administrative policy. In most governments, administrative policies, such as contracting, procurement, information technology, land and internal government services, are often dominated...

Local government in the UK is not immune from the pressures driving successful organizations towards top quality services that delight their customers. Outlines some of the special features of local government service provision and the way in which these might affect the assessment of service...

Explores recent changes where, like other public sector organizations, the probation service did not escape the managerial revolution. The service has become increasingly focused in its objectives on policies determined by the Home Office, policies which have tended to measure numerical data...

Argues that user involvement can provide the best basis for reforming the internal and external relationships of local government, supporting both the reinvigoration of public accountability and providing the only secure foundation for improvements in operational effectiveness. Considers and...

In the UK the Benefits Agency is seeking to process its business more efficiently, and commissioned research to investigate the number and nature of the contacts customers have with the Agency. The paper draws on this research and outlines the case for adopting a longitudinal perspective to...

This article sets out the main conclusions of a research project into how UK local authorities are managing within limited resources (MLR). Frameworks are developed to aid authorities to plan their approaches to MLR and to situate what they have already done and what they plan to do within a...

Highlights the increasing emphasis on customers and service quality in the new public sector. Emphasises the bias towards hard, easily quantifiable data and a focus on external customers in the measurement of service quality. Explores relationships through which grants for social housing are bid...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to integrate an augmented version of the Thompson et al. model of enterprise policy, delivery, practice and research with services marketing models including SERVQUAL and strategic conversations; and demonstrate a practical application of the analysed through...

Discusses the development of a 26‐item scale for assessing service quality in a UK construction professional service context. The research builds upon work undertaken by service marketing academics in the USA who have developed a generic service quality measurement instrument (SERVQUAL). The...