Driving Public Satisfaction in Licensing Services: The Mediating Role of Service Quality between Work Culture and Employee Competence
Keywords:
work culture, employee competence, service quality, public satisfactionAbstract
This study examines the influence of work culture and employee competence on service quality and its impact on public satisfaction in licensing services at the Majalengka Licensing and Investment Service Agency. Previous studies have generally examined the relationships between these variables separately and focused mainly on direct effects, while limited attention has been given to the mediating role of service quality in linking internal organizational capacity with citizen satisfaction. This study aims to address this gap by examining how service quality functions as an important explanatory mechanism in the relationship between work culture, employee competence, and public satisfaction. This research employed an explanatory quantitative approach using survey data collected from 96 business actors who had received licensing services, selected through proportional random sampling. Data were analyzed using path analysis to examine direct and indirect relationships among variables. The findings show that work culture and employee competence have positive and significant effects on service quality, with work culture showing a stronger influence. Service quality also has a significant positive effect on public satisfaction and functions as an important mediating mechanism between internal organizational factors and citizen satisfaction. These findings indicate that improving public service quality requires not only technical competence development but also a stronger organizational culture as a foundation for sustainable bureaucratic reform and citizen-centered public service delivery.
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