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Service Undone: A Grounded Theory Of Strategically Constructed Silos And Their Impact On Customer-Company Interactions From The Perspective Of Retail Employees, Kelley O'Reilly

Kelley A. O'Reilly

This work elaborates the impacts of strategically constructed silos that are not byproducts of flagging cross-departmental cooperation or the cumulative effect of decades of decentralized command and control. Rather, these silos are strategically intended structures within organizations. Most significantly, the substantive theory of strategically constructed silos and their impact on customer service contributes to the field by illustrating the presence and consequence of silos occurring in suboptimal conditions. The existence of silos has implications that extend far beyond the retail area.

A key take-away from this research is that contrary to how most customer service processes are designed, not all …