Indicating local people's perception of municipality service and performance-importance level: Sample Alanya

Municipalities are the most effective institutions for satisfying the needs and expectations of local residents. Satisfying the needs and expectations and accordingly measuring the satisfaction level become crucial for the municipalities‟ prospective planning. To measure the satisfaction level of the local residents, first the needs and expectations expected form the municipalities must be determined. Especially, with the law no. 6360 which was published in 6 December 2012 in the Official Journal no. 28489, some authorities and responsibilities of district municipalities were transferred to delegated to the metropolitan municipalities and hence, a competition started between district municipalities. This study was conducted to develop and test a new algorithm for evaluating the perception of service performances of the municipalities. In this algorithm, a scale developed by using the grounded theory, which is a qualitative observation technique, was utilized by using quantitative methods. Determining that a similar method was not utilized in the previous studies after a literature review reveals the originality and importance of this research. In this context, the study is a first in its field. Although, the new algorithm was applied to Alanya Municipality in this study, it is feasible for municipalities all over the world. The algorithm was applied in Alanya which is a district of Antalya. It consists of two main parts, where qualitative and quantitative methods were used respectively, and 10 steps. 63 individuals were interviewed to determine the perception of the local residents about the municipal works. These interviews were based on the grounded theory. After the results of these interviews were analyzed it was determined that the perception of the local residents about municipality works in Alanya consists of "physical expectations", "social expectations", "communication" and "fast and effective service" factors. These main factors consists of 22 sub-factors which some of them were categorized under more than one factors. 19 sub-factors which lies within the service scope of Alanya Municipality were transformed to questions and accordingly, a questionnaire was prepared. The questions were prepared based on the importance and satisfaction results of the qualitative research. The questionnaire was administered to 546 individual. The results obtained from the questionnaire were subjected to importance-performance analysis in context of the new algorithm. After this analysis it was determined that all of the main and sub-factors were located in the area where "must be focused". Then a correlation analysis was conducted to determine whether there exists a relation between the main factors and general satisfaction. The results revealed that the main factors are related with the general satisfaction. Later on the application of the new algorithm, it was investigated whether the factors describe the general satisfaction by using regression analysis and it was determined that all of them were efficient in describing. After t-test and ANOVA analysis were conducted to determine whether there exists a discrepancy among the participants groups in perceiving the main factors. According to the analysis results there is no discrepancy among gender and age groups, and there is discrepancy among educational status and location groups in perceiving the main factors. As the findings are observed in general, it turned out that participants gave importance to all factors and are mainly satisfied with the services. In the last part of the study, some recommendations to increase the satisfaction of the local residents were introduced for the municipality associated with the findings of the new algorithm.