Abstract

The literature around service science is full of references to service systems. However, the term ‘system’ appears to be used quite loosely. No formal definition is provided and little or no reference is made to the substantial ‘systems thinking’ literature.

This presentation will briefly discuss the key themes in that literature, amongst them; emergence (Checkland), open and closed systems (Von Bertalanffy), requisite variety (Ashby), reduction/systems thinking (Checkland, Weinberg) viable systems and variety engineering (Beer) systems dynamics (Forrester), synthetic thinking (Ackoff).

We will consider the implications of systems thinking for service. We suggest that S-D logic has extended the boundary of the producer system to include the customer and that the emergent property of this interaction is ‘service’. This has implications for how we design the service system as a whole. We will discuss these implications drawing on examples from service organisations including banking, utilities and mobile network providers.