The Postgraduate Department of Commerce organized a Guest Lecture for M.Com-Part II students on 7th February 2020 at 10.00 a.m. The Resource Person was Ms. Manika A. Costa Pereira, Co-founder of Enrich Service Solutions, Margao 27 students attended.
The main objective of the guest lecture was to provide students with a practical insight into organizational behavior, with hotel operations being the sample case discussed and observed.
Ms. Costa Pereira began the session by discussing the various types of operations undertaken in a hotel, viz. front office, finance and accounting, accommodation operation, food production, and so on.
The session was highly interactive, and the case of opening and operating a new hotel was discussed and explained with inputs from the students, that the resource person built upon.
The resource person elaborated that opening and operating a new hotel entails making decisions pertaining to the following;
- Planning finances and constructing a budget
- Writing down the processes to have in place
- Creating a Balanced Score Card of finance, employees, customers and processes.
Under each head, there are Key Result Areas and Formal Groups, which serve those specific areas.
As the areas operate separately, on a day-to-day basis, conflicts may arise, such as inter-department conflicts between housekeeping and front office; wherein if the former is lacking in efficiency, the latter cannot provide the reserved room to a guest on time.
It is important to confront the conflict by reviewing the processes. The same is done using a why-why analysis, which is a quality control process for the service industry. One method of reducing conflict and improving efficiency is to have motivated employees.
The means of motivating employees may be as follows:
- Monetary motivation – bonuses and rewards.
- Appreciation and praise.
- Counseling and grievance cells.
- Other motivators may be specific to the hotel, such as employee entitlement to a two-night stay.
The best way to ensure results is by having well-formed formal groups, with efficient leadership from the supervisors, and by minimizing intra-group conflict. Most organizations have employeewelfare guidelines in place.
To conclude the sessionthe resource person placed real-world cases before the students in order to engage their analytical and problem solving skills.
The resource person provided additional information about:
- Stress the employees may face
- Employee mind-set
- Benefits of inter-group rivalry
- Stress involved with team-work
The session ended with the vote of thanks by Ms. Mamta Jain, student of M.Com Part II.
