Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR QUALITY
•
Top-level managers must emphasize quality.
•
Emphasis on quality must be an integral part of an organization’s culture. For example, a
manager in one department cannot emphasize a philosophy of quality if quality is not
valued in other departments throughout the organization. A hotel is comprised of
subsystems (departments); what happens in one affects the others, and how staff in one
department treat guests affects guests’ perceptions about the entire property.
•
Most problems are caused by managers (not by their employees). For example, man-
agers may use recruitment and selection procedures that bring the wrong people to a job,
or they may use faulty techniques in orienting and training new employees. Often man-
agers adopt improper supervision principles that result in work errors and high levels of
employee turnover. Thus the recruitment, training, and supervision cycle continues
through successive “generations” of staff members. As this occurs, it becomes more dif-
ficult (even impossible) to maintain the emphasis on quality that was envisioned when
owners and managers initially considered the role of the property.
•
Two principles of quality cannot be delegated: the responsibility of hotel managers to
help employees be successful, and the leadership necessary for the quality philosophy
to be integrated throughout the property.
•
Quality takes time, effort, and everyone’s participation.
•
The quality plan should be the hotel’s business plan.
•
An emphasis on quality is not a program that begins and ends at a specified time.
Rather, quality is a philosophy that affects the actions of hotel managers and staff
members at all times.