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The purpose of this paper is to combine translation theory with aspects of socio‐technology and systems theory to study the adoption of shared services in a public‐sector organization. The paper aims to involve the process of translating the shared‐services idea in concert with people and policies, both in terms of inputs and outputs.

An interpretive case‐study strategy was applied.

The mutual impact of process, people, and policies shed light on what influences the adoption of the shared‐services idea. The translation process considers different people and policy aspects, transforming the idea into a specific configuration that reflects the organization's individual conditions.

The in‐depth case study enables better understanding of the adoption of shared services at an organizational level. The paper enriches previous research on the translation of management ideas. It is limited to the extent that it focuses on one particular case, which restricts the possibilities for a wider generalization.

The paper indicates a lack of national policies to embrace the shared‐services idea fully at the studied organization. The paper can aid governments in paving the way for the adoption of management ideas in public‐sector organizations.

The paper extends previous research on the adoption of management ideas and, especially, how the idea of shared services is adopted. It illustrates the translation process, how this process shapes personal and factual outcomes, and what this means for the adoption of the shared services idea at an organizational level.

The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of the work of management accountants in the context of a shared services centre.

A single case study method is used and data are collected via semi-structured interviews and internal documents. The empirical materials are analysed from the theoretical perspective of dirty work, incorporating aspects from practice theory.

Findings suggest that management accountants working in a shared services centre develop their occupational esteem by refocusing and reframing strategies. Through these strategies, management accountants can decrease the perceived “dirtiness” associated with their work.

The study sheds light on the under-researched topic of management accountants’ work within a shared services centre. Moreover, it offers the metaphor of liminal work to characterise how management accountants develop their occupational esteem in circumstances where gaining efficiency is the main objective.

Service‐orientation enables new organizational forms and organization initiate shared service centers (SSCs) to become shared service organizations (SSOs) or service‐oriented enterprises (SOEs). Services can be performed in‐house, shared or outsourced. However, this form of organization faces significant challenges and to date not much research has focused on capturing experiences in this domain. The aim of this paper is to identify critical management issues in the development of service‐oriented arrangements.

The research used a combination of literature and case study research, whereby literature provided the theoretical foundations and the case study is used to identify the critical research challenges.

Technological developments enable a service‐oriented approach, leading to new organizational forms and a shift towards a more market‐oriented type of control. The SOE is an enterprise that is modularized in business domains and organized around SSCs. New products can be created by orchestrating the services provided by the service centers, and this orchestration is expected to become a core capability. Service centers display varying levels of modularity, which influences the sourcing options. In our case study, the SSO and SOE emerged and evolved out of SSCs, and as a result an incremental, staged approach should be adopted with regard to its implementation. The main critical management issues are a carefully executed strategy, the redesign and reorganization of activities and roles, the standardization of processes, applications and the underlying IT architecture, and management of the transformation by involving all stakeholders.

The SOE is explored using a single case study, which although it provides in‐depth insight, limits statistical generalization. Further research should focus on the benefits, drawbacks and risks of these concepts. In addition, the bundling and orchestration of services need to be investigated.

This type of change is often technology driven. Companies should address the critical management issues when they adopt a more service‐oriented approach at a business level.

To date, there are very few empirical studies that look at SSO and the SOE. This paper offers a contribution by investigating a real‐life case study, analyzing the kind of organization involved, and identifying the challenges and issues.

Knowledge sharing is a process where individuals mutually exchange knowledge to create new knowledge. Understanding the knowledge-sharing process, during which organizations share spaces, facilities and services, is highly important for owners/managers who seek to optimize their business centres and to attract more innovative tenants. For users of business centres, it is interesting to know how, where and what type of knowledge is shared. However, there is hardly any research into sharing different types of knowledge in business centres. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of personal and organizational characteristics on sharing different types of knowledge within and between organizations in business centres.

Data were collected using a questionnaire that was completed by 268 users of 53 business centres in The Netherlands. A seemingly unrelated regression analysis was used to simultaneously analyse the influence of personal and organizational characteristics on knowledge sharing in business centres.

The results show that public and private non-codified knowledge is more frequently shared with people from other organizations by those who more frequently use an event space, lounge space, canteen or consultancy services. Knowledge sharing with colleagues within organizations was influenced by the use of individual closed workspaces, meeting spaces and restaurant/canteen and gender.

The study suggests that owners and managers of business centres can optimize their business centres by offering specific facilities, services and workspaces to attract a specific group of tenants. In addition, organizations that want to enhance knowledge sharing with other organizations need to stimulate their employees to use shared facilities and services.

Allan Boroughs and Jane Saunders of Orion Partners use their experience of implementing shared service models to identify the critical factors for success and to highlight the potential pitfalls.

This paper seeks to compare Ulrich's model of HR transformation/shared service organisation (the “three‐legged stool”) with the empirical evidence from the research. The aim of the paper is to describe the journey from theory to practice of HR transformation in organisations as they adopt and adapt the model.

An institutional frame of reference is used for case studies of seven Swedish organisations. The respondents in the 192 interviews are HR professionals, line managers and other stakeholders.

All seven of the organisations adopted the HR transformation as a standard blueprint. Management consultants played a leading role in this process. HR service centres were established, the local HR staffs were reduced radically, and the remaining role, the HR business partners, took on lesser importance. During the adaptation process a variety of solutions resulted, some of which were innovations.

Because of the small sample size, the generalisability of the results is somewhat limited.

The results may useful to both researchers and practitioners, whether they are involved in the study or in the re‐organisation of HR. It is not easy to imitate a theoretical model or a “best practice” model without taking the translation process into consideration.

Previous studies have not examined how HR transformation/shared service travels in different organisations using this number of interviews in in‐depth research. These results show that achieving the desirable HR organisation depends on the translation and interpretations of the concepts in the local context.

The paper seeks to investigate into the shared services phenomenon in the context of government reforms. It especially aims to address the emergence and shaping of shared services. The paper seeks to develop the notion of shared service centres (SSCs) and shared service networks (SSNs).

An interview‐ and document analysis‐based multiple case study was conducted in Germany. The qualitative analysis covered two shared service projects on the local government level.

Important preconditions for shared service emergence are identified, including cost pressure as motive, the existence of key actors as well as the existence of prior cooperation. Moreover, the paper provides evidence that the structure of previous cooperation exerts influence on if shared services are organized in a centralised (SSC) or decentralised format (SSN).

The case selection is a possible limitation of the presented study. The selected cases give an insight into the topic of shared service configuration. The findings derived constitute indicators of possible patterns, which have to be approved by further research in order to identify reliable causal relationships and improve generalisablity of the results presented here.

An insight into conditions of adaptation and shaping of shared services is given, suggesting causal relationships for further theory testing and development.

In 2002, Avaya realized the need to move to a global, rather than local, approach to providing its HR services. Here, Michael Donnelly explains how, in partnership with Convergys, it implemented a network of global shared service centres to cut costs, improve speed and accuracy, and turn previously unusable data into actionable business intelligence.

HR shared service centers (SSCs) have been claimed to innovate human resource management service delivery by centralizing resources and decentralizing control and, in doing so, create value for other business units. In response, to explain the value of HR shared services for the business units served, the purpose of this paper is to test hypotheses on the joint influence of HR SSC operational and dynamic capabilities and of control mechanism usage by the business units.

A survey methodology was applied to collect data among business unit representatives from 91 business units in 19 Dutch organizations. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS.

This study found that the use of formal control mechanisms (e.g. contracts, service-level agreements) relates negatively with HR shared service value, but that this relationship becomes positive once mediated by informal control mechanisms (e.g. trust and shared language) and operational HR capabilities. Furthermore, it shows that the dynamic capabilities of HR SSCs relate positively to HR shared service value for the business units, but only because of their effect on operational capabilities.

Whereas previous studies into HR SSCs have examined the two antecedents independently, this study shows how organizational control and capabilities interrelate in explaining the value of HR shared services.

To reveal similarities between the business process reengineering (BPR) and shared service approaches, in order to improve outcomes of shared service implementation processes through lessons learnt from previous BPR projects.

As the focus of this paper is primarily theoretical, the paper starts out with a literature review of developments in the BPR and shared service movements. Similarities between the two change alternatives are discussed and drawn up.

The paper concludes by identifying which previously learnt lessons the emerging shared service movement should take into account from the BPR era when implementing shared services.

The paper is primarily based on previous findings from a literature review. To increase insights into the contemporary shared service phenomenon, complementary research in the form of in‐depth case studies are recommended.

Based on the similarities between BPR and shared service approaches, some normative guidelines for the implementation of shared service are given to practitioners.

This paper fills a gap in process‐oriented research by comparing BPR and shared service approaches in order to reveal similarities, which in turn enables practitioners to draw on pre‐existing research findings in their present shared service projects.