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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2018/2019

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Business School : Common Courses (Management School)

Postgraduate Course: Service Management (CMSE11323)

Course Outline
SchoolBusiness School CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits15 ECTS Credits7.5
SummaryThis course will introduce students to the most important aspects of service management across different industries and economies, following a service-dominant logic of business. Particular attention will be paid to the role of the customer in the service experience, i.e. co-production.
Course description Aims, Nature, Context
Services make up over 70% of the UK economy, with similar trends across the industrialised and developing/emerging nations within the global economy. Amidst rapid technological change, digital services are becoming a key element of modern business and entrepreneurship, and drivers of economic development.

Yet, there are major challenges to, and opportunities for, effective services management: firstly, services are a heavily heterogeneous field, ranging from culture and leisure to hospitality, retail, professional and financial services; while this provides fertile ground for services innovation across sectors, managers have a tendency to over-emphasise differences and 'uniqueness' within their on services areas. Secondly, an orthodox product-dominant modus of management prevails within most organisations and within business education; service-dominant theories, such as co-creation and co-production of value in services, provide managers with the opportunity to differentiate themselves and their organisations.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2018/19, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 150 ( Lecture Hours 20, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4, Formative Assessment Hours 6, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 3, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 117 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Coursework - Individual essay 85% (assessing LOs 1, 3, 4, 5)
Coursework - Personal reflective assignment (journal) 15% (assessing LOs 1, 2, 3)
Feedback Students will receive formative feedback during the ten lectures and four tutorials. Moreover, they will receive oral feedback on their formative essay plans. Students will also receive written feedback on their summative assessments (journals and assignments).
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Understand and critically evaluate the key concepts and ideas of service management and a service-dominant (as opposed to a product-dominant) logic.
  2. Understand the role of the services sector in the economy and the implications of this for the service management process.
  3. Understand how the service process requires a distinct set of managerial skills be able to identify these and to situate them within the service process in the private and public sectors.
  4. Critically evaluate different models and paradigms of service management and their implications both for theory and practice.
  5. Understand and critically evaluate the concept of 'co-production' within service delivery and its implications for service management in the private and public sectors.
Reading List
Christian Grönroos (2015) Service Management and Marketing. Managing the Service-Profit Logic (Wiley)

Jorge Cordoso et al. (eds.) (2015) Fundamentals of Service Systems (Springer) [please note that there is a full e-book version available via the library website.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Cognitive Skills
-Analyse the role of 'services' and their implications within both service-dominant and product-dominant firms and businesses.
-Understand and evaluate the role of co-production within the services process and design of services systems.
-Assess the options for delivering effective service quality as the basis for sound business performance by a service firm in the private or public sector.
-Identify the strengths and weaknesses of a services system within a case study exercise and draw out implications for services management in general.
-Learn of to assess real-time service delivery and generate options for enhancing performance.

Communication, Numeracy and IT Skills
-Present or convey, formally and informally, information about service management to informed audiences.
-Communicate with peers, senior colleagues and specialists on a professional level.
-Use online research resources to support and enhance students' work, in preparation of lectures and tutorials as well as for their assignments.
-Interpret, use and evaluate a wide range of numerical and graphical data to set, manage and achieve service management targets.


Autonomy, Accountability and Working with Others
-Locate and access appropriate sources of information in order to be able to make informed decisions about effective services delivery.
-Work individually and in project teams to analyse case study material and create effective service business scenarios.
-Learn from practitioners in the field through problem-oriented task force work.
-Manage study time individually and in teams during and outside of contact hours.
-Initiate service management innovation in future work settings.
KeywordsMGMT-SM
Contacts
Course organiserMiss Sophie Flemig
Tel: (0131 6)51 1033
Email: Sophie.Flemig@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Rhiannon Pilkington
Tel: (0131 6)50 8072
Email: Rhiannon.Pilkington@ed.ac.uk
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