Effective Multi-Unit Leadership: Local Leadership in Multi-Site Situations

There is a growing recognition of the increasing importance of `local leadership’ practice within multi-unit service contexts, given the threat to costly land-based retail infrastructures from smart technologies. Multi-site organizations are economically significant, but currently under-researched and poorly understood. In Effective Multi-Unit Leadership, 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, being sandwiched between the centre and unit, facing the MUL paradox: how do they 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 a range of multi-unit service organisations, Edger advances an Integrated Model of MUL that elucidates how key activities (sales-led service, systems and standards - 3Ss) are driven through behavioural practices (commitment, control and change - 3Cs) underpinned by MUL personal characteristics (expertise, emotional intelligence and energy - 3Es). Central to this model is the notion of `portfolio optimisation through social exchange’ (POSE) where MULs apply `local leadership’, leveraging their portfolios through the deft application of exchange-based currencies. Replete with case studies, Effective Multi-Unit Leadership will appeal to high potential unit managers; existing multi-unit leaders who want to improve their performance levels; and retail/service directors wishing to train and coach their direct reports; as well as business educators and those with an academic interest in organisational studies.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Part I Context of the Multi-Unit Enterprise: Introduction; Strategic responses to disruption. Part II Activities: Activities and issues. Part III Behavioural Practices: Generating commitment; Ensuring control; Implementing change. Part IV Characteristics: Personal characteristics; Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
Dr Chris Edger is Professor of Multi-Unit Leadership at the Academy of Multi-Unit Leadership (AMUL), Birmingham City Business School, Birmingham City University, UK. Concentrating exclusively on the art and science of effective 'local leadership' within multi-unit contexts, Professor Edger's teaching specialisms at AMUL are Service Leadership and Operational Improvement. He has a PhD from Warwick Business School (ESRC award), a DMS and MBA from Nottingham Business School, an MSc(econ) with distinction from the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Professor Edger has held Area, Regional and Executive Director positions in UK, US and European-owned multi-site Corporations. Latterly he was Group HR, Service and Productivity Director of Mitchells and Butlers Plc., the UK's leading casual dining operator (22 brands, 2,000 sites and 44,000 employees). In 2010 he and his HR team won the Personnel Today 'HR Impact of the Year' Award.

Review :
'For decades we have focused on what makes top leaders successful. [Chris] Edger has taken us to a different level and focuses on "leading from the middle". It is not the strategies that are necessarily wrong in under-performing multi-unit enterprises but rather the failure to consistently execute them. This book balances academic rigour with practical application ideas that can help companies to use this undervalued group of leaders more effectively.' Reg Sindall, Executive Vice President, Corporate Resources , Burberry plc 'This book offers an in-depth assessment of the pressures, challenges and changes facing those of us in multi-unit leadership, together with a framework for making sense of, and developing, our practical experience. Multi-unit leaders, working in constant tension between units and the centre, should read this book and then look again, as I did, at how they lead their teams to deliver results for customers and investors.' Ian Burke Chairman and Chief Executive, The Rank Group plc 'This book provides the definitive guide to successful Multi-Unit Leadership in Multiple Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Chains' Kevin Todd, President and Chief Executive of Rosinter Restaurants, Russia 'Effective Multi-Unit Leadership is a refreshingly engaged enquiry into an important and under-researched topic. In the vanguard of recent enquiries into the activities and practices of critical executives in large businesses, this book draws upon primary data and pithy examples from industry to identify key factors answering the question, "what makes a good multi-unit leader?'" These findings will be of great interest to academics and practitioners alike.' Duncan Angwin, Oxford Brookes University, UK 'Recommended reading...This book is a detailed and informative read, but its layout and organization of information means that it can be broken into units of learning. It can be used by ,ulti-unit leaders looking to improve their own performance or by those responsible for training regional or area managers.' Strategic HR Review, Vol 12, no 3, 2013 '...It is also a good pedagogical modelling tool in itself as it walks a potential MBA or doctoral candidate through the kind of academic exercise expected at that level. It also models the pedagogical approach of many MBA programmes where psychology and business theories are intertwined with real-world case studies or scenarios. There is certainly a potential readership for this particular book. No doubt its greatest appeal will be within structured business training programmes. It is also sufficiently accessible to appeal to the lone-wolf area manager searching for insights into particular problems and challenges...Overall this may prove to be one of the key books of its kind for this decade.' Anne Murphy, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland