Development of the service system in a manual service firm: A case study of the Danish ISS

The article analyzes the service system in a mass producing manual service company. A service system is the service product or activity and the production and delivery organization. The article is based on a case study of the Danish multinational ISS, which primarily provides cleaning services. The development of the service system within ISS in the last 20 years can be divided into three phases, which are a result of an organizational learning process in the company. The three phases designate a course between an industrial or standardization principle and a service encounter principle. The current service system of ISS is characterized in terms of a modulization model. The model queries the hitherto most emphasized model, the service encounter model, as the only and most adequate interpretation of the service system.