Evaluating the Performance of Rural Management Units from Villager's Perspective Using Kano Model (Case Study: Siah Estalkh Village-Rasht County)

1. One of the main pillars of analyzing rural issues is considering management structure in such communities. Assessing the performance of rural management units, as local organizations, which, on one hand, are in touch with the government through its representatives in the region (provincial and local governments) and, on the other hand, through councils, are in touch with people, and thus evaluating the degree of their effectiveness can be predictive of the success of rural management unit’s chair in performing his or her duties, which is the key to numerous rural management problems and issues and, more importantly, determines the degree of rural management unit’s chair’s influence on rural development. To this end, the present study, using basic, operational and emotional needs of village settlers, was conducted to evaluate the performance of rural management unit of Siah Estalkh village in the central district of Rash county and the degree of villagers’ satisfaction with it. Considering the importance of management in rural development and the relative ineffectiveness in this regard for many years and owing to the recent considerations concerning the assignment of rural management to rural management units, the present study aims to evaluate the performance of rural management units, from the perspective of villagers in Siah Estalkh village, in the central district of Rasht county.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: Rural management is, in fact, the process of organizing and guiding the community and rural environment through creation of organizations and institutions. These organizations and institutions are considered the means through which rural communities realize their goals. Achieving development and subsequently sustainable development is the goal of rural management. In sustainable rural development, management denotes adjusting human relationship with his environment, in which attention is paid to connecting social and economic systems with ecological supervision. The crucial role played by rural management units in rural management and development makes evaluation of their performance necessary and, in case it is done correctly, costs are reduced. Moreover, through identification of rural management units’ strengths and weaknesses, the way is paved for them to perform their duties with effectiveness and efficacy.
3. The present research is a pragmatic one, in terms of objective, and an analytical-descriptive study in terms of methodology. Research population entails the entire population of Siah Estalkh village, among whom 346 people were selected though random sampling. The study used Kano Model which was presented in terms of analyzing three types of basic, operational and emotional needs. Questionnaire’s validity was established through the opinions presented by experts and specialists in rural development planning and its reliability was established through Cronbach’s alpha, which was determined to be 0.994, indicating an acceptable reliability. Kano model was also used to create the Questionnaire. In the Questionnaire, a pair of questions was included for each feature, enabling villagers to select the appropriate answer for each question. The questions in the first group were operational and the ones in the second group were non-operational. In order to determine the degree of influence of rural management unit’s chair on performance Likert scale and for converting qualitative answers too quantitative one’s weighting were used. For assessing and identifying factors affecting quality of services from settler’s point of view there is a consensus and agreement and many models such as Hysteresis, Kano, SERVQUAL, QFD and etc. exit for evaluating the quality of services. For the purpose of this study, Kano model was used for evaluating villagers’ satisfaction.
4. In this study, for the purpose of assessing villagers’ basic needs, seven factors were investigated and surveyed. Development of green spaces and tree plantation with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.88 was the most important factor, followed by creation of creek water with 0.84, cleanness of the village’s environment and scenery with 0.81, lighting and security of passages at night with 0.65, collecting, burying or disposing of trash with 0.56, asphalting and curbing alleys with 0.53 and supervising rural settlement construction with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.45 respectively. In order to assess the operation needs of villagers six factors were analyzed, among which the factor for helping to attract state investment for creating new job opportunities, with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.78, was the most important one followed by providing information regarding rural management unit’s performance together with promoting collective and collaborative actions among villagers with 0.73, settling villagers differences and disputes with 0.58, supervising road construction in addition to widening of routes with 0.49, and finally participating villagers in matters concerning the village with 0.36, respectively. With regards to the emotional needs of the villagers under the study, the factor of guarding and protecting the village against natural disasters with 0.66 was the most important factor followed by helping to increase villagers’ accountability with 0.57, creating suitable cultural and arts facilities in the village (library) with 0.55, protecting cultural heritage with 0.51, and expansion and creation of sports facilities with 0.46, respectively. In terms of villagers’ satisfaction with the efforts made by the rural management units to meet their basic, operation and emotional needs, using the Kano model, considering the studied factors and quantitative analysis of the data, villagers had the highest degree of satisfaction with the fulfillment of their basic needs, with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.66, and the least degree of satisfaction belonged to the fulfillment of their emotional needs, with a dissatisfaction coefficient of 0.55. In other words, rural management units’ performance in meeting villagers’ basic needs was better in comparison with their other needs.
5. Considering the topic of the present study, it can be said that rural management unit’s chair, as the manager of the village, plays a crucial role in every aspects of a village and this is the very principle in which the settlers of the studied village believe. With respect to the gathered data and its analysis using the Kano model, in villager’ opinion, in comparison with other needs, their basic needs have been fulfilled relatively better, with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.66, followed by operational and emotional needs, with 0.61 and 0.55 respectively. Consequently, in planning for the village and increasing the degree of villagers’ satisfaction, more can be done to meet their emotional and operational needs and to increase their satisfaction with the present situations. Taking into account the studied factors and drawing on the experience of the village manager, along with other village authorities, villagers’ degree of satisfaction with life and subsistence within the village can be increased, instigating settlers to stay, preventing them from migrating to adjacent urban areas.