پیدایش مدیریت عملیات خدمات به عنوان یک رشته دانشگاهی

During the latter part of the 20th century, the service sector grew significantly in virtually every developed country, with the United States taking the lead. By 2000, services comprised almost 80% of U.S. employment. This rapid growth was caused by several factors including changing population lifestyles, deregulation, and new and improved infrastructure including the widespread availability of new technologies. With the service sector surpassing 50% of the U.S. economy in the 1950s, researchers – especially economists – began to examine the characteristics of services and attempt to apply some of the concepts that were developed and proven in manufacturing. From these early efforts there emerged a growing demand for business schools to develop both research agendas and courses in service operations. Beginning at the Harvard Business School in the early 1970s, and continuing through to the present, research and courses in service operations have evolved from simply applying basic manufacturing concepts in a service environment to recognizing the need for a trans-disciplinary approach appropriately suited to the particular characteristics of service operations. This article traces the evolution of service operations from its immediate pre-business school days through its early years as an academic discipline in business schools to the present, identifying “pioneers” in service operations who truly blazed a previously unmarked trail that many have since followed.

We have attempted to present here a brief chronology of the evolution of service operations in business schools and the economic environment that created the need for research and courses in service operations. Since the early days in the 1970s, service operations management has developed into a legitimate field of its own. There are now several relatively new academic journals that recognize this in their titles, including the International Journal of Service Industry Management and Manufacturing and Service Operations. Meanwhile, articles pertaining to service operations continue to grow in number in the more traditional journals such as Operations Research, Management Science, Decision Sciences, and Production and Operations Management. In 2003, there were three uniquely different service textbooks available, for the first time providing instructors with a choice. Nevertheless, while there has been significant progress in introducing service operations into the classroom, much remains to be done. As Chase said at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute in Boston, “80% of the United States’ economy is in services, but 80% of the core or required courses in operations management is still focused heavily, if not entirely, on manufacturing.” The challenges, therefore, still exist to continue the development of the field of service operations, both from a research and teaching perspective—perhaps even to the point where every business school has service operations management as a required course and the traditional manufacturing course in operations is offered as an elective.