Varia Ranah - Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam

459 Varia Ranah: Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam efficiency (Radnor and Osborne, 2013). However, these concepts are not always easy to interpret in the public sector. Customer in public sector The definition of customer is quite unique in the public sector, both semantically and as a concept. Most importantly, there is no clear definition of who is a customer in the public sector (Fountain, 2001). For instance, in healthcare not only the patient is a customer, but also family members, caregivers, decision- makers, local communities, and taxpayers (Poksinska, 2010; Shah and Robinson, 2008). The same discussion can be applied in other parts of the public sector. However, Alford (2002) suggests a typology consisting of two categories of customers: citizens and clients. The citizens are the collective society that defines what the public organisations should do, expressed through political representation, which can be compared to private customers expressing preferences about the goods or services provided. The clients, on the other hand, directly receive the services, or the one who interacts with the service providers. In the private sector, the direct consumer of the product or service is seen as the customer (Woodruff, 1997). Denhardt and Denhardt (2000) suggest that there are several problems with this view in the public sector. First, it is not only the direct client who must be served, but also those who are waiting for service or may need the service, although they are not seeking it. In addition, there are unwilling customers, such as those receiving a speeding ticket. Second, there are always clients with more resources and greater skill in putting forward their demands, which should not imply better treatment. Therefore, an important principle in the public sector is that the organisation does not have the possibility to always meet the client’s needs since there are political decisions regulating the level of the service (Brandt and Stigendahl, 2012). The ideas of The definition of customer is quite unique in the public sector, both semantically and as a concept. Most importantly, there is no clear definition of who is a customer in the public sector (Fountain, 2001)