Abstract
The management of public sector service operations has gained much attention in the scientific literature during the last fifteen years. As in the industrial world, also in the service world, different types of processes exist, requiring different kind of tools and improvement actions. A group of challenging service processes are the so called ‘fluid service processes’ that are considered as uncontrollable, peopledominated, diagnosis-focused, and the traditional process improvement tools do not seem to work in them. The focus of the study is inter-organisational cooperation in fluid service process delivery. The specific focus of the paper is in understanding and reducing the service process lead-time. The study is based on three interconnected action research projects conducted in a Finnish municipality. The results of the study show that the traditional process development approach is not enough when trying to solve process-related problems in the inter-organisational context, such as the lead-time of a service process.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bowen D, Youngdahl W (1998) “Lean” service: In defense of a production-line approach. International Journal of Service Industry Management 9(3):207–225
Cäker M (2008) Intertwined coordination mechanisms in interorganizational relationships with dominated suppliers. Management Accounting Research 19:231–251
Coughlan P, Coghlan D (2002) Action reseach for operations management. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 22(2):220–240
Dekker H (2004) Control of inter-organizational relationships: Evidence on appropriation concerns and coordination requirements. Accounting, Organizations and Society 29(1):27–49
Laing A, Lian P (2005) Inter-organisational relationships in professional services: Towards a typology of inter-organisationalrelationships. Journal of Services Marketing 19(2):114–128
Lundgren A (1992) Coordination and mobilisation processes in industrial networks. In: Yxelsson B, Easton G (eds) Industrial Networks A New View of Reality, Routledge, London
Oliver C (1990) Determinants of interorganizational relationships: Integration and future directions. Academy of management review 15(2):241–265
Ouchi W (1979) A conceptual framework for the design of organizational control mechanisms. Management science 25(9):833–848
Provan K, Sebastian J (1998) Networks within networks: Service link overlap, organizational cliques, and network effectiveness. Academy of Management Journal 41(4):453–463
Wemmerlöv U (1989) A Taxonomy for Service Process and its Implications for System Design. International Journal of Service Industry Management 1(3):20–40
Zuber-Skerrit O, Fletcher M (2007) The quality of an action research thesis in the social sciences. Quality Assurance in Education 15(4):413–436
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer London
About this paper
Cite this paper
Karppinen, H., Huiskonen, J. (2009). Reducing Service Process Lead-Time Through Inter-Organisational Process Coordination. In: Reiner, G. (eds) Rapid Modelling for Increasing Competitiveness. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-748-6_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-748-6_16
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-747-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-748-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)