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Managing Hospitality Organizations
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Managing Hospitality Organizations
Achieving Excellence in the Guest Experience

Third Edition


March 2024 | 656 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Managing Hospitality Organizations: Achieving Excellence in the Guest Experience, Third Edition takes students on a journey through the evolving service industry. Each chapter focuses on a core principle of hospitality management and is packed with practical advice, examples, and cases from some of the best companies in the service sector.

Authors Robert C. Ford and Michael Sturman emphasize the critical importance of focusing on the guest and creating an unforgettable customer experience. Whether your students will be managing a neighborhood café, a convention center, or a high-end resort hotel, they will learn invaluable skills for managing the guest experience in today’s ultracompetitive environment.

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SECTION 1: HOSPITALITY SERVICE STRATEGY
 
Chapter 1: The Basics of Wow! The Guest Knows Best
Guestology: What Is It?

 
The Guest Experience

 
Guest Expectations

 
Quality, Value, and Cost Defined

 
The Importance of Guestology

 
 
Chapter 2: Meeting Guest Expectations through Planning
Three Generic Strategies

 
The Hospitality Planning Cycle

 
Assessing The Environment

 
Assessing the Organization Itself: The Internal Assessment

 
Vision And Mission Statements

 
Developing The Service Strategy

 
Action Plans

 
 
Chapter 3: Setting the Scene for the Guest Experience
Creating “the Show”

 
Why Is the Environment Important?

 
A Model: How the Service Environment Affects the Guest

 
 
Chapter 4: Developing the Hospitality Culture: Everyone Serves!
The Importance of Leaders

 
The Importance Of Culture

 
Culture as a Competitive Advantage

 
Beliefs, Values, and Norms

 
Culture and the Environment

 
Communicating the Culture

 
Changing the Culture

 
 
SECTION 2: HOSPITALITY SERVICE STAFF
 
Chapter 5: Staffing for Service
The Many Employees of the Hospitality Industry

 
The First Step: Study the Job

 
The Second Step: Recruit a Pool of Qualified Candidates

 
The Third Step: Select the Best Candidate

 
The Fourth Step: Hire the Best Applicant

 
The Fifth Step: Make The New Hire Feel Welcome

 
The Sixth Step: Turnover—Retaining the Best and Selecting People Out of an Organization

 
 
Chapter 6: Training and Developing Employees to Serve
Employee Training

 
Developing a Training Program

 
Types of Training

 
Training Methods

 
Challenges and Pitfalls of Training

 
Employee Development

 
 
Chapter 7: Serving with a Smile: Motivating Exceptional Service
Motivating and Engaging Employees

 
The Needs People Have

 
The Rewards Managers Can Provide

 
Ways Rewards Can Motivate

 
How Managers and Leaders Provide the Right Direction

 
 
Chapter 8: Involving the Guest: the Co-Creation of Value
The Guest Can Help!

 
Strategies for Involving the Guest

 
Determining Where Co-Production Makes Sense

 
One Last Point: Firing the Guest

 
 
SECTION 3: HOSPITALITY SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM
 
Chapter 9: Communicating for Service
The Challenge of Managing Information

 
Information and the Service Product

 
Information and the Service Setting

 
Information and the Delivery System

 
Decision Support Systems

 
The Hospitality Organization as an Information System

 
 
Chapter 10: Planning the Service Delivery System
Planning and Designing the Service Delivery System

 
Developing the Service Delivery System

 
Planning Techniques

 
Targeting Specific Problem Areas in Service Delivery Systems

 
 
Chapter 11: Waiting for Service
Capacity and Psychology: Keys To Managing Lines

 
Queuing Theory: Managing the Reality of the Wait

 
Managing the Perception of the Wait

 
Service Value and the Wait

 
 
Chapter 12: Measuring and Managing Service Delivery
Techniques and Methods for Assessing Service Quality

 
Measuring Service Quality After the Experience

 
Finding And Using The Technique That Fits

 
 
Chapter 13: Fixing Service Failures
Service Failures: Types, Where, and Why

 
The Importance of Fixing Service Failures

 
Dealing With Service Failures

 
Recovering from Service Failure

 
 
Chapter 14: Service Excellence: Leading the Way to Wow!
The Three Ss: Strategy, Staffing, and Systems

 
Hospitality and the Future

 
Leading the Way into the Future

 
Leading and Managing

 
It All Begins—and Ends—with the Guest

 

Supplements

Instructor Resource Site
Online resources included with this text

The online resources for your text are available via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site, which offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides.

"This book provides a great overview of how to envision, strategize, and design the service environment through incorporating basic business theories with hospitality and service-based strategies."

Elizabeth A. Whalen
Middle Tennessee State University

"This book is a well-rounded textbook on blending the concepts of service and management in the 21C Hospitality Industry. I highly recommend a review for our 200-level service course."

Terri Jones
College of Southern Nevada

"This edition of Ford's Managing Hospitality Organizations is an essential textbook for students who are studying International Hotel Management. Not only does it describe the key elements of successful service but also has robust additional resources that allow students to develop their knowledge further. These can also be used within in-lecture activities and the case studies are particularly useful for class discussion. The content of this book supports many of our programme modules and I would highly recommend this to you and your students."

Jayne A. Griffith-Parry
University of Wales Trinity St David

"A perfect book for any Hospitality program, excellent instructor support, and a good resource for students."

Denise A. Braley
Mitchell College

"The book is a great addition to both classroom instruction and scholarly literature of the hospitality and service field. It covers various management tactics on service responsibilities, problems, and approaches to solutions. It challenges readers to identify issues associated with the problem and think outside the box to solve problems in the workplace. This is one of the most needed and highest-quality books we have in the field."

Wei Wang
University of Southern Mississippi

"This detail oriented book not only covers key concepts but utilizes real-life examples to make the content more convincing and validated. It is also a good book for in-class discussions and application practices."

Chih-Lun Yen
Ball State University

"A wide-ranging comprehensive text, looking at key contemporary issues in hospitality."

Alistair Williams
Johnson & Wales University

"We all know how important it is to turn customers into 'Raving Fans'—but getting everyone in an organization on board takes thoughtful action. Managing Hospitality Organizations offers fourteen principles of service that prove when you serve your people well, they will pass that service on to your customers. Whether you are a student or a manager on the front lines, if you want to create 'Raving Fans,' this book is for you!"

Ken Blanchard
Coauthor of The New One Minute Manager®, Raving Fans®, and Servant Leadership in Action

"Although Bob credits me as the 'Father of Guestology,' he and Mike have developed the concept of Guestology into an entire book that perfectly captures what it means to manage an organization from the guest's point of view. This is an excellent text to learn how to use the management philosophy I and my team pioneered to ensure that in every phase of the business, from the planning and design of new parks and attractions to their everyday operations, all Disney cast members are focused on satisfying and exceeding the Guest's wants, needs, and expectations."

Bruce Laval

"The second edition of Robert Ford and Michael C. Sturman's excellent text, Managing Hospitality Organizations, is a must read for students pursuing careers in the business of hospitality and the faculty who facilitate their learning. This new edition retains the right mix of theory and practice that students need, call it the art and science of hospitality, while incorporating key changes to how hospitality businesses interact with and satisfy their customers today, including the evolving role of technology in service strategies, systems and staffing and the changing nature of customers themselves. I congratulate the authors on a job well done!"

Michael D. Johnson
President, John Carroll University, Dean and E.M. Statler Professor Emeritus, Cornell School of Hotel Administration

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