Towards a service-dominant professional identity An organisational socialisation perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understanding of how a service-dominant (S-D) professional identity can be established among the employees of an organisation that wishes to inculcate the tenets of S-D logic. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reports a case study of a large Swedish public sector organisation in which the transition to e-government provided an opportunity to inculcate a new service-based professional identity among employees. The main data collection method is interviewing. Findings - The study identifies four characteristics of a S-D professional identity: interaction; customer orientation; co-creation; and empowerment. The study finds that such an identity can be established through five socialisation processes: collective socialisation; random socialisation; serial socialisation; investiture socialisation; and divestiture socialisation. Research limitations/implications - As with all case study research, the paper draws analytical generalisations but is unable to provide any statistical generalisations; further quantitative research is needed in this area. Moreover, the paper takes a intra-firm perspective; future studies could approach the topic from a consumer perspective. Practical implications - Managers who wish to inculcate S-D logic in their organisations should focus on developing the interactive and co-creation skills of their employees, as well as empowering them and providing them with an enhanced understanding of customer orientation. Originality/value - The study is novel in several respects: it provides a systematic empirical analysis of how S-D logic can be established in an organisation; the notion of a S-D professional identity is introduced; and the theory of organisational socialisation is applied to S-D logic research for the first time.