Hospitality Management 18 (1999) 323}328
Book reviews
Empowering Service Excellence } Beyond the Quick Fix, Conrad Lashley. Cassell,
London, 1997, (HB), ISBN 0 304 33166X, &40.00, (PB), ISBN 0 304 33169 4, &16.00
Conrad Lashley has produced an accessible and wide-ranging text on employee
empowerment, a subject about which there exists much rhetoric but little understand-
ing. In recent years the concept of empowerment has often been hailed, by academics
and practitioners alike, as a panacea to many service sector ills. This text is the "rst
to launch a detailed critical appraisal of this claim. As well as examining related
academic literature, and highlighting its inadequacies, it includes analysis of the
nature of empowerment in a number of service organisations. This should enable
readers to more easily envisage its practical application.
Chapter 1 introduces a number of themes that are examined in more detail later in
the text. The discussion centres on de"nitions of empowerment and analysis of its
potential bene"ts. The author draws attention to the di$culties inherent in "nding an
agreed de"nition, which result primarily from commentators' di!erent views on its
nature and purpose. Despite such di!erences of opinion the text highlights, and
provides critical analysis of, underpinning assumptions on which there is widespread
agreement. In summary, that empowerment can o!er a means of breaking from
traditional directive forms of management to ones that engender employee commit-
ment, with all the organisational bene"ts which this implies. The author tempers the
more evangelical claims made on behalf of empowerment on two levels. Firstly, that
much of the literature relating to its potential bene"ts is uncritical. Secondly, that the
concept is based on acceptance of a unitarist perspective of employee relations. The
chapter includes an examination of the extent to which this may be a naive manner to
view the employment relationship.
In Chapter 2 Lashley provides a frame of reference which forms the basis for his
analysis in subsequent chapters. It is clear that he does not view empowerment as
a revolutionary concept, but rather places it in the context of a series of strategies
which have been adopted in attempts to improve organisational e!ectiveness through
the e$cient management of human resources. This is one of the key strengths of this
text. By relating empowerment to employee participation, employee involvement and
industrial democracy the author successfully demonstrates speci"c means by which it
can be applied and its potential resultant bene"ts. This section of the text is further
enhanced through the analysis of di!erent forms of empowerment which have been
adopted in particular service organisations. This case-study approach enables the
reader to view it as more than just an academic proposition.
In Chapter 6 Lashley examines areas of work activity in which change is likely to be
required should empowerment be introduced. He categorises such areas and provides