Assessing the Mediating Effect of the Role of Public Managers between Service Quality and Public Satisfaction of Various Ethnicities in Local Governments in Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

An excellent quality of public services is a way to improve the public satisfaction
index. The public will be satisfied if the performance of public services tends to be higher than
community expectations. Multi-ethnic Indonesia has different perceptions about the quality of public
service. Thus, in this case, this study aims to see the effect of service quality on public satisfaction
through the role of public managers in the tourism sector of various ethnic groups in Sumatra,
Indonesia. This research is an associative quantitative study conducted on people of multiple
ethnicities. Determination of the sample using the Cluster Random Sampling technique and continued
with convenience sampling. The sample of this research is 1,499 respondents. The Likert scale
questionnaire, previously tested for reliability and validity regarding content and empirical test items,
was used for data collection in the field. The collected data was then analysed using Structural
Equation Modeling (SEM) Analysis Moment of Structural (AMOS) statistics and continued with the
Sobel test. The literature study also supports data collection. The study’s results prove a significant
direct effect between service quality variables and the role of public managers on satisfaction.
Moreover, this analysis found that service quality variables indirectly impact satisfaction through the
manager’s role. Thus, the research results provided evidence that the research model can be utilised
as an academic reason to strengthen the theories and models that have been reviewed in this research
study.