INTERNAL AND INTERDEPARTMENTAL PERFORMANCE:

Christine Woods has been hired as executive housekeeper of a 500-room hotel located near Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport. Christine holds a degree in hotel and restaurant management from a leading university in the discipline and has 4 years of experience in front office operations with a nationwide hotel chain. Christine's employer selected her from 43 other candidates because her academic record showed that she had done very well in a housekeeping management course in college. The recruiter thought that this qualified her for reorganizing the housekeeping department of the hotel.

Christine spent her first 2 weeks on the job looking into the department's records and having one-on-one meetings with supervisors and hourly employees, One of the major problems, she soon found out, was the high turnover and absentee rates of the department. According to human resources, the estimated average cost for replacing a room attendant at the hotel was $2,100. This cost included advertising for the position, hiring and training the worker, and providing additional supervision during the induction period.

The exit interviews conducted had identified some of the reasons for leaving. Room attendants claim great frustration on the job as the main cause. An employee who quit recently tried to explain the problem: "Each one of us had to fend for herself. Every morning, I had to scramble for linen to stock my cart. Some other housekeepers hid washcloths in their lockers to have them available when needed." Housemen complained that often they had to fight over a vacuum cleaner to have the hallways cleaned. A section housekeeper said, "I take pride in cleaning my rooms but never got a bonus while others are sloppy workers and get the same wage that I get." A room attendant with more than 5 year's work in the hotel offered a comment: "The workload of 13 rooms per one-hour shift is ridiculous. I could easily finish 16 rooms a day if they paid me more money. I already get 10 rooms done by lunchtime and slow down for the remaining three until it is time to clock out."

Overall morale is low among the housekeeping workers. "They treat us like dirt," said one of the housekeepers. "The front desk and maintenance people think that they can boss us around." The front desk and engineering departments in turn accused housekeeping of not being able to communicate professionally.

Christine is now faced with high absentee and turnover rates, lack of sprit de corps among workers, poor interdepartmental communication, and numerous guest complaints.

Assignment

Specify the steps Christine Woods should take to change for the better the internal and interdepartmental performance of housekeeping.

MASLOW'S, HERZBERG'S, AND SKINNER'S THEORIES:

After graduating from a hotel and restaurant management program you have been hired by a nationwide lodging company and sent to work the first year in a resort property in the Southwest. Having completed the period of training successfully, the company has promoted you to executive housekeeper of a downtown hotel in a large city in New England. The property is a 4-star, 500-room hotel offering meeting facilities, restaurant, bars and health center. The hotel also has the following problems:

Absenteeism: Prior to your arrival, the housekeeping department has consistently reported between 40 and 60 hours of overtime daily for section housekeepers. The previous housekeeping director contended that this is primarily due to transportation problems. He claimed that many of the workers do not have their own form of transportation and must rely on the city's transit system that is very unreliable. According to one of the housekeeping workers, "If only there was a bus route nearby, my life would be a lot easier. Most of us live 25 minutes from work."

Turnover: The turnover rate of section housekeepers is 150 percent annually. Estimates of replacing a room attendant range from $2,900 to $3,900. The exit interviews conducted by the personnel department have pinpointed some common reasons for the high turnover rate. Some room attendants claim that they can make more money at other hotels in town, which also guarantee a minimum of 35 hours of work per week to most employees.

Guest complaints: The general manager gets a continuous flow of guest complaints about room cleanliness. She contends that the section housekeepers don't know how to clean guestrooms effectively. The inspection system of assigning a numerical value to a 1 to 5 scale doesn't seem to be working.

Productivity: Currently the room attendant workload per day is 13. Workers in most 4-star hotels in the area are cleaning 17 rooms per shift. According to the outgoing executive housekeeper "We would have raised the number of rooms but we didn't want to compromise our standard of cleanliness any further. They are currently making $ 5.50 an hour and across the street are making $ 6.00 per hour; this could also be a factor."

Assignment

From the information given, establish a motivational plan of action including specific ways of applying Maslow's, Herzberg's and Skinner's theories.