Effective Multi-Unit Leadership and International Multi-Unit Leadership

Multi-site service organizations are economically significant, but under-researched and poorly understood. Chris Edger looks at that key managerial cohort in the retail, hospitality and service sectors operating between the centre and unit - the Multi-Unit Leader (MUL). This district, area or regional manager, is tasked with maximising revenue and profit from a complex and ambiguous positional space. Sandwiched between the centre and the unit they need to motivate unit managers and team members to provide great service whilst simultaneously fulfilling the Centre's compliance agenda. Based on extensive case study research across multi-unit service organisations in developed economies this first book is an essential guide to the 'art and science' of Effective Multi-Unit Leadership. Edger provides an Integrated Model of MUL that explains how key activities (sales-led service, systems and standards) are driven through behavioural practices (commitment, control and change) underpinned by MUL personal characteristics (expertise, emotional intelligence and energy). Central to this is 'portfolio optimisation through social exchange' (POSE) where MULs apply 'local leadership', leveraging their portfolios through the deft application of exchange-based currencies. The second book, International Multi-Unit Leadership, takes a broader cross-border perspective on 'leading from the middle' in international subsidiaries that are committing significant capital to land-based infrastructures in emerging markets. It captures the zeitgeist of internationalizing hospitality, retail, service and leisure organizations facing enormous challenges in relation to multi-channel/smart technology spread, divergent national cultures and emergent, imitative local competition, and addresses how to generate commitment amongst unit managers and team members, whilst coping with their firm's country of origin-based control agendas.