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The service economy is now the largest portion of the industrialized world's economic activity. This development has dramatically raised the importance of maximizing productivity excellence in service organizations. The need for productivity excellence has led service organization managers to use benchmarking techniques to identify and adopt best practices in their organizations. Benchmarking has enabled service organizations to continuously improve by allowing service units to learn from methods that prove the most efficient and effective. Service Productivity Management systematically explores complex service issues and suggests the most appropriate methods to improve service productivity, quality, and profitability. The book provides insights and methods to answer questions on a range of productivity issues: How do you manage profitability of a network of hundreds or thousands of branch offices disbursed over several states and countries? How can managed-care organizations manage the quality and cost of hundreds of physicians providing health services to millions of plan members? What methods would enable a government to ensure that the multiple offices serving citizens across a country are operating at low cost while meeting the required service quality? Each of these service settings are examples of the many service providers that deliver a complex set of services to a widely diversified set of customers. . Service Productivity Management is an in-depth guide to using the most powerful available benchmarking technique to improve service organization performance — Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The underlying concepts that drive DEA and enable it to increase productivity and profitability of service organizations are explained in non-technical language. It describes how DEA: (1) Identifies best practice service units; (2) Exposes high cost inefficient service units; (3) Identifies specific changes to each service unit to elevate performance to the best practice level that provides high quality service at low cost; and most important, (4) Guides the improvement process. Use of basic and advanced DEA methods are all supported by case-study applications of organizations that have successfully improved their performance. The techniques discussed in the book are accessible to all managers with access to Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet software (Excel). The book provides step-by-step guidance to enable the reader to apply DEA and Excel software to their organization. DEAFrontier is a Microsoft® Excel Add-in designed to run DEA analyses on any set of organizations of interest to the reader. For a free trial version of the DEAFrontier software, please visit www.deafrontier.com.

Service industries --- Data envelopment analysis. --- Labor productivity. --- Management. --- DEA (Data envelopment analysis) --- Linear programming --- Multivariate analysis --- Industrial management --- Industries --- Industrial productivity. --- Operations research. --- Econometrics. --- Engineering economy. --- Industrial engineering. --- Business. --- Operations Research/Decision Theory. --- Engineering Economics, Organization, Logistics, Marketing. --- Industrial and Production Engineering. --- Business and Management, general. --- Trade --- Economics --- Management --- Commerce --- Management engineering --- Simplification in industry --- Engineering --- Value analysis (Cost control) --- Economy, Engineering --- Engineering economics --- Industrial engineering --- Economics, Mathematical --- Statistics --- Administration --- Industrial relations --- Organization --- Operational analysis --- Operational research --- Management science --- Research --- System theory --- Decision making. --- Engineering economics. --- Production engineering. --- Management science. --- Quantitative business analysis --- Problem solving --- Operations research --- Statistical decision --- Manufacturing engineering --- Process engineering --- Mechanical engineering --- Deciding --- Decision (Psychology) --- Decision analysis --- Decision processes --- Making decisions --- Management decisions --- Choice (Psychology) --- Decision making

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Robert C. Solomon, who died in 2007, was Professor of Philosophy and Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Business at the University of Texas, USA. As the first book comprehensively to examine the breadth of Solomon’s contribution to philosophy, this volume ranks as a vital addition to the literature. It includes a newly published transcript of Solomon’s last talk, which responded to Arindam Chakrabarti on the concept of revenge, as well as the considered views of prominent figures in the numerous subfields in which Solomon worked. The content analyses his perspectives on the philosophy of emotion, virtue, business ethics, and religion, in addition to philosophical history, existentialism, and the many other topics that held this prolific thinker’s attention.     Solomon memorably defined philosophy itself as ‘the thoughtful love of life’,  and despite the diversity of his output, he was most drawn by central questions about the meaning of life,  the essential role that emotions play in finding that meaning, and the human imperative to seek ‘emotional integrity’,  in which one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions all contribute to a coherent narrative. The essays included here draw attention to the interconnections between the issues Solomon addressed, and evince the manner in which he embodied that integrity, living a life at one with his philosophy. They emphasize the central themes of passion, ethics, and spirituality, which threaded through his work, and the way these ideas informed his views on how we should approach grief and death. The multiplicity of topics alone make this keystone work an enlightening read for a full spectrum of students of philosophy, providing much to ponder and recounting a subtle and shining example of the emotional integrity Solomon worked so hard to define.

Philosophy (General). --- Philosophy, American -- 20th century. --- Philosophy, American -- 21st century. --- Solomon, Robert C. --- Philosophy & Religion --- Philosophy --- Emotions (Philosophy) --- Meaning (Philosophy) --- Spirituality. --- Spiritual-mindedness --- Philosophy. --- Philosophy of mind. --- Religion --- Philosophy, Asian. --- Personality. --- Social psychology. --- Philosophy of Man. --- Personality and Social Psychology. --- Philosophy of Religion. --- Philosophy of Mind. --- Non-Western Philosophy. --- Spiritual life --- Semantics (Philosophy) --- Consciousness. --- Asian philosophy --- Oriental philosophy --- Philosophy, Oriental --- Mind, Philosophy of --- Mind, Theory of --- Theory of mind --- Cognitive science --- Metaphysics --- Philosophical anthropology --- Apperception --- Mind and body --- Perception --- Psychology --- Spirit --- Self --- Mental philosophy --- Humanities --- Religion—Philosophy. --- Mass psychology --- Psychology, Social --- Human ecology --- Social groups --- Sociology --- Personal identity --- Personality psychology --- Personality theory --- Personality traits --- Personology --- Traits, Personality --- Individuality --- Persons --- Temperament --- Spirituality --- Self. --- Difference (Psychology). --- Philosophy, Modern. --- Philosophy of the Self. --- Personality and Differential Psychology. --- Philosophical Traditions. --- Modern philosophy --- Differential psychology --- Psychology, Differential --- Differentiation (Developmental psychology) --- Consciousness --- Personality --- Thought and thinking --- Will

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