Empowering Service Personnel

1. Empowering Service Personnel PG Diploma in Hospitality Management Customer Service and Quality Systems – Session 4

2. Objectives • Understand theories of motivation in the work place. • Understand the need for employee empowerment in the hospitality industry • Understand the means by which employees may be empowered • Understand the organisational conditions in which empowerment may be implemented

3. Review • What is the difference between data and information – give examples? • Explain PMS, CRS and GDS. • Questions on knowledge management – final slide of last week’s presentation

4. Characteristics of Hospitality • Active participation of employees interacting with guests • Limited opportunity for inspection or testing of service • Employee is the representative of the organisation

5. Importance of Employees Managers have limited power to: • Change products or services • Use different processes • Change premises or location Therefore, Managers must find: • Better ways for employees to do their jobs • Ways to motivate employees to exceed expectations

6. What Motivates Employees? Give your own ranking to these work-related goals: • Training opportunities to improve skills or learn new ones • Challenging work giving sense of accomplishment • Freedom to adopt own approach to the job • Keep up-to-date with technical developments • Fully use your skills and abilities on the job • Opportunity for advancement to higher level job • Receiving recognition when you do a good job • Opportunity for high earnings • Work with people who co-operate well with one another • Have a good working relationship with your manager • Have sufficient time for personal life and family • Work in a congenial and friendly atmosphere • Job that allows you to make real contribution to success of your organisation • Work in a department that is run efficiently • Security that you will keep job as long as you want it • Live in an area desirable to you and your family • Have good fringe benefits • Good physical working conditions • Work in a company that is regarded in your country as successful

7. Theories of Motivation • McGregor – Theory X and Theory Y • Maslow – hierarchy of needs • Herzberg – hygiene and motivation factors • Vroom – expectancy theory

8. Theory X People dislike their work Most people must be controlled and threatened before they will work hard enough The average person prefers to be directed People dislike responsibility People like unambiguous tasks Employees desire security above all else Theory Y Work is as natural as play or rest Employees will direct themselves if committed to the aims of the organization Job satisfaction leads to commitment to the organization Under proper conditions people not only accept but seek responsibility Employees will use their imagination, creativity and ingenuity to solve problems Intellectual potential of average employee are only partly used McGregor

9. Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs

10. Maslow’s Assumptions • Lower level needs must be satisfied before higher level needs become motivators • Once a need is satisfied it is no longer a motivator • There are more ways to satisfy higher level needs than lower level needs

11. Maslow and Job Types Researchers asked people from different job types to rank work related goalsYou have already done this yourself – see slide 6 • Professionals gave priority to goals corresponding to high Maslow needs • Clerks gave priority to goals corresponding to middle Maslow needs • Unskilled workers gave priority to goals corresponding to low Maslow needs

12. Self actualisation in service of society Safety Physiological needs Social belonging Maslow and Culture • Nevis suggests that Maslow’s hierarchy reflects western culture focusing on needs of individuals • For Chinese he suggests: • Other research suggests that Maslow’s hierarchy is about the same from one culture to another

13. Hygiene Factors working conditions security salary interpersonal relations status policies and administration Motivation Factors achievement recognition responsibility growth / advancement interest in the job Herzberg – Hygiene and Motivators

14. Content Theories Maslow and Herzberg are known as “content theories”: • Based on the concept of hedonism • Assume that individuals seek to satisfy all needs • Assume homogeneity of needs and individuals

15. PERSONis motivated TASK GOALto produce work OUTCOME 1to receive pay OUTCOME 2to buy house INSTRUMENTALITYprediction of final outcome Vroom – Expectancy Theory Individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they believe that: • positive correlation between efforts and performance • favorable performance will result in a desirable reward • reward will satisfy an important need • desire to satisfy the need is strong enough to make the effort worthwhile EXPECTANCY 1Ability to Produce EXPECTANCY 2Work will be Rewarded

16. Vroom’s Three Variables • Valence - Management must discover what employees value. • Expectancy - the belief that output from the individual is linked to the success of the situation e.g. “If I work harder then this will be better.” • Instrumentality - the belief that the success of the situation is linked to the expected outcome of the situatione.g. “It's gone really well, so I expect praise.” Vroom’s theoryquestions the assumption that people know or feel that action leads to a result.

17. Motivation Theories • How useful is each of the theories we have discussed so far? • What do you feel are their limitations?

18. Hofstede • Power Distance - expectations regarding equality among people • Uncertainty Avoidance – tolerance of ambiguity and unstructured situations • Individualism/Collectivism – relationship between the individual and the group • Masculinity – tendency to support traditional gender roles

19. Scores on Cultural Dimensions Percentile rankings: 100 highest, 50 middle

20. Pay and Motivation • Research shows no simple relationship between pay and motivation • Attempts have been made to stimulate employee interest in company financial performance through: • Profit-sharing • Share ownership • Linked with consultative managerial style which may be the more motivating

21. Empowerment • Give employees authority to make decisions • Open and decentralised communication system • Reward and recognise those who assume responsibility and perform well

22. Participative Management Style • Encourage people to express their concerns • Describe a proposal as tentative • Record ideas and suggestions • Look for ways to build on ideas and suggestions • Be tactful in expressing concerns about a suggestion • Listen to dissenting views without being defensive • Try to utilise suggestions and deal with concerns • Show appreciation for suggestions

23. Ritz-Carlton Credo “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen” • The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission • We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our gests who will enjoy a warm, relaxed yet refined ambience • The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instils well-being, and fulfils even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests

24. Blanchard – Three Keys • Key 1 – Sharing information with everyoneLet employees decide what they need to know to do the job • Key 2 – Autonomy through boundariesEmployees should work within organisational values and goals with an understanding of roles • Key 3 – Self-directed work teamsGroups who have responsibility for a specific service or product

25. Enabling Factors Front line staff are responsible for service quality Employees must operate independently Supervision often difficult Service tradition Inhibiting Factors Managers uncomfortable with empowerment Employees feel asked to do more for same pay Low wages + high turnover Lack of training Pressure for profits Enabling and Inhibiting Factors

26. Tools for Implementation • Executive Leadership – commitment from the top • Policies in Place – boundaries and autonomy established • Training – employees must be equipped • Information Sharing – free dissemination of all relevant information • Organisation and Structural Change – enable self-directed work groups

27. Case Study • Discuss the Grand Hotel case study in groups and make recommendations