The authors followed a different methodology to validate the hypothesis: Before improving the quality of products and services, the quality of people must improve. The factors were determined using a literature review, followed by a focused group approach for evaluation and a survey technique to arrive at the vital few. The factors were analysed for identifying the importance and weights with the application of the Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) methodology. This research article provides an insight that people quality is the most important factor in delivering the right service outcomes in banks. The application of SWARA methodology to service quality assessment in the banking sector has been unique.

In the service sector, the quality of people working at the operational level plays a crucial role in delivering a satisfactory customer experience. Though the types of attributes may be the same, their degree of impact on the delivered service quality may vary from one industry to another. This article uniquely identifies the critical attributes of people quality specific to the 10 contributing industries in the service sector. In the research article, the tools such as brainstorming, a focused group approach, a survey questionnaire, secondary research, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) have been used for the identification, selection, prioritization, and weight allocation to the CTQs, sub-CTQs that define the quality of people. Further detailed analysis resulted in a three-layered hierarchy with key segments such as attitude, skill, and knowledge at the top at level one, seven critical to quality (CTQs) at level two, and 35 sub-CTQs at level three. Based on the identified CTQs and sub-CTQs, two innovative indices have been developed—quick people quality index (QPQI) and overall people quality index (OPQI). These indices may conveniently be used for evaluating the performance of an individual working at an operational level, engaged in the identified industry in the service sector. These indices are easy to use and require little computation time. The service organization may greatly be benefited by measuring the people quality periodically. They may take the initiatives to bridge the gaps highlighted by this model and improve people’s quality. This improvement in people quality will lead to an improvement in the delivered service quality of the organization.

PURPOSE:The Healthcare sector is one of the important sectors of the Service Industry. It is believed that in this sector, the customer server relationship is very critical, and even the slightest gap in the people quality may have a huge impact on the delivered service quality. Some of these enablers are doctors, nursing staff and support staff. Furthermore, the nonpeople quality enablers such as diagnostic services, facilities, hygiene levels and so on are also likely to impact the delivered service quality. It was also felt that the degree of impact each enabler has on the service quality could vary. Therefore there is a need for structured and deep analysis. The paper attempts to identify, analyze and prioritize the enablers that impact the delivered service quality. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH:The enablers have been identified through literature review and inputs from experts in the healthcare fraternity. The authors have explored different decision-making tools such as analytic hierarchy process (AHP), analytic network process (ANP), stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis, Hybrid Model and DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) for the analysis of data in this paper. Based on the strengths of the approach and careful considerations by focus group discussions, DEMATEL was chosen as the best option. It is simple, unique, sparingly used in the healthcare sector, effective in prioritizing and gives meaningful insights on importance, cause and effect factors. DEMATEL approach converts the complex problem with interrelated factors into a clear structure that makes simple interrelationships among factors in the form of cause and effects digraph, and hence, the authors chose to use it. A case study in one of the hospitals has also been conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the developed index. The case study very strongly validates the developed index. FINDINGS:This research paper has found that there are people quality enablers such as the doctor, nursing staff, support staff and nonpeople quality enablers such as facilities, diagnostic services and hygiene levels maintenance, which impact the delivered service quality. It also concludes that the delivered service quality depends not only on the quality but also on the availability of these enablers. The inputs received from the experts have been run through the DEMATEL methodology and importance computed for each. The top five priority enablers are Quality of Doctor, Availability of Doctor, Quality of Support Staff, Quality of Nursing Staff and Availability of Support Staff. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS:The weights of the enablers have been obtained using the DEMATEL tool. These weights have been calculated using the inputs from 22 experts, which meets the statistical requirement (Skulmoski, 2007). However, a larger group of experts can be reached, and based on the inputs received from them, the tool can be revalidated for repeatability and reproducibility. Using Fuzzy DEMATEL can also be explored for further analysis. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS:The proposed framework to assess the service quality level of a healthcare organization is based on a sound approach of DEMATEL. The service index arrived, thereafter, can be used to rate the delivered service quality by any healthcare organization. It can be used to compare the similar type of healthcare organizations across locations. This Index can facilitate improvements in the healthcare organization through internal and external benchmarking. It also helps the organization to know the gaps, understand the root cause, improve upon them and become the best in class. This Index uses the inputs from the end customers to calculate the rating, which makes it more reliable and accurate. The overall scores obtained from the Index can provide the ranking to the healthcare providing organizations and options to customers to choose from best. The service quality index can be used by an organization to continuously monitor their delivered service quality scores and improve them to become the best in class. The research paper highlights the significant role played by the people quality and its strong impact/contribution on the delivered service quality. Hence, it is believed that it will encourage the healthcare organizations to prioritize the improvement and upgrade of the people quality over the nonpeople quality aspect. ORIGINALITY/VALUE:Putting people and nonpeople quality enablers in one single model and assigning weights to them using the DEMATEL approach is a new application in healthcare. Developing an Index to measure the delivered service quality in the healthcare sector is also different and new.

Purpose The education sector acts as an input for every other sector and contributes around 7% to the service industry; hence, it is important to identify, measure and analyze the drivers that impact the delivered service quality. Design/methodology/approach This paper used different approaches to identify measure and analyze the drivers that impact the service quality. In addition to a thorough literature review, qualitative tools like brainstorming, the focused group technique, and the survey technique have been used. Decision-making tools like the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and a quantitative tool, one-sample t -test, with the help of MINITAB software, were used to analyze the inputs received from 179 experts. By using the stated approach, the planned research outcomes have been achieved. Findings Quality of teachers, quality of students, quality of policies, and quality of facilities have been identified as the key drivers that impact quality of education. The paper highlights that the people quality drivers play a significantly important role in the quality of education when compared to the quality of non-people drivers. From the statistical analysis of the hypotheses, it was inferred that the People quality consisting of the quality of a teacher and the quality of students are the two prominent drivers to the Quality of education. This paper demonstrates the importance of the quality of a teacher and its significance to the quality of education. The recommendations made might be considered for the implementation, which can improve the quality of education in the country. Research limitations/implications This paper is focused on the data collected from the experts in the top-ranked management institutes only. The data from the experts from undergraduate institutions and other management institutes could have added more value. Practical implications In the paper, the drivers were identified and further analyzed to suggest that teacher quality is a dominant driver of education quality. The findings also suggest that there should be a high focus on having a great quality teacher as compared to the facilities. The weights identified will enable the researcher to arrive at the overall quality scores of any Institute. As a part of the process, the user just needs to collect the ratings from the end customers (the parents of the students) against each driver, and the institute level scores can be derived. These scores can then be used by the Institute's management to analyze the results and improve upon the weak areas to improve the delivered service quality in the education sector. Originality/value A holistic approach to exploring major drivers that impact the quality of education is a new approach. Moreover, using different tools like AHP, hypothesis testing, t -test, using the coefficient of variation in a single paper has not been attempted before. The revalidations of accepted hypotheses with respondents is also a new approach.

In the service industry, to get the satisfactory quality outcome, both the customer and server play an important role. It is not a one-way process but a series of multiple continuous feedback loops that define the outcome. The demand levels set between both the customer and server decide whether the result will be extraordinary or ordinary. In the education sector, the customer is the student and the teacher is the server. It would be interesting to analyse this relationship and study its impact. The idea is to use the established, nationally recognized measurement criteria like National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). This system has defined different criteria, of which 50% weightage has been given to teacher and student quality, named as Research and Professional Practice (RP) and Graduation Outcomes (GO). Statistical tools were used to analyse and compare the input criteria and their impact on the outcome. This attempt establishes the relationship between the teacher and student and the importance of the customer–server duality.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare some major National Quality Award/Business Excellence Models (NQA/BEM) in terms of the criteria employed and their relative weights. It shows that these models vary both in terms of criteria and their weights. Whereas some of them are changing weights frequently, others are almost static. It employs the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to allocate scores to 12 criteria identified in the model by Agrawal et al. (1998) to propose a modified quality award model similar to that. The six quality award models used in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan and India are compared with the proposed model using AHP and their relative rankings are obtained. Design/methodology/approach First, a literature review is done to identify various quality award models globally, with their features being compared. Furthermore, paired comparison technique is used to rationalize the relative weights of proposed 12 criteria, and then AHP is again used to rank this proposed model with six major award models. Findings This paper shows that the six NQA models vary substantially on parameter weights. They do not include some relevant criteria to evaluate the organizational performance holistically. It also reveals how some models have been revising criteria weights very frequently, whereas others are static. In some models, the results get much higher weightage than enablers, and hence the performance may not be sustainable. The modified Agrawal et al. (1998) model is taken as a base model, with weights rationalized in it using the AHP. The rankings obtained using AHP reveal that proposed model scores over the other six prominent quality award models. The result also reveals that for organizational excellence, the quality of people plays a major role in the successful implementation of quality processes. Hence, it is very important to focus on improving the quality of people before expecting improvement in the quality of products and services. Research limitations/implications The paired comparison results are based on the researchers’ own perception and do not consider interdependence among the criteria, which is a limitation of AHP. Analytic network process can be further explored to overcome the limitation. The proposed model has not been tested in a variety of real-world situations, which can constitute a scope for further work in the direction. Practical implications The proposed model framework and weightages evolved using AHP can provide a universally acceptable quality award model framework. The companies can adopt it with or without modifications to address their contextual adaptation. It can possibly become a standard model framework globally. This model does not capture the measurement of the softer aspects that impact the people quality. As people play an important role in the success of the implementation of any practice, hence measurement of people quality is another important aspect that can be further studied and researched. Originality/value This comparative study & analysis of National Quality Award/Business Excellence Models using AHP is presented for the first time. The authors have not come across any such studies in their literature review. This paper is an original conceptualization of the application of the AHP on the various Quality Award model parameters, and it has been submitted exclusively to JAMR for publishing.

The advent of information technology to every aspect of human life and business has been so obvious that it does not need to be accentuated more. Information technology has been of great essence in banking system. This study aims to investigate the effect of information technology in the banking system of Bank Keshavarzi Iran. The data are obtained both through the customers and the employees. The data were then analyzed using the exact percentage and the 5-point Likert scale to determine the impact of Information technology in the banking system affairs. The findings then proved that Information technology contributes to the banking system in three different ways as follows: IT saves the time of the customers and the employees conspicuously, IT cuts down the expenses and IT facilitates the network transactions.