The Importance of Managing in International Hospitality Operations Management

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will not cause people to cheat or any other unwanted deeds. (Johnston, Clark and Shulver, 2012)

Purpose of measuring performance in service operations in Hospitality Industry can have many reasons behind it. Johnston and Clark are defining two main purposes; control and improvement. Control, by Johnston and Clark, is a key purpose, which is set to provide feedback. They also state that when something is measured, improvements may be the result if the managers have a clear view of what they are measuring and the reason behind it. There can be many resources, which performance should or can be measured. Starting from items like equipment, tools up to space and buildings. These items cannot be consumed, but they can be used by the operation scheme. Their objective is to maximize the output or the usage of the item per hour in percentage of total time utilized and to minimize the time they are not used. In the hotel industry seldom is used an occupancy percentage. So when the occupancy is high and the room downtime is low the efficiency of the hotel in terms of room sales is high. Another resource that needs to be measured, controlled and manage is labor. They are the people who contribute to the operation, anyone from top management to a simple janitor. The percentage of total period of time utilized has to be maximized and the best thing is to minimize labor cost and their idle and ineffective time. The operation system has also consumables, those are the materials used. They are measured with quantity or weight etc. and the main objective of their utilization is to minimize their waste or losses. (Wild, 2002) On the other end of measuring the employee performance lays their behavior. Even though employees may be forced to do more work it does not mean they will be efficient. If the rewarding system is not at stake, timetable is not managed properly resulting anxiety or a feeling that employees work has no value. That is why it is important to measure relevant things. That is why many measures have to be interlinked in order of getting the bigger picture. As it was mentioned above the fault may be within the employees for example but the cause can be incorrect supervision. The measurement is delivered on consistent basis and is controlled within the operation functions in two ways; through the comportment of the organization, which is compared to the standard or the output of the whole system, which is also compared to the standard. (Wild, 2002)

In order to get reliable information from various sources the targets must be set accordingly. If the targets are set too high than the feeling of not keeping up is created among the employees who do the action. On the other hand the clients can have a feeling of inconsistent and bad service. For example if a hotel sets to deliver the breakfast packages from 7am to 7.15am and is consistently failing to do so should either assign more people to do the job either change the target setting the time from 7am to 7.30am for example. When linking the measurements to strategy execution, managers must take a note of the fact that any measurement can be interpreted as a strategy and strategy as a measurement system. Positive side of the link is:

• Organizations determine their goals and their aims better

• Understanding of company policy is shared

• Analytical focusing on what matters among employees and managers

• Supervisors can communicate with those who take strategic decisions and sets the targets

(Johnston, Clark and Shulver, 2012)

Taking this into custody targets may be divided as internal, external and absolute. Internal targets are those, which are set within the organization and represent the improvement, which is compared to previous results. Every process in the organization can relate to internal targets. External targets are those, which bring the comparison from the competition. Every operation that is alike to competition is a basis for a target i.e. to be the best hotel in town. Absolute targets, on the other hand, are those processes, which operate no matter what. In a hotel it can be reception, which is operated even at night and guest, can leave or walk in any time. Setting the right targets on a consistent basis and upgrading gradually the level of performance leads to improvement of quality. (Wild, 2002)

Quality improvement is a key element that drives the organization. There is a lot of competition and in order to be competitive as a corporation the understanding of the customer needs and providing excellent service on a consistent basis is highly required. It has to be backed up with the ability to stay ahead of customer needs and not only on the short-term basis, but also many years ahead. (Mitra and Mitra, 2008) There are many systems that indicate quality assurance. Zairi 1996 compared quality strategy to a car gearbox, steering wheel and gear shifter that control the car, whereas upgrading the quality signifies advancement.

Relying on everything mentioned above a conclusion is drawn on the facts that consistent, reliable service operations are very important to an organization and its customers. Organizations use measuring systems to control and/or to improve the quality or performance even though some measurements tend to be at high costs. After having measurements done it is vital for an organization to determine the cost of their performance management system. Performance management can be viewed as the right resource utilization through determination of output and utilization objectives. Customer satisfaction is a perspective of the customer receiving services or products related to his own standards. And it is very important to ensure customer satisfaction in order to ensure the return of the customer to the services provided by an organization.

References

Adjibolosoo, S. (2001). Portraits of human behavior and performance. Lanham [Md.]: University Press of America.

Hale, R. and Whitlam, P. (1995). Target setting and goal achievement. London: Kogan Page.

Harvard Business Review, (2012). Positive Intelligence. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2012/01/positive-intelligence [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015].

Hrsa.gov, (2015). Performance Management & Measurement. [online] Available at: http://www.hrsa.gov/quality/toolbox/methodology/performancemanagement/index.html [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015].

Jenkins, D. (2012). Measuring performance.