Hospitality

During the technology improving, the world is becoming much smaller and more and more integrated; people are more willing and able to pay more time and money on travel and leisure. “According the World Tourism Organization, international tourism is expected to grow at an average of 4. 1 percent though 2020, ending with a total of 1. 6 billion tourists traveling worldwide. ” [1] Therefore there are a lot of opportunities for the hospitality industry to improve.

In these years, the hospitality industry had a huge improvement, and many top companies are looking for the new marketing in the emerging economies, such as Carlson, Hyatt, and Hilton. “Our Ambition 2015 strategy entails growing our hotel portfolio by at least 50 percent to reach over 1,500 hotels in operation by 2015. ”[2] However, we are still facing many problems and difficulties in the different hotels, such as Human Resources management, guest satisfactions and food safety.

In this project, I am going to analysis the problem in the hotel and find the solutions for the problem which are based on the academic, then give the SWOT of my topic. I did my internship in Radisson Blu in China; position was F&B cross training, so my problem is based on my own real experiences. My problem is the lack of employees of the F&B Department. The solutions will link to the Human Resources, on the management skill side, that should be team work, time management and motivation.

From the project, we will know the working process of the F&B Department, the guest’s satisfactions and how to motivate the employee and let them do the contributions to the hotel. Lack of employees is a general problem for the hotels, so the limit for the research is hard to find the special theory or method to solve the problem. Analysis the Problem: Hospitality is a huge industry. It is a high-growth projected for the global hotel industry.

Estimated 112,000,000 employees in the worldwide hospitality industry and this number will only grow. [3] In this situation, every hotel needs a big group of employees; therefore, the lack of employees is a general problem in the industry. Under the background of my experiences, in China, there are not a lot of people willing to join this industry. For the first reason, the wages are not really high. Secondly, cost a long period of time to get a good position. Thirdly, only a few of people did the rofessional education on the hospitality. In my hotel, lack of employees is a main problem, especially for the F&B Department. That causes we cannot make the guests 100% satisfaction, because nobody put the services into the details. Also, the division of labor is not clear also is the consequence. For example, one employee does the lobby bar work; in the meantime she also is a hostess. That means, if the guests are coming together, she is not going to take care both of them. That is a loophole in the work. SWOT Strengths |Weaknesses | |Employees have higher wages because there is a shortage in the |No detail, unique or particular services | |industry |No professional employees so no professional services | |Good environment to work | | |Opportunities | | |More jobs are offering | | |Many new companies and stages in the market | | Solution: The F&B should notice the HR to hire more employees and part- timers. For the employees, the HR and the F&B should work together, use the professional standard to do the particular training which is based on the weaknesses of the [1] American Hotel and Lodging Association [2] Carlson official website [3] International Labor Organization

Macao Job Vacancy Issues in Hospitality Industry Statistic Analysis Introduction This report analyses key factors which result in vacancy issue in Macao hospitality industry with supportive statistics and information basically from 2009 to 2011. Since 2009, the influx tourist flow keeps enlarging the tourism market.

In 2011 every Macao labour has received at least 80 tourists. (D1) The problem is that tourist growth rate (up to15. 1% in 2010 and down to 12. 2%) has far exceeded the number of labour growth rate (1. 5% in 2010, to 3. % in 2011) of Macao, and the difference keeps becoming larger during the last three years. (D5)So Macao labor market is obviously unable to feed the tourism industry employment gradually expanding need.

Job vacancy issues description In 2008 to 2010 periods, the total percentage of vacancy jobs has been growing with the total amount of job offered in hospitality industry from 7% to 8% in the total 50,271 offered jobs in 2010. According to the research, the hospitality job vacancy problem mainly occurred on both management position (such as company leader and senior manager) and rank-and-file position.

In the same period, management position vacancies drop from 3% in 2008 and ended up with 1% in all vacancy jobs). Rank-and-file position vacancies’ occupation grew from 88. 2% in 2008 to 88. 5 %( 4,099 vacancies) in 2010 among all the job vacancies. Particularly, waiter/waitress, unskilled workers vacancies takes over 95% in the rank-and-file vacancies during the three years. Reasons for job vacancy issue analysis There are two reasons cause the management position vacancy. First, limited quality of labor market.

Till 2011, there are 26% of the total Macao labors are holding a college or higher educational degree, this percentage would be 15. 8% if excluded imported workers apart. [3][4]Moreover, the language skills would bring the percentage even lower, as the most regular used language is Cantonese (83. 30%), and followed by Mandarin(5%), and English (2. 30%) respectively in 2011. Second, the lack of international exposure, makes Macao labors less competitive in the market, because of small amount of travels and business activities outside to western ountries.

As for the rank-and-file job vacancy issue, mostly owes to: lower salary, lower status, and restricted labor importing policy. Low salary, especially for waiter/waitress, unskilled workers(around MOP6000), if compare with that(about MOP10,000) (D7)of rank-and-file positions in gaming industry which owns the similar job requirement; In Macau, there are common negative attitudes toward some rank-and-file jobs, because of social status concerns.

Jobs like waiter/waitress, cleaning and house keeping, is always in need. Conclusion and Recommendations In conclusion, with the rapid development of tourism industry, issues like naturally lacking of human resource(267,200 local labours[10]), limited qualified manpower[14] and restricted labor importing policy, together will affect efficiency and effectiveness of the hospitality industry.

In order to solve the job vacancy issues, government on the one hand, acts as a profound role in guaranteeing the benefit and priorities for local labors, in the short term; On the other hand government has being taken step improving the education system during the years, by subsidizing application for studying professional subjects and tertiary education, [13]in the long term.

Recommendations for a company, such as arranging more practical training on management concepts and skills to develop local talents for senior positions; Language training to cater to international customers and management is also an alternative; Bring in certificate recognition system could be a good way to measure competence or set standard for employment, promotion and reward. Finally, it’s also the individual responsibility to making full use of the resources offered by public and private organization, get to ready for the global competition.

Reference

1. http://news. china. com. cn/local/2012-03/29/content_25017774. htm
2. 1. 8 http://www. macaodaily. com/html/2012-04/24/content_692714. htm
3. 13/2010 http://bo. io. gov. mo/bo/i/2010/22/regadm13_cn. asp
4. 2. 6 , , ,2011 [6] http://www. bizintelligenceonline. com/content/view/229/10/lang,/
5. http://www. newmacau. org/cms/index. php option=com_content&view=article&id=1290:2011-06-12-04-17-20&catid=9:2009-10-14-10-38-30&Itemid=23
6. http://www. chengpou. om. mo/news/2011/12/9/19932. html
7. ,2009 http://www. al. gov. mo/diario/l03/cs1-4/2009-120%20%2801-05%29. pdf
8. http://www. gov. cn/jrzg/2007-09/12/content_746039. htm
9. http://www. dsal. gov. mo/chinese/dfpcourse. htm [13]Government to create databank for securing young talent http://www. macaudailytimes. com. mo/macau/35383-Government-create-databank-for-securing-young-talent. html
10. http://www. macaodaily. com/html/2011-12/31/content_660715. htm
11. http://www. acaodaily. com/html/2011-12/20/content_657692. htm [16] http://www. macaodaily. com/html/2012-03/19/content_682512. htm
12. Macao workers happier, concerns lurking http://www. macaudailytimes. com. mo/macau/34953-Macau-workers-happier-concerns-lurking. html
13. ]Macau’s GDP growth rate slows to 20. 7 pct in 2011 http://www. macaunews. com. mo/content/view/1667/53/lang,english/
14. http://www. dsec. gov. mo/Statistic. aspx

The hospitality industry is one area where a large number of managers and chefs have become entrepreneurs and successful owners of their own businesses. Being a futuristic person I handle things with great patience, which is the main positive sign that strongly relates me to this esteemed industry. A constant learning process would lead me to improvise on the professional skills required to survive in this field.

Over the years, I see potentials for learning in every situation I find myself. The greatest motivation for me in applying for the Advance Diploma program in ‘hospitality and tourism operations management’ is the opportunity it presents me to get exposed to the travel and tourism sector which is highly associated with the hospitality industry. This sector has grown leaps and bounds over the years and has promising growth potential.

I believe that this Advance Diploma course will help me to achieve my ultimate goal, which is to develop myself to establish a career as a manager of a big concern or become an entrepreneur. To fulfill this goal however, I must develop my knowledge required to pilot major problems in this industry and learn to solve complex issues through an integrated approach. The hotelier must have a love for humanity, for humans show their worst side when they are tired and hungry.

Being gracious to guests as well as to associates, shows a mastery of the art of hospitality. All these positive efforts had given me great exposure to the core areas of management in terms of all the four major departments – food and beverage, front office, food production and housekeeping to run and expand hotel business in this competitive world you need to have thorough knowledge of management as well. It will be an interesting work place where each day offers new challenges with never a dull moment, thereby making it extremely enjoyable.

The industry offers a well rounded personality development for the individual and although there is glamour and show business, there are also a lot of hard work and long hours as well. I have demonstrated capacity and a unique ability in me to thrive in the midst of challenges. I believe this attitude would be of help particularly when real-life work challenges are presented and discussed. MY AIM: Business has come to me from my family. It has always fascinated me from my childhood.

It’s my dream as well as aim too to open a chain of restaurants in famous cities at the world level as because working at 5-star hotels, luxurious resorts, restaurants, clubs, on cruise lines, and more are always there in my imagination of work. And hence to full fill my objective and to quench my thirst for knowledge, diploma studies in hotel management will definitely help me keep up-to-date with the fast moving world. PREFERENCE FOR HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT: Keen interest in hotel management right from my teen age inspired me to develop my career for the same.

The Diploma in hospitality management course taught at Georgian College, Canada, which provides a launch pad for progression to the hotel and resort Business in India. All business is competitive; companies and organization are striving to maximize the return on the application of their limited resources. To make more profit, to gain market share or to position themselves as being the no. 1 company in their field, whatever their objectives they will only be achieved by the application of sound management. PREFERENCE FOR CANADA:

The world of today, as we know is a tough world Expertise and specialization are of great demands in today’s era of competition. International exposure, study in depth and practical experience in the field of hotel management are the most important factors for a student’s career and above all education from developed and advance country in the world, where the latest and most advance equipment facilities and opportunities for learning and acquiring detailed knowledge in a systematic way are available, which is not the case in other country.

I feel CANADA is the pioneer and best place to full fill this requirement as all the latest trends are almost always seen emerging from this part of the globe and the rest of the world seems to follow suit, main view of the aforesaid background, I have found the course at Georgian college most existing, interesting and ideally suited to my requirements and ambitions. I look forward to have a meaningful tenure, which would help me launch a successful career.

To conclude with a wide range of interests but definite goals, I am attracted to the advance diploma program at Georgian College which would suit me well and offer me perfect academic environment. It would be a great privilege if I am granted the opportunity to pursue my graduate studies at your reputed institution and I am quite confident that I will match the high standards set by your college.

Detail Itinerary (Nepal):

• Day 01: Arrival / Kathmandu (2013/Jan/18).

Arrival at Tribhuwan International Airport from Korean Airways. Meet, Greet, and assist to transfer to Hotel. Check in to Hotel and free. Evening visit Thamel Area. Dinner at Korean Restaurant and overnight at Hotel, Kathmandu. ( Dinner)

• Day 02:Kathmandu–Pokhara(01/19)

After Breakfast, check out and drive to Pokhara about 200 km west. Lunch on the way at Kurintar at Manokamana Cafe and continue the drive. Reach Pokhara and check in to Hotel. Free time, Walking around Lake, Boating (if time permits), etc.. Dinner and overnight at Hotel, Pokhara. B/F. Lunch / Dinner)

• Day 03: Pokhara – Lumbini(01/20)

Wake up early morning and drive to Sarangkot (Hilltop) about 15 Kms for Sunrise view. After Sunrise View, back to Hotel. Breakfast at Hotel and check out. Leave for Hydropower Construction site (Andhikhola and Kali Gandaki ‘A’) at Syangja district. Continue drive to Lumbini. Reach Lumbini and check in to Hotel Lumbini Garden. Dinner and overnight at Hotel, Lumbini( B/F. Lunch / Dinner)

• Day 04: Pokhara – Chitwan ( Jungle Safari) (01/21)

After Breakfast, leave for a half-day visit to Birthplace of Gautam Buddha and check out and drive to Chitwan.Reach Chitwan and check in to Hotel. Lunch at Hotel. In the afternoon, transfer to Chitwan National Park for Jungle Safari by Elephant Back Ride. After the safari, back to Hotel. Dinner and overnight at Hotel, Chitwan. ( B/F. Lunch / Dinner)

• Day 05: Chitwan (01/22)

After Breakfast, transfer to Chitwan National Park for full day jungle activities including Jungle walk, Canoe Ride, Elephant Breeding Centre visit, etc. Lunch at Hotel. Evening, transfer to Tharu Culture Dance center for viewing Tharu Traditional Dance. Dinner and overnight at Hotel, Chitwan ( B/F. Lunch / Dinner)

• Day 06: Chitwan – Nagarkot (01/23)

After Breakfast, leave for Bird Watching to Jungle and back. Check out and back to Kathmandu/Nagarkot  (a hill station in Kathmandu) about 200 Kms. Lunch on the way at Kurintar at River Side Spring Resort and continue the drive. Reach Nagarkot and check in to Hotel. Enjoy Sunset view from Hotel Premises. Dinner and overnight at Hotel, Nagarkot ( B/F. Lunch / Dinner)

• Day 07: Nagarkot – Kathmandu (01/24)

Wake up early morning for sunrise view. After the view, Breakfast at the Hotel. After Breakfast, check out and drive back to Bhaktapur Durbar (Old Palace) Square and Pashupatinath Temple. Lunch at the Korean Restaurant. Afternoon in Kathmandu for shopping. Dinner and Overnight at Hotel, Kathmandu. ( B/F. Lunch / Dinner)

• Day 08: Kathmandu (01/25)

Breakfast at Hotel and visit Patan Durbar Square. Lunch at Chinese Restaurant. At 1. 00 PM Departure for Tribhuwan International Airport. Day 09: Reach Busan (01/26) at the day time.

Cost Includes

1. Arrival & Departure Transfers
2. Nights stay at Hotel Royal Singi in Kathmandu
3. Nights stay at Hotel Barahi in Pokhara
4. Night stay at Hotel Lumbini Garden in Lumbini
5. Nights stay at Hotel Parkland in Chitwan
6.  Night stay at Hotel Fort Resort at Nagarkot (Upgraded Hotel)
7. Daily Breakfast at Hotels
8. Double / Twin Room and 3 Single Room at Hotels
9. Lunch and Dinner at best available Restaurant
10. Sightseeing in Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, and Nagarkot as per itinerary
11. All Transportation with sightseeing by Non AC Coaster
12. Entrance fees at sightseeing points as per itinerary
13.  All Hotel Taxes Cost

Excludes:

1.  All Personal Expenses, Beverages 2. Tips etc.

Introduction

The role of management in an organization, especially employee management, is crucial and determines the performance and success of the organization. It is thus essential to measure and address employee apprehension towards any change of scenario within the organization. This paper addresses employee management methods to bring about a change in their perception of a new scenarios as desirable and motivating. This involves bringing a strong shift from an intuitive stance of opposing change that stems for inertial comfort in the current setup.

This paper is centered on the decision of a hotel owner to change the target clientele of the hotel from international tourists to the high-end market. The five star hotel ‘Walkerhill’ is located in the suburbs, quite far from the International airport and has this disadvantage over its competitors in terms of location. However this change would possibly be met with resistance from employees and managers, many of whom have worked for about 10 years. This paper puts forth approaches and methods to amiably change the perception of employees and managers at two levels – the group level and at an individual level. The objective is to convince them to adopt the changes in full trust and enthusiasm and make the new setup a successful and high-performance driven one.

The next two sections discuss methods that can be employed at a group level. The first section concentrates on interpersonal behavior in the organization. It suggests how manager and employee groups can be amiably convinced about the necessity for change by acquiring their trust and involving them in the decision making process, while keeping the change in place.

The second section emphasizes on the importance of a good team and processes that help in bringing about the change productively. The third section addresses coping up with organizational change at the individual level. It describes how the owner and management can communicate with the employees to reduce apprehensions and stress about the impending change and make them comfortable.

The fourth and last section describes the role motivation plays in bringing about a positive change and high performance within an organization. Organizational changes if implemented as a drive to seek higher goals that require increased challenges, positive change in atmosphere and a renewed recognition of individual performance and achievement, can transform the common apprehension into an openly received change.

Group level Interpersonal Behavior in the Workplace
To convince the management, the owner must be able to communicate his ideas, logic and perceptions clearly. The owner might face some difficulty in bringing this change, since the managers have been around for long, and probably know their trade well as much as hold a strong affinity for their experience in the setup. However, there is an amicable possibility for this change.

One of the things that the owner can do is gain the trust of his managers. However, it cannot be a calculus-based approach to trust or an identification-based approach – it has to be brought through organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, the owner has to make sure that each member of the management is treated fairly. For instance, with this issue he must give each and every one a chance to voice out his/her opinion regarding upgrading the hotel and explain why he or she is against it. This will let them know that even though the owner’s ideas may be in conflict with those of the management, the owner still values their knowledge and respects their position as managers.

Once they all get their chance to share their thoughts, the owner should then explain his side, but without apparently competing with his managers about the better plan, as this will only create friction, in the form of substantive conflict and it will be even more difficult to convince the management to upgrade the hotel. Instead, the party should negotiate or bargain, and try to find a common ground. Since everyone has had his/her side heard under this approach, they can address the questions surrounding the issue of why upgrading to a 5-star hotel might be a bad idea, and what can be done to turn this around, to compensate for or resolve it.

Lastly, the owner should try to control his emotions when explaining his side. No matter how harsh or how blunt the management may be, regarding his decisions as “unnecessary”, the owner must remain emotionally stable. The same goes for the management—if one of them suddenly starts raising his voice, he should be calmed down before proceeding with the meeting. They should also be reminded of their positions—they are managers, not owners—and should respect the owner’s authority over them. The owner himself should not push his weight around.

Group Processes and Work Teams
At Walkerhill, we value good teamwork, since good teams are more productive.  To accomplish this, most productive teams must be assembled to maximize the value of their productivity.

A highly productive team must be assembled that offers maximum productivity. There are no absolute set of rules to follow in assembling a good team, since every situation is different and no two minds think alike.  However, through case studies we will show guidelines in building a good team.

A way to build a good team here is to incorporate healthy acceptance of changes required for a new setup that caters to a different clientele, that is, the shift from serving tourists to a high-end market.  We must incorporate this attitude into the leaders of the hotel, which means this kind of training must start with the managers.  We believe change of attitude is infectious, so changing a negative minded manager into one with a positive mindset towards the hotel’s changes isn’t just adding a positive mind but eliminating one negative mind and adding a positive mind.

An example we would like to use is to convince the managers that instead of changing our clientele from tourists to the high-end market, we are adding or broadening our market to increase/diversify our target market.  This approach may also assure the employees that we are not abandoning our tourist market.  A positive manager is far more impactful than a positive employee.

However, the manager of the team can’t influence the team much if the managers and the employees are not close.  The levels of bonds between the team members are called group cohesiveness.  To strengthen the level of group cohesiveness, we like to use two determinants of cohesiveness: group size and history of success.  We like to minimize the size of each team so the teams can work to their full potential.

We can’t put a specific number of individuals per team because the need of minimum number of individuals is different for each department.  Of course, we would not be hesitant to add more individuals to a team if needed.  By minimizing the number of members needed to perform at a high grade, we can cut the labor cost and limit the level of social loafing because smaller groups eliminate social loafing.

We also believe that competitiveness is good to have within the organization.  To promote this, we would have a chart indicating which teams had the best performance compared to ones in similar departments.  In addition, the winners would be rewarded for their hard work.  The reward system would reward monthly/annually and individuals/teams.  A 360 degrees approach would be applied to the feedback collection system in order to incorporate feedback at all levels within the organization to help it run more efficiently.

Coping with Organizational Life: Stress and Careers
In the hotel’s situation, we can raise the issue about the stress in terms of individual level. Usually, people do not like change. Some people feel scared when they face some change in their life. In the hotel’s case, the managers and employees were being asked for a big change by the owner of the hotel. As is the common psychology, the managers and employees did not like the change. They wanted to keep the same conditions in the hotel’s operation.

In this situation, we can suppose that the managers and employees would have got some psychological pressures such as fear, uncertainty, overload, and heavy responsibility from the sudden request. We can also suppose that they would have suffered from a lot of stress by the pressures. We recognize that the owner should deal with the issue about the managers and employees’ psychological pressures and stress. In short, the owner should consider how he can relieve the managers and employees from the psychological pressures and stress, so for them to accept the new change without any resistance.

As a key solution of the situation, we can think of the owner’s effective communications skills. The effective communications skills should include the following key points: a reasonable basis for the change, a positive and successful prospect from the change, and vast benefits for managers and employees.

As the reasonable basis for the change, the owner can suggest a few examples such as decrease of the foreign tourists, or increase of the demand of the domestic high –end market. In the respect of the positive and successful prospect from the change, the owner can also represent several examples such as upgraded brand image of the hotel, more effectiveness in hotel’s operation, and increase of the profits.  In the respect of the benefit for managers and employees, the owner can suggest a few promises such as more improved work environment, higher valued position for the managers and employees, and wage raise.

Through those effective communications skills, the owner would indicate the positive aspects for the change, and, through those positive aspects, he would gradually relieve the psychological pressures and stress existing within the managers and employees. As the result, we can expect that the mangers and employees would accept the change without any resistance.

Motivating People to Work Towards a Change
One consequential factor in making the employees of an organization accept a change and increase performance in the new scenario is motivation. Once the managers are open to the change, the next step is to cascade the motivation, benefits and ownership of the change down to the employees. This can be done at various levels through a combination of different approaches.

The first step towards motivating employees to perform at a maximum level of creativity and be a valuable asset to an organization is to ensure that their basic needs are being met. The change should be perceived as enhancing the facilities that meet their lower and rudimentary needs, like good salary for personal needs, an environment that is physically and psychologically safe to work in and is conductive to social affiliation and professional bonding. Once an employee finds that these things are in place, and a change will only enhance these factors, maximized performance, desire for success and recognition of accomplishments come naturally.

Another step that motivates people is the urge to fill the gap between differences of outcomes and efforts in a job and turn relationships into equitable ones where ratios of outcome/input are similar between their colleagues and co-workers. This factor can be employed to increase motivation at two levels. One is by showing that the change put the employees at par in benefits with employees of other luxury hotels, who may be enjoying more remuneration for the similar responsibilities. The second approach is to introduce transparency in the organization so that employees are aware of roles that are fulfilled responsibly and achieve a good outcome/input ratio, thus stimulating them to model it.

The hotel should have a very transparent scenario for rewarding and growth that makes the employees aware that a good performance is visible and appreciated at the top-most organizational level. The employees feel motivated to increase effort to enhance performance and are confident of being recognized and rewarded. This also recursively adds to the atmosphere of the organization and keeps people happy, which in turn also enhances motivation and appreciation of a conductive setup.

One important approach to making employees work towards a new scenario is setting new goals and making them recognize the challenges of a higher goal level. Combined with a reassurance in the possibility of attaining the feasible yet possibly difficult end, goal setting enhances performance strongly by inducing a desire to reach a goal and feel competent while realizing self-efficacy. Difficult tasks and high goal commitment together maximize performance as opposed to low commitment. To achieve this specific, high performance goals need to be defined. Goals should be difficult yet feasible. This should be combined with feedback, which facilitates in gauging goal attainment. And lastly, this should be allowed time as it takes some time to reach and sustain performance at the new level.

A new scenario brings about new job responsibilities. Jobs should be designed as to increase the motivation and performance of the employees. Each role should be designed as to appear inherently appealing. Jobs can include more number of tasks at the same level of responsibility and skills (horizontal loading) or with higher levels of skills and responsibilities (vertical loading). The new role should make people feel that they are doing meaningful and valuable work.

Meaningfulness of a work is impacted by skills variety, degree to which a task requires responsibility from beginning to end (task identity) and task significance , as to the impact it has on others. Responsibility for outcome of work is determined by autonomy the employees have in determining their own task plan, schedule, etc. Knowledge of the actual result of activities is driven by feedback. This gives the employees a measure of their growth and development. All these together result in employee motivation, performance and satisfaction.

Conclusion

An organization operates successfully as a function of the employees’ motivation, committed performance, sense of ownership, growth and satisfaction. While any organization constantly changes and evolves during its life, a sharp change almost always accompanies with employee insecurity and apprehension. Thus it requires foresight, planned and calculated effort to assuage the employee mindset and make it welcome the changed scenario as positive. This requires employing various methods at group and individual levels to make the benefits of change apparent.

It is important to involve the employee as a part owner of the change and be a proactive participant in the action plan for the change. This also helps the top decision-makers and owners see details that may have been overlooked in planning the strategy to meet change.

The organizational modifications can be brought about successfully through adopting productive processes and forming productive teams. Good teams come with a good degree group cohesiveness and healthy competition.

Changes come with employee stress and insecurity, which need to be specifically addressed by the top-level management. An organization needs to show the employee it cares, and the key to this is effective communication. Measures need to be taken to overcome individual stress.

Lastly, a positive atmosphere is a predecessor of good performance. The rudimentary needs like comfort and security of employees should be enhanced so that they can concentrate on achieving success and maximizing their level of creativity. Awareness of the organizational roles and at par rival-organization roles gives employees impetus to fill the gap in the ratio of outcome versus input. A positive variation inspires positive traversal.

An organization that is transparent and rewarding inspires employees to expect reward for personal effort and makes them go that extra mile. Well defined, challenging yet achievable goals ensure high employee commitment. In addition job roles defined to increase the skills levels used, ownership of a task life and marked by impactful tasks augment the meaningfulness of the work. Autonomy in choosing the action plan for task enhances sense of responsibility. Additionally, feedback enhances measure of goal attainment thus resulting in an employee’s professional growth. All of this together contribute to the performance, satisfaction and motivation of the employees and result in low absenteeism and turnover.

The most complex work in the hotel in terms of communication and of coordinating and completing working documents is done by Floor Managers. These employees often supervise others who perform service tasks directly for the guests. Floor Managers are responsible for liaising between Room Attendants on the guest floors and managers in the housekeeping office.

Qualifications required are a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in hotel management, and work experience in hospitality industry. At the basement-level housekeeping office, Floor Managers report and monitor room status and special room requests received from other parts of the hotel. They check the computer-generated status reports for discrepancies from their visual checks of the actual rooms. If a room coded for check-out appeared occupied on the floor, they would check the Expected Departure report on the computer to see if the guest had actually checked out (Bardi 2002).

Usually, the main requires are:

Supervision

Inventory management

Quality Control

Coordination of other managers and staff

Shipping and receiving

Documentary control (Floor Manager Position 2007).

The responsibilities are:

Each one supervises 15 Room Attendants and two Housemen, covering three to four floors, or 240–320 rooms.

On the floors, they check the status and progress of room cleaning, inspected rooms and augmented the Room Attendants’ work.

One of their duties, for example, is putting triple bed sheets and extra amenities in VIP rooms.

They have to get the extra sheet, then take some of the bedding off and remake the bed. The number of VIPs they had to do beds for is never predictable, and they have to squeeze them into their regularly scheduled activities.

The number of floors and rooms Floor Managers are responsible for varied, too, because of airline employee guests, who rarely checked out until after the day shift finished, and because of movement in the predicted house counts (overall room occupancies) (Powers and Barrows 2002).

The Floor Managers are all in the office together at three times during the day: the beginning and end of the shift, and during the midmorning clearing and briefing meeting. These are busy, but not clearly structured times, with managers picking up special supplies, double-checking irregularities in the room status reports, answering phones. In Hilton Hotels, for instance, Floor Managers work is organized as follows:

workday starts, between 7 and 8;
the Floor Managers come in and prepared their own worksheets for the day;
they check the 6:30 a.m. room status reports and special requests, along with the log book confirming their floor assignments; then they go up on the floors to check the room status and supply needs with each Room Attendant, who has verified their status as soon as she/he arrives on the floor;

Floor Managers then return downstairs to check and adjust room assignments against the Coordinator’s log book (Powers and Barrows 2002).
For example, some rooms in the early-morning computer status report noted as vacant and clean may have become occupied in the interim. Or vacant and clean rooms may have become VIP or rush rooms, which Floor Managers would hear about in the office and have to inform the Room Attendant about. In many cases, Floor Manager’s position is called a “supervisor”.

Floor Managers themselves have to identify VIP rooms and they have to spend extra time to set up the rooms, and collect and deliver the extras. The VIP rooms could not be neglected, and they are seldom blocked (assigned by Front Desk) in advance. So throughout the day, Floor Managers have to monitor upcoming VIP rooms and prepare them in time for the guests’ arrival (Powers and Barrows 2002).

Work stress and pressure is a remarkable feature of this position. Very often, checking room reports against their lists, for example, is interrupted by a ringing telephone or a co-worker’s query. Most often the interruption involves a guest’s urgent request, which demanded an immediate response. People write down notes, speak on the phone to guests, page others to fill requests and relay orders to the Centralized Action Room. Several talks at once; seldom are the exchange restricted to two people (Stutts 2001).

Floor Managers work primarily from photocopied forms attached to clipboards that they fill out each day as they completed their work. The worksheets serve as organizational tools, memory aids and long-term records, to be boxed and stored for a prescribed number of years. From my observations throughout the hotel, the computers stored information on sales, purchases, personnel and payroll, and guests and occupancy rather than any detailed records of daily work.

And unless each Floor Manager is equipped with a hand-held computer, inputting such information would have been impractical when there is already a paper record. In the basement office, Floor Managers also check for recent special requests like rush rooms or VIPs, or they receive them as phone messages, occasionally via pager (Stutts 2001).

References

Bardi J.A. (2002). Hotel Front Office Management Wiley; 3 edition.
Floor Manager Position (2007). Retrieved 01 July 2007,
Powers T., Barrows C.W. (2002). Introduction to the Hospitality Industry. Wiley, 5 edition.
Stutts A. (2001). Hotel and Lodging Management. An Introduction. Wiley.