I. Our society is made up of all kinds of organizations, such as companies, government, departments, unions, hospitals, schools and the like. They are essential to our existence, helping to create our standard of living and our quality of life. In all these organizations, there are people carrying out the work of a manager. The role of the manager is particularly significant in such social sphere as the lodging industry.

The lodging industry is the most important element of the social sphere. It plays the leading part in the increase of the public production and accordingly in the uplifting of living standards.

II. One can designate the hotel as an enterprise rendering service to the people, which are out of doors. The service of the placing and the nourishment is the leading one at the hotel.

1) The hotel apartments are the basic element of the placing service.
They are intended for the rest, sleeping and work of the guests. In additional the placing service includes the service, which is done by the personal of the hotel. These are reception and official registration of the guests, cleaning the rooms and others.

The nourishment consists of different processes:

. process of production (preparation of dishes),

. trade process (sale of the food products),

. service process (service of the guests by the waiters at the restaurant, in the rooms).

The additional service includes swimming-pools, conference halls, hair- dresser’s, massage-room and many other things. The hotel is distinguished by the additional service among other hotels.

Therefore this service is very important by the forming of the attractiveness of the hotel.

Among the main services of the hotel one can also distinguish the reserving the place, the facilities, the receiving and the service of the exploitation of the apartment fund.

2) The service of the nourishment, the placing service and the additional service are formed different at the hotels. And so one can designate several types of the hotels.

The first class hotels are usually situated in the center of the city. The skilled staff ensures the high level of the service. The clients of this kind of the hotel are businessmen, participants of the conferences and other rich men.

The health-resort hotel is situated in the health-resort country. It includes the medical service and the dietary nourishment.

The motel is located near the motor roads and in the suburbs. The clients of the motel are tourists, particularly motor tourers.

The middle class hotels render the broad service. The prizes depend on the situation of the hotel. The leading types of the hotels are the business and health-resort ones, because 50% of the journeys are made with business purpose, and holiday are treatment purpose determines 40% of the journeys.

The hotels are classified by the level of the comfort, the capacity of the hotel, the purpose of the hotel, the situation of the hotel, the duration of the work, the providing with the nourishment, the duration of the stay at the hotel, the level of the prices.

3) The peculiarities of the hotel service are:

1) The processes of the production and the consumption are not synchronous. This means that several kinds of service do not connect with the presence of the client (cleaning the rooms).

2) Limited possibility of the keeping.

3) Urgency of the service. The problem concerning the service must be solved very quickly. The urgency and the situation of the hotel are the most important factors by the choice of the hotel.

4) The broad participation of the staff in the production process.

Personal service cannot be mechanized or automated. Some technologies are being instituted to speed up routine tasks, but the human element is the determining one of the hospitality business. Therefore the problem of the standardization is significant in the lodging industry.

The standards of the service are worked out at many hotels. They are the rules of the service, which guarantee the level of quality of all operations. These are the time of the official registration, the knowledge of foreign languages and the out-word appearance of the personal. The work at the hotel brings the employee into contact with people from all walks of life. Guests will include the wealthy and the poor, engaging and obnoxious. Each guest offers the employee an opportunity learns more about human nature. Employees not only have direct responsibility for guest service, the also have the benefit of witnessing the guest’s satisfaction. The managers generally need more hands-on experience before assuming managerial positions. The skills of understanding, motivation and directing people can best be developed through experience.

5) Seasonal demand for the hotel service. It has an influence on the loading of the hotel.

6) Interdependency between the hotel service and the purpose of the traveling.

III. The structure of the management in the lodging industry consists of administrative secnating.

In the lodging industry there are three types of the structure:

1) Lineal structure. Every section has the manager who is responcible for the activities of this section. This manager submits to the higher manager. The advantages of this structure are the clear responsibility, the simplicity of the management. But the manager must be very skilled to manage all processes. Besides that there are too many contacts with the subordinamper the work of the manager.

2) The functional structure. The main idea is that the specialists perform the separate functions and they are united in departments. The advantages of the functional structure are the high competence of the specialists, standardization and the programming of the processes. The main problem of this structure is the excessive centralization.

3) Lineal-functional. It includes the special sections by the lineal managers. Among the advantages one can account the co-operation of the experts and the better preparation of the decisions and plans. The defects of this structure are the unclear responsibility and the absence of the connections between departments.

In addition to the usual management positions, multi-unit companies may have area, district, and regional and/or corporate-level management. There may be several separate departments operating at a hotel, requiring frequent communication among staff members to co- ordinate their activities.

The administrative structure of the hotel depends on its purpose, capacity and the specific character of the guests.

IV. Among the main methods of the management in the lodging industry we can number economic, administrative and social psychological methods.

The leading idea of the economic method is to make such kind of the conditions to the staff, in which it can take into account at most the consequences of its administrative and production activities.

The administrative method is based on the directive instructions.

The main purpose of the social-psychological method is the forming of the positive climate in the collective. The success of the activities of the manager depends in the main on his ability to work with people and on right using all these methods.

V. A French industrialist, Henri Fayol, wrote in 1916 a classic definition of the manager’s role. He said that to manage is “to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control.” This definition is still accepted by many people today, though some writers on management have modified Fayol’s description. Instead of talking about

“command”, they say a manager must “motivate” or “direct” and “lead” other workers.

Henri Fayol’s definition of a manager’s functions is useful.

However, in most companies, the activities of a manager depend on the level at which he/she is working. Top managers, such as directors, will be more involved in long planning, policy making and the relations of the company. These strategy decisions are part of the planning function mentioned by Fayol.

One the other hand, middle management is help an organization to run efficiently. It is urgent order or sorting out a technical problem.

Managers at this level spend a great deal of time communicating, coordinating and making decisions affecting the daily operation of their organization.

Managers in the lodging industry perform five basic operations.

. Firstly, managers set objectives. They decide what these should be and how the organization can achieve them. For this task they need analytical ability.

. Secondly, managers organize. They must decide how the resources of the company are to be used, how the work is to be classified and divided. Furthermore, they must select people for the jobs to be done. For this, they not only need analytical ability but also understanding of human beings.

. The third task is to motivate and communicate effectively.

They must be able to get people to work as a team, and to be as productive as possible.

To do this, they will be communicating effectively with all levels of the organization – their superiors, colleagues and subordinates. To succeed in this task, managers need social skills. The fourth activity is measurement. Having set standards, managers have to measure the performance of the organization and of its staff in relation to those standards. Measuring requires analytical ability. Finally, managers develop people more productive and to grow as human beings. They make them bigger and richer persons.

VI. In carrying out management functions, such as planning, organising, motivating and controlling, a manager will be continually making decisions. Decision-making is a key of management responsibility and career.

Some decisions are of the routine kind. They are decisions which are made quickly. Because a manager is experienced, he knows what to do in certain situations. He does not have to think too much before taking action.

Other decisions are often intuitive ones. They are not really rational. The manager may have a gut feeling that a certain course of action is the right one.

Many decisions are more difficult to make since they involve problem-solving. Very often they are strategic decisions which will affect the future direction of the enterprise. To make good decisions the manager should be able to select rationally a course of action. In practice, decisions are usually made in circumstances which are not ideal. They must be made quickly, with insufficient information. It is probably rare that a manager can make an entirely rational decision.

When a complex problem arises, the manager has to collect facts and weigh up courses of action. He must be systematic in dealing with the problem. A useful approach to this sort of decision-making is as follows: the process consists of four phases: a) Defining the problem; b) Analyzing and collecting information; c) Working out options; d) Deciding on the best solution.

As a first step, the manager must identify and define the problem.

And it is important that he does not mistake the symptoms of a problem for the real problem he must solve. At this early stage the manager must also take into account the rules and principles of the company which may affect the final decision. These factors will limit the solution of the problem.

The second step is to analyze the problem and decide what additional information is necessary before a decision can be taken.

Getting the facts is essential in decision-making. However, as already mentioned, the manager will rarely have all the knowledge he needs. This is one reason why making decisions involves a degree of risk. It is the manager’s job to minimize that risk.

Once the problem has been defined and the facts collected, the manager should consider the options for solving it. This is necessary because there are usually several ways of solving a problem. The enterprise might be modernized or service might be improved, for example.

Before making a decision, the manager will carefully access the options, considering the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Having done this, he will have to take a decision. Perhaps he will compromise using more than the option.

VII. Communications in excellent companies are different from those in other companies. Excellent companies have “open communications”.

People working in them keep in contact with each other regularly. The companies do everything possible to ensure that staff meets easily and frequently.

One problem with communication is that we do not, in fact, communicative as effectively as we think we do. This is important for managers. It suggests that, when giving instructions, managers must make sure that those instructions have been understood and interpreted correctly.

A breakdown in communications is to happen if there are some kinds of social distance between people. In organizations people may have difficulty communicating if they are different in status, or if one person has a much higher position than the other. It is risky to tell the truth to someone higher up in the hierarchy – they may not like what they hear and hold it against you. For this reason staffs often “filter” information.

One way of reducing social distance – and improving communications

– is to cut down on status symbols. It is possible, for example, to have a common dining-room for all staff.

Physical surroundings and physical distance limit or encourage communication. The physical layout of an office must be carefully planned.

Another important barrier to communication is selective perception. This means that people perceive things in different ways. The world of the sender is not the same as the world of the receiver. A manager will say something but the employee will interpret his meaning incorrectly.

Communication problems will arise, from time to time, in the best- run companies. However, to minimize such problems, managers must remember one thing. Communication should be a two-way process. Managers should encourage staff to ask questions and to react to what the managers are saying. The most useful question a manager can ask is “Did you understand that?”

VIII. In the lodging industry it is important that managers should be effective. They must be able to achieve their objectives. The problem is that there are so many pressures on managers, reducing their efficiency. The managers find that they do not have enough time to devote to the really important jobs. They find that other people take up a lot of their time, so that they have little time of their own.

Effective managers learn how to manage their time. They cut out unproductive activities. They never forget that time cannot be replaced.

Before being able to control his time, the manager must find out how he is actually using it. He must know where it goes. The best way to do this is to record how he uses time. One way of logging time is to note down all the activities and indicate how long they took. The manager can ask questions such as: Are some of the things I am doing wasting time?

Should I be spending more time on certain activities? Knowing how to spend time is an essential skill of a manager.

IX. People entering the lodging industry frequently wonders whether it is better to begin their careers in a small or large hotel. What branch of hotel operation is the best to start in after graduation? Where you start is probably less important than how well you work and whether you make the most of opportunities. It is important to learn something about all phases of hotel operation. You may prefer to work first in those departments you know least about. Then with some exposure to all areas, you can begin to focus on your areas of interest.

X. We must not forget that the successful managers are necessarily people who set high standards. Good managers need not be geniuses, but must bring “character” to the job. They are people of integrity, who will look for that quality in others.

Questions:

1) Is the lodging industry the most important element of the social sphere?

2) Must the manager bring “character” to the job?

3) Why is the hotel distinguished by the additional service among other hotels?

4) What main methods of the management can we number in the lodging industry?

5) Is the administrative method based on the directive instructions or is the economic one?

6) What kind of operations do managers perform in the hospitality business?

7) How must the manager use his time?

8) Why do the communication play the main role in the manager’s career?

9) Is the decision-making the key of the manager’s career?

10) How can one start his manager’s career?