Analyzing the effects of personality traits on service quality: An application in the healthcare sector

Healthcare services are one of the most important rights people are entitled to even before they are born. Individuals enjoy the right to access healthcare thanks to the healthcare services usually provided compulsorily by states. The healthcare services are expected to be of certain quality, as is the case with all service sector businesses. However, it is difficult to determine quality in service businesses as perceived quality depends on the way service is provided, rather than on a product. The quality of a hospital can be measured according to the extent to which the expectations of patients, who can be considered to be clients, are met. One of the most widely used analyses in measuring quality of service in service businesses is the SERVQUAL scale. The present study aimed to analyze the relationship between the quality of service derived from the comparison of individuals' expected and perceived quality of service from a public hospital and their personality traits. For the purposes of the study, a total of 403 randomly sampled participants were administered the scale and the results were analyzed through t-test, ANOVA and regression test methodology. The findings showed that all of the subdimensions of expected service quality were significantly higher than those of perceived service quality. There were no significant differences in service quality among individuals in terms of their demographic attributes, with the exception of the variable of level of education. Regression analyses also showed that individuals with more emotional and more extroverted personalities were pickier when it came to services provided by hospitals.