Methodology
Discuss about the Hospitality Communication Interview.
The services in the hospitality industry are widely understood for involving the effective interpersonal communication between the customers and the service providers. The hospitality sector is generally people-oriented (Rajesh and Suganthi 2015). Therefore, it is essential to establish the effective interpersonal communication skills for maintaining the customer satisfaction. In order to understand the underlying challenges with the interpersonal communication skills in hospitality industry, we have interviewed an employee from this sector. Stephen Moody is the assistant manager of a five star restaurant in Sydney named The Luxurious, which is associated with 300 staffs. With the capacity of accommodating almost 350 customers once at a time, this restaurant offers the luxurious ambience to the customers who are searching for the luxurious dine out experiences with their family or friends. The restaurant is quite cautious about their hospitality services due to which the staffs receive the adequate training on this segment. The interpersonal communication is the vital consideration in case of hospitality department (Litvin Goldsmith and Pan 2018). The study will develop the understanding regarding the significance of interpersonal communication in the hospitality industry. Furthermore, the study will analyse the methods applied to interview Mr. Moody to gather ideas about the maintenance of this interpersonal communication in this restaurant. The alignment with the theoretical concept, the study will develop the insightful ideas regarding the subject matter.
The selection of the appropriate method is essential for conducting a study in a systematic way (Brinkmann 2014). We have selected the qualitative interview process to question the assistant manager of this restaurant. It was not an easy process to conduct an interview of a manager who might not be interested in sharing the business strategies or business functionalities with everyone. However, be prepared a set of questions regarding the interpersonal communication process in Hospitality Management. We maintained the sincerity level to question in a decent way. The questions did not contain any personal information and maintain the general ideas regarding the interpersonal communication in the hospitality industry, the maintenance of the ethics and integrity helped in conducting this interview session in a successful manner. The idea is obtained from this interview will be linked to the theoretical background for deriving the necessary knowledge related to the subject area.
I have applied the persuasive skill theory in which I had a clear goal in my mind by ensuring my credibility. I selected a positive and tactful tone and ensure that my presentation was clear. It was necessary for me to identify the code areas of interpersonal communication that reflects the whole scenario within our hospitality sector. The identification of the voice modulation and body language was also a part of this interview session (Wolgemuth et al. 2015). I developed stronger arguments as support that help me to identify the adverse situation created on the hospitality sector due to the barriers in the interpersonal communication. I tried to focus on appealing to the others feelings of self interest and use logic to elaborate the matter in a very significant way. It was quite helpful for me to identify the behavioural aspects of the associated memories within the hospitality industry. It will also help in understanding the necessity of developing the interpersonal communication level to ensure the better hospitality services for the customers.
Findings
The findings from the interview session developed the knowledge about the interpersonal communication process in the hospitality industry. One of the major problems discussed by the manager was the cultural differences that create the barrier in developing the interpersonal communication. It was noticed that the restaurant was involved with people from different background. In some of the cases, many employees feel pressurized when there is a heavy workload in the restaurant. Sometimes, they fail to address the needs of the customers due to which they need to face issues with the customer dissatisfaction. Hence, the restaurant also faces some of the strategic implementation to mitigate the challenges in this aspect. Another question asked to the manager about the strategies to deal with the employees from different background. In response to this question the manager implied that before deploying any employee, the restaurant ensures that they have the previous experiences on the same field. The senior managers even provide the hospitality training to develop a better interpersonal communication with the customers.
Cultural communication is one of the most helpful strategies that can be applied to the hospitality industry. The findings derived from the interview session develop ideas about the barriers faced by the hotel staff while communicating with the management as well as the customers. Most problematic area was the cultural differences (Ibrahim 2016). The theoretical perspectives analyse that it is necessary to develop the generic intercultural skills (Jiang and Alexakis 2017). It is important to take the responsibility for communication and develop the withholding judgment. The intercultural communication also suggests the high level of integrity, showing respect, tolerating ambiguity, empathizing, and making flexible approaches. The management of the restaurants needs to consider these aspects while developing a better interpersonal communication with their stuff (Najar and Bukhari 2017). When the steps have the cleared ideas about the job roles and responsibility, it becomes easier for them to shape their attributes accordingly. Moreover the management needs to be concerned about increasing the cultural sensitivity of an individual. The communicational transparency in and interpersonal way would be beneficial who developed the better working atmosphere in the restaurant (Brien, Thomas and Hussein 2015). It will also promote and improved for the betterment of the hospitality services.
Conclusion
Then study reflects on the development of Ideas regarding the necessity of interpersonal communication in the hospitality sector. The interview was conducted to identify the interpersonal communication issues in the restaurant, The Luxurious. The assistant manager Mr. Moody explained that due to the cultural differences, majority of the issues arise in establishing the interpersonal communication between the management and the associated employees. However, it is also describe that the management takes active participation in developing the more appropriate hospitality training for the betterment of the services. Based on the theoretical perspectives, it is noticeable that the establishment of the intercultural communication process would be much beneficial for the restaurant mitigate the issues with the interpersonal communication. The further recommendation will be provided to resolve the issues.
Discussion
The study reflects at the restaurant has been facing the interpersonal communication challenges due to the diverse cultural background of the employees. In order to resolve the issues with such interpersonal communication, it is important to concentrate on some of the specific strategies. One of the most effective strategies is to develop the non verbal communication with the people from diverse cultural and lingual background. Non-verbal communication is one of the most effective components of communicational context. The use of the appropriate body language, expression, sense of empathy, and voice modulation would be effective enough for the management to train the employees who are from diverse cultural background. The executive chefs or the supervisors in the restaurant need to help your coworkers and develop their understanding regarding the importance of customer satisfaction. The help received from the seniors would be much beneficial to maintain and interpersonal relationship with in the hospitality sector. On the other hand, the managers also need to developed appreciation buy greeting the employees with respect. in addition to the development of the greater listening skill will also be helpful enough to establish a skilled interpersonal communication.
References
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