Assessment of Servqual Approach in The Management of Leasehold Properties of N.R.C in South-West, Nigeria

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INTRODUCTION
Public properties are those owned by the federal, state and local governments as well as the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDA's) (Obasa, 2018).In public sector, property is normally developed, owned or leased out to fulfil administrative and social needs as well as economic responsibilities to the general public (Shardy, Arman, Moh'd and Moh'd, 2011)The Nigeria Railway Corporation (N.R.C) is a major public organization in Nigeria and is about the largest corporate land owner in Nigeria (Labaran, 2018).The Nigeria Railway Corporation Act No. 20 of 1955 established Nigeria Railway Corporation.By the authority of this Act, the Corporation became a body corporate with powers to amongst other things acquire, hold, dispose of moveable property for the purpose of its function (Labaran, 2018).Idu, Rapheal and Kibar (2012) stated that the poor arrangement of Nigeria Railway Corporation (N.R.C) landed properties as well as the downturn of its fortunes prompted the need to identify strategies for efficient management of N.R.C land and landed properties to generate revenue that will augment its operations.The need to separate core Railway operations from routine land management to ensure that the two distinct but important enterprises is managed effectively, efficiently and transparently for optimum performance in line with international best practice informed the establishment of Railway Property Management Company Limited (R.PM.C.L, Labaran, 2018).
Management of land and buildings held by public sector institutions represents a significant portion of their asset value.In the management of public real estate where leasehold properties are not well utilized often leads to huge loss not only to the organization but also to the economy of the country.These is an attestation for the need to increase revenue sources and generation among public corporation leading to portfolio diversification, most times into real estate.One of the greatest economic and social problem of Nigeria as a nation is the general absence of a maintenance culture (Iyagba, 2005).The issue of poor maintenance and "I don't care attitude'', is like a disease which has eaten deep into the marrow of Nigeria and is manifested in the way public properties are managed.Ausbonteng, Mc Cleavy and Swan (1996) expressed service quality as the variance between customers expectation for service promised and the eventual execution.These reveal the honesty of a company in keeping to its value and invariably provide an opportunity of assessment by the client.Thus, the competitive power of a real estate management company is largely defined by the degree of its conformance to clients' needs.In this information age, organizations require new capabilities in a competitive society such as customer relationships, product innovation, customized products, employee skills, motivation and information technology (Titko and Lace, 2010).Subsequently, service quality (servqual) and customer satisfaction have received a great deal of attention from both scholars and practitioners because of their relevancy and relationship according to Eshghi, Roy and Ganguli (2008).The main reason for focusing on these issues is improving overall performance of organizations (Magi and Julander, 1996).
Traditionally, there has been a somewhat adversarial relationship between landlords and tenants.Until the late 20 th century, the focus of property management was to maximize rent with rapid recourse to legal process in terms of resolving disputes between landlord and tenant.Therefore, public real estate sector such as Railway Property Management Company Limited in the management of the leasehold properties of Nigeria Railway Corporation needs to ensure enhanced performance and actualization of overall service delivery, efficient and effective management / sustainability of real estate assets raises the need to study the problems that will hinder the execution of the above attributes in the organization.
The aim of this research is to assess the applicability of servqual approach in the management of leasehold properties of Nigeria Railway Corporation by Railway Property Management Company Limited in South-West, Nigeria with a view to proffering solution towards improving quality service delivery.In order to achieve the aim of the study, the following objectives would be considered: 1. To examine the service delivery approach of Railway Property Management Company Limited in the study area.2. To assess the perception of Nigeria Railway Corporation Property users in relation to quality of real estate services provided.3. To identify factors militating against effective adoption of servqual approach in the management of the leasehold properties of N.R.C by Railway Property Management Company Limited (RPMCL) Hypothesis H01: There is no significant relationship between the perception of users of N.R.C properties and the quality of services provided.

Concept of Management
Management is simply defined as planning, directing, controlling and co-coordinating individual, group or organizational goal and objectives with the ultimate aim of achieving maximum benefit.In the view of Baridam (2013), management literally means getting things done through and with people, which has to do with the planning and direction of effort towards a common objective.The traditional functions of a manager reflect the activities involved in managing, planning, decisionmaking, organizing, staffing, leading, motivating and controlling.These functions constitute a circle of action in which each component leads to the next.Property management can be defined as the need to maintain buildings in a state that would augment easy day-to-day contemporary human activities.For this reason, the task of keeping contemporary building structure in such condition is the basis of real property management.

Concept of Service
Service has many meanings depending on its usage.A study carried out by Johns, (1999) points at the word 'service' that it brings confusion in the way the concept is defined in management literature, it could mean an industry, a performance, an output or offering or a process.He went further to argue that services are mostly described as 'intangible' and their output viewed as an activity rather than a tangible object which is not clear because some service outputs have some substantial tangible components like physical facilities, equipment and personnel.
Edvardsson (1998) thinks that the concept of service should be approached from the customer's perspective because it is the customer's (tenant's) total perception of the outcome which is the 'service' and customer (tenant) outcome is created in a process meaning service is generated through that process.Service process is that which consists of either, delivery of service, interpersonal interaction, performance or customer's (tenant's) experience of service.

Concept of Quality
According to Hardie and Walsh (1994); Sower and Fair (2005), quality has many different definitions and there is no universally acceptable definition of quality.They claim it is because of the elusive nature of the concept from different perspectives and orientation as well as the measures applied in a particular context by the person defining it.In the service industry like the property management, quality and perception of quality is essential.Thus, the need to deliver quality service is imperative in order to retain tenants as service is the criteria upon which clients, customers and users of real estate product and services differentiate one organization from another (CEL and Associates Inc, 2001).

Service Quality
Service Quality (Servqual) is an abstract and elusive concept because of the well-known distinctive features of services-intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity and inseparability of production and consumption (Zeithmal, Parasuraman and Berry, 1985).It is due to these features that definition of quality can vary from person to person, and from situation to situation (Kandampully, 2002).Parasuraman, Zeithmal and Berry (1985) conducted research on service quality and formulated a measurement tool called Servqual which is derived from the expectancy disconfirmation model.
The study found a variance between customer expectations and performance of businesses.However, the study formulated ten drivers of service quality which included the following: Credibility, Security, reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, understanding and tangible which was refined to a five factor instrument as; tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman, Zeithmal and Berry, 1988) , which was used to establish its extent on the quality of property management services in shopping mall in Kampala.Thus, the five dimensions of service quality are not universal; and customer assessment or service quality may vary per encounter (Buttle, 1996).

Service Quality Instruments i)
Reliability and Tenant satisfaction with quality of property management services.Benyada and Atcharawan (2013) surveyed the critical variables that shopping mall management should utilize in any policy to retain existing tenants.The survey data was collated from four (4) shopping malls in Bangkok with 215 samples from 460 tenants.The researchers found that trust and management performances are critical factors which motivate tenants to renew their rent contracts.In other words, if the tenants are contented, the probability that they will renew their leases / licenses is high.

ii)
Responsiveness and tenant satisfaction with the quality of property management services.Abolade, Omirin and Dugeri (2013) sought to access tenant's fulfillment with the supervision of commercial properties in Lagos.Data was collected through a structured questionnaire survey distributed to 240 residents with a response rate of 68%.The study measured the following influencing factors the researchers had identified from literature review: personal needs, previous experience, management of firm-tenant relations, quality of building, shared experiences, previous experiences with property managers, and the firm's handling of complaints.It was found that practitioners should be more responsive and value to the performance measurement of users' satisfaction.They opined that it will create cordial relationship among users and property managers.In other words, if such conducive environment is established between landlord and tenantit will enhance satisfaction.

iii)
Assurance and tenant satisfaction with the quality of property management services According to Andaleeb and Conway (2015), assurance might not be important relation to other industries where the risks is higher and the outcome of using trust and confidence may be presented in the personnel who link the customer (tenant) to the organization.Your customer must be able to depend on you to do your part, or you will lose their confidence and respect.You must be solid as a rock so your customers can depend on you.To address customers' expectations Lai (2012) aimed at evaluating the Facilities Management (FM) Services for three major centers of residential estates (public, semi-public and private) a study was conducted based on a performanceimportance cost (PIC) evaluation model.The end-users' perceived importance and performance levels and the cost data of the FM services for a public estate, a semi-public estate and a private estate were analyzed using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), analysis of variance (ANOVA) and fisher's least significant difference (LSD) procedure.The importance and performance levels of the services and their differences between the estates were revealed.

iv)
Empathy and tenant satisfaction with quality of property management services Empathy is usually referred to as a distinctive part of moral emotions that generally leads to altruistic motivation as well as pro-social and altruistic behavior (Itani and Inyang, 2015).The empathic employee responds to customer needs and adjusts his/her attitude and behaviour following the wants and desires of the customer (Umasuthan, Park and Ryu, 2017).Empathy means caving, paying personal attention and providing services to customers; the core of empathy is conveying the feeling that the customer is unique and special.

v)
Tangibles and Tenant satisfaction with the Quality of Property Management Services According to Parasuraman, Zeithmal and Berry (1985) tangibles relate to the presentation of physical facilities, personnel equipment and communication supplies.Property management is given a lot of importance by tenants, at times even much more than the landlords give it.Generally, these factors are related to the physical components of the property or its surroundings, but the need for landlord and tenant management requires unique focus to maintain satisfaction at such a level that it increases loyalty 'retention equity'.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Descriptive research design is adopted for this study.It is a design that systematically gather data to characterize a phenomenon, circumstances or population that is been examined (Siedlecki, 2020).A survey research method was adopted as the primary data collection methodology.A survey research method is a process whereby a group of people or item is studied by collecting and analyzing data from only a few people or items considered representative of the entire group (Nworgu 2006).Data on real estate services promised and the actual services provided were obtained from users / occupants of leasehold properties of Nigeria Railway Corporation in the study area.The instrument of data collection such as questionnaires, direct oral interview and observation of documented records were adopted in retrieving relevant data from the users / occupants, which were presented using tables and analyzed using Spearman's Rank Correlation; being a method that measures the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.It ranges from -1 to 1, where 1 indicates a perfect positive relationship, -1 a perfect negative relationship, and 0 no relationship.

Materials and Discussions
The study seeks to examine the perception of selected users (occupants) of the leasehold properties of Nigeria Railway Corporation in Abeokuta, Ibadan and Osogbo.Thus, responses / data obtained through research instrument employed are presented and analyzed as follows: From Table 1 below, a total of 332 copies of questionnaires were distributed and 280 were retrieved.This reduced to a total of 280 valid questionnaires; representing 84.3% were used for data analysis.

Location of the Properties
The respondent location was centered in three different locations, all in the South-Western region of Nigeria were studied and respondents were selected in the proportion shown in Table 2.

Distribution of Land Uses
The respondent purpose of land use was categorized for five different reasons in the study area as indicated in Table 3.The literature review revealed that empathy, responsiveness, assurance, reliability and tangibles are dimensions which focus on the human aspect of service delivery.The analysis in table 4.1 shows the mean and standard deviations generated for all the statements on the questionnaire, item 1 revealed that 64 (48%) of respondents strongly agreed that staff of RPMCL have empathy whenever they encounter problems on the land they occupy with 58 (44%) disagreed strongly that the response rate is slow.This affirms that RPMCL staff are sympathetic when they have external problems from land grabbers, state and local government while interview with staff of RPMCL attributes the slow response rate to bureaucracy.The respondents agreed that the image of RPMCL greatly affects the services they delivery with a response rate of (59,45%).They also agreed that the staff possesses skill and expertise in providing the needed services to them.Based on the responses, the aggregate mean score and standard deviation of [3.06±1.42]which is above the minimum acceptance mean of 3.0 obtained from the usage of five Likert scaling.In line with the service delivery dimension elements as stated in the literature review, table 4.2 revealed that the staff of RPMCL are sympathetic with the users of N.R.C land when they have problems with a response rate of (21,43%).It also revealed that they don't attend to their problems promptly when they occur.Interview with the staff revealed the distance between Ibadan where RPMCL office situates most times delays prompt attention as may be required by users of N.R.C properties.The respondents strongly agreed with about (29,59%) that the image they portrayed affects the service delivery.Interview with the users indicated that as go a government institution, most of the services provided will be cheaper to obtain.They also agreed strongly that the staff of RPMCL possesses the skill and facilities to provide the services they deserve with about (17,35%).
Based on the responses, the aggregate mean score and standard deviation of [3.51±1.21]which is above the minimum acceptance mean of 3.0 obtained from the usage of five Likert scaling.Based on the service delivery dimension elements as stated in the literature review, results from table 4.3 revealed that the staff of RPMCL are sympathetic with the users of N.R.C land when they have problems with a response rate of (35,35%).It also revealed that they attend to their problems promptly when they occur with about (23,23%).Interview with the staff revealed that though their is distance between Osogbo and Ilorin(where RPMCL is situated).They engage staff of N.R.C as a pre-cautionary action plan pending when they arrive.The respondents strongly agreed with those in Ibadan and Abeokuta about the image RPMCL portrays with about (41,41%) and (24,24%) which indicated that they possess the skill and expertise to provide quality service.Based on the responses, the aggregate mean score and standard deviation of [3.25±1.24]which is above the minimum acceptance mean of 3.0 obtained from the usage of five Likert scaling.

Quality of services provided by NRC
The responses of respondents to the quality of services provided by N.R.C is shown in Quality service assessment affords an organization the opportunity to not only gain the trust of its client but also enables retainer-ship.In real estate sector, there is competition on the application of professionalism towards delivering quality service.Results from the above table revealed that the respondents agreed with the measurement item on quality of service provided by RPMCL except item 2 where it strongly agreed with 44 (15.7%) and strongly disagreed with 29 (10.4%).Based on the responses of the respondents, the aggregate mean score and standard deviation of [3.40±1.13]was derived which is above the minimum acceptance mean of 3.0 obtained from the usage of five-point Likert scaling.
Factors militating against effective adoption of servqual approach by R.P.M.C.L Table 6 presents responses on factors militating against the effective adoption of servqual approach by RPMCL Observed Shortage of motor vehicles for transportation iii.
Shortage of manpower iv.
Unwillingness by staff to act without headquarters directive The perception a tenant has on an organization and the service he receives afterwards is vital and the greatest marketing strategy any organization can imagine.The descriptions in the Table shows the mean and standard deviation generated for all the statements on the questionnaire as regards factors militating against effective adoption of servqual approach by RPMCL.Results indicate that majority of the respondents agreed with the instruments of measurement.From the responses, the aggregate mean score and standard deviation of [ ] which is above the minimum acceptance mean of 3.0 obtained from the usage of five Likert.

Test of Hypothesis Spearman's Rank Correlation
Spearman's rank correlation coefficient measures the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.It ranges from -1 to 1, where 1 indicates a perfect positive relationship, -1 a perfect negative relationship, and 0 no relationship.
H01: There is no significant relationship between the perception of users of N.R.C properties on the real estate services and the quality of service provided.For "Users and Occupants" with "Quality of Service," the correlation coefficient is -.203.This value is close to 1 and negative, suggesting a strong, negative correlation between these two variables.based on the Spearman's rho correlation analysis, there appears to be a strong and significant negative correlation between the variables "Users AND Occupant" and "Quality OF Service" as both the correlation coefficient is close to zero and the associated p-value is relatively high (.439).

Decision Rule
Reject H0 if the P-value <0.05; otherwise accept.Therefore, based on the results in table 7, we shall reject the null hypothesis (H0) and conclude that at 5% level of significant, there is a significant relationship between the perception of users (occupants) of properties of NRC on the real estate services and the quality of service provided

Findings
The study revealed that there are different types of land uses of N.R.C leasehold properties in the study area which comprises Commercial, Residential, Religious, Educational and Industrial.On the perception of users (occupants) of properties of NRC, the study revealed that respondents strongly agreed that the image portrayed by staff of RPMCL influence their perception about the expected services from the company.
The study also reveal that RPMCL staff don't feel sympathetic to users of the properties of NRC as a result of unreliable and unfounded information from them (users).Personal interview with some respondents and staff of RPMCL attest to the assertion.The responses from respondents as well as personal interview with staff of R.P.M.C.L indicated shortage of skilled man-power and the need to create more offices in the study area.
From the analysis in table 7, it revealed that there is communication gap between the management of R.P.M.C.L and the users (occupants) of N.R.C properties.

Conclusion
The study has been able to examine servqual approach in the management of leasehold properties of N.R.C in the study area.It was able to determine the different land uses, the perception of the users (occupants) of the properties on the real estate services provided by R.P.M.C.L and factors that militate against servqual implementation.The study indicated that the negative actions displayed by users (occupants) is because there is a significant relationship between their perception of the real estate services promised and the quality of service provided, there is communication gap between the users (occupants) of N.R.C properties and the management of R.P.M.C.L after allocation of the property; and shortage of skilled man-power.
Online ISSN: 2055-6586(online) Website: https://www.eajournals.org/Publication of the European Centre for Research Training and Development -UK 42