Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

A Tool for Studying and Evaluating Managerial Practices in
Times of Crisis
The tool developed and used to study the way hospitality managers cope with a cri-
sis should provide an evaluation of two related factors: first, recognition of the
importance of measures that assist the organization in times of crisis; and second,
the level of usage that managers demonstrate for each of these measures. In other
words, we are looking for the weight of the measure and its level of use for man-
agers trying to cope with a crisis. This is similar to the classical Simple Additive
Weighting model (SAW). This model is probably the best-known, most widely
used, compensatory model. In a decision problem with 
i
alternatives, each charac-
terized by 
j
attributes, the value of each alternative can be expressed as
EQ=
V
(
A
i
)
=
j
w
j
v
j
(
X
ij
)
,
where 
V
(
A
i
) is the value function of alternative 
A
i
, and 
w
j
and 
v
j
(
x
ij
) are weight
and value functions of attribute 
X
j
, respectively.
Using the additive form in our case suggests that we can evaluate the value of
management practices employed by the managers. If we could assign a weight to
practices, we would be able to approximate the 
w
j
for the additive function.
Similarly, if we could evaluate how important each practice is to the manager, we
would be able to approximate the value of the practice 
v
j
(
x
ij
) for the manager.
For example, assume that managers have three practices that they consider for
coping with a crisis in their industry: reducing labor force ( 
j
= 1), lowering prices
( 
j
= 2), and engaging in a marketing campaign for new markets ( 
j
= 3). If we want
to gauge managers’ actions with respect to this case, we can use an additive func-
tion. First, we assign a certain scale to the weights (techniques for assigning
weights are discussed in Yoon and Hwang, 1995). In our case, we use a Likert scale
where 5 is most important and 1 least important. Second, we use a similar scale
(1–5) to find the level of use for each of the three practices.
Continuing with the example, Table 2 provides a hypothetical response from
three different managers. The SAW formulation assists us in calculating the ordi-
nal value index of each manager’s practices. For example, for manager A, 
V
A
= (5)
*
3 
+
(3)
*
5 
+
(1)
*
3; therefore, 
V
A
= 33. Similarly, 
V
B
= 43 and 
V
C
= 23. The
example suggests that manager B acts in the most effective manner in employing
the practices available to him. Managers A and C follow.
H7898_Ch17.qxd 8/24/05 8:53 AM Page 315

---

Tourism Security and Safety: From Theory to Practice
316
Another significant measure that results from this approach is an ordinal mea-
sure of importance and a measure of usage. Note that the sum of all possible
weights is the maximum weight allowed (five in this case) multiplied by the num-
ber of practices (three in this case). The actual sum of weights assigned by the
manager 
j
w
j
is individual for each case. For example, manager A assigned 5, 3,
and 1 to practices 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Therefore, dividing the actual weights
assigned by the total possible weights generates a measure of achievement on
importance. Similarly, we can also gauge the achievement on usage. The measure
is computed by dividing the sum of the actual levels of usage by the maximum pos-
sible sum. Table 3 summarizes these measures for our example with managers A,
B, and C.
The information in Table 3 provides some interesting insights. First, we can see
that according to Table 3, although manager B identified the most valuable prac-
tices to face the crisis, their usage provides yet another facet to the analysis.
Manager B was better than the others overall, but with respect to usage, manager
B’s performance is below that of manager A. These measures allow us to conclude
that manager B is better in identifying the importance of practices but less effec-
tive in using the practices in comparison with manager A.
There may be some criticism on the abovementioned approach for crisis
management. Critics may argue that the selection of practices is crucial. This is
a valid comment, but we should note that there are established criteria for the