Hospitality and Tourism - Essay Example

He concludes that there is no one "correct" definition of good job performance as the working environment, the type of operation and the type of manager influence how the job components are defined and the criteria for successfully achieving them. Managers depend on an array of tools to gauge workplace success and it can be argued that a balanced set of measurements are needed. Brander Brown and McDonnell[3] investigate whether the balanced score-card performance measurement method provides a practical solution.

They found that hotel general managers saw benefits in preparing a detailed score-card for each of the areas or departments controlled by senior managers within an individual hotel, providing the score-cards are reviewed and updated regularly. Yasin and Zimmerer[4] link the application of benchmarking to the hotel's ability to achieve its goals in the area of quality improvement. They present a practical framework for this which defines both the operating and service subsystems of the hotel and propose specific methods for quality improvement in each.

Information technology provides a feasible way of harnessing full operational capability and Donaghy et al.[5] review the application of yield management to profit maximization. A common use is to compute market sensitive pricing of fixed hotel room capacity for specific market segments. The authors examine this and provide a structured operational framework for focusing on ten key areas in hospitality operations. The main challenge is to engage the full potential of information technology and Crichton and Edgar[6] argue that the key element in managing complexity is to seek a balance between supply and demand-side technology.

Customers And Service ImprovementThe concept of mass customization has emerged in part, from a decade of debate centred on the mass production of inexpensive, commodity-like products or services (the assembly line approach) on the one hand and premium-priced, individually-tailored and highly differentiated offerings on the other. Hart[7] observes that much of the power of mass customization, like total quality management before it, lies in its visionary and strategic implications. Its application should enable companies to produce affordable, high-quality goods and services, but with shorter cycle times and lower costs.

The key dimensions of his diagnostic framework for assessing the potential for mass customization are: customer sensitivity, process amenability, competitive environment and organizational readiness. Taylor and Lyon[8] discuss the application of mass customization to food service operations and its likely adoption in a rapidly maturing marketplace. A compatible step is for management to create an appropriate form of internal customer orientation and Stauss[9] notes that a deliberate and sustained effort is needed to create a climate that promotes a customer's viewpoint of work activities, processes and non-standardized support services.

Customer orientation also implies a readiness to measure, and where necessary improve, the quality of service and support in keeping with customer expectations. Lee and Hing[10] assess the usefulness and application of the SERVQUAL technique in measuring service quality in the fine dining sector. They demonstrate how