Author :
DOI : 10.29228/ASOS.63583
Year-Number: 2022-132
Yayımlanma Tarihi: 2022-09-11 21:20:55.0
Language : English
Konu : Management and Strategy
Abstract
Keywords
Abstract
This study aimed to identify the impact of strategic agility on the quality of service in Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip under the Covid-19 virus pandemic. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher used the descriptive analytical approach for its suitability to the purposes and nature of the study. The researcher used the questionnaire as the study's main tool for collecting data and then analyzing it to reach the findings of the study, where the study population consisted of all employees in supervisory positions in the Palestinian universities in Gaza with the following job titles (dean - deputy/assistant dean - head of an academic/administrative department – Faculty/department/unit manager) whose number was (344) employees. (181) questionnaires were distributed using a random stratified sample, and (170) questionnaires were retrieved from them, with a recovery rate of (93.9%), All of them were valid for analysis using the (SPSS) statistical program for data analysis valid for analysis. The findings of the study showed that the level of strategic agility in the Palestinian universities in Gaza is relatively large at a rate of (72.2%), which means that the Palestinian universities in Gaza practice strategic agility. The findings of the study also showed that there is a high level of quality for the service provided in Palestinian universities at a rate of (76.2%). The study also found a significant impact for strategic agility and its dimensions (strategic sensitivity, unity of leadership, flow of resources) on the quality of the service provided, while the quality of service provided is not affected by the dimensions (core capabilities, taking procedures). The study drew a number of recommendations that would contribute to enhancing the level of strategic agility and quality of service provided in Palestinian universities in Gaza under the Covid-19 virus pandemic. The study recommended activating strategic dialogue processes to increase the level of strategic alertness and the manner of dealing with the effects of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, through using experts and relevant specialists, whether from inside or outside universities, and increasing the level of coordination with all relevant parties.
Keywords
- Strategic agility is one of the basic requirements for the growth and long-term success oforganizations, especially those organizations that operate in a volatile, complex, and uncertainenvironment characterized by a high degree of uncertainty (Xing et al., 2020). Sajdak, (2015)describes the strategic agility of the organization represents a rapid response to surroundingchanges. Hamdan (2019) believes that strategic agility is a set of steps, processes, andprocedures that organizations take, in order to adapt to the rapid changes that surround them andto formulate their strategy to respond quickly to these changes. The researcher summarizesstrategic agility as a set of organized activities carried out by universities as a quick response tothese sudden changes in the surrounding environment, to avoid negative threats and takeadvantage of the opportunities available to them in an effort to maintain their balance and competitive advantage.
- There is an urgent need today to adopt the entrance to strategic agility, as managers no longerhave enough time to manage their organizations due to the short period of their service in theorganization compared to the past, and they are required to enjoy higher performance due to thenature of rapid changes in the surrounding environment, and the nature of technologicaldevelopment in which we live (Doz & Kosonen, 2010). It has become difficult to make changesaccording to the traditional approach, as organizations have to adopt strategic agility as an alternative approach to deal with the accelerating changes (Al-Maadidi, 2011).
- The importance of strategic agility lies in considering it an important and effective tool incontemporary strategic planning, and a source of gaining a competitive advantage that ensuresthe organization’s effective success, growth, and continuity, as the lack of strategic agility willmake the organization suffer from stagnation and the inability to keep pace with thedevelopment (Najm, 2019). Strategic agility plays a distinctive role in organizations throughmodern and sophisticated practices and methods that lead the organization to a process ofchange for the better, and form a safety valve for the survival and continued delivery of quality goods or services with a sustainable competitive advantage (Alzebda, 2018).
- The concept of quality of Service is mainly related to the relationship between those benefitsactually achieved from the use of the service and those benefits intended for it, and therefore itis related to the degree of congruence between customers ' expectations and their understandingof the services actually provided to them (Shiroff, 2010), and thus it is an expression of thecustomer's view or sense of the direction of the service received by him (Al-Taei, 2010). Qualityof Service is therefore defined as the difference between a customer's expectations and actualperception of Service, and therefore it is a criterion for the degree of actual performance matchwith the expectations, requirements, and desires of the customer (Hoffman & Bateson, 2010).
- The concept of the quality of university education service addresses all the characteristics thatare related to the educational sector and that reflect the extent of excellence and achievement tobe achieved, and thus it is considered a true translation of the needs and expectations of thebeneficiaries into a set of specific characteristics that form the basis for the generalization of theeducational service, and presenting it to them in a manner consistent with their aspirations (Al- Mulhouf, 2007).
- The quality of university service can also be defined as all the features and characteristicsrequired to provide the service in line with the needs, desires, and expectations of students andin a manner that shows a high degree of excellence (Al-Rubaie, Al-Naimi & Kaddoura, 2011).
- There are many models for measuring the dimensions of service quality, but still the mostimportant and most famous of all is the parasuraman and his colleagues model developed in1988, which was called the five-dimensional SERVQUAL model, these five dimensions are both concrete, dependability, responsiveness, empathy, and security (Ali et al., 2019).
- Quality of Service is important in the field of higher education due to the intense competitionbetween universities of various types on one hand, and the classification of education as amarketable service on the other (Ling et al., 2010), these universities are seeking to providehigh-quality services, especially the basic service entrusted to them in creating a generation capable of making an impact in local development (Bin Tafat and Ahmed, 2011).
- At present, attention to the quality of service in Gaza universities has become an urgentrequirement and a strategic choice, and with the multiplicity and spread of local universities. ithas become necessary for universities to pay attention to the quality of their services, as studentscan distinguish between these universities and choose what suits them according to the qualityof service they will receive, and whether this service is of high quality or not (Al-agha, 2012). Methodology and research methods
- procedures. Measurements were made using items derived from the previous literature. For theuse of paragraphs for the strategic sensitivity variable, items were borrowed from Morton et al.(2018). Regarding the use of vertebrae for the driving unit variable, items were adapted fromPing et al. (2018). Resource flow was measured using the modified scale developed by Mortonet al., (2018). Intrinsic abilities were measured using the modified scale developed by Hussain(2016). Finally, action taking was measured using the modified scale developed by Khoshnood and Nematizadeh (2017).
- From the results shown in the Table (1), it was found that 78.2% of the study sample are males,while 21.8% are females. The researcher attributes this result to the nature of supervisory jobs,which are mostly held by males, and this result is consistent with the nature of the labor marketin Palestinian society in general, which is confirmed by the statistics of the Palestinian CentralBureau of Statistics regarding the degree of women’s empowerment, where the percentage ofwomen’s participation in the labor force reached in Palestine in 2020 (18.1%), while the male participation rate was (69.9%).
- The results indicate that the study is fully consistent with the study (Al-Azzawi and Al-Dabbagh, 2019), which found that organizational agility with its dimensions “sensing, decision-making and joint responsibility” together positively and morally affect the quality of service,and in part with the study (Al-Zabada, 2018), which was reached within an equation Themultiple regression line indicates that there is a positive, significant effect of the dimension of“shared responsibility” on organizational performance, and the presence of a non-significanteffect of the dimension of “taking measures” on organizational performance. this result alsopartially agrees with the findings of a study (Hania, 2016) in the presence of a positive andmoral effect of the dimension of "shared responsibility" on excellence in institutional performance.
- Also, this result is completely different from the study (Najm, 2019), which found a positiveand significant effect of the dimensions of “intrinsic capabilities and taking action” on theexcellence of institutional performance, and the presence of a positive, insignificant effect of thedimension of “shared responsibility” on institutional performance excellence, within Theequation of the multiple regression line, partially with the study (Al-Zabada, 2018), whichfound within the multiple regression model that there is a significant effect of the dimension of“intrinsic capabilities” on organizational performance, and with the study (Hania, 2016) whichfound that the dimension of “strategic sensitivity” has no significant effect on organizational performance. Excellence in institutional performance.
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