PERCEIVED QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION SERVICE IN BRAZIL: THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

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Edição 20, volume 1, artigo nº 2, Janeiro/Março 2012

D.O.I: http://dx.doi.org/10.6020/1679-9844/2002

www.interscienceplace.org - Páginas 16 de 194

PERCEIVED QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION SERVICE IN

BRAZIL: THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Paulo Roberto da Costa Vieira1, Irene Raguenet Troccoli 2, José Maria Carvalho da Silva3. (in memoriam)

1

Universidade Estácio de Sá / Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Brasil. paulorcv@bcb.gov.br 2

Universidade Estácio de Sá / Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Brasil. irene.troccoli@estacio.br;

3

Universidade Estácio de Sá / Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Brasil.

Abstract – Abstract - Based on the theoretical reference framework from Services Marketing, where tangibles are taken as relevant in the services evaluation by users, this article analyses, in the specific case of a Medicine Course in a Brazilian higher education institution, how relevant the physical evidence is in the students´ perceived quality evaluation of this service. A survey research was conducted with a convenience sample made up of 209 Medicine students and the results show that, as far as quality perception is concerned, people - notably faculty - are more important than the tangible assets. This finding challenges the methodology used by the Brazilian Education Ministry – MEC to qualify Medicine courses, that considers physical facilities more relevant than people.

Key words: Services Marketing; Physical Evidence; Perceived Quality; Higher Education Institution

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1. Introduction

Since December 1996, when the National Education Guidelines and Basis Law was sanctioned (BRASIL - LEI 9394/96), the private higher education institutions - HEI, have lost, besides many advantages, the requirement of being non-profitable institutions, which so far, besides the public HEI, was the only legal way allowed by the government for the sector. New challenges have been presented to the managers of these institutions, due to being a market with large unmet demand, and keeping the paradigm in which the State ought to ensure the right to education to its citizens, not being ethical to any institution of higher education to obtain profit from their activities. That has helped to produce a scenario where vacancies were offered in excess, producing a big idleness, followed by the decreasing capability of students to afford their tuition, which raised the default amount.

The private sector takes the biggest stake in the Brazilian education, with around 3,4 million students enrolled in more than two thousand institutions throughout the country (MEC-INEP, 2007). This big market faces the dilemma of having its demand concentrated in the lower income classes. That requests from the private HEI the development of services, within the current legislation, that attract such classes. To evaluate clients` perceptions towards services has become fundamental to the management board. Through performance evaluation and its interpretation, the organizations can make not only strategic but also operational decisions through the clients` perspectives, influencing quality and satisfaction levels from the services.

Among the factors that have impact in the clients` quality perception, the Services Marketing literature points out the relevant roles related to the paid price and the physical evidence of the company. In the first case, paid price, the academic discussion is related to the perceived value by the client, such value being, perhaps, evaluated exclusively based on a monetary amount spent in order to obtain the service or the physical product. Zeithaml and Bitner (2005, p.388) state that customers can define the value in four ways. One of them can be exclusively the price, considered low. Hoffman and Bateson (2008) state that customers of services

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are more likely to use the price as a quality indicator and that the price has got a bigger probability to be taken as an evidence of quality when, for instance, it is the main differential information available.

However, in the second case, as far as physical evidence is concerned, in accordance to Zeithaml and Bitner (2005), because services are intangible, clients normally look for either tangible indicatives or physical evidence, in order to evaluate the service before buying and also to quantify their satisfaction during and after its consumption.

Hoffmman and Bateson (2008, p. 252) share the same opinion, when state that the physical evidence has got strategic role in Services Marketing, assuming multifaceted ways, in accordance to three wide categories: external and internal premises and other tangible elements. In this way, Zeithaml (1981, 1988) says that people use their beliefs on what Bitner (1992) calls Servicescapes (the “built environment”, the physical environment made by men), while an indicator to evaluate the quality of services.

It was in such context that came the proposal to verify how relevant the physical evidence dimension would be in the evaluation of the perceived quality, specifically in the case of a private Higher Education Institution – HEI, where the education service provided to students presents a high financial cost. For that, the Medicine Graduation Course from Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos-Unifeso, located in the city of Teresópolis, has been chosen.

This article is divided in six parts, besides this introduction. In the first part, some fundaments from the HEI as organizations which provide services are reviewed. In the second part, a brief profile of Unifeso (the institution where this research was done) is presented. The third part comprises a Services Marketing, emphasizing in the aspects of quality and satisfaction perception, value and the role of physical evidence. The methodology used in the research is discussed in the fourth part. In the fifth the results are presented, and in the last part a conclusion is drawn.

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2. The higher education institutions – HEI as service provider organizations

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – Unesco (UNESCO, 1998) poses that quality in higher education is a multidimensional concept which must involve all its functions and activities: academic teaching and programs, research and promotion of science, providing of personnel, students, buildings, facilities, equipment, extended services to the community and the academic environment in general.

Reis (2002) states that education is a service which has got clients, and that they, as in any other businesses, can be satisfied or unsatisfied. Kotler and Fox (1994) highlight moreover, that educational marketing goes beyond attracting students and increasing the number of enrollments.

The HEI vary as far as the use of marketing resources is concerned, and that depends on the magnitude of its marketing problems. According to Torres (2004), up to 1969, the concept of marketing had been considered by the majority of people as a specific function related to for-profit organizations. Back then, Kotler and Levy (1969) published an article in which they enlarged the use of the marketing concept, supporting the idea of using marketing for non-profit organizations, people, ideas and social make among others. According to the authors, marketing is suitable to all organizations. Nevertheless, marketing in educational institutions is still not completely accepted.

Kotler and Fox (1994) point out that some business people, counselors, professors and former students do believe marketing is for commercial enterprises and that educational institutions ought to be “above” marketing, considering that the educational purpose is to offer knowledge, analytical abilities and habits of rational thinking, while the marketing purpose is, as that of businesses in general, to make money.

This lack of understanding naturally comes from an unawareness of what marketing is. For Kotler and Fox (1994, p. 23), “The majority of people do consider marketing as being a synonym of sales and promotion. […] However, most of the administrators become quite surprised when learning that sales are not the important part of marketing!” Kotler and Fox (1994, pp. 64-65) state that: “The purpose of

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marketing is to make sales superfluous”. There are intrinsic points to the Marketing of Services that can be useful for education. Kotler and Fox (1994) state that marketing is designed to produce four principal benefits to the educational institutions: a) more success in meeting the mission of the institution; b) improvements in the user’s satisfaction; c) improvements in the gathering of marketing resources; d) improvements in the marketing activities performance.

A HEI, either for or non-profit, when established, intends to offer educational services. An institution, aiming at being well succeeded, ought to get on well with its community and generate a high level of satisfaction. As all the organizations which act out in the sales service or supply service, the HEI are inserted in environments which relate to the public in several ways and for different reasons. The private HEI gathers resources through an exchange with the market, satisfying the needs of their clientes. For such an exchange to be fullfilled, it is fundamental that the HEI knows its public, distinct groups of people which have a real or potential interest in an institution (KOTLER; FOX, 1994).

For these authors, some educational institutions do not meet the expectations of their students and other public, either due to a lack of resources, or simply because they are more concerned with distinct matters other than their clients` satisfaction. In facing such situation and aiming at the satisfaction of students and others, the educational institutions have got different answers, and are then, divided into three categories:

a) Institutions which do not meet the market requirements: they reflect a bureaucratic mentality, where operations are routine, substituting personal judgement by impersonal policy; they specialise the employees` work; and they generate a rigorous comand hierarchy;

b) Institutions that casually answer the market: in this intermediate category, the administrators, who were previously more concerned on hiring professors, on programming classes and on managing efficient administrative services, now listen more attentively to their students;

c) Institutions that totally respond to the market: they not only survey the current satisfaction of its consumers but also their necessities and preferences aiming at improving their services. They also select and train their employees to be

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customer-oriented.

Then, the challenge which the HEI face goes towards the use of marketing in a marketplace which is more and more competitive, aiming at achieving their goals without loosing purpose. In other words, in seeking to understand the quality perceptions and satisfaction of its customers, a HEI does nothing but trying to improve its services.

3. Unifeso

The Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos – Unifeso, that has Fundação

Educacional Serra dos Órgãos – Feso as its backer, is located in Teresópolis, a city

in the mountain region in the state of Rio de Janeiro, 68 km far from the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to Tostes (2003), Feso was organized as a non-profit private law foundation, to comply with education at school, vocational and higher levels. It was established in the 20th of January, 1996 by Ordinance nº 02/66.

Unifeso had, by the end of 2008, 591 members on its faculty, 1.166 other

professionals and almost 4,000 students in 15 graduate courses, among which Medicine. It also offered postgraduate courses.

As far as the Medicine course is concerned, object of this study, it was established in 1964, with the creation of the Teresópolis Medical School. According to the advertising material in the institution site, it aims at training professionals who are able to offer full and continuous attention to health problems in the population, based on responsibility, interpersonal communication abilities and respect to different cultures, allowing an ethical, investigative, critical and reflexive acting, interacting with health services and the community. The course offers 72 vacancies per semester and the faculty had, in 2008, 184 professionals training almost a thousand students.

As far as the teaching method is concerned, the institution claims that Medicine students in the Medicine course, besides the theoretical and practical activities, are presented to field activities since the first semester, through the following tasks: a) Family Health Units, which take actions related to the dynamics in the working process of the Family Health Teams; b) specific projects such as

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motivational actions towards research; c) using of SUS 4

secondary units, from 2002 on, through a partnership between Feso and the municipal health organism of Teresópolis; d) hospital activities, granted through its school-hospital; and e) medical internship on a full time basis, activities that are part of the Family Health Strategy and the school-hospital, involving pediatrics, medical clinic, surgery clinic and gynecology and obstetrics.

As for the support structure, the course benefits from several laboratories, one of which being anatomic with multimedia resources, as well as structured rooms within the main campus. In the Hospital das Clínicas de Teresópolis Constantino

Ottaviano – HCTCO, and in the Basic Health Units5

, supervisor professors assure the necessary support to the desired training.

4. Bibliographic review – Services Marketing

4.1. Quality and satisfaction perception

The perceived quality of a service and the client satisfaction with it are similar constructs, nevertheless independent (LOVELOCK; WRIGHT, 2006; ZEITHAML; BITNER, 2005; HOFFMAN; BATESON, 2008). The perceived quality is the global judgement, or attitude, related to the mastery of a service; on the other hand, client satisfaction is related to a specific transaction. (PARASURAMAN; ZEITHAML; BERRY, 1988).

Still, the ways in which the two constructs relate to the purchasing behaviour remain unexplained, according to Hoffman and Bateson (2008), for whom the clients` perceptions on the service quality is indicated by satisfaction, because: a) the client perceives the quality of the services in a company, to which there has not been any previous experience, based on their own expectations; b) in the following contacts with the company, and through the process of breaking expectations, the

4_{SUS stands for Sistema Único de Saúde, or Health Single System, the Brazilian organism for public}

health care is one of the largest public health systems in the world. It includes all kinds of medical care, from simple medical appointments to organs transplantation, and is directed to the whole Brazilian population in an universal and free basis.

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clients update their perceptions about the quality of services; c) each additional contact reinforces such perceptions, which, when updated, modify the future purchasing intentions.

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988, p. 16) show such difference observing that “Perceived quality is a global judgement, or attitude, related to the mastery of a service and the consumer satisfaction is related to a specific transaction”. Within this perspective, the organizations seek to find ways and methodologies which enable capturing the perception of service quality, as far as the client is concerned. In a general way, the methodologies present in literature compare perceived service with expected service, from the consumer´s point of view. For Zeithaml (1988, p. 3), “A service is considered of quality only when it meets or overcomes the expectations that the client has got towards it”. Therefore, the evaluation on service quality ought to be performed, according to the authors, comparing the execution expectations with the perception towards the received service. This is the parameter that best demonstrates the client´s satisfaction – or dissatisfaction - and therefore the service quality.

4.2. Perceived value

It is common for the value concept to be linked to others, such as quality, price, benefits and utility, which, when more deeply analysed, show a great deal of differences among them. Zeithaml (1988) defines value in a service as the clients` perception towards benefits, taking out the costs, in keeping a continuous relation with the service provider. According to the author, benefits include the intrinsic and extrinsic utilities provided by the relation. Costs, on the other hand, include monetary and nonmonetary sacrifices - for instance, the time and effort demanded to maintain the relation.

Parasuraman and Grewal (2000) consider value a dynamic concept, made up by four types of values: those from acquisition, transaction, use and recovery. The acquisition value would be the benefits received from the monetary value spent. The transaction value would stand for the pleasure of making a good business. The use value refers to the utility that comes from the use of the product/service, and finally, the recovery value is concerned to the residual benefit received when reselling the

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product or at the end of its use, or at the end of a service.

According to Kotler, Hayes and Bloom (2002, p. 335), value, from the clients` perception level, may be represented by the following formula: “Value = Benefits – Costs”. Zeithaml and Bitner (2005, 389) support such formula when saying that “It is the buyers’ perception in relation to the total value that stimulates the payment of a determined price for a service”. According to Kotler, Hayes and Bloom (2002, p. 337), “[..] sometimes, the best way to increase the perceived value to clients is to decrease the inferred costs to the product”.

Grönroos (2004, p. 87) relates value perception to satisfaction because, according to him, “Clients become satisfied with the perceived quality as long as the sacrifices involved – price and relationship costs – are not extremely high. Therefore, the perceived value determines the client satisfaction”.

4.3. Tangible elements and physical evidence

The tangible elements are used as minimising instruments as far as the perceived risk which is related to the services acquisition is concerned. This risk tends to be higher than the one related to physical product acquisition, taken into consideration the intangible elements and the nonstandardisation of those. According to Guseman (1981), Murray and Schacter (1990), Zeithaml (1981) and Zeithaml and Bitner (2005), in many service environments clients choose the provider having less information prior to the purchase then when purchasing products, and such uncertainty implies risk associated to the transactions, which has to be managed by the client. Mitra, Reiss and Capella (1999) point out that services based on trust attributes, with a higher intangibility degree, present higher levels of perceived risk. To Mitchell and McGoldrick (1996, p. 3) “[…] the level of perceived risk is produced by the uncertainty degree and the extension of the consequences that would result from a wrong decision”.

In this way, in the case of students from a private HEI evaluating an educational service that might be highly expensive, and whose development is strongly based on the execution of practical activities, one could expect that the most relevant dimensions for risk minimizing as far as the perceived quality is concerned would be those related to physical resources related to the training, such as

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laboratories and facilities to specific practices, such as dissection rooms and school-hospital.

Zeithaml and Bitner (2005, p. 233) add that “[...] researchers on consumer behaviour know that the planning on the service scene may influence clients` choices, their expectations, their satisfaction and other behaviours”. Within such perspective, the management over physical evidence refers to types of service scenes, where contact among the parts is developed.

As service organizations act in different segments, the physical evidence elements intended to turn tangible the quality of its activities, are differentiated. In a general way, Zeithaml and Bitner (2005, p. 233) mention some elements of physical evidence (Chart 1).

Based on the importance of physical evidence, Zeithaml and Bitner (2005, p. 248) alert that “[...] in order to a strategy which is focused on the physical evidence to be efficient, it ought to be clearly associated to the mission and the vision of the organizations”. Such orientation becomes relevant since strategies have to be in line with the mission of the organization, for many of these decisions are long lasting and expensive. According to Kotler and Fox (1994, p. 54), “The educational institutions that respond to the market needs have to focus on the satisfaction purpose. Satisfaction is the result of a person’s experience when a performance or outcome met the expectations”.

Chart 1 - Elements of physical evidence

Source: Zeithaml and Bitner (2005)

SERVICE SCENE OTHER TANGIBLE ELEMENTS

External structure Visiting cards

External arquitecture Stationary items Signaling Billing documents

Parking Reports

Landscaping Worker’s clothes

Surroundings Uniform

Printed material

Internal structure Pages on the internet

Internal arquitecture Equipment

Signaling Lay out

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5. Methodology

Aiming at appointing the most relevant dimensions related to perceived quality considering the students from the focused HEI, a survey has been accomplished, with quantitative data treatment taken from factorial analysis. Data collection took place in the beginning of the second semester of 2009 and the instrument was the structured questionnaire, with Likert scale of five alternatives of answers. The convenience sample was composed of 209 students from the 4th to the 7th period in the Medicine course at Unifeso.

The characteristics and particularities in the questionnaire were as follows: 1) There were two types of questions, divided in two parts: the first composed of 21 questions where the respondents chose alternatives placed under the Likert scale format, varying from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree); the second part contained five questions intended to get personal information from the respondents such as gender, age and family income, period attended, and funding received;

2) the structuring has been based on the Servqual model developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988), with the use of representative variables on the dimensions advocated by the authors in the original model;

3) the relation between dimensions and questions for its definition have come from Zeithaml and Bitner (2005) as they set that the quality in service is a reflection of client perception about the reliability dimensions, responsiveness, safety, empathy and tangibility (Chart 2);

4) its internal reliability has been ensured by the pursuing of the 0,772 result to the Cronbach alpha.

The data treatment has been performed based in factorial analysis, due to being a statistics tool “[...] useful in the search of a structure in a set of variables as a method of data reduction” (HAIR et al. 2009, p. 102).

The objective was to concentrate the information within several original variables in a smaller set of new composed dimensions (latent variables) – also called factors – with minimal loss of information. For this, the software Statistical

Package for the Social Sciences - SPSS version 17.0 has been used. The procedure

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209 responded questionnaires.

Chart 2 – Research dimensions, questions and respective statements Dimensions Questions Statement

Reliability

Q4 Unifeso’s staff perform their functions within the deadlines.

Q13 Professors are punctual as far as the planned activities are concerned.

Responsiveness

Q2 The secretary general responds the student properly. Q3 Professors are willing to help finding the solution to

possible problems experienced by the students. Q5 Professors clarify the doubts that arise in class.

Q21 Unifeso contributes positively to the well being of society.

Safety

Q6 Unifeso’s staff solve the issues brought in by students. Q7 The students feel safe in their financial negotiations with

Unifeso.

Q8 Unifeso’s staff know about the subjects of enquiry from the students.

Q10 Unifeso offers the best service to the student.

Q11 Professors have entire knowledge concerning the subject they are teaching.

Q17 The curriculum in the course has got commitments to a solid professional formation.

Q18 The subjects contents in the medicine course are consistent to a training of excellence.

Q19 The learning evaluation forms are adequate.

Q20 The student considers the relation quality-price to be fair in the medicine course.

Empathy

Q9 Unifeso’s working hours are adequate.

Q12 Professors are accessible to answer students` demands out of the class time.

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Tangibility.

Q1 The campus environment is pleasant. Q14 Classroom facilities are appropriate.

Q15 The laboratories used by students are equipped accordingly.

Q16 The library offers adequate environment for studying.

Source: Research

It is worth to mention that adjustments in the model specification have been performed, with the removal of variables that remained showing significant factor loading in more than a factor, even after the gradual reduction in the number of factors up to a minimum of two, with eigenvalues above 1. As a result, the conclusion was to remove eight variables (Q1, Q7, Q9, Q10, Q16, Q17, Q20 e Q21). The non-metric variables in the questionnaire (Q22, Q23, Q24, Q25 e Q26), related to the respondents` personal information, have been separately analysed through statistics (Table 1).

Table 1 – Summary of answers to the questions related to respondents` profile – Total and percentage

Questions Answers % Q22 Gender Masculine 102 48,8 Feminine 104 49,8 No answer 3 1,4 Total 209 100 Q24 Age range

From 18 to 21 years of age 107 51,2 From 22 to 24 years of age 87 41,6 From 25 to 27 years of age 7 3,3 More than 27 years of age 7 3,3

No answer 1 0,5

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www.interscienceplace.org - Páginas 29 de 194 Q25 Family income Up to R$ 465,00 5 2,4 Up to R$ 1.395,00 9 4,3 Up to R$ 2.325,00 18 8,6 Up to R$ 4.650,00 20 9,6 Up to R$ 9.300,00 46 22,0 Up to R$ 13.950,00 25 12,0 More than R$ 13.950,00 61 29,2 No answer 25 12,0 Total 209 100 Q26 Financing FIES 32 15,3 PROUNI 18 8,6 Unifeso scholarship 6 2,9 Do not use 153 73,2 Total 209 100 Source: Research 6. Results

It should be emphasised that the essential objective in the factorial analysis is to determine the number and the nature of the latent variables or factors that explain the variation and the covariance among a set of observed variables. More specifically, a factor is a non-observed variable that not only influences more than one observed variable but also explains the correlations among them. In this way, the observed variables are correlated because they supposedly share a common cause, in other words, they are influenced by the same underlying concepts.

We have found the determinant of the correlation matrix above the minimum 0,00001, precisely 0,074, indicating the possibility of generating factorial solution.

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According to Hair et al. (2009) another way to evaluate the adequacy of the factorial analysis is to examine the complete correlation matrix, which is done through the sphericity test from Bartlett (Table 2). Through such test, it is possible to check the presence of significant correlation as far as the variables are concerned, indicating the existence of reasonable fundament to the factorial analysis (RAIKOV; MARCOULIDES, 2008). In the extent that the Bartlett test has been significant, it is possible to reach the conclusion that the correlation matrix is not an identity matrix.

The measurement system analysis (MSA) from Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin shows a compatible result concerning factorial analysis, as it is above 0,70, in the way recommended by Hair et al. (2009), implying that there is enough number of items by factor. The commonalities represent the sum of factorial loads squared, for each variable observed. In this case and according to Hair et al. (2009), they are shared variance estimates among the variables (Table 2).

Table 2 KMO and Bartlett Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin – Measurement System Analysis (MSA) ,760 Bartlett Sphericity Test Approx. Chi-Squared 522,077

GI 78

Significance ,000

In order to decide on the number of factors that should be extracted, the eigenvalue criteria from Kaiser, above 1, has been preliminarily applied. In other words, it is supposed that any individual factor ought to explain the variance of at least one variable (FIELD, 2009). Later, it was necessary to apply the criteria of the number of factors, as some of the variables have presented, as previously informed, high factor loading in more than a factor. It is to be observed though, that all the extracted factors presented eigenvalue above 1, despite the criteria change. Although literature suggests big samples, whenever the communalities are below 0,40, the obtained values are considered to be permissible, due to the number of extracted values being low (FIELD 2009). Table 3 shows the results of three factors with eidenvalue above 1, explaining altogether, 49,080 % of variance. Although Hair et al. (2009) recommend a minimum number of 60% for the total variance, we do not

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see any obstacles in considering the determined value as being reasonable.

Table 3 Communalities

Initial Q2 The secretary general responds the student properly. ,241 Q3 Professors are willing to help finding the solution to possible problems

experienced by the student.

,277

Q4 Unifeso’s staff perform their functions within the deadlines. ,330 Q5 Professors clarify the doubts that arise in class. ,369 Q6 Unifeso’s staff solve the issues presented by students. ,369 Q8 Unifeso’s staff know about the subjects of enquiry from the students. ,267 Q11 Professors have entire knowledge concerning the subject they teach. ,219 Q12 Professors are accessible to answer students` demands out of the class time. ,267 Q13 Professors are punctual as far as the planned activities are concerned. ,246 Q14 Classroom facilities are appropriate. ,236 Q15 The laboratories used by students are equipped accordingly. ,300 Q18 The curriculum in the course has got commitments to a solid professional

formation.

,340

Q19 The learning evaluation forms are adequate. ,218

In order to facilitate the interpretation of factors, orthogonal rotation has been performed according to the Varimax criteria, that simplifies the columns in the factorial matrix. The factor loadings are correlations of each variable observed with the factor, and the bigger the factor loadings, the bigger the variable importance in the factor definition. In most of the cases, factor loadings above ± 0,30 are considered relevant, reflecting around 10% of the explanation in the variable variance (BROWN, 2006).

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The factorial matrix after the rotation showed significant loads for the 13 variables and each observed variable showed significant load (above ± 0,30) in only one factor (Table 4).

Table 4 Explained Variance

Factor

Initial Eigenvalues Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings

Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative %

1 3,524 27,107 27,107 1,644 12,647 12,647 2 1,546 11,894 39,001 1,549 11,916 24,563 3 1,310 10,079 49,080 1,362 10,481 35,044 4 ,983 7,560 56,640 5 ,927 7,127 63,768 6 ,806 6,200 69,967 7 ,732 5,631 75,598 8 ,650 5,001 80,599 9 ,611 4,703 85,302 10 ,584 4,491 89,792 11 ,529 4,073 93,865 12 ,435 3,347 97,212 13 ,362 2,788 100,000 Source: Research

It ought to be mentioned that, after obtaining the factorial solution, considering that all the variables show significant load in only one factor, the variables with higher load in the factor ought to be considered the most relevant ones, greatly influencing the factor interpretation and description (HAIR et al., 2009).

In Chart 3 each one of the factors are shown, with its respective variables, and ordered according to the factor loading magnitude.

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www.interscienceplace.org - Páginas 33 de 194 Chart 3

FACTORS AND RELATED OBSERVED VARIABLES FACTOR 1-

PROFESSORS’ PERFORMANCE IN CLASS AND CONTENT EXCELLENCE

DIMENSIONS

1 Q5 Professors clarify the doubts that arise in class. Responsiviness 2 Q18 The curriculum in the course has got commitments to a solid

professional formation. Safety

3 Q3 Professors are willing to help finding the solution to possible

problems experienced by the student. Responsiviness 4 Q11 Professors have entire knowledge concerning the subject they

teach. Safety

5 Q19 The learning evaluation forms are adequate. Safety

FACTOR 2

QUALITY OF SERVICE TO THE STUDENT

1 Q4 Unifeso’s staff perform their functions within the deadlines. Reliability 2 Q6 Unifeso’s staff solve the issues presented by students. Safety 3 Q8 Unifeso’s staff know about the subjects of enquiry from the

students. Safety

4 Q2 The secretary general responds the student properly. Responsiviness

FACTOR 3 INFRA-STRUCTURE

1 Q15 The laboratories used by students are equipped accordingly. Tangibility 2 Q13 Professors are punctual as far as the planned activities are

concerned. Reliability

3 Q14 Classroom facilities are appropriate. Tangibility. 4 Q12 Professors are accessible to answer students` demands out of the

class time. Empathy

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It can be seen on Table 3 that all dimensions have been contemplated in quality perception, and, considering the analysis of results within the factorial analysis perspective, the concepts of such dimensions are commented here, according to Zeithaml and Bitner (2005):

a) Reliability: translated in the supplier’s ability to execute the service in a safe and efficient way. The ability to supply reliable service; in other words, it shows a consistent performance, without mistakes, in which the user can rely on. The supplier meets the clients` needs without having to redo the works;

b) Responsiveness: related to the supplier’s availability to, voluntarily, help the users, offering an attentive service, accurate and fast. It is related to the staff willingness to help users and supply services promptly;

c) Safety: related to the workers’ knowledge and sympathy as well as the ability of the company and its staff to inspire credibility and trust;

d) Empathy: shows that the organization cares for its users, serving them individually. Refers to the ability in demonstrating interest and personal attention to users. Empathy includes accessibility, sensitivity and effort in meeting the clients’ needs; and

e) Tangibility: is related to the facilities, equipment, material and people, representing the material aspects of supplying, being perceived by the five human senses.

7. Conclusions

Initially, it is noteworthy that, even with the dimensions not being mutually exclusive, they provide an important structure in understanding the users` perception, as they are aspects that outline service from the point of view of the user who will judge it.

By analyzing the factors and its variables grouped, it is characterized, in Factor 1, the predominance of the dimensions responsiveness and safety. In Factor 2, dimensions such as reliability, safety and responsiveness. And, in Factor 3, tangibility, reliability and empathy. In the case of Factor 1, it refers to the professor capacity in classroom, and to content excellence, with its dimensions responsiveness

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and safety, which encompass variables Q5, Q18, Q3, Q11 e Q19. This clearly indicates a bigger quality perception towards the interaction among students and professors, which is included in the “people” element from the Services Marketing compound. It is never too much to remember that, according to Zeithaml and Bitner (2005, p. 41), people are within the organization control, being defined as:

All the human agents that perform a role in the process of a service execution, and in such way, influence the purchaser’s perception, nominally, the workers of the company, the client and other clients in the services environment.

As far as a HEI is concerned, these people are directly represented by the faculty, considering their role towards the students. Their importance resides in that they transmit the credibility and the reliability that students themselves seek, either from the institution or from the education they are receiving.

As for Factor 2, or the service provided to the student, the dimensions reliability, safety and responsiveness, encompassing variables Q4, Q6, Q8 e Q2, highlight again the “people” element from the Services Marketing compound. The difference in relation to Factor 1 is in being related to the employees, those whose work is done outside the classroom, typically providing the interface between the student and the HEI. In other words, it refers to the service contacts, or “truth moments” (ZEITHAML; BITNER, 2005).

Finally, concerning Factor 3, it is related to infrastructure, with the dimensions tangibility, reliability and empathy encompassing variables Q15, Q13, Q14 e Q12. Here, the tangibility dimension is finally highlighted, reflecting the quality perception related to the infrastructure aspects of the service. In other words, they are the tangible elements that provide the physical description of the organization image, which will be used by the clients, mainly new ones, in order to evaluate quality (ZEITHAML; BITNER, 2005).

The fact that respondents emphasized, in the factorial analysis, the so called Factor 1 – professors` ability in the classroom and content excellence – over the tangible items, only confirms the coherence in their opinion when pointing people as being more important to quality perception than the tangible items. In other words, it shows that, for them, the personal relations and the very relationship with the institution during the education process is what highlights the quality of the course. Such finding is supported by Services Marketing theory, when it says that higher

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education belongs to the group of services segment characterised by high contact, defined by Lovelock and Wright (2006, p. 54) as those in which “The clients, throughout the service supply, are actively involved in the organization as well as with the staff.”

In such services, according to Hoffman and Bateson (2008, p. 41), “[...] in the same way the clients are part of the service process, the contact staff is part of the service experience”. The interaction between the parts - client and service provider - during production and delivery of the service, is a key factor for the final satisfaction result, due to one of the services characteristics: inseparability. As Hoffman and Bateson (2008, p. 38) say, “As production and consumption occur simultaneously, many clients in many times share a common service experience. Such experience can be positive or negative.”

Within the service process in a HEI, professors are fundamentally the service deliverers to the students, who share their experience with them. The final function and the reason for a HEI to exist originates in this relation, meaning the teaching and learning process. That is why respondents indicated Factor 1 as the most relevant in their quality perception, translating the importance of the faculty-student relationship, among the several ones institutionally established in a HEI. After all, the professors are what can materialize the students´ quality perception; it is through the faculty that the students make up a reference on the quality of their institution related to others.

The HEI have a privileged position compared to other organizations, once their customers daily meet in their “sales” spaces, allowing them the opportunity to manage the quality of services. Moreover, such privilege is, for many times, wasted by the bureaucratic posture of these organizations that, wrongly, conform to the fact of having their customers secured, as long as their course goes on. As service deliverers, the workers should be trained in soft managerial abilities, such as reliability, receptiveness, empathy, safety and administration of the tangibles that surround the services. That is because, according to Hoffman and Bateson (2008), a big percentage of complaints generated from services have come from the action or inaction of such workers.

What is for sure within this context is that, despite all the Services Marketing mechanisms, organizational planning and monitoring of the educational means and contents cannot go on without dialogs among directors, professors and students,

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which ought to be based on clear, independent and accurate pedagogical information.

The biggest contribution of this study to the Services Marketing academic literature is therefore, in its central conclusion, to challenge the MEC methodology for the Medicine courses evaluation, currently anchored in a 40% weight to facilities against a 30% weight to the teaching staff.

It is then clear that higher education quality has been gradually moving from the evaluation processes carried out by MEC towards the needs of the HEI themselves, either public or private, facing the challenges imposed by the market. In this line of reasoning, the evaluation process of the educational quality performed by the HEI should more and more take into account the students` perception on whatever is offered to them, and not the long-lasting old paradigms, which frequently are just the result of a benchmarking that does not consider the individuality and the characteristics of each institution. In this way, it becomes clear that it is necessary to spread professional management practices in the HEI, which no doubt suggests a broader understanding concerning a services organization.

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