Cases in Food and Beverage Operation
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案例1， The Decision to Serve（堅持服務原則）
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David Anderson was the Assistant Manager of an upscale restaurant in Philadelphia. He noticed two attractive young ladies entered the restaurant and headed for the lounge area on a beautiful summer afternoon. It contains a bar and also has some small tables where light meals were served. He assumed that they were going to eat lunch in the lounge. Ten minutes later David was approached by Josh, one of his servers, who told him that he was in a situation that made him uncomfortable. Josh explained that the hostess had seated the two young ladies to the outside seating area of his section and they were much adjacent to the sidewalk in the front of the restaurant. This area is under an awning and separated from the sidewalk by a short decorative iron fence, but diners are clearly visible from the sidewalk and street. He said that both of the women had cocktails, but he felt that they were underage and did not know what to do. David 1ooked out and noted that the two ladies were the same ones he had seen entered the restaurant earlier. He went to the bar and asked Julie, the bartender, if she had served the two ladies drinks. She replied that she had. Then, he asked her if she had asked for identification. She told him that she had not.
David then approached the table where the two were sitting and asked them for identification. One had a driver` s license that showed she had recently turned 21, but the other said she had forgotten her identification. David informed the one without identification that he would need to remove her drink, as the restaurant had liability issues related to serving underage people. He told her that she would be reimbursed for the drink and offered to provide her with a complimentary nonalcoholic beverage. The woman immediately began to complain loudly the moment David took the beverage, then got up from the table, went into the restaurant, and began yelling at the server, saying that her father was joining them soon and would rectify the situation. The General Manager approached David about the ruckus, and David explained the circumstances. In the meantime, the young lady returned to her table, and the two women were soon joined by an older man. At this point the General Manager approached the table and had a brief conversation with the man and the young ladies. He apologized for the incident and offered them a complimentary round of drinks and dinner as compensation for their inconvenience. The General Manager then approached David and explained to him what he had done and said the older man had vouched for the age of the young lady lacking any identification. It was never made clear whether the man was actually the father of either of the ladies. The GM went on to explain that the policy of the restaurant was to not ask for identification, especially for attractive women, unless it was obvious that the person was underage which David felt was indeed the case in this situation. He continued to explain to David that having attractive women in the restaurant was good for business, that it was like flee advertising, and that this was something they did not teach you in school. A few minutes later Josh approached David and apologized for creating the problem. David thanked him and made no comments about the General Manager` s decision, even though he thought it was wrong. David then approached the table to make sure that the man and two young ladies were enjoying their dinner. He asked if there was anything else he could do, to which the man replied that everything was fine and apologized for the confusion. The two young ladies said nothing.
1.? How did this situation come about?
2.? Was David’s action appropriate? Why or why not?
3.? What would Josh do in a similar situation in the future?
4.? Evaluate the General Manager` s performance.
案例2， The Apprentice Chef（學徒廚師）
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Benno Schatz decided to make a career change, in his early 30s and living in his native country Germany. Although he had studied history and art for six years, he had a fascination with cooking. Having always enjoyed working with food and creating new recipes, he decided to train to become a chef. Shortly after making this decision, he was hired as an apprentice chef by a recently opened hotel in the city of Cologne that was a member of a major international chain. Benno realized that learning the skills of his new profession would be a challenge, but he determined to work hard and was committed to succeed as a chef. The following year he entered a two-year chef’s training program that had just been established by the hotel in conjunction with an independent local culinary school. Benno was the first employee to participate in this program. He worked four days a week in the hotel and attended class once a week. The program was unique in its structure, as it relied heavily on Benno’s work in the hotel kitchen, as an apprentice to the Executive Chef to provide a significant portion of his training. As part of the arrangement with the culinary school, the hotel had agreed to teach Benno to prepare approximately 300 dishes. Upon completing the program he would receive the “qualified chef”degree, which is recognized as an important culinary certification in Germany.
Two months before Benno was to complete the program, the school sent a list of dishes to the Executive Chef of the hotel, asking whether Benno was familiar with the 300 meals or whether there were some need for further training. It added that he might be asked to prepare any one of these dishes as part of his final exam. The Executive Chef responded to the school, writing that his trainees were familiar with each of the dishes. He did not inform Benno about the correspondence.
By chance, Benno learned about the 1ist and the Executive Chef's response from one of his instructors at schoo1. He looked through the list and realized that there were a great number of dishes that he did not know how to prepare. He wondered how the Executive Chef could have given such a response without first speaking with him. He concluded that the Executive Chef did not really care about him and his training program. Otherwise they would have reviewed the list together, identified the gaps in his knowledge and worked to fill them. Benno was very disappointed in the Executive Chef's behavior and his apparent disregard for his apprentice. Nonetheless, Benno was concerned about passing his final exam and decided to let the Executive Chef know that he was not familiar with all of the dishes on the list. He left a note in the Chef’s mailbox, with the names of those meals in which he would need some further training.
The next day Benno was summoned into the Chef’s office immediately. The Executive Chef was outraged at his trainee’s lack of knowledge. He told Benno that if he was not able to prepare these “simple” dishes after almost two years of training. It would be best for him to stay on as a trainee for another six months to 1earn to prepare them. He added that it would be of no use to argue about his decision and told Benno to leave the office.
Benno wanted under no circumstances to stay another six months as a trainee, because the salary was much 1ower than that of a certified chef. By the end of the day, he was able to persuade the Executive Chef not to extend the period of training. The Executive Chef agreed that he might graduate on time, but on the condition that he was to study for himself the preparation of the meals with which he had no experience. Benno agreed to the terms and worked very hard independently to master the unfamiliar recipes. He graduated from the program on time two months after the incident and soon left to work for another hotel in Cologne. Today he is a well-known chef in the city.
1. Evaluate the training program in which Benno was enrolled
2. Were the demands made on Benno reasonable?
3. Discuss the attitude and behavior of the Executive Chef.
 
案例3， The River Walk Café（瑞沃克咖啡廳）
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The River Walk Cafe is a casual 250-seat restaurant located in downtown San Antonio, Texas. The Care serves three meals and has a brisk bar business at night. Although there are some slow periods during the year, business is generally steady because of a loyal local customer base and a constant supply of tourist and conventional customers.
The General Manager is Gary MacAfee. He’s been with the Cafe a lit-tie more than six months. The previous General Manager left for another business opportunity. After finishing his undergraduate degree in business administration, Gary spent seven years working his way up the front-of-house and back-of-house management ranks in a large national restaurant chain. This is his first General Manager position.
Gary took a very conservative approach, when he began his new position. He knew he could improve the overall quality of operations and increase revenues. However, he also knew that if he acted too quickly and made a lot of changes early on. His staff and customers might be resentful and resist.
The first item on Gary’s agenda was to get a sense of the Cafe’s operating procedures and general work climate. To do this, he worked directly with the kitchen and wait staff, performing the same tasks, duties, and responsibilities they performed. He felt it was important to gain the employees’ respect by showing he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. In addition, Gary would learn firsthand about the Café’s operations. He also started a file that contained a log of customer and staff comments, interactions between the staff and customers, sales and revenue figures, and any information he could use to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current working conditions and subsequently use as a basis for making necessary changes. After a couple of months, he had compiled a long 1ist of items he thought he could use as a basis for improvement.
One of Gary’s biggest concerns was the relationship between the kitchen staff and the wait staff. He recorded numerous problems and tensions. To begin with, he noticed that the servers spent a great deal of time interacting intensively with the guests. However, he also noticed that members of the wait staff were quite terse and demand of the kitchen staff. Servers complained that it took too long for food to come out, because the cooks wasted their time garnishing plates. However, the cooks complained many times that the food waited too long on the hot counter and “died” before it was picked up by the wait staff, because the servers were “schmoozing” with the customers. Gary also found that when the wait staff did occasionally bus tables, they returned the dish and glass trays without stacking them in their proper places. The kitchen staff complained bitterly, noting that the kitchen was crowded enough without trays of dishes and glassware carelessly stacked in valuable prep spaces.
To address this problem, Gary decided to conduct a meeting with the wait staff and inform them of his findings. Gary felt that it was appropriate to discuss his concerns with the front-of-house employees first, then determine how to involve the back-of-house employees. Initially, the meeting wasn’t very insightful. Needless to say, the wait staff were not happy about being told of Gary’s “perceived problems” with the operations. In fact, they felt as though he was pointing the finger at them. Thus, they didn’t provide Gary with much information to identify the true nature of the problems, let alone determine ways of making the situation better.
However, when Gary asked the wait staff about their satisfaction with specific aspects of work, particularly Pay, they became very vocal. Sarah, a full-timer who had been with the Cafe for two years, stated that in comparison to other servers in the area. The Cafe wait staff made considerably less. As the discussion ensued, it became clear that this issue was a really big sore spot with all of the wait staff. They suggested that the primary problem was that The River Walk Cafe was one of only two casual restaurants in the downtown conventional district. Because most of the other restaurants were upscale, the wait staff at the other establishments earned considerably more in tips because they had higher check totals.
Sarah also affirmed Gary` s observation concerning the “extensive’’ time spent with customers and stated that the wait staff felt it was important to “get to know your table.” However, Sarah said that the time is necessary in order to upsell the guest to increase the check total. Steve, a part-time server, concurred: “It’s important to understand your customers. If we didn’t spend as much time as we do, we couldn’t provide the kind of service they expected. Besides, upselling and providing good service makes you happy and brings the customers back. Isn’t that what you want?”
After much thought and consideration, Gary decided it was necessary to revise the compensation system for the wait staff. He felt that it was necessary to provide some additional monetary incentives for the wait staff, but not at the expense of the Café’s overall profitability. The new system must provide a mechanism for increasing the Café’s overall revenues. In addition, the wait staff must take on some additional responsibilities so that the kitchen staff could accommodate the need for an increase in table service efficiency as such. The wait staff were required to garnish their own plates and bus their own tables.
Gary increased the wait staff’s base wage 25 percent, from $2.90 an hour to$3.60 an hour. In addition, he developed incentives for outstanding individual and group performance. Free end-of-shift meals would be awarded to the server who turned the most tables and to the individual who had the highest sales for the shift. In addition, the entire wait staff would receive a biweekly bonus if the Cafe’s overall sales reached specified levels. Gary felt that this new system would alleviate the pay inequity problem and promote a more cohesive, motivated front-of-house staff. Moreover, he believed that this new system would have a positive impact on the bottom line.
The wait staff was very pleased with the new system. They openly expressed their appreciation about receiving a wage increase. In addition, they realized that they didn’t have to “schmooze” with the guests in order to increase their individual and overall sales. Simply turning more tables by providing more efficient service had a positive net result. Finally, the wait staff seemed to enjoy their new responsibilities, and they even had informal contests to see who could come up with the most creative garnishing designs.
However, although the wait staff was happy with the new system, the kitchen staff expressed a great deal of anger and resentment. The kitchen staff felt betrayed. Henry, one of the line cooks, summed it up by stating, “We work just as hard as they do, but you’ve ignored our efforts. It’s not fair!” Gary realized his new system had perhaps created more problems than it solved.
1. Did Gary’s new incentive system solve his primary problem?
2. Will it help the Care achieve its goal of quality customer service?
3. What advice might you have for Gary?
案例4， The Three Hour Brunch（三小時的用餐時間）
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Matt Robinson and five of his friends decided to have Sunday brunch at a suburban restaurant. Upon arrival, the six customers were seated quickly at the back of the restaurant and the host was prompt in giving them menus. It took them a few minutes to decide what they each would be having, after which they closed their menus. They sat talking casually for the next ten minutes, thinking that their waitress would be coming shortly. As their wait stretched into 20 minutes, they all became noticeably impatient, checking their watches and attempting to make eye contact with someone on the wait staff. Finally, after 30 minutes, an angry Matt left the table to find someone to wait on them. Cindy, the waitress he spoke with, informed these customers that she was not assigned to their section, but she would take their order anyway. It seemed to Matt that Cindy, as quite nervous. Though she had served every table around them, she did not seem to want to wait on a large part of young men. Everyone at the table ordered his meal, and Cindy left to get their drinks and find out who was supposed to be serving their table. She quickly returned just to tell them that she would, in fact, be their waitress. She then headed back into the kitchen, presumably to get their drinks, but returned again empty-handed except for the tab for the table.
Another 30 minutes had passed when Matt flagged down a different waitress who agreed to check on their food. When this waitress returned, she had the drinks they had ordered so long ago. Much to their surprise, however, she did not serve them, but instead placed all of the drinks on the table behind them for Cindy to distribute. As Cindy was nowhere to be seen, the party decided to serve themselves. Cindy finally appeared with a large tray of food for the table, but it was not what any of them had ordered. When they told her this, she proceeded to the table next to them and asked the people there if they had ordered any of the food she was carrying. The people at the other table told her that they had not ordered any of the items on the tray either. Confused, Cindy returned to Matt’s table and insisted that the men had ordered the food that she had now been holding for several minutes. She started to argue with them, saying that I remember what you ordered and this is your food!” Furious at having been at the restaurant for nearly two hours without food, Matt could not believe that the waitress was now arguing with them about their order. He remembered that Cindy had earlier brought them their tab and quickly thought to show it to her. It was then clear that the food was not what they had ordered. Cindy went back to the kitchen and returned several minutes later, finally with their food, but with items missing. She insisted that it was the complete order. Matt proved her wrong by showing her the tab again. Several minutes later she delivered the missing items. The entire ordeal had lasted nearly three hours.
Before leaving their table, Matt asked Cindy if she would have the manager come to speak with them. They expressed their dissatisfaction to the manager, who was also the owner of the restaurant, recounting the full tale and complaining that it had taken nearly three hours to get their meal. The manager responded by saying that the server was new, and he asked them to be patient with her. Matt thought that they had been patient enough and stated that he felt the manager should compensate them in some way for having had such an unpleasant experience. The manager replied that nothing could be done and that the party must pay the bill in full.
1. Why do you think this situation happened?
2. Do you think Cindy was at fault?
3. What advice might you offer Matt?
4. What advice might you give the manager?
案例5, The Reinstatement（恢復原職）
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Tom Beene had been the Manager of Food and Beverage at the Birdwood Inn for 18 months. During this time he had made many positive changes within the department, but some of his decisions had a negative impact on certain employees. Specifically, he had found it necessary to demote the Equipment Director, John Sullivan, who, in his two years in the position, had supervisory authority over the entire dishwashing staff of the hotel. Mr. Beene reassigned that responsibility to a Kitchen Staff Supervisor, Ed Ackridge.
All of the dishwashers were happy with Ed’s appointment as supervisor. Ed created permanent schedules, allowed the workers to complete their tasks with a minimum of supervision on his part, and held periodic meetings with all of his staff. Under Ed’s direction, the department seemed to flourish. Cliff, one of the dishwashers, reported that it seemed as if fewer accidents occurred on the job, and everyone seemed to complain less. In essence, their new boss took his workers’ needs into consideration and treated them with respect. He allowed the dishwashers to monitor their own work flow and asked them for their suggestions when determining peak times for regular dishwashing service and deep cleaning in the kitchens.
Following several months of conflict with the union, Tom Beene resigned. The Food and Beverage Department then underwent a period of upheaval that resulted in the adjustment of many positions in the department prior to his resignation. It was rumored that Mr. Beene had planned to fire John Sullivan. After he left, however, John was reinstated in his former position as Equipment Director and again assumed control over the dishwashing staff.
Most of the dishwashers were dissatisfied with John’s reappointment as their supervisor, particularly Cliff, who did not feel that John should have ever held a supervisory position. Cliff’s belief that the majority of promotions at the hotel were seniority based, rather than contingent upon managerial skills, job knowledge, or organizational skills, was confirmed when John Was reinstated. The dishwashing staff was again demoralized the return to the chaotic schedules and autocratic demands that had characterized john’s previous supervision. Although Cliff was unhappy with the situation, he felt powerless within the organization to change it. Without the support of someone such as the previous Food and Beverage Manager, Cliff dismissed the idea of filing a grievance with the union as he did not think it would be effective.
Instead of filing a grievance, Cliff attempted to talk to John about the situation and to explain how well the dishwashers had been performing with permanent schedules. John brushed off the complaint but said that he would 1ook into the matter. The next posted schedule had irregular hours for all of the dishwashers. Cliff was scheduled for three different shifts often with eight hours or less between work assignments. Not wanting to appear belligerent with John, Cliff decided to work the hours as posted for the next several weeks and not complain.
Cliff knew his work process very well and took pride in his performance. Less than a month after John’s reappointment, he noticed that more breakage occurred on his shifts and that he was more likely to slip on the slick kitchen floor. Cliff again approached John to discuss his observations and to ask him to readjust the schedule. As in their first encounter, John told him that he would look into it. Cliff was accustomed to working during the third shift and deep cleaning at that time because there was little activity in the kitchen. Although he was still responsible for the deep-cleaning function, John scheduled him from 2:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M., during which the kitchen staff were still preparing meals. Cliff’s work was constantly interrupted, and the kitchen was not as clean as it once was.
Cliff’s frustration led him to complain, more strenuously, to John. The two of them had a shouting match at work when the next schedule was posted. Cliff felt that John was not listening to him or the rest of the dish machine operator (DMO) staff.
Feeling thwarted in his attempts to resolve his problems through John, Cliff approached the Human Resources Director, Ron Cole, and explained the entire situation. Describing his own experience, Cliff noted the problems that had resulted, both at work and home, from John’s erratic scheduling of the DMO staff. Cliff reported that he frequently worked three different shifts within one week, some less than eight hours apart, and that he was often unable to get more than three hours of sleep a night. Chronically fatigued, he explained, he has had more breakage on the job and noticed a decrease in his overall performance. He had also become irritable at home, and his wife told him that he had been short-tempered with his children.
Ron offered to discuss the situation with John but could not promise any results, Although Cliff’s problems remained unresolved, Ron was happy that the staff was finally coming back to the Human Resources office with their problems rather than just riling grievances with the union.
1. Is seniority the best criterion for making staffing decisions?
2. Evaluate the effect on morale and the reasons for it, after John’s return as a supervisor.
3. What are the other costs involved with the decision to reinstate John?
案例6， Room Service, Please（客房送餐服務）
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Steven, an immigrant from Peru, is a Room Service waiter at an AAA Five Diamond luxury hotel in Washington D.C. Guests in this hotel desire excellent service in elegant surroundings, not only the “best” service on a ale relative to other hotels, but “flawless” service on an absolute scale. Steven has been in his position for nearly ten years, the second-longest tenure within the Room Service Department. He is highly skilled in his profession, works hard, has an excellent command of the English language, and maintains superior attention to detail.
Within Room Service there is a distinct division of duties. The Room Service cashier receives guest orders, either by phone or via doorknob cards collected by the night staff. The orders are written down by the Room Service cashier and then passed on to both the kitchen staff and the waiters. Cashiers receive virtually no training and little on-the-job coaching or support. There is only one cashier assigned per shift, regardless of variability in demand, and therefore the cashier is frequently overburdened at peak times. The cashier’s only official duties are to take telephone orders and operate the point-of-sale system. During slack times when the cashier has nothing to do, managers frequently assign him or her to other duties within the department. If a rush occurs when the cashier is away from the station, the phone may go unanswered and Room Service orders can easily accumulate.
Room Service waiters assemble the carts and pick up the meals from the kitchen, deliver the meals to the guest rooms, and return the signed guest receipts to the cashier. Until the waiter arrives at a guest’s door with the ready meal, he or she has not communicated with the guest regarding the order. Few of the waiters are cross-trained in the cashier’s duties, so they are unable to assist in the cashier function.
This renowned Washington hotel has a recurring problem with incorrect Room Service orders and orders being delivered to the wrong rooms. The majority of such incidents involve missing items or items cooked differently than the guest requested. In a particular incident, Steven delivered breakfast to a guest at 6:30 A.M. After knocking gently on the door and quietly announcing, “Room service” Steven waited several minutes, then announced his arrival again, somewhat more loudly this time. He heard noise in the room, and an angry voice shouted: “Just a minute!” The door then flew open and a tall, middle-aged man in his bathrobe began to scream at Steven that he had not ordered room service and was greatly disturbed by being awakened at this early hour. The order pad had listed the wrong room! The guest then slammed the door and called the front desk to complain. It took Steven and the cashier about 15 minutes to figure out the room number of the guest who had actually ordered breakfast. The breakfast order, now a bit old, was rushed to the correct guest, who scolded Steven for being late. Steven apologized and informed the guest that there would be no charge for breakfast.
When Steven returned to the Room Service office, he started an altercation with the cashier. “How could you get the room number wrong?” The remaining waiters joined in, and a major fracas occurred during peak serving hours. The manager reprimanded the cashier severely in front of the wait staff. Later that day, the Front Office Manager provided a free lunch to the erroneously awakened guest and his wife. Despite encouraging words from his manager, Steven went home feeling discouraged and frustrated. One small mistake had resulted in two annoyed guests, three free meals, and increased employee tension. Management did nothing to prevent the problem from occurring again.
1. What was the cause of this situation?
2. What were the costs involved in this situation2
3. What recommendations might you have to improve the system?
 
案例7, The Minibar Charge（客房酒水收費）
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Tim Marler was in a hurry as he 1eft his room at 7:15 A.M. He was checking out of one of New York’s finer hotels after a several-day stay. His business trip had been quite successful and he was feeling very good, even though he was running a little late to catch his plane for the West Coast. He had an important meeting early that afternoon in San Francisco, and his schedule was very tight. He chose not to use express or video check-out for two reasons. First, on several occasions in the past, he had incorrect charges on his bill, and reconciling the differences alter the fact had been time-consuming and irritating. Second, he knew that when he turned in his receipts to the accounting department immediately upon return to his office. He was often reimbursed for his expenses before he received his credit card bill and thus avoided covering business expenses with any of his personal money.
As he waited in line at the cashier counter, he kept glancing at his watch. It was now 7:40. Finally arriving at the window, he told the cashier his room number and waited while the computer printed out his bill. The cashier then handed it to him for his perusal. The total was $1,063. 44. This had been an expensive three-night stay, but he had twice entertained clients at dinner. Upon close examination, Tim noticed that he had been charged $14.00 for drinks from his mini-bar, which he had not even opened during his stay. He brought the error to the cashier’s attention, to which she responded, “Please wait just a moment, sir, I need to speak to my supervisor about this.” and then disappeared through a door behind her. A few minutes 1ater she reappeared with a woman who introduced herself as Madeline, the shift supervisor. She courteously asked Tim, “How can I help you?” It was immediately apparent that the cashier had not thoroughly explained the situation to her, so when Tim said, “There is an error on my bill.” The supervisor and cashier began to intently scrutinize the computer printout in front of them. Several minutes had passed since Tim had first stepped up to the counter. The line behind him was growing longer and guests were beginning to grumble. After a brief whispered dialogue between the shift supervisor and the cashier, Madeline said, “I am not authorized to handle this, please wait a moment while I go get the Assistant Front Office Manager.” Before Tim could say a word, both she and the cashier disappeared through the same door behind the counter. Three or four minutes passed before the Assistant Manager appeared. She, too, was courteous, but very businesslike. “Are you sure that you did not use the mini-bar? We seldom make mistakes of this nature.” At this point, Tim was irritated and made it clear that he had not used the mini-bar. Apparently convinced that Tim was not lying, the Assistant Manager gave the cashier permission to credit his bill for the$14.00. While she was doing so, the Assistant Manager explained that company policy required someone at the Assistant Manager level or above to authorize changes on discrepancies greater than$10.00. She then courteously thanked Tim for his business and disappeared through the door. The shift supervisor watched while the cashier made the correction.
At 8:05 A.M. Tim left the cashier counter with his receipt and raced across the lobby carrying his luggage. He angrily snapped at the doorman to get him a cab and then ordered the cabdriver to get him to the airport as fast as possible. It occurred to him that he might miss his plane and thus inconvenience an important business client. It was going to be a rotten day.
1. What was the primary cause of this incident?
2. What could have been done differently to prevent this from happening?
3. What are the costs involved in this situation?
 
案例8, The Headwaiter（餐廳服務領班）
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Per is a 25-year-old Headwaiter who is responsible for banquets and the restaurant of a medium-sized hotel Brussels, Belgium. The hotel is one of the old, traditional, family-owned-and-operated hotels in Brussels. Per was educated at the Hotel School in Lausanne, Switzerland, is dedicated to his profession, and is determined to do a good job serving the guests of the hotel. Unfortunately, Per is often faced with frustrating situations, such as the following which occurred during a single day.
It is Saturday afternoon, and there is a wedding reception at the hotel. In the lounge 100 people are drinking champagne and waiting for the bride and groom. The hotel has everything ready for a wonderful evening for the guests. The host of the wedding receives a telephone call from the best man, explaining that the bride and groom are delayed at the photographer. That seems to be no problem for the host, and he contacts Per to tell him the news. Then he asks Per for more champagne for everyone, so they do not have empty glasses when the bride and groom arrive. Unbeknownst to the host, Per has only a limited number of bottles of the particular brand of champagne, which the store clerk delivered to him earlier that day. Per had ordered enough for only one to one and a half glasses of champagne per guest because of the projected arrival time of the wedding party. Even though there is more champagne in the beverage storeroom, none of the wait staff can get in, as only the store clerk and the General Manager have keys. The store clerk seldom works on weekends. So Per first tries to call the General Manager and owner of the hotel so that he can drive to the hotel and get more champagne out of the storeroom. The General Manager 1ives less than 10 minutes by car from the hotel and this is his plan for dealing with this type of situation. The General Manager is not at home, so Per goes to the restaurant and the bar of the hotel and collects all the bottles of champagne and sparkling wine that they can give him. He then approaches the host of the wedding to explain that they have to change to different labels for the extra serving. The host says he thinks it is strange that they cannot get more champagne from the storeroom, and he really wants the brand of champagne the groom had ordered. Per can do nothing, and the host is very unhappy. Early that evening a party of 14 business people who had reserved a table arrive at the hotel restaurant. They have arranged for a fixed meal. But they want to order wine when they arrive after discussing the selection with the Headwaiter. The host wants to request the most expensive wine for his party. Unfortunately, the restaurant has only four bottles of that wine available, as the rest are in the storeroom. Per has to recommend a less expensive wine so that he has enough bottles for the whole party, to which the host reluctantly agrees.
It is now late evening in the bar of the hotel. Four people are drinking their favorite brand of cognac. After two rounds of drinks they ask for another serving of cognac, but the bartender has only two drinks left in the bottle. Because it is a seldom called for brand of cognac, the bartender has only this bottle. Therefore, he calls the Headwaiter and asks for another bottle. Per cannot help, because he has no keys to the storeroom. All he can do is to go to the table and explain to the guests that the hotel is sold out of that brand, and recommend another brand. Although the guests are not unduly concerned and they order another brand, for Per, it is one more bitter reminder that he cannot always give the guests what they want.
Per tried to prevent these incidents from happening with several strategies. First, he tried to change the system so that he or someone else had keys to the storeroom in the evenings, inasmuch almost wine sales occurred in the evenings. The General Manager refused to discuss this issue at all and would not give a key to anyone. When this strategy did not work, Per started calling the Manager each time anything was needed from the storeroom. In doing this, he hoped that the Manager would get tired of being called and realized that he had to do something about this situation. The Manager usually drove to the hotel and took out of the storeroom whatever the Headwaiter (or, ultimately, the guests) wanted and then went back home. The General Manager did not seem to be bothered that he was called quite often or that the hotel guests experienced a delay in their service.
Per then tried another strategy, ordering more beverages than he needed from the storeroom when there was a banquet or a party to ensure that he would have enough. After Per returned several unopened bottles following a large party, the store clerk began to anticipate this and he gave Per fewer beverages than he ordered. When Per tried to talk to the Manager about the problem, the Manager said that the employees of the hotel should learn to say no to the guests more often. Per’s final strategy was to set up an auxiliary storeroom, to which he had access. This seemed like a good idea, but he was allowed to store only a few bottles of several of the best-selling brands. This did not help the situation, as it was demand for unusual expensive brands that typically created a problem.
Per has become very tired of fighting the management and the store clerk to satisfy the customers. In the beginning he was committed to giving the customers what they wanted. Currently, Per has resigned himself to giving less than excellent service, often telling guests that what they want is locked in the storeroom and cannot be taken out. Although it discourages Per further that the guests do not perceive him as being helpful, he rationalizes that management obviously does not want him to be helpful to the guests.

1. Who do you think is right in this situation?
2. Why do you think the General Manager has this policy?
3. What messages are being sent by the General Manager?
4. What do you think Per might do in the future?
9,The Hawaiian Village（夏威夷飯店）
中國經濟管理大學
www.eauc.hk

Allison Webb was employed by the Hawaiian Village as the Supervisor for all Food and Beverage Cashiers. She thoroughly enjoyed her job and the working relationship she had with her employees. Miss. Webb directly supervised 45 cashiers and was expected to train these employees, as well as the 29 bartenders whom she indirectly supervised. She was also responsible for balancing all of the cash drawers, programming the computers at a11 of the food and beverage outlets and depositing all revenues collected from her cashiers. Because of the largely financial nature of her job, Allison was supervised by the Accounting Department, not the Food and Beverage Department. Throughout the time she worked at the Hawaiian Village, she had been evaluated as a “good” to “excellent” employee. Allison had found her work environment to be excellent as well, except for two unfortunate incidents of sexual harassment, which she felt warranted the two separate grievances she had filed over the past 18 months.
In the summer approaching A1lison’s tenth year with the Village, it became necessary for her Accounts Clerk to question a cashier at the Seaside Hut, one of the hotel’s beverage outlets, regarding a corporate account. This particular corporation had been extended a 1ine of credit at the hotel, with its food and beverage transactions being recorded on vouchers. After defaulting on several Payments, however, the corporation’s credit was revoked by the Accounting Office and the cashier at the Seaside Hut was notified that “cash only” would be accepted for this ac- count. Nonetheless, the Accounts Clerk had a voucher from the Seaside Hut showing credit sales to this corporate customer. The Accounts Clerk yeas trying to confirm that a mistake had been made in recording the sales on a credit voucher and that cash had actually been collected. The cashier did, in fact, remember collecting cash Payments for this particular customer and happened to mention to the Accounts Clerk that she had handed the money to the hostess for recording. The Accounts Clerk found this suspicious and she notified Ms.Webb of the situation, drawing specific attention to the fact that the hostess had been in physical possession of the money. Further investigation by A1lison revealed that the hostess at the Seaside Hut used her seniority to convince the cashier that she was entitled to access the cash drawer, record payments, and make deposits. The hostess also frequently complained to the cashier about her Job, lamenting her low position and its 1ack of recognition. Responding to the norms of the work area and the hostess’s negative attitude about her job, the cashier deferred to the hostess without really thinking beyond the cashier’s immediate responsibility of ringing up customer sales. Another problem Allison found was that the Controller’s Office had set up a system without cross-checks on the recording of payments and deposits. With no other employee required to verify these amounts, the hostess had complete autonomy to manipulate the Seaside Hut’s ledger. The hostess had been recording cash payments of certain corporate customers as credit sales, using readily available vouchers, while pocketing the cash. The Seaside Hut being a relatively small outlet, Allison surmised that the hostess had assumed that its operation was dismissed by the Accounting Office as trivial and that her embezzlement would go undetected which had for two years. In fact, if she had not written a credit voucher on an account that, unbeknownst to her, had been converted to “cash only,” her theft may have continued.
Following this discovery, Allison promptly spoke to her immediate supervisor, Bill Tompkins. She felt that not only should disciplinary action be initiated, but the flaw in the system should be corrected as well. After obtaining all of the information from Allison, Bill assured her that he would address the situation. Committed to her role as a supervisor, Allison wrote up the Seaside Hut cashier, citing her negligence in adhering to proper procedure. From their training, all cashiers knew that at no time were they to transfer cash to any person other than the appropriate accounting personnel.
The next week Allison went on vacation, pleased that it was her investigation that had revealed an inherent problem in the system and confident that Bill, working with the Controller’s Office, would be able to correct it. Upon returning after a week’s absence, she learned that the hostess and the manager of the outlet had been fired. Although feeling somewhat sorry for the Seaside Hut management, Allison resumed her normal work with enthusiasm. At the end of her shift she was called to the office of the Assistant Controller, Harry Brunson, her supervisor’s boss. Without any forewarning, Mr. Brunson terminated her, claiming she was negligent in not having performed an audit of the outlet. Mr. Brunson claimed that the Controller’s Office expected her to have done an audit as part of her routine job responsibilities. Allison left Mr. Brunson’s office in a state of shock and anger.
Later, at home that evening, she attempted to assess the whole situation. Sitting at her desk, she began to outline the events and the reasons for her termination. She did not believe the argument that she was actually expected to conduct an audit, as she was not a trained accountant. As Supervisor of Food and Beverage Cashiers, she doubted she would have had the authority to audit the Seaside Hut, which operated under the jurisdiction of the Controller’s Office.A1lison had not forgotten that it was procedures designed by the Controller’s Office that had enabled the hostess to embezzle sales money, and later in the week she was to learn that except for the firing of the Seaside Hut manager and hostess. No action had been taken to correct the problem. Regarding audits, however, she decided that if, in fact, they were one of her responsibilities. It had not been made clear to her either by her supervisor, Bill, or in the job description of Supervisor of Food and Beverage Cashiers, which was vague and outdated. A1lison concluded that there were two probable reasons why she was fired. One was that she was simply being used as a scapegoat to protect the accountants in the Controller’s Office, who were more than likely the ones responsible for running audits. The other was that her three male superiors saw her as a troublemaker, in that she had revealed their inappropriately devised accounting procedure. Allison toyed with her pencil and considered filing charges against the Hawaiian Village for sexual discrimination and wrongful discharge.
1. How did this situation come about?
2. Was Allison at fault for any of the problems?
3. Who could have prevented this situation from happening? how?
案例10, Sunspot Resorts（桑斯寶德度假飯店）
中國經濟管理大學
www.eauc.hk

Sunspot Resorts, Incorporated, is a publicly held international hotel firm that specializes in luxury resorts in exotic locations. Sunspot has in the last 20 years focused on oceanfront development all over the world in locations such as Greece, Cyprus, Mexico, Indonesia, Australia, and South America. It has opened three resorts in the Caribbean region over the last several years and is hoping to begin construction of another property in Barbados in the near future. Real estate negotiations for the purchase of a seafront location have stalled, however, because of complaints from environmental groups and local citizens. These groups are protesting because they feel that development will disrupt the fragile relationships of life on the reef that is immediately offshore. The environmentalists say they have seen many instances in which developers destroyed pristine land and exploited native populations. They are determined not to 1et this happen in Barbados, and they have assembled the people and financial support to put up a major battle if necessary. The local residents have seen many changes in their island in the last several years. They are not totally opposed to development because it provides employment opportunities and tax revenues, but in the past developers have made promises they have not kept and, as a result, many parts of the island have been ruined.
Sunspot has handled similar situations in the past by emphasizing the poor economic conditions in the host country and by promising jobs that will benefit the 1ocal community, even though it has often had difficulty in providing these jobs. Sunspot management has found that the skill level of the local labor pool has typically been low, and the firm has found it easier and less expensive to import most managerial and supervisor personnel from the United States or Europe rather than training the local people.
This time, however, the strategy does not seem to be working, and the local community is resisting Sunspot’s advances in order to retain the pristine nature of the area. To date, several hundred thousand dollars have been invested in the planning and design of the resort at corporate headquarters in Seattle. The Corporate President of Sunspot has made it clear that he wants a resort in this locale because of its unique environment and profit potential, and the annual bonus of the Regional Vice President (RVP) is based on progress on the proposed development. The RVP has been in contact with the government of Barbados to push the economic perspective, and he has hired an attorney to attempt to portray the environmentalists as radical obstructionists.
Several local businesspersons have approached him, suggesting that they might know a way to overcome the resistance to the project, but they have implied that some sort of bribe might be necessary to do so. Sunspot stock has recently gone up several points on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), based on anticipated profits from this highly publicized development that was enthusiastically presented in Sunspot’s annual report and meeting, where it was announced that the opening would take place in 18 months.
1. What are the important issues in this situation?
2. Who are the primary customers of Sunspot?
3. What recommendations would you make to Sunspot management?