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The Cornell Quarterly “Cookbook”
F O R T H E 15-PLUS Y E A R S that I have been associated with this j o u r n a l , we have tried to b r i n g you articles that are i m m e d i a t e l y useful in your profession. A l t h o u g h some o f our articles give a useful (we hope!) overview o f a situation (such as C h r i s t o p h e r Muller's e x a m i n a t i o n o f b r a n d i n g in this issue), the type o f article we seek most avidly is the one that applies research in some way to improve your job. T h o s e articles may supply n e w tidbits o f information (as in the case o f Beth Chung's and Douglas Hoffman's current article on what consumers perceive to be the mostimportant service failures) or the articles may discuss a specific technique that has made a difference in some hospitality setting (such as Michael Lynn's research on having servers touch their customers). In our April issue we presented an article o f the latter type, discussing the " w e i g h t e d application blank" (WAB). T h e principle explored here was that certain questions on an application for e m p l o y m e n t might indicate w h e t h e r a new-hire is a candidate for rapid turnover. A u t h o r H u b e r t Feild and associates explained h o w they developed a questionnaire that successfully indicated the likelihood o f turnover and showed the results in an actual hotel application. W h a t they did not do
was list the key turnover-related questions, although they gave a single example. This lacuna elicited a quick and pointed note from R i c h ard Milton, w h o is the manager o f the Holiday Inn in Hastings, Nebraska. Mr. Milton used one o f the postage-paid cards from the back o f our magazine, and I encourage you, too, to do so if you have c o m m e n t s for us. A b o u t the weighted-applicationblank article, Mr. Milton wrote: "Articles like this are a waste o f time for GMs to read. We all k n o w turnover is a problem. W h y not tell us what questions to ask? Giving us a small Exhibit 1 is fine but w h e r e are the other 27 questions? M o r e articles like this will cause me to drop the subscription." In my response to Mr. Milton, I agreed that it w o u l d have been helpful to offer more questions, and I referred him to author Feild. O n further consideration,
NNELL HOTELANDRESTAURANTADMINISTRATIONQUARTERLY
however, I realized that the 28 questions that w o r k e d for the hotel in the study might not be the same questions that w o r k for your hotel. T h e Feild group did give the complete m e t h o d o l o g y for developing questions, alt h o u g h I grant that most managers might not have time for such development work. A h u m a n resources manager for Swiss6tel in N e w Y o r k realized that fact and simply asked h o w to get in touch with the authors, presumably to have them w o r k with the c o m p a n y on developing its o w n weighted blank. Thus, although I wanted to offer a "recipe" for a W A B in that article, perhaps I w o u l d have done a disservice in so doing. W h a t if we did offer a c o o k b o o k - t y p e article, but the recipe wasn't universally successful? That w o u l d be worse than the approach we took. Meantime, please keep sending those cards, letters, and e-mails. Favorable or unfavorable, we appreciate your c o m m e n t s to help guide us in selecting future articles.--G. 1.I:
June1998
was list the key turnover-related questions, although they gave a single example. This lacuna elicited a quick and pointed note from R i c h ard Milton, w h o is the manager o f the Holiday Inn in Hastings, Nebraska. Mr. Milton used one o f the postage-paid cards from the back o f our magazine, and I encourage you, too, to do so if you have c o m m e n t s for us. A b o u t the weighted-applicationblank article, Mr. Milton wrote: "Articles like this are a waste o f time for GMs to read. We all k n o w turnover is a problem. W h y not tell us what questions to ask? Giving us a small Exhibit 1 is fine but w h e r e are the other 27 questions? M o r e articles like this will cause me to drop the subscription." In my response to Mr. Milton, I agreed that it w o u l d have been helpful to offer more questions, and I referred him to author Feild. O n further consideration,
NNELL HOTELANDRESTAURANTADMINISTRATIONQUARTERLY
however, I realized that the 28 questions that w o r k e d for the hotel in the study might not be the same questions that w o r k for your hotel. T h e Feild group did give the complete m e t h o d o l o g y for developing questions, alt h o u g h I grant that most managers might not have time for such development work. A h u m a n resources manager for Swiss6tel in N e w Y o r k realized that fact and simply asked h o w to get in touch with the authors, presumably to have them w o r k with the c o m p a n y on developing its o w n weighted blank. Thus, although I wanted to offer a "recipe" for a W A B in that article, perhaps I w o u l d have done a disservice in so doing. W h a t if we did offer a c o o k b o o k - t y p e article, but the recipe wasn't universally successful? That w o u l d be worse than the approach we took. Meantime, please keep sending those cards, letters, and e-mails. Favorable or unfavorable, we appreciate your c o m m e n t s to help guide us in selecting future articles.--G. 1.I:
June1998