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Managing Hospitality Organizations
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Managing Hospitality Organizations
Achieving Excellence in the Guest Experience

Second Edition
January 2019 | 576 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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“A perfect book for any Hospitality program, excellent instructor support, and a good resource for students.” 
–Denise A. Braley, Mitchell College

Today’s economy is dominated by the rapidly growing service sector. Even businesses primarily selling goods are reinventing their image and positioning themselves as service providers. Managing Hospitality Organizations: Achieving Excellence in the Guest Experience takes students on a journey through the evolving service industry. Each chapter focuses on a core principle of hospitality management and is packed with practical advice, examples, and cases from some of the best companies in the service sector. Authors Robert C. Ford and Michael C. Sturman emphasize the critical importance of focusing on the guest and creating that unforgettable customer experience. Whether your students will be managing a neighborhood café, a convention center, or a high-end resort hotel, they will learn invaluable skills for managing the guest experience in today’s ultracompetitive environment.

The Second Edition includes new coverage of technology, sustainability, sexual harassment, diversity and inclusion, and ethical leadership. 

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Foreword
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Introduction
 
SECTION I. THE HOSPITALITY SERVICE STRATEGY
 
1. The Basics of Wow! The Guest Knows Best
Introduction

 
Guestology: What is it?

 
The Guest Experience

 
Guest Expectations

 
Quality, Value, and Cost Defined

 
The Importance of Guestology

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
2. Meeting Guest Expectations through Planning
Introduction

 
Three Generic Strategies

 
The Hospitality Planning Cycle

 
Assessing the Environment

 
Assessing the Organization Itself: The Internal Assessment

 
Vision and Mission Statements

 
Developing the Service Strategy

 
Action Plans

 
Involving Employees in Planning

 
The Uncertain Future

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
3. Setting the Scene for the Guest Experience
Introduction

 
Creating “The Show”

 
Why is the Environment Important?

 
A Model: How the Service Environment Affects the Guest

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
4. Developing the Hospitality Culture: Everyone Serves!
Introduction

 
The Importance of Leaders

 
The Importance of Culture

 
Culture as a Competitive Advantage

 
Beliefs, Values, and Norms

 
Culture and the Environment

 
Communicating the Culture

 
Changing the Culture

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
SECTION II. THE HOSPITALITY SERVICE STAFF
 
5. Staffing for Service
Introduction

 
The Many Employees of the Hospitality Industry

 
The First Step: Study the Job

 
The Second Step: Recruit a Pool of Qualified Candidates

 
The Third Step: Select the Best Candidate

 
The Fourth Step: Hire the Best Applicant

 
The Fifth Step: Make the New Hire Feel Welcome

 
The Sixth Step: Turnover—Retaining the Best and Selecting People out of an Organization

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
6. Training and Developing Employees to Serve
Introduction

 
Employee Training

 
Developing a Training Program

 
Types of Training

 
Training Methods

 
Challenges and Pitfalls of Training

 
Employee Development

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
7. Serving with a Smile: Motivating Exceptional Service
Introduction

 
Motivating Employees

 
The Needs People Have

 
The Rewards Managers can Provide

 
Ways Rewards Can Motivate

 
How Managers and Leaders Provide the Right Direction

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
8. Involving the Guest: The Co-Creation of Value
Introduction

 
The Guest Can Help!

 
Strategies for Involving the Guest

 
Determining Where Co-Production Makes Sense

 
One Last Point: Firing the Guest

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
Section III. The Hospitality Service Delivery System
 
9. Communicating for Service
Introduction

 
The Challenge of Managing Information

 
Information and the Service Product

 
Information and the Service Setting

 
Information and the Delivery System

 
Decision Support Systems

 
The Hospitality Organization as an Information System

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
10. Planning the Service Delivery System
Introduction

 
Planning and Designing the Service Delivery System

 
Developing the Service Delivery System

 
Planning Techniques

 
Targeting Specific Problem Areas in Service Delivery Systems

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
11. Waiting for Service
Introduction

 
Capacity and Psychology: Keys to Managing Lines

 
Queuing Theory: Managing the Reality of the Wait

 
Managing the Perception of the Wait

 
Service Value and the Wait

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
12. Measuring and Managing Service Delivery
Introduction

 
Techniques and Methods for Assessing Service Quality

 
Measuring Service Quality After the Experience

 
SERVQUAL

 
Finding and Using the Technique that Fits

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
13. Fixing Service Failures
Introduction

 
Service Failures: Types, Where, and Why

 
The Importance of Fixing Service Failures

 
Dealing With Service Failures

 
Recovering From Service Failure

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
14. Service Excellence: Leading the Way to Wow!
Introduction

 
The Three Ss: Strategy, Staffing, and Systems

 
Hospitality and the Future

 
Leading the Way Into the Future

 
Leading and Managing

 
It all Begins—and Ends—with the Guest

 
Lessons Learned

 
 
Glossary
 
Additional Readings
 
Index

Supplements

Instructor Resource Site

Instructor Teaching Site (Password Protected)

SAGE edge for Instructors, supports your teaching by making it easy to integrate quality content and create a rich learning environment for students. 

  • Test banks provide a diverse range of pre-written options as well as the opportunity to edit any question and/or insert your own personalized questions to effectively assess students’ progress and understanding
  • Sample course syllabi provide suggested models for structuring your courses
  • Editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides offer complete flexibility for creating a multimedia presentation for your course 
  • The Instructor's Manual contains numerous resources for each chapter, including lecture outlines, answers to review questions, suggested activities, suggested discussion topics for Ethics in Business Feature, and case notes. These resources are collated in the Instructor's Manual files, and are also available separately on this website.
  • Multimedia content includes videos that appeal to students with different learning styles
  • Additional Readings provide a jumping-off point for course assignments, papers, research, group work, and class discussion.
Student Study Site

Student Study Site (Open Access)

SAGE edge for Students provides a personalized approach to help students accomplish their coursework goals in an easy-to-use learning environment.

  • Mobile-friendly eFlashcards strengthen understanding of key terms and concepts 
  • Mobile-friendly practice quizzes allow students to independently assess their mastery of course material
  • Learning objectives reinforce the most important material
  • Multimedia resources facilitate student use of Internet resources, further exploration of topics, and responses to critical thinking questions
  • Additional Readings for further study.

“A perfect book for any Hospitality program, excellent instructor support, and a good resource for students.” 

Denise A. Braley
Mitchell College

“The book is a great addition to both classroom instruction and scholarly literature of the hospitality and service field. It covers various management tactics on service responsibilities, problems, and approaches to solutions. It challenges readers to identify issues associated with the problem and think outside the box to solve problems in the workplace. This is one of the most needed and highest-quality books we have in the field.” 

Wei Wang
University of Southern Mississippi

“This detail oriented book not only covers key concepts but utilizes real-life examples to make the content more convincing and validated. It is also a good book for in-class discussions and application practices.”

Chih-Lun Yen
Ball State University

“A wide-ranging comprehensive text, looking at key contemporary issues in hospitality.”

Alistair Williams
Johnson & Wales University

“We all know how important it is to turn customers into "Raving Fans"—but getting everyone in an organization on board takes thoughtful action. Managing Hospitality Organizations offers fourteen principles of service that prove when you serve your people well, they will pass that service on to your customers. Whether you are a student or a manager on the front lines, if you want to create “Raving Fans”, this book is for you!”

Ken Blanchard
coauthor of The New One Minute Manager®, Raving Fans®, and Servant Leadership in Action

“Although Bob credits me as the ‘Father of Guestology’, he and Mike have developed the concept of Guestology into an entire book that perfectly captures what it means to manage an organization from the guest's point of view. This is an excellent text to learn how to use the management philosophy I and my team pioneered to ensure that in every phase of the business, from the planning and design of new parks and attractions to their everyday operations, all Disney cast members are focused on satisfying and exceeding the Guest's wants, needs, and expectations."

Bruce Laval

"The second edition of Robert Ford and Michael C. Sturman's excellent text, Managing Hospitality Organizations, is a must read for students pursuing careers in the business of hospitality and the faculty who facilitate their learning. This new edition retains the right mix of theory and practice that students need, call it the art and science of hospitality, while incorporating key changes to how hospitality businesses interact with and satisfy their customers today, including the evolving role of technology in service strategies, systems and staffing and the changing nature of customers themselves. I congratulate the authors on a job well done!"  

Michael D. Johnson, Ph.D., President
John Carroll University, Dean and E.M. Statler Professor Emeritus, Cornell School of Hotel Administration
Key features

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

  • New coverage of innovations in technology and sustainability, including expanded coverage on mobile apps, big data, data analytics, virtual reality, social media, and eco-innovation, which are important topics in our modern hospitality world
  • Updated coverage on generational differences, including millennials and generation Z 
  • Current cases and examples from well-known companies like Lyft, Whole Foods, Amazon, Wendy’s, and Southwest Airlines that are leading the service industry today
  • New and expanded coverage on important topics like emotional labor, sexual harassment, cultural differences, and equity that hospitality managers have to address in their organizations
  • Learning objectives that help students fully understand what they should get out of each chapter
  • Updated readings, references, and photos throughout giving students additional coverage and application of the content

KEY FEATURES: 

  • A structure based on three core hospitality management functions: strategy, staffing, and systems, allows students to see how these functions relate to each other and to the guest 
  • Each chapter focuses on one proven principle of hospitality management such as sustaining a total service culture or hiring people who love to serve   
  • Examples, Case Studies, Activities, and Ethical Scenarios provide students with ample opportunities to see core principles in action 
  • Woven throughout the book is a strong emphasis on how creating an excellent guest experience can translate into a sustainable competitive advantage 

For instructors

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