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Sheffield Hallam University: MSc: Hospitality Assignments
Management information: Assignment 3
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Introduction and Background *
Dealing with the variables in the business environment *
The implications for the organisation in terms of its structure and culture *
The likely ethical implications of the introduction of a quality management programme *
Management *
Communication: *
Training *
Executive Summary *
References *
Introduction and Background
Avalon is a cafe bistro, not very big (48 seats), located in the thriving business and cultural centre of Sheffield and is open from 11:00 am. to 11:00 p.m. In its immediate vicinity there are two traditional pubs, two cafes, the cinema’s cafe and the theatre’s cafe.
Three equal partners own Avalon but only one of them, the CEO, has experience running a pub.
Avalon, during the daytime, serves sandwiches, cakes, coffees, teas, fruit juices and other soft drinks. The menu offered in the evenings is more sophisticated with the possibility to choose from a range of fine wines. The menu changes every four weeks.
The cafe is part of the city-wide Healthy Eating Campaign and prides itself on the freshness and quality of its ingredients which, whenever possible, are sourced locally often from organic suppliers. Nevertheless. the emphasis on freshness gathers food waste and poor margins. All the food is prepared and cooked in-house.
There are attempts to assess the performance of the dishes on the menu but high staff turnover makes continuity of assessment difficult.
The food spend varies throughout the service. Around £ 3.50 per head during lunch time, rising to £10.00 per head at night. Alcohol generates an average per head of £6.50. Turnover for the first year was just over £375,000.
The customers who frequent the cafe are mainly young middle class (25 to 40) and they understand about food and wine and are aware about fashion and trends. The regular customers are recognised by the staff who try to operate on a first name basis where possible and appropriate.
The staff are composed of a Chef / Manager who has strong ideas about the way to manage the cafe bistro (vertically). Sometimes she disagrees with the CEO and with her two Assistant Managers: one is the Assistant Manager Chef who has more experience but is not innovative and is the superior of the 4 Kitchen staff. The other Assistant Manager is the Head Waiter who is the superior of the Floor staff and has definitive ideas about the role of the front house staff. He is from Greece and has not lived in England for very long. Both Kitchen staff and Floor staff are mainly students who work part time basis and are hourly paid.
The kitchen is adequately equipped with some new and some renovated equipment. It is small and very hot in the summer. The limited storage makes it difficult to expand the menu.
The recently purchased computer equipment will aid in accounting, forecasting and menu preparation and analysis and in marketing purposes.
Dealing with the variables in the business environment
According to Johnson (1989), the Avalon’s owners and the Manager should identify and analyse the cafe’s strengths and weaknesses. Paraphrasing Johnson, the aim is to identify the extent to which the current strategy of an organisation and its more specific strengths are relevant to, and capable of, dealing with the changes taking place in the business environment. Moreover, the aim is to this in such a way as to isolate the key opportunities and threats whilst at the same time identifying key aspects of those environmental changes. Not just a SWOT analysis - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Rather than just listing these in terms of the manager’s perceptions, the idea is to undertake a more structured analysis so as to yield findings which can contribute to the formulation of the strategy.
Morgan (1986) established certain questions about the existing relations between an organisation and environment:
Morgan asserts that the organisation consists of interrelated subsystems of a strategic, technological, structural and managerial nature.
Once Avalon Cafe’s owners and Manager have found out the answer of all these questions, they can identify the environmental opportunities and develop a competitive strategy and its elements (goals or plans) which essentially will define the task of the Café.
It is important to monitor constantly the environment and try to fit the organisation’s strategy to it.
Nadler (undated) states that "After implementing a strategy, it is important to continue the diagnostic activity and to explicitly evaluate the actual vs. the ideal (or predicted) impact of the intervention on the system. Feedback concerning the organisation’s on the environment’s response to the action can then be used to adjust the intervention to better fit the system’s requirements and/or deal with any unanticipated consequences of the change".
The implications for the organisation in terms of its structure and culture
The implications in Avalon’s structure will be quite significant because as Robbins (1993) wrote "Changing structure involves making an alteration in authority relations, co-ordination mechanisms, job redesign or similar structural variables. Change agents might consider redesigning jobs or work schedule. Job descriptions can be redefined, job enriched, or flexible hours introduced. Motivation can be increased, by for example, introducing performance bonuses or profit sharing".
Taking in account theses issues, Avalon’s structure must be changed. The concept of service teams is important in another respect and this is that people in organisations depend on one another to deliver an excellent service. Less "them and us" style of management.
It is important to change Avalon’s culture to achieve the quality improvement process with increased emphasis on customers’ needs.
Avalon Cafe does not have a clear cultural identity. For this reason, it can start creating to their staff a sense of identity, expectation and commitment. As Patel (1993) explains "the aim is to try to change the culture - the way people think, feel and act. It is essential for everyone in an organisational work group to be trained together at the same time. Employees at all the levels of the organisation must understand the organisation’s strategy, the reasons for its implementation and the benefits to employees. The training should be cascaded down from senior management by training teams and workgroups to enhance the contribution of every employee."
The Avalon manager, who continually should face the challenge of adjusting the cafe’s organisation to a changing environment, must work for satisfied employees and strong performance. Parasuraman (undated), thinks that "leadership is the only engine that can transform organisation from service mediocrity to service excellence. Distinguishing a leader from managers requires conscious effort."
The likely ethical implications of the introduction of a quality management programme
The likely ethical implications for Avalon are to the customers, to the workers and to the environment.
To the customers: Offering to them a product and a service with quality. "Quality is doing what you said you were going to do" Grater (1979). Drew (undated) asserts: "Quality in the product includes: purity, safety, economics, taste and variety of other issues." For Parasuraman (1985) "Quality in service is reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, to make the effort to understand the customer’s needs, physical evidence of the service and price. However, Johns (1992) said that "the customer does not make the differentiation between goods and service; they perceive them as a unified whole."
To the workers: Jones (undated) in his discussion of ethics said that managers should treat employees both as individuals and as members of a group. The most sensible business course is for a manager to avoid unfair discrimination in selection and get the best person available for the job.
In the same way, the manager should be sure that everyone is able to contribute fully, what the organisation is expected of them and to meet with the expectations and the aspirations of the organisation.
Workers must receive helpful feedback on their performance at work and the opportunity to improve their skills.
The ethical implications reach promotions and all other employment matters, made on the basis of objective criteria and no prejudice or other subjective factors.
Workers must be consulted in order to have an effective voice in representing their views to the owners.
The salary should be fair and an equitable level in relation their skills and responsibilities.
The manager should be responsible to manage people, telling what to do, encouraging and empowering the workers. Sewell (1992) writes that "Workers become empowered as they are given the resources such as training and equipment to be able to take on the extra responsibility".
To the environment: Training all the staff in order to keep the environment as clean is possible. Taking in account that Abalone Cafe is part of the city wide Healthy Eating Campaign, the manager should try his best in order that all the workers as a whole respecting all the policies to assure Avalon Cafe is environmental friendly.
Workers
Agree with Jones (1992) workers should to contribute to the best of their abilities to offer a quality product and a quality service with everything that theses concepts mean to achieve customers’ satisfaction and contributing to the good running of the Avalon Cafe.
They must use their companionship skills to help other colleagues, co-operating and respecting them, avoiding prejudice and discrimination.
Workers should look after themselves, the customers and colleagues to ensure health and safety in the workplace.
They should try to improve their skills asking the manager for necessary training.
Other stakeholders.
Following Mitroff (1983) "A new strategy, that is a change in strategy for an organisation, changes one or more of the relationships among the stakeholders. Relationships with each stakeholder may be changed in one o more ways. Evan (undated) says that the organisation should be managed for the benefit of its stakeholders: its customers, suppliers, owners, employees and local communities. The rights of these groups must be ensured, and furthermore, the groups must participate, in some sense, in decisions that substantially affect their welfare. The organisation must act in the interests of the stakeholders as their agent, and it must act in the interests of the organisation to ensure the survival of the firm, safeguarding the long-term stakes of each group.
Executive Summary
Findings
In my opinion, the owners of Avalon Cafe are not taking advantage of all the positive circumstances that it enjoys, such as location, fashion, health and friendliness.
Moreover, they are not doing any initiative to promote the cafe and its catering service: to identify the trends in customer’s choice and the level of their satisfaction about the product and service offered. Without this it would be very difficult to increase market share and to protect margins.
In the same way, in the perception of the customers there does not exist any differentiation, except in the price, between the product and perhaps the service which Avalon Cafe serves during the daytime and the evening.
The simplicity in the evening menus as well as the fact that they are fixed for an entire month, shows a lack of imagination and innovation. Customers must wait four weeks to have the chance to choose between new dishes from those ones which they had chosen in the first week that the menu was settled.
Taking in account the size and the characteristics of the Cafe, I think the staff structure is not optimal. There is no team spirit, aiming for common cause because the staff are mainly students and consequently the turnover is very high. The Manager and her Assistants do not share the same point of wiew about the staff duties and she has has disagreements with the CEO.
Obviously all these problems should reflect in the work atmosphere and in the cafe’s running.
The kitchen staff cannot work properly because the kitchen is too small and hot in summer. Storage is limited thereby also limiting the range of the menus.
Recommendations
The programme for Avalon Cafe, must be compact, very well structured and should include all the areas which compose the Cafe. The product served for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner, should be innovative (the menus should be renewed every week) attractive, reliable, (hygienically and healthy) and good value always taking in account the requirements of each target customer group. The plan must assure the freshness of all the products. However to avoid as much is possible the waste of fresh food, the person in charge of the purchase, should have monitor those suppliers who sell fresh and clean products and negotiate with them the best quality and price.
The customers will be served in the appropriate ambience by committed, efficient and smiling staff. For the success of the programme, the owner’s and top managers’ commitment is absolutely necessary. For this reason all should share the same point of view about the Cafe and the way to manage staff. To be successful in the quality programme everyone in the organisation requires training in order to understand the need for quality improvement. It should be made available to Avalon’s staff based on their responsibilities, specific disciplines and individual learning needs. The Manager should empower the staff who will thereby be very motivated doing his or her work.
I consider that the Chef and the Manager should not be the same person because the place of the Chef is the kitchen and the place of the Manager is the dining room, supervising the work of the kitchen staff and the floor staff. Secondly, I think the Assistant Manager’s position is redundant. There should be a flat structure - fewer top positions and more people who work hard and professionally. All the Avalon Cafe’s staff, without exception, should hold a Basic Food Hygiene Certificate and also should operate a HAACCP system to monitor food production process. I would be very strict in these points because the café’s existence depends on its observance.
As soon the circumstances allow it, the kitchen should be refurbished to install air conditioning. More space to the stock room is important.
It will also be very profitable to Avalon, to launch a marketing campaign to increase its market share and to keep the loyalty of its customers.
References
| Bobbins, P. Stephen, "Managing Planned Change" Organisational Change and Development. 1993. |
| Drew Kate and Kyons Howard, "Three Dimensions of quality in Food "A conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for future Research" Vol. 49 (Fall´85) pp 41-50. |
| Evan, William M. and Freeman, R. Edward " A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation : Kantian capitalism" Corporations & Responsibility (undated) |
| Grater, C." The Caterer’s Requirement for Food Quality", In Glew, G (ED) Advances in Catering Technology, Applied Science Publishers, London 1979. |
| Johns, Nick " Quality Management in the Hospitality Industry: Part 1. Definition and Specification." International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Vol. 4 No.3, 1992, pp 14-20. |
| Johnson, Gerry & Scholes, Kevan "Exploring Corporate Strategy" Text and Cases.1989. |
| Jones, Peter and Bell David "Responsibilities and Rights at Work" undated. Organisations & People, 3.2. |
| Mittrof, Ian, " Stakeholders of the Organisational Mind" (1983) pp.39,40,41. Jossey Bass Publishers |
| Morgan, Gareth, "Images of Organisation",1986. Sage Publications |
| Nadler, David, Tushman Michael, undated, "Organisational Analysis". Kolk A. David, Osland Joyce, Rubin M. Irwin,. "The Organisational Behaviour Reader 1995 " Prentice Hall International Editions. |
| Parasuraman, A, Zeithaml Valerie, A, Berry L. Leonard, "A conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for future Research" Vol. 49 (Fall 1985) pp 41-50. |
| Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml Valerie.A., Berry L. Leonard, "Getting Started on the Service Quality Journey". undated. |
| Patel, Anoop, "Total Quality Management" PAVING THE WAY FOR FUTURE TRAINING? 1993, Industrial and Commercial Training Vol. 25 No.2. |
| Sewell, G. And Wilkinson B. 1992 "Empowerment or Emasculation? Shopfloor Surveillance in Total Quality Organisation" in P. Blyton and P. Turnbull (eds.) Reassessing Human Resource Management. London Sage. |
| Sheffield City Polytechnic: undated. "The Dimensions of Quality in Food Product Development". |
| Wilson, M. S. & Richard, Gilligan Colin, Pearson J. David "Strategic Marketing Management", 1992. Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd. |
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Sheffield Hallam University: MSc: Hospitality Assignments