Client satisfaction in Hong Kong.

• Author: Croucher, John S.

1. INTRODUCTION

   The Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) is currently undertaking a review of their degree program offered under the administrative watch of the Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA), an organisation established in 1960. With an MBA comprising 16 units (subjects), the students, also known as 'clients', in Hong Kong undertake each of them in block format meaning that they have 20 hours of contact over two successive weekends for each of them. For the most part Sydney-based faculty fly over for 10 days and stay there during the week to catch up with their doctoral students and perform other duties the Dean may require.

   As part of the assurance of learning process, MGSM is very conscious of quality teaching and the satisfaction of the students. The rise in value of the Australian dollar against the Hong dollar (it is now more than double what it was only a few years ago) means that MGSM now receives only half the income from each student previously. This has resulted in financial constraints, including larger class sizes going from an average of around 30 to now exceeding 50 on some occasions.

   MGSM is currently ranked 1st or 2nd in Australia and 7th in the Asia Pacific region (A Word from your Council, 2012) and in 2005 was awarded prestigious full EQUIS accreditation, along with being ranked in the top 100 business schools in the world. Unfortunately the number of faculty dropped below the necessary threshold of 25 in 2010 and so this accreditation was lost. Under the guidance of the new Dean the School has applied for AACSB accreditation and is now going through the process that so far at least looks promising.

   To determine the satisfaction of the 201 MGSM students in Hong Kong, a 15 question anonymous survey was administered to a random sample of 88 of them and analysed using the statistics package Minitab. There were 55 females and 33 males which is roughly in proportion to the student population there. The results shed an interesting light on the feelings of students who are often shy and retiring in lectures and very reluctant to answer or ask questions in front of their classmates. But their ability is unquestioned. In the survey there were 32 (36%) enrolled for a Master of Management Degree (MMgt) that comprises 10 units while 46 (52%) were enrolled for the MBA that requires a further 6 subjects. The remainder for the most part were doing single units.

   To make the survey more interesting, respondents were asked their age, height and weight, questions that could be considered quite sensitive. Intriguingly, among the females, eight refused to state their age, seven their weight and four their height. In contrast, all males responded to each of these three questions.

   This was the first time that MGSM has conducted such a survey in Hong Kong and the results will be invaluable in assisting with the way to move forward.

2. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

   The mean age in the sample of both genders was 36 years, a figure that is about three years older than those in the Sydney program. One of the pre-requisites for entry is that the candidates should have at least five years management experience (among other things) but it turned out that 9 females (16%) and 3 males (9%) revealed that they had never managed anyone. This group gained admission through an outstanding academic record. Of those 76 that had done so, 62 (82%) already rated their ability as a manager as 7 out of 10 or higher, with only one, a male, describing himself as a perfect 10 out of 10...