Organizational Level Service Technologies Changing focus from production to service 15

Differences Between Service & Manufacturing Technologies Tangible product Intangible Inventory No inventory Capital asset intense Lab/Knowledge intense Little direct customer involvement Much more HR less important Most important Quality measured directly Perceived Long response time Short Site mod important Site extremely important

Differences Between Service & Manufacturing Technologies Examples: SERVICE: airlines, hotels, consultants, health care, law firms PRODUCT & SERVICE: fast-food outlets, cosmetics, real estate, stockbrokers, retail stores PRODUCT: soft drink companies, steel companies, automobiles, mining, food processing plants

Designing Service Organizations Structure Service Product Boundary spanners Few Many Decision making Decentralized Centralized Formalization Lower Higher Employee skills High Skill emphasis Inter personal Technical

Departmental Technology Departments often have characteristics similar to service technology, providing services to other departments within the organization. Each department has its production process that consists of a distinct technology Framework used on the understanding of departmental technologies was developed by Charles Perrow.

Framework Uses Two Elements: Variety: Analyzability: Task variety, frequency of unexpected and novel events that occur in the conversion process, if they are high Variety is high Analyzability: When the process is analyzable, the work can be reduced to mechanical steps and participants can follow a set pattern to solve problems. The reference for solutions is SOPs, manuals, text books, etc. Not so if the problem has low analyzability Here the reference for solution is much less explicit and lies in implicit or tacit transfer of knowledge which is built through accumulated experiences.

Framework VARIETY To what extent would you say your work is routine? Do most of the times people solve the problem/issue the same way? Are members performing repetitive activities in doing their jobs? ANALYZABILITY To what extent is there a clearly known way to do the major types of work you normally encounter? To what extent is there an understandable sequence of steps that can be followed in doing your work? To do your work, to what can you actually rely on established procedures and practices?