Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Services Sciences

 

Special Issue on: "Systems Thinking in Service Organisations"

Guest Editors: John Seddon and Keivan Zokaei, Cardiff University, UK

Despite the importance of service operations management, this field has received sparse attention in the academic literature. Much of the literature makes no distinction between manufacturing and service. Arguably, little progress has been made since Ted Levitt wrote his seminal Harvard Business Review article, “Production line approach to service”, in 1972. The objective of this special issue is to enhance the academic understanding of service management concepts (systems thinking) and applications (service design).

The Toyota Production System is just that – a system; a system designed to produce cars at the rate of demand. Taiichi Ohno (its originator) realised a number of counter-intuitive truths, ideas that challenged conventional management wisdom. When service organisations are studied as systems, they reveal similar counter-intuitive phenomena.

The aims of this special issue are to:

• make distinctions between service and manufacturing organisations;
• illustrate the counter-intuitive truths revealed by studying service organisations as systems;
• use case studies to illustrate how organisations have been re-designed using systems principles, having strong impact on performance and morale; and
• to review the implications for leadership and leadership / organisation change literature.

The editors invite papers from practitioners and management theorists working in this area. The special issue will be aimed at practitioners and academics working in and/or researching service organisations.

Subject Coverage
Topics include, but are not limited to:

• The "Toyota Production System" as a system - how generalisable are the ideas and practices?
• Service organisations as systems - challenges to management conventions
• Case studies: private-sector service organisations
• Case studies: public-sector service organisations
• Services marketing: getting knowledge about customer acquisition
• Leadership and systems thinking, literature review
• Leadership and systems thinking, experiences and reflections of senior managers as leaders employing systems principles
• Change and intervention method(s): a discussion and review of the literature on change associated with 'lean' (the application of tools derived from the Toyota Production System)
• Some principles for intervention theory and methods (following Argyris)

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page

Important Dates

Deadline for submission: 15 July, 2009

Notification of acceptance/revision: 15 September, 2009

Final resubmission deadline: 15 November, 2009