Curricula

Objectives

Purpose of the course
The goal of strategic management is to enable the efficient use of resources, respond to customer needs, and create a competitive advantage and success in the market for the company. Through strategic management, the organisation meets the expectations of owners and other stakeholders and generates benefits for society. Analysis of the operating environment helps to take into account and anticipate changes in the operating environment to support the organisation's strategic decision-making.

The purpose of the course is that you understand the theoretical framework of service management and service marketing, become familiar with the analysis of the operating environment on the industry selected and are able to apply the results in to strategic management and development.

Competences
You master the knowledge base of service management and are able to evaluate, analyse and apply it critically. You are able to utilise specialised problem-solving skills and practices in management and its research. You are able to evaluate and develop strategies to support the development and management of service business and initiate development measures together in changing and unpredictable operating environment.

Learning to learn
You are able to acquire, critically assess and produce information while taking into account the perspectives of different fields. You are able to develop and manage goal-oriented, continuous learning in their community.

Ethics
You are able to promote ethically sustainable activities and the realisation of ethical reflection in their different operating environments. You promote the realisation of the ethical principles and values of their
field.

Internationality and multiculturalism
You are able to anticipate the impacts and opportunities of global development and phenomena. You are able to interact, communicate and develop activities internationally in your own field.

Proactive development
You are able to analyse the current situation and anticipate the future of your field and changes in the operating environment.

Learning outcomes
After completing the course, you will be able to apply theories of strategic service management. You understand service business and its various forms of implementation. You are able to evaluate and analyse factors affecting the quality of services and make strategic decisions to support quality management. You are able to justify the information you produce with the analysis methods of the operating environment in strategic decision-making and are able to renew service business with justification.

Content

Strategic thinking, service management, service marketing, service business, quality management, customer orientation, stakeholder management, operational environment analysis methods, ethics in service management

Learning materials and recommended literature

Literature and other material based on independent information gathering

Vargo, S. L. & Lusch. R. F. 2017. Service-dominant logic 2025. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34, 46–57.
Grönroos, C. & Tillman, M. 2020. Palvelujen johtaminen ja markkinointi. Viides painos. Helsinki: Alma Talent. ISBN: 978-952-14-4354-1
Bordoloi, S., Fitzsimmons, J. & Fitzsimmons, M. 2023. Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kamensky, M. 2015. Strateginen johtaminen: Menestyksen timantti. Hel-sinki: Talentum

Teaching methods

Study methods

Strategic service management is an online study course. Where studying you will utilize Moodle learning environment, where you can find the course instructions, timetables, tasks, and materials. You will also attend webinars. The webinars include also visiting lectures and collaborative learning methods. You will conduct independent information retrieval and apply what you have learned in pre-assignment and two learning assignments:

Pre-assignment: During the first three weeks of the course, an orientation assignment that confirms your presence in the course. Participation in the course requires that you have submitted learning assignment 1 by 22.9.2024.

1) As an individual written assignment, you will make a definition of the given articles and create a concept map from them. You do a learning assignment based on one article (assessment is based on individual assignment, weighting 1 (50%).

2) In the group assignment, you apply the selected operating environment analysis methods to your industry/area of expertise, which you present in the webinar (assessment is based on written assignment, weighting 2 (50%).

Guidance
You will be giving guidance during webinars. In addition, guidance will be giving via Moodle learning environment (e.g. forums for questions and answers) Your peers will also give at least some feedback as does your teacher(s) as it comes to learning assignments and reports.

Feedback
You will get feedback on your learning assignments.
You give feedback on the course (mid-term and final feedback on the implementation).

Practical training and working life connections

In the course, you utilize the operating environment of your industry/area of expertise as a learning environment that you apply to your learning tasks.

The learning tasks of the course combine the know-how of working life experts and the multidisciplinary network of experts and related groups of higher education studies (e.g. YAMK alumni).

Your student group forms a working life-oriented peer learning network.

International connections

You will use international research literature to learn more about the meaning of internationalization for organizations and their strategic management as well as about anticipated effects of global development onto your industry or area of expertise.

Alternative completion methods

You can familiarise yourself with 17§ of Jamk's degree regulations when con-sidering the recognition and recognition of course competence based on your previously acquired competence and the objectives of the course.

Student workload

Total 135 hours

Lectures/online webinars 8 h
studying the course material 40 h
individual learning assignments and tasks 87 h

Content scheduling

2,5 ECTS Strategic service management
2,5 ECTS Analysis of the operating environment

Further information for students

The learning during the course will be qualitatively evaluated based on the learning outcomes using many different methods: feedback and mentoring from the teacher, the student's own self-assessment and feedback received from peers in webinaries.

In the study course, updated Arene recommendations and Jamki rules are followed in the use of artificial intelligence, instructions and possible ethical questions.

Open UAS number of places: 5

Evaluation scale

0-5

Evaluation criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

You collect strategic service management literature, which includes a few articles and/or study books assigned by course. (1-2)

You identify and classify the key concepts of strategic service management. (1-2)

You write unstructured text with many different language and style errors. You follow Jamk's reporting instructions insufficiently. (1-2)

Evaluation criteria, good (3-4)

You create a matrix table that compiles the articles and/or study books you have chosen and assigned by the course and you analyze the concepts and their relations. (3-4)

You distinguish and compare the relations between the key concepts of strategic service management. (3-4)

You write consistent, thorough and illustrative text. You write structured text, but there are occasional language and style errors. You follow Jamk's reporting instructions. (3-4)

Evaluation criteria, excellent (5)

Demonstrate source criticism with the literature you have chosen and you are able to create syntheses of the articles and/or study books. You justify the chosen theories and you able to apply them from the perspective of your industry. (5)

You evaluate the key concepts of strategic service management critically and present them illustratively by combining theories and practice. (5)

Your written text is persuasive and coherent. You write in critical and argumentative way. (5)