Managerial, Professional, Financial Nuances in the Hospitality Branch - Case Study Example

The Social, Professional, Financial and Managerial Issues in the Hospitality Industry Student’s Name: Course: Tutor’s Name: Date: This essay is based on my internship in the Hilton Adelaide. As indicated by McMahon and Quinn (1995), supervised work experience gives students proper orientation of the hospitality industry, hence giving them an understanding about their future careers. In addition, the work experience affords students other benefits, which include personal development opportunities attained through the work experience; the opportunity to “examine theory through practice, and enhance possibilities of integration”; and the working experience which helps students to decide which of the many sectors in the industry is best suited for them upon graduation (McMahon & Quinn, 1995p. 14). This essay is targeted at the second benefit, i.e. examining theory through practice. Specifically, this author will analyse the social aspects; the professional issues; the financial issues and the management style and its effectiveness as witnessed during placement fit into theory as learned in class. The social aspects of the workplace Hilton Adelaide has well-developed human capital networks in all the departments. Notably however, the networks work well within department, because staff members within the same department seem to s hare in similar aspects of the jobs. For example, the human capital networks within the marketing department seemed to work pretty well hence enhancing the success of marketing activities undertaken by the department. Similarly, the front office department seemed to work well together. However, there was an apparent disengagement in how staff from different departments worked together. For example, staff from the financial department seemed to be disengaged from their counterparts in the marketing department. However, other departments seemed to work pretty well together; such include the marketing and the front office department; the food and beverage department with the hotel waiters and waitresses; and room division department and the housekeeping department. Based on this interactions, this writer deduced that the social aspects in the hotel was mainly determined by how closely departments work together for purposes of attaining set objectives. From the examples, it is apparent that the room division department has to work with the housekeeping department on a regular basis if customer satisfaction is to be ensured. Similarly, communication in the hotel was modelled to flow within departments, and only throughout the hotel when the need for an all-encompassing communication was deemed important. While this promoted intra-department cohesion, it did nothing to aid the intra-department cohesion in the hotel. As a result, it seemed there was always some suspicion among staff members working in different departments. As indicated in Joshi and Jackson (2003), intra-department connectedness is only attainable if the management takes a deliberate action to enhance the same. At Hilton Adelaide, one can therefore surmise the apparent lack of team-work between departments as a failure in the management. In literature, the social aspects of the workplace have been identified as an essential determinant of staff interaction, staff-management interaction, and staff-customer interaction (Bolton & Bolton, 1984, p. 8). Flap, Volker and Bulder (2000) goes further and states that the social aspects in a specific workplace affect other factors such as job satisfaction, the success of work teams, and ultimately, the successes or lack thereof of the entire organisation in meeting its business objectives. According to Joshi and Jackson (2003, p. 277), each team or department “must effectively manage its relationships with other teams and individuals in the organisation”. Effectively, the observation by Joshi and Jackson means that each department or team must have effective inter and intra- relationships since it is the only way the team members or the team as a whole can accesses resources, exert influence and contribute to the collective good of the larger organisation. Observably, the hotel industry (and Hilton Adelaide in this case) contains goals that cannot be achieved analogously by individual departments or people; as such, and as noted by Flap et al. (2000), there is a need to develop social capital made up of individuals who are willing and able to lend support to each other for purposes of attaining the overall objectives of the company. This author’s views is that Hilton Adelaide needs to develop such social capital by making the different departments understand the importance of working together as one big team and by playing its facilitator role well as suggested by Quinn et al. (2010, pp. 65-111). According to Quinn et al. (2010, p. 82), the management has an essential role in building teams, managing conflict and “using participative decision making” in order to enhance cohesion in the work place. Professional issues in the workplace Although it is hard to categorise all managers in Hilton Adelaide as either professional or unprofessional due to personality, competence and other differentials, my deductions is that the managerial competence at the hotel is relatively professional. As indicated in the ‘social aspects’ section above however, there were apparent inadequacies in the management; Notably however, the inadequacies are more a lack of strategy on the hotels management part, rather than a lack of professionalism. Among the reasons that this writer indicates that the management at Hilton Adelaide was relatively professional is the apparent possession of technical skills that managers in different departments had. The food and beverage department manager for example was for example well knowledge in the technical and theoretical skills needed to work in the department. His knowledge was reflected in his communication he had with people working therein such as the chefs. Based on his understanding of the goings on in the department, he had a powerful, but well-respected control of the department and the results were evident from the efficient results witnessed in the high quality foods and beverages served in the hotel. As indicated by Baum (2006, p. 139), professionalism in the hospitality industry is greatly undermined by the standardisation that requires people to handle different duties flexibly; however, professionals who have perfected their skills through specialisation, and /or technical and theoretical knowledge usually stands out based on the quality of their works. The manager at the food and beverage department was one such person. A trace of professionalism was also evident in Hotel Adelaide’s human resource department. This was evident in the recruitment process as only qualified hospitality workers were shortlisted for employment in the hotel. Additionally, the HR manager had a detailed orientation program for new staff, where they were trained and equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills needed in attaining the business objectives of the hotel. There was a clear separation of duties and in line with Andrews (2007, p. 184), the HR clearly treated employees as knowledge workers to be “recruited, trained and motivated” for purposes of helping the organisation attain its business objectives. Based on the professionalism maintained by the HR department in recruiting, training and motivating employees, there was an apparent satisfaction derived by customers from the hotel during their hospitality experience in different fronts. For example, there were rarely any complaints from customers in regard to the waiting services, the quality of foods or drinks, or even the accommodation services. Additionally, the hotel had a great number of referral clients who came to the hotel based on recommendations issued to them by friends, relatives or colleagues. Financial issues in the workplace The Hilton Adelaide has a strict and central financial management system that relies on the approval and financing by the financial department. As such, every departmental manager is required to forward department budgetary requirements to the finance department, which analyses them and approves funding based on their appropriateness. Notably, this approach is justifiable especially since financial issues are sensitive to every organisation. In line with the principle of management as indicated by Fayol and cited by Quinn et al. (2010, p. 5), it is also evident that the financial approval approach in the hotel brings about discipline in spending, and introduces authority and responsibility in how departments spend financial resources. The appropriateness not withstanding, the bureaucratic nature of approvals can be quite frustrating. In some cases, the delay in budget approvals could even interrupt customer service provision, something that would reflect negatively on Hilton Adelaide’s position as market leader in the hospitality industry. Like every other organisation where the finance department is charged with analysing and approving departmental budgets, Hilton Adelaide is not without a fare share of conflict between the finance department and other departments. Such departments often feel that their capacity is limited by the spending constraints placed on them by the finance department. The marketing department is one such unit, whose departmental head is always lamenting about the limited budget given to the marketing function. Notably the conflict between finance and marketing departments is not new and as Ruyter and Wetzeis (2000) notes that the inter-functional rivalry is often generated by the resource dependence and the procedural fairness that exist between the two. In other words, though the finance department is charged with overseeing the financial processes of the company, it successes or failures depend largely to the success or failures in other departments. As such, the finance department always has to balance the demands of different department based on their relative contribution to the greater good of the hotel. For example, faced with a limited short-term access, the finance department in Hilton Adelaide would have to finance the pressing needs of the food and beverage department, and as such, would de-prioritise any funding requests made by the marketing department. While this may seem like basic logic to a casual observer (based on the need to satisfy requirements of existing customers), the marketing department did not always seem to understand such reasoning. Overall, and in line with finance and accounting theory, the budgeting process is essential in implementing the organisational strategy. For Hilton Adelaide, the budgetary oversight by the finance department was essential in the larger budgetary planning process in the organisation since it helped balanced cash flow against departmental expenditure and other expenses by the company. Like every other business, it was apparent that Hilton Adelaide understood the importance of prudent financial management for purposes of ensuring that the business remained valuable to its shareholders, employees and customers. However, the financial department had some budgetary planning and control measures that were admirable and flexible. For example, instead of fixed bi-annual or annual budgets like most companies do, Hilton Adelaide had frequency and timelines for departmental budget on bi-weekly and monthly submissions. This then meant that a department budget could be reviewed regularly. Additionally, departmental managers were encouraged to own their submitted budgets and be accountable for the same. Through such an approach, departmental managers only requested for funding that they could use to raise performance and show results for the same. Such an approach corresponds to Adams’ (2006, p. 125) views where it is indicated that “managers feel motivated to raise actual performance” in order to meet budget expectations. Considering the uncertain operation environment in the hospitality industry following the 2008/09 financial crises, financial issues at the Hilton Adelaide have to a significant degree been geared to ensuring that the hotel breaks-even even as customers adopt a precautionary measure to leisure spending. True to the observation by Adams (2006), the finance department, and its budgetary role has played a key role in co-ordinating departmental activities for purposes of ensuring that the financial resources spent by a department are justified by returns, which collectively work towards enhancing the hotel’s sales volumes as reflected in room occupancy levels, conference facility bookings and the rate of food and beverage provisions. The management style and its effectiveness Though there were several managers that the writer interacted with during the Hotel Adelaide placement, this essay will focus on the food and beverage department manager. The decision to concentrate on the food and beverage department manager was informed by O’Fallon and Rutherford’s (2010) observation that the department has a strategic role to play in positioning any hotel as a competitive service provider in respective markets. Notably, the quality of foods and beverages served in a hotel can either attract or discourage customers from making subsequent visits. As indicated elsewhere, the FBD manager exhibited professionalism in both technical and theoretical understanding of his management roles. A notable aspect of his management style was the informal manner in which he interacted with the employees in his department. Additionally, the manager seemed to have a distinct ability of focusing on the tasks to be accomplished in the FBD without neglecting the needs and wants of employees working under him. For this, the writer got the impression that the manager was capable of blending task-focus and employee focus with relative ease. This impressions were in line with observations made by O’Fallon and Rutherford (2010, p. 247) indicating that in addition to professionalism, contemporary food and beverage management had “less reliance on the old chef-maitre d’ model”. Based on his informal interaction with the employees, the results from his department were almost always perfect, and this earned him recognition from top level managers and even his managerial colleagues. This was a reflection of Quinn et al.’s (2010, p. 6) observation that if managed properly, the informal relationships between managers and employees working under them “could be powerful tools” for delivering desirable outcomes in an organisation. Like everyone else however, he had an apparent weakness which was apparent in his lenient tendency towards one of the employees who was always either late for work, or absent from work on grounds of domestic problems. As a silent observer, this writer could detect some simmering anger on employees who had to work extra hard to account for the inadequacies and inefficiencies created by that specific employee’s lateness or absenteeism. It was thus obvious that although efficient, the manager needed to improve on managing individual team members who could easily take advantage of his good-natured approach to leadership and management. References Adams, D 2006, Management accounting for the hospitality, tourism and leisure industries: a strategic approach, Cengage Learning, London. Andrews, S 2007, Introduction to tourism and hospitality industry, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, New Delhi, India. Baum, T 2006, Human resource management for tourism, hospitality and leisure: an international perspective, Cengage Learning, London. Bolton, R & Bolton, D G 1984, Social style/ management style: developing productive work relationships, AMACOM Davison American Management Association, New York. Flap, H, Volker, B & Budler, B 2000, ‘Social capital at the workplace and job satisfaction’, Paper Presented at the XVIII Sunbelt, May 27-31, pp. 1-31. Joshi, A & Jackson, S E 2003, ‘Managing workforce diversity to enhance cooperation in organisations’, in M A West, D Tjosvold & G Smith (eds), International handbook of organisational team work and cooperative working, John Wiley, New Jersey. McMahon, U & Quinn, U 1995, ‘Maximising the hospitality management student work placement experience: a case study’, Education and Training, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 13-17. O’Fallon, M J & Rutherford, D G 2010, Hotel management and operations, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Quinn, R E, Faerman, S R, Thompson, M P, McGrath, M & St. Clair, L S 2010, Becoming a master manager: A competing values approach, 5th edn, Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Ruyter, K & Wetzels, M 2000, ‘The marketing-finance interface: A relational exchange perspective’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 209-215. Read More