La configuración del yo

Within manufacturing and service industries productivity is both a national and organisational issue. At national level, Government needs to establish favourable economic conditions to enable organisations to increase productivity. Within organisations, the traditional means of stimulating productivity has been through changes in working methods, often in a mechanical way (automation and computerisation). Techniques such as work study and organisation and methods (O.M.) are also used to examine ways of working, and to bring about changes that typically result in lower costs.

There is a constant theme in the literature over many years of writers depicting the service sector as being a low productivity area when compared with other sectors of industry. For example Elfring (1989) and Dilworth (1989) agree that productivity improvements outside of manufacturing industry have been less spectacular. However this view may now be obsolete as some areas of the service sector (for example banks and insurance companies) are now using computers and technology to dramatically improve productivity.

In the hotel and catering industry (part of the service sector), productivity is also esseotia! for growth and profitability. However certain factors in this labour-intensive industry need to be considered differently from the manufacturing sector. In hotel and catering, Human resource is a key factor in determining productivity, but it also has a very important role in influencing the nature of the customer experience. Pursuing productivity per se without considering customer impact can be self defeating. Labour costs may be reduced but, if customer satisfaction also diminishes, there may actually be a detrimental effect on productivity due to longer term loss of revenue.

Within the generic literature review it has been found that a predominant amount of literature concerns how the employee can be productive. This has been investigated and defined rigorously as it identifies the working combination of employee/catering technology as a key issue in achieving productivity.

3.1.2 Defining and Measuring Productivity

Dilworth (1989) has defined productivity as the ratio of all outputs over all inputs. Whilst this may be useful as a general approach, different authors have attempted to be more specific by depicting this relationship numerically or by formulae. Productivity has also been defined by Greenberg and Ross (1978) as a measurement of production, with the ratio of output to input as the numerical measurement. According to Rose (1980) productivity is the measurement of resources that are needed to produce an identified output. Outputs can also be assessed as partial measures of productivity along the continuum between the input of resources and the output of resulting goods and services. Resource inputs include labour, which according to American productivity convention would include all aspects of labour, (both direct and indirect). Labour inputs can be reduced, for example by decreasing the amount of time required to produce menu items (the outputs), this would increase productivity. One of the most common productivity measures is meals per productive work hour. However Brown and Hoover (1990) dispute the use of such measures by pointing out that in many food service operations, there is no quantitative basis for determining the time required to produce and to serve a specific menu item by a trained employee working at a normal pace. Nevertheless it is surely possible to compute total labour hours and compare these with total production.

As with all statistics, the basis of measurement needs to be selected with care (Hopwood 1974). Possibly the area for discussion is better explained by Jones (1990) who defines productivity as the difference between inputs and outputs. "Inputs" refer to the resources used in making a product and providing a service;

whilst "output" is the product or service itself. Whilst demonstrably true, this can lead to difficulties for those seeking to depict this relationship quantitatively. Within the hotel and catering industry it is difficult to measure and calculate "inputs" entailing an assessment of the intangible services, (e.g. the chefs' creativity and restaurant ambience), and their effect on customers in order to generate the "output" of the meals served. This illustrates that further difficulties arise when attempts are made to include productivity factors which are not readily expressed in quantitative financial terms. Productively measures often avoid this dilemma by including only those elements of productivity which can be measured quantitatively.

Figure 3.1.1 Productivity Measured Quantitatively

Examples of inputs and outputs

II

labour goods, products

money services

materials (often measured

energy financially)

(Adapted from: Heap 1992)

The problem of ’low1 productivity and how to deal with it is a constant theme in the literature. According to Kotschevar (1968), the productivity of a worker in the foodservice industry was at that time (1968) low compared with other industries. He maintained this may have been caused by employing low-cost semi-skilled and untrained labour who were not capable of achieving higher productivity. This view is still relevant today as many catering sectors depend on casual, low paid, untrained labour to fill in for absent employees or unfilled vacancies.

The problem of obtaining higher productivity from the labour supply is not an easy one to solve (Brendel et al 1985). A possible solution to this in the food production/service industry would be to change production methods so that meals can be produced in mass quantities. Then it is possible to take advantage of machine bulk technological production, to increase output. However Mill (1989) disputes this, maintaining "that little substitution of technology for people can occur without losing the whole meaning of the terms hospitality and service".

Johns and Wheeler (1991) adopt a financial basis to measure productivity within the UK catering industry as:

Figure 3.1.2 Measuring Financial Productivity