Read About The Research That Professionalised Shared Services

Building on the academic study of shared services, Inter-Organisational Relationships, in 2009 we published research, validated by Canterbury Christ Church University, into the skills and knowledge that public sector leaders and senior managers would require to be successful in shared service activity.

The research was validated in three strands:

• A study of 30 shared service projects was undertaken to find out what three main things they would do differently if they were to repeat the exercise.
• There was a review of government and shared service academic studies from the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Plus a review of Inter-Organisational Relationship Studies into the success and failure of collaboration activities in the private and public sector.
• A workshop was held with senior managers in the public sector to gain their views on the skills and knowledge they felt would be required to successfully undertake shared services.

The research identified 20 key skill and knowledge requirements that are key to successful work in shared service activity. Whilst a leader or senior managers may not possess them all, they should build a partnership team who possess the majority between them.

Click here to download a self-diagnostic tool to evaluate how confident you would feel as a shared service practitioner