From customer service to customer-driven services: Practitioner perspectives on a strategy for dealing with local authority austerity budgets

Abstract

This study aims to reflect on the views of public sector managers in relation to possible ways to cope with austerity budgeting and its impact on public services provided to local communities across a subregion. The investigation draws on empirical research based on a series of facilitated strategic workshops delivered to over 400 UK local authority middle managers. The findings indicate a suggested process model and framework to enable the implementation of a customer-driven approach to the delivery of local community public services. The intent of this study was to enable understanding of a particular case and to share that new understanding more widely. The overall approach is based on a ‘common-sense’ view of generalisability, in which readers will find value if the material resonates with their experience. This study is of potential benefit to researchers and those involved in developing effective and sustainable methods of coping with increasingly severe budgetary constraints on public sector local community provision. The study contributes to the extant literature by investigation of practitioner perspectives on these issues.

Effect of Organisational Culture on Organisational Performance: A Case of Commercial Banks in Nairobi County, Kenya

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Non-voluntary service interaction from a service logic perspective: children and value co-creation

“…To date, there have been few empirical studies conducted on public services based on a service-dominant or service logic (Osborne, Radnor, and Nasi 2013;Osborne et al 2015;Högström et al 2016;Strokosch and Osborne 2016;Westrup 2016). This might be because of the challenges in adapting models developed for the private sector to the public sector, as public sector services overall are more complex than private sector services (Fotaki 2009;Benington and Moore 2011;Murdock 2011;Alford 2016;Vamstad 2016;Higson 2017;Grönroos 2019). Researchers emphasize the need for adapting theoretical models from the private sector when implementing them to the public sector (Alford 2016;Grönroos 2019;Osborne 2018).…”

A Service Perspective on Work with Vulnerable Children: Frontline Staff’s Perceptions of how Management Affects Value Creation

“…Many researchers argue that welfare services are all about services and thus need to be understood using a service perspective (Berry & Bendapudi, 2007;Grönroos, 2019;Higson, 2017;Källström, 2016;Osborne, 2018;Sweeney, Danaher & McColl-Kennedy, 2015;Tisdall, 2017). Some researchers emphasize the Service Dominant Logic (SDL) as a relevant meta-theoretical concept and the inspiration for managerial applications (Quist & Fransson, 2014;Skålén, 2018;Storbacka, 2018;Trischler & Charles 2018;Vargo, 2018).…”