C O URSE SY LLA BUS A N D O UT LIN E 1

I SYLLABUS
Course Code | Title:
Semester | Dates:
Lecturer & Contact
Details:
Office Hours:
Total Lecture Hours:
Lecture Groups
Schedules & Locations:
Course Description:

Learning Objectives:

SM 110 | Service Operations Management (3 Credits)

2017 Winter | 01.09.16 28.02.17
Mr. Prof. Dr. Peter GOFFE, p.goffe@iubh.de. Tel.: 02224.960.5228.
Office: Room 1-503. For full, fast answers 24/7 when not in lectures, email your questions to the lecturer. Same-day response guaranteed.
By appointment Monday/Wednesday afternoons, excluding Resit Week.
30 hours plus a 60-minute Semester Examination in February 2017.
Groups A, B and C are separate. See CARE. Schedules and locations are
subject to change. With the lecturers written advance permission, you
may on occasion attend a lecture with a different group from your own.
Service operations management is the planning, organizing, directing
and controlling of all functions designing, resourcing, creating and
performing involved in producing, providing and delivering service
experiences that customers value enough to buy and want to buy
again. The course examines the processes, policies, procedures,
standards, strategies, structures, systems, skills, methods, tools and
techniques service organizations use to plan, prepare, present and
perform superior services efficiently, effectively and sustainably. The
course approaches service operations management less from the
traditional cost-cutting and process perspectives and more from a
holistic, integrated and interdependent organizational-function
perspective focused on sustainably realizing for customers service
experiences they value as superior, buy and want to continue buying.
Your successful completion of the course at a superior level will equip
you to demonstrate competent basic knowledge and understanding of:
the components that constitute the service experience and how to
manage them within an overall service management system;
resource-based operations strategy as applied to services;
service experience design;
capacity management and its relation to operations management;
trends and issues in improving service operations.
Specifically, you will be able to analyze and evaluate service operations.
Furthermore, by applying relevant service operations management
tools you will be able to develop solutions that improve the operations
performance of service organizations. Overall, you will acquire
important service operations management knowledge and skills for
managerial success in the service industry.

COPYRIGHT 2016 by Prof. Dr. Peter Goffe

1 This edition updates and supersedes the CARE Course Catalog outline in CARE. Subject to change during the semester. Expires February 2017.

Course Content | Course content will be drawn from the following broad range of topics:
General Scope: 1. The meaning of service operations management
2. Strategic objectives and design choices for:
a. Operations strategy
b. Process management
c. Total quality management
3. Service experience design decisions
a. Designing and delivering services
b. Design of operations networks
c. Job design and work organisation
4. Capacity management
a. Capacity planning and scheduling
b. Capacity and customer management
c. Capacity and revenue management
5. Facilities management
a. Front- and back-office facilities management
b. Service location models
c. Managing servicescapes
Learning Resources: The course textbook is Service Operations Management: Improving
Service Delivery (4th Edition), by Robert Johnston, Graham Clark and
Michael Shulver (Pearson, 2012). ISBN: 0273740482. The course will
include approximately 50 per cent of the book. In addition, during the
semester a number of examinable operations-management case
studies, discussion questions and readings, including from Harvard
Business School, will be provided in CARE Course Material (CCM).
Learning Strategy: You achieve the learning objectives through engaging in interactive,
seminar-style discussions and exercises focused on critical thinking,
open discussion of course concepts and ideas, case analyses, assigned
reading and other course material. Your learning strategy should
emphasize regular attendance, close reading and preparation of all
course material, doing the learning exercises provided and actively
participation in class discussion.
Learning Assessment & Your learning in the course is formally assessed on a single, 1-hour
Grading Standards: written Semester Examination (SE) for 100% of your course credit. See
details on the SE below. More details will be announced later. Key
grading criteria are the 4Cs: commonsense, correctness, clarity and
completeness. Also important are logic, organization and degree of
concept knowledge and understanding shown.
Semester Examination: Given in February 2017, the SE is a 60-minute written exam covering all
lectures, assigned readings and other course material from the entire
semester. It measures your knowledge of course concepts and ability to
apply that knowledge to real-world situations. All assigned reading for
the semester are examinable whether or not discussed in lectures.
It is not a primary objective of the lectures to show you how to answer
any particular type of SE question. The type, format and content of the
SE may include strategy-analysis tasks, case analysis, essay tasks, shortanswer tasks, term-matching tasks, or any combination of these.

2017 WS SM110 Course Syllabus and Outline. Updates and supersedes the CARE Course Catalog outline.

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Work Requirements: You are required prior to arriving in the classroom to prepare all
material assigned for that lecture. Assignments in the book are
announced before each class and are due in the following class. Your
primary responsibilities in lectures are active listening and active
participation in discussion of course topics, exercises and cases. All
recording and photography in lectures is forbidden.
IUBH Masters and Bachelors courses have the same quantitative
workload expectations of students. But Masters students must meet
higher qualitative requirements for working independently on, thinking
critically about, discussing, synthesizing and understanding complex
concepts and material. On written exams, the competency they show in
these skills is a factor in their result.
Self-updating You are expected at least once prior to each lecture to access CCM for
Requirement: new content and your CARE mail. Failure to meet this requirement
could put you at risk of being unaware of important course-related
information. During the course, if your CARE access is blocked, you may
request to receive course information at a different email address.
Attendance: Attendance at lectures is not mandatory. It is possible to pass the
course without attending any lectures provided you obtain the
analytical and creative thinking, imagination, insight and judgment
gained in lectures. Some examinable material is presented and
discussed only in lectures and not provided in any other way.
For your benefit the university gives you the opportunity to record your
attendance at each lecture by signing the Attendance List. Your timely
signature on the list is the only valid proof of your attendance. The
availability of personal support from the lecturer for individual students
depends on their proven regular attendance and voluntary in-class
participation.
If you are not ready and willing to contribute constructively to the
learning environment of a lecture, you are encouraged not to attend it.
Viewing Your Semester The Examination Office organizes all viewing of written SEs. Students
Examination: wishing to view their SE should not approach the lecturer but must
make an appointment with the Examination Office by the established
deadline. University regulations do not require lecturers to conduct
exam viewing with students. The lecturer provides SE feedback only as
written on each exam, not in personal consultation.
Resits: To take a resit SE, you must first register for the course. A resit SE may
not be the same type as your original SE.
Academic Honesty: From your first lecture in the course, you are responsible for knowing
well the IUBH policy on academic honesty, especially regarding cheating
and plagiarism. At IUBH both are regarded as serious academic offences
that risk expulsion from the university. The policy is published in CARE.
The Learning Value of Your in-class participation is not evaluated as a direct factor in your
Discussion course grade. But it strongly affects your understanding of course
Participation: concepts. Not participating may put you at a disadvantage on the exam.
Taking a free ride in class is unfair. It is unfair to enjoy the benefit of
preparation and participation by others if you do not offer your own
contribution. It is also unacceptable for everyone else to have to wait
too long for you to figure out your answer when called on to share it.
2017 WS SM110 Course Syllabus and Outline. Updates and supersedes the CARE Course Catalog outline.

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II OUTLINE
LECTURE1

1-2

3-5
5-6
7-8
9-11

12-14
14-16
16
1

KEY DISCUSSION TOPICS2

READING3
PART 1 | ORIENTATION AND CONTEXT: INTRODUCTION TO SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
What are services? The tangible-intangible continuum
What is service? What is a service company? What is service operations?
T: Chs 1, 2
What is service operations management? What are its challenges?
R: tba
What is the dominant logic governing operations? Implications and tradeoffs
What is the integration principle of service operations management?
PART 2 | DEVELOPING SERVICE OPERATIONS STRATEGY
What is a service concept?
T: Ch 3 +
What is a customer experience? Designing the customer experience
pp. 163-169
What is the Servuction Model and what parts does it comprise?
R: tba
How is service operations management the same as servuction management?
What is the resource-based perspective of operations? Framework and matrix R: 3
PART 3 | DESIGNING THE SERVICE PRODUCT
T: Ch 8
How do SOMs design and manage the service production process?
R: 8
How do SOMs design and manage service people (staff and customers)?
T: Ch 10
What role/s do customers play in service operations?
R: 5, 6, 7, 8
PART 4 | OPERATING THE SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM
What is service capacity management? Why is it so important?
T: Ch 11
How do SOMs manage service capacity and cope with demand?
R: tba
What is service quality? Managing service performance
T: Ch. 5 + pp.
What is customer complaints management and service recovery?
435-439
What are service guarantees?
R: tba
Wrap-up + Semester Exam Info Bulletin alert
None
4
SEMESTER EXAMINATION FEBRUARY 2017

See Semester Weeks table below. Lectures start in Week 4. No lectures during Resit Week (17.-21.10.) In some weeks, your
group may have lectures on two days. Subject to change during the semester. Check your CARE schedule for changes.
WEEK
STARTS
WEEK
STARTS

1
12.09.
10
21.11.

2
19.09.
11
28.11.

3
26.09.
12
05.12.

4
03.10.
13
12.12.

5
10.10.
14
19.12.

6
24.10.
15
09.01.

7
31.10.
16
16.01.

8
07.11.
17
23.01.

9
14.11.

Lectures and topic discussions are planned to follow this sequence but it may vary. In a particular week, both groups may not
be at exactly the point in the course.
3
T = Course textbook. R = Required readings available in CCM. More readings will be added later.
1. Capacity Management in Service Firms
2. Operations Strategy (Iansiti & Serels)
3. Resource-Based Operations Strategy Framework and Matrix
4. Service Operations Strategy Product
5. The human factor in service design (DeVine, Lal and Zea)
6. Using behavioral science to improve the customer experience (DeVine & Gilson)
7. When Should a Process Be Art, Not Science (Hall & Johnson)
8. Managing Service Operations Resources
4
Only the Examination Office sets examination dates and officially announces them directly to students.

2017 WS SM110 Course Syllabus and Outline. Updates and supersedes the CARE Course Catalog outline.

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