Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Information Systems and Technology

Advisor

Dr. Roger Mayer

Abstract

With the increased demand for doing more with less, public sector managers embrace outsourcing back-office functions through a shared service model; however, maintaining service quality for public sector shared service centers (SSC) in financial management during peak cycles is a challenge. Framed with the transaction cost economy theory, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by SSC managers in a public sector company to maintain service quality. Seven participants with more than 4 years of SSC experience in public-sector companies participated in phone interviews including SSC department heads, managers, and a supervisor of a public-sector company in Mississippi who implemented strategies to successfully maintain service quality in the SSC relationship. Through method triangulation, a review of service level agreements and key performance indicators supplemented open-ended semistructured interviews. The research findings included emergent themes of training and documentation, employee engagement, control and communication, efficiency and automation, and standardization and metrics. The SSC strategies in training and documentation, control and communication, and employee engagement were fundamental for maintaining service quality in SSC relationship. Study findings may help public sector SSC managers understand how to incorporate and implement successful strategies in financial management divisions to maintain service quality. Positive social change includes identifying methods to increased efficiency and service quality in a financial management division. Society could benefit from improvements in employee work-life balance, reduced turnover, and increases in the economic well-being of community residents.

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