Gauging the Human Sigma Optimization in building Citizen Trust and Good Governance Practice Applied study on National Bank of Egypt

1.Introduction

     Due to the growth of economic, social, political and environmental crises, especially in developing countries, many governments have experienced pressures for reforms and have approved strategies according to their redefining the relationship between state and market and between politics and administration; performance measurement and delegation of the control of resources; creating collaboration between the public and private sectors; reorienting management culture; and the need for improving the quality of service  based on the Global Development reform goals( ).  Supporters believed that because New Public Management (NPM) reforms were specifically designed to make public agencies more homogeneous in vision, more responsive to administrative leadership and citizens' trust and more focused on customer loyalty, they were essential to building government capacity globally( ). By practicing NPM in governmental institutes there are predictors on development and continuous improving in public management and citizenry to achieve quality of service to publics through governance processes( ).   

     Being part of the above, Egypt as developing country is still in a need of moving towards promote and implement culture change in the public sector, and public servant focused on citizens as customers rather than remaining with an inside looking perspective. Connecting practices and actions will ensure not only that core values are shared and understood, but also government activities are simpler, more transparent and conducive to trust. Maintaining and building trust in government is a necessary capital to be invested in partnerships for sustainable reforms( ).

    Changing organizational culture program for institutions and public servants which will be supported by developing strategies including targets linked to performance indicators, careful use of human relations and interaction, monitor, evaluation and rewarding positive outcomes will increase citizen trust in public institutions and services.  Finding ways to increase the engagement rates of employees and citizen interaction and pushing public servants in this direction become increasingly important.

     Regarding service quality in public sector, there is an absence from the TQM vocabulary of many of the key concerns that have characterized debates about the provision of public services. For example, the TQM literature rarely refers to ‘citizens’ or even to ‘communities’. Its vocabulary is one of clients, customers, consumer and users( ). However, in today’s world, no organization can avoid or ignore the necessity of quality in whatever good or service they provide, as Montgomery and Woodall point out, “Improving quality has become an important business strategy for many organizations including manufacturers, distributors, transportation companies, financial services organizations, health care providers, and governmental agencies”( ).

However, unlike companies, public agencies cannot choose their customers – they often have to serve a rather large set of stakeholders with different interests. Moreover, Beale and Pollitt showed that the relationship of public service agencies to their customers is often one of rationing services rather than simply trying to please them, which places a fundamental limit upon the concept of ‘user responsiveness’( ). In particular, politicians know that not all voters are service users. Therefore, service quality is unlikely to become the sole parameter for judging excellence in a public organization, but this does not mean that (private sector) quality concepts do not work in a public-sector setting – but they clearly have to be adapted to fit( ) through New Public Management practices.

     According to Rath, the ways to increase the engagement rates of employees and customers/citizen has a great payoff: Increased retention, increased productivity, increased customer loyalty, are all reasons to explore engagement at any organization private or public( ).

Fleming and Asplund (2007) developed Human Sigma as a way to measure and manage the human systems of business. Human Sigma helps companies assess and improve processes that produce a known and predictable outcome—a highly engaged employee–customer encounters and gets the most out of their employees while inspiring deep and lasting relationships with customers.  Also, Human Sigma approach combines a proven method for assessing the health of the employee-customer encounter with a disciplined process for improving it to increase services quality( ).

3.Research problem

      There is a lack of confidence and mistrust of the citizen in governmental institutions due to the absence of good governance practices as well as ineffectual quality of services provided. Therefore, quality range of dimensions that applies to good governance practice and builds excellent interaction, communication, encounter and engagement with public servant as employee and citizen at any governmental institution will increase citizen trust in government. On other words, build trust from bottom up.

Good practice in building capability, change work culture and develop values will qualify the employee as one of the main actors in governance during operational functions.  Consequently, citizen will gain trust gradually.      

Focusing on human systems of Human Sigma approach, citizen and employee engagement optimization in governmental institutions through gauging value drivers is a tool that will support citizen trust during good governance reform and preparation. Working to establish an emotional connection with a citizen creates passionate about the products and services. Such citizens are more likely to share their experiences with others in a passionate way. Just as employees take pride in building relationships with the citizens, engaged customers will take pride in sharing information. Trust binds people together and posed as a prime coordination mechanism to create and ensure social cohesion and welfare.

4.Research Model

Figure (1) depicts the framework of this research based on the above argument

5.Research Hypothesis

The proposed conceptual framework advocates the following research hypotheses:

H1: there is a significant and positive relationship between human sigma and citizen and employee engagement.

H2: there is a significant and positive relationship between citizen and employee engagement and good governance practice based on trust.

H3: there is a significant and positive relationship between the level of citizens and employees trust and the extent of good governance.

Research aim

The research’s aim is to contribute to the body of human systems knowledge by using the model of Human Sigma in public sector. This model can serve as a road map for managers and Public servant to use as they work to increase both employee engagement and citizen engagement to optimize trust in governmental institution that provide services and contribute to good governance practice.

In this research, the Human Sigma model that utilized in business organizations to increase both employee engagement and customer engagement for ideas on how to build engagement to achieve certain outcomes, and measure certain values in public governmental organization (national bank of Egypt)  under the predictors on development and continuous improving in public management and governance.

Human sigma considers the significance of new ways for managers, employees and citizen work together in engaged and in highly trusted institutions. The researcher will use the activities/drivers in employee engagement and customer engagement based on the four components of managing a successful team from the book Human Sigma (2007). In addition to activities that measure optimization of the employees' values to enhance trust in (national bank of Egypt).

 6. Importance of this Study

Much of the current research on engagement is through the Gallup Organization. More and more organizations and individuals are linking research to aspects of engagement and prior theories in literature. The researcher has applied this approach to public sector as an assessment indicators and continuous tool to change public servant (provider) culture towards citizen (the beneficiary) who can build  trust and confidence    and  positive improvements to public value, and There is little current research on specific activities in which individuals can participate to increase their engagement levels. Based upon the model the researcher believes that employees can positively impact engagement levels of both employees and customers encountered through the human sigma which focusing on specific activities relating to managing employees, motivating employees, accelerating employee engagement, and engaging customers’ emotions. Identify basic activities in each of those four categories and other activities to measure citizen engagement level. This provide with a road map to building engagement levels of employees and citizen and, ultimately, for increasing the trust and confidence success of the government institutions.

Moreover, provides new perspectives regarding thinking in the NPM reform. It also reveals and creates new learning challenges not only for employees and management, but also for customers and citizens. This research challenges all to reflect on the findings of this study with regard to experiences in service encounters and public sector practices in general.

7.Research Methodology

The following methodological tools are going to be adopted to achieve the main agenda of this research:

1-Research design: conclusive descriptive design describing the relationship between the tools of human sigma and the level of good governance that is based on trust of customer and employees with mediating the intervening variable of customer and employee engagement. The data collection design is a multiple- cross sectional design of two samples which are bank employees and bank customers.

2-Sampling design and plan :- the sampling unit is NBE present customers and employees ,since no sampling frame not be available due to legal confidentiality access barriers, the researcher has relied on randomized selected non-probability Quota sample that represent both employees and customers. The sampling size was determined as 384 divided to 30% employees and 70% customers/citizens to reflect the proportionate size of customers and employees population of NBE.

3-Measurement and data collection : A structured questionnaire has been used and completed based on personal face to face interviews, the questionnaire design has relied on 5 point interval scale to measure the attitudes of employees toward human sigma and the levels of customers/citizens and employees engagement and the perceived levels of trust based good governance . A filtering part of questionnaire was that concerned with human sigma which was solely directed to employees.

4-Data analysis: the following statistical techniques were used to present the research findings and test the hypothesis. First, Mean and standard deviation were used for descriptive analysis of sample data for four main variables i.e  Human sigma, customer and employee engagement, customer and employee good governance. Second, Cronbach alpha was used to test the internal consistence reliability of measuring scales and common factor analysis (CFA)was used to test the construct validity of those scales. Multiple regression analysis is used for hypotheses testing on two phases:

phase 1, a regression equation was developed for testing the relationship between human sigma and customer engagement which is an empirical examination for hypothesis one (H1). Another multiple regression equation was formulated to test the relationship between the levels of customers/citizens and employees trust on good governance which is an empirical examination of hypothesis three (H3).

Phase 2, a multiple regression equation is developed to measure the relationship between customers/citizens and employees engagement and trust based on good governance which reflected the mediating role of the intervening variable between the independent variable (Human sigma) and dependent variable (good governance), which empirically tested hypothesis two (H2).