Orientation in the Hospitality Industry - Coursework Example

Orientation in the Hospitality Industry Introduction Hospitality industry in the modern business setting presents one of the most lucrative sectorswith promising opportunities and expansion. Due a dramatic diversification into newer versions of the services offered in the industry for instance, from the traditional tourism sense to the broader business travel and conference services, emergent hospitality packages continue to spark off interests in the market. In terms of the realization that hospitality industry and related businesses hold the promise of the service industry, in the near future academicians and researchers continue to offer their input in the characterization of the industry. Within the broader characterization of economic space that hospitality continues to occupy, global economics plays an important concept appropriate for the relevant orientation (Abbott and Dawson, 2011). In this discourse, various orientation concepts emerge, to facilitate the projection of the industry as a business platform where competition and other globalization factors such as economics determine the fortunes of the industry. For the most definitive orientation concepts that perhaps compel academicians to identify the industry as one of the strongest performance in global business, management and strategy tasks compatibility has a striking interest. Just as observed in other business models in other sectors, hospitality assumes an interesting position in the market and the growth potential demonstrated in the recent history illustrate the benefits of such characterization of industry forces. Profitability against a backdrop of competition and pressure from global economic fluctuations as well as involved recovery uncertainties justify the need for definition of the appropriate industry orientation. Complexity of the Hospitality Industry Since the global trends of a service intensive economy started to form in the 20th century, several service sectors emerged to illustrate the potential that the new frontiers of business could provide to investors. However, typical differences between manufacturing and service industries proved to pose substantial approach gap. For instance, the business setting in service industry is different from manufactured products setting due to different interaction levels with the end users. Apparently, change of business management rules had to experience dramatic changes to introduce higher interaction and preference setting that defines the new business. Initially, hotel and accommodation services in the traditional setting could not integrate the high-end interaction demands to tap the undiscovered potential (Öktem, n.d.). For instance, in the early master-slave setting, class discriminatory motivations blocked a significant population that had to enter in the business model targeting an integrated approach. Changing sociocultural factors eventually defined the kind of an industry that the traditional hotel industry needed in order to emerge as a competitive business. Sudden changes in global business patterns and investment priorities to include unconventional entertainment, accommodation and travel services and later the unique business travel segment facilitated growth of the industry into a mature business (Borein, Rowe and Smith, 2002). Massive investment from various interested parties targeting different services such as transport on both local and overseas components as well as real estate targeting the industry equipped with state-of-the-art facilities illustrates the direction that the industry took to maturity. Identification of tourism products and their packaging for the growing populations in need of business and private holidays assisted in marketing of the hospitality destination areas, arguably the best orientation move by the evolving industry. Internal Industry Performance Every country around the world has tourism and hospitality packages identified as an important industry that affects the globalization aspect of national business. Internally, mapping and packaging hospitality services on offer at different locations supports the level of maturity that the industry has taken at the country level. Many countries have their tourism industries raising a significant amount of revenue, some exceeding their export valuation to illustrate the amount of importance to national economies around the world (Gounaris, 2008). The industry at the internal level recognizes the importance of the driving forces, among them employees in the definition of the inner functionality of the industry. Researchers in the school of thought on internal orientation at the industry level requires internal features such as employee strength hold the opinion that first customers must always be the employees. Apparently, the assumption made with regard to this conceptualization is that the marketing element in hospitality services must depict highest manifestation of expected results. Employees in this model occupy special positions of “internal customers” in order for the industry to employ the concept of active agents in their interaction with customers. Internal orientation concept supports the premise that the satisfaction of the employees will send the appropriate signals to customers who particularly pick up hospitality cues from potential satisfaction themes. Employees act as internal marketers for the employers, which underscores the importance of following their satisfaction levels. Employee satisfaction levels against the conditions of their service delivery affect the outcomes of their on-job marketing potential (Conduit and Mavondo, 2001). Employee satisfaction depends on the commitment and concentration that they can devote to the assignments given, which in turn affects the quality of perceived customer satisfaction. In the modern hospitality setting, it is highly expected that the needs of the employee form the first priority of attainment, before the customer obtains assistance with their queries (Ferrell and Hartline, 1996). The traditional smiling hospitality theme of the industry’s workers appeals to the customer and sends the correct satisfaction signal, as the marketing cues read from the employee’s presentation forms key decision-making reference. Organization performance in the modern industry orientation obtains determinative results from the quality of customer satisfaction. Building from the employee satisfaction theories, direct illustrations emerge to the effect that organizational profitability depends on the employee satisfaction. In view of enhancement of amount of effort that employee satisfaction and commitment models such as the Maslow priority of needs must formulate internal policy in employee welfare. Ensuring that the basic needs in the life of the employee fall within their reach through appropriate reward system determines the value of stress avoidance attained through meeting of the needs. Closely related theory in attainment of the appropriate employee empowerment is the work-life balance approach. Employees must obtain necessary assistance to overcome pressure from within and outside the work place. For instance, sufficient remuneration need supplementation with family related conditions, with services such as family fun days organized by the organization making important integration efforts. Organizations nowadays provide employees with fully paid holidays in order to ensure that their welfare captures work-life balance issues as accurately as possible. Psychological assistance as an important human resource management functionality assists employees to offload burnout factors and deliver high quality service with commitment and satisfaction (Soonhee, 2002). External Industry Orientation The value of organizational practices to potential borne by an organization in the hospitality market depend on factors outside the organizational boundaries, despite the fact that they interact to determine the overall market positioning attained. The external quality of service that customers attach to the organization’s practices and approaches determines how much customers feel about the hospitality organization. As discussed above, internal satisfaction as conceptualized from the employees in terms of their perceived commitment defines internal orientation. The above concept determines the quality of internal market depending on the projection that the organization makes of itself to customers and the influence generated thereon amounts to external market orientation (Gounaris, 2008). Hospitality service delivery amounts to a close interaction with the customers, who can give immediate response to characterize the experience with a particular organization. It therefore implies that outcome responses can formulate clearly defined outcomes in terms of market orientation as captured in customer response trajectories. Customers with a positive outcome from the experience with a particular hospitality organization could indicate working attributes of internal orientation. However, other factors beyond the organization’s orientation with respect to hospitality service delivery account to a significant influence on the response given (Borein, Rowe and Smith, 2002). It is possible to distinguish between various factors affecting the external market orientation, which must guide the management to define strategies to mitigate impacts of such adverse impacts. Customer satisfaction outcomes emanating from the conditions of the service delivered depend on the perceived value from various internal and external variables. For industry management purposes, customer satisfaction must be approached from different perspectives, including internal and external manageable variables. Some external variables may not be manageable since their scope lie outside the reach of the management team. For instance, global forces on exchange rates may discourage a travel by negatively affecting the charges of hospitality services, which lies beyond the mandate of the management team. However, providing courteous tour guides, for instance facilitates the intervention opportunity that the management needs to transform business orientation before the customers. Success in handling customers’ satisfaction manifests in the value of customer loyalty where customers return for the same hospitality services offered by a particular organization. Managing internal and external orientation in the long-run gives certain outcomes that illustrate the willingness that customers have to return to the organization for similar services obtained in previous encounters. Different combinations of factors that affect customer experiences form the main areas of concern to turn around the experience into a pleasurable outcome in future visits (Cadogan et al., 2005). Guest comments taken at the end of the experience must therefore be taken seriously by the management teams in the hospitality industry in order to support a culture based on customer demand and satisfaction. Communication techniques employed by the service employees for instance determines the nature of comments given, which implies that the friendlier the attendants, the more likely it is to obtain positive remarks and influence customer experience. Other Incidental Factors Modern market issues including difficult economic environment affect the amount of disposable income that customers have, which may affect profitability and employee satisfaction. Dwindling investment opportunities into the industry because of suffocation from poor income generating potential may discourage offering of certain services in the hospitality industry. For instance, it may increasingly become difficult to support luxury travel services, which present important high segment revenue generating aspect as many customers find it difficult to part with more money during financial difficulties (Li, Tse and Zhao, 2009). Rising unemployment figures in hospitality hubs such as Europe may create contagion impact around the world thereby affecting business in the industry. However, certain segments of travel and tourism component continue to be a necessity to other business sectors, making them define hospitality as a stable industry than it was before. Sociocultural themes around the world today define the standards of the hospitality in a unique way when compared with other industries. For instance, cultural differences among global communities that interact during hospitality platforms determine how successful cultural integrity is protected. Different regions around the world have unique religion and cultural values and the patterns of global hospitality industry follow cues from the patterns of the apparent regional characterization. Guests treatment in terms of services such as for persons with special needs including communication, movement and other ethical considerations, continue to inspire the direction taken by today’s industry (Öktem, n.d.). Many developments in terms of industry growth have led to formulation of specific legal regimes around the world to manage hospitality issues observed in public policy interactions. Sufficient legal backing from different perspectives supports the industry in many jurisdictions, to ensure that the unique industry concerns are handled in an expert manner. Organizations in the hospitality industry for instance are aware of regulations regarding handling of risks of persons under the premises or care of the services. Legal frameworks define the conduct of employees, employer and other players in order to mitigate losses that could face customers, for instance in case of an accident, to place liability in the appropriate hands (Kutwaroo et al., 2001). It therefore implies that different rights and duties of the parties concerned in the services are recognized before many jurisdictions to justify the business as a mainstream industry affecting many aspects of the economy. As a result of maintenance of order and ethical principles in the industry, various professional bodies at the national and international levels facilitate an enhanced experience for all customers wishing to enjoy the services in the industry. Other important variable in the modern hospitality industry orientation entails use of technology in ensuring that the appropriate information is availed to organizations and customers. With the advent of the information technology, business strategies heavily rely on business research to define the most sought after services to ensure a better customer experience and improved profitability. References Abbott, J., & Dawson, M. (2011). “Hospitality Culture and Climate: A Proposed Model for Retaining Employees and Creating Competitive Advantage.” International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, 12:289-304 Borein, F., Rowe, A., & Smith, J. (2002).Travel and tourism: Standard level, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Cadogan, J. W., Fahy, J., Greenley, G. E., & Hooley, G. J., (2005). “The Performance Impact of Marketing Resources.” Journal of Business Research, 58(1):18-27 Conduit, J. & Mavondo, F. T. (2001). “How Critical is Internal Customer Orientation to Market Orientation.” Journal of Business Research, 51(1):11-24 Ferrell, O. C. & Hartline, M. D. (1996). “The Management of Customer-Contact Service Employees: An Empirical Investigation.” Journal of Marketing, 60(4):52-70 Gounaris, S. P. (2008). “The Notion of Internal Market Orientation and Employee Job Satisfaction: Some Preliminary Evidence.” Journal of Services Marketing, 22(1): 68-90 Kutwaroo, G., McNaughton, R. B., Morgan, R. E. & Osborne, P., (2001). “Market Orientation and Firm Value.” Journal of Marketing Management, 17(5/6): 521-542 Li, L., Tse, E., & Zhao, J. (2009). An Empirical Study of Corporate Entrepreneurship in Hospitality Companies,” International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, 10(3):213-231. Öktem, S. V. (n.d). “Market Orientation and Business Performance in Hotel Industry.” Retrieved from http://www.opf.slu.cz/vvr/akce/turecko/pdf/Oktem.pdf Soonhee, K. (2002). “Participative Management and Job Satisfaction: Lessons for Management Leadership”. Public Administration Review, 62(2):231-241 Read More