Reflexivity in the ‘Productisation’ of Services

This paper evaluates reflexivity in a practice of service formalisation and codification labelled ‘productisation’. We investigate reflexivity to explain why and how service productisation has different effects in different social contexts and perform critical discourse analysis on two cases to evaluate discourses and genres of service productisation. As results we describe work-related and structural reflexivity and the reflexive distance in each discourse. We suggest that productisation induces work-related reflexivity in service development, but may reduce it in service operations. When productisation conflicts with the organising principles and values of the organisation it increases structural reflexivity of employees broadly, otherwise structural reflexivity remains limited. Productisation increases organisational cohesion, but we identified two different mechanisms, control and integration. For individuals, productisation may increase control through transparency of work or increase autonomy through distribution of competences and knowledge.