'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.

Conrad Lashley

Chapter 1 Understanding empowerment: a framework of analysis; Chapter 2 The psychology of empowerment; Chapter 3 The relational dimension of empowerment; Chapter 4 Forms of empowerment through participation; Chapter 5 Forms of empowerment through involvement; Chapter 6 Forms of empowerment through commitment; Chapter 7 Forms of empowerment and delayering; Chapter 8 Changes in working arrangements; Chapter 9 Feeling empowered; Chapter 10 Improved business performance; Chapter 11 Empowerment and service quality management; Chapter 12 Employment strategy and the service organization; Chapter 13 Empowerment: another flash in the panaceas?;