The effect of digitizing the public services provided by the municipality of Kénitra on perceived quality

Abstract

As part of the modernization and restructuring of the public sector, aimed at paving the way towards good governance, Moroccan local authorities have been obliged to review their operating and communication methods. They have moved towards digitizing their services, with a constant concern to satisfy the citizen, or rather, their new “customer”, by trying to improve the perceived quality of services.

It is in this context that we felt it relevant to identify, based on the Sabadie model (2003), possible points of articulation between the digitization of a municipality's public services and their perceived quality, taking as our case study the municipality of Kénitra, where we had to answer the following question:

How the digitization of services provided by the municipality can impact their perceived quality?

To answer this question, we opted for a qualitative approach, firstly through two semi-directive interviews, one with a digitalization and data science consultant, and the other with the coordination and communication manager in charge of implementing digitalization at the Kénitra municipality, and then through a documentary study of its website and internal documents provided by the said manager.

The results highlighted the positive impact of the digitization of municipal services on their perceived quality, and this for the various dimensions of the citizen model (Sabadie, 2003), with the exception of the two dimensions “tangibility” and “relationship”, which we left out of the analysis as they do not represent the perceived quality of a digitized public service.

Key words:Digitization, Perceived quality, Public service, municipality, New public management

Classification JEL: H83

Paper type: Empirical Research