Effect of catering service quality dimensions on students’ satisfaction in selected public boarding secondary schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Students’ satisfaction is important in ensuring among others academic performance, loyalty and retention. The quality of catering or school feeding services is one of the aspects that affect students’ satisfaction. Limited studies have been undertaken to establish the effects of service quality on student satisfaction in secondary boarding schools in Kenya. This study therefore sought to determine the effect of catering service quality dimensions on student’s satisfaction in the selected public boarding secondary schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The specific objectives of this study were to establish the effect of tangibles, responsiveness and assurance of catering services on student’s satisfaction. The study also sought the school management’s perceptions of quality service and satisfaction with catering services. The study was guided by expectancy-disconfirmation theory. It was a mixed methods study and adopted both descriptive and explanatory research designs. The target population comprised of 13,500 students from 6 public boarding secondary schools that were selected from each of the 6 constituencies in the County. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select one school from each constituency. The sample size was 375 students from the chart, selected through simple random sampling. A total of 6 principals and the 6 cateresses from the sampled schools were also purposively selected. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the students while interview schedules were administered to the principals and cateresses. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for quantitative data analysis and included frequency, standard deviation, mean and multiple linear regressions. Qualitative data from the interviews was analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed that tangibility had significant effect on student satisfaction (β1= 0.586 and p =0.000), responsiveness had significant effect on student satisfaction (β2= 0.021 and p =0.000) and assurance service quality dimension had significant effect on student satisfaction (β3= 0.261 and p =0.000). Interview results revealed that the schools ensure quality service through adherence to laid down policies, maintenance of cleanliness and supervision of staff. Respondents also indicated that feedback on satisfaction is received through student leader’s responses. The study concluded that the tangibility dimension has the most significant effect on student satisfaction. The study therefore recommends that the employees in the catering department should uphold tangible aspects such as cleanliness in the catering services. The school management should also devise ways through which all students give feedback about quality and satisfaction as opposed to the current situation where only student leaders provide feedback.