Incorporating Service Design into Education of Future Managers

Abstract

The goal of management education is to prepare the master’s students to the role of the future manager. Therefore, the management education indisputably shapes the future profession. However, the manager’s profession is complex. What should be included in the management education and how to bring the degree programs up to date? This paper, first, suggest management education based on the recent research and the integration of service marketing theories into management. Second, this paper posits the competence development of managers required in service economy to focus on service logics and the emerging discipline of service design. The purpose of the paper is to introduce management education, which builds competences based on the theoretical stronghold of service logics and intertwines with service design competences as execution skills. This descriptive study uses a combination of collected data, observation, discussions, and content analysis to investigate how diverse are the expectations of master’s degree students for service design and how the learning outcome requirements/ competence development requirements (by EQF) differ. This paper advances identified new management competences of service marketing and service design. Preliminary findings suggest the importance of designing of the interdisciplinary curriculum; the management competence develops slowly during higher education and thus the competence requirements are fulfilled at the end of the studies.