The introduction of quality management to Local Authority leisure services

In the last decade, local authority leisure managers of the United Kingdom have operated in a constantly changing environment brought about by legislation, an ongoing increase in competition and increasing consumerism. Public sector leisure professionals have had to develop management strategies that not only allowed them to conform to legislative changes, but were flexible enough to respond to rapid increases in competition and customer expectations. One of the responses to this changing context has been the introduction of quality programmes into the management of public leisure facilities. This thesis establishes and investigates the rationale for the use of quality management as a management strategy within the public leisure sector. The research has three key objectives. (1) To establish what senior local authority leisure professionals consider to be the influences on the use of quality and quality programmes in local authority leisure facilities. (2) To establish how senior local authority leisure professionals conceptualise quality and quality management. (3) To establish what role these professionals played in the adoption of quality programmes within their local authority leisure facilities. [Continues.]