Motivation Of Employees In The Hotel Industry Tourism Essay

Motivation Of Employees In The Hotel Industry Tourism Essay The last few decades have been characterised by a radical change in management perceptions about the importance of the work force in achievement of strategic objectives of business organisations. Management experts agree that in situations where competitors have similar financial resources and organisational infrastructures, competitive edge can be achieved only through well trained and intensely motivated employee forces. The hotel industry has grown remarkably in the last two decades. With the industry expanding exponentially, capacity builds ups in business and tourism centres have created enormous competition in all its segments. Whilst hotel managers strive to provide good physical facilities to their clients, it is widely accepted that excellence in service quality is best achieved through the efforts of employees to meet customer needs. Motivating employees is thus seen to be a critical task of hotel managers. The dissertation project aims to examine the importance of motivating employees in the hotel industry for the achievement of competitive advantage and the best possible ways and means of doing so. The last few decades, especially the period that commenced from the 1970s, have been characterised by radical changes in management perceptions about the importance of the work force in achieving the strategic objectives of business organisations.  [1]   Whilst traditional management theory treated workers, along with capital, land and machinery, as just one of the four important inputs of business enterprises, current management thought and practice, influenced on one hand by the opinions of experts like Drucker, Porter, Maslow and McGregor, and on the other by dramatically altered business conditions, perceive employees to be critical to organisational success and growth.  [2]   Contemporary developments like globalisation, economic liberalisation, the deconstruction of trade and physical barriers, technological advances, the spread of the internet, instantaneous communication technology, cheaper travel costs and the emergence of China and India as economic power houses have made the world intensely competitive and diminished the superiority of Western business organisations.  [3]  Management experts agree that in economic scenarios where competitors have the same sort of financial resources and organisational infrastructures, competitive edge is mainly achieved through well trained and intensely motivated employee forces.  [4]   The hotel industry has grown remarkably in the last two decades. Globalisation along with greater discretionary incomes in the populations of advanced and developing countries, cheaper travel, open borders and the opening of numerous business and tourists destinations have led to substantial increases in business travel and domestic and international tourism and created enormous opportunities for hotels. Aims and Objectives With the hotel industry expanding exponentially, capacity builds ups in business and tourism centres have created enormous competition in all sectors of the hotel industry.  [5]  Being service oriented in nature, hotels work towards achievement of service quality and improvement of customer satisfaction for achievement of competitive advantage.  [6]   Whilst hotel ownerships strive to provide good physical facilities to their clients, it is widely accepted that excellence in service quality is best achieved through the efforts of employees to meet customer needs  [7]  Motivating employees is thus seen to be a critical task of hotel managements.  [8]   This proposal aims to investigate the contribution of employees in achievement of profitability and competitive advantage in the hotel industry, the importance of motivation in improving employee performance, and the role of managers in motivating employees to improve their performance and commitment. Its objectives are elaborated as follows: To examine the ways and means in which employees can add to the service quality, efficiency, profitability and competitive advantage of the hotel industry. To examine the impact of motivation on the performance of hotel employees. To examine and assess the various ways of motivating employees. To examine the roles of managers in motivating hotel employees. 2. Literature Review Human resource management theory has changed radically over the past few decades. Whilst traditional HR theory was influenced and shaped by scientific management principles embodied in the approaches of Henry Ford and Fredrick Taylor for improvement of worker productivity, the post Second World War period saw the emergence of behavioural experts and psychologists like Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg and Vroom, who discarded Fordist and Taylorist principles and emphasised that worker performance could be much better enhanced by meeting the various needs of workers, training and developing them and empowering them to do their work to the best of their ability.  [9]   Experts like Maslow and Herzberg stress that worker motivation is critical to worker performance and organisational managements need to motivate members of their work force in carefully thought out, well planned and deliberately implemented ways. Maslowà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s theory of needs, McGregorà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s exposition of theory X and theory Y, Herzbergà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s detailing of hygiene and motivating factors, and Vroomà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s work on motivating employees deal with the various needs of workers and how they can best be motivated by organisational managements.  [10]   Extant HR theory also places great stress on the need of managers to know methods of motivation and use them appropriately in the work place.  [11]  The evolution of human resources as a management discipline has been characterised by numerous academic and research work on the best possible methods of motivating employees.  [12]   Employees are seen as key inputs in the hotel industry and most well known hotel chains like The Marriot, The Mandarin Orient and The Ritz Carlton are known to have very carefully thought out and well implemented employee performance improvement programmes.  [13]  Motivation plays a key role in such programmes and is a key responsibility of hotel managers.  [14]   The Ritz Carlton, the only two time winner of the famous Malcolm Baldridge awards for quality, is known to have an excellent employee training, development and motivation programme.  [15]  Employees at the Ritz Carlton are motivated through a complex system of policies and procedures that deal with remuneration, training, involvement, responsibility allocation, employee respect and empowerment.  [16]   Employee motivation and the responsibilities of managers in motivating employees are key areas of focus in hotel management theory.  [17]   3. Research Methodology Research Hypotheses The aims and objectives of the project, along with the information obtained during the course of review of available literature, lead to the following research hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: Employees are critical for the achievement of service quality, profitability and competitive advantage in the hotel industry Hypothesis 2: Employee motivation leads to improvement in employee performance Hypothesis 3: Managers can motivate hotel employees in various ways. Research Methods The choice and adoption of appropriate research methods for projects are essentially decided by the nature of the project and the resources available with the researcher.  [18]  With there being two basic methods of social research, namely the quantitative and qualitative approaches, the choice of an appropriate method for this assignment will be shaped by the research hypotheses elaborated above.  [19]   The research hypotheses essentially deal with issues and questions that are how, why and what in nature, and are thus best tackled by use of interpretative qualitative methods, rather than through analysis of the results of number based quantitative surveys.  [20]   Information for the project will be obtained from primary and secondary sources.  [21]  Primary information sources are those that provide information directly from people and organisations who form the subject of research, whereas secondary information is obtained from sources created by people, (e.g. authors, researchers, or media publications), who are unconnected with the research subject.  [22]   It is proposed to use both primary and secondary sources for this research project.  [23]  Whilst substantial information from secondary sources on human resource management, motivational theory, service quality, managerial responsibility and the responsibilities and methods of managers for motivating employees is available in the public domain, primary information can be obtained through study of hotel websites and interviews of people associated with the research subject.  [24]  With the hospitality industry now a globally important industry, a number of academic publications and research studies are available on different aspects of hotel management.  [25]  The study of such sources will enable the researcher to obtain accurate and extensive information on the subject under study.  [26]   The methodology entails the collection of primary and secondary data from the sources elaborated earlier, the qualitative interpretation of obtained information, and its detailed analysis for the purpose of examining the validity of the hypothesis.  [27]   Ethics Care will be taken to ensure that all ethical requirements regarding the conduct of research projects are followed, especially with regard to protection of the rights and confidentiality of primary respondents. Adequate care will be taken to ensure that appropriate credit is given to all information sources.  [28]   Constraints and Limitations The study will be limited by the amount of primary and secondary information accessed by the researcher, as well as the amount of cooperation provided by the primary respondents from the hotel industry. It is envisaged that obtaining appointments with hotel managers may be a difficult task and could delay the gathering of information and data. The researcher plans to start taking appointments with managers in the hotel industry at the earliest in order to maintain the research schedule. 4. Timeline The research is expected to take six months to complete. The timeline of the project is provided below. Function Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Determining of Secondary Information Sources * Study of Secondary Information Sources * * * Determination of Primary Information Sources * * Study of Primary Information Sources * Fixing of Appointments with Primary Respondents * * Conducting of Interviews * Collation of Secondary Information * Compilation of Literature Review * * Compilation of Primary Information * Collation of Data * Data Analysis and Interpretation * Preparation of Rough Draft of Dissertation * Discussion with Tutor * Preparation of Final Dissertation * Word Count: 1610 without Tables

Ital cooking - necessity or religious fervor? :: essays papers

Ital cooking - necessity or religious fervor? The party started at around 9 PM but my girlfriend and I decided to get there a few hours early to help set up. We made our way into the Bronx with my friend Leroy, a co-worker who had invited us, and reached the house at around four. We helped them string up a tarp and set up the sound system. It was a small fenced-in backyard but we stacked up the speakers and woofers seven feet high. They had apparently gotten permits earlier for the music, which was good, since I couldn’t hear myself think when the DJ was at work on his system. We had been working for a while and the yard was looking good, the woman of the house asked us if we were hungry. This was a pointless question with me since I am always hungry and we quickly followed her into the kitchen. Once inside the house, the faint smells of cooking food became much stronger while she led us into the kitchen. The kitchen was about average, just like any other person’s except there was a huge pot of soup/stew on the stove. We approached it and were offered paper cups full of delicious, hearty fish soup. This was only the beginning, as I was to discover later, the party quickly progressed and grew. Earlier in the day, there were only a few people at the house and I felt quite welcomed and comfortable. As the night went on and people continued showing up my girlfriend and I slowly became the minority. By the time the party was in full swing, the whole yard was packed and we had flowed into the neighbor’s yard to barbecue. We were two of the four white people at the party but Leroy and the hosts still made us feel comfortable. It was an eye opening experience to be the minority especially after growing up in predominantly white towns. When the guests started showing up in force Leroy, along with a few other guys, got to the business of barbecuing. The music was pumping, the red stripe was flowing and the party was going but the fire wasn’t burning. They set up a fifty-gallon-drum-barbecue in the neighbor’s yard since theirs was quickly filling and fired up the charcoal. Once the fire was good and hot, they pulled out several bags of seasoned Jerk chicken.

Marketing Management Project Elements Essay

* What should Sonic’s mission statement be? -â€Å"Make technology an asset in your life and not a setback. Be the creator of your world through advanced technology. Sonic brings advanced technology to you through providing communication, information storage and exchange, organization and entertainment on mobile devices†. * In what competitive spheres (industry, products and applications, competence, market-segment, vertical, and geographic) should Sonic operate? Industry: PDA’s and smartphones for all lifestyles. Whether personal, business, or the student on the go. Products and applications: Smart devices that have numerous features and functions on a single device. Some features may include, Wi-Fi capabilities, Bluetooth technology, high definition quality videos, live movie and television streaming, music, camera, and security system all available at a competitive price. Competence: Creating and selling an original product with a wide range of features at a reasonable rate Market-Segments: Students can use the device to contact family and friends while on the go and also as multimedia device. Professionals may be more inclined to use the smart devices for business, such as scheduling appointments, emailing employees, customer transactions, and organizing contact information. Entrepreneurs and corporate users may seek to update and access critical data. Vertical: The product is manufactured and distributed throughout the U.S. markets by wholesalers and retailers. Geographic: The product is placed throughout the country. * Which of Porter’s generic competitive strategies would you recommend Sonic follow in formulating overall strategy? Sonic should look at Porter’s differentiation of focus generic strategy. One of Sonic’s strength is its clever and unique products. Since there products are innovative, it stands out from similar products that may already be on the market. Also, Sonic focuses and targets its products on a few segment markets and aims them at users for different uses. * What demographic changes are likely to affect Sonic’s targeted segments? The target segments that are likely to be affected are the professionals, students, corporate users, entrepreneurs and medical users. The demographic changes would be in age, gender, income, schooling and the kind of work a person does. All these would serve as the body of consumers or non-consumers that would buy Sonics new product. * What economic trends might influence buyer behaviour in Sonic’s targeted segments? The economy is always experiencing alternating periods of growth and decline. In this case economic trends that may influence a buyer behaviour of Sonics target segments is that technological development would have to be on the rise, allowing better ways to do certain things. Also period of growth would be and influence. Persons would spend more money during that time of economic growth. * How might the rapid pace of technological change alter Sonic’s competitive situation? The rapid pace of technological change may alter sonic competitive situation because of the large market of technology. Other companies that are in the same market that are targeting the same demographic would serve as competition. The competitors would come up with new and innovative ideas so that they may be the leaders in that market. * What surveys, focus groups, observation, behavioural data, or experiments will Sonic need to support its marketing strategy? Be specific about the questions or issues that Sonic needs to resolve its marketing problem. Sonic will need to use online surveys, small focus groups and observation to support its marketing strategy. An online survey will be ideal for Sonic as it is more beneficial to collect quantitative information in the fields of marketing from numerous consumers and the target market. A small focus group should be done on students, ranging from ages 18-25 to discern why PDA’s may or may not be popular among this age demographic. The moderator can ask questions such as, â€Å"How many persons are willing to pay more money for a newer, improved product with more features?†. The questions can then become more specific and the moderator can ask about the various brands of PDA’s, preference in brands, pricing, and factors that may persuade a consumer to purchase a certain product. Observation will also be needed to support Sonic’s marketing strategy. Company researchers can observe individuals and settings unobtrusively as they shop for products. They can also ask consumers to write down, there thought process, what they look for in a PDA, as well as how they compare pricing and perceived value amongst products. * Where can you find suitable secondary data about total demand for PDAs over the next two years? Identify at least two sources (online or off-line), describe what you plan to draw from each source, and indicate how the data would be useful for Sonic’s marketing plan. Suitable secondary data can be found online websites such as â€Å"Business.com† and â€Å"ReportLinker.com†. Using â€Å"Business.com†, information can be gathered on the latest news and trends regarding PDA’s. By using this source, we plan to draw information on the newest personal data assistants and handheld computers on the market and how they compete. How other businesses use PDAs in specific industries for specialized task and what may be on the horizon for cutting edge PDA technology. By using â€Å"ReportLinker.com† we will be able to view trends, analysis, statistics and various PDA market reports throughout the country as well as globally. * Recommend three specific marketing metrics for Sonic to apply in determining marketing effectiveness. To determine marketing effectiveness Sonic should apply these three marketing metrics: 1) Sales by market segment. 2) Brand awareness. 3) Customer Satisfaction.

Analytical Review of Cutting the Fuse - 1314 Words

This quote by Pat Robertson works as a great illustration for how our nation reacted to the suicide attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda on United States soil. The initial reaction by political pundits and politicians alike was that the only cause of these attacks was due to a radical Islamic view on the world. However, in Robert A. Pape and James K. Feldman’s book Cutting the Fuse they try to analyze data on suicide bombing and try to determine what is the root cause of these violent acts. Their conclusions are the exact opposite of the rhetoric that was presented to the American public. Instead of blaming Islamic extremists, they instead come to the conclusion, â€Å"that military occupation is the main factor driving suicide terrorism† (Pape Feldman 10). Furthermore, they also put forth the argument that our current military strategies involving military occupation are counter-productive because rather than deterring violence, it actually increases suicide-bombings commi tted against American forces. In this paper I will examine the conclusions Robert Pape and James Feldman have come to and will also analyze these conclusions in Cutting the Fuse with a belief that this text works to refute much of what the American public has been told. However, before we can begin to analyze the judgements that are presented within the text I must first defend my position as to why I believe Cutting the Fuse is an excellent book. During a heated press conference in 2009 former University ofShow MoreRelatedBrahms Intermezzo No.3, Op.119 in C Major Analysis8658 Words   |  35 Pagesclasses especially salient. [8] The opening of the piece animates the motive by repeating and varying the duration of J while arpeggiating the chords of DOWN-THIRD-UP-FIFTH. 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