LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Services play a significant role in the economy of the United States. The service sector employs 70 percent of the work force and contributes about 70 percent of the Gross National Product.

Dr. Cengiz Haksever (left) of Plainsboro, professor of management sciences at Rider University, is examining the issues and challenges of services management during his paid research leave this fall as he serves as one of the authors of the second edition of Services Operations Management, a Prentice Hall publication.

Dr. Haksever will be writing several new chapters and revising and expanding some of the existing chapters. About 50 percent of the book will consist of new material, he said.

Co-authors will be Dr. Barry Render, Charles Harwood professor of operations management at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, and Dr. Roberta S. Russel, a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. They served as two of the three authors for the book's first edition.

"College of business administration have been paying more attention to issues and challenges of service management and consequently paying more attention to issues and challenges of service management," said Dr. Haksever, who teaches a graduate level course, Service Operations Management, at Rider

In 1995, the American Society of Quality Control (ASQC) certified Dr. Haksever as a quality engineer which reflects his high level of expertise in the field. He has also served as an examiner for the New jersey Quality Achievement Awards.

Highlighting his Rider teaching career which began in 1990 is his selection as a Fulbright grant recipient in 1993-94 to lecture on operation management at Marmara University in Turkey. He is one of nine Rider faculty members who have received Fulbright awards.

In addition, Dr. Haksever, who holds a Ph.D. in operations research from the University of Texas, served as guest editor for a special 1996 issue of Computers & Operations Research, an international journal. He also published an article, "Total Quality Management in the Small Business Environment," that appeared in the April 1996 issue of Business Horizons.