The Management Of Service Operations

The focus of the conference was the service sector. This sector is of great importance to the Western world and is the subject of increasing management attention. The service sector now represents a significant part of Western economies. Furthermore, in the UK, the growth in the output of the service sector is about twice that of the rest of the economy and service exports increasingly compensate for its declining trade in manufactured goods. The conference brought together people from many different disciplines and functional specialisms to the service operation - the part of the organisation where the services are created and provided. The disciplines and functions represented included operations management, marketing, organisational behaviour, economics, operational research, decision sciences, accounting, engineering and manufacturing.