Designing a seamless hotel organization

Abstract

As hospitality customers become more seasoned, well‐travelled and quality conscious, a hotel’s organizational structure must facilitate the implementation of strategies designed to provide higher levels of service quality. This article discusses the weaknesses of the current organizational structure of hotels and presents a framework for the development of a seamless hotel organization. This modified structure is more favorable to the creation of an environment where customer service quality is the organizational driver, allowing hotels to develop service quality as a true competitive advantage.

Planning for the centralization of accounting in chain hotels

“…Hence, many companies now take a much more strategic approach to the design and operation of systems to find the most efficient ways to manage in global markets (Lawlor and Jayawardena, 2003). All systems can work together (Chacko, 1998) to optimize both the guest service experience and profitability, and hence companies can be more effective in formulating and achieving their strategic objectives (Kim and Oh, 2004). However, hotels are somewhat resistant to change (Okumus and Hemmington, 1998) and so the move towards more off-site systems has not progressed as rapidly as it has in some other industries (Andersen, 2001).…”

A Conceptual Framework for Attracting Generation Y to the Hotel Industry Using a Seamless Hotel Organizational Structure

“…This type of organizational structure is especially objectionable to Generation Y (Barron, Maxwell, Broadbridge, & Ogden, 2007). Chacko (1998) presented the seamless hotel organization structure and characterized the design as circular, flat, and dynamic. The design was circular so that all boundaries of the hotel, where employees serve customers, were equally accessible; flat, to reduce the number of hierarchical levels within the hotel; and dynamic, to create the flexibility to serve the changing needs of guests.…”

Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning in a Hotel: Toward Theory Building

“…Nebel (1994) likened a hotel's structure to a tradi tional functional organization with its departments built narrowly akin to watertight cylinders. Chacko (1998) compared hotel organizational structure to a functional pyramid that needs surgery to facilitate greater coordination between departments and enhance flexibility in the operation. An Arthur Andersen forum of CEOs in the hospitality industry addressed the need for hotels to be flat, flexible, and empowered to achieve success (Cline, 1998).…”

“…This will enable the hotel organization to better understand and adapt to customer needs. Simply put, it is the hotel's flexibility that will be tested as the needs of the environment change, and, as a means to gain flexibility, changes to hotel organizational structure are being made by companies such as Marriott and Radisson (Nebel, 1994;Chacko, 1998).…”