Performance in the Hospitality Industry - Coursework Example

Performance in the Hospitality Industry Table of Content Serial Number and Topic Heading Page Number 0 Introduction 02 2.0 Executive Summary 03 3.0 The Industry 05 4.0 What Makes Them Tick? 07 5.0 Analysis 09 6.0 Conclusion 14 7.0 Bibliography 15 1.0 Introduction The hospitality industry is among the most exciting and high-profile white-collar jobs in the world. Right from the security officer to the General Manager, the employees of a hotel have to guard against any inconvenience caused to their guests. This means that despite certain objections or disrespect, all those employed in hotels have to maintain certain decorum of pleasantness and warmth. Such is their work ethic, that a shortfall on mannerism can have serious repercussion on the image and business of the hotel. The hotel industry is glamour personified, but at the same time, most pretentious. Just as much one admires the roles of their favourite actors on screen, the personnel in hotels have to act their part in the most trying and taxing conditions throughout the year. For, in the hospitality industry, there are no takes or retakes; once performed, there in no turning back. This makes the job of these personnel extremely difficult and mentally tough. We see that one often needs to present themselves in different ways in varying situations. The front office men and women are well-dressed and offer a glowing countenance every time a customer walks up to them, whether they like or not. A bartender may not be having the best of days, yet he/she will have to offer the kindest smile in the world, every time a stranger asks for a drink. A waiter or waitress may be having the worst day in their life, still they offer a towel or remark politely, “ Its OK Sir, I’ll have it cleaned up immediately,” when a customer throws up or spills a drink over the table. Welcome then to the hospitality industry, where all sorts of roles are played out day-in, day-out to keep their customers happy. Most often, these roles come with a script, a fixed message. 2.0 Executive Summary Considering the magnitude of personal involvement, the pressure to perform remains utmost important in organisations such as the hospitality and other service industries. Organisational Behaviour in Hotels and Restaurants are monitored to such an extent that unless the personnel perform to industry standards, they are most likely to lose business and name. Personal relations remain high on their agenda. A study of the industry suggests that performance is based on strong HR policies. One could study the following to understand the impact of personal supervision to understand the following: Why is it a work in some organisations pleasurable, and torturous in others? Why is it difficult to motivate employees to work hard? How can one person persuade a group to work as a team? Which is the best way of designing an organisational structure? Can one persuade his/her boss to listen to their ideas? (Guerrier, 2004). Motivation remains the biggest factor in making people perform. One can never get away from the fact that, man has and will continue to be fascinated by rewards and appreciation. Many hotels have come forward to openly recognize the best performer in the various departments of their hotel to encourage others to perform. Hotel personnel are stage performers, and to get the best out of them, there is nothing like showing the bait. ‘Role playing’ is what is enacted by these personnel right through their career in the hotel. The same may not be the case in real life, as their life at home or with friends. Similarly, Gorden Rumsay runs a program called, ‘hell kitchen.’ For outsiders, the feeling may be one of terror or bullish. He wants to be a perfectionist, and goes about shouting and screaming at his staff, with the occasional use of four-letter words to get his staff to perform. This may be his way to get the best from his staff. However, his staff and others around him may think of him to be arrogant and boisterous. This may be true at work, but needn’t be the same at home. That’s right! Mr. Rumsay may be acting in a way only he knows, to get the best out of the situation. Consider another situation. People working in a nightclub have to perform various acts to impress and attract customers to them. They can least afford to act indifferently to their customers, irrespective of their personal problems, if any. Bartenders are the most affected by their surroundings. They have to maintain a warm smile even when confronted by rudely behaviour from their customers. It’s only human to react to conditions that are volatile and embarrassing, however, despite their personal hatred or anger, these men and women have to behave in the best decorum possible; comply with standards set by their management. Airhostesses have for long been the soft target in air. They are physically and mentally rebuked and still maintain a straight and friendly face throughout the flight. They may not like the attitude of the passenger(s), but it’s their duty to see that they behave in the best possible way, not to harm or embarrass their customers. While it’s easy to understand the logic behind such acts of hospitality, introspection into why this happens, elicits a set of questions that need to be answered. A waiter may be depressed or angry at a provocation, but maintains good manners. He may like or dislike his job; still he shows good qualities to work. This brings us to the question, are the people in the industry really happy with their job, or are they play-acting? In order to search for answers to this, one can ponder over a set of questions given below to instigate an answer. These questions could be as follows: 1. Why does he/she behave so differently? 2. Is he bounded by a contractual obligation to maintain such perfect decorum under severe stress? 3. Does the etiquette work for their customers, and if so how? 4. What do people think of their action in such situations? Was their action rightful under such conditions? 5. Was their behaviour considered good or stupid under the condition? 6. What impact did it have in the eventual analysis of the outcome? 7. How did they react to the situation, and were they following a particular rule from a book? (Academic theory) These set of questions can elicit answers that may give a better hindsight into what runs the hospitality industry. 3.0 The Industry The travel and tourism industry is among the oldest and largest industry in the world, and the industry has seen outgrow most other industries the world over. Globalisation has led to the increase in travelers across the globe and to meet additional demands for accommodation and food, hotels and motels have sprung up everywhere. This has led to a strong and healthy competition among the hospitality industry. The number of star category hotels has risen quite astonishingly, due to business and tourism. There is also a sizable amount of frequent travellers, who use the best possible bargains to enjoy good facilities and service. Each hotel is unique in itself due to the various decision-making policies of its managers, and a lot has been written about the strategies adopted by the respective hotel managers in promoting their hotel as the best. ‘Decision’ is best described as the move to instigate an action that could bring laurels or risk. Hospitality industry managers have to be on their toes all the time. The industry calls for decision-making at all levels within the hotel and managers must be prepared to decide what is right and wrong for the hotel and its stakeholders. Every department of the hotel has the task to perform in such a manner that keeps the spirits of their customers high. Be it floor supervisors, help desk personnel, bar attendees or front office, despite their personal opinion, have to service their customers like royal guests. This is imperative for the success or survival of the hotel. Mind you, all hotels are out to woo their customers with the best facilities in the industry, and this makes their jobs most stressful. I have personally experienced a situation where a front office person, who through some personal lose and almost in tears, got up and attempted to give me a big smile. Sensing that something was wrong, I just nodded and walked past her. Most activities within hotels are individualistic and require personal attention. This means that an employee would be required to maintain personal supervision and care for a particular guest, making the task more labour intensive and laborious. This is where motivation becomes important. Motivation makes the personnel perform, even if they find in monotonous or distasteful. In order to abide by the rules and perform accordingly, they indulge in role-plays. 4.0 What Makes Them Tick? Barrows (2007) states that dynamic market forces such as global competition, changing customer expectations, and new communication technology, combined with career challenges due to ongoing industry consolidation and corporate restructuring, mandate continuous learning and the sharing of ideas. A senior manager leads from the front. This requires constant updating of HR and industry policies. It’s a senior manager’s prerogative to create an atmosphere within the hotel that keeps abreast with changing attitudes and forms. Globalisation has brought about a lot of innovations within the hospitality industry to meet the demands of the global traveller. Thus senior managers need to meet these changes within restrictive time-frames to avoid loses (Clayton W. Barrows, 2007). Now consider the following statements: Waiters in different country behave differently with their customers. My teacher once told me that the waiters in Holland were the worst he had come across. They act indifferently with their customers; hardly paid any consideration for their time. They would at times make their customers wait up to 30 minutes before serving! Japanese waiters are poles apart; they treat their customers as god. Why do these people act differently? Could it be because of their religious fervour, or because of their ignorance? There is a lot of difference in the way people in Europe and Asia do business. The Europeans believe that they can be content with the kind of support or business that they generate in the EU. Competition among the businesses is limited, and the level of competition among companies is not as rigid as in Asia. Thus, waiters in restaurants in Holland don’t mind their attitude to service customers. The Japanese have always had the customer before self. Therefore, it is no surprise that waiters in Japan treat their customers as god. When a person takes employment, he/she has a binding to oblige the rules and regulations stipulated by that organization. The same principle is followed by all industries, hospitality included. Thus, when an individual joins work, they are first put on probation, trained, and then placed on duty. The training includes customer service and other hospitality activities. Despite the stress and strain of workplace pressure and obligations, these people have to maintain a set of rules and regulations stipulated by their hotel management. Contrary to most expectations, customer service etiquette mandates that customers be treated like king or queen. Thus, irrespective of the standard in service, all hotels treat their customers equally well. Be it front office or the restaurants, or room service, all personnel assigned to their work will do so in the most polished manner possible, whether they like it or not. In most cases, whether the customer is right or wrong, the hotel personnel will say that the customer is right. Glasses broken in a bar will be attributed to an accident, food served on request may be returned to pantry with a nod of approval of being the wrong order, and so on, despite the fact that what the customer had done was rubbish and faulty. Customers will always be made to feel right. This is what customers want for their hard-earned money. No excuses and no frills, just courtesy! Customers go away feeling elated at their righteousness, while the workers get the brunt of the stick; with a smile of course. 5.0 Analysis In the epic poem, ‘The Odyssey’, one gets to see the significance of hospitality in ancient Greek culture. Hospitality to Greeks was a way to pleasing the gods, and this they displayed in openness, when they began to show their generosity and welcoming attitude to guests to indicate their god- fearing, religious fervour with upright morals and integrity (Mega Essays LLC, 2001-07). Picture Courtesy: CHAT, Life at CHAT, http://www.chat.edu.in/life-at-chat.html The above picture shows students of CHAT (College of Hospitality and Tourism) undergoing training in the Bar-room. A closer look at the boys undergoing training suggests that they are enjoying their job and this is contagious. This is part of the training that all students who seek a professional career in the hospitality industry must undergo. Apart from the nuances taught and practiced by students at work, there is always the scope to innovate to bring about a conspicuous change to clichés. Waiters normally serve dishes to guests at the table in a restaurant. There can be ways to bring about a refreshing change to the monotony by introducing new techniques or being just different. How? Well look no further. The following website addresses will take you straight to the market place, where you can choose your style. Mind you, this is one way to get rid of monotony and stalemate. Good waiter? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-yW4KlowMo Pizza waiter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM7tW5QYWNA Worst waiter: The Absent Minded Waiter (this one is only for fun) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY8Mik06kvE Fridays waiters singing Happy Birthday Waiters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLFzGxtJ7gc Kitchen Nightmares: French Waiters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsehfdOo_cw Hells Kitchen UK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKnX5_C20As http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am5Y5Pvrb4M In the hospitality and other service oriented industries, customers should be treated like kings. It is their prerogative to demand and get what they desire for the money they pay. Keeping this in mind, it is no secret that hoteliers have to manage and fulfill customer needs and expectations. Three strong points set to define this trait: 1. A concept: The set of expectations or benefits a customer seeks 2. A package: The products and services that provides these benefits 3. The Process: The bonding between the product and the service As mentioned earlier, the ways the hoteliers present themselves in front of their guests matter a lot in customer satisfaction. Customers seek great benefits from the staff of hotels, because they pay to get the best. Under such circumstances, it’s obvious that employees whether in acceptance or reluctance, show their best side to please the connoisseur. Obviously, promptness in service, a pleasant personality, easy and convenient paper work, warm and courteous reception will help bring smiles. Customers expect themselves to be pampered and cared at all times. This is hard on employees who are human beings after all, and have a personal life of their own as well. It’s never easy to maintain a warm and happy demeanour right through 8-12 hour duty, 365 days a year. The hospitality industry is among the most rigid industries on earth. Employees here have to play their part to the best of their ability. There is no room for introspection. They have to perform on stage that could shame even the best of professional actors on screen. This is the life of the people in the most glamorous profession in the world. Once, I was asked to make recommendations to improve the clientele in a restaurant that was going out of business. It’s never easy to recommend changes to an establishment that is in existence for a long time. They would have innovated and tried a few tricks to make things happen, which may not have pulled off. I asked the proprietor the permission to study the operations for a couple of weeks to make an assessment, which was given. There are a few points that demarcate a good business strategy. How can one gauge how a business is doing? I would go by certain rules to judge how a business was doing. These are: A profit making system is judged from the perspective of management and owners A distribution system is judged from the perspective of the suppliers An employment system is perceived from the perspective of employees A materials supply system is judged from the perspective of customers An entertainment system perceived from the perspective of loiterers A social system from the perspective of local residents, and A dating system from the perspective of single customers I had to first get my priorities right. I needed to know what the restaurateur meant by business decline. Once I knew his thoughts, I got down to studying his operations to find a solution to the problem. I had always believed that an employment system is perceived from the perspective of its employees. From what I studied, I found that the restaurant owner was trying to make the most of the available workforce, without even giving as much of an appreciation. The chef was working in extremely trying conditions without rest, the waiters were asked to work overtime without much monitory benefits, and assistants were not dressed formally, and cared little for mannerism. I made a careful analysis of the situation, and made my recommendations. The number of customers had diminished over the past few weeks that I had been there. The kind of crowd that did come was more or less the same. They would order something and spend long hours at their table, talking. To make matters worse, the waiters and assistants too were involved in their banter. Even the entry of few customers was not well-received. They seemed to care less for their job or the restaurant. They seemed destined to leave this job sooner than later and cared little for the owner. They had come to a point of the coping zone, where: Resource utilisation is high Staff becomes stressed Customer satisfaction declines Revenues per customer decline Graph Courtesy: HOM: The Management of Customer Flows, p.8 I asked the owner to close the restaurant for a month with a notice put up saying that the restaurant was closing for renovation and would open to public under a new management. He found my request quite shocking. I told him that he would benefit immensely from this. After some persuasion, I had my way. With a little expenditure, I had the interior redone, sent the waiters for training, had the assistants dressed up in uniforms, and helped employ an assistant chef to help the chef. I asked the proprietor to announce bonus and achievement awards for those who performed consistently over a six month period, with documentary evidence put up for all to see how they were being assessed and where they stood. These changes would automatically affect the way customers were being monitored and handled by the restaurant staffs. To be honest, the process took some time to bring the desired results, but it did. The success of the hospitality industry is directly reflected by the way its employees behave and act. 6.0 Conclusion There are ways to drive monotony and clichés away. Many new ideas are developed to bring about changes in the way the hotel staff works over long hours. Waiters, for example have to do nothing exceptional during their hours at work, and this can bring about laxity in their work, affecting the way a customer sees the hotel or restaurant. The repercussion is severe and can be damaging to the establishment. Despite these, workers in hotels have to maintain a positive decorum that radiates exuberance and warmth throughout the day. 7.0 Bibliography 1.0 Yvonne Guerrier, Organizational Behaviour in Hotels and Restaurants: An International Perspective (Paperback), 2.0 Barrows C. W (unknown), International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, The Haworth Press Inc. Journal, retrieved on Oct 02, 2007, from http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sid=6SKMBGRUXVRA9HRCV5C4WH81473L018A&sku=J149&detail=EditorBio 3.0 Mega Essays LLC, 2001-07, The Odyssey Essay, http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/23843.html Read More