10320140502002

International Journal of Marketing and Human Resource Management (IJMHRM), ISSN 0976 – 6421 (Print),

ISSN 0976 – 643X (Online), Volume 5, Issue 2, March-April (2014), pp. 10-25 © IAEME

10

SKILLS AND TRAINING NEEDS OF FRONTLINE MANAGERS AT INDIAN

POWER DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES – A PERSPECTIVE OF

ELECTRICITY CUSTOMERS

SURESH VISHWAKARMA PhD Scholar, College of Management & Economics Studies,

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, India

ALKA DWIVEDI Assistant Professor, College of Management & Economics Studies,

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, India

ABSTRACT

The present paper attempts to identify the perception of different categories of electricity

customers on the job performance and training requirements of frontline managers in the lately

formed power distribution companies. In order to study this phenomenon a questionnaire was

prepared and checked for its reliability and validity. 500 completed responses were collected from

DISCOMs’ customers at the response rate of 68%. Cronbach’s Alpha’ value of 0.965 in the pilot

study confirmed internal consistency (reliability) of data. Data Analysis reflected the index of

customers’ perception on 30 attributes associated with the performance and corresponding training

requirement of frontline managers. The results of the study can contribute in understanding

customers’ perception on various attributes associated with the performance and training needs of

frontline managers at power distribution companies (DISCOMs). Replication of the study in

different companies and regions can help in overcoming the culture specificity and customers’ bias

which may have affected the results of the study.

Key words: Electricity customers, frontline managers, power distribution companies, training, and

performance.

1. INTRODUCTION

Electricity supply has now become a basic necessity in everybody’s life. Its presence only

makes our daily routine easy and also ensures many modern life support systems. Even the slum

dwellers now expect to have electricity supply at least for some part of the day. Any unplanned,

unexpected, or prolonged outage of electricity supply now-a-days can lead to social unrest (Foss,

2012).

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING AND HUMAN

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ISSN 0976 – 6421 (Print)

ISSN 0976 – 643X (Online)

Volume 5, Issue 2, March – April (2014), pp. 10-25 © IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijmhrm.asp

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Frontline managers play a very significant role in the power distribution companies

(DISCOMs). They act as an inter-face between the customers / public and the company. Frontline

Managers in power distribution companies are the mainly field officers – Assistant Engineers and

Junior Engineers posted at Operation & Maintenance offices in the town, sub-urban, and rural area.

They interact with the public, authorities, and different categories of customers on almost daily basis.

Subsequent to the Northern and Eastern Grid failure in July 2012, Central Electricity Supply

Utility of Orissa CESU sources estimated that the undeclared load has gone up by around 20 per cent

in those past few days. "This is because hundreds of air-conditioners and air coolers were installed

by people to get respite from the scorching heat. However, very few people had actually announced

these additions," (Sahoo, 2012). The load demand of customers has increased considerably in the

past years. A considerable part of that is undeclared especially during peak winter and summer

seasons. The concern here is if all electricity customers are aware of declaring any additional load to

their installation before the utility provider. Have SEBs / DISCOMs educated them enough on the

duties and responsibilities of an electricity customer.

In the ongoing scenario, customers’ satisfaction is the key to success of any business. Steve

Jobs, CEO of Apple, once said, “It is our job to know what our customers want.” Electricity

customers cannot be left alone. They not only anticipate much better services but also expect

DISCOMs to understand how their needs have changed with the passage of time and how best their

reasonable expectations should be met.

Power sector reforms in most of the developing countries including India are still breezing

their implementation phase and the process are likely to continue till their aimed objectives is met.

Frontline managers are now assigned with the responsibilities of playing changed role as per their

redesigned jobs.

2. OBJECTIVES AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study was to understand customers’ perception on various

attributes associated with the performance and training needs of frontline managers at DISCOMs. To

achieve the main objective, the following sub-objectives were set:

1. To get customers’ overall view on the performance and training requirements of frontline

managers.

2. To analyze customers’ perception on technical skills of frontline managers.

3. To analyze customers’ perception on commercial, managerial, public relations, and customer

care skills of frontline managers.

There are several areas related to work-performance of frontline managers demanding further

study and research. From a practical perspective, researchers intend to use the results of this study to

identify the various factors perceived by electricity customers that contribute to the performance of

frontline managers at the newly formed power distribution companies subsequent to reforms in the

Indian power sector.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

The review of related literature leads to the assumption that customers’ perception on the

performance of DISCOMs’ frontline line managers differ on degree and scale along the different

variables which contribute to effective customer services.

Upon introducing reforms in the Indian power sector, the change management is successfully

ongoing. A sense of belongingness is being developed among the human capital (IGNOU, 2007).

Lately formed DISCOMs are trying to gain confidence of existing employees by assuring

employees-friendly policies. Management is stressing on promoting in-house training programmes

on quality, skills and technical management to focus on customer satisfaction. The management



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however still faces the challenges of changing the mind-set of employees from the arrogance of

monopoly status to politeness in competitive business environment continue to be a great challenge

(IGNOU, 2007). More progressive personnel policies and employment conditions are being explored

to attract and retain highly skilled staff and providing incentives for constantly upgrading their skills.

Scott Anthony, author of The Little Black Book Of Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It,

states in his article “3 Ways To Predict What Consumers Want Before They Know It”, that a careful

study of current and potential customers can often highlight the workarounds that customers create to

make up for the limits of existing solutions. Going deep into these compensating behaviours can help

to uncover innovation opportunities. Spending time with the customers, watching for the

workarounds, and exploring non-consumption helps in highlighting exciting innovation opportunities

(Anthony, 2012)

The key findings of the survey conducted among the electricity consumers of Maharashtra

State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) / Mahavitaran by Marketing and

Development Research Associates (MDRA) in 2012 to assess the level of awareness of consumer’s

rights and consumer grievance redressal mechanism revealed that mere 1% of the electricity

customers are aware of Electricity Act and Electricity Consumer’s Rights. Almost 75% of the

electricity consumers had faced the problems related to their electricity connection. They also had a

high proportion of complaints related to inflated / excess billing, voltage fluctuation and interruption/

failure/ disconnection of electric supply. Majority of the electricity consumers did not receive the

complaint number after registration of their complaints. Less than 50% of the complainants were

satisfied with the resolution of their complaints by MSEDCL staff.

A postgraduate student of a Noida based management institution in India has stated in his

summer training report on “Market Research on Consumers Expectations from Power Distribution

Companies in Delhi” that the asset of any organization is its customer base so it is very important to

realize the marketing effectiveness in satisfying consumers’ needs and wants as the profit of any

company depending on a deeper understanding of consumers’ behaviour. The lately formed

DISCOMs had never faced these issues in the past since erstwhile State Electricity Boards were

operating in the monopolistic scenario. In the changing scenario, competitive markets have emerged

and the consumers now have choice to change their service providers. Under such situation, only the

more competitive player would remain in the race. (Bhatia, 2010)

An article in McKinsey Quarterly journal points out insufficient training as the reason for low

manager performance. Its authors believe that most companies don't offer adequate training to their

frontline managers or structure their roles to create the most value. Aggravating the problem, senior

leaders are often unaware of the issues that hinder frontline performance (McGurk, Smet and Vinson,

2010) The article underlines insufficient training as a contributing factor for impeded performance of

managers and alarms organization’s senior leaders to be aware of frontline’s needs. The scenario at

the power distribution companies is more or less similar.

A paper titled “Introducing Electric Power into a Multidisciplinary Curriculum for Network

Industries” (Ilic, Apt, Khosla, Lave, Morgan and Talukdar 2003) states that engineers of future will

have to be able to do everything that engineers do today – and much more. They will have to design,

build and operate generators, transmission & distribution lines, manage the networks for reliable

operations, and do all this safely and with security against attack designed in from the outset. They

will have to do this within an environment which is much less friendly and forgiving than the

environment which their predecessors faced. In addition, each decision on new capacity and

operations will have to be made with a view to its costs and expected revenues.

A study on Satisfaction & Preferences of Electricity Consumers was conducted by pManifold

(2011) in nine districts of central India. The major factors included were power quality & reliability,

customer service, meter, billing & payment and communication etc. The findings revealed that until

now very little effort has been made to objectively understand and consider the voice of the customer

while making efforts to improve the utility's services and performance. Most respondents opined that



13

they are expecting a lot to be done before they are satisfied with the utility services. The study

concluded that immediately attending to the customer's key areas of dissatisfaction would result in

quick wins for the utility and allow for building up a positive perception within the minds of all

stakeholders (including customer, opinion leaders, employees etc) and make them ready for bigger

changes.

The intense literature review was also supported with the inferences drawn from interactive

conversations with DISCOMs’ frontline managers and their superiors.

4. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

The study started with intense literature review of work done on manpower training in power

sector before and after the power sector reforms in India. Due to limited research done in training in

general and performance management in particular, only few papers were available in public

domain. Variables were extracted from the published literature on customers’ expectation from

utility companies and their perception on DISCOMs’ frontline managers. Discussions were

undertaken with the different categories of electricity customers. Based upon the review of literature

and discussions with the customers, a list of 32 statements was screened out. Most of the statements

were related on technical, commercial, managerial, customer care, and public relations skills of

frontline managers.

This study was based on primary data gathered with the help of a questionnaire comprising

two sections. Section A collected demographic details of respondents. It also recorded the

satisfaction level of respondents with the performance and training requirements of DISCOMs’

frontline managers on a scale of 1 – 10. Section B had 32 scale items on customers’ perception on

the technical, commercial, managerial, customer care, and public relations skills of frontline

managers. First 2 items questioned change in customer’s electricity consumption and expectation

from DISCOM in the past years. The responses were collected on a five point Likert Scale where 1

represented ‘Strongly Disagree’, 2 represented ‘Disagree’, 3= ‘Undecided’, 4= ‘Agree’ and 5=

‘Strongly Agree’.

The questionnaire designed for customers’ group was mailed / distributed to almost 800

customers of lately formed DISCOMs. Even though electricity customers’ population is infinite, the

study was concentrated in two states in central India where DISCOMs are operational for more than

5 years. Since electricity customers have infinite population, a sample size of 500 customers was

considered as a close replica of large customer base as per the published tables. Total 543 customers

responded after continual follow up by emails and phone calls. The response rate was approx. 68%.

Out of the 543 responses received, 43 were incomplete hence were rejected. Finally 500 complete

responses were included in the study.

The data gathered were analyzed with actual counts, percentages, correlations, standard

deviations, factor analysis, variance, and mean scores. Actual counts and percentages were used to

assess the frequency and percentage extent of certain variables related to general and background

information. Correlations were used to assess the relationships of age of respondents and their

satisfaction with frontline managers’ skills and training needs. Standard deviations were calculated to

understand the variations in data collected through responses. Factor analysis was used to reduce the

data collected on the four-point scale for further analysis. Means were helpful in explaining the

extent of customers’ agreement or disagreement on the technical, commercial, managerial, customer

care, and public relations skills of DISCOMs’ frontline managers. Reliability of the data collected

was also calculated by applying the Cronbach Alpha. Alpha value of the scale of 30 variables was

calculated that was as high as 0.965.



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5. SAMPLE AND DATA COLLECTION

Questionnaires were distributed and responses from invited from customers at different

categories of customers. No preference whatsoever to any particular category of customers was given

to ensure an overall and fair perception of customers’ population.

Pilot study was carried out on 53 (around 10%) complete questionnaires to test the feasibility.

Cronbach’s Alpha value for the 32 variables in Section B of 53 questionnaires was 0.965. Values of

Cronbach’s alpha range from 0 to 1.00 with those close to 1.00 indicate high consistency. Acceptable

Cronbach's alpha values range from 0.70 to 0.95 (Tavakol & Dennick, 2011). High-stakes

standardized tests should have internal consistency coefficients of minimum 0.90 (Wells & Wollack,

2003). The Cronbach Alpha determined for the study was therefore acceptable confirming internal

consistency (reliability) of data for this group.

6. DATA ANALYSIS

Demographic information of 500 Customers who completely responded to the questionnaire

is tabulated in Table 1

Table 1: Demographic Profile Sr. Variable N=500 Percentage

I Category

Domestic 332 66.4

Commercial 98 19.6

Industrial 25 5

Agriculture 28 5.6

Others 17 3.4

II Age of Respondent

20 – 30 106 21.2

31 – 40 149 29.8

41 – 50 130 26

Above 51 115 23

III Gender

Male 459 91.8

Female 41 8.2

IV Education level

Below Graduate 57 11.4

Graduate 272 54.4

Master and above 171 34.2

Testing of hypothesis on customers’ responses was carried out assuming values for null and

alternate hypothesis. The responses were collected on a five point Likert Scale where 1 represented

‘Strongly Disagree’, 2 represented ‘Disagree’, 3= ‘Undecided’, 4= ‘Agree’ and 5= ‘Strongly Agree’.

The mean response of 4 points and greater was an indicative of customers’ full agreement on the

statement. However the mean response lesser than 4 indicates that a part of the customers’

population did not agree with the respective statement. An assumed mean value of ≥ 4 (Agree) was

therefore considered for the responses to test the null hypothesis H0.

Null hypothesis H0: µ ≥ 4

Alternative hypothesis H1: < 4



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With the null hypothesis H0: µ ≥ 4, the critical region is in the left tail. With a left-tail area of

0.05 the critical value is z = – 1.645. The critical value is used to set up the critical region.

As mentioned earlier, the first two statements in the questionnaire questioned change in customer’s

electricity consumption and expectations from DISCOM in the last few years. Their responses were

separately analyzed. The corresponding values of t for the remaining 30 variables calculated using

SPSS is lower than – 1.645 (Table 2) which are in the left of the critical value. Hence, the test

statistic is in the rejection region, which means that the null hypothesis is rejected. Since the null

hypothesis is rejected, the alternate hypothesis is supported confirming that the mean response is less

than 4 and a large number of customers do not agree with many statements. FLMs are the Frontline

Managers including Junior Engineers, Assistant Engineers, and Assistant Executive Engineers at

DISCOMs.

Table 2: One-Sample Statistics

Sr. Question(s) N Mean SD Std. Error

Mean

t

1 Frontline Managers (FLMs) at the DISCOM’s office in your area

understand your needs and expectations. 500 2.97 1.189 .053 -19.408

2 FLMs adequately advise you on your electrical installation and any

shortcomings in that. 500 2.65 1.234 .055 -24.464

3 FLMs adequately educate you on the safety issues related to your

installation. 500 2.68 1.244 .056 -23.687

4 FLMs adequately advise you on energy efficiency measures in your

installations. 500 2.72 1.260 .056 -22.678

5 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the different

categories and slabs of electricity tariffs in-force. 500 2.92 1.335 .060 -18.025

6 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the responsibilities of

electricity customers. 500 2.72 1.310 .059 -21.786

7 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the penalties for

indulging in theft of electricity. 500 2.89 1.402 .063 -17.770

8 FLMs adequately educate you on the disadvantages of having low

power factor in your installation 500 2.69 1.333 .060 -22.000

9 FLMs adequately educate you on the disadvantages of having

unbalanced load in your installation 500 2.73 1.439 .064 -19.795

10 FLMs adequately educate you on the benefits of using energy

efficient appliances in your installation. 500 2.62 1.359 .061 -22.644

11 FLMs explain the role of Bureau of Energy Efficiency and other

Government’s initiatives to help customers. 500 2.66 1.402 .063 -21.379

12 FLMs reflect creativity in their work in understanding and

resolving customers’ problems. 500 2.99 1.215 .054 -18.510

13 FLMs are equally commercial in their approach as they are

technical at work. 500 3.18 1.126 .050 -16.247

14 FLMs are capable of positively influencing you to be a loyal and

responsible customer of DISCOM. 500 2.87 1.452 .065 -17.373

15 FLMs have unbiased approach towards customers and show

genuine interest in them. 500 2.79 1.286 .058 -21.043

16 FLMs track your pending grievances / issues and follow up enough

to address them. 500 2.73 1.360 .061 -20.885

17 FLMs put effort to improve the lethargic attitude of their staff to

ensure quality services to you. 500 2.92 .963 .043 -25.076

18 FLMs are putting enough efforts to reduce supply outage in their

area. 500 3.23 1.076 .048 -16.039

19 FLMs are putting enough efforts to increase DISCOM’s revenue. 500 3.37 .905 .040 -15.460

20 Good communication and public relations skills are mandatory to

perform FLMs’ job at DISCOMs. 500 3.86 1.351 .060 -2.318

21 FLMs are cost conscious enough in their work and providing

services to customers. 500 2.97 1.242 .056 -18.509

22 FLMs possess enough skills to promptly resolve your services and

bills related grievances. 500 3.16 1.240 .055 -15.105

23 FLMs demonstrate trust and empathy in listening to your facts and

understand feelings. 500 3.04 1.248 .056 -17.270

24 FLMs are adequately motivated and professional to make

DISCOM progress and serve you better. 500 3.19 1.019 .046 -17.686



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25 FLMs are capable enough to identify customers’ issues and

conclude as much as possible from information available. 500 3.08 1.322 .059 -15.596

26 FLMs are capable to develop deep collaborative relations between

DISCOM and customers to create win-win situation. 500 3.10 1.047 .047 -19.221

27 FLMs are thorough and precise in approaching DISCOM’s work

and their personal activities? 500 3.14 .987 .044 -19.402

28 FLMs try to build DISCOM a customer friendly company with

good image in general public. 500 3.09 1.193 .053 -17.024

29 FLMs are sensitive in dealing with you and refrain from any kind

of unpleasing behaviour. 500 2.78 1.304 .058 -20.850

30 FLMs have team spirit and fellowship at their workplace to serve

you better. 500 3.18 1.094 .049 -16.681

The highest mean value of 3.86 in Table 2 for mandatory good communication and public

relations skills confirm that customers perceive this skill most important skill to perform frontline

managers’ job. Their perception on this attribute further supports one of the objectives of Ministry of

Power and USAID’s joint Distribution Reform, Upgrades and Management (DRUM) Project. The

mean values around 3 for 11 attributes further confirms that many customers are still undecided on

Frontline managers being equally commercial and technical in their approach, putting enough efforts

to reduce supply outage, increasing DISCOMs’ revenue, resolving services and bills related

grievances, having team spirit, developing collaborative relations between DISCOM and customers,

and few more attributes.

As discussed in the National Conference on Demand Side Management, 2012, DISCOMs’

frontline line managers should be able to educate customers on the benefits of using energy efficient

appliances in their installation. The lowest mean (2.62) however shows that customers do not

perceive this attribute as important. Also the lowest Standard Deviation 0.905 indicates that

customers are not much concerned if DISCOMs’ Frontline Managers are putting enough efforts to

increase company’s revenue”.

A high standard deviation shows that the data is widely spread. As seen in the Table 2, the

standard deviation of 1.4 and higher of the under-mentioned 4 attributes of frontline managers shows

that customers are somewhat dubious on these attributes.

i. FLMs adequately advise and educate on penalties for indulging in theft of electricity.

ii. FLMs adequately educate on the disadvantages of having unbalanced load in installation.

iii. FLMs educate on Bureau of Energy Efficiency and other Government’s initiatives to help

customers.

iv. FLMs are capable of positively influencing to be a loyal and responsible customer of DISCOM.

Factor analysis was then applied to summarize the original variables into a smaller set of

composite factors. This technique finds relationships or natural connections where variables are

maximally correlated with one another and minimally correlated with other variables and then

groups the variables accordingly. The analysis helped in data reduction by grouping scale items into

a few manageable factors and further development of scales to measure job satisfaction.

The first two statements in the Section B of questionnaire were not attributes but customers’

global perception on their changed electricity consumption and consequent expectations from

DISCOMs’ Frontline Managers. Responses to the first 2 statements were used to establish a general

observation about the customers’ population and its potential impact on DISCOMs operations and

frontline management. The remaining 30 statements (from Sr. 3 onwards) were considered for factor

analysis. The initial output from the analysis is a table of descriptive statistics for all the variables

under investigation. Typically the mean, standard deviation and number of respondents (N) who had

responded to the questionnaire are given.

Before proceeding for further factor analysis, appropriateness of factor analysis was assessed

by examining sampling adequacy through Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) statistic. KMO and Bartlett’s

Test measure strength of relationship among the variables. The KMO measures the sample adequacy



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which should be greater than 0.6 for a satisfactory factor analysis to proceed (Kaiser and Rice 1974).

If any pair has a value less than this, we consider dropping one of them from analysis. The off-

diagonal elements should all be very small (close to zero) in a good model. Looking at the Table 3,

the KMO measure is 0.874 which is very good.

Table 3: KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .874

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 13822.425

df (Degrees of freedom) 435

Sig. (Significance) .000

Bartlett test results show that the values are significant and thus acceptable. It tests the null

hypothesis that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. An identity matrix is a matrix in which all

of the diagonals are 1 and all off-diagonal elements are 0. We want to reject this null hypothesis. As

per the process of a factor analysis prescribed by Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, and Tatham in their

book Multivariate Data Analysis (2006), a statistically significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity

(significant level < .05) confirms sufficient correlations among the variables to proceed. The degrees

of freedom (df) tells how many numbers in the grid are actually independent. The table also indicates

that significance level is less than .001, which is small enough to reject null hypothesis. Bartlett’s test

of sphericity in this study is therefore significant and thus acceptable.

Table 4 shows the correlation between age of customers and their perception towards FLMs’

technical skills, commercial skills and training requirement.

Table 4: Correlation between Customers’ age and their satisfaction with FLM’s skills

Age

Satisfaction with FLM’s

technical skills

Satisfaction with

FLM’s commercial

skills

FLMs’ need further

training

Age 1


technical skills.

-.032 1


commercial skills

-.068 .745** 1

FLMs’ need further

training

-.085 -.116** -.038 1

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The negative correlation values confirm that senior group of customers and not much

satisfied with frontline managers’ technical and commercial skills. Moreover they strongly believe

that frontline managers need further training. The correlation of 0.745 between commercial and

technical skills confirms that customers of all age groups expect frontline managers to possess both

skills. The correlation values further indicate customers stressing training needs of frontline

managers more on commercial skills in comparison to technical skills. The items were then

subjected to Principal Component Analysis with Varimax rotation and Kaiser Normalization.

Eigenvalues are most commonly reported in factor analyses. They are calculated and used in

deciding how many factors to extract in the overall factor analysis. The factors having eigenvalues

greater than one were retained in this study.

In matrix algebra, under certain conditions, matrices can be diagonalized. Matrices are often

diagonalized in multivariate analyses. In that process, eigenvalues are used to consolidate the

variance (Brown, 2001). In factor analysis, eigenvalues are used to condense the variance in a

correlation matrix. "The factor with the largest eigenvalue has the most variance and so on, down to

factors with small or negative eigenvalues that are usually omitted from solutions" (Tabachnick and



18

Fidell, 1996). From the analyst's perspective, only variables with eigenvalues of 1.00 or higher are

traditionally considered worth analyzing. However, examining a scree plot, analyzing non-trivial

variance, and using a theory-based approach can provide overriding reasons for selecting other

numbers of factors (Gorsuch, 1983).

Table 5 shows all the factors extractable from the analysis along with their eigenvalues. The

percentage of variance attributable to each factor and the cumulative variance of the factor and the

previous factors are also included. It is noticed that the first factor accounts for 44.9% of the

variance, the second 12.7%. All the remaining factors are not significant. All the items had factor

loadings above 0.45 (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black 1995) except the last variable – “FLMs have

team spirit and fellowship at their workplace to serve customers better.

Table 5: Total Variance Explained

Component Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared

Loadings

Rotation Sums of Squared

Loadings

Total % of

Variance

Cum. % Total % of

Variance

Cum. % Total % of

Variance

Cum. %

1 13.481 44.936 44.936 13.481 44.936 44.936 8.349 27.831 27.831

2 3.832 12.775 57.710 3.832 12.775 57.710 5.081 16.936 44.767

3 1.770 5.901 63.611 1.770 5.901 63.611 5.047 16.822 61.589

4 1.428 4.760 68.371 1.428 4.760 68.371 2.035 6.782 68.371

5 .955 3.182 71.553

6 .900 2.999 74.552

7 .756 2.521 77.074

8 .732 2.440 79.514

9 .616 2.054 81.568

10 .560 1.865 83.434

11 .491 1.638 85.071

12 .445 1.482 86.554

13 .407 1.358 87.912

14 .384 1.279 89.191

15 .372 1.241 90.432

16 .342 1.140 91.572

17 .318 1.062 92.634

18 .305 1.018 93.652

19 .272 .907 94.560

20 .247 .824 95.384

21 .241 .803 96.187

22 .201 .670 96.857

23 .192 .639 97.496

24 .165 .549 98.045

25 .146 .485 98.530

26 .121 .404 98.934

27 .116 .386 99.320

28 .096 .319 99.639

29 .067 .223 99.862

30 .041 .138 100.000

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Table 6 of communalities shows how much of the variance in the variables has been

accounted for by the extracted factors.



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Table 6: Communalities Sr. Item Extraction

1 FLMs at the DISCOM’s office in your area understand your needs and expectations. .602

2 FLMs adequately advise you on your electrical installation and any shortcomings in that. .635

3 FLMs adequately educate you on the safety issues related to your installation. .686

4 FLMs adequately advise you on energy efficiency measures in your installations. .753

5 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the different categories and slabs of electricity tariffs in-

force. .624

6 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the responsibilities of electricity customers. .831

7 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the penalties for indulging in theft of electricity. .561

8 FLMs adequately educate you on the disadvantages of having low power factor in your installation .612

9 FLMs adequately educate you on the disadvantages of having unbalanced load in your installation .636

10 FLMs adequately educate you on the benefits of using energy efficient appliances in your installation. .727

11 FLMs educate you on the role of Bureau of Energy Efficiency and other Government’s initiatives to

help customers. .663

12 FLMs reflect creativity in their work in understanding and resolving customers’ problems. .702

13 FLMs are equally commercial in their approach as they are technical at work. .641

14 FLMs are capable of positively influencing you to be a loyal and responsible customer of DISCOM. .734

15 FLMs have unbiased approach towards customers and show genuine interest in them. .684

16 FLMs track your pending grievances / issues and follow up enough to address them. .723

17 FLMs put effort to improve the lethargic attitude of their staff to ensure quality services to you. .698

18 FLMs are putting enough efforts to reduce supply outage in their area. .700

19 FLMs are putting enough efforts to increase DISCOM’s revenue. .387

20 Good communication and public relations skills are mandatory to perform FLMs’ job at DISCOMs. .677

21 FLMs are cost conscious enough in their work and providing services to customers. .643

22 FLMs possess enough skills to promptly resolve your services and bills related grievances. .790

23 FLMs demonstrate trust and empathy in listening to your facts and understand feelings. .742

24 FLMs are adequately motivated and professional to make DISCOM progress and serve you better. .757

25 FLMs are capable enough to identify customers’ issues and conclude as much as possible from

information available. .743

26 FLMs are capable to develop deep collaborative relations between DISCOM and customers to create

win-win situation. .532

27 FLMs are thorough and precise in approaching DISCOM’s work and their personal activities? .717

28 FLMs try to build DISCOM a customer friendly company with good image in general public. .729

29 FLMs are sensitive in dealing with you and refrain from any kind of unpleasing behaviour. .790

30 FLMs have team spirit and fellowship at their workplace to serve you better. .788

As seen in the Table 6, Most of them are greater than 5 confirming that variance in the

variables have been largely accounted for by extracted factors. It further suggested that the data set is

appropriate (Stewart 1981). For instance over 83% of the variance in customers’ perception on FLMs

capabilities to adequately advise and educate them on the responsibilities of electricity customers is

accounted for while 38% of the variance in FLMs enough efforts to increase DISCOM’s revenue is

accounted for. The only variable with extraction value 0.387 (below 0.5) is inappropriate and

therefore rejected.

Rotated Component (Factor) Matrix was carried out. The idea of rotation is to reduce the

number factors on which the variables under investigations have high loading. Rotation does not

actually change anything but makes the interpretation of the analysis easier. The rotation of factors

converged in 6 iterations. As apparent from Table 7, eight variables are loaded on Educating

Customers, 11 variables are loaded on Customer Services, 8 variables are loaded on Management

Skills and only two variables are loaded on Commercial approach.

One variable – “frontline managers are putting enough effort to increase DISCOMs’ revenue”

has been suppressed since its loading was less than 5. Except this particular variable, all 29 variables

under the four components were further analyzed.



20

Table 7: Rotated Component Matrix

Sr. Variable / Attribute Component

1 Customer

Services

2 Mgmt.

skills

3 Educating

Customers

4 Comm.

Approach

1 FLMs at the DISCOM’s office in your area understand your needs and

expectations. .763

2 FLMs adequately advise you on your electrical installation and any

shortcomings in that. .780

3 FLMs adequately educate you on the safety issues related to your

installation. .800

4 FLMs adequately advise you on energy efficiency measures in your

installations. .835

5 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on different categories and slabs

of electricity tariffs in-force. .766

6 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the responsibilities of

electricity customers. .896

7 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on the penalties for indulging in

theft of electricity. .536

8 FLMs adequately educate you on the disadvantages of having low power

factor in your installation .651

9 FLMs adequately educate you on the disadvantages of having unbalanced

load in your installation .671

10 FLMs adequately educate you on the benefits of using energy efficient

appliances in your installation. .689

11 FLMs explain the role of Bureau of Energy Efficiency and other

Government’s initiatives to help customers. .582

12 FLMs reflect creativity in their work in understanding and resolving

customers’ problems. .618

13 FLMs are equally commercial in their approach as they are technical at

work. .603

14 FLMs are capable of positively influencing you to be a loyal and

responsible customer of DISCOM. .756

15 FLMs have unbiased approach towards customers and show genuine

interest in them. .739

16 FLMs track your pending grievances / issues and follow up enough to

address them. .784

17 FLMs put effort to improve the lethargic attitude of their staff to ensure

quality services to you. .762

18 FLMs are putting enough efforts to reduce supply outage in their area. .614 .528

19 FLMs are putting enough efforts to increase DISCOM’s revenue.

20 Good communication and public relations skills are mandatory to perform

FLMs’ job at DISCOMs. .816

21 FLMs are cost conscious enough in their work and providing services to

customers. .688

22 FLMs possess enough skills to promptly resolve your services and bills

related grievances. .880

23 FLMs demonstrate trust and empathy in listening to your facts and

understand feelings. .636

24 FLMs are adequately motivated and professional to make DISCOM

progress and serve you better. .799

25 FLMs are capable enough to identify customers’ issues and conclude as

much as possible from info available. .809

26 FLMs are capable to develop deep collaborative relations between

DISCOM and customers. .509

27 FLMs are thorough and precise in approaching DISCOM’s work and their

personal activities .514 .534

28 FLMs try to build DISCOM a customer friendly company with good image

in general public. .509 .532

29 FLMs are sensitive in dealing with you and refrain from any kind of

unpleasing behaviour. .807

30 FLMs have team spirit and fellowship at their workplace to serve you

better. .681

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations.



21

7. INTERPRETATION

The results obtained clearly show that 4 major factors (Customer Services, Management

Skills, Educating Customers, and Commercial Approach) have been extracted out of the total 30

factors as shown in Table 8.

The factors having the Eigen value greater than 1 are considered together as 1 factor. After

analyzing the various factors, from Table 8 it can be easily depicted that these 4 factors contribute

68.371% of the total variables as 68.371% of the total variance is related to these factors.

Table 8: Major factors covering 30 attributes

Sr. Factor Attribute(s)

1 Customer

Services

1 FLMs adequately educate on disadvantages of unbalanced load.

2 FLMs adequately educate on benefits of using energy efficient appliances

3 FLMs reflect creativity in understanding & resolving customers’ problem

4 FLMs are equally commercial in their approach as they are technical.

5 FLMs are capable of positively influencing customers to be loyal and responsible.

6 FLMs have unbiased approach and show genuine interest in customers.

7 FLMs track pending grievances / issues and follow up enough to address.

8 FLMs are cost conscious enough in work and providing services.

9 FLMs possess enough skills to resolve services & bills related grievances

10 FLMs are capable to identify customers’ issues and conclude info.

11 FLMs are sensitive in dealing and refrain from unpleasing behaviour.

2 Management

Skills

1 FLMs explain role of Bureau of Energy Efficiency and other Government’s initiatives to help

customers.

2 FLMs improve staff’s lethargic attitude to ensure quality services.

3 FLMs are putting enough efforts to reduce supply outage in their area.

4 FLMs demonstrate trust & empathy in listening facts, understand feelings

5 FLMs are adequately motivated and professional to progress DISCOM.

6 FLMs are capable to develop collaborative relations between DISCOM.

7 FLMs try to build DISCOM customer friendly company with good image

8 FLMs have team spirit and fellowship at their workplace to serve better.

3 Educating

Customers

1 FLMs at nearest DISCOM’s office understand your needs & expectation

2 FLMs adequately advise on electrical installation and any shortcomings.

3 FLMs adequately educate you on safety issues of your installation.

4 FLMs adequately advise on energy efficiency measures in installations.

5 FLMs adequately advise and educate on categories and slabs of tariffs.

6 FLMs adequately advise and educate on customers’ responsibilities.

7 FLMs adequately advise and educate you on penalties for theft.

8 FLMs adequately educate you on the disadvantages of low power factor.

4 Commercial

Approach

1 Good communication and PR skills are mandatory to perform FLMs’ job.

2 FLMs are thorough and precise in approaching DISCOM’s work and personal work

In order to determine the relative importance of the 4 extracted factors, they were subjected to

regression analysis. For this Parsuraman, Zeithaml and Berry’s (1988) approach was followed in

which the customers’ overall score on training requirements of DISCOMs’ frontline managers was

considered as dependent variable and means of the 4 extracted factors were considered as

independent variables (multiple regression).

Table 9: Regression Analysis results for importance of extracted factors

Model Unstandardized

Coefficients

Standardized

Coefficients

t Sig. Order of

importance

(As per Beta

values)

B Std. Error Beta

1

(Constant) 5.170 .192 26.899 .000

Customer Services -.130 .063 -.162 -2.086 .037 1

Management Skills -.060 .074 -.062 -.808 .420 3

Educating Customers -.131 .053 -.114 -2.480 .013 2

Commercial Approach -.001 .041 -.001 -.031 .976 4

a. Dependent Variable: Customers believe that FLM need further training



22

Thus the average score of the different factors was regressed on the overall customers’

perception score of FLM’s training needs (included in Section A). The beta coefficients provided the

relative importance of factors. The factor with highest beta coefficient is considered to have the

maximum influence on customers’ perception on FLM’s training needs while the one with the

second highest beta coefficient stands second in terms of relative significance and so on. The results

of multiple regression analysis are summarized in the Table 9. The results in the Table 9 can be

expressed in the form of the regression equation:

CP = 5.17 – 0.162(CS) – 0.062 (MS) – 0.114 (EC) +.001 (CA) The above equation shows that Customer Services outweigh other areas for training

requirement of frontline managers’ training. Training on Commercial Approach is the last in order of

importance at the same time is statistically insignificant. Strangely enough, the results of regression

show all factors are slight negatively correlated with customers’ perception on training needs of

frontline managers, which probably would be the consequence of a large number of variables.

8. DISCUSSION AND COMPARISON WITH RESULTS OF SIMILAR STUDIES

Reform in power sector, just being a decade old have reflected an immense need of

reorientation of work practices at the power companies. With the rapid changes in the power sector

and increasing customers’ need, updating of skills and competencies of DISCOMs’ frontline

managers becomes a key concern. Authors had anticipated from customers of all categories are likely

to opine that their electricity consumption and expectations from power distribution companies has

gone up in the recent years. The results of the study are quite up to their anticipation.

The results of the study support one of the objectives of Ministry of Power and also match

with the results of many similar studies.

The results of this study are very much in line with those of pManifold’s study (2011) on

Satisfaction & Preferences of Electricity Consumers carried out in the same regions. Most

respondents (over 80%) from across different categories of customers including residential,

commercial, agriculture and industrial expressed their dissatisfaction on power quality & reliability,

customer service, meter, billing & payment and communication etc. Respondents gave most

importance to Customer Service, Power, Quality & Reliability and Company Image. The results of

this study are very much in line with those of pManifold’s study.

A study on “Importance of mutual relations on customer satisfaction in industries with no /

low direct contact with customers” (Ardabili, Daryani, Molaie, Rasooli and Kheiravar 2012)

revealed that creation of mutual relations between customers and electricity distribution company

could be of high prominence. Customers’ strong agreement on possessing good communication and

public relations skills as the most required skill to perform frontline managers’ job at DISCOMs

revealed in this study concurs with the findings of the above study.

A survey conducted by Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA) in

Maharashtra State included as many as 5 similar attributes its questionnaire. The views of customers

in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh about DISCOMs’ frontline managers on educating them on

different categories and slabs of electricity tariffs in-force, understanding and resolving their

problems, tracking their pending grievances, reduce supply outage in their area, and promptly

resolving their services and bills related grievances collected in this study are alike with the views of

electricity customers in the above survey.

Such studies can help DISCOMs’ management in setting benchmarks for innovation, passion

towards learning, team player, and other soft skills while recruiting frontline managers. Frontline

managers being the key position holders should be able to work in line with DISCOMs’ values.

Apart from recruiting frontline manpower with the required technical base, the management need to

ensure that they must also have desire to learn and fit with DISCOMs’ values. A good balance

between technical skills and soft skills should be gauged at the recruiting stage itself. Management



23

can also explore possibilities of learning and developing skills in their frontline managers through

external resources as well as neighbouring DISCOMs.

9. CONCLUSIONS

This study gives an idea about how electricity customers perceives the performance level and

training requirements of frontline managers (Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers) at the lately

formed power distribution companies. The study revealed that electricity customers expect

DISCOMs’ frontline managers to possess high customer care skills in addition to expertise in

technical and commercial areas. The customers believe that frontline managers need to be trained on

customer care and educating users on energy conservation, safety, and efficient usage of energy.

They should also keep customers’ informed of Government’s various initiatives for the benefit of

customers.

The performance of the frontline managers is subject to several variables both intrinsic and

extrinsic. Ensuring a conducive, cordial, and harmonious work environment to the frontline

managers contributes positively to their individual performance and virtually the overall

organizational performance and business results.

The study indicated that training requirement of DISCOMs’ frontline managers in Customer

Services outweigh other areas followed by training them in educating customers on different issues

related to their installation, consumption, safety, and billing. Training frontline managers in

management skills and developing commercial approach are also important areas for training them.

The results of the study are as good as the results of a simple gap analysis at frontline management

level. It gives an idea of customers’ perception on the current skill level of DISCOMs’ frontline

management, especially what functions do they need to perform that they are currently not able to

do.

The results of the study contribute to the DISCOMs’ policy makers in considering what key

values their frontline managers should portray, who all are now customers, how should they act and

respond to stake holders in-particular customers, what work ethics and habits are important, and what

key competencies do they want to see in their frontline management. A sound mixture of theory and

practical training will effectively develop their skill level.

The results obtained also helps in studying the dimensions of the redesigned jobs and the

anticipated competencies of frontline managers at the lately formed power distribution companies.

The study gives valuable information to the policy makers, management, and human resources wing

of the DISCOMs to review their policies in the light of the results obtained in this study. The results

of the study further contributes to the academics by giving supporting information on customers’

perception in the ongoing scenario on as many as 30 different attributes to further the research on

understanding what additional variables may also exist and how they can be remedied.

The results of the study confirm that various skills and attributes of the frontline managers

impact customer services at the power distribution companies. DISCOMs should therefore strive to

nurture and develop a suitable scenario in order to foster the performance of their frontline mangers

which will eventually become a source of companies’ improved customer services. Better

performance of their frontline managers will eventually result in improved customer satisfaction.

10. LIMITATIONS OF STUDY AND SCOPE FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The major limitation of the study was the inability to cover customers from a bigger

geographical area to ensure an equal representation of different categories. Secondly, non many

published researches in the field were available. Reforms in power sector being a recent

phenomenon, not much research is done on customers’ perception on frontline managers’

performance.



24

Another limitation was that the data were collected from only two states in central India,

which could have been collected from more respondents in a wider area with cross cultural

extensions. A more elaborate study in a larger geographical region cross culturally on the subject will

definitely broaden the scope of improving the overall skill sets of frontline managers. The present

study in this direction necessitates a further detailed research on the theme. These responses

collected in this study itself can be of valuable importance for DISCOMs’ policy makers to train and

upgrade different skills of their frontline managers. Similar studies on customers’ perception about

DISCOMs may help in giving a more accurate picture.

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10320140502002

Technology

show genuine interest

human resource management

increase discoms revenue

bills related grievances

energy efficient appliances

demand side management

principal component analysis

indian power sector