Industrial Orientation Resit 1

Module Assignment Resources – Industrial orientation

Industrial orientation“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand”

(Confucius)

About: Café de Waterpoort

Location: Tiel, The Netherlands

Function: Weekend supervisor, bartender, waiter

International Hospitality Management – Stenden University Leeuwarden Page 1

Figure 1, Café de Waterpoort (Zetten)


Industrial orientation

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand” (Confucius)

Pieter van Zetten / 126446

Stenden University of applied sciences

International Hospitality Management

Leeuwarden

The Netherlands

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment for the Requirements of the degree Programme

Bachelor of Business Administration

June 2010



Declaration of personal work

I declare that:

The content of this report is entirely written in my own words.

I will always use quotation signs whenever quoting somebody.

I put together the whole report on my own.

I mention the sources used at all times.

Signature:

Date: 30/06/2010

Pieter van Zetten



Executive summaryThis report analysis the human resource management of Café de Waterpoort. The objective of this report is find out exactly how the company manages their human resources.

Sources used to write this report are the book provided by school (you can find them in the reference list) as well as mister Edwin Engelen en the lectures / workshops provided by the school.

The author has concluded out of the report that the human recourses are better managed than he expected, he was able to analyse the company according to the hrm model one page fourteen of this report. The forecasting as well as the recruitment are done by the supervisors. The training on the job is done by a personal trainer and if the employee works hard he can also get external trainings.

There is a regional identity within the company that makes sure that all the guests will feel at home.

The legal position of the company is a sole proprietorship. And the owner sticks to the CBA as much as possible. To protect the environment the company takes actions against sound, waste and energy wastage.

Mister Engelen is a delegating leader and he has given a good score to the author on its appraisal. The author can try to improve his behaviour against guests and colleagues.



PrefaceThis report is an assignment of the Stenden University of applied sciences. All first year students of the International Hospitality Management faculty need to write a report about the human resource department of a company they have worked in. There is however one rule, the student must carry or have carried out at least 40 hours of work at the company.

I wrote this assignment about Café de Waterpoort. This café is situated in Tiel, The Netherlands. I am working in this café since 29 April 2010. Since then I have worked as a bartender, cook, supervisor and waiter. This means that I have experienced all the ins and outs of Café de Waterpoort.

The difficulties that I experienced during the writing of the report were mostly my prior knowledge of human recourse management. This problem was solved by following the HRM lectures and PBL. Another problem is that I don’t see my supervisor that often. We only speak two or three times a month. This problem was solved by conversations by phone or scheduled meetings.

Furthermore I want to acknowledge the help I got from my supervisor, he was very willing to help me. Also my lecturers and tutor helped me to write this report.

29/06/2010, LeeuwardenPieter van Zetten



Table of contents

Introduction.........................................................................................................................8

Company analysis...............................................................................................................9

Company type....................................................................................................................9

Price category....................................................................................................................9

Company culture..............................................................................................................10

Target group....................................................................................................................10

Marketing mix..................................................................................................................11

Place................................................................................................................................11

Product............................................................................................................................11

Price.................................................................................................................................11

Promotion........................................................................................................................12

Human resources (Dessler, 2008)....................................................................................13

Human resource policy....................................................................................................14

Forecasting......................................................................................................................15

Recruitment & selection...................................................................................................15

Introduction......................................................................................................................15

Psychological working conditions....................................................................................15

Physical working conditions.............................................................................................16

Performance appraisal.....................................................................................................16

Training & developing......................................................................................................16

Compensation..................................................................................................................17

Career development........................................................................................................17

Strengths & weaknesses in the company’s HRM policy..................................................17

Cultural diversity...............................................................................................................18

Company’s cultural diversity............................................................................................18

Advantages & disadvantages of the culture mix..............................................................19

Kluckhohn & Strodbeck’s value orientation.....................................................................19

Culture shock...................................................................................................................20

Prejudices(Martin&Nakayama, 2010)..............................................................................20

Cultural awareness..........................................................................................................21

Intercultural conflict..........................................................................................................21



Legal position....................................................................................................................22

Labour agreement.............................................................................................................23

Difference between gross and net salary........................................................................24

Environment......................................................................................................................25

Motivation..........................................................................................................................26

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs...........................................................................................26

Herzberg’s two factor theory............................................................................................26

Skinner’s reinforcement theory........................................................................................27

My supervisor....................................................................................................................28

Main turning point............................................................................................................28

A typical working day.......................................................................................................28

Theory x or y....................................................................................................................28

Situational leadership......................................................................................................28

Supervisor evaluation.......................................................................................................29

Conclusion.........................................................................................................................31

Personal note.....................................................................................................................32

What did I learn?..............................................................................................................32

Were my expectations met?............................................................................................32

What did I found attractive about this company and this sector of the hospitality industry?.........................................................................................................................................32

To what extend do I think hospitality is the industry I want to work in?...........................32

Personal goals.................................................................................................................32

Reference list.....................................................................................................................34

Appendices........................................................................................................................35



Introduction

This report is written as an assignment of Stenden University of applied sciences. The meaning was to analyse the human resource management of Café de Waterpoort.

The report is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter explains the company type, category, company culture and the marketing mix that is applicable to the company. In chapter two the organisational structure is given including the jobs and their tasks. Also is in this chapter the hrm module explained by using examples. To close this chapter three strengths and weaknesses are given. The third chapter is about cultural diversity. In this chapter the company culture is described as well as the stages of culture shock the author went thru when he started working at the company. The fourth chapter mentions the legal position of the company, followed by a comparison between the CBA and the way thing are done in the company. Chapter seven gives an overview of the measures the company takes to protect the environment. To end the report the last four chapters include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs an outline of the authors supervisor and an performance appraisal of the author given by his supervisor. Last nu



Company analysis

Café de Waterpoort is located in Tiel, this is a small place between Utrecht and Arnhem in The Netherlands. The café is situated on a square, only occupied with bars, cafés and restaurants. Unfortunately the café doesn’t stand out on the outside but when you enter the café you will immediately feel at ease. The interior is like the interior every house can have and therefore gives the café a homely and friendly impression. During the day there are lots of light entering the café and in the evening and night the decorational lights do their work.

The café is divided into two parts, the normal floor and a podium. In total there are just seven tables in the café, two of them are located on the podium. Next to the seven tables there are also two barrels with bar stools and also at the bar are 10 bar stools. This means that the café, inside, offers 43 seating’s.

According to the permit granted by the city council. The café is permitted to have 90 people inside. Unfortunately the floor space doesn’t allow the owner to place more tables or chairs. During the day 43 seats is enough for the company but when the evening, and also party time, starts 47 other people will have to stand. Luckily this isn’t a problem because most or the guests like to dance and walk around.

During the summertime’s we also make use of our terrace. The terrace is situated around the café and includes 25 tables. This means that when the terrace is open we have place for another 100 guests.

The company also has a small kitchen. This kitchen serves food like baguettes and sandwiches. Also hot snacks can be made.

Whenever there are holidays like queensday or “bevreidingsfeest” the café organizes together with the other hospitality companies situated on the square nice events. By doing this the use of the square is optimized and all the companies have some nice promotion.

Company typeThe company is a small business, it only has a license for 90 people inside. Next to the owner there are just seven employees, during the summer months three more employee members will be hired. These employees will be hired because of the opening of the terraces during the summer months. If the terraces are opened the capacity of the café grows from 90 guests to 180 guests.

Price categoryThe prices used by the company are midrange prices. The prices are set by multiplying the cost price by four. After this calculation the prices are compared to the prices of the company’s competitors. Mostly the prices turn out to be similar. This means that a glass of beer (0,25L) will cost €2,25 and a sandwich will cost between €3,50 and €5,00.



Company cultureThere are four known company cultures (Keizer&Benhadda, 2009, p.164-169). These cultures are the family culture, the eiffel tower culture, the guided missile and the incubator. The style that suits Café de Waterpoort best is the family culture. The relation between the employees could be described as a family bond. The boss as well as the supervisor (this author) are very people orientated. They believe that to create the best environment for the guest the employees should be happy and motivated to serve the guests. That there is an Eiffel tower culture is showed by the fact that when employees don’t know how to do something, how to handle or how to react they can always trust on their colleagues or on the supervisor working at that moment. Furthermore if one of the employees is unable to work because of sickness or other problems they often make sure by themselves that there is somebody else available to work (The owner makes the schedules in collaboration with the author but the employees are free to exchange shifts if needed. This is also possible because of the fact that all the employees are acquainted with all the jobs need to be carried out.).

Target groupBecause Tiel is a small city with only 40.000 inhabitants and more than 30 similar bars/cafés it is really difficult to set one target group. Despite this fact the two biggest target groups for the company are youth between the ages of 18 and 30 and guests between the ages of 30 an 65 with a normal income. There is not really an explanation why the café has these two target groups. Fact is that in Tiel all the guests going to bars, cafés and restaurants have their own favourite place. This has been like this since the beginning of the hospitality square. The café has tried to get a younger public by dropping prices or making discount cards for students but the only thing happening was that the guests that already came drank a little more and new guests did not come. After that the café started with live music once a week. The music played was mostly soul and rock to attract an older public, but again nothing happened. However an increasing target group are tourists. Last month the café has signed a contract with “Het Flipje Museum”. This means that tourists that will visit the museum pay slightly more for their ticket but they can come and drink a cup of coffee/thee on our terrace. Also the café is located near to the river “de Waal” next to this river is a long stretching dyke and during the summer lots of tourists use this dyke for cycling or hiking.


Figure 2, Four company cultures (www.andrews.edu/~tidwell/bsad560/CorpCult.gif, 2010)


Marketing mixIn this company analysis will only be spoken about the four P’s (Kotler, Bowen & Makens, 2010). The author’s opinion is that this will provide you with enough information about the company.

PlaceThe company is located in a small city, Tiel, in the middle of Utrecht and Arnhem. The company is situated on a square. This square is easily accessible by own transport or by public transport. Next to the square is a parking that offers place to more than 1000 cars and there is a bus stop 186 meters away of the front door of the café.

The café can also be found on internet, there are two pages you can look for. These are http://www.cafedewaterpoort.nl and http://cafedewaterpoorttiel.hyves.nl. On their own website guests are able to enrol. By doing this they can watch photo’s taken by employees or discuss upcoming or past events. By enrolling all guests needs to give private information like their address, phone number and email. The café is able to use this information to send a newsletter every month or to promote upcoming events. The websites are not really distribution channels (Kotler, Bowen & Makens, 2010) because there are no external agencies or companies involved on the websites.

ProductThe café serves coffee and thee, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. Next to the drinks the café also serves small lunch dishes.

A somewhat more untouchable product the café offers is the experience of a day/night out. The ambiance is very friendly and everyone is welcome, it doesn’t matter which language you speak or what culture you have.

PriceThe café uses the competition based pricing (Kotler, Bowen & Makens, 2010) strategy. This means that they use the same prices for the same products as their competitors do. For the company is it more important to have a nice price compared to the competitors then to calculate the price. Café de Waterpoort is not the only café that works like this and therefore most prices on the square are similar. However every month Café de Waterpoort introduces a new drink. This drink will be priced using the market penetration strategy, the café will start with a price just above the cost price in the first week. In the second week the price will be slightly raised. In the third week the price will be raised again and in the fourth week the product will have its “real” price. By doing this guests will get to know the drink and order it also when it is sold for a normal price.



PromotionThe promotion of Café the Waterpoort is mostly done by word of mouth advertisement. The owner has noticed that this is his best promotion tool. Other mediums, used for promotion, are the internet (webpage and hyves) and some local newspapers. As explained within the place part the website contains a database with private information about the guests. This information is used to send flyers about upcoming events and discounts as well as the drink of the month.

On the square are also two signs of the café, promotion some of the theme nights, live music or new products. Inside the café there is a sign that tells the guest all the nights there will be live music played.

Figure 3, The four P's (http://www.westmidesign.com/4ps.png)



Human resources (Dessler, 2008)

To describe the structure of the company the author will first provide you with an organisation chart, showing all the positions in the company, including the position of the author.

Figure 4, Organisational structure of Café de Waterpoort

Because Café de Waterpoort is just a small company there are only two supervisors, these are the owner and the author. The owner supervises during the week and the author supervises during the weekends. All the personnel need to “report” to the owner or the weekend supervisor. The author only needs to report to the owner.

Because of the size of the company the author is completely free to make all the decisions during the weekend.

If for some reason the owner is sick he will be replaced by the author or one of the bartenders. This is possible because the complete staff knows all the important actions to be taken to keep the café running.

The duties of the supervisors are mainly:

Ordering products / stay in touch with the supply industry Making schedules Checking the till Store the money Handle with difficult customers Selection Training Supervising the employees


Owner/Supervisor

Bartenders Kitchen staff Waitresses

Supervisor weekends

(The author)


In the kitchen is the kitchen staff the boss. They can do whatever they want and how they want it, as long as they collaborate with one of the supervisors. The supervisors are also the ones that need to order the products. When the kitchen staff arrives they start by cleaning out the dishwasher and preparing the food for the day. When they are finished with this they help their colleagues to open the terrace. Once this is opened they return to the kitchen and start cooking. Whenever it is not needed to cook the kitchen staff will clean the kitchen or behind the bar. When the kitchen closes they clean everything and report which products are needed to the supervisor. When they are finished cleaning they can go home.

The waiters and waitresses start the day by cleaning the café because when the café closes the sun is under and not everything will be seen. When they are finished they will open the café and the terrace. They will have to take the orders and need to communicate these to the bartenders and the kitchen staff. This is done by notes instead of hand held ordering system. The owner find that the employees have more control over the orders this way.

The bartenders start by cleaning the bar and the refrigerators. One this is completed they help to open the café and the terrace. When there is an order the bartenders need to make sure that they have the complete order within minutes on a tray for the waiters and waitresses. They are also the once who are responsible for the till. The waiters/waitresses take the orders and the bartenders put them into the pay system. During the day the bartenders see what they use and they also write it down. This means that on the end of every day the supervisor is able to see what he needs to order.

When there is an mistake, mix-up, difficult situation or something else giving problems all the staff always needs to report to the supervisor. He will think of a solution, often in collaboration with the employees.

Human resource policyTo describe the human resource policy of the company the author will make use of the HRM model used in the module book of the module resources. Because the company is small some of the subjects will only be described shortly.



Figure 5, HRM model

ForecastingThere are three cases in which the owner and the author needs to go searching for new personnel. These three options are:

Long during illness of one of the staff members. One of the employees leaves the company. Summertime

The first situation can’t be forecasted, in the second situation the employee is obligated to give notice to the owner at least one month in advance. And the third option is summertime, this is every year in the same period and the owner and author starts to seek new employees two months in advance.

Recruitment & selectionTo recruit the new personnel the company makes use of the local newspapers. They place advertisements in three of four different papers, applicants should send a letter including their c.v..

For the selection the applicants are interviewed by the owner, the author or both. When the interview goes well the applicant is asked to do an internship of one day (unpaid). During this day the owner of supervisor will be present. The applicant will get an appraisal and according to this conversation is decided whether the applicant is hired or not.

IntroductionWhen the applicant has become a staff member he still has to pass a one month trial period. Within this month the contract can be ended immediately. This can be done by the owner or by the former applicant. In this month the new employee will carry out all the tasks within the company, he or she will spend time being a bartender, waiter (waitress) or kitchen staff. The employee will be provided by a “personal trainer”. This is a person who will teach the new employee all ins and outs of the company and his tasks. The trainer will also inform the owner or supervisor about the development.

The author also underwent this procedure. On his first working day he started as a bartender. A that time his personal trainer was the owner himself. After carrying out this task for one week he had learned all the drinks that could be ordered and knew the prices. After this week he went to the kitchen staff and learned to cook all the dishes the café serves. Also he learned to improvise when some products are out of stock. The last training period the author worked as a waiter. During his waiter period he learned how to serve guests and how to react to them. Also he was able to advice the guests about what products to order (food and beverages).

Psychological working conditionsAll the employees will work according to the CBA for the hospitality industry. Both the employer and the employee will have to stick to the statements in the agreement.

Further the employee will experience a very friendly and family like environment. There are a few house regulations that every staff member has to take into consideration. These regulations are given to every new team member and also published in the kitchen.



Some of these rules are for instance:

You can drink as much as you want as long as you don’t drink alcohol! All employees must look representative, this means they need to wear the company

clothing and spend enough attention to personal hygiene.

Physical working conditionsTo make sure that the café is a safe environment to work in all the employees need to clean every day, this is made easy by the owner because the kitchen and the bar are build to be easily cleaned. There are no sharp corners (like the corner of the worktop with the wall, all these corners are rounded of) in the kitchen the floor is coated with a special coating against slippery. All over the café are lights placed so there is enough light.

One of the biggest problems is the internal noise coming from the music installation. Because all the employees need to work in this noise they risk damage to their ears. To solve this problem the owner buys for every new staff member customized ear plugs. These will filter out the music but it is still able to speak to each other or with the guests.

When staff members need to work for more than six and a half hour they will get five euro of the owner to buy some food elsewhere. If the shift is longer than ten hours the employee will get ten euro to buy a meal.

Performance appraisalAll personnel will get an appraisal every day that they work. This appraisal will be given by either the owner or the supervisor. On the end of every shift. There is a small appraisal that takes two or three minutes. In this appraisal the employee will get honest feedback about his tasks of the day.

Once every three months there is an appraisal of 30 minutes. This appraisal will be given by the owner only. All employees will be given feedback, including excellent points and if needed some points for improvement.

Because the company believes that not only the employees should get an appraisal, the owner also gets an appraisal. All employees are free to give feedback at every time but once every three months there is one hour scheduled that all the employees and the owner come together. In this hour the employees need to give thorough feedback to the owner.

Training & developingThe first training a new employee will receive is on the job training. They start there trial month by working the first week as a bartender, the second week as a cook and the third week as a waiter/waitress. In the last week the employee will do everything. During this one month trial period the employee has a personal coach that teaches him/her everything there is to know. This means that after the first month the employee is well worked in and can be placed everywhere within the company.

The owner wants that his personnel is fully motivated to do their job. Therefore he offers trainings to employees that work in the company longer than six months, or if you sign your second contract if you only work during the summer.



The courses will be given by SVH. This is a company specialized in hospitality trainings. One of their trainings for instance is Social Hygiene. Another training can be Liquor Knowledge.

CompensationAll employees get paid to the measures of the CBA for the hospitality industry. Next to this normal compensation there is also a bonus. This bonus can be earned by your attitude. The owner and supervisor will grade the attitude of an employee member during the month. According to the grade the employee will get a bonus. It is also possible for the employees to celebrate their birthday in the café, the prices will be strongly reduced than.

Career developmentBecause of the size of the company there is no real career development for the employees. However if an employee decides to leave the company they can ask the owner to write a letter of recommendation and he will be happy to do so.

Strengths & weaknesses in the company’s HRM policyTo get more understanding of the HRM policy of Café de Waterpoort the author will give you three strengths and three weaknesses that could be improved. The weaknesses will be mentioned first and then the strengths.

Weaknesses

All the work that needs to be done for the HRM policy is only done by one person during the week. This means that if for some reason the owner can’t be there, there is no one to do it.

Because of the workload for the owner sometimes he doesn’t have enough time for the HRM.

Some days the atmosphere between the employees is so good that they forget they also need to perform.

Strengths

All the staff is really motivated because of the atmosphere, trainings and compensation.

All the rules are very clear for all the employees. Unattended the owner has a lot of authority because he trusts his employees and

treat them well



Figure 6, A chain is only as strong as its weakest link



Cultural diversity

This chapter will include the cultural diversity within the company (Keizer&Benhadda, 2009).

Company’s cultural diversityA company can have four types of company culture. These are national, regional, ethnic and personal.

Because the company is small and local orientated the company has a regional identity. This means that all the employees come from Tiel or one of the small city’s just outside Tiel. Because this is not really interesting the author has decided to provide you with the information of the personal identities. This includes gender, age, social class and the education of the employees. To do so, a few figures are given below.

According to figure 7 you can conclude that there are more male than female employees, a goal for the summer months can be to get this equal.

Figure 8 shows that the ages are well balanced within the company

As figure 9 shows, we are all in the same social class. This is a feeling the author has. All employees have moderate pay and they all live in the same sort of city regions. That all the staff members are in the same social class makes it easier to communicate.


35

Gender

FemaleMale 4

3

1

Age

18 - 2230 - 4045 +

Figure 7, Gender

8

Social class

Medium

Figure 8, Age

44

Highest completed education

MavoHavo

Figure 9, Social class

Figure 10, Highest completed education


Also the education is well balanced according to figure 10. Three of the employees completed the HAVO have started an education at a “Hogeschool” for a bachelor level.

Advantages & disadvantages of the culture mixThe biggest disadvantage of this cultural mix is that there is no one who has completed a “Hogeschool” and obtained the bachelor title. Another disadvantage is that all the employees and the owner come from the same social class. If there would be some diversity there you could have some different angles on how guests see the café.

A big advantage is that the ages are nicely represented. This means that there will be several ideas about the promotions and the products of the company. However education was described as a disadvantage can it also be an advantage. The fact that people have a low education can also mean that they are more practical.

Kluckhohn & Strodbeck’s value orientationKluckhohn and Strodbeck describe four elements. These are human nature, person-nature relationship, time orientation and relation to each other.

Human natureStaff can be divided into three categories. These are good, bad and a mixture of both. The employee working in Café de Waterpoort all falls in to the category good. This means that they are hard working and trustworthy. As a result of this there will be more empowerment and less supervision. Because the employees are all good the owner and the supervisor doesn’t always have to be present. They are always present by opening and closing the café but in between the staff can be left alone. They can make most decisions by themselves and don’t need the help of a supervisor. When there is an extra job to do for a day the owner only have to tell for instance that the ice machine is due for its monthly cleaning and it will be carried out by one of the employees when the time lets them.

Person-nature relationAgain there are three categories, mastery, harmony and submission. The employees of the company fall into the harmony category. They all contribute to the company. They all take initiative and always try to improve the company or its products. This is showed by the fact that all employees think about their job en the products. When they find something is wrong or should be improved they will try to find a solution and tell the owner. For instance if the bartenders notice that one of the products is hardly ordered they will inform the owner and give an solution like lowering the price or change the product.

Time orientationAgain there are three elements, past, present and future. The staff probably falls in between the category present and future. They work like life should be enjoyed, but they also think about future achievements. This is shown by the fact that all employees work together like one big family and after the café is closed they take a drink together and talk about the achievements for the day, were they good or should they be improved. If it is needed to improve a discussion will follow about what should be improved.

Relation to each otherHere also are three categories, hierarchical/authoritarian, collective and individualistic. Within the company everybody works together like they are one big family. This means that they fall



into the category collective. The “management” is willing to share the points of view of the employees for the benefit of the company. After every shift there is a small appraisal of one or two minutes. Within this appraisal the employee is also able to give their view and the owner or supervisor will seriously listen and search for possible future steps.

Culture shockAccording to Hellriegel (2005) there are four stages of culture shock. The author will now explain how he experienced a culture shock when he first started working in the company.

Optimistic phase (honeymoon)Because the HRM policy was very different two years ago when the author started working in the company he did not experience the honeymoon phase. He went immediately to the rejection phase. This was due to the fact that the first working day of the author was “queensnight”. He came in to the café and was immediately placed behind the bar. This happened without explanations and he just had to start working. The author had to learn everything by himself, even the most normal things like were to find the soft drinks.

Cultural problems (rejection)During the rejection phase the author started to learn how to work behind a bar. He learned where to find the soft drinks and where to find all the alcoholic beverages. During his shift he also learned how to communicate with the waiters and waitresses and moreover also how to communicate to the guests (they also ordered their drinks immediately at the bar). Because of this the author went in the recovery phase already after his first shift.

Recovery phase (adaption)Because the author went very quickly thru the rejection phase he adapted very fast. He needed just one more shift (with a bit explanation) to go thru to the fourth phase, the integration phase.

Adjustment phase (integration)After the second day of work the author already felt comfortable in the company, the customers also saw how his start was and they respected the author. Because of this a bond was established very fast between the author and the guests. Because not only the guests but also the colleagues of the author had seen his struggle and how it turned out he was also respected by the other employees and the owner.

Prejudices (Martin&Nakayama, 2010)A prejudice is “An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)

A small prejudice that can appear in the hospitality industry, mainly in bars and cafés is that the bill never is correct. Some people are convinced that the bartender always let them pay more than they drunk.


Figure 11, Prejudice


A prejudice from the side of the employees often is that they think people can’t afford to drink/eat something and they want to get paid right away. This often occurs when guests are already a bit drunk and enter the café in less than descend clothes. Mostly when you just let them drink they will drink more and pay on the end.

These two prejudices can be measured according to the Allport scale. This scale has five levels, antilocution, avoidance, discrimination, physical attack and extermination. The first prejudice (view of the customer) is antilocution this means that a group of persons make jokes about another group of people. These jokes are not harmful. If you go higher on the Allport scale the unwanted behaviour can be discriminating our there can even be physical attacks. The second prejudice (view of the employee) is also in scale one of the Allport scale (antilocution). Again this prejudice is not harmful for the people it is directed to.

Cultural awarenessThe author will describe the cultural awareness of one of the employee’s working in Café de Waterpoort. The staff member that will be described is a waitress with the age of 18. She started working in the company in March this year. There are four stages of cultural awareness. These stages are:

1. Unconscious incompetence2. Conscious incompetence3. Conscious competence4. Unconscious competence

The employee knows that there cultural differences exists but she doesn’t know them. Therefore she could easily make mistakes that can be misinterpreted. This means she is in stage two (conscious incompetence). An example of this is if a German guest orders a beer with coke. In Germany these two drinks are often mixed. The employee doesn’t understand that they should be mixed and brings a full glass of beer and a full glass of coke.

In stage one people doesn’t know that cultural differences exists. In stage three people try to influence their behaviour so they won’t make mistakes and in stage four the people don’t even need to think about influencing their attitude. They will do it without knowing.

Intercultural conflictIn the hospitality industry it is normal when you are waiter or waitress that you first ask the woman what they would like to drink/eat and then the men. One day the author was watering and he went to a table. As usually he first asked the lady what she wanted to drink. Because of this her husband started yelling that the author did not showed respect to him. The man wanted to see the manager.

The owner of the company came and he asked what the problem was. The man explained that in his culture the man is always the one who is spoken to. And that he was insulted by the author. The owner explained that it is common to addresses the woman first and the man after that and apologized. The guests got a free drink and the conflict was solved.



Legal position

(Grooten, 2008) When mister Edwin Engelen took over the company in 2009 the café was registered as a sole proprietorship. This means that the owner is fully responsible for all the actions the company makes. When the company gets into problems and need to pay debts they need to be paid by mister Edwin Engelen. Also his house, car and all other assets are at risk.

A few big advantages of a sole proprietorship are that all profits are for the owner. To start a sole proprietorship you only need to register at the chamber of commerce. An owner of a sole proprietorship also has a lot less regulations to deal with then for instance a private company.

Mister Engelen had doubts about changing the company in to a private company but choose to leave the company as it is. This was because when a private company is started you also need to register but you also have to bring at least €18,000.00 into the company. Next to this sum of money the owner needs to make every year a full report concerning the financial state of the company. Also when you have a private company you have to pay taxes about the revenue the company makes.

Because mister Engelen is his own boss he is not insured against unemployment by the company. He has to pay for an additional insurance to make sure that when he gets unemployed he will still have an income.


Figure12, Starting a business


Labour agreement

The author works in the hospitality industry in The Netherlands. This means that he and his employer need to follow the guidelines in the “Horeca CAO” the Dutch CBA for the hospitality industry. This file is included in the appendices. The employer finds it important to sticks to these rules and tries to obey them all. There is only one guideline that is violated sometimes. This is the guideline that says that shifts can be maximum 12 hours, 60 hours a week.

The author compares five of the regulations stated in the CBA to his own experiences. In Article 4.2 is said that a new employee can have a trial period of two months maximum. When the author started working in the café he got a trial period of one month. Also all new employees will have a trial period of one month.

In article 7.5 is stated that employees above the age of 18 are not allowed to work longer than twelve hours a day and maximal 60 hours a week. And in a period of 52 weeks the maximum average a week is 48 hours. As already said above this rule is violated sometimes. It often happens that employees work shifts of thirteen hours or more, especially when there are events. This, however, will always be discussed with the employees. It has only happened once that one of the employees had to work more than 12 hours without approving it.

In article 7.7 is stated that there should be two days of during the week, ideally linked together. Often this regulation is not met. Every week there are one or two employees who will work for six days in a row.

In Article 11 is stated that employees of the ages, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 will earn respectively 30, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75 and 90 percent of the minimum salary. This rule is carried out by the owner by following the salary table included in the CBA.

As stated in article 16.5 all the employees of Café de Waterpoort receive 8% holiday payment about the gross salary of the employee earned between the first of June and the 31st of May.



Difference between gross and net salary

Age % Per month Per week Hour

22 or older 100 €1382,43 €319,02 €8,40

21 90 €1244,19 €287,12 €7,56

20 75 €1036,82 €239,27 €6,30

19 65 €898,58 €207,36 €5,46

18 55 €760,34 €175,46 €4,62

17 45 €622,09 €143,56 €3,78

16 35 €483,85 €111,66 €2,94

15 30 €414,73 €95,71 €2,52

Figure 13, minimum wages (gross) per 01-04-2010 based on 38 hours a week

In the figure above are the minimum gross wages mentioned. According to the CBA the employers needs to pay these amounts.

The difference between gross salary and net salary are a few costs. These costs are deducted of the salary before the employer pays out. Some of these costs are:

InsuranceTo get paid when you are sick you need to pay a sickness insurance this means that the employee needs to pay 6,9% over the gross income.

Pension costsTo make sure that everybody can live when they retire in The Netherlands everybody who works needs to pay pension costs.

TaxesUnfortunately everybody who works in The Netherland needs to pay taxes about his or her income. These taxes are payed right away by your employer. And you will see the taxes deduct on the payslips.

A copy of one of the payslips of the author is included in the appendices.



Environment

There are a few actions the company takes to protect the environment.

Waste separationThe company has different sorts of containers for the waste. They have one for glass, one for paper, two for food and two for all the other waste. All the waste guests leave at the terrace is cleaned up three times a day so the wind can’t blow it away\

RecyclingCafé de Waterpoort tries to replace all disposable things by recyclable ones. This means that with events the plastic throw away glasses are changed for hard plastic glasses that can be cleaned.

SoundThe company tries to be as silent for the surrounding environment as possible. All the doors close at 11.00 pm. From this time on there is only one door that can be opened. This door is situated in a hallway, this means that if you want to enter of leave the café you first have to open and close one door, walk thru the hallway and open and close another door. Also all the windows are specially isolated.

LightsCafé de Waterpoort only uses energy saving light bulbs to minimize the energy needed to light the place up.

Cleaning determentsUnfortunately Café de Waterpoort uses cheap detergents which are not biodegradable. The owner chooses for these detergents because he find that they work better than biodegradable detergents and cost a lot less.

EmasThe company does not have an Emas. The owner said that the company is too small to follow all the regulations set by Emas. For instance is it not realistic to make a management system.

Figure 14, Recycling



Motivation

Maslow’s hierarchy of needsMaslow says that a human has five different levels of needs. Once a person has satisfied his needs he will move one level up until he is at the top. To explain the theory further the author will make use of his own work experience and tell at which level he is.

By working the author can pay for primary needs as food and water. So he moves one up. By earning money he can also affords safety and take care of his own health or that one of a family member. By working the author makes friends and his colleagues are almost similar to his family. Again one up. By supervising the author will gain respect from colleagues as well as from guests and family therefore he gets self-esteem. Now the author is in the last level, the author needs to solve problems at work. Problems can be that a big part of the order has not come in. Other problem can be the behaviour of guests. Sometimes the employees do nothing wrong and a guest will still be angry.

Herzberg’s two factor theoryAt first employees are dissatisfied. To overcome this a company needs to ad hygiene factors. The hygiene factors in Café de Waterpoort are:

Salary according to the CBA Family like colleagues Good working hours Training opportunities.

By adding these hygiene factors employees will feel satisfied but still not very motivated. To improve this a company needs to ad motivator factors. In the case of Café de Waterpoort one of the motivators is the bonus employees can receive. Another motivator is the opportunity to use the café for birthdays.


Figure 15, Maslov's hierachy of needs

Figure 16, Herzberg's two facto theory




Skinner’s reinforcement theoryTo motivated people or to steer them in the right direction the reinforcement theory of Skinner can also be used. This theory states that you can steer people by punishing and rewarding. For instance in Café de Waterpoort if you violate the house regulations you won’t get your part of the tips. If you do something right or take initiative you will be rewarded with the bonus you will get for the attitude.

Companies need to be careful if they want to stop with the reinforcers. This often means that the desirable behaviour will extinct because there is no reward anymore.


Figure 17, Skinners reinforcement theory


My supervisor

Main turning pointThe outcome of an interview the author had with his supervisor was that his main turning point still needs to come. Since he finished school he bought company’s, made them profitable and sold them afterwards. His wife is now starting a business in the wellness sector and he would like to help her with that. This means the will leave the hospitality industry. To be able to make this step he wants to sell or rent the café. At this moment he wants to give the author the possibility to rent the company and to become the owner. By doing this Edwin Engelen will leave the company and leave all the responsibilities to the author.

A typical working dayMy supervisor gets out of bed around 6.30 am and get showered and dressed. Takes care of his son while his wife gets dressed. Then around 8.30 am he leaves to the café to do the administration. Than around 12.00 he opens the café and he will run the café till 19.00 pm or till closing time, assisted by some colleagues. During the opening hours he is also busy keeping in contact with the supply business and the other café’s at the square. In collaboration with the colleague who is working starts making the work schedules and finish them when he has worked with four our more employees.

Theory x or yMr. Mc. Gregor has developed theory x and theory y. Theory x means that the management looks very negative to their employees and theory y means that the management looks positive towards the employees and give them freedom.

The author’s supervisor is typical theory y. He gives the employees lots of responsibilities and freedom. They are even free to fill in their own schedules.

Situational leadershipThere are four stages of situational leadership. Telling, selling, participating and delegating. The author’s supervisor is in the last stage, the delegating stage. He knows all the ins and outs of the company,

he knows them well enough to foresee problems that might occur. By foreseeing these problem he is able to steer everyone in the right direction.


Figure 18, Turning point

Figure 19, Situational leadership model

Figure 20, The owner


Supervisor evaluation

Attitude

Mark 5

Supervisor comment -

Personal reflection The author thinks his attitude is well over average but can always be improved. Sometimes the author can be a bit inpatient to other employees. He wants everything to be done immediately after asking.

Dress

Mark 5


Personal reflection The author thinks he needs to give more attention to this because he knows he sometimes forget to shave. Shirt, trousers and shoes are up to standard.

Communication skills

Mark 4

Supervisor comment Good but sometimes to direct

Personal reflection The author recognizes this if one of the guests violates the rules the author walks directly to the guests and says what he sees. Sometimes it is better to wait for the guests to stop the behaviour themselves.

Sense of independence

Mark 5


Personal reflection The author thinks this should be graded as a six. The author works often alone and always solves the problems that might occur. The author is also able to manage the employees in the weekends.



Sense of initiative

Mark 5


Personal reflection The author thinks this mark should be six. The author has developed several ideas in the company out of own initiative for instance the new beer menus are completely the idea of the author.

Quality of work

Mark 5

Supervisor comment Can be better

Personal reflection The author thinks that the quality of his work is above standard. He never gets complaints but knows that there is always space for improvement.

Guest contact

Mark 5

Supervisor comment Can be better

Personal reflection The author agrees, he especially should be more patient.



Conclusion

In this report the author tried to find out how the human resource management is handled in Café de Waterpoort. In the first chapter we saw that Café de Waterpoort is a small company situated on a tourist route and has only seven employees. As already stated in the report it is recommendable to hire more employees during the summer months. Also we discovered that the company has the Eiffel tower company culture and that the marketing mix is focused on their already existing customers and the competition.

The company has a simple organisational structure with only two supervisors, this helps to keep a familiar bond between the employees and the supervisors. We found that there are four jobs within the company, supervisor, bartender, waiter/waitress and kitchen staff. The author himself is a supervisor. The owner and the author start searching for new personnel when there is long during illness, somebody is leaving or when the summer is coming. The recruiting is done by placing advertisements in the local newspapers and applicants should respond with a letter including their CV. Selection is done by the owner as well as by the author. When an applicant is accepted he will start his trial period under the guidance of a personal trainer. Overall it can be said that the working conditions within Café de Waterpoort are good. The performance of every staff member is assessed at the end of each shift by the owner or author. When they perform well and will stay longer within the company the owner offers the employee members some external trainings to improve their knowledge. These trainings are next to the normal compensation (wages according to the CBA). Unfortunately because the size of the company there is no real career development. Weaknesses of the company are that all the HRM is done by just two employees (one during the week, one during the weekends), Because of the workload sometimes there is not enough attention for hrm and some days the atmosphere is too good to perform well. Strong points of the company are that the staff is highly motivated, all rules are clear and because of the trust is his employees the owner has a lot of authority.

Within the company is a regional identity, all the staff is from (around) Tiel. The biggest disadvantage of the identity is that there is no employee who has finished a “Hogeschool” a big plus however is that all ages are represented. According to Kluckhohn and Strodbeck’s value orientation the staff of the company is good, are in harmony, are present and future orientated and work collective. When the owner started to work in the café he immediately went to the rejection phase and moved fast to the adjustment phase.

The legal position of the company is a sole proprietorship, this is chosen by the owner because of the little paperwork. The owner follows the CBA and pays the employees according to it.

The company takes some measures to infect the environment as less as possible by sound isolation, waste separation, recycling and using energy saving light bulbs.

Working in Café de Waterpoort has made that the author is in the self-actualization zone of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

The supervisor of the author, the owner of Café de Waterpoort is mister Edwin Engelen and he did not jet experience a big turning point in his career. In the situational leadership model he will fit in the delegation zone.

The author is according to the appraisal a good employee but can still improve his behaviour against guests and colleagues.



Personal note

What did I learn?This assignment taught me how to analyse the HRM department of a company. Also learned I several theories’s closely related to HRM. Before I started this assignment I thought I already knew everything of the company but it turned out I had still some things to learn about the HRM.

During my work in the café I learned how to deal with different guests and how to keep them satisfied. I also learned how to manage personnel, keeping in contact with the supply industry and with fellow café’s.

Were my expectations met?Yes, I hoped to learn a lot about HRM, what it includes and how it works. During this assignment I found out that HRM includes forecasting, selection, introduction, employee performance, performance appraisals, training, compensation, career transitions and working conditions

What did I found attractive about this company and this sector of the hospitality industry?I really enjoy the direct interaction between the guests and the employees. They come to the café to have a drink and make a talk. Some time you need to help them with that and that’s really fun.

To what extend do I think hospitality is the industry I want to work in? There is just one industry and that is the hospitality industry!!!!

Personal goals

Specific: Measurable: Achievable: Realistic: Time-bound:

Language skills.

(German&Spanish)

By taking tests By following courses

Plenty of courses German within 1 year, Spanish at the end of the study.

Guest interaction It can be measured by the reactions of the guests

Training myself and learn from others

Yes because I am aware of it.

In this year

Managerial skills By asking feedback (colleagues)

Follow the education

It is part of the study

Within the complete study





Reference list

Dessler, G. (2008). Human Resource Management. London: Pearson

Grooten. W.M.H. (2008). Recht voor Hospitality management. Leeuwarden: Lexmedia

Hellriegel, S.J. (2008) Cometency-based Management. Thompson

Keizer, A., Benhadda, L. (2009). Intercultural management. Glasgow: Mc. Graw Hill

Kelly, D., Holmes, A., Hayward, R. (2005) Business Law. Great Brittan: Cavendish

Kotler, P., Bowen, J.T., Makens, J.C. (2010) Marketing for hospitality and tourism. New Jersey: Pearson

Martin, J.N., Nakayama, T.K. (2010) Intercultural Communication in Contexts. New York: Mc Graw Hill



Appendices


Documents

Industrial Orientation Resit 1