Competitiveness of Government Organizations through Customer Satisfaction in a Knowledge Economy: Study in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract

The field of customer satisfaction continues to be an important element of any governmental development programs. While most studies are based on the customer satisfaction of a product or service, there are relatively few studies associated with the satisfaction level of “competitiveness” of governmental organisations through customer satisfaction especially in today’s growing knowledge economy. This national customer satisfaction has become a major issue for Bahrain to enhance its competitiveness worldwide. The study used researchers-developed questionnaire in a cross-sectional research methodology to collect data for this research from 32 governmental entities in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2012. Totally, 9535 questionnaire we entered the analysis to estimate the level of customer satisfaction about the competitiveness of governmental organisation in Bahrain. Customer satisfaction with governmental organisation competitiveness was generally good. The highest areas were organisation’s ability to identify new services opportunities and ability to meet the customers’ demands. The lowest areas were organizations’ has mechanisms to deal with customer complains, consumers feedback and sustainability of services. The main contribution of this research is that how governments may, through national customer satisfaction survey, add value towards their competitiveness.