Title: Managing operations in professional service organisations - identifying roles and tasks of professionals and managers in courts

Authors: Tiina Puolakka; Petra Pekkanen; Timo Pirttilä

Addresses: School of Engineering Science, Lappeenranta University of Technology, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' School of Engineering Science, Lappeenranta University of Technology, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' School of Engineering Science, Lappeenranta University of Technology, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland

Abstract: In professional services there exists a duality in controlling the workflow between professionals and managers who both have partly different perspectives and preferences. The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore what are the roles and tasks of professionals and managers in workflow control and how these two actors interact. The study is executed as a single case study applying grounded theory as a research method. The case organisation is the Insurance Court of Finland, which presents a distinct setting for studying workflow control due to its highly individual-centred nature, which yet has also features of mass services. The findings describe the way workflow control happens in interaction between managers and self-managing professionals. Professionals have great autonomy in workflow control, but it is limited to concern only their own case-handling silos. Managers have several roles in workflow control, which are related in different ways to professionals' self-management.

Keywords: service operations management; professional services; professional service organisations; professional service operations management; PSOM; court of justice; workflow control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2021.115193

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2021 Vol.39 No.1, pp.37 - 61

Received: 25 Sep 2018
Accepted: 04 Jun 2019
Published online: 24 May 2021 *

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