Postgraduate Course: Introduction to Service Management and Design (fusion online) (EFIE11401)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | *Programme Core Course: Service Management and Design (MSc/PGD/PGC)*
Please Note:
This course is only available to students enrolled on the Service Management and Design (MSc/PGD/PGC) degree.
This core course introduces students to fundamental theories and concepts of Service Management, alongside the practical methods and approaches to Service Design. Students will have the opportunity to apply these theories and methods to real-world contexts, and develop an understanding of how these two disciplines work together. The course will provide a foundation for subsequent core and elective courses on the programme, and embed an interdisciplinary approach throughout. |
| Course description |
This core course examines the nature of contemporary services, how they are managed, and how they can be designed, improved and transformed.
The course will explore key concepts and challenges of service management, in commercial and public sectors, the relational nature of services across key stakeholders, and the fundamental roles played by service users themselves. This will be interwoven with an understanding of the practice of Service Design, and the ever-growing toolkit of service design methods, as they are applied to support the design, co-creation and use of valued human-centred services.
Pre-intensive teaching and study will provide students with a solid grounding in core concepts and theories of Service Management including co-production, Service Logic and an introduction to 'value' and 'value creation'. This will be taught alongside the origins of Service Design as a discipline, and core tenets of human-centred design, and design thinking. Through the intensive days, the course will move into understanding how these concepts can be studied and applied in real-world contexts. A range of core service design methods will be introduced as means to critically examine services, frame problems and identify opportunities to improve or develop new services. Students will then consider approaches to subsequently develop, deliver and manage these services, and the varied roles of service managers and designers throughout this process.
From Week 2 of the course, students will begin working together in groups to critically examine, evaluate, and propose improvements or transformation in a specific service context. Between this group work, will be a range of lecture content, synchronous and asynchronous class discussions and further supplementary group activities.
This course will be taught following best practices for EFI Fusion delivery, ensuring both online and on-campus students can study and learn together throughout the course, through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous teaching activities.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed. There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, 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:
200
(
Lecture Hours 4,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 16,
Online Activities 4,
Formative Assessment Hours 3,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
169 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The assessment is in two related parts: a group assessment based on documenting and reflecting upon service design activities undertaken throughout the course, followed by a critical individual reflective essay.
1) Group Slide Deck (25%)
Working in a group students will use service design methods to undertake a discovery process in relation to a specific service context. These methods will be combined to A) describe and analyse how a specific service currently works, and then B) to identify opportunities for service improvement and/or transformation, through problem framing and ideation approaches.
Students will be asked to produce a slide deck (up to 25 pages) which documents the methods chosen and used, and illustrates key learnings about the service studied.
2) 2000-2500 Word Individual Essay (75%)
Following a more detailed brief released to students during the intensive days, the individual assignment will ask students to reflect on the potential implications of a service change, primarily from a service management perspective. The response will include: identifying and critically evaluating the intended value contribution of the service to user lives, the key resources that are integrated to deliver the service and the implications for service delivery. |
| Feedback |
Feedback on the formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Students will receive feedback at various points during the course:
- During intensive days as work towards assessment is developed (formative feedback).
- Through a presentation of group work (formative feedback).
- Ahead of submission of their final individual essay during the post-intensive (formative feedback).
- By written feedback on their individual reflective essay, and their group work (summative feedback). |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically understand and be able to explain the key concepts of service management theory, and how this underpins Service Design as a discipline.
- Critically examine and apply service management theory and service design approaches within practical service contexts.
- Demonstrate an ability to apply service design methods to address service improvement and transformation in context of emerging contemporary social, economic and data-driven challenges.
- Develop an understanding of the links between service management and design, exploring the interaction of the roles of Service Managers and Designers in practice.
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Reading List
Essential Reading:
This Is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World: A Practitioners Handbook. Marc Stickdorn, Markus Edgar Hormess, Adam Lawrence, Jakob Schneider, O'Reilly Media, 2016.
Mapping Experiences. James Kalbach, 2012. O'Reilly Media.
Good Services. Lou Downe. BIS Publishers.
The Scottish Approach to Service Design. Scottish Government. (Digital Directorate) https://www.gov.scot/publications/the-scottish-approach-to-service-design/
Gronroos, C. (2015) Service management and marketing: managing the service profit logic / Christian Gronroos. Fourth edition. Chichester, West Sussex, Wiley.
Grönroos, C. & Voima, P. (2012) Critical service logic: making sense of value creation and co-creation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 41 (2), 133-150. Doi:10.1007/s11747-012-0308-3.
Osborne, S.P. (2020) Public service logic creating value for public service users, citizens, and society through public service delivery / Stephen P. Osborne. Abingdon, Oxon;, Routledge.
Johnston, R., Shulver, M., Slack, N. & Clark, G. (2020) Service Operations Management: Improving Service Delivery. Harlow, Pearson Education, Limited.
Recommended Reading:
G. Lynn Shostack. (1984). Designing Services That Deliver. Harvard Business Review, 62(1), 133-139. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=3921582&site=ehost-live
Beyond Net Zero: A Systemic Design Approach. Design Council. 2021. https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-resources/systemic-design-framework/
Sasha Costanza-Chock. 2020. Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds we Need. MIT Press.
An introduction to service design [electronic resource]: des[i]gn[i]ng the [i]nv[i]s[i]ble /. (2018). Bloomsbury Visual Arts,.
Further Reading:
Stickdorn, M., & Schneider, J. (Eds.). (2012). This is service design thinking: basics-tools-cases (1st ed..). BIS Publishers.
Norman, D. A. (2013). The design of everyday things (Revised and expanded edition..). Basic Books.
Keating, B.W., McColl-Kennedy, J.R. and Solnet, D. (2018), 'Theorizing Beyond the Horizon: Service Research in 2050,' Journal of Service Management, 29 (5)
Petrescu, M. (2019) 'From marketing to public value: towards a theory of public service ecosystems', Public Management Review, 21(11)
Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. (2016) Institutions and axioms: an extension and update of service-dominant logic, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44
I Hodgkinson, C Hannibal, B Keating, R Chester Buxton, & N Bateman (2016) Toward a public service management: past, present, and future directions Journal of Service Management (28, 5)
Russell Belk (2020) Ethical issues in service robotics and artificial intelligence, The Service Industries Journal, DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2020.1727892 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Mindset:
Enquiry and Lifelong Learning:
- This course will provide students with a curiosity and interest into how and why services they interact with every day are designed and managed.
Outlook and Engagement:
- A core tenet of this course is to encourage a 'service mindset': recognising the essential role of end-user in creating value from a service, and the 'service dominant' nature of contemporary society.
Aspiration and Personal Development:
- The course will provide fundamental understanding of the roles and practices of service managers and designers.
Skills:
Research and Enquiry:
- This course will equip students with core understanding of design thinking, and service design methods which in particular support problem framing, and ideation.
Personal and Intellectual Autonomy:
- The course provides students with core theoretical and analytical tools service management and design to exercise personal and intellectual autonomy.
Communication:
- The course requires group work and presentation of a group project, an opportunity to develop strong communication skills (especially visual communication). Students will also learn service design methods and approaches for engaging with diverse stakeholders and end-users. |
| Keywords | Service Management,Service Design,Design Methods,Service Logic,Value Creation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Chris Elsden
Tel:
Email: chris.elsden@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr David Murphy
Tel:
Email: dmurphy7@ed.ac.uk |
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