BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Hotel Administration in Cruise Line Operations
Quality Service Management in Tourism and Hospitality
COURSE MODULE SESSION
Finals 9
Employee Empowerment for Service Quality Delivery
Session Goals
□ Read and understand session discussion sheet
□ Read required reading materials and view added supplementary
videos
□ Participate in synchronous discussion
□ Participate in canvas discussion board
□ Accomplish and submit necessary session assessments and tasks
Course Outcomes
At the end of this unit, the students are expected
exp to:
- Understand the importance of employee participation and
- Know the influence of empowerment and motivation to quality service delivery
Discussion Sheet
Employee Empowerment and Motivation
Leadership has been an essential element in the process of quality management, but
leadership alone is not enough in order to deliver quality service. In the tourism and
hospitality industry, manpower or the employees are significantly intertwined to
service quality to satisfy customer needs.
Empowerment
In the concept of total quality, employee empowerment refers to ways where
employees are given certain level of control and autonomy in their daily goals. It is
giving them or allowing them to voice out ideas and consider
consider these inputs in
developing and creating new systems and tactics to achieve company goals and
objectives. Empowerment is further compared with motivation in which
empowerment brings motivation in a larger setting and considers the processes,
communication
cation and boundaries of the organization. Empowerment also involves
clarifying to employees that they have both resources and authority to make things
right and assigning them responsibility for the work.
Employee empowerment works in varied ways that are based on job enragement and
job enrichment. Job enlargement is the process where a change in the scope of the
job combining multiple or combined functions or activities at the same organization
level. Job enrichment on the other hand is a motivational strategy where an employee
is given a deeper task that is usually performed by his superior.
Employee empowered organization is relative to the
inverted pyramid organization structure discussed in the
earlier chapters where the organization is viewed and
illustrated to be dominated by the perception of the
consumers and the delivery of services is offered directly by
the front-liner
liner employees of the organization.
The basic philosophy of employee empowerment is based on motivational and
contemporary organizational psychology theories which focused on the influence of
change in organizational structure, operation
operation and processes in the adaption and
behavior of employees. Such theories applied are believed to promote employee
independence in performing tasks towards greater output of work.
Motivation and empowerment are tools of managers in the tourism and hospitality
industry to motivate and face the challenge of increasing the performance of the
employees above the expected service standards.
Motivation: is a term coined from the Latin “Motivation implies providing
word, movere which literally means “to move”. the incentive for individuals to
This word further was defined in contemporary move towards organizational
management as an action of enticing goals (Perry, 1997).”
employees to act and move in a manner or
direction that addresses the organization’s
goals and objectives.
Common Characteristics of Motivation:
a. Energizes human behavior
b. Channel of a behavior
c. Sustainability of a behavior
Motivation also is classified as an essential yet not exclusive element of
empowerment, since empowerment implies the need to make people move towards
the achievement of goals with the provision of proper tools, culture, environment and
circumstances needed to freely, successfully and effectively be motivated to work.
Employee Implementation Tools:
a. Executive leadership:
b. Structured policies for employee empowerment
c. Competency training
d. Information sharing
e. Organizational structure flexibility
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is about forming long-term relationships with customers.
Rather than trying to encourage a one-time sale, relationship marketing tries to foster
customer loyalty by providing exemplary products and services. This is different than
most normal advertising practices that focus on a single transaction; watch ad A and
buy product B. Relationship marketing, by contrast, is usually not linked to a single
product or offer. It involves a company refining the way they do business in order to
maximize the value of that relationship for the customer.
Relationship marketing mainly involves the improvement of internal operations.
Many customers leave a company not because they didn't like the product, but
because they were frustrated with the customer service. If a business streamlines its
internal operations to satisfy all service needs of their customers, customers will be
happier even in the face of product problems.
Key Components in Relationship Marketing:
a. Technology: Technology also plays an important role in relationship
marketing. The Internet has made it easier for companies to track, store,
analyze and then utilize vast amounts of information about customers.
Customers are offered personalized ads, special deals, and expedited service as
a token of appreciation for their loyalty.
b. Social Media: Social media sites allow business to engage their customers in
an informal and ongoing way. In the past, it would have been impossible to
keep useful records about every single client, but technology makes it easy for
companies to automate their marketing efforts.
c. Branding is the final component of relationship marketing. A company can
form a long-term relationship with a client if that client feels like the brand
they purchase reflects who they are or who they want to be. Customers are less
inclined to switch to a different brand if they think that switch makes a
statement about their identity.
Strategies in Internal Marketing:
a. Select employees with the right service attitude
b. Involve employees in the strategic planning process at all levels
c. Keep employees informed
d. Reduce employee conflict and stress
e. Provide training for service recovery
f. Empower employees
g. Recognize employee (Reward system)
Service Performance Gaps
The service performance gap is commonly referred to as the SERVQUAL which was
introduced during the mid-1980s by a group of authors to observe an organization’s
performance on service quality with the reference of customer needs. Aside from the
discussed 5 Dimension of the SERVQUAL model, this model also is used to identify
and close 5 major gaps of service quality which are:
a. GAP1 represents the difference between customer’s expectations of service and
company perceptions of customer expectations. Effective internal marketing
includes gathering customer’s information from employees whose boundary
spanning rules allow them to tap into customer expectations.
b. GAP2 is created when the company perception of awesome expectations is
translated in the service designs and standards. Clearly, building solid
customer relationships at the structural level narrows this gap.
c. GAP3 this guy that involves the transfer of service designs to service delivery.
The gap is potential he created by several employee-related problems and
issues.
d. GAP4 is the difference between service deliveries in communication about
service to customers. The causes for this gap includes in effective
communication among internal and external marketers and overpromising.
e. GAP5 Is defined as the difference between perceived and expected service.
Since this gap is a function of the first to forget ups, it is in directly affected by
the implementation of strategies to reduce the preceding gaps. Customized
service strategies directly narrow with this gap, as they represent the
opportunity to exceed customer expectations.
References:
Kandampully, J., & Solnet, D. (2019). Service management principles for hospitality &
tourism.
Kapiki, Soultana. (2012). Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality: an
Exploratory Study among Tourism Stakeholders. International Journal of
Economic Practices and Theories.
Mok, C., Sparks, B., & Kadampully, J. (2013). Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Kandampully, J. (2012). Service Management: The New Paradigm in Retailing. New
York, NY: Springer New York.
https://asq.org/quality-resources/employee-empowerment
https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/relationship-marketing.html
