Hospitality Operations Analysis Ch 04: Quality Service Culture Dr. Edward A. Merritt The Collins Endowed Chair of Management California State University (Cal Poly Pomona)

2 Organizational Culture Explains how people think and act at work. Comes from various directions inside or out of the org. May be weak or strong.

3 Org Culture is Not: A technique. A gimmick. A how-to. A method. A solution.

4 Defining Culture The glue that binds an organization. Unique quality or character that affects how people act. Sum of how people interact. The values people espouse, creed, notions of right and wrong. Culture is intangible.

5 Leader Influence on Culture Much! Can manipulate or influence factors that determine culture and therefore service culture. Cannot manage simply through guiding principles. People do not automatically fall in line. Key: the leader’s behavior. Continued next slide

6 Continued Culture strongly determined by: What leaders do during good times and bad times. How they do it. What they pay attention to. What they measure. How they reward.

7 Quality Service Climate (80) Establishes atmosphere for everyone. Climate is a subset of culture. Leaders set the tone, mood, and culture that set the climate in an org. A positive service climate reinforces and supports quality service. Climate is controlled by the leader(s).

8 Characteristics of Supportive Leadership Climate (80) Service providers generally treat customers like they are treated as employees. Dignity and respect. Feel like winners. Pride is fostered. Group cohesion among teams. During good and bad times!

9 Maintaining Dignity of Service Four components for dignity: 1. Amount of work autonomy. 2. Meaningfulness of work. 3. Connectiveness to others. 4. Availability of personal growth opportunities. Figure 4-1 (83) compares healthy and unhealthy org climate.

10 Four Leadership Imperatives 1. Leaders must allow a strong sense of personal control over job outcomes and behaviors. Empower employees. Allow wide discretion to solve issues. Allow ees to create own schedules. Collaborate with ees about ways to improve conditions and service.

11 Continued 2. Instill a sense of meaning and contribution in service work. Let ees know how they are doing. Allow task variety via job rotation. Job visitation—ees to other areas of the operation to observe. Allow ees to work in area(s) of interest. Allow responsibility (and power).

12 Continued 3. Ensure a strong sense of social connection. Create service teams. Allow job rotation. Encourage multiteam meetings. Informal social hours. Out-of-work sporting events (softball). Team-building activities.

13 Continued 4. Allow employees to soar. Service provider development programs. Survey personnel skills and interests. Reward innovation and creativity.

14 Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Individual Parts A well integrated program using these concepts will create an organization which is stronger than its aggregate parts.

15 Culture Plus In order to move to the next step in the process, there must be a system, which fosters-- Clear benchmarks (service standards). Concise goals and objectives. An agreed upon method for measuring progress. Objective versus subjective.

16 End of Chapter 04