'Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence' shows managers and students the importance of empowerment as part of human resource strategy. It provides a critical perspective of this established vital management technique, identifying factors that will lead to a win: win situation for all concerned. When successfully incorporated as part of HR strategy, empowerment can: * enable organizations to gain commercial and competitive advantage * become more flexible * improve employee commitment * use the skills of individual employees to best advantage and enhance personal capabilities. 'Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence' uses case studies from companies such as McDonalds, TGI Fridays and Harvester Restaurants to build a picture of empowerment of service employees in context, illustrating how different forms of empowerment are employed and different working arrangements are practiced.

'Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence' shows managers and students the importance of empowerment as part of human resource strategy. It provides a critical perspective of this established vital management technique, identifying factors that will lead to a win: win situation for all concerned. When successfully incorporated as part of HR strategy, empowerment can: * enable organizations to gain commercial and competitive advantage * become more flexible * improve employee commitment * use the skills of individual employees to best advantage and enhance personal capabilities. 'Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence' uses case studies from companies such as McDonalds, TGI Fridays and Harvester Restaurants to build a picture of empowerment of service employees in context, illustrating how different forms of empowerment are employed and different working arrangements are practiced.

This comprehensive textbook has, at its core, the importance of linking strategic thinking with action in the management of tourism. It provides an analytical evaluation of the most important global trends, as well as an analysis of the impact of crucial environmental issues and their implications. Now in its third edition, and reviewing the major factors affecting international tourism management, this well-established student resource provides an essential overview of strategic management for students and professionals in the tourism sector.

The complexities of employee empowerment have been largely underestimated and it is clear that organisations struggle with putting the concept into practice. Rozana Ahmad Huq recognises that effective utilisation of human resources is a strategic issue for organisations. Hierarchical organisations struggle to survive. The growing trend for downsizing and merging of organisations means that they can no longer maintain the 'command and control' approach and employees are given more responsibility and expected to take decisions. However, simply burdening employees with extra responsibility without empowering them does not deliver results. Drawing on her own research in organisations, Dr Huq investigates the concept of empowerment in a new way that combines themes from the disciplines of management and social work, the latter being a domain where empowerment is an important construct. This helps to bridge the gaps in knowledge in the management domain and draws attention to the positive and negative psychological implications for employees of the practice of empowerment that are often ignored by leaders and managers. Ultimately, the author offers a 'practice model' to help people in management and non-management understand the new roles and behaviours that they need to adopt if empowerment is to become a reality. This book is a resource for any business or other organisation genuinely interested in employee empowerment and for those with a responsibility for teaching about it.

The Encyclopedia of Services is a ground-breaking resource that offers a unique overview of what constitutes the main source of wealth and employment in our contemporary economies, namely services. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

Society, globally, has entered into what might be called the “service economy.” Services now constitute the largest share of GDP in most countries and provide the major source of employment in both developed and developing countries. Services permeate all aspects of peoples’ lives and are becoming inseparable from most aspects of economic activity. “Quality management” has been a dominating managerial practice since World War II. With quality management initially associated with manufacturing industries, one might assume the relevance of quality management might decrease with the emergence of the service economy. To the contrary, the emergence of the service economy strengthened the importance of quality issues, which no longer are associated only with manufacturing industries but are increasingly applied in all service sectors, as well. Today, we talk not only about product or service quality but have even expanded the framework of quality to quality of life and quality of environment. Thus, quality and services have emerged in parallel as closely interrelated fields. The Encyclopedia of Quality and the Service Economy explores such relevant questions as: What are the characteristics, nature, and definitions of quality and services? How do we define quality of products, quality of services, or quality of life? How are services distinguished from goods? How do we measure various aspects of quality and services? How can products and service quality be managed most effectively and efficiently? What is the role of customers in creation of values? These questions and more are explored within the pages of this two-volume, A-to-Z reference work.

This is the first book to explore workforce slavery and liberation together within commercial hotel, restaurant and bar activities, the hospitality industry being particularly vulnerable to potential illegal action and reputational damage via involuntary involvement in human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Slavery is the most oppressive form of labour exploitation and is illegal in Western Europe and most of the industrialised world. On the other hand, ‘neo-slavery’ oppresses the powerless through low pay and employment practices that predominantly serve the interests of the employer. This book explores the most exploitative forms of slavery, 'neo-slavery' and human trafficking in the hotel industry, and offers insights into empowerment through liberative trade unions and worker co-operatives. The study’s multifaceted cross-cultural approach includes in-depth chapters on Brazil and the Netherlands as well as a multitude of examples from the UK, exposing the topic as an international problem. Written by international specialists, this significant book will appeal widely to upper-level students and researchers in hospitality, and specifically, to all those interested in human resource management in the hospitality and hotel industry, as well as human rights issues and business ethics.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The first chapter gives a introduction into the topic and explains how the whole work is structured before the key subjects in chapter two will be discussed. Okay Sir, I will put you through to someone else . Does this sound familiar? Trying to switch to a different contract with a cell phone operator, but nobody seems to be qualified to handle a request. Dissatisfaction arises and the customer would like to report his problem. On the one hand the customer experiences a breakdown in service and on the other hand a second disappointment may follow if a service provider fails to handle the grievance after it is stated. The question arises as to why complaint handling is important nowadays. Complaint handling is not as selfless an act by a company as it may seem. A complaint is the cheapest, most honest and most qualitative form of management consulting there is, according to market research into sales force by Pawlik Sales Consultants AG. Companies should not be afraid to face feedback and complaints. According to the Treasury Board of Canada: Research suggests that relatively few dissatisfied clients bother to complain. As a result, every complaint received may provide a window into a much larger pool of dissatisfaction. By dealing with the causes of complaints, the organization can further reduce both the number of complaints and dissatisfaction with its program delivery or service. Complaint management is a tool to prevent the migration of customers to competitors, and more and more companies understand that simply recruiting new customers is not sufficient. As a consequence, intensification of defensive marketing, in contrast to offensive marketing actions, becomes more interesting to a company. The aim of defensive marketing should be the development of long-lasting customer relations. For example, Volvo/Saab, the Swedish automobile manufacturer, estimates that the cost of generating new customers is three times the cost of retaining an existing customer. Satisfactory complaint management can create satisfied customers. The key figure mediating between a company and a customer with a complaint is, of course, the employee of the service organization. The role and performance of the employee will determine the success of a complaint handling process and the adequate service recovery. In order to be able to fulfil this goal, employees need to undergo training. Furthermore the management needs to develop a corporate [...]