Reinserting the professional into the study of globalizing professional service firms: the case of law

Abstract In discussions of the globalization of professional service firms there is an increasing recognition that understanding the ‘social construction’ of organizational architectures is essential. In this article we argue, using the management of transnational law firms as an example, that to understand effectively these social constructions we must reincorporate an understanding of the principles of professionalism into discussions. We highlight the importance of occupational autonomy to professionals and how this is likely to influence the strategies that global professional service firms use. We also point to what we term the ‘varieties of professionalism’ and the spatially variable professional projects that underlie the values and identities of lawyers. This reveals the way rational and efficient forms of organizing have to be adapted as a result of professional values and the diverse ideals and beliefs of lawyers in different international jurisdictions.     

HOW PROFESSORS OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT VIEW SERVICE OPERATIONS?

This study empirically tests assumptions that underlie operations management (OM) scholars' belief that service operations should be managed differently. Respondents were self-classified into manufacturing and service types. There is a significant statistical difference between the views held by each group with regard to statements such as “service Om should be taught as a separate course” and “service operations should be managed differently from manufacturing.” There was general consensus on the service research agenda with the exception of three research areas: time standards, technology, and productivity. The survey also revealed that customer influence has the greatest impact on service Om strategies and decisions.     

GREENING THE SERVICE PROFIT CHAIN: THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

This paper explores the relationship between environmental practices and performance in services and the impact of such practices on the external portion of the service profit chain. Using structural equation modeling, it tests the hypotheses developed with data from the European hospitality industry. The findings suggest that environmental practices are positively related to performance through the mediating effect of enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty. The paper's contributions include: the conceptual development of the relationship between environmental practices and performance in services, the incorporation of environmental practices within the service profit chain, and the testing of their impact on customer satisfaction.     

SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN FOR THE PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE INDUSTRY

This paper describes the changes that are forcing property and casualty insurance firms to rethink their service system design and in particular their distribution strategies. A set of questions related to distribution that are uppermost in the minds of executives in this industry are presented along with a literature survey of models that can be used to answer some of these questions. Based on the survey, a normative framework for designing the distribution system is proposed. Qualitative and quantitative analysis based on the proposed framework is presented along with empirical data to demonstrate the usefulness of the framework. The paper concludes with an agenda for further research.     

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT: AN EXAMINATION OF SERVICE STRATEGY IN A HIGH‐CONTACT SERVICE ENVIRONMENT

A critical component of service strategy in high‐contact environments is service encounter management. Effective service encounters are a result of the quality of employee development, including systems for work and job design, training and development, and attention to employee well being. Results of empirical analysis indicate that service strategies reflecting the dimensions of employee development drive employee outcomes such as productivity and satisfaction. Employee outcomes are significantly associated with customer satisfaction, but only some linkages to financial performance are significant. This study illustrates the importance of employee development in service strategy design for managing service encounters in high contact service environments.     

THE BENEFITS OF OPTIMIZING PRICES TO MANAGE DEMAND IN HOTEL REVENUE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

We investigate the revenue impact of a new Price Setting Method (PSM) and compare it with the industry standard Bid Price Method (BPM). This comparison is performed via a simulation that was validated by a major hotel chain. In 27 out of the 32 cases, the PSM outperformed the BPM based on statistically significant tests. The PSM produces an average revenue increase of 34%, which can be thought of as an upper bound on the realistic revenue increase.     

SCHEDULING FLEXIBILITY IN THE SERVICE SECTOR: A POSTAL CASE STUDY

This is a case study of workforce scheduling in the U.S. postal system. We use it to analyze the benefits of scheduling flexibility at postal distribution systems, which can come from several sources. We focus on the additional flexibility deriving from increasing the proportion of part-time employees, as well as from increasing the cross-training of part-time employees. These two dimensions of scheduling flexibility are decision points of particular interest to the postal management. We used a large-scale simulation model of the dynamic functioning of the postal distribution system in conjunction with a staff-scheduling model to obtain insights into policy issues of interest. Our results show that the operating environment at a distribution station affects cost and customer service performance, and that gains from greater scheduling flexibility are situationally dependent. The benefit of cross-training part-time workers is modest over the range of levels considered realistic for distribution stations. Our overall recommendation is for postal managers to increase the proportion of part-time employees, allowing more efficient matching of resources with the varying demands for mail delivery on different routes. For the range of conditions we modeled, cost reductions from more part-time workers average over six percent when capacity utilization is low. Customer service improvements are even larger, and range between 20 and 43% when capacity utilization is high. Improvements at the upper end of the range are achieved when demand variability is also at its highest.     

New insights in reproducing transnational corporate elites: the labour market intermediation of executive search in the pursuit of global talent in Singapore

In this article, I provide new theoretical and empirical insights into the reproduction of transnational corporate elites through the process of people moving between firms’ internal labour markets rather than from expatriation. Theoretically, the article advances understandings of the reproduction of transnational corporate elites by drawing on a pioneering engagement with global talent, transnational elites and labour market intermediary discourses. I generate these new theoretical insights through an original case study of how global executive search firms in Singapore create pipelines for the recruitment of transnational corporate elites between firms’ internal labour markets. The findings also highlight the vital role of Singapore's neoliberal labour market practices, as well as its foreign talent programme to ‘win the war for talent'. By situating this research on the agency of executive search in reproducing Singapore's transnational corporate elite, the article's key contribution is to decentre North American and Western perspectives on the reproduction of knowledge on transnational corporate elites.     

AMPLIFICATION IN SERVICE SUPPLY CHAINS: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY FROM THE TELECOM INDUSTRY

Evidence on the impact of amplification effects on supply chain performance primarily has been derived from studies in manufacturing industries. In this article we reported on a case study from the telecommunication industry and aimed to analyze relevant root causes and associated countermeasures of the amplification phenomenon in service supply chains. Our case findings confirm the occurrence of upstream amplification of workload in the service supply chain, workload being a more appropriate measure for amplification effects in service supply chains than inventory levels. Not all of the root causes for amplification effects known from research in manufacturing environments were found to apply in this particular service context, especially those related to the use of inventory. In addition, our telecom case study highlighted a new root cause for amplification: interactions of high workloads and reduced process quality that start reinforcing each other once workloads pass a certain threshold. In this particular case, many of the known countermeasures to eliminate amplification did not apply, because of the specific characteristics of the service process, or yielded only limited results. A potentially very powerful countermeasure identified was to implement quality improvements throughout the service chain. This quality dimension links our research to the literature on service management in general, where service quality is on top of the research agenda.     

A MARKET UTILITY‐BASED MODEL FOR CAPACITY SCHEDULING IN MASS SERVICES

Only a small set of employee scheduling articles have considered an objective of profit or contribution maximization, as opposed to the traditional objective of cost (including opportunity costs) minimization. In this article, we present one such formulation that is a market utility‐based model for planning and scheduling in mass services (MUMS). MUMS is a holistic approach to market‐based service capacity scheduling. The MUMS framework provides the structure for modeling the consequences of aligning competitive priorities and service attributes with an element of the firm's service infrastructure. We developed a new linear programming formulation for the shift‐scheduling problem that uses market share information generated by customer preferences for service attributes. The shift‐scheduling formulation within the framework of MUMS provides a business‐level model that predicts the economic impact of the employee schedule. We illustrated the shift‐scheduling model with empirical data, and then compared its results with models using service standard and productivity standard approaches. The result of the empirical analysis provides further justification for the development of the market‐based approach. Last, we discuss implications of this methodology for future research.