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A management approach to hospitality and tourism education
II I
A management approach to hospitality and tourism education Atid Kaplan School o f Hotel and Restaurant Management, University o f Denver, Denver, C O 80208, U . S . A .
Due to changes in ownership and customer demand, it is argued that a change of direction is needed in the traditional hotel school programme. It is envisaged that more specialization is required to meet an expected change in industry organization. Career paths are anticipated to follow these specializations in control, food and beverages, sales and rooms and by progress from small unit to company operation. A major consequence of this makes a more extensive study of travel and tourism essential since this is the context of major service industry operation.
There has long been a polarization of views with regard to the best pedagogical approach in hotel, restaurant and tourism education. The two poles can best be summarized as Group A which asks the industry what it wants as opposed to Group B which determines what the industry needs: basically a reactive versus pro-active approach. Both sides have their merits from both an educational and managerial viewpoint. However, the implications should be scanned to determine the consequences.
remarked, 'One doesn't have to know how to sweep a floor in order to determine whether it is clean or dirty'. This paper will concentrate on the Group B philosophy for two major reasons: • A growing realization (in both industry and academe) of the importance of tourism and the need for greater integration between various components in the hospitality and tourism sectors. • An increasing concentration of major chain organizations, which are being taken over by non-service industry companies causing major change in organizational structures.
Group A schools will tend to have a strong emphasis on operating skills with courses covering the detailed functions of various aspects of the industry. In addition, much weight is placed on a practical approach using industrial experience and staff tending to have a training approach. This produces a graduate who is extremely capable of running an operation i.e. an operator.
These lead to a need for more sophisticated management in this field. During the next few years there will be some massive changes in the hospitality industry's structures, strategies and management. This will be the result of several influences: maturation, concentration, life-cycle position, and the after-effects caused by more non-service industries taking over or entering the hospitality industry. The main thesis is, therefore, that this industry has to upgrade management techniques and training programmes for new management as well as existing managers, change its organization structure radically, and hire, train and use more technologically skilled people for staff positions within the industry.
Group B, on the other hand, has a more academically oriented approach stressing traditional business disciplines in a hospitality and tourism setting. The emphasis is on a managerial viewpoint. The student is generally required to have some work experience to expose him to the practical side, but his education is less technical and more analytical. The students are more flexible than operators and are generally capable of fitting into managerial as well as operating slots. The major criticism Group A schools have of Group B is that one cannot run a hotel or restaurant unless one can cook. The Group B retort is best expressed by Professor Dent who recently Int. J. Hospitality Management Vol. 1 No. 1 pp, 11-171982 Printed in Great Britain
The indicators are: (1) Non-service firms are moving in through a combination of takeovers, 11
0278-4319/82/010011-07503.00/0 (~1982 Pergamon Press Ltd
12
mergers, bailouts and new ventures. (2) The industry has moved very sharply and very quickly from the growth stage of the life-cycle into the maturation stage, as gauged by the standard indicators such as increased competition, lower profits, greater concentration and so on. (3) The disappearance or overthrow of founderentrepreneurs in major chains. (4) Takeovers and mergers that will take place caused by increased competition (both quantitative and qualitative) as well as the failure of laggard companies to keep up with the pack. (5) Changing consumer demography and an ageing population. At the same time, there will be fewer but stronger companies competing because inevitably, as an industry hits the maturity stage of the life-cycle, there is a shakeout; (e.g. one has only to look back a few years to see the shakeout in the snowmobile industry in the U.S. which reduced the industry from several score to just a few major firms). The different attitudes and tastes of consumers will also have an effect (caused by changing demography). As consumer tastes change this may require a different type of technology, plant, research and organization to meet consumer needs. In addition, as companies get larger, there are increasing control problems, not just from the operating side, but also from the management side. Thus, there will be a need for more sophisticated planning and strategy. This is a very similar situation to that faced by the manufacturing industries some time ago when companies were started by engineers (founderentrepreneurs), were eventually taken over by marketers and, now are in the hands of legal, control and financial people. This is reflected in the different priorities which occur at various stages of the life-cycle of a company. The demands on management will increase since businesses will be larger and more complex. These organizations will be more difficult, or impossible to manage using present day organization structures. New structures must be accompanied by decentralization (so that local needs, interests and desires can be taken care of), and increasing reliance on large staffs of technologists and analysts. Another factor which will complicate structures will be increased direct labour costs at all levels and shortages of unskilled and semi-skilled labour. One result of the above mentioned factors (which will change the entire structure of the industry in the next decade) will be a new type of generalist manager. The manager will no longer be the old 'hands-on' experienced manager, up from the ranks, but rather a highly-skilled professional who is trained not only in the operational elements of the industry, but also in general management.
Atid Kaplan
Strategic aspects have largely been ignored in the past, simply because many companies operate on short-term planning cycles based on their ability to open new operations. This was fine in the situation where primary demand was increasing constantly, but now that primary demand growth rate will probably decrease or stabilize, as in more mature industries, there will be more difficulty in entering markets and far more careful planning and analysis will be required. There will be less of a personal type of management, and an increasing reliance on reports, technology and therefore on staff. This will be accompanied by increasing technical and automation features within the industry, due to lack of manpower. Thus, one can see how these changes will occur within this industry. Managers will find that a hotel-restaurant management school skill background will not be enough; they will need more of the overall and general management skills, arts and techniques applied to the industry. The entry level in management will cease to be a bachelor's degree in hotel-restaurant management and will probably become a master's degree, as it has in more mature industries. In addition, there will also be increasing spending on research, technology and innovation in order to serve changing markets and find new markets. These new complex organisation structures will require more research in management, because one cannot overlay manufacturing industry's structure in toto since it will not fit a service industry, which has the problem of very low-skilled, underpaid employees being supervized and tipped by consumers. In addition, decision-making has to be at a far lower level than in a typical manufacturing company. This will be accompanied, as discussed earlier, by the increasing power of staff. The major problem is that as the staff inevitably increases in power, decision-making moves up and slows down; one must guard against this 'dinosaur' complex which slows competitive reaction. This industry will require far more decentralization than manufacturing since the assembly function cannot be centralized. First, there should be an increased upgrading of present management knowledge of tools and techniques (as developed for some of the other industries and adapted for the hospitality industry). There should be increasing concentration on marketing as well as changing attitudes in management. There should be far more strategic planning in the long term and less preoccupation with the short4erm. An increasing number of managers will be going back to school for MBAs, as well as
Hospitality a n d tou rism e d u c a t i o n
13
of Food and Beverages. He will also tend to accumulate specialists helping him. One already sees this going on in controller positions. (See Fig.
specialized courses in their areas of expertise. In addition, the business schools and hotel schools will have to change and produce more staff-trained people (specialists) as opposed to line-trained people (which seems to be the preoccupation of many of the hotel-restaurant management schools today). Far more money will also have to be spent on research and development for new technologies, new markets, new products and new management tools.
1). Thus the management strategy for the 1980s will consist of longer-term strategies carefully thought out and based on market demands, the competitive situation, the organization's capability and the environment it finds itself in. These in turn will effect the nature of management, and the strategies that this management will pick. It could all be reversed, i.e. settle on a strategy first, pick the management to do it who in turn will set up a structure to carry it out. The increased emphasis will be on more staff involvement in line operations, which means that the industry will have to borrow, beg and steal from
Instead of moving, say, from Food and Beverage Manager to Executive Assistant Manager of a hotel, a manager will probably move up from Food and Beverage Manager of one hotel to a slightly bigger hotel, then to Food and Beverage Manager of the biggest hotel in the chain or Vice-President
.Present management growth mode Chief executive officer
~Regional /corporaTeVP Genera I m a n a g e m e n t S _ /
~_~Food
and beverage
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ROO~
~
Entry
Future management growth mode Chief executive officer
I
Corporate VP [ Con~rroller Corporate staff J Large hotel ] , Regional staff [ , Medium hotel J Small hotel [ Management entry level
Food and beverage_
General manage-
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Fig. 1.
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14
non-service industry. Unfortunately, most of the research that has been done for manufacturing industry will have to be duplicated to see if it is applicable or not. Therefore, the industry will have to spend far more money on research, development and education of management.
Implications for academics The more specialized, vocational and parochial the programme, the more limited the opportunity and career path. The broader and more conceptual, the wider and higher the opportunities. This however is not an automatic process - - i.e. just changing a programme is neither going to create jobs nor opportunities (other than for academics). One must base programmes on the needs not only of industry today, but also those of the future, many of which needs the industry may be unaware of today. Far too many present-day programmes are geared to meet yesterday's vocational skill needs. The industry has never really felt happy with advanced m a n a g e m e n t concepts, which is why so many of the successful innovators in this industry are outsiders e.g. Henderson of Sheraton, Lord T h o m s o n of Fleet, Wilson of Holiday Inns, Kroc of McDonald's and, of course, Conrad Hilton. These aliens broke the dated mores and foikways of the industry and were responsible for new approaches and procedures extensively adopted by others. There is far too much emphasis on how to cook, fill in a registration card, make a bed, and so on. Students should be conceptualizing or analyzing whether they should cook, buy ready cooked, contract out or whether the operation needs any foodservice at all. One can broaden the scope of opportunities greatly by forgetting that a particular institution is a hotel and restaurant m a n a g e m e n t school, travel school, tourism school, etc. There is a need for fewer experts and more management- and specialist-trained people in the industry. One should r e m e m b e r that our industry is a service industry and has more in c o m m o n with banking than with Boeing. The reason why hotel and restaurant m a n a g e m e n t was able to stay separate from business schools originally was for the same reason that business schools spun off from economics: 'Lack of relevance, specialization, different from manufacturing and extractive industries'. All still true, but the number of service industries has broadened. As the hospitality industry moves into the maturity (shake-out) stage of its life cycle and is taken over by traditional industries, many of the problems which have plagued more mature industries will plague the hospitality industry. Therefore programmes must concentrate on the new oppor-
Atid Kaplan
tunities rather than the narrow ones once available to a cottage industry. While there is a need for constant liaison between academe and industry, this does not mean that one has to accept everything industry says or does. Academics should be in the forefront since they are training the managers of tomorrow. Industry should be interested in the future and thus should fund research and help validate its usefulness or futility. Unlike most academic disciplines this one does not tell the industry but asks what its immediate needs are: hence most universities tend to train operators rather than managers. Graduates should be capable of solving problems using state-of-the-art business knowledge and technology rather than waiting (as in the past) for someone to rewrite a concept with the word 'hotel', 'restaurant' or 'tourism' in the title. Students must be taught to read modern research literature and, by the same token, they should broaden their scope and realize that the problems of other service industries are exactly the same e.g. manpower, location, inflation, management, government regulation and interference. During the World Hospitality Congress (in March 1981), a number of senior hotel chain executives told the delegates that they were not in the accommodation, restaurant and/or saloon-keeping business, but rather in the travel and tourism business. What caused this rather sudden awareness of an overview that has been previously ignored, derided, or dismissed as academic claptrap? This question can be answered from the viewpoint of the cynic, optimist or realist as follows: The cynic would state that hotel chains: • mistreated the traveller too often; • overpriced offerings leading to customer resistance; • ignored tourist markets; • feared the forthcoming shake-out. The optimist would state that hotel chains: • discovered new untapped markets; • desired to broaden employee viewpoints; • provided more comprehensive services to existing consumers; • held prices by increasing demand. The realist would probably agree with both and point out the other external contributing factors to this attitudinal change: • falling U.S. dollar makes it a bargain for foreigners; • foreign interest in the U.S.A. ; • increasing volume of international tourism; • electronic breakthroughs threaten business travel.
Hospitality and tourism education
Therefore, regardless of which attitude the observer holds, it is necessary to extend the accommodation and catering sector's understanding of travel and tourism. What is this industry and what activities does it encompass? Why should hotel and restaurant management educators get involved with this broad ill-defined umbrella called travel/tourism? The answer is as broad and as deep as the number of researchers, academics, and practitioners in the field, as witnessed by the scope, depth, and variety of the presentations at that conference. It covers a multitude of firms and organizations, in both the private and public sector, all dedicated to exploiting the tourist economically, socially, and/or politically. The size of firms varies from an individual selling hot dogs on a beach to a multi-billion dollar, multi-national oil company as well as everything in between. The hospitality sector is only a small, albeit significant, component of a rapidly growing world-wide phenomenon which is finally gaining recognition, but the Tourism Management degree is still not a marketable commodity, thus it should be an overlay on the Hotel and Restaurant Management degree. The reason for integrating the travel/tourism overview into hotel and restaurant management curricula is that, without a clear understanding of its environment, no industry can cope successfully. Until recently hotel and restaurant management was in a rapid growth spurt with numerous facilities opening up to serve a growing number of travellers. Over the last ten years, primarily due to external environmental forces, the industry has moved rapidly from the growth to the maturity stages insofar as traditional North American markets are concerned. The one market area which is still in the early growth stages is the foreign tourist market. This has been created largely by the same forces that spawned many of the industry's present problems i.e. a falling dollar, slow growth in U.S. versus foreign economies and so forth. Therefore, it is imperative for educators to expose students to this overall environmental discipline called Tourism and Travel i.e. voluntary versus involuntary travel. This will serve to broaden their outlook to exploit not only present but also future opportunities. How will this tourism course affect present programmes and curricula? In most programmes one studies the conventional business disciples i.e. marketing, finance, human resources, operations and policy. When we examine the areas individually the direct effects become more obvious.
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Marketing
Distribution Communication Consumer image Marketing research Pricing Product offering Packaging Nature of staff Human resources Language Selection Personality Training Control and finance Sources of funding Currency Non-cash payments Information systems Systems Allocations Operation Services Variability Commonality Standardization Consumer orientation Policy and strategy Overview Competition Markets Government and legal Coordination
All of the above can benefit substantially from a broader perspective and awareness of potential problems and opportunity. At present there are as many approaches to teaching tourism as the odd cast of disciplines in this field - - there are programmes run by recreationists, geographers, economists, historians, sociologists, hoteliers and businessmen. In most hotel and restaurant management schools, these courses are optional with popularity generally determined by the instructor's personality. In most hospitality programmes, tourism tends to follow one of two routes either mechanical or operational. The former examines the components i.e. travel agency management, transportation, accommodation, catering and attraction and events from a hotel operating managerial overview. The latter tends to train people in the actual operations of facilities and setting up of agencies, tours, etc. There was also, in a few schools, a combination of the above eventually superseded by an add-on managerial overview course which expanded the problem of both tourism sector components as well as the government's role. Until now these were sufficient. However, given the present state of the industry, one has to go further to achieve the objectives stated earlier namely a complete integration of the tourism viewpoint into these programmes.
16
Atid Kaplan
At the University of Denver in the autumn of 1981, a new required environmental course started, which presents an overview of the hotel and restaurant management industry environment i.e. an introduction into the broad discipline of tourism. This will precede hotel and restaurant management core courses so the student can place this specialized knowledge into the broader environmental framework. There are also follow-up courses in the management of tourism programmes and facilities which will eventually become minor subjects when coupled with a hotel and restaurant management major subject (Denver University gives a BSBA
degree with a hotel and restaurant management major at present). See Table I which covers courses offered in the hotel and restaurant management school or approximately 25% of students' total courses.
The major advantages to both students and employers will be a better trained manager or potential manager who has a knowledge and awareness of present and potential market needs, problems and opportunities. It will open up new horizons for them.
Table 1. SchoolofHotelandRestaurantManagementcourse offerings effective September 1981 Year 1 *Introduction to food service and lodging management 56-12 (5)
Year 2 *Food evaluation: principles and procedures 56-152 (5) Management accounting for hospitality industries 50-2.23 (4)
Year 3 *Hospitality and travel market environment 56-201 (3) *Selection and procurement 56-220 (4)
*Food delivery systems management 56-221 (4) *Lodging management 56-231 (3) *Human resources management for the hospitality industry 56-264 (3) *Sanitation 56-291 (3)
Year 4 Contract feeding 56-222 (1) Club management 56-223 (1) Beverage facility licensing 56-224 (1) Nutritional programs - - govern ment funded 56-225 (1) Extended health care food production management 56-226 (1) Wines 56-227 (1) Energy management 56-232 (1) Facilities management 56-233 (1) Security 56-234 ( 1) Safety procedures 56-235 (1) Hospitality training programs 56-236 ( 1) Sales promotion 56-250 (3) Domestic and international Tourism 56-273 (3) Tourism transportation systems 56-274 (2) Socio-economic impact of tourism 56-275 (2) Tourism planning and destination development 56-276 (3) Feasibility analysis for hospitality properties 56-350 (3) Feasibility analysis project 56-351 (2) Problems in hotel and restaurant design 56-371 (4) Seminar in hotel and restaurant design 56-371 (4) Seminar in hotel and restaurant management 56-380 (2-5) Nutrition 56-385 (3) Practical hospitality Seminar 56-394 (2) Lawof innkeepers 53-157 (5)
*Required HRM courses (Total 30) HRM electives (Total required 15) Be sure to check prerequisites.
Hospitality and tourism education
In addition, as far as scope is concerned, one must make the opportunities wider to compete with ever increasing numbers of graduates. On the other hand, one must also ensure that students are capable of not only penetrating organizations but also rising to the top, This broader programme approach will need a unifying generalist approach emphasizing the strategic problems of the general manager. What areas should this course cover? (1) Definition of strategy and policy; (2) Nature of strategy; (3) Evaluation of the corporation's strengths and weaknesses; (4) Evaluation of the environment of the firm; (5) Determination of intangible constraints; (6) Personal values of management and influences; (7) Goal determination; (8) Strategy evaluation and analysis; (9) Strategy formulation; (10) Organization for implementation; (11) Implementation of strategy. Teaching methodology varies with the nature of the school, programme, student and, of course, instructor. There are a variety of tools and techniques available including the standard lecture, discussion or thesis patterns. Two less often used methods have both their admirers and detractors, i.e. the business game as a computer simulation in which individual students or teams compete with each other. This appeals because of its neatness and simplicity. It is felt that as a learning tool it is too simplistic for use at the strategic management theory level. The case discussion method, however, where students analyse a variety of businesses in a host of different environments helps develop analytic tools as well as strategy-formulation skills in a more complex and realistic situation than a computer game. (Case Clearing Houses can furnish a computer printout or catalogue of cases.) In addition there are a variety
17
of excellent books on the subject which range from simple to complex, qualitative to quantitative, broad to narrow. It is important that the textbook and cases used are geared to the students' background as well as that of the instructor. Instructors themselves must have had broad research and/or corporate management experience so as to be able to guide the integrative, multi-disciplinary discussion. The course should be offered only in the final term, semester or quarter so that the student has completed the specialist core subjects and can then learn to integrate them into a comprehensive overview of the industry and its problems. Thus by moving closer to the traditional business disciplines, hotel and restaurant management schools can provide their graduates with the knowledge, tools and techniques to survive in the present and succeed in the emerging environment.
References Drucker, P. F. (1973) Management. Harper & Row, New York. Gunn (1979) Tourism Planning. Crane Russak, New York. Kaplan, A. (1980) Issues and trends in tourism education.
Travel and Tourism Research Association, Workshop Proceedings, Savannah, G A .
Educators
Kaplan, A. (1980) Policy/strategy course requirements. Coun-
cil on Hotel Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference. Dearborn, MI. Kaplan, A. (1981) Integration of the travel and tourism component into hotel and restaurant management programs. Travel and Tourism Research Association Proceedings. Las Vegas, NV. Mintzberg (1973) The Nature of Managerial Work. Harper & Row, New York. Mintzberg (1979) The Structuring of Organizations. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Ritchie and Jafari (1981) Developing a framework for tourism education. Annals of Tourism Res. Stout WI. Sasser, Olsen and Wykoff (1978) Management of Service Operations. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA. Steiner (1969) Top Management Planning. Macmillan, New York. Stendal and Hofer (1979) Strategic Management. Little, Brown, Boston, MA.
About the Author Atid Kaplan is a Professor of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Denver. His research and teaching revolve around management, entrepreneurship, policy and strategy in both hospitality and tourism. He obtained his Doctorate at Centre des Hautes Etudes Touristiques at the University d'Aix-MarseillesIII, MBA at University of Western Ontario and B.A. at Sir George Williams College (Now Concordia). Before his appointment at Denver University he taught in graduate and undergraduate management faculties at McGill, Concordia and Laurentian Universities in Canada. In addition, he has had ten years of experience as a management consultant, researcher and sales administrator in this field with Canadian Pacific and Air Canada.
A management approach to hospitality and tourism education Atid Kaplan School o f Hotel and Restaurant Management, University o f Denver, Denver, C O 80208, U . S . A .
Due to changes in ownership and customer demand, it is argued that a change of direction is needed in the traditional hotel school programme. It is envisaged that more specialization is required to meet an expected change in industry organization. Career paths are anticipated to follow these specializations in control, food and beverages, sales and rooms and by progress from small unit to company operation. A major consequence of this makes a more extensive study of travel and tourism essential since this is the context of major service industry operation.
There has long been a polarization of views with regard to the best pedagogical approach in hotel, restaurant and tourism education. The two poles can best be summarized as Group A which asks the industry what it wants as opposed to Group B which determines what the industry needs: basically a reactive versus pro-active approach. Both sides have their merits from both an educational and managerial viewpoint. However, the implications should be scanned to determine the consequences.
remarked, 'One doesn't have to know how to sweep a floor in order to determine whether it is clean or dirty'. This paper will concentrate on the Group B philosophy for two major reasons: • A growing realization (in both industry and academe) of the importance of tourism and the need for greater integration between various components in the hospitality and tourism sectors. • An increasing concentration of major chain organizations, which are being taken over by non-service industry companies causing major change in organizational structures.
Group A schools will tend to have a strong emphasis on operating skills with courses covering the detailed functions of various aspects of the industry. In addition, much weight is placed on a practical approach using industrial experience and staff tending to have a training approach. This produces a graduate who is extremely capable of running an operation i.e. an operator.
These lead to a need for more sophisticated management in this field. During the next few years there will be some massive changes in the hospitality industry's structures, strategies and management. This will be the result of several influences: maturation, concentration, life-cycle position, and the after-effects caused by more non-service industries taking over or entering the hospitality industry. The main thesis is, therefore, that this industry has to upgrade management techniques and training programmes for new management as well as existing managers, change its organization structure radically, and hire, train and use more technologically skilled people for staff positions within the industry.
Group B, on the other hand, has a more academically oriented approach stressing traditional business disciplines in a hospitality and tourism setting. The emphasis is on a managerial viewpoint. The student is generally required to have some work experience to expose him to the practical side, but his education is less technical and more analytical. The students are more flexible than operators and are generally capable of fitting into managerial as well as operating slots. The major criticism Group A schools have of Group B is that one cannot run a hotel or restaurant unless one can cook. The Group B retort is best expressed by Professor Dent who recently Int. J. Hospitality Management Vol. 1 No. 1 pp, 11-171982 Printed in Great Britain
The indicators are: (1) Non-service firms are moving in through a combination of takeovers, 11
0278-4319/82/010011-07503.00/0 (~1982 Pergamon Press Ltd
12
mergers, bailouts and new ventures. (2) The industry has moved very sharply and very quickly from the growth stage of the life-cycle into the maturation stage, as gauged by the standard indicators such as increased competition, lower profits, greater concentration and so on. (3) The disappearance or overthrow of founderentrepreneurs in major chains. (4) Takeovers and mergers that will take place caused by increased competition (both quantitative and qualitative) as well as the failure of laggard companies to keep up with the pack. (5) Changing consumer demography and an ageing population. At the same time, there will be fewer but stronger companies competing because inevitably, as an industry hits the maturity stage of the life-cycle, there is a shakeout; (e.g. one has only to look back a few years to see the shakeout in the snowmobile industry in the U.S. which reduced the industry from several score to just a few major firms). The different attitudes and tastes of consumers will also have an effect (caused by changing demography). As consumer tastes change this may require a different type of technology, plant, research and organization to meet consumer needs. In addition, as companies get larger, there are increasing control problems, not just from the operating side, but also from the management side. Thus, there will be a need for more sophisticated planning and strategy. This is a very similar situation to that faced by the manufacturing industries some time ago when companies were started by engineers (founderentrepreneurs), were eventually taken over by marketers and, now are in the hands of legal, control and financial people. This is reflected in the different priorities which occur at various stages of the life-cycle of a company. The demands on management will increase since businesses will be larger and more complex. These organizations will be more difficult, or impossible to manage using present day organization structures. New structures must be accompanied by decentralization (so that local needs, interests and desires can be taken care of), and increasing reliance on large staffs of technologists and analysts. Another factor which will complicate structures will be increased direct labour costs at all levels and shortages of unskilled and semi-skilled labour. One result of the above mentioned factors (which will change the entire structure of the industry in the next decade) will be a new type of generalist manager. The manager will no longer be the old 'hands-on' experienced manager, up from the ranks, but rather a highly-skilled professional who is trained not only in the operational elements of the industry, but also in general management.
Atid Kaplan
Strategic aspects have largely been ignored in the past, simply because many companies operate on short-term planning cycles based on their ability to open new operations. This was fine in the situation where primary demand was increasing constantly, but now that primary demand growth rate will probably decrease or stabilize, as in more mature industries, there will be more difficulty in entering markets and far more careful planning and analysis will be required. There will be less of a personal type of management, and an increasing reliance on reports, technology and therefore on staff. This will be accompanied by increasing technical and automation features within the industry, due to lack of manpower. Thus, one can see how these changes will occur within this industry. Managers will find that a hotel-restaurant management school skill background will not be enough; they will need more of the overall and general management skills, arts and techniques applied to the industry. The entry level in management will cease to be a bachelor's degree in hotel-restaurant management and will probably become a master's degree, as it has in more mature industries. In addition, there will also be increasing spending on research, technology and innovation in order to serve changing markets and find new markets. These new complex organisation structures will require more research in management, because one cannot overlay manufacturing industry's structure in toto since it will not fit a service industry, which has the problem of very low-skilled, underpaid employees being supervized and tipped by consumers. In addition, decision-making has to be at a far lower level than in a typical manufacturing company. This will be accompanied, as discussed earlier, by the increasing power of staff. The major problem is that as the staff inevitably increases in power, decision-making moves up and slows down; one must guard against this 'dinosaur' complex which slows competitive reaction. This industry will require far more decentralization than manufacturing since the assembly function cannot be centralized. First, there should be an increased upgrading of present management knowledge of tools and techniques (as developed for some of the other industries and adapted for the hospitality industry). There should be increasing concentration on marketing as well as changing attitudes in management. There should be far more strategic planning in the long term and less preoccupation with the short4erm. An increasing number of managers will be going back to school for MBAs, as well as
Hospitality a n d tou rism e d u c a t i o n
13
of Food and Beverages. He will also tend to accumulate specialists helping him. One already sees this going on in controller positions. (See Fig.
specialized courses in their areas of expertise. In addition, the business schools and hotel schools will have to change and produce more staff-trained people (specialists) as opposed to line-trained people (which seems to be the preoccupation of many of the hotel-restaurant management schools today). Far more money will also have to be spent on research and development for new technologies, new markets, new products and new management tools.
1). Thus the management strategy for the 1980s will consist of longer-term strategies carefully thought out and based on market demands, the competitive situation, the organization's capability and the environment it finds itself in. These in turn will effect the nature of management, and the strategies that this management will pick. It could all be reversed, i.e. settle on a strategy first, pick the management to do it who in turn will set up a structure to carry it out. The increased emphasis will be on more staff involvement in line operations, which means that the industry will have to borrow, beg and steal from
Instead of moving, say, from Food and Beverage Manager to Executive Assistant Manager of a hotel, a manager will probably move up from Food and Beverage Manager of one hotel to a slightly bigger hotel, then to Food and Beverage Manager of the biggest hotel in the chain or Vice-President
.Present management growth mode Chief executive officer
~Regional /corporaTeVP Genera I m a n a g e m e n t S _ /
~_~Food
and beverage
/
So,es
ROO~
~
Entry
Future management growth mode Chief executive officer
I
Corporate VP [ Con~rroller Corporate staff J Large hotel ] , Regional staff [ , Medium hotel J Small hotel [ Management entry level
Food and beverage_
General manage-
Sa !es
Rooms
t
f
~en~ -
f
t
f
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
Trainee
Soles
t,
Control let
lFoodand lbevera ~e
t
Fig. 1.
Rooms t
I I I J
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non-service industry. Unfortunately, most of the research that has been done for manufacturing industry will have to be duplicated to see if it is applicable or not. Therefore, the industry will have to spend far more money on research, development and education of management.
Implications for academics The more specialized, vocational and parochial the programme, the more limited the opportunity and career path. The broader and more conceptual, the wider and higher the opportunities. This however is not an automatic process - - i.e. just changing a programme is neither going to create jobs nor opportunities (other than for academics). One must base programmes on the needs not only of industry today, but also those of the future, many of which needs the industry may be unaware of today. Far too many present-day programmes are geared to meet yesterday's vocational skill needs. The industry has never really felt happy with advanced m a n a g e m e n t concepts, which is why so many of the successful innovators in this industry are outsiders e.g. Henderson of Sheraton, Lord T h o m s o n of Fleet, Wilson of Holiday Inns, Kroc of McDonald's and, of course, Conrad Hilton. These aliens broke the dated mores and foikways of the industry and were responsible for new approaches and procedures extensively adopted by others. There is far too much emphasis on how to cook, fill in a registration card, make a bed, and so on. Students should be conceptualizing or analyzing whether they should cook, buy ready cooked, contract out or whether the operation needs any foodservice at all. One can broaden the scope of opportunities greatly by forgetting that a particular institution is a hotel and restaurant m a n a g e m e n t school, travel school, tourism school, etc. There is a need for fewer experts and more management- and specialist-trained people in the industry. One should r e m e m b e r that our industry is a service industry and has more in c o m m o n with banking than with Boeing. The reason why hotel and restaurant m a n a g e m e n t was able to stay separate from business schools originally was for the same reason that business schools spun off from economics: 'Lack of relevance, specialization, different from manufacturing and extractive industries'. All still true, but the number of service industries has broadened. As the hospitality industry moves into the maturity (shake-out) stage of its life cycle and is taken over by traditional industries, many of the problems which have plagued more mature industries will plague the hospitality industry. Therefore programmes must concentrate on the new oppor-
Atid Kaplan
tunities rather than the narrow ones once available to a cottage industry. While there is a need for constant liaison between academe and industry, this does not mean that one has to accept everything industry says or does. Academics should be in the forefront since they are training the managers of tomorrow. Industry should be interested in the future and thus should fund research and help validate its usefulness or futility. Unlike most academic disciplines this one does not tell the industry but asks what its immediate needs are: hence most universities tend to train operators rather than managers. Graduates should be capable of solving problems using state-of-the-art business knowledge and technology rather than waiting (as in the past) for someone to rewrite a concept with the word 'hotel', 'restaurant' or 'tourism' in the title. Students must be taught to read modern research literature and, by the same token, they should broaden their scope and realize that the problems of other service industries are exactly the same e.g. manpower, location, inflation, management, government regulation and interference. During the World Hospitality Congress (in March 1981), a number of senior hotel chain executives told the delegates that they were not in the accommodation, restaurant and/or saloon-keeping business, but rather in the travel and tourism business. What caused this rather sudden awareness of an overview that has been previously ignored, derided, or dismissed as academic claptrap? This question can be answered from the viewpoint of the cynic, optimist or realist as follows: The cynic would state that hotel chains: • mistreated the traveller too often; • overpriced offerings leading to customer resistance; • ignored tourist markets; • feared the forthcoming shake-out. The optimist would state that hotel chains: • discovered new untapped markets; • desired to broaden employee viewpoints; • provided more comprehensive services to existing consumers; • held prices by increasing demand. The realist would probably agree with both and point out the other external contributing factors to this attitudinal change: • falling U.S. dollar makes it a bargain for foreigners; • foreign interest in the U.S.A. ; • increasing volume of international tourism; • electronic breakthroughs threaten business travel.
Hospitality and tourism education
Therefore, regardless of which attitude the observer holds, it is necessary to extend the accommodation and catering sector's understanding of travel and tourism. What is this industry and what activities does it encompass? Why should hotel and restaurant management educators get involved with this broad ill-defined umbrella called travel/tourism? The answer is as broad and as deep as the number of researchers, academics, and practitioners in the field, as witnessed by the scope, depth, and variety of the presentations at that conference. It covers a multitude of firms and organizations, in both the private and public sector, all dedicated to exploiting the tourist economically, socially, and/or politically. The size of firms varies from an individual selling hot dogs on a beach to a multi-billion dollar, multi-national oil company as well as everything in between. The hospitality sector is only a small, albeit significant, component of a rapidly growing world-wide phenomenon which is finally gaining recognition, but the Tourism Management degree is still not a marketable commodity, thus it should be an overlay on the Hotel and Restaurant Management degree. The reason for integrating the travel/tourism overview into hotel and restaurant management curricula is that, without a clear understanding of its environment, no industry can cope successfully. Until recently hotel and restaurant management was in a rapid growth spurt with numerous facilities opening up to serve a growing number of travellers. Over the last ten years, primarily due to external environmental forces, the industry has moved rapidly from the growth to the maturity stages insofar as traditional North American markets are concerned. The one market area which is still in the early growth stages is the foreign tourist market. This has been created largely by the same forces that spawned many of the industry's present problems i.e. a falling dollar, slow growth in U.S. versus foreign economies and so forth. Therefore, it is imperative for educators to expose students to this overall environmental discipline called Tourism and Travel i.e. voluntary versus involuntary travel. This will serve to broaden their outlook to exploit not only present but also future opportunities. How will this tourism course affect present programmes and curricula? In most programmes one studies the conventional business disciples i.e. marketing, finance, human resources, operations and policy. When we examine the areas individually the direct effects become more obvious.
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Marketing
Distribution Communication Consumer image Marketing research Pricing Product offering Packaging Nature of staff Human resources Language Selection Personality Training Control and finance Sources of funding Currency Non-cash payments Information systems Systems Allocations Operation Services Variability Commonality Standardization Consumer orientation Policy and strategy Overview Competition Markets Government and legal Coordination
All of the above can benefit substantially from a broader perspective and awareness of potential problems and opportunity. At present there are as many approaches to teaching tourism as the odd cast of disciplines in this field - - there are programmes run by recreationists, geographers, economists, historians, sociologists, hoteliers and businessmen. In most hotel and restaurant management schools, these courses are optional with popularity generally determined by the instructor's personality. In most hospitality programmes, tourism tends to follow one of two routes either mechanical or operational. The former examines the components i.e. travel agency management, transportation, accommodation, catering and attraction and events from a hotel operating managerial overview. The latter tends to train people in the actual operations of facilities and setting up of agencies, tours, etc. There was also, in a few schools, a combination of the above eventually superseded by an add-on managerial overview course which expanded the problem of both tourism sector components as well as the government's role. Until now these were sufficient. However, given the present state of the industry, one has to go further to achieve the objectives stated earlier namely a complete integration of the tourism viewpoint into these programmes.
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Atid Kaplan
At the University of Denver in the autumn of 1981, a new required environmental course started, which presents an overview of the hotel and restaurant management industry environment i.e. an introduction into the broad discipline of tourism. This will precede hotel and restaurant management core courses so the student can place this specialized knowledge into the broader environmental framework. There are also follow-up courses in the management of tourism programmes and facilities which will eventually become minor subjects when coupled with a hotel and restaurant management major subject (Denver University gives a BSBA
degree with a hotel and restaurant management major at present). See Table I which covers courses offered in the hotel and restaurant management school or approximately 25% of students' total courses.
The major advantages to both students and employers will be a better trained manager or potential manager who has a knowledge and awareness of present and potential market needs, problems and opportunities. It will open up new horizons for them.
Table 1. SchoolofHotelandRestaurantManagementcourse offerings effective September 1981 Year 1 *Introduction to food service and lodging management 56-12 (5)
Year 2 *Food evaluation: principles and procedures 56-152 (5) Management accounting for hospitality industries 50-2.23 (4)
Year 3 *Hospitality and travel market environment 56-201 (3) *Selection and procurement 56-220 (4)
*Food delivery systems management 56-221 (4) *Lodging management 56-231 (3) *Human resources management for the hospitality industry 56-264 (3) *Sanitation 56-291 (3)
Year 4 Contract feeding 56-222 (1) Club management 56-223 (1) Beverage facility licensing 56-224 (1) Nutritional programs - - govern ment funded 56-225 (1) Extended health care food production management 56-226 (1) Wines 56-227 (1) Energy management 56-232 (1) Facilities management 56-233 (1) Security 56-234 ( 1) Safety procedures 56-235 (1) Hospitality training programs 56-236 ( 1) Sales promotion 56-250 (3) Domestic and international Tourism 56-273 (3) Tourism transportation systems 56-274 (2) Socio-economic impact of tourism 56-275 (2) Tourism planning and destination development 56-276 (3) Feasibility analysis for hospitality properties 56-350 (3) Feasibility analysis project 56-351 (2) Problems in hotel and restaurant design 56-371 (4) Seminar in hotel and restaurant design 56-371 (4) Seminar in hotel and restaurant management 56-380 (2-5) Nutrition 56-385 (3) Practical hospitality Seminar 56-394 (2) Lawof innkeepers 53-157 (5)
*Required HRM courses (Total 30) HRM electives (Total required 15) Be sure to check prerequisites.
Hospitality and tourism education
In addition, as far as scope is concerned, one must make the opportunities wider to compete with ever increasing numbers of graduates. On the other hand, one must also ensure that students are capable of not only penetrating organizations but also rising to the top, This broader programme approach will need a unifying generalist approach emphasizing the strategic problems of the general manager. What areas should this course cover? (1) Definition of strategy and policy; (2) Nature of strategy; (3) Evaluation of the corporation's strengths and weaknesses; (4) Evaluation of the environment of the firm; (5) Determination of intangible constraints; (6) Personal values of management and influences; (7) Goal determination; (8) Strategy evaluation and analysis; (9) Strategy formulation; (10) Organization for implementation; (11) Implementation of strategy. Teaching methodology varies with the nature of the school, programme, student and, of course, instructor. There are a variety of tools and techniques available including the standard lecture, discussion or thesis patterns. Two less often used methods have both their admirers and detractors, i.e. the business game as a computer simulation in which individual students or teams compete with each other. This appeals because of its neatness and simplicity. It is felt that as a learning tool it is too simplistic for use at the strategic management theory level. The case discussion method, however, where students analyse a variety of businesses in a host of different environments helps develop analytic tools as well as strategy-formulation skills in a more complex and realistic situation than a computer game. (Case Clearing Houses can furnish a computer printout or catalogue of cases.) In addition there are a variety
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of excellent books on the subject which range from simple to complex, qualitative to quantitative, broad to narrow. It is important that the textbook and cases used are geared to the students' background as well as that of the instructor. Instructors themselves must have had broad research and/or corporate management experience so as to be able to guide the integrative, multi-disciplinary discussion. The course should be offered only in the final term, semester or quarter so that the student has completed the specialist core subjects and can then learn to integrate them into a comprehensive overview of the industry and its problems. Thus by moving closer to the traditional business disciplines, hotel and restaurant management schools can provide their graduates with the knowledge, tools and techniques to survive in the present and succeed in the emerging environment.
References Drucker, P. F. (1973) Management. Harper & Row, New York. Gunn (1979) Tourism Planning. Crane Russak, New York. Kaplan, A. (1980) Issues and trends in tourism education.
Travel and Tourism Research Association, Workshop Proceedings, Savannah, G A .
Educators
Kaplan, A. (1980) Policy/strategy course requirements. Coun-
cil on Hotel Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference. Dearborn, MI. Kaplan, A. (1981) Integration of the travel and tourism component into hotel and restaurant management programs. Travel and Tourism Research Association Proceedings. Las Vegas, NV. Mintzberg (1973) The Nature of Managerial Work. Harper & Row, New York. Mintzberg (1979) The Structuring of Organizations. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Ritchie and Jafari (1981) Developing a framework for tourism education. Annals of Tourism Res. Stout WI. Sasser, Olsen and Wykoff (1978) Management of Service Operations. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA. Steiner (1969) Top Management Planning. Macmillan, New York. Stendal and Hofer (1979) Strategic Management. Little, Brown, Boston, MA.
About the Author Atid Kaplan is a Professor of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Denver. His research and teaching revolve around management, entrepreneurship, policy and strategy in both hospitality and tourism. He obtained his Doctorate at Centre des Hautes Etudes Touristiques at the University d'Aix-MarseillesIII, MBA at University of Western Ontario and B.A. at Sir George Williams College (Now Concordia). Before his appointment at Denver University he taught in graduate and undergraduate management faculties at McGill, Concordia and Laurentian Universities in Canada. In addition, he has had ten years of experience as a management consultant, researcher and sales administrator in this field with Canadian Pacific and Air Canada.