Theses and Dissertations, Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM)

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Decision making strategy in the selection of cook-chill production in hospital foodservices
Green, Claudia G. (Virginia Tech, 1992-06-15)
The primary purpose of this study was to develop and test a model for the process of making the decision to select/not select cook-chill for hospital food services. A second purpose was to determine the nature of the decision strategy, analytical versus intuitive, most predictive of satisfaction with cook-chill. A generic decision model was developed based on an extensive review of literature on decision making. Due to the lack of research on food service systems, a modified Delphi technique was used to identify 1) the factors critical in the process of making the decision to select/not select cook-chill and 2) the characteristics of a successful hospital cook-chill operation. The information gathered from the Delphi technique was used to develop a questionnaire which would measure the applicability of the generic model to the decision to select/not select cook -chill food production. The generic model was composed of five decision components and one satisfaction component. Using the model as a framework, a questionnaire was developed to test the relationships between the components of the model. Correlations between these components revealed that the use of the model was significantly related with satisfaction with the decision to select/not select cook-chill. A "Checklist for the Process of Making the Decision to SelectINot Select Cookchill Food Production for Hospital Foodservices" was developed using the model and questionnaire as frameworks. The Checklist consists of 136 questions: 101 questions measuring the decision process and 35 questions measuring satisfaction with the decision. For the purposes of this study, analytical decision making was defined as a process where objective, as opposed to subjective information, was available and was used in the process of making the decision. The Checklist consisted of questions to which there was a "yes" or "no" response. The higher the number of "yes" responses on the decision component questions, the more analytical the decision process and the higher the correlation with satisfaction. It was statistically determined that 37 "yes" responses resulted in satisfaction with the decision process. The lower the number of "yes" responses on the decision component questions, the more intuitive the decision process and the lower the correlation with satisfaction. The results of this study are significant in that an extensive review of literature between 1950 and 1990 showed that there was little empirically based research on foodservice systems. The existing research prior to this study did not provide enough information to develop a model for the process of making the decision to select/not select cook-chill production for any foodservice operation. The model developed and tested in this research is generic in nature and should apply equally well in a variety of types of foodservices. It may be necessary to make minor adaptations to the Checklist to address the unique nature of various types of foodservices such as schools, college/universities, military, prisons, hotels, and restaurants.
The effect of organizational factors on the structure of the buying center: the case study of corporate travel management
Damonte, Lowell Taylor (Virginia Tech, 1994-03-15)
In this study the researcher attempts to advance the understanding of the structure of firm buying centers for air travel services. First, an attempt is made to find empirical support for the proposition that firm air travel service buying centers can be grouped on the basis of their size, degree of complexity, centralization, and formalization. The study investigates the relationship of size, structure, and technology of the organization as a whole to the structure of the buying center. Diagraphs, or pictures representing the members of the buying centers, and the communication flows between those members, allow the researcher to record three constructs of buying center complexity: lateral involvement, vertical involvement, and connectedness. The size of the buying center is defined as the number of people within the organization who participated in the buying process from the reservations phase to the final payment of the supplier. The degree of centralization is determined by the number of communications between the travel manager and other buying center members. Formalization of the buying center was operationalized as the percent of written versus verbal communication in the buying process, the extent to which the process was governed by rules and policies, and the degree of compliance with policy. Significantly different mean values were found in buying center size and the degree of written versus verbal communication across the three cluster analysis-derived groups. None of the other buying center variables were found to differentiate the groups. Of all the organizational variables, only firm size, as measured by the absolute value of air travel purchases per year, was found to be a better-than-chance predictor of group membership. Additional research on participation during the contract negotiation phase is suggested. It is further proposed that future researchers wishing to study corporate travel in an industrial marketing context begin to study influence on, in addition to participation in, the buying process. It is further suggested that these issues should be investigated in the context of global as well as domestic organizations and evaluated on a longitudinal basis.
Internal environment, organizational form and their impact on financial performance of hotel chains
Huo, Yang Hwae (Virginia Tech, 1994-08-14)
The primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between internal environment, organizational form, and financial performance in hotel chains. Using a contingency framework, this study investigated the match between internal environmental factors--such as capital scarcity, monitoring cost, and asset specificity--and organizational form--such as company owned, franchised, or combination of both--in an attempt to distinguish between high and low performing hotel chains. The key findings of this study indicate that hotel chains which showed a "match" between the monitoring cost of their internal environmental factors and organizational form performed better than if those elements did not match. The other finding of this study indicates that hotel chains operating under different organizational forms, such as company-owned, franchised, and combination of both, did not differ in their financial performance levels which were measured in terms of return on investment and growth in unit sales. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the lodging industry by introducing the contingency theory in investigating the interrelationship between internal environment, organizational form, and financial performance. In other words, this study utilized internal environmental factors such as capital scarcity, monitoring costs, and asset specificity as moderators in order to measure their impact on organizational forms and financial performance relationship. Specifically, this study provides unique ways to measure the internal environmental factors, organizational form, and financial performance: (1) capital scarcity was measured using financing activities data included in the statement cash flows, (2) organizational form of the firm was categorized into company-owned, franchised, and combination of both, and (3) financial performance was measured using return on investment (ROI) and growth in unit sales. From the industry point of view, the findings of this study will aid in recognizing organizational form in conjunction with internal environment and financial performance. This study provides empirical support with regard to the relative models in predicting appropriate organizational form that will show better financial performance. In other words, the firm that evaluates and analyzes its internal environmental factors could have the adequate organizational form that generates high profitability. From the theoretical point of view, this study provides a body of knowledge in franchising by providing empirical findings with regard to internal environmental factors in explaining the relationship between organizational form and financial performance. Furthermore, this study contributes to the existing agency theory literature in franchising by providing empirical research to the evaluative contingency theory.
A productivity analysis of the clinical dietitian as a health care team member in the service sector
Meyer, Mary Kay (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1986)
The major purpose of this study was to analyze the productivity of the clinical dietitian in order to develop appropriate models for measurement of productivity of the clinical dietitian. Due to the lack of research on productivity in the service sector, a modified Delphi Technique was used to identify appropriate measures of input and output for the clinical dietitian. The information gathered from the Delphi Technique was used to develop a survey designed to measure the productivity of the clinical dietitian. Two hundred eighty-three participants responded to the survey. Five measures of productivity were developed. They were: (1) hours in direct patient care/total hours worked (2) hours in indirect patient care/ total hours worked (3) hours in nonpatient care/ total hours worked (4) hours spent in direct plus indiiect patient care/total hours worked and (5) the activity level in nonproductive activities. The independent variables used in this study were: (1) patient load of the clinical dietitian (2) years of experience of the clinical dietitian (3) the allocation of time to tasks performed by the clinical dietitian (4) consultation methods used by the clinical dietitian (5) size of the hospital (6) employment status of the clinical dietitian (7) mission of the hospital (8) percent occupancy of the hospital and <9> percent of the budget generated by Medicare patients. Results of the analyses showed that dietitians were spending a variety of time in the thirty-three identified activities. They had a high activity level in performing diet histories, individual diet instructions, performing nutritional assessments, and reviewing and recording in medical records. Tasks involving low levels of activity were taking anthopometric measurements, reading professional literature and attending professional conferences. To fully investigate the relationship between the measures of productivity (dependent variables) and the independent variables stepwise multiple linear regression in the SAS statistical program was used. Analyses revealed two models appropriate for measuring the productivity. These models involved nonpatient care and nonproductive activities. The development of these models overcame the difficulty discussed in the service literature of developing direct measures of productivity of employees in the service sector.
The relationship of work satisfaction, organizational commitment and retirement intention of older workers in institutional foodservices
DeMicco, Frederick Joseph (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1986)
The relationship between the work attitudes, job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been demonstrated to influence turnover/retirement. This relationship is important due to changing demographic patterns in the 0.3. A food service labor shortage has potential for retarding the long-term growth of the food service industry. However, recruitment and retention of older workers could be a factor in controlling this problem. Therefore the major purpose of this research was to obtain information from current older food service employees to permit the determination of how various aspects of their jobs affect job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and thus intention to remain on the job. The major independent variables in this research postulated to effect the dependent variable, turnover/retirement intention included, intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, organizational commitment, working conditions, level of pay, and financial security. The sample population consisted of older workers employed in hospital and college/university food services. Data were collected via questionnaire. A 61 % response rate ( N=243) was obtained. The results indicate that older workers demonstrate moderate levels of work satisfaction and relatively high levels of organizational commitment. However a practically meaningful relationship between work satisfaction (measured by the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire) and organizational commitment ( measured by the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire), as correlated with turnover/retirement intention was not found. Although not considered meaningful , a week but statistically significant relationship was found (r=.15, p< .02) between intrinsic satisfaction and turnover/retirement intention. Older workers in this study are generally less satisfied with the chance for advancement in their jobs, and with the pay for the amount of work done. These two items are extrinsic measures of satisfaction. Regression analysis revealed that older worker perceptions of the physical demands of the job (r=.3?), working conditions (r=.33}, and employer communication of retirement options (r=.2l) predicted 39% of the variance in the dependent variable, organizational commitment. Fifty-three percent of older workers in this study would recommend their jobs to others, and 54% of older workers state they would delay retirement past the age they now plan to retire if they could work part—time. The food service industry will see increases in the number of older workers in the near future. This research provides a foundation from which other research involving older workers can emerge.
Strategic issues in sustainable development
Jackson, Giles Alexander (Virginia Tech, 1994-04-12)
The paradigm of sustainable development has moved center-stage in the development community and strategies for achieving sustainable development are proliferating. However, the capacity of institutions to support sustainable development in non-industrialized countries has not been adequately addressed. There is a need to solve the sustainable development problem conceptually by linking strategy content and implementation issues with processes of strategy formulation internal to institutions. This study investigated the hypothesis that the dominant "technocratic" approach to strategy formulation, in which development problems are treated as technical, apolitical problems, creates strategies that probably will not implement sustainable development as intended. The World Bank's Strategy for Achieving Sustainable Development in Developing Countries (1992) was applied to the international tourism industry by twenty-five persons from industry, academia, non-government organizations and consultancies to identify implementation issues and problems that might be attributed to use of the technocratic approach. The study found that the World Bank's strategy probably will not implement sustainable development as intended due to fundamental conflicts in assumptions about how sustainable development can and should be achieved. The findings of this study support the argument made in the literature that a change in approach to strategy formulation is required. The findings also suggest that the proposed alternative to the technocratic approach may not be sufficient, because it is little more than a modification of the latter approach and does not resolve the fundamental contradiction between "induced" and "sustainable" development. A more fundamental shift in the values governing development may be required to adapt the modus operandi of development institutions to sustainable development and resolve the value conflicts that continue to diminish the possibility of consensus and action. Although this study provides knowledge of a limited scope, its findings and recommendations may guide an improved perception of the complex problem of identifying requirements for sustainable development and adapting institutions accordingly.

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