- 278 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Organization Behaviour for Leisure Services
About This Book
Organization Behaviour for Leisure Services provides the reader with the conceptual tools necessary for analysing organizational behaviour in the context of hospitality, leisure and tourism provision, and understaanding events in order to take appropriate management action.Taking the view that leisure services involve an array of industry sectors - they are related, for instance, to work-time spent eating, drinking and staying away from home, as well as the more obvious recreational pursuits - the text uses examples and case studies from a wide range of international businesses such as hotels, restaurants, museums, shopping malls and sports stadia. Specific examples used are from Marriotts, McDonald's, Trafford Centre and many more. With a user-friendly structure and style, the text is an ideal introduction to the fundamental issues involved - perfect for students and managers alike.
This book discusses and questions a number of key elements, including:
- The individual and the organization
- Groups in the organization
- Organizational structures and behaviour
- Management within the organization
- Commercial hospitality, leisure and tourism in a service context
There is a Tutor Resource pack available to lecturers who adopt this text. Accredited lecturers can request access to download this material by going to http://books.elsevier.com/academic/defaultmanuals.asp? to request access.
Frequently asked questions
- define organization behaviour and contributing disciplines
- critically discuss different ways of describing organizations
- discuss the service context in which leisure service organizations operate
- identify and critically discuss different strategies engaged.
- Reflect on Case study 1.1. Did the counter assistants meet Fredâs customer service expectation?
- Why did the staff react the way they did?
- Was Fred to blame?
- high levels of staff turnover result in staff shortages
- a lack of training
- staff absences put individuals under added pressure
- having to work long hours
- autocratic and bullying supervision
- low motivation due to poor pay and conditions
- concern over organization-threatened organization changes.
- Power inequalities in organizations are often ignored in the study from this uncritical perspective. Power in organizations is unevenly distributed and management represents an elite group that has access to information and resources that are not available to employees. How this uneven power is exercised is an interesting topic that reflects on the decision-making process and reward structures.
- The subject agenda is narrowed to issues of practical management applications under this managerialist approach. Subjects that are not of an immediate practical application may get squeezed out. This may reduce understanding of issues that have long-term interest, and those that are more critical of management practice.
- Organizations comprise multiple stakeholders, of which managers are just one group who have a stake in understanding behaviour in organizations. The subject will also be of interest to other stakeholders such as employees, trade unions, customers, suppliers and the communities in which organizations are located.
- Managers are often prone to be fashion victims in their search for methods and techniques with which to manage. The more managerialist approaches tend to view these management fads uncritically and encourage managers to consider âquick fixesâ to long-term and complex problems. The chapter on employee empowerment and discussion of emotion intelligence later in the text provide examples.
- Organizations are concerned with performance to achieve goals.
- They involve choices about best use of resources to achieve goals.
- They monitor performance of individuals in pursuit of the goals.
- They control performance and take corrective action where needed.
- Controls only work when individuals comply with instructions.
- Organizations often involve specialization of tasks and the division of labour.
- Admission to membership of an organization is normally controlled.
- Loss of membership can occur.
- Individual factors are concerned with personality and perceptions that may influence how the individual performs in the organization. Many leisure service organizations attempt to recruit people who are people orientated and who have good social skills (Lashley, Thomas and Rowson, 2002). In Case study 1.1 it may be that the shop assistants were not suitable for frontline customer contact.
- Group factors include the study of the way groups are formed, and the way that groups provide a sense of identity to individuals and influence the way individuals behave. In addition the study of intergroup relationships within organizations can be useful for understanding both relationships between managers and other organization members in industrial relations and in diversity management. The two assistants in Case study 1.1 may feel angry with managers because of recent changes and this has influenced their approach to customers.
- Structural factors influence the design of the organization and the contexts in which individuals work. The number of employees responsible to a supervisors, or the number of levels between the frontline staff and the senior management have an impact on the levels and types of contact between staff and the management hierarchy. Many leisure retail organizations have been attracted to employee empowerment as a way of managing staff because it is believed empowerment will improve service quality through improved employee commitment. In Case study 1.1 it may be that the shop assistants feel disempowered and fixed on one instruction at the expense of good service.
- Process factors determine how the organization deals with organization members as employees and the systems in place which are designed to enhance and deliver service quality. The approach taken to the recruitment and selection of new recruits, the induction and training, management processes and reward systems can influence the behaviour of individuals. The shop assistants could be poorly rewarded, and untrained in good customer care.
- Management factors involve consideration of how managers operate within the organization, their chosen style as leaders or the culture they are creating. Overcontrolling management can produce frustration and lead to disempowerment. The action of the shop assistants might be a response to the way they are being managed.
- Using Case study 1.2, identify the different sources of organization behaviour being used by the three managers?
- Suggest what is needed in any policy designed to reduce staff turnover.
- Unitarists perceive the organization as harmonious and conflict as bad. The frame of reference views the organization as a seamless whole, with harmony between organization members, structures that are co-operative and with committed organization members and loyal teams. Where problems and conflicts occur they are seen as due to some unusual effect like communications breakdowns. Reasons are likened to an illness where consultants are needed to sort out the malady, or due to âtroublemakersâ such as trade unions or âmilitantsâ. This view is held by many managers and assumes that organizations are they way they are for âtechnicalâ reasons because that is the way they have to be in a âfree marketâ context. At root the approach fails to recognize the political nature of organizations and power relati...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1. Hospitality, leisure and tourism services and organizational behaviour
- 2. Organizational structure and design
- 3. Organizational politics: legitimacy and opposition
- 4. Individuals in organizations: personality, perceptions and learning
- 5. Individuals in organizations: attitudes, behaviour and motivation
- 6. Emotions in leisure service organizations
- 7. Groups, leadership and power
- 8. Organizational culture: context for leisure services
- 9. The empowered leisure service organization
- 10. Effective communication in leisure service organizations
- 11. Diversity management in organizations
- 12. Management practice in leisure service organizations
- References
- Index