Introduction

The Malaysian public sector has undergone various transformations since the
Independence. From its custodial role in the newly independent country, the public sector
had changed and taken an active role in the country’s economic development. However,
since the 1980s onwards, the philosophy and techniques of New Public Management
(NPM) had been implemented in Malaysia. This again transformed the public sector from
being an engine of the country’s economic growth and development, to become a
facilitator to the private sector and service provider to the public. In line with NPM’s
underlying belief of superiority of business-like practices, various contemporary
management practices and philosophy were implemented such as the quality control
circle and total quality management in the late 1980s, and performance based appraisal
in the remuneration system in early 1990s. Even though there are various arguments that
the implementation of the various techniques of NPM has not led to significant changes,
the belief that the private sector practices could improve efficiency and effectiveness of
the public sector seems unabated. The adoption of certain private sector practices into
the Malaysian public sector is further enhanced with the introduction of a performance
based culture for public sector organizations in early 2005.

Public Services

Public service can be defines as a service which is provided by government to people

living within its jurisdiction, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing
provision of services. Examples of public services are the services such as the fire
brigade, government hospitals, police and armed force.

The service industry is recognized as one of the most important industries in development
the economy of a country. Due to the importance of this service industry to the economy
and the development of a country, various conceptual and empirical studies have been
implemented to identify factors that can improve the performance and success of the
industry as well as the operators service delivery to the public (Alexander son Wong,
2004; Atilgan, Akinci & Aksoy, 2003)
The most critical process of delivering high quality service lies on the proper holixtic
planning and the effective execution of such planning in contributing the performance and
success of the service organization (Shemwell, Yavas & Bilgin, 1998). According to May,
Dean and White (1999) the ability to provide high quality services can help an organization
distinguishing the organization from other organizations and high quality service offerings
can also help organizations achieve competitive advantage (Mei et al., 1999). In addition
Crosby (1979) emphasized that quality is important in service delivery because it has a
direct relationship with satisfaction customers (Parasuraman, 2002; Bogomolova, 2011)

Evolution and Transformation of Public Services

The government issued a directive which requires all public agencies to formulate,
evaluate, and report their key performance indicators (KPIs) and their associated
benchmarks. It was argued that the use of KPIs is one of the techniques to improve the
service delivery system. In addition, the implementation of a performance based culture
is seen as one of the criteria to ensure that the Malaysian public sector would attain a
world class status1 (DAC 2/2005).

Public service is a service which is provided by government to people living within its
jurisdiction, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing provision
ofservices. ... Examples of public services are the fire brigade, police, air force, and
paramedics.