Roles, Skills, Responsibilities, and Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry - Essay Example

? Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Multi-Unit Management No: Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Multi-Unit Management Executive Statement Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze the roles, responsibilities and skills of the multi-unit managers in Thai restaurants in the United Kingdom. Design – A case study of a multi-unit Thai restaurant. Finding – This study found the roles, responsibilities, and skills required of the multi-unit managers. Research limitation – The research is developed as a study focused on a multi-unit of Thai restaurant which is called Pan Asia group in the United Kingdom. Practical and Implications – The knowledge obtained from this study will help the multi-unit restaurant operation in the development of Human resource in terms of recruitment, selection and training needs. Introduction In the United Kingdom, the service industry represented over 77.1 percent of Gross Domestic Production in 2010 (CAI Fact book, 2011). There are many international hotels such as Hiltons or Accor that have expanded all over the world. In restaurant sector, most restaurants seem to be a small business or family business, which has only one unit. After raising more profit, the business tends to expand its outlets to both national and overseas level. McDonald’s, for example, has expanded its branches, which are approximately 31,000 restaurants in 2010 (Ritzer 2011). Multi-unit restaurants could be defined as a company which rivals in the sector with more than one unit of a concept or theme (Olesen et al 1992). Due to intense competitiveness in the restaurant sector, cost reduction and standardization have been consistently focused on in multi-unit firms in order to get returns on investment of its brand (Jones 1993). In a chain of restaurants, “manager of managers” or the manager who operates between operations and cooperate level managers is called as the Multi-unit manager (Drucker 1995). According to Goss-Turner (1999), in a multi-unit firm or the multi-unit area responsible for 2 to15 units, the responsibilities of the Multi-unit managers are to concentrate on strategy of business rather than single unit operations. As a result of standardizations that have increased in nineteenth century, the multi-unit has grown along with systematic assessment for selection of training for the multi-unit manager (Goss-Turner 1999). It could be seen that with the intention of expanding in chain, multi restaurant outlets and the multi-unit area need to develop simultaneously. To gain a competitive advantage, the company should be able to develop quality of their employees especially the multi-unit manager. It can be said that most of the academic study has focused on the role, responsibilities and skills of single-unit operation, but on the multi-unit company. The skills of the area manager are likely to be different from the single unit managers. Umbreit and Smith (1990) claimed that almost all the area managers are recruited from single units. Consequently, the multi-unit managers have faced problems in making the transition from single-units to multi-units because of the role, responsibility and skills that are different from single operation managers. Umbreit and Tomlin (1986) surveyed many multi-food services and highlighted that most functions of the multi-unit managers are related to restaurant operation, human resource, and finance. Subsequently, Muller and Campbell (1995) also showed that human resource was the most significant issue for the multi-unit managers. In addition, in 2009 human resource, restaurant operation and finance were still the major requirements for the multi-unit manager position. For these reasons, at the heart of this study is to analyze the roles, responsibilities and skills of the multi-unit managers in restaurant industry by providing a case study of Pan Asia group. A semi structure conducts interview of the multi-unit manager of Pan Asia group. Secondly, the study determines the skills and training needs of the multi-unit managers. A Case Study Pan Asia There are 3 brands from Pan Asia associated with Thai restaurant in West Sussex. Firstly, TUK TUK was launched in the Manhattan Company in Lancing with the aim of offering fresh Thai food, sandwiches and coffee in the canteen for the Manhattan’s employee from 07.00 to 16.00 in reasonable price since 2005. Secondly, in 2010 the Carabao Thai restaurant and steak house is a new restaurant which is situated in Warwick Street located in city Centre in Worthing. Thai food is the most favourite dish of Mr. Iain Flitcroft who is owner of Pan Asia due to which, the Carabao Thai restaurant was established with the concept of high quality food and service. The specialization of this restaurant is that all professional Thai chefs are employed. Chef Chumpol Jangprai who is secretary general of Thai Chefs Association has created and controlled the quality of menu for the Carabao Thai restaurant. Thirdly, Frying Wok was opened in January 2011 to provide healthy Thai food with quick service in order to compete to fast food market in Worthing (Pan Asia website, 2010) Development of Pan Asia The business format of Pan Asia is wholly-owned; the company seems to be centralized. It can be said that all decision making depends on the owner, but the chefs of the TUK TUK are allowed to create menu of the day. The procedure and process of working appears to be unconstructed. The manager of the TUK TUK is responsible for finance and sales in the restaurant. After knowing that the unit manager of the TUK TUK has managed the restaurant without the owner, Mr. Iain is ambitious to run a new restaurant with the idea of a premium Thai restaurant. The Thai Carabao restaurant has followed the same management as the TUK TUK. The owner also allows the unit manager of the Carabao manage to handle sales, control quality and training of staffs. Many professional chefs have been employed in order to provide high quality of food. All recruiting and selecting is dependent on the Manager of each restaurant. Lastly, the Frying Wok has only 2 staffs to cook according to standard menu. Franchise contract is in process to expand the Frying Wok brand to compete in fast food market. As a result of expanding restaurants in different brands location, and customer segmentation, a multi-unit manager is hired to manage, and provide advance plan for the existing operations and future outlets. (Jaiyasarn 2011) Pan Asia The Life Cycle Pan Asia has run the TUK TUK in 2005 in Lancing and has created two new brands which are the Carabao Thai restaurant and the Frying Wok in 2010 and 2011. It can be seen that Pan Asia seems to be in early stage in life cycle. At the first stage, most of the new restaurants seem to lack management, but the restaurants can learn from experience at this stage. According to Olsen, Ching-Yick Tse and West (1992), the first or creation stage is related to decision making such as what items to serve or how to deal with customers. The operation needs to employ staffs who have operation skill. Advertising is often word of mouth. Secondly, Pan Asia has expanded its restaurant in different brands to target a different market. Grenier (1972) highlighted that when restaurant has expanded, it could face leadership crisis. The owner seems to be unable to control all restaurants without a multi-unit manager. Thus, the multi-unit restaurant is the need at this stage. However, Pan Asia is still not concerned with human resource management but marketing. Pan Asia has started to advertise in the local newspaper and the Frying will expand its brand by franchising. Next, in the future, Pan Asia needs to adapt both internal and external environment in order to grow its outlets. Pan Asia could control quality of products by setting standard of procedures. To make the franchise become better known, Ching-Yick Tse and West (1992) explained that the multi-company needs to use agency to advertise its brand. In complexity organisation, most companies tend to separate finance, operation, and marketing to upgrade new ideas to improve its brand. Fourthly, when restaurants come to maturity, some franchises can decline because of losing their uniqueness. Ching-Yick Tse and West (1992) also pointed out that at this stage, the company could re-position units to suit new environment. In international branch, it could be difficult to use the same model as a home country. It could be better to change their business strategy, structure, and human resource to suit according to each nationality. For example, McDonald has designed its outlets differently in each country. For an unsuccessful company, this could be loss of profit, or outlets, for increasing number of competition or brands seem to be old concept. At the decline stage, market research could find a new concept to help its company. To sum up, it would be useful for the multi-unit manager to know the stage of the company in order to manage the firm to become successful. The life cycle Structure of Pan Asia Pan Asia is a small company due to which, the structure of the organisation seems to be fattened. According to Banfield and Kay (2011), structure of the organisation can be described the way company is constructed as people have right to work in each position as individuals or groups. The company has no organisation chart or job description. The organisation structure has been known as a family structure. In other words, Pan Asia Company has divided job’s positions same as a family. For instance, the owner is called ‘father’, the unit manager is called ‘mother’, and all staffs are called each other’s ‘sister or brother’. Consequently, all employees have respect for each other similar to their family, for all staffs are living together in the house that the owner has provided. The communication process appears to be both top to down and towards, but it could be more difficult between units. The communication seems to be on the phone between units. The multi-unit manager does not need to travel between them, for all employees have to come for meeting on every Monday. In addition, the area manager could check the financial condition of each branch through the internet. To sum up, the structure and the communication of Pan Asia seems to be suitable for their span of control at early stage of life cycle. (Jaiyasarn 2011) Business Strategy After applying the price and quality model, it can be seen that the TUK TUK and the Frying Wok seem to be leader of price competition. To compare with the Carabao Thai restaurant, the restaurant has provided premium quality of food, so the price is higher than others. It appears that Pan Asia Company has a different strategy to reach different market segmentations. The TUK TUK has concentrated on low price for the Manhattan’s employees. The Thai Carabao restaurant has targeted upper class. The Frying Wok has competed to fast food market, so the price needs to be low. As a result of choosing different strategies, the human resource need to be changed to suit each brand, but the multi-unit manager has not concerned on human resource. Human Resource Strategy A human resource strategy can help the business to be successful. Truss (1997) suggested that ‘fit’ strategy can be defined as development of human resource policy that ‘fit’s the business strategy and the organisational stage of development. In Pan Asia Company, human resource management is not established because the company has small number of units and it seems to be at early stage. The multi-unit manager says that ‘we actually have less concern on the human resource management as we are a small firm. The recruitment and development processes are conducted by the owner at the moment. That’s because we have just opened’ (Interview). It can be said that Pan Asia is run by concentrating less on human resource strategy although human capital seems to be significant in the service industry. In other words, Pan Asia is concerned more towards operation of financial performance than human resource such as recruitment and selection. The Alternative Approach Goss-Turner (2000) Multiple Brands Number of Concepts Single Brand Mature Dynamic Approach to maturity According to Goss-Tuner (2000), there are 4 aspects in the Alternative approach. Goss-Tuner introduced the Alternative approach which describes different types of multi-unit manager. Firstly, Archetype is a mature single brand manager such as McDonald’s. Secondly, Multi-brand manager is a business person that uses more than one theme at maturity stage. The multi-unit manager would have a narrow job description and the organisation congruence seems to be high as well as geographic density. Thirdly, Business manager is a business person that has introduced more than one brand in dynamic environment. The multi-unit manager would have more opportunities to create solutions because there are broad goals. Lastly, Entrepreneur is a new business person in dynamic environment. At this stage, the multi-unit manager would have issues of values and culture. After applying the Alternative approach, Pan Asia would have a Business manager, for the company is in the early stage in the life cycle. Pan Asia has three restaurants in dynamic environment. The multi-unit manager of Pan Asia has broad tasks of job. The manager said that “there are multi- task responsibilities as the roles of multi-unit manager. I am responsible for finance, purchasing and even serving in the evening”. It can be said that the multi-unit manager as the Business manager would have more actions as their roles within dynamic environment. If the Frying Wok could be successful, the business would require Multi-unit brand manager, and the multi-manager needs to set organisational goals and policies in order to enter the food industry. Roles and Responsibilities of A Multi-Unit Manager The role of a multi-unit manager in an organisation is very important as there is a range of tasks that have to be catered for. A multi-unit manager is an interface between corporate strategic management and the operational units where the services are being performed. This manager is responsible for unit managers across brand or district but is rarely present at the place of operation. Coordination and collaboration is difficult because multi-unit managers may well be located far from their peers and superiors. A research by Goss-Turner and Jones concludes that there are four key aspects of multi-unit management level: job scope, organisational congruence, geographic density and unit conformity. Job Scope The job scope is clearly identified in job descriptions which describe roles and responsibilities of each position. It can be said that as Pan Asia is in the early stage, so the company has no job description. Thus, the employees seem unclear about their jobs, the roles and responsibilities of the multi-unit manager appear to be broad, and this could lead to affecting company performance. For example, the multi-unit manager could work as waiter when it’s needed. Organisation Congruence The organization congruence is important for international organisations to share same vision statement at all levels. Goss-Turner (2002) stated that most international organisations have improved their congruence of systems such as information technology. Pan Asia has used technology such as mobile phone and internet to communicate between units. The Organisation congruence of Pan Asia seems to be high because there are less than thirty employees in the company. Thus, all employees have same beliefs and values. Geographic Density The geographic density can be defined as a number of units in an area or region. The Carabao Thai restaurant and the Frying Wok are located in the same area, but the restaurants have different themes and target markets. Unit Conformity The Unit conformity of the Pan Asia seems dissimilar. The unit conformity is identical to a unit in an area. The Pan Asia has a strategy to not plan the same theme in an area, so the unit conformity of the Pan Asia will be low across the coast. 5 Dimensions of Restaurant Area Management To be more specific in the area restaurant management, Umbreit (1989) pointed out that there are five dimensions of the restaurant area management which are financial management, restaurant operations, marketing and promotional management, facilities and safety, and human resource. It could be said that food industry should be concerned about all dimensions especially restaurant operations. The multi-unit manager ranking of finance as the most important concern seems to give an idea that finance is most important dimension for Pan Asia. The main responsibility is to maximize profitability of units. Next, restaurant operation is also vital. The multi-unit manager needs to ensure that all units have reached their standards. Then, marketing and promotion are needed in order to advertise the business to be well known. It could be said that one of the responsibilities of the multi-unit is to prepare promotional program for all units and plan for marketing as well. The provision of facilities and safety is not the responsibility of the multi-unit manager. The owner of Pan Asia has already established safety management program for all restaurants. Lastly, human resource management is needed to be developed in Pan Asia in order to increase the company’s performance. If the Frying Wok is expanding without effective systems, the company will be in chaos and will be unable to grow as another business. To sum up the roles and responsibilities of the multi-unit manager, it does not seem to involve business strategy and human resource strategy. The owner is only the person that created all systems in the organisation, but the multi-unit manager roles should be more concerned towards human resource management as well as its business strategy. This would help Pan Asia to expand along the coast as the owner demands. Competencies of the Multi-Unit Manager Concept skills seem to be more important than technical skills for the multi-unit manager. Olsen, Ching-Yick Tse and West (1992) believed that the multi-unit manager needs to develop in concept skills to analyze and plan the business’s future. It could be said that financial management, marketing, human resource management, research and development and administration appear to be significant skills for the multi-unit manager. The technical skills have concentrated more on single unit operation. For example, single unit manager needs to ensure the quality of food and service reaches its standards. Because the multi-unit manager of Pan Asia is graduated in MSC Marketing (Branding and Communications), there is no problem in research skills, but human resource management is a problem. The multi-unit manager seems to be good at marketing and finance. However, the human resource has not been developed. This could be due to the fact that Pan Asia is in the early stage, so the multi-unit is not concerned much about the human resource. To conclude, the skills of the multi-unit manager are different from the single unit manager. Mostly affected issue among the roles of the multi-unit manager is human resource. The attributes and competencies of the multi-unit manager seem to be different from the single unit manager. According to Holbeche (2001), “a particular attribute that people have collectively helps to develop the capability of the individual and the organisation” (Holbeche 2001). There are many differences between the multi-unit managers and the single unit managers. Umbreit and Smith (1990) believed that there were seven differences between the area managers and the unit managers. 1. A shift from technical trainer to manager developer: The multi-unit manager needs to be a developer to help the unit managers rather than focusing on technique skills in unit operation. It can be said that this aspect can relate to human resource skills. In order to support unit managers, the multi-unit manager needs to be a coach as well as a consultant (Jones 2009). The multi-unit manager of the Pan Asia seems far away from this aspect, for there is no training for any position. 2. A shift from receiver of information to communicator of information: The multi- unit manager seems to be a communicator between the organisation and operations, while the unit manager is receiver of information. Ritchie and Riley (2004) supported that the multi-unit manager may be the first and the last route to communication between the organisation strategy and the operations. The communication skills seem to be important for the multi-unit manager of the Pan Asia because the multi-unit manager is working between the owner and three units. 3. A shift from a structured to an unstructured work environment: The multi-unit manager can be able to manage his time to work without schedule, for the multi-unit manager would have many works to do such as paper work and travelling between units (DiPietro et al 2007). In other words, the multi-unit manager needs to be good at unstructured time. The multi-unit manager of the Pan Asia agreed that unstructured time needs to be nicely managed. 4. A shift from “doer” to delegator: The multi-unit manager needs to believe and allows his unit managers to work without control. DiPietro et al (2007) suggested that one of key for successful manager is to develop managers and train staffs. The multi-unit manager of the Pan Asia seems to trust his managers to work in their own management style. 5. A shift in influencing and motivating techniques: The multi-unit manager needs to recognise motivation and communication skills to link with people from various background rather than technical skills on daily basis. Olsen, Ching-Yick Tse and West (1992) also supported that the multi-unit manager needs concept skills such as finance and human resource rather than technical skills such as customer service. The multi-unit manager of the Pan Asia is graduated from the University of Brighton, so the multi-unit manager appears good at concept skills. 6. A shift to new business knowledge and skills: The multi-unit managers could understand new business skills such as business analysis, computer and human resource management. It can be said that new technology can help company performance. The Pan Asia has brought new technology into work system, so the work system seems to be efficient (Jaiyasan 2011). 7. A shift from a supportive, one-boss environment to a more political and peer-interdependent environment: The political skills seem to help the multi-unit managers to support the unit managers and to connect with other functions such as marketing and sales. As a result, the multi-unit manager needs more training on concept skills in order to view complexities of the business and external environment. Lauries (2001) says that conceptual ability is needed to be trained and taught rather than technical skills. It can be seen that the single unit manager has focused more on interpersonal relationships and technical competence such as specific knowledge, methods and skills on daily operation. The multi-unit manager of Pan Asia seems to need more training on human resource, for it can increase the business performance and improve the human resource management on recruitment, selection, and training. The single unit of the Caraboa Thai restaurant seems to concentrate more about finance and marketing. It would be good if there are any opportunities for the single unit manager to learn more conceptual skills in order to become more successful multi-unit manager in the future. Conclusion The multi-unit manager seems to be vital and important in the hospitality industry, for there are many branches of hotels and restaurants that have expanded. The roles and responsibilities of the multi-unit manager can be affected by the life cycle and type of businesses. In addition, the skills of the multi-unit manager are different from the single unit manager. The multi-unit manager needs more conceptual skills for finance and marketing. Human resource seems to be the most important issue for the multi-unit manager. Thus, if Pan Asia is not going to concentrate on human resource, the company could not gain advantage on human capital. The multi-unit manager appears to need more training on the human resource, finance, marketing and decision making. The recommendation for Pan Asia is to create a business strategy for long term and short term by establishing human resource policy to help their business plan to be successful. Pan Asia could not be successful if the company continues to expand without giving any heed to human resource. References Banfield, P and Kay, R 2011, Introduction to human resource management, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Dipietro, R., Murphy, K. Rivera, M. and Muller, C 2007, ‘Multi-unit management key success factors on the casual dining restaurant industry’, International Journal of Contemporary Journal Hospitality Management, Vol. 190, no.7 Drucker, P 1955, The Practice of Management, Pan Books, London. Goss-Tuner, S 2002, ‘Human Resource Management’, International Perspectives in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Continuum Publishing. 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