Recent trends in the electrical contracting industry indicate a rising demand for service work, which entails performing maintenance, repairs, and warranty work. The primary goal of this research is to develop a model that helps ECs more effectively implement service management strategies and identify within a typical business plan opportunities for becoming more service-centric.

This research cites current and future trends within the electrical contracting industry as grounds for a strategic shift toward service management. The research intends to identify and assess the extent to which EC managers currently perceive and implement service management strategies and identify opportunities for improvement through:

1) exploring business literature, which provides an overview of services, service management theory, terminology associated with service-oriented strategies, and existing models of service management;

2) proposing a conceptual framework for service management through a synthesis of theories from literature, and as a basic prototype to be refined through an exploratory investigation;

3) outlining the research methodology undertaken in the investigation;

4) assessing the extent to which EC managers currently perceive and implement service management strategies through a survey of union and non-union employers and in-depth interviews of current exemplar organizations of service work; and

5) identifying opportunities for excellence in service-based organizations.

A concluding discussion follows comparing the literary best practices with survey results and an analysis of the interview transcriptions. This comparison reveals insights into the success criteria of service organizations and supports the development of a more refined model for service management in electrical contracting. The work concludes by noting the limitations of the research and opportunities for refinement of the framework in future studies.