Contemporary Hospitality Industry

The Organisational Structure of Hospitality Industry

According to the British Hospitality Association (BHA), “The hospitality industry includes enterprises that provide accommodation, meals and drinks in venues outside of the home” (Oxford Economics 2015). In addition, the BHA emphasises that it is the fourth largest sector in the United Kingdom that annually contributes £52.7 billion to the national economy (Oxford Economics 2015). Furthermore, the sphere provides around 300,000 job opportunities in different parts of the country (Oxford Economics 2015). Hospitality industry’s entities can operate on conditions of leasing, franchising, management or ownership (Gujar 2014). Thus, each organisation in the hospitality sector operates in a way that reflects the nature of its specific professional field and helps to ensure that its objectives are reached. Different types of hospitality businesses include hotels, restaurants, bars, airlines, fancier trains, and cruise ships among others. Because the industry’s main goal is satisfying customer’s desires for luxury and comfort and giving them a positive impression, it is important for such businesses to retain good reputation and ensure smooth management process. Since businesses usually run in more than one establishment (e.g. restaurant chain), a high level of subordination and convergence to the set standards is required from all the entities under the same brand name.

Structure of Hospitality Organisations

The structures of hospitality organisations vary with respect to their area of operation based on the comparison of 2 UK organisations. To illustrate, Ramada Jarvis Hotel Group is a good example of a business in the field that was operating by the flexible management system that has allowed a very quick and dynamic growth of its hotels all over the UK and even overseas. The structure of each hotel has been represented by a strict hierarchy where the general manager was the head. Most likely, the hotel chain is so successful due to the talented management picked for arranging internal and external affairs. The food and beverage management has always been excellent in selecting food for the clients, and eventually, catering at Ramada hotels has become its signature that attracted even more tourists.

In food industry, a great example of strategically correct management is the famous UK sandwich bar Prêt-a-Manger. The food chain is extremely concerned with its image and does not franchise its brand due to the difficulties with the quality control that arise in such a case (Werdigier 2014). Prêt-a-Manger stores operate under the operational manager who is in charge of roughly 10 stores. Two head offices are placed in London, UK, and in New York City, US. Within a store, positions in management differ from a team member to the store’s general manager. The organisational structure is not strictly hierarchical and orders are not simply directed top-down. Initiatives can also come from the lower level, which makes this structure resemble a matrix one. Such flexibility is recommended for the sandwich bar that has occupied a niche above fast-food as its purpose is not simply delivering food to the customers but also offer quality service. Implementing employees’ feedback sometimes gives a chance to hospitality industry entities to improve considerably.

The Role of Hospitality Organisations and Professional Bodies

A professional body is “an organisation that helps individuals or businesses to develop their skills in a particular industry or profession” (Hospitality Guild n.d.). Professional bodies of hospitality play an important role in the development of industry and competence of its employees as they keep them up-to-date with the new trends and changing consumer preferences. They also award membership to the candidates based on the quality of their services aimed at the highest standards.

For instance, the Association of Catering Excellence is a networking organisation. The agency provides hospitality business owners with an opportunity to communicate with each other at their multiple events, such as dinners and wine tastings. Another example of a professional body is the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII). It has a different mission: the organisation strives to raise standards of the hotel industry and keep them uniform for all. The BII permits licensing of their members which gives them a status of recognised quality and respect. Having a certification from the BII is considered prestigious and can enhance the image of the hotel. Other professional bodies provide entities with up-to-date information on the trends in the industry and encourage the innovation of their services. To illustrate, the BHA brings the freshest trends to the hotel business owners to make the industry thrive. The latest trends are establishing eco-friendly policies in the hotels (Kang et al., 2012). The more hotels follow the trend, the more profit they leverage while positioning themselves as socially and environmentally sustainable businesses.