Public Service Operations Management: A Research Handbook

How do policy makers and managers square the circle of increasing demand and expectations for the delivery and quality of services against a backdrop of reduced public funding from government and philanthropists? Leaders, executives and managers are increasingly focusing on service operations improvement. In terms of research, public services are immature within the discipline of operations management, and existing knowledge is limited to government departments and large bureaucratic institutions.

Drawing on a range of theory and frameworks, this book develops the research agenda, and knowledge and understanding in public service operations management, addressing the most pressing dilemmas faced by leaders, executives and operations managers in the public services environment. It offers a new empirical analysis of the impact of contextual factors, including the migration of planning systems founded on MRP/ERP and the adoption of industrial based improvement practices such as TQM, lean thinking and Six Sigma.

This will be of interest to researchers, educators and advanced students in public management, service operations management, health service management and public policy studies.

Zoe J. Radnor is Professor of Service Operations Management at Loughborough University, UK

Nicola Bateman is a Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at Loughborough University, UK

Ann Esain is a Lecturer in Logistics and Operations Management at Cardiff University, UK

Maneesh Kumar is a Senior Lecturer of Service Operations at Cardiff University, UK

Sharon J. Williams is an Improvement Science Fellow with the Health Foundation and an Associate Professor at Swansea University, UK

David M. Upton is American Standard Companies Professor of Operations Management at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK