A CRITIQUE OF THE SERVICE MANAGEMENT IDEAS

Dynamic service sector development is one of the most actual trends of the modern economy. Over the last decade, the number of service organizations has significantly increased, increased employment in this sector has expanded the range of services and competition has intensified as well. Specificity of management service organizations is being actively studied since 60 -70ies of the twentieth century. Service management is recognized as a scientific discipline. Foreign experts have developed a number of concepts for practical applications, including the management of quality of service (Berry 1991) (Gronroos 1988) (Gummesson 1995) (Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml 1985).

Different schools of thought offer a wide variety of approaches to quality management services. Many of them take the correlation of consumer expectations and perceptions of service received as a "starting point." This logic is relevant primarily for services which quality is difficult to assess on the basis of objective characteristics. The most well-known approaches, based on this logic are - Gap Model, SERVQUAL tool, zone of tolerance analysis.

Gap model is developed by U.S. researchers, Zeithaml, Berry and others. (Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml 1985). It highlights the possible discrepancies in the services arrangement. The magnitude and direction of fractures affect its quality. The key is the gap between the elements of the “expected service” and “perceived service” (Gap 5), the excess of consumer expectations on the assessment of services received in reality refers to the “gap”. The absence of such gap makes the service of high quality. Gap5 is due to the existence of Gaps 1-4 (Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman 1988).

Gap 1 occurs in case organization lacks a clear understanding of the preferences of the consumer, his expectations and stereotyped behaviours. This is due, as a rule, to the fact that