'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.

'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.

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.

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.

Human Resource Management addresses the challenges faced by human resource managers, integrating traditional theory with real-world strategy to equip students with the knowledge, perspective, and skills they need to thrive in the ever-changing global business environment. Presented in a clear and relatable style, this text emphasizes how effective human resource management and strategic planning work in concert to allow organizations to achieve maximum success. The focus on practical application illustrates the essential link between strategic planning and implementation, providing an inside look at how real-world companies increase effectiveness through world-class human resources management practices. A wealth of case studies, discussion topics, and exercises reinforce key concepts, strengthening students' ability to think strategically and integrate core HR management principles into the decision-making process. By mirroring the current landscape's increased reliance on smart people-management strategy, this text underscores the importance of HR management in attracting and retaining the top talent that drives an organization forward.

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 hospitality and tourism sector is an increasingly significant contributor to GDP worldwide, as well as a key source of employment in developing regions. Drawing on contemporary research, this Handbook provides a provocative review of the major human resource challenges facing the hospitality and tourism sector today.

Human Resource Management for Events is the first text to cover management of human resources in the event environment. Linking theory, research and application it covers the differing and various types of event in which human resource management is key, such as: * Business Events - a vast sector including events people who manage conferences, exhibitions, incentive trips and individual business travel. * Sporting Events - this sector includes sporting events ranging from the Olympic Games, Rugby World Cup, Soccer World Cup, Tour de France, Grand Prix to many smaller, local sporting events. * Arts and Entertainment - the logistics, risk and financial issues facing entertainment events are leading to the development of more sophisticated operational skills for this sector. Music festivals are increasingly popular. * Public Events - civic ceremonies, parades, celebrations, festivals and protests all fall within the scope of public events. Planning, approval and risk management are increasingly on the agenda for all levels of government. The particular challenges provided by such events are varied. The size of the workforce explodes at the time of the event to include the event management team, many paid staff, hundreds of volunteers and multiple contractors, such as food vendors and cleaning teams. Everyone working on the site comes into the scope of the event workforce. Little time is available for training and motivation plays a key role in retention and customer service. Decision making occurs on the run and the event is over before anyone can think about performance appraisal. The environment is further characterised by a fast pace, high stress levels and many workers are fatigued by the bump in period before the event audience pours through the gates to add yet another level of pressure. These features of the human resources environment are quite different to those of the traditional workforce. Human Resource Management for Events is vital reading for both students and practitioners involved in this crucially important aspect of event management.