Course ID: | EMBA 7750. 3 hours. |
Course Title: | Service Operations Management |
Course Description: | An exploration of best practices in the service sector by
analysis of leading-edge firms and the strategies they employ to
create and maintain competitive advantage. Emphasis is placed on
the close coordination of marketing and operations in the design
and implementation of service delivery processes. |
Oasis Title: | SERVICE OPS MGT |
Duplicate Credit: | Not open to students with credit in EMBA 8750 |
Semester Course Offered: | Offered spring semester every year. |
Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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Course Objectives: | This course aims to develop a better understanding of best
practices in the service sector, and to provide leading-edge
examples of innovative firms and the strategies they have
employed to create and maintain competitive advantage. By
studying "breakthrough" service firms, students can understand
how these enterprises use information technology and
globalization to reinvent the nature of the service itself,
with alternative delivery systems, new and creative ways of
meeting customer needs, and operating strategies that seemingly
defy geographic logic.
The specific objectives of this course include the following:
(1) To highlight those elements of management of particular
importance to service-producing as opposed to goods-producing
organizations, including (i) the close coordination of
marketing and operations in the design and implementation of
service delivery processes in which the same person may produce
and sell the service, (ii) the development of human and
technical
skills among employees, and the selection, training, and
motivation of people who represent the most important
point of contact between the organization and the customer,
(iii) the challenge of managing a geographically diverse,
multi-site operation, (iv) the role of technology, in particular
information technology, in changing the nature of the service
delivered and/or the way in which the service is delivered,
and (v) the management of capacity and quality in situations
where a service is created and consumed simultaneously.
(2) To encourage analytical thinking about services, and develop
practical conceptual and empirical tools that can be used to
enhance the performance of service-producing organizations.
(3) To foster an active, constructively critical posture as
customers of services, with the objective of motivating service
providers to improve service quality. |
Topical Outline: | 1. Introduction
2. Developing a Strategic Service Vision
3. The Economics of Customer Loyalty
4. Mobilizing Human Resources
5. The Service Profit Chain
6. Service Mapping and Capacity Analysis
7. Leveraging Information Technology in Services
8. The Globalization of Services
9. Service Quality
10. Recovering from Service Failures
11. Service Guarantees
12. Reinventing Service Businesses
13. Achieving Breakthrough Service |
Honor Code Reference: | Students are expected to adhere strictly to the University Honor
and Academic Honesty Policy, and to follow generally accepted
standards of honesty in all assignments and examinations. |