HOUSEKEEPING ASSIGNMENT

QUESTION 1

As a housekeeping supervisor in a resort, you are in the process of preparing the a.m. guestroom check report when you discover that room 2004 is occupied while the night clerk’s report that you received early in the morning indicated that the room was vacant.

A)     What do you think could have happened for the discrepancy to exist?

B)      What do you do from there?

ANSWER

From this question, we should know the meaning of room status discrepancy first. The room status discrepancy is defining a situation in which the housekeeping department’s description of a room’s status differs from the room status information at the front desk. Refer to the question, this situation is maybe will happen in the hotel.

First of all, we should know the daily routines of the housekeeping staff. The ‘housekeeping day’ is divided into three shift which is morning, afternoon and night shift. The daily routine may differ slightly from one hotel to another hotel. ‘Opening of the house’ refers to a daily operational procedure whereby rooms are assigned for servicing to GRAs scheduled for work that day.

The night supervisor keeps ready the ‘night report’ or the occupancy report generated in the night by the front desk attendant. The night supervisor also passes on the list of arrivals and departures obtained from the desk to the assistant housekeeper. Then, the assistant housekeeper prepares the daily report and hand over the section work sheet to each floor supervisor.

The section work sheet has the room numbers of the section that the floor supervisor is responsible for, and identifies their status as ‘vacant’, ‘occupied’, or ‘check out’. This sheet thus indicates the room status of the entire section to the supervisor. This is then clipped onto the room attendant’s cart. Once each room has been cleaned and inspected, the floor supervisor puts a check mark against that room number on the sheet.

In many properties, to avoid disturbing guests just to check the status of the room, discrepancy report is generated by the inspection of only ‘on change’ and ‘vacant and ready’ rooms. In fact under this system, to save time, the Guest Room Attendant’s (GRAs) do not approach any guestrooms in the morning till they are ready to clean that room.

If there is any discrepancy between the room status received from the front desk and the actual status of the room, the GRA should immediately inform the floor supervisor, so that it can be cleared up with front desk. A consolidated report is then generated from the information received at the control desk by the control desk supervisor. This is called the housekeeping room status report.

The discrepancy can be left to the floor supervisor, who may inspect ‘vacant and ready’ and ‘no change’ rooms to be assured their status. Any discrepancy can be marked in the section worksheet clipped onto the room attendant’s cart. All supervisors, after completing the physical checking of the room status in their section, convey any discrepancy to the control desk. The control desk supervisor consolidates the information received and generates the housekeeping room status report.

The GRAs then begin servicing the guestrooms according to priority and the floor supervisor inspects the rooms in order. The rooms are the passed as ‘ready rooms’ to the front office for sale. As a conclusion, any room status discrepancy between the front office and the housekeeping department is resolved by a physical check.

MEAT ALTERNATIVE OR ANALOG PRODUCTION

1.0          INTRODUCTION

What is the meaning of meat alternatives? It is good for us to consume? What is the classification of the meat alternatives? Is there any food that relate to the same nutrient like meat product? How about the process that are involved in making the meat alternative production? All of the question will be discussed in this assignment briefly. Meat alternative or other word which called meat substitute, faux meat, meat analogue, mock meat or imitation meat is the same meaning or definition.

Generally, the meat alternative will be understood to mean that the food made from non-meats and sometimes it produces without dairy products. It is approximates aesthetic quality such as texture, flavor, appearance and chemical characteristics of specific types of meat. These types of food also refer to the meat-based, healthier and less expensive alternative to a particular meat product such as surimi. There are six classifications of meat alternatives which are vegetarian meat alternative, soy-based meat alternative, recent meat alternative, dairy alternative, egg alternative and similar meat-based meat alternative or called surimi.

The vegetarian meat alternative is food that based-on centuries-old recipes and then the flavoring is added to make the finished product taste like lamb, chicken, seafood, ham, beef and others. The example of food product from this class are the wheat gluten or called seitan, rice, legumes, tempeh, mushrooms and pressed-tofu. The second class is the soy-based meat alternative. This is the food that made by layering the thin skin which forms on top of boiled soy milk. The recent meat alternative if a food comes from a dry bulk commodity derived form soy, mycoprotein-based Quorn, soy concentrate and modified defatted peanut flour.

The dairy alternative is the food that comes from other dairy sources based. It composed of processed rice, soy like soy milk and soy protein isolate, cashew, almond, gluten such as the first non-dairy creamers, nutritional yeast and other combination of the food that will get the same flavoring like butter, milk, cheeses, yogurt, mayonnaise, ice-cream and others milk product. The other classification is egg alternative. The food from egg alternative is the foods that have the same like egg function such as the leavening and binding effects of eggs in baked food such as cake. The example of food is the tapioca starch, tofu or other similar product function like egg. The last classification is the similar meat-based meat alternative that a food that processed from the hash or flesh of fish and added with the flavorings.

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2.0          BODY

Nowadays, there are many foods that contain the same nutrient like meat product. The processing of the meat alternative is also different from each classification. The example of food meat alternative and it process will be discuss are seitan, yuba, texturized vegetable protein (TVP), tofu, tapioca starch, surimi and tempeh. The seitan or wheat gluten food is made by washing the wheat flour dough with water until the starch it dissolves. The leaving insoluble gluten then cooked before being eaten. This type of food is popular in Chinese people for accompaniment to boiled rice porridge or called congee. There are five forms of seitan which are oily fried gluten, steamed gluten, baked spongy gluten, raw gluten and dry baked gluten.

Yuba also called tofu skin or dried bean curd. The processing of yuba is start from boiling of soy milk in an open shallow pan. During the boiling process, a film or skin composed primarily of soy protein-lipid complex forms on the liquid surface. The films are collected and dried into yellowish sheets known as tofu skin or soy milk skin. There are three form of yuba which are fu zhu stick, meat analoque and log. The other type of meat alternative is texturized vegetable protein or TVP. TVP is a food made through a process known as extrusion cooking. It made from defatted soy flour and water in a mixing cylinder. Then the dough cooked during the passage through the barrel of a screw type extruder. This food will replace meat in the Spaghetti Bolognese, tacos, burgers and others.

Tofu is a processed food by coagulating soy milk and the resulting curds will be pressing. It produce begins making their own soy milk which are follow the steps like soaking the beans in the water, grinding the soaked beans, boiling and straining it dried. The process of coagulating used the coagulants agent like salt, acids and enzymes. There are many forms processed tofu exist which are fermented tofu like pickled and stinky tofu, flavored tofu like sweet and savory tofu, fried tofu like aburaage and frozen tofu like Thousand layer and koyadofu tofu. The productions from tofu based are tofu skin, okara, non-tofu and Burmese tofu.

Egg substitutes may be composed of tofu, tapioca starch, or similar products that recreate the leavening and binding effects of the eggs in baked goods. Many people use fruit products such as banana paste or applesauce as egg analogues in baking. There varieties way of processed tapioca starch consist by stirred the product, drained through a sieve and the last one step is fried the products itself. Examples of tapioca starch are tapioca cracker, powder, and rectangular sticks.

Surimi is a processed of hash of fish plus flavoring, is used to make products such as imitation crab meat. Its also can be steps by separate or mince the lean fish, rinse, beaten, and pulverized to form a gelatinous paste, mixed with additives such as starch, egg white, salt, vegetables oil, humectants, sorbitol, sugar and others. The curing process of surimi is caused by the polymerization of myosin when heated.The species of fish is the most vital factor that affects this curing process. Many pelagic fish with higher fat contents lack the needed type kind of heat-curing myosin and are not used for surimi production.

Tempeh or tempe is made by natural culturing and controlled fermentation of soy bean process that binds into a cake form. Tempeh’s fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher content of protien, dietary fiber, and vitamin. Because of its nutritional value, tempeh used worldwide in vegetarian cuisine, some consider it to be a meat analogue. The production process of Tempeh begins with soya bean are split and hulled, then boiling the beans in plenty of water for about 45 minutes. Drained and cooled it. Add and mix with vinegar and rhizopus oligoporus. Then, packed the bean in container and covered 6mm above the beans. Next, left it into incubate at temperature of between 29 °C and 35 °C for 26 to 30 hours. The tempeh is ready when, a white, fluffy layer completely conceals the beans and the beans underneath the layer are held together as a solid cake. The last step is, tempeh will keep for two to three days in a refrigerator or it may be sliced, blanched and then frozen for longer storage.

3.0          CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, the meat alternative is good to us for consume. There are many advantages or benefit that we will get from this type of food. The people who are consumed foods that are meat alternative based will get longevity of life. The interesting facts that we will share are the longevity of life people that live in Okinawan Islands in Southern Japan. They eat lots of grains, vegetables, soy and fish and eat less meat, poultry and dairy product. The people who are follow vegetarian diet like Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and Trappist monks also longer in life.

The meat alternative food helps the vegetarians people gets their same amount of complete protein. The sources of meat alternatives is the incomplete protein sources of food, but if the certain plant foods are eaten together, they may supply all the essential amino acids. It also will be essential for human nutrition and good as animal protein. The example of food that we will consumed together to get same as complete protein are grains and legumes. The production of meat alternative nowadays helps people like vegetarian’s people to find the food that nutritious and variety for them to consume.

The other benefits that people will get are the fiber constituents, anticancer components and the food of soy based has estrogenic activities. The food from meat alternative also much lower in fat content but the protein and quality content is quite similar. Besides that, tofu is the excellent food from a nutritional and health perspective which is will result in lowering blood cholesterol levels. As a result, meat alternative help us more in terms of health and nutrition.

(1500 words)

4.0          REFERENCES

Murray, M.T (1993). The Healing Power of Foods: Nutrition Secrets for Vibrant Health and Long Life, Melanie Field, Bookman Production, United States (US).

Kirschman, J.D (2007). Nutrition Almanac (6^th Edition), McGraw-Hill, Two Penn Plaza, New York.

Schwarcz, J. and Berkoff, F (2004). Foods that Harm, Food that Heal/ Reader’s Digest (1^st Edition), The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., Canada.

Identify and how could Starbucks make its competitive advantages sustainable overtime?

What is the definition of competitive advantage? According to Enz (2010), the competitive advantage is exists when a firm has a long-lasting business advantaged compared to rival firms that is a significant edge over the competition. In the other words, the firms will do something competitors cannot do. Starbucks apply many competitive advantages in the Chinese market such as strong brand name recognition, large retail distribution system, quality product, extensive product list, good supplier relationships, strong financial history and strong human resources.

The first point is brand name recognition. Starbucks is a well-known branding of coffee product company. According to Venkatraman and Nelson (2008), Starbucks is an iconic emotional brand. These emotional brands become meaningful in part because they become interwove with the narratives of people’s lives. Starbucks create their brand name with offer good environment of store’s which is captured by four themes such as “Starbucks as Home;” “Starbucks as a Constellation of Personal Spaces;” “Starbucks as Exotic;” and “Starbucks as a Bridge between Cultures” (Venkatraman & Nelson, 2008). These entire themes will create good brand name within the customers.

The second point is large retail distribution system. Nowadays, Starbuck is one of the companies that expand their business to the other country such as in China. It becomes the first mover in the coffee business in China market. This situation will create competitive advantage for Starbucks because they were the first company that successful for enter the coffee business market in the China. The large retail distribution system also helps Starbucks increase their revenue and profit. They do the franchising their company to the other country over the world.

The third point is quality of product. All of products that Starbucks offer to the customer have high quality of item. Starbucks establish their own Total Quality Management System in order to provide and control the quality of product that they sell to the customer. They also have corporate headquarters that exercises controls over individual sites. Other than that, they also have internal controls for the store that is managing by the manager.

The fourth point is extensive product list. This is one of the competitive advantage of Starbucks because the product that they produce is always be consumed by the customer. This is because the demand for food and beverages is constant. Therefore, the extensive product list of Starbuck will help them to compete with other company that in the same business.

The next point is good supplier relationship. This is important to Starbucks in order to produce their product. Starbucks is one of company that cooperates with the other company in order to receive raw material for their products. They have lack of their own coffee farms. Therefore, to ensure that all the raw materials for their production are being supply, they build good relationship with their supplier. Therefore, this will overcome their problem.

Besides that, Starbucks also is a company who has strong financial company. This is because Starbucks was starts operated in many years ago and has good financial management and strategies. They will achieve strong financial in company because they have largest market share in the industry. They also expand their business to the other country and do joint venture with local business partners to help recruit talented individuals and maintain financial control.

The last point is strong human resources who is the employee and staff that working in their company has good skills such as production skills, marketing skills, managerial skills and others. The most important skills in Starbucks is people skills and drink preparation ability. In order to maintain and control the quality that product that they produce, all the employees will give training to learn about products, brewing methods and sales techniques. They also giving rewards to their staff in order to encourage them work in a good performance.

As a conclusion, there are many competitive advantage that Starbucks have for competed with other company. Nevertheless, the most important things are they must have a good missions and visions of their company that lead them to achieved good performance in business. They also must create positive value with their customer to ensure that customer will loyal with their products.

Summary

The evaluation of two key leadership development program components: Leadership skills assessment and leadership mentoring.

The purpose of this journal is to evaluate two key components of leadership development programs which is a 360-degree assessment of leadership skills and mentoring leaders. There are three hypotheses which are leadership skills self-report assessment will be statistically different from leadership skills observer-report assessment, the higher the percentage of time a mentor spends on actual coaching rather than compliance, the more the mentee group will share information with the mentor and the group and the more mentor initiates personal contact with the mentee group, the more the mentee group will share information with the mentor and the group. Two methods used which are leadership development program and leadership mentor group. The participants that includes in the program are 303 individuals and 41 leadership mentors. The measurements used for 360-degree assessment was Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner’s, 1993 as cited in Solansky, 2010). Four-point Likert-type rating scale was used in gather information about mentoring leaders. The result from this study are there were significant differences between self scores and average observer scores for all five LPI scale, the coaching time and number of contacts are both significantly related to mentees willingness to share information with mentors and mentee group regarding their leadership issues. The empirical of this study will impact on understanding of what methodologies and development program components that suitable to incorporate into a program. The two key components in this study will provide a basis for assessing leadership traits and behaviors and effectiveness of mentoring. The findings in this study also show that mentor-mentee relationship will effective when mentor spend more time on coaching and initiates personal contact with the mentee group. This research also shows benefits that associated with including mentors in leadership development programs. As a conclusion, leadership skills assessment is critical to any leadership program to gauge leadership strength and weaknesses and change in them. The use of mentors also is a powerful tool for developing effective leadership behaviors. Mentors should be trained to effectively mentor and coach mentees and also should have time available to commit to the relationship.

(347 words)

References

Solansky, S.T. (2010). The evaluation of two key leadership development program components: Leadership skills assessment and leadership mentoring. The Leadership Quarterly, 21, 675-681.

Summary writing: Characteristics of a good summary. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/writing/handouts/summary

Ross, F. (n.d.). Writing summaries - FindYourFeet.de. Retrieved from http://www.findyourfeet.de

Job enlargement, job enhancement, job characteristics and employee works teams are the important part in job design. Discuss these points.

According to “Business dictionary.com,” (n.d.) job design will be defined as the set of opportunities and constraints structured into assigned tasks and responsibilities that affect how an employee accomplieshes and experiences work. Other than that, according to Morgeson & Humphrey; Parker & Wall (2008;1998, as cited in Grant, Fried & Juillerat) states job design is the process and outcomes of how work is structured, organized, experienced, and enacted. There are four important parts in dob design which is job enlargement, job enhancement, job characteristics and employee works teams.

            Job enlargement will be defined as expansion of the number of different tasks performed by an employee in single job (Chapter 15: Job Design, 2011). For example, one  auto mechanic switced from only changing oil to changing oil, greasing, and changing tranmission fluid. This work task have variety of services that the employee should do. This job enlargement will make the job tasks become more interesting. However, it is require more responsive to the higher level needs of employees by providing more variety in their job. The employees also always view job enlargement as just adding more routine, repetitive tasks to their already boring job.

            Job enhancement is the alternative term for job enrichment. Job enhancement will define as a job design technique that is a variation on the concept of job enlargement (Business Dictionary.com, 2011). It adds new sources of job satisfactio by increasing level of responsibility of the employee. It also refers to the empowerment of employees to assume more responsibility and accountability for planning, organizing, performing, controlling, and evaluating their own work. There are five factors for enhance jobs and motivating employees which are achievement, recognition, growth, responsibility and performance. For example, server in the dining area will take immediate action when customer have complaint about the food product or service that provided.

            Job characteristics also called as job factors. It will define as specific aspects to a job such as knowledge and skills, mental and physical demands, and working conditions that can be recognized and assessed (Business Dictionary.com, 2011). For example, to be a restaurant manager should have knowledge and skills in foodservice operation system. According to “Chapter 15 Job Design,” (2011), states job characteristics involves increasing the amounts of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback in a job. Skill variety, task identity and task significance are influence the experienced meaningfulness of work. Autonomy increase the feelings and attitudes of the employee towards their jobs. The feedback in job will give knowledge to the employee about their performances.

            

References

Business Dictionary.com (2011). Retrieved November 1, 2011, from http://www.businessdictionary.com

Grant, A.M., Fried, Y., & Juillerat, T. (n.d.). Work matters: Job design in classic and contemporary perspectives. Retrieved from http://www.management.wharton.upenn.edu/

Chapter 15: Job Design. (2011). Retrieved November 1, 2011 from http://www.swlearning.com/management/

Compare and contrast the similarities and diference between managing chain restaurant and foodservice by contract management.

According to Wyckoff and Sasser (1978, as cited in Reynolds & Dipietro, n.d.) chain restaurant defined as two or more eating establishments at separate locations under common ownership or related through other legal entities which provide food for consumption on or off premises. While foodservice by contract management is a part of the non-commercial or institutional segment of the foodservice sector (Haywood & Wilson, 2003). It is a business between owners of establishment and a management company that hired for coordinating and overseeing a contract of operation.

The similarities of the managing chain restaurant and foodservice by contract is both of the operations system have a contract. The chain restaurant has a contract between franchisor and franchisee. For example, restaurant franchise such as McDonalds that have many chain over the world. The foodservice management also has a contract between owners and management company. For example, a hospital in Malaysia such as Hospital Universiti Kubang Kerian (HUKM) hired BESTA as their management company to run their foodservice operation.

There are many different between chain restaurant and foodservice management contract. First different is the management of the operation itself. The chain restaurant manages their establishment by following their restaurant owner leveraging brand recognition. They must follow the standardized business methods and practices exactly as their owner. However, the foodservice management contract did not have specific business methods that same to the owner. They only need to meet owner obligations in order to deliver the objectives required from the contract.

Other than that, the different of both operations will see in owner’s contribution in the operation. The chain restaurant has more contribution of the owner in operation. This is because to ensure that the same identifiable physical attributes and service offerings. The chain operation also need follow the owner standards in product and service that provided to the customer. However, foodservice management contract has less contribution of the owner in the operation parts. The owner only aware about the objectives of the operation must achieved which is building good relationship between customer and provider.

The chain restaurant organization have the advantage of economies of scale regarding material and supplies, with vast market reach generated by brand recognition allowing for quick penetration into new markets (Muller & Woods, 1994). It also increase in customer preference and patronage, higher emotional ties to the brand, trusty and loyalty. But, for foodservice management contract has different benefit which is streamlined operations such as improvement in business process efficiency with automated workflow. Owner of the operation will get benefits from the management contract which is better performance management and risk mitigation. The management contract also will get benefit which is management fees that owner pay for them.

The last difference between both operations is the advantages of the operation. The disadvantage of chain restaurant are operating a chain restaurant can be more stressful, need a time to recover when particular chain restaurant experience negative publicity and the cost of a chain restaurant is expensive than set up our own business. However, the disadvantages of foodservice management contract are inadequate resources may occur, lack of experience in dealing with customer if false in hiring management company and failure to monitor and manage retained risks will lead to owner loss and bad image of organization.

References

Haywood, K. M. & Wilson, G. (2003). Chapter 3 – Contract Foodservice. Retrieved from http://www.download-it.org/

Reynolds, D. & Dipietro, R. B. (n.d.). Chain restaurant management. Retrived from http://webpac.lib.tku.edu.tw/lib/item

Foodservice is a unique and distinctive functions in Malaysian economy. In 10 years time of Malaysia development, how would you see changes that may occur in foodservice operations.

Foodservice industry is one of sector in Malaysia that growth faster. This is because due to the income elasticities of demand for food is bigger among consumers in Malaysia. The consumers’ trend expenditure pattern on foodservice in Malaysia is expected to continue into the future and grow at a faster rate (Tey, Mad, Zainalabidin, Amir & Alias, 2011). An increase in income has the propensity to lead to an increase in demand on foodservice. There are many changes that occur in foodservice in Malaysia since 10 years ago.

The first changes that we will see in the foodservice industry in Malaysia is international business expansion (Lim, n.d.). Malaysian people nowadays high demand on Western foods such as hamburger, hotdog, sandwich, fried chicken, pizza, steak and others. This situation influences the growth of restaurant that produces the types of food product demand such as fast food restaurant like KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and others. These type of restaurant enter the Malaysian market and becomes growing time to time.

Besides that, the internationalisation process also is one of the changes that we will see in the Malaysian foodservice industry. Internationalisation process is a process of increasing experiential knowledge that occur in our foodservice organization or firm (Lim, n.d.). Our Malaysian foodservice firms such as Secret Recipe, The Chicken Rice Shop, Marrybrown, Kyros Kebab, Sugar Bun and Nelson’s try to provides variety of food product and service type like international foodservice. For example, Marrybrown used Western-pronounce brand name and produce Western food. But, The Chicken Rice Shop used Western-pronounce brand name and provide Eastern food to their customer.

Other than that, the changes that occur in Malaysian foodservice is the increasing in Halal food product items. Since Malaysia has Muslim population around 60% of total population, the demands for halal food products is bigger. Most of the foodservice organization in Malaysia should have ‘halal licence’ from JAKIM to cater the demand of Muslim people. The increasing of foodservice firms that produce halal food also expand to the international market. The Malaysian foodservice firms is a global halal brand organization and becomes famous in Asia such as Secret Recipe that will enter foreign market after a year of operation (Lim, n.d.).

The other changes occur in foodservice operation is the system of foodservice organization itself. Nowadays, there are many franchise system that used in the foodservice in Malaysia. For example, the biggest of franchising foodservice organization in Malaysia is KFC and McDonalds. This type of foodservice operation help change in the way foodservice operation is operating. The quick service restaurant is growth in faster to cater the demand of customer nowadays. All the knowledges, skills, technologies and others from the franchise system will help Malaysian foodservice growth.

Foodservice operation in Malaysia also change in the technology due to the increasing of information technology (IT) nowadays. The foodservice firm will update their firm with new technology in order to increase their performance. They used the IT system for promotion, marketing, communication, operation, management and others. For example, the use of software in management of the operation helps them to communicate with the vendors, staff and customer of their firms.

Besides that, foodservice operation in Malaysia also change in food technology improvement. The food nowadays will be processed to the frozen foods and sell to the market. There are many Malaysian frozen product items such as donut, pastries like ‘karipap’ and ‘samosa’,fish product like ‘keropok lekor’, meat product like patty, nugget, meatball and others. These types of foods will lead to increasing in street kiosk or stall and also vehicle foodservice stall.

Lastly, the changes in Malaysian foodservice operation helps in growth of economic and gives job opportunity for the Malaysian people. The Malaysian government is one of the organization that help to the changes in Malaysian foodservice operation in Malaysia. Government give support and encouraged Malaysian to be an entrepreneur or businessman. This will increase in foodservice industry because this type of business is easy to entering and operating.

References

Lim, K.L. (n.d.). The facilitation at per-internationalisation stage: A study of Malaysian foodservice firms. Retrieved from http://www.internationalconference.com.my/

Tey, Y. S., Mad, N.S., Zainalabidin, M., Amin, M.A., & Alias, R. (2011). Expenditure patterns on foodservice in Malaysia. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality & Culinary Arts, 1-8.