American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems

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Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy

Received: 31 October 2016    Accepted: 28 November 2016    Published: 14 January 2017
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Abstract

An environment of high service quality laboratory infrastructure management will greatly improve the process of teaching and learning. Haramaya University commits to achieve such major goal of excellence in teaching and learning through service-oriented and conducive learning environment facilities. Thus, this study determines that service quality of the university’s instructional laboratories as timely and needed. To gauge its current service quality, SERVQUAL is used as one of the most effective and popular evaluation tool to work on. Thereby, the study adapted five (5) academic colleges (i.e. CCI, CNCS, CAES, CVM, and CHMS) and one (1) IOT institute. There are 375-sample size of college students, Technical Assistants, and Academic Staffs and out of that value, only 283 has been considered for analysis and interpretation. From the returned sample, 236 (83.10%) were males and 48(16.90%) were females. Majority of the respondents were undergraduate students with 171 (60.41%), followed by staff with 58(20.42%), then post-graduate students with 31 (10.92%) and Finally Technical Assistant (TA) with 26 (8.45%). Among all the colleges, in terms of fulfilling the expectation of customer (staff/students) as based on Average mean gap, CNCS rank 1 st (-1.72), followed by CAES (-1.73), then CCI (-1.77), then IOT (-1.84), then CVM (-2.10), and finally CHMS (-2.13). It is evident from the wide gaps score as perceive by the users’ perceptions of service quality offered by the Instructional Laboratories did not meet their expectations in general. The study further recommends that in order to reduce the large gaps in the service areas relating to Customer – Staff and Students, with the management should consider providing more training to staff not only to technical skills in handle facilities in the laboratory but to enhance their customer service skills.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15
Published in American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems (Volume 1, Issue 1, November 2016)
Page(s) 39-47
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

SERVQUAL,Total Quality Management, Instructional Laboratories, Haramaya University

References
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[7] Hughey, D., Chawla, S., and Kahn, Z. (2003). Measuring the quality of university computer labs using SERVQUAL: Alongitudinal study. The Quality Management Journal, 10(3), 33–44.
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[17] Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry (1990). "Delivering Quality Service; Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations," Free Press
[18] Remenyi D. S. J., Money A. H., 1994. Service quality and correspondence analysis in determining problems with the effective use of computer services, European Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 2-13.
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Author Information
  • Department of Information Technology, Haramaya University, Oromia, Ethiopia

  • Department of Statistics, Haramaya University, Oromia, Ethiopia

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    Patrick Cerna, Seifu Neda. (2017). Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy. American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems, 1(1), 39-47. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15

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    Patrick Cerna; Seifu Neda. Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy. Am. J. Oper. Manag. Inf. Syst. 2017, 1(1), 39-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15

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    Patrick Cerna, Seifu Neda. Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy. Am J Oper Manag Inf Syst. 2017;1(1):39-47. doi: 10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15,
      author = {Patrick Cerna and Seifu Neda},
      title = {Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy},
      journal = {American Journal of Operations Management and Information Systems},
      volume = {1},
      number = {1},
      pages = {39-47},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajomis.20160101.15},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajomis.20160101.15},
      abstract = {An environment of high service quality laboratory infrastructure management will greatly improve the process of teaching and learning. Haramaya University commits to achieve such major goal of excellence in teaching and learning through service-oriented and conducive learning environment facilities.  Thus, this study determines that service quality of the university’s instructional laboratories as timely and needed. To gauge its current service quality, SERVQUAL is used as one of the most effective and popular evaluation tool to work on. Thereby, the study adapted five (5) academic colleges (i.e. CCI, CNCS, CAES, CVM, and CHMS) and one (1) IOT institute. There are 375-sample size of college students, Technical Assistants, and Academic Staffs and out of that value, only 283 has been considered for analysis and interpretation. From the returned sample, 236 (83.10%) were males and 48(16.90%) were females. Majority of the respondents were undergraduate students with 171 (60.41%), followed by staff with 58(20.42%), then post-graduate students with 31 (10.92%) and Finally Technical Assistant (TA) with 26 (8.45%). Among all the colleges, in terms of fulfilling the expectation of customer (staff/students) as based on Average mean gap, CNCS rank 1 st (-1.72), followed by CAES (-1.73), then CCI (-1.77), then IOT (-1.84), then CVM (-2.10), and finally CHMS (-2.13). It is evident from the wide gaps score as perceive by the users’ perceptions of service quality offered by the Instructional Laboratories did not meet their expectations in general. The study further recommends that in order to reduce the large gaps in the service areas relating to Customer – Staff and Students, with the management should consider providing more training to staff not only to technical skills in handle facilities in the laboratory but to enhance their customer service skills.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    T1  - Service Quality Assessment of Instructional Laboratories in Haramaya University: Basis for Total Quality Management Policy
    AU  - Patrick Cerna
    AU  - Seifu Neda
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