Managers within the hospitality industry are required to make decisions and solve problems. When

resolving complex problems, managers may be required to undertake an investigation and develop possible solutions. This report will provides you with an opportunity to undertake a project which will assist you in developing the skills and knowledge needed to successfully undertake this role.

From the class activity and discussion, you are required to make a report of a chosen topic based on the instructions below. This assignment is aimed to showcase your ability to conduct simple investigation/research which includes identifying a problem, gathering information, analysing collected data, and developing solutions.

STRUCTURE:

The report should cover each of the following points:

1.Executive Summary. It is a brief summary of the report, which contains an overview of background information, key points of the results and main conclusion.

2.Introduction. In this section, introduce the topic you are choosing to investigate.

a.Problem solving topic. Explain the topic you have chosen, why you have chosen this topic, and what the report is going to discuss.

b.Background of the organisation. Briefly describe the organisation where you have undertaken the investigation project in relation to the problem identified.

3.Research and information gathering. In this section, include 2 methods of information gathering:

a.Background theory. Refer to subjects previously learnt on campus, as well as other relevant academic knowledge that are useful in developing solutions in the next stages. Enrich this section by applying additional knowledge or skills learnt during previous placement. Refer to other relevant academic journals (three to five references) to support your discussion.

b.Data collection. To provide solutions, you need to collect some data to understand why the problem is occurring. Your data collection options could be (a) interview with your managers, supervisors, work colleagues (3-5 persons), you need to prepare some interview questions to be used to gain valid answers; (b) observation (day to day operation or practice); reading on secondary data (information from reading materials including printed sources such as training manual, tasting notes, sequence of service and electronic such as travel sites, corporate review site, internal newsletter, etc.). You are encouraged to present your data in a table form.

4.Data Analysis and Discussion.

a.Analysis. Explain what you have found (e.g. what do the reviews tell you? what did you observe? How the information will be useful when solving the problem? If there are more than one data collection method, how do the information relate or differ with each other?). Note: Outcomes from the interviews and observations should be presented in a table. If you do interviews, answers from each interviewee should be included in the table based on the interview questions and numbers of interviewee. If you do observations, the table should have columns represent different categories of observation (e.g. positive comments of Hotel A guest from TripAdvisor website, etc.).

b.Discussion. Reflect on the findings of your analysis by making connections to the academic theories/concepts you wrote about in background theory section.

5.Recommendation and Conclusions. List and explain some possible solutions. Reflect on the possible solutions and choose one that seems to be the most viable. Explain and justify the chosen solution and develop this solution into a detailed action plan that could be implemented.

6.References. Refer to AGPS Harvard reference for citation and reference list. Please see the LCBA Harvard guide on Engage.

TOPIC: Rewards are an important issue in terms of attracting and retaining staff. Developing the correct 'mix' of rewards is a difficult task for managers. Investigate how the organisation currently attract and retain staff and evaluate the effectiveness of the Rewards Program. Reflecting on the system used by the placement organisation, make recommendations on how the system may be improved to attract, retain, develop and motivate staff. Based on your findings and supporting theories justify the decisions you make.