Hotel Departments Research Articles

Dietitians as multidepartment managers in healthcare settings

Today’s world of health care is one of constant change. Although the rise in health care costs slowed to single digits in the 1990s, costs are again spiraling out of control. Business Week (January 28, 2002) reports that the nation’s healthcare tab may rise to 16% of the US gross domestic product by the year 2010 vs 13.4% in 2001 (1). Rita Jackson (2) states that “to reduce costs, administrators use empowered team members to come up with plans that reduce the number of department heads and provided blended management specialties.” Champy (3) cites examples of departments being combined, with one individual responsible for all aspects of management. A survey by the Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management (HFM) in 1996 indicated that 21% of HFM operator members were managing foodservices and other departments such as environmental services, linen services, and engineering maintenance (4). Silverman and colleagues (5) reported that 61% of 214 foodservice managers surveyed expected change in their management responsibilities, with most anticipating the management of more departments within their hospitals. Williams and DeMicco (6) indicated that reasons for multidepartment management included organizational downsizing, consolidation of support services, and acquisitions of competitors. Multidepartment management is occurring in health care, in education, and in the operation of sports arenas (7). William Sciacca, Sr, presented a session on multidepartment management at the American Dietetic Association (ADA) national conference in 1998. He indicated that integrated services were often organized in functional sets of facilities service, customer service, and logistics service (unpublished data, October 1998). Today’s department heads have more responsibility than ever, with many taking on multidepartment and multilocation management responsibilities (8). The rapidly changing environment in managed health care emphasizes efficiency with downsized workforces and flexibility to change strategic direction. According to Williams (7), multidepartment managers have different training needs based on the scope of their responsibilities. Training needs that ranked highest were in team building, finance, and technology (9). Other critical attributes listed included innovation, calculated risk taking, strong communication skills, time management, political savvy, customer orientation, and creativity (10). The purpose of this project was to explore the prevalence of multidepartment management in healthcare operations among members of the Management in Food and Nutrition Systems dietetic practice group (DPG). Researchers sought to determine the knowledge and D. D. Canter is a professor in the Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management, and Dietetics at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. M. F. Nettles is an associate professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS. Address correspondence to: Deborah D. Canter, PhD, RD, Professor, Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management, and Dietetics, Justin Hall 104, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-1404. E-Mail: canter@ksu.edu Copyright © 2003 by the American Dietetic Association. 0002-8223/03/10302-0020$35.00/0 doi: 10.1053/jada.2003.50023

Revving up for a New Year: Faculty Take to the Field

Faculty participating in the faculty intern program offered through I-Chrie and sponsored by Marriott International report on the value of updating skills through the field experience. This report includes the variety of experiences each faculty gained through participating in high quality orientation programs and rotations through departments in limited and full-service hotels. Of particular interest in this report is the experience of interning during the terrorist attacks in New York and the effect it had on property operations.

Audit of manpower research in the hospitality sector: an example from the Antalya region of Turkey

With the increase in competition in the hospitality sector, manpower has become an increasingly important factor. The labour‐intensive aspect of the tourism sector has put pressure on all entrepreneurs to act according to the needs and expectations of internal customers (personnel) and external customers (customers, suppliers). This paper studies personnel policies, recruitment methods and resources, future developments and the reasons for job changes for sample hotels in the Antalya Region in Turkey. A questionnaire was designed for all four‐ and five‐star hotels and first‐class holiday villages which were open during the winter period (January‐March 1999). For the questionnaire evaluation the bio‐medical data process was used. Recruitment methods, popular departments of sample hotels, most‐needed qualifications for personnel, training methods and changes in qualifications and in departments over the next five years, etc. are all discussed in this paper.

Why do middle managers in hotels burn out?

This paper details the results of research undertaken on middle management burn‐out in hotels within a 50‐mile radius of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The research explores the effect of variables such as gender, marital status, organizational and familial support on the degree of perceived burn‐out experienced by middle‐level managers associated with front‐line departments (reception, food and beverage service, housekeeping, etc.) in hotels. The study found that women experience a higher degree of burn‐out than men, as do single (unmarried) managers. Managers who perceive less family support also experience higher levels of burn‐out. A comparison of this study with similar studies undertaken in 1989, 1990 and 1993 shows that burn‐out has become more of a management problem. The 1999 figures show an average increase of 32 per cent from 1989 across the three dimensions of the burn‐out inventory used in this study.

Making a career of it? Hospitality students’ future perspectives: an Anglo‐Dutch study

The aim of this research is to establish students’ perceptions of the international hospitality industry and, specifically, to establish the likelihood of the student seeking employment in the industry after graduating, the region/country where the student intends seeking employment, the functional area/sector which is most attractive to the student and the position which the student expects to hold five and ten years after graduating. The research is based on a questionnaire administered at two universities offering hospitality management degrees, one in the UK, the other in The Netherlands. The main findings are that students have a distinct preference for certain hotel departments, hotel chains and sectors of the industry. Most expect to be general manager/corporate manager ten years after graduating. As the degree progresses, the students’ perception of the industry deteriorates. The paper concludes by examining issues relating to the image of the industry and the development of hospitality curricula.

Nonprofit Management in the Hospitality and Tourism Industries

The prevalence of nonprofit organizations in the hospitality and tourism industries prompted the Department of Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Administration at the University of Massachusetts to offer a course studying nonprofit organizations. The course studied why and how not-for-profits exist in a capitalistic economy, knowledge necessary for managing nonprofit operations, and how, through cooperative efforts, nonprofit organizations can support for-profit entities.

Some considerations of impacts of attitude to foreigners by hotel workers in the Peoples Republic of China on hospitality service

Chinese people have long been considered to be xenophobic, and this has not been helped by the isolationist stance imposed by the communist (Chinese socialist) leaders over the past several decades. The present study was carried out to discover the attitudes of hotel workers in the Peoples Republic of China (P.R.C.) to visitors to their country who stayed in hotels. A rationale is presented for subdividing visitors into ethnic groupings, these being: Western; Japanese; South East Asian; overseas (compatriot) Chinese; and local Chinese. Given these groupings, the study goes on to use repertory grid analysis to analyse the attitudes of a sample of hotel workers from a variety of departments within hotels, and from a diverse regional spread throughout PRC, to their hotel guests. It was found that there was considerable uniformity of view of the workers, independant of hotel department, as to the attributes of their guests relative to their ethnic origin. The most significant distinction was that the Japanese, South East Asian and local Chinese were all linked together as sharing negative attributes, that is to say they were generally disliked by the hotel workers. Conversely, the Western people and other (compatriot) Chinese were generally perceived to have positive attributes and were less unwelcome. These findings are discussed in more detail in the paper. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Some considerations of impacts of attitude to foreigners by hotel workers in the Peoples Republic of China on hospitality service

Chinese people have long been considered to be xenophobic, and this has not been helped by the isolationist stance imposed by the communist (Chinese socialist) leaders over the past several decades. The present study was carried out to discover the attitudes of hotel workers in the Peoples Republic of China (P.R.C.) to visitors to their country who stayed in hotels. A rationale is presented for subdividing visitors into ethnic groupings, these being: Western; Japanese; South East Asian; overseas (compatriot) Chinese; and local Chinese. Given these groupings, the study goes on to use repertory grid analysis to analyse the attitudes of a sample of hotel workers from a variety of departments within hotels, and from a diverse regional spread throughout PRC, to their hotel guests. It was found that there was considerable uniformity of view of the workers, independant of hotel department, as to the attributes of their guests relative to their ethnic origin. The most significant distinction was that the Japanese, South East Asian and local Chinese were all linked together as sharing negative attributes, that is to say they were generally disliked by the hotel workers. Conversely, the Western people and other (compatriot) Chinese were generally perceived to have positive attributes and were less unwelcome. These findings are discussed in more detail in the paper. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tutor Versus Peer Group Assessment of Student Performance in a Simulation Training Exercise

Abstract The performance of a group of third‐year higher diploma students from the Department of Hotel & Tourism in a simulation training exercise was assessed separately by the tutor and peer group, using an identical checklist. Ninety‐six pairs of tutor and peer group assessment marks were obtained and compared. Results showed that there was some degree of agreement between tutor and peer group markings, although the level of congruence was somewhat less than reported in earlier studies. However, when the tutor and peer group average marks were converted to grades, agreement was found in only 46.9% of the cases and the level of agreement between the two gradings was not statistically significant. Significant differences were also found in the variability of tutor and peer group markings. Furthermore, there were indications that peer group markings tended to be more stringent than tutor markings in the higher mark range, but relatively more lenient in the lower mark range. This trend was particularly obv...

Hotel Guest Satisfaction among Business Travelers

Much of the guest-satisfaction literature focuses on the mechanisms of error reduction and quality management. Rather than concentrate on reducing errors in all areas, the important matter in customer satisfaction is to determine the attributes that guests consider important and focus on those attributes. Customer satisfaction can be defined as a guest's postconsumption judgment of a product or service that can, in turn, be measured by assessing guests' evaluation of performance on specific attributes. Using a 22-item, Likert-type questionnaire, the researchers gauged Norwegian business travelers' assessments of the tangible and intangible aspects of three hotel departments: front desk, food and beverage, and housekeeping. A statistical analysis showed that this sample of 315 business travelers was most concerned with the tangible aspects of housekeeping (e.g., comfort and amenities of the guest room) and the intangible attributes of the front desk (e.g., receptionists' willingness to provide service and speed at check-in).

Growth of tourism in East Asia and the Pacific

Tourism to and within the East Asia and Pacific region has been growing at a rapid pace. In this paper. Perry Hobson, Lecturer in the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic, looks at the various levels of growth in tourism around the region and examines the key factors behind it. The paper then examines the Implications of the growth of tourism particularly in relation to infrastructure, the environment and human resource developments.

Texture as a determinant in the acceptance of snack items by school children

Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Long Island University, Brookville, New York Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, Food and Hotel, Management, New York University, New York, New York

Book Reviews

The Polytechnic of Huddersfield Department of Hotel and Catering Management

A “Critical” Look At Student Self Evaluation

The critical incident technique has proven to be an effective tool both in encouraging student self evaluation of performance and planning strategies for continued professional development. The technique is now being used in all professional courses involving a practicum component in the Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management and Dietetics at Kansas State University.

Educator - Industry Perceptions of Subject-Area Importance in Hospitality Programs

In the fall of 1982, the Department of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Florida State University initiated a curriculum review to determine the strengths and weaknesses of its cur rent curriculum. Part of the study examined existing programs throughout the country. The twenty-five programs surveyed were selected because of their reputations and history of suc cess. A comparative analysis was performed on the surveys returned. In order to strengthen the data base, input was also obtained from sources outside academe, particularly the employers of graduates and recent graduates themselves. The three categories of respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions of the importance of thirty-three selected subject areas in hospitality education. Educators were asked to also indicate their perceptions of the importance of selected criteria identified in the literature as being com ponents of program and faculty quality in higher education. The paper summarizes the findings and examines the results from the three perspectives. Although the study is limited in its sample size and is primarily descriptive vis a vis analytical, certain implications can be drawn from the findings that are of value to hospitality educators engaged in curriculum review.

Hotmama

A new exercise teaches hotel managers and department heads the principles of integrated hotel management - illustrat ing ways to resolve conflicts between the concerns of different departments and how to maximize profits

(TSM) Some costs and benefits of tourism to rural communities: The cape cod case: Abraham Pizam, Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA), 1977, 19 pp.

(TSM) Some costs and benefits of tourism to rural communities: The cape cod case: Abraham Pizam, Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA), 1977, 19 pp.

Success, failure and wastage in a Department of Hotel and Catering Management

Success, failure and wastage in a Department of Hotel and Catering Management

Hotel/Motel Room Rates

Room rates should be keyed to the market served is an axiom of the industry. Recently, George D. Johnson, president of the American Hotel & Motel Association and vice president of ITT-Sheraton Hotels, told members of the Hotel Sales Management Association that "We've all been eating from the same pie with the result that many properties are getting a thinner and thinner slice." He pointed out that new markets must be tapped to raise occupancy. Most peo ple who travel for pleasure still stay with friends and relatives. And there are more overnight ac commodations in camp trailers, according to a 3-M Advertising study, than there are in hotels and motels — even though the recreational vehi cle is comparatively new in the travel field. Prof. Norman G. Cournoyer, who is associate professor in the Department of Hotel, Restau rant, and Travel Administration at the Univer sity of Massachusetts, points out in this article that complacently raising hotel-motel rates means diminishing markets for the industry. Pro fessor Cournoyer's doctoral dissertation devel oped "An Econometric Model of the Occupancy for Hotel-Motel Rooms in the Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts." This study found that the de mand for hotel-motel rooms in that area were influenced by: room price, distance from the' highway, services offered to clients, referral services, population of the surrounding area, ad vertising, and the size of the hotel-motel.