Organisational transition from products to engineering services: An employee perspective

The organisational transition from products to engineering services requires manufacturers to enable various changes at the organisational and individual level. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the individual level of servitization starting from understanding different strategic stages of transition.

Based on an initial theoretical review of the literature on servitization, service operations and organisational psychology, we propose a conceptual framework that details organisational transition stages and the employee-related aspects. This framework contributes to the servitization literature by proposing a different approach of the transition.

Starting from the specific of each stage of transition, we identified the aspects that require employees’ implication and proposed insights for their side of the transition. Providing an employee perspective of the transition could facilitate the overall transition by enabling managers to identify those aspects that require their attention and develop suitable strategies.

The framework further facilitates managers to understand the employee-related aspects and consequently include them in their decision-making.