Measuring Community Vitality Using the Importance Performance Analysis Technique

Evidence from Three Case Studies in Thimphu, Bhutan

Abstract

The 2015 Gross National Happiness (GNH) Survey shows that just under half (43%) of the Bhutanese population enjoys sufficiency in the community vitality domain, with urban areas having the biggest insufficiency compared to rural areas. While GNH survey results identify opportunities for government policy intervention to address the areas of insufficiency, a detailed analysis of existing services that comprise the domains could help increase the domain’s overall performance. This paper suggests how the development of GNH policies relating to community vitality can be improved through the application of the Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) technique. The IPA was developed to evaluate users’ perceptions of attributes or features of public and private sector services. The results of IPA studies provide service managers with clarity on which features are considered important by users and how users evaluate the performance of services on those features. Three case studies of public services that contribute to a sense of vitality in Thimphu are presented to indicate the potential of IPA. Analysis of the cases show that while performance on delivering service features is acceptable, lower performance scores and higher importance scores of service features indicate the opportunity to further improve service delivery and increase community vitality. The paper concludes with recommendations on adapting the IPA to measure different GNH domains of government services.