Monday, January 27, 2020

The Contemporary Issues In Hospitality Management

The Contemporary Issues In Hospitality Management Experiencing HRM issues in Hospitality: Whatever the choice of terminology or decisions on organisation, effective HRM and the successful implementation of personnel activities are essential ingredients for improved organisational performance. The smooth-running man or woman is an essential feature of any company and for some industries people are not just important but the key factor for successful performance. HR policies and practices have an important role in hospitality to play in facilitating the effective implementation of management processes. Hospitality Companies today face five critical business challenges: globalisation; profitability through growth; technology; intellectual capital; and change, change and more change. These challenges provide HR with an opportunity to play a leadership role in the development of new capabilities to meet the challenges. The five challenges present a new mandate for hospitality human resource management in order to help deliver organisational excellence in the following four way s:- It should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution an expert in the way work is organised and executed to ensure costs are reduced and quality maintained a champion for employees, vigorously representing their concerns to senior management and working to increase employee contribution and commitment an agent of continuous transformation, shaping processes and a culture to improve an organisation 2.1 Training: One major area of the HRM function of particular relevance to the effective management and use of people is training and development. Staffs are a crucial, but expensive, resource in hospitality. In order to sustain economic and effective performance it is important to optimise the contribution of employees to the aims and goals of the organisation. Training is necessary to ensure an adequate supply of staff who are technically and socially competent, and capable of career advancement into specialist departments or management positions. There is, therefore, a continual need for the process of staff development, and training fulfils an important part of this process. Training should be viewed, therefore, as an integral part of the hospitality process. Because specially in hospitality industry new IT based training are getting famous irrespectively in hotels, airlines. Training benefits includes:- Improve performance which results in cost savings of HRM Improve productivity Improve quality of customer service Improve self esteem of employees Improve sense of job security Increase comrade and sense of team work among employees Increase higher morale among employees and Reduce employee turnover and absenteeism Reduce stress and tension of employees Reduce waste Reduce work conflict among employees In todays competitive business weather hospitality industry is facing new skill developing process in different way. Customers are now more concerned about quality service rather than just service. According to WTTC tourism hospitality industry supporting more than 258 million jobs worldwide and generating some 9.1% of global GDP. In 2008 UK Government  £112m fund for hospitality training reveals the importance of training. Travelodge welcome this fund from Government. Chrissie Herbert, director of HR at Travelodge, said: As we approach the 2012 Olympics we are in a skills race to ensure we have the number of people needed to match the demand. 2.2 Customer Care: After training customer care is the another big issue in hospitality industry now-a-days. It is important to remember that good customer care start with good staff care. Surveys reveals that people are happiest at their work when they feel valued and important, when they are involved in the business and feel knowledgeable about what is happening. In todays hospitality business customer care is the main concern where all businesses should focus on because customer expectations for quality are increasing, presenting the industry with a double edge sword; at the same time qualified labour is becoming harder to find and keep and this is a great challenge for HRM in any hospitality business. Thats why HRM in hospitality trying to get more effective result by training existing employees in several field in hospitality. Customers are demanding higher levels of service excellence. Linking this issue with seasonality, a common characterise of tourism enterprise , Baum and Hagen(1999,p130)wrote, the lack of sustained employment, which is characterise as seasonal operations, undermines the ability of operators to deliver quality, which the market place, increasingly, expects. Service remains key factor for hospitality but value for money is becoming increasingly important as recession looms, research has revealed in UK 2009 by Square Meal Restaurants Bars report, which surveyed more than 9,500 diners, found service remained a major gripe (44% of all complaints containing words such as over-priced, costly and poor value) for customers. 2.3 Stress in Hospitality: Work stress is now recognised as a major issue in the human resource management within the hospitality industry context. Service quality issues are beginning to assume major importance in the success of many operations. Interpersonal conflict and work stress responses associated with hospitality industry employee management conflict, together with approaches to service quality. In European Union countries, hospitality industry has been identified as one of those most stressful sector to work, with frequent contact with inebriated clients and customers. Exposure to violence and sexual harassment is sometimes viewed as being a regular occurrence and a part of the job in the sector. Stress factors in the hospitality industry include an intensive interface with customers; increasing customer demand for highly diversified and personalized services; tight requirements on timely delivery of services, especially in kitchens and restaurants; unclear roles in a customer-dominated environment; and lack of training for supervisors. These result in low control of employees over their work. The health status of workers in the hospitality industry is worse than that of the average population, especially concerning mental health. In hospitality there are different reasons for stress and they are: global competition, customer expectations and demand for highly diversified and personalized services, tight requirements on timely services, especially in kitchens and restaurants, unclear roles in a customer-dominated environment, and lack of training for supervisors, reducing in staff to reduce cost, lack of control over working situations, seasonal staff turnover etc. 2.4 Empowering the employees: Empowerment, formerly known as participative management, reduces employee turnover and increases customer satisfaction. High hospitality industry turnover is the result of poor employee selection, inadequate training and an over-abundant management staff. Empowering the staff makes them work better together as a team and leads them to provide a better quality of service. In a simple way, empowerment extend democratic approach from workforce which is very good for hospitality organisations because its not possible for hospitality managers to be everywhere every time, in those moment empowerment make employees more participative and delegate them towards job satisfaction. Empowerment was known as participative management, but the problem had always been that implementing the concept was much more difficult than talking about it. No one knew how to overcome this problem for the usual reasons that all concepts can fail that is, identifying the whos, whats, whens, wheres and hows of implementation. The hospitality industry today requires to examine the way to manage. Hospitality industry is plagued with turnover statistics that are way out of proportion and this situation has developed because of poor hiring practices, insufficient training and overstaffing in management ranks. Empowerment is a style, not an evolution. It is a philosophy that must originate from the top if it doesnt, it will fail. Empowerment flattens out the organizational chart naturally by eliminating the tiers of responsibility, replaces desire to establish accountability with results, allows hospitality industries to respond to the aspect of customers needs and complete satisfaction. HRM in hospitality industry must understand the economic benefits of employee empowerment. Employee empowerment makes each individual responsible for doing the job to the best of their ability which results in greater guest satisfaction, returning guests and lower employee turnover. Hiring the best person for the job and adequately training that individual will also lead to greater employee empowerment. Empowering management personnel requires altering the job so that management receives feedback on their management style from their staff as well as their supervisors. 2.5 Management Leadership in hospitality: Effective leadership is the number one factor that influences success in hospitality organization. Maintaining cultural identity, employment brand and employee satisfaction requires consistent and regular communication. Leadership skills include a strong focus on relationships, emotional intelligence, a track record of results and innovation, a focus on process and outcome, and the ability to give positive and constructive feedback. Also important is the ability to teach and coach others and provide recognition both formally and informally. Management and leadership style is a contemporary issues in todays hospitality business. There is a sentence Employees dont leave their jobs, they leave their managers. The reason for that is the style adopted by todays leaders are not always right and its a big issue. International Labour Organisation(ILO) said almost 600,000 employees a year leave hospitality managers in their droves, which leads hospitality industry average recruitment and initial training cost  £1,500, costs around  £886m as a whole. Labour turnover for the whole hospitality, leisure tourism and travel (HLTT) industry stands at 30%, although some employers within the hospitality industry alone report double or triple this figure. Yet, only 14% of employers feel their labour turnover is too high. HRM should be part of any pilot program to help leadership understand, anticipate and mitigate management problems in hospitality. When HRM has experience in participating in a virtual team, it lends credibility for HRM to fully participate and respond to problems as they arise. 3. Conclusion: It is known that, hospitality industry stands on employee performance. So, HRM department in hospitality now-a-days getting more and more challenge day by day because every business strategy of todays world more focused on service which is a crucial issue in hospitality field. HRM managers should emphasis on the need for professional approach and right leadership attitude to achieve goals and keep status. HRM in hospitality industry has grown with its impact and status because of huge number of hospitality industries increased globally. Only The British hospitality industry contribute  £46 billion to the UK economy and the core hospitality economy is estimated to directly contribute  £34 billion in tax revenue by creating 2.44 million jobs in the hospitality sector the 5th largest industry in the UK, and a further 1.2 million jobs are indirectly generated by hospitality which is around 8% of the total UK employment. This statistics proves that, the HRM has great responsibility to play a vital role in hospitality sector by adjusting with market needs and trends.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

33 men: inside the miraculous survival and dramatic rescue of the Chilean miners Essay

At any one particular time when communicating it is of paramount importance to understand first your audience. For effective communication to take place, the number one issue to determine is the public that you have so that you can send the right message to them and enhance clear understanding of the information one is communicating (Rai 2009). Communication should be audience-centered always in terms of their needs, state of mind, status and the environment in which information is taking place. Understanding of the public cannot be ignored at all especially in the case where a business is passing information concerning the disaster. In the Chilean incident where the mine collapsed on Aug 5, 2010 leaving 33 mine workers were trapped underground, the incident finally left all the trapped workers alive. After the occurrence of the incident before information could be made to the other company workers, the neighborhood, the family of those trapped underground, the public and the world at large some issues ought to be taken into consideration (Franklin 2011). The ones communicating this information must understand the different people in the audience, their different roles and state of mind. There is also a dire need to try and estimate the effect the information will have on the public and thus be able to device the best way or mechanism to pass over to the public. Putting into consideration the above elements will go a long way into ensuring that the information being put across is well received as intended. The very key consideration in the Chilean case is humanitarianism or showing much care, understanding and a strong determination to bring the incidence to standard. In addition, this is aimed at trying to identify with the public, their feelings and hopes. The family of those affected should be the center focus since the person trapped in the ground is probably the main bread-winner of the family. Colleagues or fellow mine workers also ought to be put into consideration especially given that this is the conditions of their work. The country and the world at large should be considered also given it will also be in sad and curious moment awaiting the outcome of these ‘breaking news.’ The information being communicated should address the likely needs and demands of the miners kith and kin and thus instill calmness in them as they receive the information. These needs may range from moral support, precise, correct and clear information regarding the rescue process and its progress. Their financial need should also be addressed in a way by the information they receive especially by the understanding that they depend on the ones who are trapped underground in the soil. They primarily want to know how bad the situation is, what caused the whole incident and how deep are their loved ones below the ground. In addition, can their loved ones breathe well, access water and food, how many are they in total down there underground (Barra 2011). Also, they will have a deep longing to questions such as how will they get out, what is being done to remove them out, who is it or which authority is involved in digging them out from the underground trap and duration likely to be spen t to dig them out. These important issues and concerns amongst many others on the side the family will help the one delivering the message greatly in terms of delivering what is of the essence to the listener or the public in this case being the family of the miners or the relatives of the miners. The messenger should thus understand these issues and concerns so as to adjust the information to suit the receiver or the public by addressing their potential needs. The employees of the mine being the original occupants of that environment as their working environment and more importantly the fact that those trapped in the mines are their co-workers and colleagues. They employees are thus entitled to receive the information probably before many other parties receive it. The information they receive should address their needs such as how can they help in the rescue process of their colleagues, the way to go about in supporting their colleagues and their colleague’s families: morally; financially and physically. Their need will also be to understand whether there is any precaution they can take to prevent the occurrence of such a situation as the rescue process goes on or something they can do to a certain barrier in the rescue process. Proper action must be taken after the information is published to ensure that the company is not perceived in a bad light. However, ensure that the information is received as was initially intended and that the public can receive the information correctly. The number one secret towards ensuring that the information is received as intended is to take necessary action to reinforce the published information. This actions may range from the other employees of the company demonstrating support and commitment physically and both morally and financially to the affected workers and their families (Barra 2011). The other important action to do is showing the positive progress of the rescue process and the strong determination to rescue the people trapped under the ground through the media such as by giving a live TV footage The company should consider releasing information in two ways. Firstly, it should be releasing the information to the families of the trapped workers. â€Å"Chilean mine is going through hard times as some of its very diligent employees numbering thirty-three in total are trapped underground in the mine during a mineral extraction trip. The authorities concerned in the rescue process arrived on time, and the rescue process is progressing on well. Maximum effort has been put forward to rescue the trapped workers. We want to assure everyone that the workers are alive, but shaken through electronic communication gadget. We highly regret the occurrence of the incident, but at the mean time we are very hopeful that the rescue process will be over in a short while.† The most appropriate channel of communicating the information to the families of the workers is face to face communication and thus the company should choose representatives to take the information to the families of those affected. These representatives chosen by the company to pass this information should be very cautious and handle with great care the information they are releasing in order to secure the company’s reputation, they should ensure that the information is truthful, precise and accurate. The second way of releasing information should be to the workers of the company that is internally within the business, the company should communicate to the workers in such as this manner. â€Å"We highly regret the accidental happening at our mine, some of our very valuable colleagues are trapped in the mine, and this necessitates a call to everyone to come up strongly and offer ourselves to offer the necessary assistance in the rescue process (Franklin 2011). Let’s demonstrate our loyalty and to our company and concern to our colleagues by supporting them and their families physically and both financially and morally. And also by bringing order, control and calmness to the whole situation hoping that at last everyone trapped will soon be rescued alive and well† The best approach to deliver the information to other workers is through the memo placed in strategic places, in the business of which it will be a matter of minutes for everyone in the company to see. As a wrap, up, creative writing is vey key in writing especially in regard to addressing the public concerns and needs especially in regard to releasing information regarding the disaster in an organization. References Aronson, M. (2011). Trapped: how the world rescued 33 miners from 2,000 feet below the Chilean desert. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Barra, F., & Antofagasta, C. (2011). Let’s talk ore deposits: proceedings of the Eleventh Biennial SGA Meeting, Antofagasta, Chile, 26-29 September 2011. Antofagasta, Chile: Ediciones Universidad CatoÃÅ' lica del Norte. Franklin, J. (2011). 33 men: inside the miraculous survival and dramatic rescue of the Chilean miners. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Rai, U., & Rai, S. M. (2009). Business communication. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House. Source document

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Individual Strategic Plan: Conceptualizing a Business Essay

http://www.homeworkbasket.com/BUS-475/BUS-475-Week-2-Individual-Strategic-Plan,Part-I-Conceptualizing-a-Business Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you explain the importance of your selected business’s vision, mission, and values in determining your strategic direction. Please do not write about an existing business. Create a new business and include the following: Define your business, products or services, and customers by developing a mission statement. Ensure that you are differentiating your product or service. Create a vision for this organization that clearly demonstrates your decision on what you want your business to become in the future. Define your guiding principles or values for your selected business considering the topics of culture, social responsibility, and ethics. Analyze how the vision, mission, and values guide the organization’s strategic direction. Evaluate how the organization addresses customer needs and critique how they achieve competitive advantage. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. For More Homework Goto http://www.homeworkbasket.com

Friday, January 3, 2020

Jug Bands and Homemade Instruments

If youre looking for a way to introduce your kids to homemade music, theres no better way than with homemade instruments.  To musicians with a creative bent, any object can be turned into an instrument.   The jug band is a uniquely American musical institution that got its start as a bunch of household utensils. The first jug bands were formed in the areas around Memphis by out-of-work vaudeville entertainers. The musicians were often poor, so improvising and creating their own instruments was a necessity. Jug bands were typically street performers who played in hopes of earning money from passersby. A jug band makes a perfect topic for a multidisciplinary unit study. The jug band lends itself to  a range of subjects, including  science, math, history, and geography. For instance: Science: How do vibrating materials produce sound waves in the air?Math: When you divide the string on a washtub bass, it produces a different tone. See if you can figure out what fraction relates to what note of the musical scale.History: Explore the armonica, an instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin based on the sound of musical water glasses.Geography: What are some homemade instruments found in other countries?   And of course, making musical instruments is a great way to add hands-on activities to your study of music. You can make your own jug band using items found around the house or at the hardware store. Here’s what you need: The Jug The horn section of the band played right, sounds like a buzzy trombone. Traditional stoneware jugs look good, but plastic maple syrup containers or milk jugs are lighter (and unbreakable) and work just as well. To play: Hold the rim of the jug a little bit away from your mouth, purse your lips, and blow directly into the hole. Be prepared to make a rude noise, or even spit, to create the sound. Change notes by loosening or tightening your lips or by moving the jug closer or farther away. The Washtub Bass This string instrument consists of a cord stretching from a metal tub on the floor to the top of an upright wooden stick. Ours uses a kid-sized metal pail, a broom handle, and some colorful thin, soft nylon cord. Just follow these directions: With the pail upside down, make a small starter hole with a hammer and nail in the center of the bottom of the pail.Insert a small eyebolt into the hole, loop side up, with a nut above and below to hold it in place.Tie one end of the cord to the loop in the eyebolt.Cover the bottom end of the broomstick with a rubber cane tip to keep it from slipping. Rest the broomstick, threaded end up, on the rim of the pail. Tie the loose end of the cord to the top of the broomstick, as tightly as possible. To play: Hold the stick near your shoulder, put one foot on the rim of the pail to hold it in place, and pluck the string. Change notes by tilting the stick, or by pressing the string against the stick as if it were the fingerboard of a guitar. The Washboard Rasping instruments belong to the percussion family. Our â€Å"Dubl Handi† steel washboard from the Columbus Washboard Company cost $10 at an antique shop, but a ribbed paint roller tray or broiler pan can be substituted in a pinch. To play: The washboard is played by scraping something stiff against the ribs of the metal surface, such as a thimble or whisk broom. Musical Spoons The clicking of a pair of back-to-back teaspoons, also a percussion instrument, can add a fabulous rhythm to your band. To play: The trick is to hold the spoons firmly in your fist, handles pressed against your palm, with the knuckle of your index finger in-between, making a space of about half an inch. Stand with one foot up on a stool, and bang the hand with the spoons up and down between your thigh and the palm of your other hand. A bup-bup-bup, bup-bup-bup, like a horse’s hoofs clacking, gives a nice beat. Comb and Tissue Paper This kazoo-like instrument works on the same principle as the human voice. The paper vibrates to create a buzzing sound, just as the vocal cords vibrate when you talk or sing. Find a comb with thin flexible teeth. Fold a piece of tissue or wax paper in half, then cut the folded sheet to the size of the comb. Hold the comb and drape the paper over it, letting the paper hang loosely. To play: Put your mouth and say â€Å"do do do† until you feel the paper tingle against your lips. Once you’ve got the hang of it, try singing notes and using different syllables to change the sound. What to Play When your band’s assembled, try some traditional melodies -- the sillier the better! This is your chance to brush up on old tunes like â€Å"She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain† and â€Å"Oh, Susanna.†Ã‚   And if you want to try some other kinds of improvised instruments,  you can find plenty of inspiration.  For example, the stage musical  STOMP  uses push brooms, matchbooks, and paint scrapers to create rhythm. And the  Blue Man Group  plays tunes on instruments made out of PVC pipes and boat antennas. They prove that  there’s music in almost any object you can imagine.