IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v62y2019i4p521-527.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Robust services: People or processes?

Author

Listed:
  • Weiss, Elliott N.
  • Goldberg, Rebecca

Abstract

Service systems are inherently subject to variability, whether through customers, service providers, suppliers, or unexpected events. Yet, customers demand excellence and consistency regardless of this variability. In general, there are two ways to handle this variability: with people or with processes. We use the concept of robustness to describe these two approaches, address when one or the other might be appropriate, and discuss how and why one might transition from one approach to the other. Robust people and robust processes within a system can inform and build upon one another in a cycle that mirrors that of continuous improvement. Investing in this cycle can help an organization move toward a system that relies more on robust processes and less on hiring and training robust people, allowing the organization to be scalable while simultaneously creating new opportunities for incumbent robust people.

Suggested Citation

  • Weiss, Elliott N. & Goldberg, Rebecca, 2019. "Robust services: People or processes?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 521-527.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:62:y:2019:i:4:p:521-527
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2019.03.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681319300394
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2019.03.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mircea Fulea & Bogdan Mocan & Mihai Dragomir & Mircea Murar, 2023. "On Increasing Service Organizations’ Agility: An Artifact-Based Framework to Elicit Improvement Initiatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-25, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:62:y:2019:i:4:p:521-527. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.