The Effect of Managerial Skills on Internal Service Quality: A Study of City Administrations in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia, Based on Katz’s Managerial Skills Model and Yaoli’s Internal Service Quality Measures

Abstract

Previous studies have yet to identify the managerial skills that significantly impact internal service quality in city administrations, creating a gap in understanding. The current study uses Katz's Managerial Skills Model and Yaoli's Internal Service Quality to identify correlations between managerial skills and Measures to determine practical abilities that affect internal service quality. The survey examines the effectiveness of managerial skills on internal service quality. The research design is a cross-sectional survey with a sample size of 4 municipalities, 196 employees, and 12 managers selected using a multi-stage stratified sampling technique. Three types of managerial skills and seven dimensions of internal service quality measures were considered, in which each of the skill types and sizes was measured with Likert scale self-administered questionnaires. Arithmetic mean, median and factor analysis were used to analyze inter-related Likert scale data, and their performance was compared. The result found that factor analysis is the best method to analyze the collected Likert scale data. Eventually, weighted least square (WLS) estimation was fitted where technical skill (β = 0.31, P < 0.01) and conceptual skill (β =0.3, P_value < 0.01) were found significant and had a positive effect. However, Human skill (β = -0.07, P_value = 0.073) was insignificant at a 5% significance level, meaning technical, managerial skills and human managerial skills significantly positively affect internal service quality; the conceptual managerial skill was insignificant at a 5% significance level. The weighted least square estimation showed better performance concerning R-square, MSE, AIC and BIC values; with the trimmer, the better. Multiple linear regressions and partial and semi-partial correlations were run, and the significance and direction of correlation were equivalent to that of WLS. The study's conclusion highlights that enhancing managerial technical and human skills can improve internal service quality. This improvement can enhance external service quality, employee job satisfaction, and performance.