Teamwork In Hospitality Industry

You have recently joined a large organisation as an assistant to the Human Resource Manager. The Manager, Jayne Staines is very concerned about the way that the staffs do not appear to be working effectively as a team, relying more on individual effort. Jayne has decided to run a series of seminars on team effectiveness and has asked you to research into the operation of teams within the Tourism and Hospitality industry.

“The division of a company that is focused on activities relating to employees. These activities normally including recruiting and hiring of new employees, orientation and training of current employees, employee benefits, and retention” (BusinessDictionary.com, 2010)

Human resource is the most difficult work in all departments but it is the most important and necessary for the organization. The whole department is made to maintain the proper place for the human within the organization. It is very important in the tourism and hospitality industry. So, the person who work in human recourse is called a human resource (HR) manager, he/ she should be very equal to the task. Staffing is the main and hard job for the HR manager. Human resource manager should be well educated and may have knowledge about the how to handle the problem when recruiting and hiring of new employee. And he/she have to be able to handle a crisis in a smooth and discreet manner.

If in the hotel, there is a proper human resource management (HRM), the hotel will run smoothly and can achieve its goal. There are several different areas in HRM is very important they are as follows,

When recruiting and hiring the new employee the human resource manager should be very careful when choosing the new staff for the hotel. The manager should choose the person who is very smart, dedicated to work and suitable for the job.

Employee progression and promotion is another large issue for the hotel industry. For the progress and promotion the employee should be well trained in some skills. The manager should provide the personal skill training for the advanced position.

Providing training and orientation to the new employee how to work in the organisation and orientation of the hotel is to provide the knowledge to the new employee by showing them the hotel as a whole.

1.2 DEFINITION OF TEAMWORK AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/teamwork.html

“The process of working collaboratively with a group of people, in order to achieve a goal. Teamwork is often a crucial part of a business, as it is often necessary for colleagues to work well together, trying their best in any circumstance. Teamwork means that people will try to corporate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedback, despite any personal conflict between individuals.”

A majority of a people organized to achieve a common goal is called team. Without the team no work can be done or can be success. The cooperative effort of a team is called teamwork. It plays a vital role in hospitality industry without the effective teamwork no work can be success. Teamwork means a majority of people using the individual skills and cooperative effort to achieve a common goal of the business. To maintain standard, quality and the good service of the hospitality business there should be the teamwork.

Sometime, the individual shouldn’t able to make a decision towards the problem which arises in the hospitality industry such as the decreasing rate of the share of the industry that time, if they create a meeting of the shareholder and try to control the decreasing rate of the share by discussing in the favour of the industry. They can implement the problem with the help of the team member and find out the problem where is the crucial point they have to focus. In this way they can solve there problem by teamwork.So, Teamwork is the very important in the hospitality industry.

2. THE STRUCTURE OF TEAMS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

(May Lilly, 2005)

A team structure is a design in which an organization is made up of teams, and each team works towards a common goal. In the Tourism and Hospitality industry, the organisation designs the team structure to achieve the common goal. And the goal is to provide a good service to the customer, make them satisfied. For this, there should be well design team structure which helps team to perform effectively. Since, the organization is made up of groups to perform the functions of the company, teams must perform well because they are held accountable for their performance.

To, be a successful, program team must coordinate its activities and interdependent deliveries, effectively communicate what is being accomplished as well as roadblocks, and collectively solve problems and make decisions that support the program objectives.

(Beverly Amer, 2009)

For this, there are many types of teams in an organization. The easiest way to classify teams is in the term of created as part of the organization’s formal structure and those created to increase employee participation.

Vertical team structure,: A vertical team sometimes called a functional team, has a manager and subordinate workers from the same department in the company’s hierarchy who works together to accomplish everyday work tasks. The member is in charge and directs the workers as they complete their tasks. This type of team has a much longer life because the work is not single-goal oriented.

Horizontal team structure: A horizontal team has members from roughly the same level within an organization.

Virtual team structure: A virtual team is one whose members rarely, if ever, meet in person to work on team tasks.Instead, technology makes it possible for members to be geographically distant yet work as if everyone was in the same room.

All the above mentioned three types of team structure helps to maintain the relationship between the team member .It helps to organize the company in right way to run smoothly and helps to achieve the goal. In the hospitality business, it is the most important things to minimise the problem, which arise without the good team structure. If there is the team structure, every team member knows what their job is and how to accomplish the work tasks. Team structure managed the working system of the company. In tourism and hospitality industry customers are the main priority. If they are satisfied the company will run smoothly and make a profit. Therefore, to run the Tourism and hospitality industry smoothly there should be the well managed team structure.

3. THE PURPOSE OF TEAMS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

The hospitality business main motive is to achieve the goal of the business and to satisfy the customers. There should be the well team structure for the well manage working environment in the business. ” The purpose of creating teams is to provide the framework that will increase the ability of employees to participate in planning, problem solving and decision making to better serve customers.” (About.com, 2010)

Purpose is a vital ingredient of a successful team. It gives the team direction and offers each member a sense of value and commitment. In the hospitality industry the purpose of creating teams is to provide the framework which helps to increase the ability of employee. Purpose of teams in tourism and hospitality industry is as follows,

Better understanding of decisions

It helps employee increasing the participation in better understanding of decisions. Team of the hospitality industry have to make a decision when implementing the problem which arises in the hospitality industry. They should have to make the right decision to solve the problem.

Creating team is to provide a teamwork

That increases the ability of employee to more support and participation in implementation plans to better serve to customers.

Increase competition to problem solving and decision making

It creates the competition and increase the better performance of team member on problem serving and for the correct decision towards the tasks.

More ownership of decisions, processes ,and changes

Improving the more ownership nature while making the decision, processing the tasks and creating the changes while needed within the tasks.

Above mentioned point is the purpose of team an organization. In the hospitality industry al the purpose of teams are same as above mentioned. Purpose of teams create a better performance of employee in planning, decision making and implement the tasks of the industry to better serve customers.

4. THE FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEAM IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

(Takanomi Ltd, 2010)

“At first it is very necessary to understand the factors that impact the performance of the team when improving team’s effectiveness. Then after the team member can determine when and what team development is needed. To function effectively they must manage how they interact with the rest of the organisation. In Richard Beckhard (“optimising Team Building efforts”, Journal of contemporary Business, summer 1972) states that for teams to be effective they must manage four areas internal to the team: goal, roles, processes and relationships.Futher research has identified a fifth factor impacting performance: how the team manages its interaction with the organisational environment. Within these factors is a hierarchy with some factors affecting all of the others. These all five factors become the focus of the manager who wants to raise team performance, because teams that effectively manage these areas function more effectively than teams that do not.”

The five factors that influence the effectiveness of team are as follows,

Goal is the main thing which the team have to accomplish. To be effective team, they have to aware about the goal and have to manage it. There should be the clear definition of the goal, understand and communicated with all other members. There should be amount of ownership of team goals. The extent to which goals are shared and which are conflict. If the goals are unclear or not communicate, it affects the team and the goals should not be achievable.

Roles define who does what on the team. There are several questions like as, What they or other members have to do to accomplish the task? What is their responsibility towards the tasks and what is the limitation of authority? These questions should be in the members mind when accomplishing the task. There should be the discussion between new and old team member for defining the roles and responsibilities. Difference expections may occur conflict among team members when two or more team members working together.

Work Processes is the way how members work together. Once the team members know about the goal and the roles, they must determine how they will work together. In the several working method they have to consider like as, when making decision all the team members have to participate. There should be the knowledge about to whom, by what method, when and how frequently they communicate each other. When organizing the meeting -what is the team trying to accomplish? There should be the leaders to take a decision towards the situation. If the meetings are poorly attended by the team member and the decision making is dominated by one or two people and take action without informing among member, it should be ineffectiveness team.

Relationship is the quality how to interact among the team members.

When working as a team member there should be the good working relationship between the team members. Sometimes there should be the conflict arise of the bad personality. That time manager has to take action to solve the conflict. If there is the feeling of competitive between the team member and the personality conflicts will harm to the team and create a partition in the team.

Environmental Influences is the factor which effects the organization and the outside on team performance. The policies and procedures and systems within an organization can either support or hinder a team’s effectiveness. Such as giving the reward system individually not to the all team memners.Because of this the member doesn’t effort to accomplish the task effectively.

In the Tourism and hospitality industry all the 5 factors are Goal, Roles, Work Processes, Relationship and Environmental influences influence the effectiveness of teams.

PART 2:

TEAMWORK AT ORIENTAL BUFFET

5. INTRODUCTION

Oriental Buffet is known as variety of food in one place. With more than 50 dishes available, there should be something to suit every taste. There are Indian and Thai curries alongside traditional Chinese food, as well as range of Singaporean and Malaysian food, including crispy duck, prawns and mussels which are available in the evenings. Amber gurung is the owner of the oriental buffet and there is no share holder of the restaurant. It is located at 18-20 Rendezvous street, Folkestone, Kent, CT20 1RW which is in the central of town. It is a very successful buffet restaurant and more then five years, it has built an enviable reputation among its loyal customers. [Oriental Buffet, 2010]

Oriental Buffet, [2010] says the teamwork in the restaurant helps to provide the good service to the customer which increases the restaurant sells. Here, staffs from different country works, that’s how it is called the industry of multicultural. All the staffs are well trained by the restaurant so as to reduce the conflict among the people or staffs. Here the members are working as teamwork. They support and help each other while working together.

5.1 ROLES AND RESPONSOBILITIES OF TEAM IN ORIENTAL BUFFET

Teamwork is very important in any organization for its good operation. The relationship between the staff member should be good. If one staff is over loaded when restaurant is busy and the other help him to provide the fast and good service to the customer. Oriental buffet is serve the variety food of different countries to the customer .To provide the good service and quality food to the customer there should be effective teamwork. Otherwise the customers unsatisfied and it does create loss in business.

In the Oriental buffet, there are classifications of staff member such as, Manager, Assistant Manager, bar staffs, kitchen staffs, floor staffs. They all work in a team and try to implement the problem by discussion and making the right decision when needed.

Roles of the team member play a vital role to create an effective teamwork. In the Oriental buffet the relationship among the staff member is very nice. So, for the effective teamwork the team member have to familiar with their roles and responsibilities. Each and every member role is effective in the buffet. Some of the roles of team member are as follows,

Listen to the manager and supervisor and stay open to their ideas.

Assist the team leader with managing meetings and with discussions.

Communicate effectively with colleagues.

Dedicated to the work and share the knowledge to implement the problem

arise

Roles and responsibilities are related each other. A role comes first and then responsibility take placed. Every staff has their particular role in the company and their responsibility as well. The manager of buffet manages the whole working process and assist as a leader. In the buffet, the manager role is to supervise the working process of every staff in their own field and his/ her responsibility is to manage the working process of staffs. Manager has to examine in every field such as bar section, kitchen section and floor section. His responsibility is handling the problem, which arise within the restaurant, look after the working process of the staffs (the work is done by the staff or not).If any customer complain about the service of the restaurant he/she have to solve the problem in a descent way. When providing the good service to the customer, every staff should have to play their effective role and responsibility in their filed. In the buffet, the entire staff member work in a team and they focus on the providing the quality food and good service to the customer. All the staffs work as a team to effective performance of the restaurant. So, all staff has their role and responsibility in their field within the restaurant.

5.2 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AND THE TEAM OBJECTIVES

(Nick Heap, 2004)

“Objectives are the specific goal that the team will accomplish in a fixed amount of time. These objectives flow the team’s purpose. Each one moves you toward your vision. It supports the team’s vision and purpose and the company or Department objectives.”

Team objectives are the specific goal that the team will accomplish in a fixed amount of time. It is the basis of the team’s planned work. To perform the work effectively and accomplish the goal of the company at the time frame, the team objective should be there. Team objectives are very important because it provide the basis for talent and resource planning. Every work can be done properly when there are plans for the work done.

The team objectives are the specific goal and the team member role and responsibility is to achieve the goal by effective performance and in a fixed amount of time. So, the relationship between the team objectives and its role and responsibility is very important in an organization. Team objectives support the team’s vision and purpose and they are the basis of the team’s planned work. If the employee gets the starting point for their objectives set as part of the performance management process, they can easily implement their tasks and can success to achieve the goal.

In the Oriental buffet, the team objectives is to make the customer happy and satisfied and run the business smoothly and to make the profit.Therefore,the staffs work in a team by helping each other to work effectively and perform well. Making the profit by selling the food of the buffet and satisfied the customers. Oriental buffet serve the quality food and good service to the customer in affordable price. Every customer visit the restaurant because buffet provide the variety of food and good service .For the providing the good service all staffs has to know their role and responsibilities

and team objectives.

5.3 IDENTIFY LINES OF AUTHORITY AND EXPLAIN THEIR PURPOSE

(WordPress.com, 2008)

“Line authority is the most fundamental authority within an organization, reflects existing superior- subordinate relationships. It consists of the right to make decisions and to give order concerning the production, sales or finance related behaviour of subordinates.”

Line authority is a power to give advice, support and service to line departments. Staff manager don’t command others. Line manager are responsible for attaining the organization’s goals as efficiently as possible. Line authority flows down the chain of commands. Line authority is the right to carry out assignments and exact performance from other individuals.

“For example, line authority gives a production supervisor the right to direct an employee to operate a particular machine, and it gives the vice president of finance the right to request a certain report from a department head. Therefore, line authority gives an individual a certain degree of power relating to the performance of an organizational task”. (Advameg, Inc, 2010)

Line authority is the authority that allows managers to direct others and to make decisions on the organization operations. In the buffet ,line authority is a power to give the authority to the head chef to direct the kitchen staff to prepare the quality food and it gives the authority to floor head to direct the employee whether the customer are happy or satisfy with their service style of the floor staffs or not. If there is any problem related their field, they have the authority about the taking the decision in related field.

Line of authority purpose is to help the staff in the process of achieving the goal of the restaurant. It helps the team member to be an effective teamwork.

6. CONCLUSION

Part 1:

Human resource is managing the people who worked in an organisation as an employee and human resource management helps to run the Tourism and Hospitality industry smoothly and can achieve its goal. Team is a majority of people organized to achieve a common goal. Teamwork is a group of people work together to accomplish the goal. If there is a teamwork any kind of difficult work can done by the discussion and the individual idea of the team members.

Team structure determines the work of the team member in the entire departments. It is design for the better performance of the team member. There are many types of team structure such as vertical, horizontal and virtual team structure. The purpose of creating team is to provide a framework and increase the ability of employees to participate in planning, problem solving and decision making to better serve customers. There are some factors which influence the effectiveness of team they are goal, roles, work processes, relationship and environmental influence.

Part 2:

Oriental buffet is a successful buffet restaurant because there is teamwork. Teamwork is very important in any organization fir its good operation. Roles and responsibilities are related each other. Each team member knows their roles and responsibilities which create a better performance to achieve the goal. Team objectives should be clear to the team member and the team objectives are the specific goal which they have to accomplish by performing effectively working in teamwork. Team objectives can achieve if there is the correct role and responsibility of team member. Line of authority is a power to give advice, support and service to line departments and its purpose is to help the staff in the process of achieving the goal of the restaurant. If there is teamwork and the team member knows their roles and responsibilities and the team objectives the team member perform better to achieve the goal and the goal is to make the customer satified.If the customers are satisfied they visit the restaurant regularly and the restaurant can make the profit.