The hospitality industry is one of the most important contributors to the economics of the country since contemporary society may be characterized by intensive and continuous development of international relations, trade, and traveling, which presuppose high demand for the facilities offered by the hospitality industry but high requirements on the part of consumers as well. The main task of management teams of hotels that form a valuable sector of hospitality industry is to ensure harmonious functioning of their organizations and adequate rendering of services to consumers. Since the demands set demonstrate serious requirements that should be met in order to provide functioning of organizations, the development of managerial strategies and establishment of goals should be carried out and exerted on the basis of practical application of authoritative theoretical ground. The organization that will serve as the field of study is The Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago. As for the theoretical ground of the study, the choice has been made in favor of William Edwards Deming, a distinguished theorist, the internationally known consultant who is best known for his System of Profound Knowledge and Fourteen Key Principles for Management that may be used to transform and increase the effectiveness of business (Deming 1994), (Deming 2000). Since the Hotel under consideration has had certain problems with its hospitality and level of services provided, the analysis of the possibility of application of Deming’s theory seems reasonable and promises nontrivial results.
The two works of W.E. Deming is aimed at the transformation and reconstruction of American management , the one that is called “prevailing style of management” by the author (Deming, 1994, p. vx). The postulates offered by the theorists are applicable to the organizations that belong to the hospitality industry since he states himself that he makes no distinction between manufacturing and service industries, the theory is universal and, thus, applicable to all industries.
There are four key postulates of the System of Profound Knowledge created by W.E. Deming: “Appreciation of a system”, “Knowledge of variation”, “Theory of knowledge” and “Knowledge of psychology”. An attempt will be made to prove that all these postulates need to be integrated into the managerial system of The Congress Plaza Hotel. The analysis of the theory of Deming will be exercised in the following way: each postulate of the Theory will be explained and its relation to fourteen points for transformation of management will be considered and its relation to seven deadly diseases will be explained and the possibility of application to the particular hotel will be suggested.
As for the first element of the System of Profound Knowledge, it is “Appreciation for a system”. It presents special importance for the senior management team of the Hotel. This postulate is the ground of the whole theory as well as the ground for senior management team’s activity. They should understand the system they operate and manage. Deming (1993) states that the system cannot understand itself or manage itself. It means that the responsibility for the adequate work rests, first of all, on the managerial team that should ensure uninterrupted work of the system. It means that the whole system should be reconstructed because optimization of the parts will not ensure the functioning of the whole body. Thus, it means that if the Congress Plaza Hotel has long-term problems with the strikes, it is impossible to provide qualitative services to guests as the personnel are dissatisfied with certain conditions. Wrong functioning of one element guarantees inadequate functioning of the rest of the system. The way out is to establish cooperation of the parts of the system on the basis of leadership (Deming 1994).
In order to exercise appreciation for a system, it is necessary to make the optimization of the system a constant process. For this it is necessary to inform every element of the system about its importance for the functioning of the whole body. This is where training is needed, mainly it is necessary to organize and put into effect the training courses that would increase motivation of the employees of all levels. These courses should instruct the employees in the interrelation of their professional activity and duties with the duties of other employees so that the impression will be made that every individual is an inseparable cell of the system. The trainings may include a course where all employees will have the right to offer suggestions as for the optimizations of the system. Thus, an entirely innovative philosophy is needed, the one that will be aimed at constant development of the organization in terms of leadership and mutual interrelation. The leadership courses may be organized in different levels of the organization in order to improve the motivation of the staff and to find people among the current employees who may be promoted to higher positions on the basis of their understanding of the system and ability to contribute to its optimization.
The deadly diseases and obstacles connected with optimization of work of the system show that lack of consistency of purpose is the most serious obstacle on the way to successful management. The long term purpose of the Hotel should be the guarantee of hospitality and services of high standards for the guests in order to restore the authority and image of the hotel.
Along with the first part of the System of Profound Knowledge, the last one, Knowledge of Psychology, seems to be of great importance for the reconstruction of management of the Hotel under consideration. W. E. Deming (1994) emphasizes this part of knowledge as it is the key to optimization of the system through study of the reasons and tendencies of human behavior. This part of knowledge is responsible for the elimination of the psychological barrier among the leaders of organization and the employees. The principle of management that should be applied here suggests that the management team should drive out fear that exists among the employees. In our case it is rather a misunderstanding between the leaders of the Hotels and the employees that go on strike and continue this opposition in the course of six years already. The inability to resolve the conflict during such a long period of time shows that the knowledge of human psychology is insufficient inside the organization and there is no adequate strategy that would establish state of understanding among the leaders of the Hotel and dissatisfied employees. However, the fear of inspections is also topical for the Hotel. The reconstruction that will be aimed at elimination of inspections should be made as they are unnecessary and senseless because they can neither improve quality, not guarantee it (Deming, 2000, p. 29). However, it is practically impossible to eliminate the possibility of inspection since every guest is an inspector to a certain extent; besides, he/she is a biased inspector as he/she is personally involved into the “inspection”. Since this type of inspection is sure to remain, the management team should organize the work in such a way that not the errors of workers would be punished and the whole stuff would work not to correct these mistakes but to provide high quality of the services. On the whole, “performance is the target”, as R. F. Mager suggests (1999, p. 12).
Finally, the introduction of the program of self-improvement is necessary. The employees should get an opportunity to take part in additional courses that will improve their professional skills and give them an opportunity to acquire certain border skills that will be possible to apply in new type of professional activity the employer will have a chance to take part in. This may result in cooperation of different levels and employers that belong to different departments. As the result the optimization of the system will be achieved as it will function as a system.
Drawing a conclusion, it should be stated that the theory of W.E. Deming has proved to be valuable and promising for the improvement of work and for the achievement of strategic goals of The Congress Plaza Hotel. The parts of Profound Knowledge introduced by the theorist create theoretical ground for the change of management in terms of organization of work of the Hotel on the basis of cooperation, motivation, and leadership of the employees and employers. The emphasis should be made on training i of the employees, creation of the opportunities of self-improvement and the development of leadership should become the first consideration of the training.
Reference List
Deming, W.E. (2000). Out of the Crisis. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
Deming, W.E. (1994). The New Economies: For Industry, Government, Education. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
Mager, R.F. (1999). What Every Manager Should Know about Training: An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Money’s Worth From Training. Atlanta: CER Press.