Postgraduate Course: Service Management (CMSE11323)
Course Outline
| School | Business School | 
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences | 
 
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) | 
Availability | Available to all students | 
 
| SCQF Credits | 15 | 
ECTS Credits | 7.5 | 
 
 
| Summary | This 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. 
 
Student Learning Experience: 
Tutorial/seminar hours represent the minimum total live hours - online or in-person - a student can expect to receive on this course. These hours may be delivered in tutorial/seminar, lecture, workshop or other interactive whole class or small group format. These live hours may be supplemented by pre-recorded lecture material for students to engage with asynchronously.
    
    
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites | 
 | 
Co-requisites |  | 
 
| Prohibited Combinations |  | 
Other requirements |  None | 
 
 
Information for Visiting Students 
| Pre-requisites | None | 
 
		| High Demand Course? | 
		Yes | 
     
 
Course Delivery Information
 |  
| Academic year 2021/22, Not available to visiting students (SS1) 
  
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Quota:  None | 
 
| Course Start | 
Semester 1 | 
 
Timetable  | 
	
Timetable | 
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) | 
 
 Total Hours:
150
(
 Seminar/Tutorial Hours 15,
 Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 3,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
132 )
 | 
 
 
| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) | 
Seminar/Tutorial hrs are the min total live hrs, online or in-person, students can expect to receive
 | 
 
| Assessment (Further Info) | 
 
  Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
 | 
 
 
| Additional Information (Assessment) | 
85% coursework (individual) - assesses course Learning Outcomes 1, 3, 4, 5 
15% coursework (individual) - assesses course Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3 | 
 
| Feedback | 
Formative feedback: 
Students will receive formative feedback during the classes, and on their formative essay plans. | 
 
| No Exam Information | 
 
Learning Outcomes 
    On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
    
        - Understand and critically evaluate the key concepts and ideas of service management and a service-dominant (as opposed to a product-dominant) logic.
 - Understand the role of the services sector in the economy and the implications of this for the service management process.
 - 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.
 - Critically evaluate different models and paradigms of service management and their implications both for theory and practice.
 - Understand and critically evaluate the concept of 'co-production' within service delivery and its implications for service management in the private and public sectors.
 
     
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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)  
 
Resource List: 
https://eu01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/public/44UOE_INST/lists/26181452890002466?auth=SAML |   
 
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. | 
 
| Keywords | MGMT-SM | 
 
 
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Dr Maria Cucciniello 
Tel:  
Email: maria.cucciniello@ed.ac.uk | 
Course secretary | Ms Rhiannon Pilkington 
Tel: (0131 6)50 8072 
Email: Rhiannon.Pilkington@ed.ac.uk | 
   
 
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