Hello again, I may change my last attempt at a research question and go back to my original as it interests me more. My question to you is this....can you name a field that has the same interpersonal factors as those of a private club manager? Namely, where the owner (club member) is also the customer. This customer dictates the pricing, objectives, rules, etc. Now, what I want to investigate is how this relationship works for the manager who has to live up to the expectations set forth by the membership and board. For example, what happens when the pricing set does not correlate with the budget; how does the manager reconcile the two and how does he feel about it? Does it cause conflict to the point of quitting, being terminated, etc. There is a very high turnover rate in the industry and my hypothesis is two-fold; that the expectations of the membership are often unrealistic and that 'familiarity breeds contempt'. Any other industries where this is present? I can come up with coaching sports teams and the clergy but they primarily deal with issue #2. The clergy may be responsible for revenue to a degree but not in the same way. I would like to draw some similarities with another industry if possible. If not, that is OK too as there is precious little analysis of the private club business and I would like to spearhead it. BTW, I have all but settled on UNISA.
I should have thought of the HOA thing.... thanks for that. I don't know much about co-ops but will check it out. Thanks......keep 'em coming!
Another thought is an investment "club". Each member allocates an amount of money to the investment club with most clubs having one person designated as the club manager. I'm not sure that this matches your problem exactly, but I've been involved in a few clubs and all have had high turnover because returns weren't high enough for them and they blamed the other club members and the club manager.
You realize that this is a fundamental economic problem, right? My only two cents are that this is a fundamental flaw evidenced in economics in general rather than being specific to any industry or type of company. This is known in the literature as the principle-agent problem in which the principle (who is the employer) will have distinctly different goals and needs than the agent (who is the employee). Since they have different goals and needs their behaviors will be different as well. One example of the principle-agent problem would be government officials who have been hired as agents for the American people (the principles in this example) to do a specific job. These officials want to be reelected or to be paid more or to be respected and revered. The American people want say, a decrease in the number of illegal aliens or a less expensive public health care system. These needs may be mutually exclusive. We typically provide inducements to help prevent this type of flaw. You can review: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal-agent_problem (for an excellent formal discussion by someone with too much time on their hands) http://www.tutor2u.net/economics/content/topics/buseconomics/principal_agent.htm (for a good laymans discussion) http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/agent.htm (I don't remember this one) Anyway, I'm sure you are fully aware of this but, if not the underlying theory will really help. Sincerely, Jacob
