Professional Service Operations Management: sustaining the discipline?

Operations management (OM) theory suggests that professional services have some distinct operational challenges. There is an emerging consensus that professional services are changing, due to the socio-economic and political climates in which they operate. In order to investigate these issues a systematic literature review was undertaken. This paper makes a contribution by exploring the OM literature encompassing two decades of publications in terms of value, in relation to operational effectiveness within the ‘professions’. The analysis of the sample suggests a potential methodological mismatch between the core theoretical frameworks, exploring features of effectiveness and efficiency across the professions. This paper makes a contribution through a reflection on theories in the area of Professional Services Operations Management.