The main purpose of this study is to find the barriers of benchmarking use in independent full-service restaurants in South Africa. The global restaurant industry entities operate in a highly competitive environment, and restaurateurs should have a visible advantage over competitors. A competitive advantage can be achieved only if the quality standards in terms of food and beverage products, service quality, relevant technology and price are comparable to the industry leaders. This study has deployed a descriptive, quantitative research design on the basis of a relatively large sample of restaurateurs. The data was collected through the SurveyMonkey website using a standardised questionnaire The questionnaire was mailed to 2699 restaurateurs, and 109 respondents returned fully completed answer sheets. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The main findings were as follows: 43% of respondents had never done benchmarking; only 5.5% respondents considered themselves as highly knowledgeable about benchmarking; respondents thought that the most significant barriers to benchmarking were difficulties with obtaining exemplar (benchmarking partner) best-practice information and adapting the anomalous (own) practices to derive a benefit from best practices. The results of this study should be used to shape the knowledge about benchmarking practices in order to develop suitable solutions for the problems in South African restaurants.
The economic viability and success of a hotel depends on the optimisation of all resources, including Human Resources (HR). Absenteeism is an occurrence that can have a significant negative impact on optimising HR in South African hotels in the Gauteng Province. The objective of this study is to identify the factors that contribute to employee absenteeism, as well as describing the hotel employers’ perceptions of employee absenteeism. A quantitative research approach was followed in this study. A survey questionnaire was developed in order to collect data from 13 establishments, with a 3-star to 5-star grading, in the Gauteng Province. The findings reveal that absenteeism is mainly due to family responsibilities including childcare, other causes identified were strikes, fatigue, transport problem and genuine illness. It is evident from the findings that delivery of quality services can be affected negatively, due to abuse of sick leave and the cost associated with absenteeism. The results of this research project will contribute by creating an awareness of the negative impact that absenteeism has on the hotel and what employers could do to improve employee attendance.
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