Measuring Service Quality in South Africa Higher Education: Developing a Multidimensional Scale

Increased competition in the educational environment has contributed to the growing importance of service quality measurement at higher education institutions. This paper investigates aspects of service quality in higher education as a step towards developing a standardised scale for its measurement. Using structured questionnaires, survey data was collected from students (n = 391) from two South African universities. Findings indicate that the service quality in higher education scale is a multidimensional construct loading on 13 factors with reasonable reliability coefficient and some construct validity. Significant relationships were found among a number of study variables. Some further research directions were suggested and policy implications discussed

Research and Applications of the Processes of Performance Appraisal: A Bibliography of Recent Literature, 1981-1989

[Excerpt] There have been several recent reviews of different subtopics within the general performance appraisal literature. The reader of these reviews will find, however, that the accompanying citations may be of limited utility for one or more reasons. For example, the reference sections of these reviews are usually composed of citations which support a specific theory or practical approach to the evaluation of human performance. Consequently, the citation lists for these reviews are, as they must be, highly selective and do not include works that may have only a peripheral relationship to a given reviewer\u27s target concerns. Another problem is that the citations are out of date. That is, review articles frequently contain many citations that are fifteen or more years old. The generation of new studies and knowledge in this field occurs very rapidly. This creates a need for additional reference information solely devoted to identifying the wealth of new research, ideas, and writing that is changing the field

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION SYSTEM OF VILLAGES IN WONOSOBO REGENCY

Basic track problems in most of the villages in Wonosobo Regency Government are the recruitment and selection practices of other villages have not been able to encourage the inception of the village with the required standards of competence. This research aims to analyze the system of recruitment and selection of other villages, supporters and restricting factors, as well as establishing a proper and contextual model in Wonosobo Regency over the approach to the management of human resources. With descriptive method, this study found that the standard of competence has not been a consideration for the Government since the beginning of the planning process, to recruitment and selection. Almost the entire selection process, starting from the determination of the criteria of candidates, selection of administration until the written exams tend not based on competence. In addition, the necessary of the village according to the preference of the villagers also has yet to be fulfilled, thus still encountered complaints from the public. The study also identifies some of the factors supporting the recruitment and selection competency-based, among others, regulation and community support. Later, inhibitor factor, among others, the quality of human resources and organizational needs analysis Committee. Based on these conditions, the model recommendations in this study encourages the process of recruitment and selection apply competency — based in practice, in order to be able to support organizational performance towards the village government is better. Start the process of sourcing, attracting, through screening, based on the needs the competence and analyzed scientifically. Community preference is also a consideration in that process in order to involve the public opinion and build public confidence to the results of the selection. These two factors also continue to support are encouraged to be optimal. Meanwhile, an inhibitor of factor continues to be minimized through a variety of innovations

Do Competency Frameworks Influence Business Performance? An Empirical Study of the Nigerian Banking Sector

The competency-based management system has grown to become one of the most influential HRM tools of the 21st century. However, there remains limited empirical data addressing the relationship between the adoption of a competency framework and organizational performance. The study reported upon in this paper is based within the Nigerian banking sector. A qualitative methodological approach was adopted, employing interviews with employees of the top ten high street banks in Nigeria. The result of the field data was subsequently analyzed using NVivo in order to achieve the aim of the research. The findings revealed that competency-based management frameworks are being used and that indeed they are a key management tool within the selected Nigerian banks. Importantly, the findings clearly suggest the adopted competency frameworks are having a positive impact on the banks’ performance

An Intelligent Data Mining System to Detect Health Care Fraud

The chapter begins with an overview of the types of healthcare fraud. Next, there is a brief discussion of issues with the current fraud detection approaches. The chapter then develops information technology based approaches and illustrates how these technologies can improve current practice. Finally, there is a summary of the major findings and the implications for healthcare practice

Griggs v Duke Power: Implications for College Credentialing

This paper is about a court case decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1971. Although attorneys recognize that the case is important to businesses, its impact on colleges and universities has been explored by only a few. As this paper will show, Griggs v. Duke Power may have enormously boosted the number of students in college and may have increased the differential in income between high school and college graduates. It may have led to higher tuition, without providing commensurate additional value.Indeed, it could even be a judicial decision whose economic implications have been matched by only a few far more celebrated cases in history such as Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), the Dred Scott decision (1857), and the Schechter Poultry case (1935). The hypothesis of this paper is that Griggs turned a college degree into a "credential." The content of the education did not change, but the degree -- the sheepskin -- became a necessary first step for a decent job.Today, for many jobs, only a degree opens the doors of potential employers' offices. It does not ensure a job -- college graduates often say that it is just a "fishing license" -- but it assures the employer that an applicant has at least a minimum level of skill and accomplishment. In the eyes of an employer, a degree demonstrates that the applicant passed a certain number of classes,completed outside reading, wrote at least a couple of papers, thought critically, and was able to manage his or her life in a way that led to graduation. Such skills -- determination, critical thinking and writing, organization, and independence -- are often valued by employers.Providing such assurance to employers did not always require a college degree, and this credentialing function did not happen by chance. Through a series of court rulings and subsequent legislation, a cumbersome set of legal rules has developed that make it difficult for employers to use testing to find out if an applicant is intelligent, capable, and diligent. As we will see, fear of litigation is always in the background. For many jobs, a college degree has become an alternate means of "testing."This paper will describe Griggs, the environment from which it emerged, and the subsequent judicial and political activity that created such great constraints on testing. It will discuss testing today and then provide economic information suggesting the magnitude of the changes that Griggs may have instigated. While this paper does not "prove" the educational and economic consequences of Griggs, it suggests that additional scholarly work on the impact of Griggs on higher education is appropriate