Chapter 6 Case Study
Case Study 6-A
Summary:
The economy is down due to recession and a Florida hotel resort is trying to change their cleanliness policy to bring customers back. To do this, the hotel managers propose the “$10 dollar test”. The cleaning staff clean rooms based off of an instructional video. The manager observes them and then picks one random room to inspect. If the room is clean to the manager’s expectations, he or she will leave ten dollars. However, the manager will subtract a dollar for every mistake that they find. The housekeepers disapproved of this test at first because they were not confident that they would receive a big portion of that money. Eventually however, they became motivated and started correcting their mistakes so that they can receive the whole ten dollars.
1) Refer to the steps of the control process (Exhibit 6-1). Where in the process do the steps taken by the Florida resort hotel fall?
It actually falls under all of the steps of the control process. Step one is to measure performance and to do this, the manager observes the housekeeper and sees how well he or she can clean a hotel room. The next step would be to compare the results with what is expected, which in this case, is the video. The third step is taking corrective action. By offering ten dollars and placing a penalty of a dollar for every piece of trash that is found on the floor, there is an incentive for workers to correct their mistakes and put more effort into cleaning the room so that they can redeem the money. If not, they will receive less money, if at all.
2) As a supervisor, do you think the $10 test is a fair and appropriate method to measure the performance of the housekeeping staff? Why or why not?
Yes, it is fair because the staff is given an opportunity to earn extra money by insuring that they do a good job. In turn, management is happy and more importantly, the room is clean for guests. Even without the test, the staff is still responsible for keeping the rooms
Summary:
The economy is down due to recession and a Florida hotel resort is trying to change their cleanliness policy to bring customers back. To do this, the hotel managers propose the “$10 dollar test”. The cleaning staff clean rooms based off of an instructional video. The manager observes them and then picks one random room to inspect. If the room is clean to the manager’s expectations, he or she will leave ten dollars. However, the manager will subtract a dollar for every mistake that they find. The housekeepers disapproved of this test at first because they were not confident that they would receive a big portion of that money. Eventually however, they became motivated and started correcting their mistakes so that they can receive the whole ten dollars.
1) Refer to the steps of the control process (Exhibit 6-1). Where in the process do the steps taken by the Florida resort hotel fall?
It actually falls under all of the steps of the control process. Step one is to measure performance and to do this, the manager observes the housekeeper and sees how well he or she can clean a hotel room. The next step would be to compare the results with what is expected, which in this case, is the video. The third step is taking corrective action. By offering ten dollars and placing a penalty of a dollar for every piece of trash that is found on the floor, there is an incentive for workers to correct their mistakes and put more effort into cleaning the room so that they can redeem the money. If not, they will receive less money, if at all.
2) As a supervisor, do you think the $10 test is a fair and appropriate method to measure the performance of the housekeeping staff? Why or why not?
Yes, it is fair because the staff is given an opportunity to earn extra money by insuring that they do a good job. In turn, management is happy and more importantly, the room is clean for guests. Even without the test, the staff is still responsible for keeping the rooms