Customer Service Management in Africa: A Strategic and Operational Perspective (978-0-367-14337-4, K410515) "Customer Service is Changing!" The message of 34 authors featured in Customer Service Management in Africa: A Strategic and Operational Perspective is clear: Today's consumers are no longer 'passive audiences' but 'active players' that engage with businesses at each stage of product or service design and delivery systems. Consumer demands and expectations are also increasingly being dictated by changing personal preferences, enhanced access to information and expanding digital reality. The customer service principles - strategic and operational - advocated by these authors are universal, but particularly compelling as they apply to Africa's unique and dynamic operating environment. In recognition of the importance of excellent customer service, this comprehensive and well-timed book provides an essential guide on the increasing role of the customer to business success. This book discusses the management and delivery of customer service under seven broad themes: Customer Service as Shared Value, Customer Service Strategy, Customer Service Systems, Customer Service Style, Customer Service Culture, Customer Service Skills and Customer Experience - Advancing Customer Service in Africa. Central questions posed and addressed include: What is the new definition of customer service management? How should organisations position themselves to create value for customers and stakeholders? How should employees project themselves to align with customer service promises made by their organisations? Overall, this book provides strategic and operational insights into effective customer service management in Africa. The customer service management concepts, roles and practices outlined, particularly as they apply to the African context, make it an important addition to scholars' or practitioners' reference works.

The second edition of Jews, Christians, Muslims: A Comparative Introduction to Monotheistic Religions, compares Judaism, Christianity, and Islam using seven common themes which are equally relevant to each tradition. Provoking critical thinking, this text addresses the cultural framework of religious meanings and explores the similarities and differences among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as it explains the ongoing process of interpretation in each religion. The book is designed for courses in Western and World Religions.

Strategies, Leadership and Complexity in Crisis and Emergency Operations will bring together the main themes of strategy, operational leadership, organizational dynamics and complexity in the context of crisis and emergency operations; creating a book that is timely and relevant for research and leadership in emergency services, the police, military and other organizations involved in operations in highly dynamic and critical contexts. Based on two recent Scandinavian cases, Strategies, Leadership and Complexity in Crisis and Emergency Operations identifies theoretically generalizable dimensions in the discussion of emerging strategies and leadership in complex, uncertain and dynamic situations during crisis and emergency operations. The book will offer original material and discussions from these cases on how strategies, leadership and organizational dynamics evolve during crisis and emergency operations - and further link these to existing international cases and research In light of theories and fields of knowledge emphasising complex organizational dynamics, discussions are coupled with examples from different organizations and countries. The knowledge fields draw on a wide range of new organizational complexity research, and insights from more established work. The intention is to integrate established and recent organizational research in order to understand dynamic practices of organizations during crisis and emergency operations.

Bureaucracy has long been a cornerstone of advanced industrial societies, and a defining feature of modernity. At the same time, many commentators from all quarters argue that it is on the wane in this post-this or that world; or that if it isn't, it should be dismantled to free up organizations, enterprise, and innovation. But do we live in a more or less bureaucratic world? Do contemporary forms and means of communication undermine or modify bureaucracy, or does technology create new 'iron cages' and forms of control? If bureaucratic models of organization are abandoned, do we run risks of organizational failure and inequity? Are there certain moral, professional, and social values associated with bureaucratic models? This book explores these issues in different organizational contexts - public administration, the National Health Service, the modern firm and corporation - and offers new insights into enduring questions. It will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers, and students in organization studies, management, public administration, and sociology. The volume will also appeal to managers, planners, and policy makers who deal with these challenges.

The statutory duty of public service ombudsmen (PSO) is to investigate claims of injustice caused by maladministration in the provision of public services. This book examines the modern role of the ombudsman within the overall emerging system of administrative justice and makes recommendations as to how PSO should optimize their potential within the wider administrative justice context. Recent developments are discussed and long standing questions that have yet to be adequately resolved in the ombudsman community are re-evaluated given broader changes in the administrative justice sector. The work balances theory and empirical research conducted in a number of common law countries. Although there has been much debate within the ombudsman community in recent years aimed at developing and improving the practice of ombudsmanry, this work represents a significant advance on current academic understanding of the discipline.

Regulatory change is typically understood as a response to significant crises like the Great Depression, or salient events that focus public attention, like Earth Day 1970. Without discounting the importance of these kinds of events, change often assumes more gradual and less visible forms. But how do we 'see' change, and what institutions and processes are behind it? In this book, author Marc Eisner brings these questions to bear on the analysis of regulatory change, walking the reader through a clear-eyed and careful examination of: the dynamics of regulatory change since the 1970s social regulation and institutional design forms of gradual change - including conversion, layering, and drift gridlock, polarization, and the privatization of regulation financial collapse and the anatomy of regulatory failure Demonstrating that transparency and accountability - the hallmarks of public regulation - are increasingly absent, and that deregulation was but one factor in our most recent significant financial collapse, the Great Recession, this book urges readers to look beyond deregulation and consider the broader political implications for our current system of voluntary participation in regulatory programs and the proliferation of public-private partnerships. This book provides an accessible introduction to the complex topic of regulatory politics, ideal for upper-level and graduate courses on regulation, government and business, bureaucratic politics, and public policy.

This book enumerates the purpose of clinical audit, the continuing value of clinical audit in a changing world of healthcare, and key issues and the key principles of audit practice. It sets out the core practical methodology of clinical audit, making clear how to conduct an audit project.

Good teamwork ensures the close collaboration and coordination between professional groups and across disciplinary boundaries. This is particularly important in healthcare centres and clinics admitting complicated patient cases, but contrary to what many healthcare organisations seem to believe, effective teamwork does not happen automatically. It needs to be successfully trained and practiced. Teamwork in Medical Rehabilitation provides a guide to efficient teamwork in professional healthcare. Showcasing the practice of medical rehabilitation in Sweden, the book describes how to create, develop, nourish and organise a team. Medical rehabilitation in Sweden is a discipline filled by not only doctors and nurses, but also physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, speech therapists and dieticians. Using these multi-professional teams as clinical case studies, the book contains many practical examples from different rehabilitation care areas. This book will prove to be invaluable to healthcare professionals and students as effective collaboration is essential to good clinical outcomes. Managers will also find this a worthy read thanks to its understanding of how working conditions affect good teamwork.

The present Korean public administration and policy system has shown very significant differences compared to the system in 1970s. This book provides a comprehensive and holistic view on the development of Korean public policy and administration. Instead of dichotomizing the policy and administration, this book integrates two fields to provide a more holistic view on the Korean public sector. The book also attempts to overcome simplified explanations on the developmental state theory. The book aims to explain who the key actors are during the post-democratization period, how the administrative systems reform, and what kinds of social problems are transformed into public policies. This explanation suggests that the role of government shifts from a dominant actor to an actor within a complex network governance. This book will be a useful reference to anyone who wishes to learn more about the experience of the Korean development and the role of administration and policy.

Regulatory change is typically understood as a response to significant crises like the Great Depression, or salient events that focus public attention, like Earth Day 1970. Without discounting the importance of these kinds of events, change often assumes more gradual and less visible forms. But how do we 'see' change, and what institutions and processes are behind it? In this book, author Marc Eisner brings these questions to bear on the analysis of regulatory change, walking the reader through a clear-eyed and careful examination of: the dynamics of regulatory change since the 1970s social regulation and institutional design forms of gradual change - including conversion, layering, and drift gridlock, polarization, and the privatization of regulation financial collapse and the anatomy of regulatory failure Demonstrating that transparency and accountability - the hallmarks of public regulation - are increasingly absent, and that deregulation was but one factor in our most recent significant financial collapse, the Great Recession, this book urges readers to look beyond deregulation and consider the broader political implications for our current system of voluntary participation in regulatory programs and the proliferation of public-private partnerships. This book provides an accessible introduction to the complex topic of regulatory politics, ideal for upper-level and graduate courses on regulation, government and business, bureaucratic politics, and public policy.

Ethics in Public Policy and Management: A global research companion showcases the latest research from established and newly emerging scholars in the fields of public management and ethics. This collection examines the profound changes of the last 25 years, including the rise of New Public Management, New Public Governance and Public Value; how these have altered practitioners' delivery of public services; and how academics think about those services. Drawing on research from a broad range of disciplines, Ethics in Public Policy and Management looks to reflect on this changing landscape. With contributions from Asia, Australasia, Europe and the USA, the collection is grouped into five main themes: theorising the practice of ethics; understanding and combating corruption; managing integrity; ethics across boundaries; expanding ethical policy domains. This volume will prove thought-provoking for educators, administrators, policy makers and researchers across the fields of public management, public administration and ethics.

Since 2008, the world has experienced an enormous decrease of wealth. By many measures the impact of the crisis was severe. The fall in GDP, the collapse of world trade, the rise in unemployment, and the credit slump reached bigger proportions than in any other crisis since World War II. Although the economic figures seem to improve in some countries, the crisis continues being a challenging issue and is said to be one of the most important problems governments face today. The crisis has put public finances under ever increasing pressure, and governments have responded through austerity measures such as new fiscal rules and budgeting procedures and cutbacks of public spending. Public Management in Times of Austerity seeks to explore the austerity policies adopted by European governments and their consequences to public management. It asks how governments have implemented new rules leading to more stringency in public budgeting and financial management, and how they have cut back public expenditure. These questions are examined comparatively through case studies in different parts of Europe, and variations across countries are discussed and explained. Throughout the volume, the consequences of the crisis and austerity policies for public management are discussed. What is the relationship between crisis and decision-making in the public sector, and how does austerity affect public-sector organisation? As the previous crisis in the 1970s resulted in a major reform movement, which was later referred to as New Public Management, Public Management in Times of Austerity look to understand whether the current crisis also leads to a wave of public management reform, and if so what is the content of this?

This book is part of a series of titles that are a spin-off of the Shingo Prize-winning book Leveraging Lean in Healthcare: Transforming Your Enterprise into a High Quality Patient Care Delivery System. Each book in the series focuses on a specific aspect of healthcare that has demonstrated significant process and quality improvements after a Lean implementation.Emergency departments have become notorious for long wait times and questionable quality of care. By adopting Lean manufacturing concepts, hospitals can turn the emergency department into a valuable service for the hospital and the community it serves.Leveraging Lean in the Emergency Department: Creating a Cost Effective, Standardized, High Quality, Patient-Focused Operation supplies a functional understanding of Lean emergency department processes and quality improvement techniques. It is ideal for healthcare executives, leaders, process improvement team members, and inquisitive frontline workers who want to implement and leverage Lean.Supplying detailed descriptions of Lean tools and methodologies, the book identifies powerful Lean solutions specific to the needs of the emergency department. The first section provides an overview of Lean concepts, tools, methodologies, and applications.The second section focuses on the application of Lean in the emergency department within the confines of the hospital or clinic. Presenting numerous examples, stories, case studies, and lessons learned, it examines the normal operation of each area in emergency departments and highlights the areas where typical problems occur.Next, the book walks readers through various Lean initiatives and demonstrates how Lean tools and concepts have been used to achieve lasting improvements to processes and quality of care. It also supplies actionable blueprints that readers can duplicate or modify for use in their own institutions. Illustrating leadership's role i

Organizations around the world are using Lean to redesign care and improve processes in a way that achieves and sustains meaningful results for patients, staff, physicians, and health systems. Lean Hospitals, Third Edition explains how to use the Lean methodology and mindsets to improve safety, quality, access, and morale while reducing costs, increasing capacity, and strengthening the long-term bottom line.This updated edition of a Shingo Research Award recipient begins with an overview of Lean methods. It explains how Lean practices can help reduce various frustrations for caregivers, prevent delays and harm for patients, and improve the long-term health of your organization.The second edition of this book presented new material on identifying waste, A3 problem solving, engaging employees in continuous improvement, and strategy deployment. This third edition adds new sections on structured Lean problem solving methods (including Toyota Kata), Lean Design, and other topics. Additional examples, case studies, and explanations are also included throughout the book.Mark Graban is also the co-author, with Joe Swartz, of the book Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Frontline Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements, which is also a Shingo Research Award recipient. Mark and Joe also wrote The Executive's Guide to Healthcare Kaizen.

This book is part of a series of titles that are a spin-off of the Shingo Prize-winning book Leveraging Lean in Healthcare: Transforming Your Enterprise into a High Quality Patient Care Delivery System. Each book in the series focuses on a specific aspect of healthcare that has demonstrated significant process and quality improvements after a Lean implementation.There are many departments within a hospital that support the primary function of caregiving and each can benefit from implementing Lean methodologies. Leveraging Lean in Ancillary Hospital Services: Creating a Cost Effective, Standardized, High Quality, Patient-Focused Operation provides a functional understanding of Lean processes and quality improvement techniques in nutritional services, inpatient floors, pharmacy, and radiology.This book is ideal for healthcare executives, leaders, process improvement team members, and inquisitive frontline workers who want to implement and leverage Lean. Supplying detailed descriptions of Lean tools and methodologies, it identifies powerful Lean solutions specific to the needs of ancillary hospital services.The first section provides an overview of Lean concepts, tools, methodologies, and applications. The second section focuses on the application of Lean in the ancillary hospital services environment. Presenting numerous examples, stories, case studies, and lessons learned, it examines the normal operation of each area in radiology, pharmacy, and nutritional services and highlights the areas where typical problems occur.The case studies walk readers through various Lean initiatives and demonstrate how Lean tools and concepts have been used to achieve lasting improvements to processes and quality of care. It also introduces actionable blueprints that readers can duplicate or modify for use in their own institutions.Illustrating leadership's role in achieving departmental goals, this book will provide yo

Close collaboration across agencies and international borders is mandatory for public health officials. A powerful tool for sharing knowledge, knowledge management (KM) can help public health professionals quickly collaborate and disseminate knowledge for solving public health issues worldwide. The latest initiatives for reforming healthcare have put the spotlight on the need for maximizing resources. In addition to providing a platform for sharing knowledge, KM can help healthcare professionals do more with less. One tool, two problems solved. Yet the sharing of knowledge and KM continues to be a major challenge in the public health field. Knowledge Management in Public Health provides a general introduction to KM and social networking in the public health arena. The book begins with coverage of basic principles, components, and methodologies as well as trends and key issues in public health. It includes ten case studies illustrating applications of KM and social networking in public health. The chapters are written by leading individuals from organizations involved in applying KM in public health worldwide. The editors and chapter authors explore the many elements of KM, delineating how and why to start such an initiative. They provide specific examples of the development and value-added benefits of KM in a variety of public health environments. Tough or quick decision making has always benefitted enormously from knowledge based on the maximum amount of pertinent information available at the time-this has not changed. What is new in the present public health environment is the need to do this more often, with fewer personnel available, and increased expectations relative to the services expected by the public. Better use of information under a KM system is well suited to serve that purpose. This book explores the many ways to use KM to anticipate potential health issues and quickly resolve key incidents when they occur.

Although co-design has been practised in new service and product development for some years, it has only recently begun to appear in the burgeoning field of social innovation. It appears to be well-attuned to this new context, offering as it does an open-ended relational process to generate novel solutions to problems whose very definition seems to escape more conventional approaches. However, even less research attention has been paid to co-design than to social innovation. This book explores the potential of co-design as a social innovation process. It reviews the diverse theoretical and disciplinary foundations on which co-design is based. It proposes a framework for understanding co-design as a cohesive practice across the extremely broad scope of its potential applications. It explores appropriate approaches to governance and evaluation of co-design initiatives and outlines the key issues and limitations on its use. Although it is intended to provide a robust theoretical basis for researching co-design initiatives, it will also be of interest to anyone who is contemplating putting co-design into practice.

Over the past forty years, numerous theoretical advances have been made. From Ayres' and Braithwaite's ground breaking work on 'responsive regulation', we have seen models of 'smart regulation', 'regulatory governance' and 'regulatory capitalism' emerge to capture the growing prevalence and importance of regulation in modern liberal Western capitalist societies. Important advances also have been made in the practice of regulation, with regulators evolving from traditional enforcement focussed 'command and control' models to being 'modern regulators' with a suite of diverse and innovative regulatory tools at their disposal. The book presents and critically examines these theoretical and practical developments from the perspective of governments who design regulations, and the regulators that deploy them. In doing so, the book examines the various forces and interests that influence and shape the regulatory endeavour, and the practical challenges facing governments and regulators when deciding whether and how to regulate. This volume is a study of regulation in context: in the context of the public policy it is designed to deliver; the law that enables, shapes and holds it to account; and the evolving societal and institutional frameworks within which it takes place. Aimed to provide innovative cross-disciplinary conceptual frameworks that regulators, regulatees, those whom regulation is intended to benefit, and academics, might employ to better understand and undertake the regulatory endeavour. This will be of great interest to researchers, educators, advanced students and practitioners working in the fields of political science, public management and administration, and public policy. .

Successful change in the public sector can be supported or hindered by political and administrative leadership, individual and group motivation, and the public's perception of the effectiveness of public officials and government structures. But do the very characteristics of public sector organizations present obstacles to successful transformative change? This book assesses the current state of the literature on leadership and change in government and public policy, and introduces the reader to innovative new ways to demonstrate leadership in times of change. Contributions from accomplished scholars in the field cover the traditional public administration areas of performance and management, as well as the diversity of issues that surround public leadership and change, both domestic and global. Chapters on public sector innovation, performance leadership, governance networks, complexity in disaster management, change initiatives in educational systems and local government, citizen advisory bodies, and gender and race equality, to name but a few, provide important case studies throughout the volume. Leadership and Change in Public Sector Organizations will be required reading for upper level undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration/management, leadership, and public policy analysis.

Fraud, corruption and bribery in and around public services have become an increasing concern in recent years. The reported level of fraud and corruption affecting the public sector has remained unacceptably high despite numerous national and international initiatives intended to tackle these crimes and their consequences. Fraud and Corruption in Public Services is a definitive, practical guide to the diverse risks that arise in central and local government. There is guidance on civil and criminal law around fraud, bribery and corruption as well as the national and international governmental measures and initiatives for countering this form of criminality. Most importantly of all, the book offers advice, practical examples and strategies for preventing and combating fraud, bribery and corruption. The text is readable, well-informed and intensely practical; illustrated throughout with real-life examples from the author's 40 year career.

Planning a new or refurbished public library means considering not only facilities for collections, services, staff and users, but examining also the local context, reviewing the library image, and developing relationships with other community facilities and agencies. This book examines the entire gamut of challenges confronting the planning and development of contemporary public libraries; their mission, their roles, and key issues such as lifelong learning, social inclusion, community and cultural needs, regeneration and funding. The helpful presentation and readable style guides the librarian through the preliminary information-gathering and decision-making process that ensures a successful library building for all concerned. Using practical case studies, plans and photographs, the author tackles the critical issues of siting, size, plans and design concepts, and provides a helpful guide to weighing up the alternatives of refurbished, converted and new buildings. Separate chapters focus on the planning, briefing and construction process; security, safety and sustainability; key characteristics of successful buildings; identity, decor and signage; and interior layout and facilities. The text draws together a vast resource of real library examples from all over the world which provide best practice models and lessons to learn. For funding authorities, librarians and architects of public libraries this is a highly informative book that will help to ensure wise decision-making and prevent costly mistakes.

The purpose of this book is to formulate economic models of the advantages and costs of transparency in various areas of public sector activity and to assess what level of obfuscation in politics is rational. The chapters are arranged in four parts. Part 1 is concerned with the manifestations of transparency and obfuscation in domestic democratic settings whilst Part 2 deals with the same realities but in an international context. Part 3 looks at corruption and Part 4 considers some of the implications of transparency and obfuscation for the working of governments and the formulation of public policies.

The first edition of Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety took the medical and ergonomics communities by storm with in-depth coverage of human factors and ergonomics research, concepts, theories, models, methods, and interventions and how they can be applied in health care. Other books focus on particular human factors and ergonomics issues such as human error or design of medical devices or a specific application such as emergency medicine. This book draws on both areas to provide a compendium of human factors and ergonomics issues relevant to health care and patient safety. The second edition takes a more practical approach with coverage of methods, interventions, and applications and a greater range of domains such as medication safety, surgery, anesthesia, and infection prevention. New topics include: work schedules error recovery telemedicine workflow analysis simulation health information technology development and design patient safety management Reflecting developments and advances in the five years since the first edition, the book explores medical technology and telemedicine and puts a special emphasis on the contributions of human factors and ergonomics to the improvement of patient safety and quality of care. In order to take patient safety to the next level, collaboration between human factors professionals and health care providers must occur. This book brings both groups closer to achieving that goal.

Networks are made up of organizations. Often a central unit, or "Network Administrative Organization" (NAO), manages an entire network of organizations that collaborate to achieve an overall network-level goal. Goal-directed networks are those that come together to achieve a shared objective, in addition to the individual organization-specific goals. This book's focus is on the management of goal-directed networks. Despite the fact that formalized goal-directed interorganizational networks have become extremely popular in the public and nonprofit sectors, as many social problems require concerted action, publications on managing goal-directed networks do not exist. In this book, author Angel Saz-Carranza examines four networks that differ by size, scope, and geographical location. He offers a novel and innovative framework focusing on networks' inherent internal tensions between unity and diversity, paralleling the differentiation/integration tension found in organization theory, which has not previously been applied to interorganizational networks.

Responding to the public concern caused by recent hospital scandals and accounts of unintended harm to patients, this author draws on her experience of analysing the health care systems of over a dozen countries and examines whether greater regulation has increased patient safety and health care quality. The book adopts a new approach to mapping developments in health care systems in Europe, North America and Australia and pieces together evidence of which regulatory strategies and mechanisms work well to ensure safer patient care. It identifies the regulatory bodies, the regulatory principles and the implementation strategies adopted to improve governance in health care systems and suggests a conceptual framework for responsive regulation. The book will be of interest to government actors, health care professionals and medico-legal scholars.