MKT01909
Service Management for Tourism and Hospitality
Assessment Guide
Session 2, 2019
General instructions and information for Assignment 1 & 2
The first two assessments are based on the same topic area.
To complete these, you will be required to create your own hospitality/tourism/events service organisation, large or small, that you may like to manage (or own) someday. You will need to think about the key aspects of service delivery and as such, focus on the operational management concept rather than simply presenting a business proposal or plan. Most of this can be done in class!
Your service delivery plan will be broken down into two parts and it is strongly advised that before you commence Assignment 1 (Part A), you read the requirements for Assignment 2 (Part B) to identify some of the key concepts that you will need to apply to your organisation at a later stage.
One of the major differences between a manager with a university degree and a manager without a university degree is the use of evidence based decision making. We want to see you use this type of decision making with the service organisation you create. As a university graduate you should be able to draw on relevant literature and think constructively and critically about the information you obtain.
Other important points you should consider when planning, writing, and submitting Assignment 1 (Part A) and Assessment2 (Part B):
o There is no need for you to approach any organisation to obtain information. Your analysis must be based entirely on secondary information sourced from observation, academic or applied literature and other web-based sources.
o Your reports must be word-processed and at least 1.5 spacing, and give yourself plenty of space: use paragraphs!
All assignments must be submitted via Turnitin.
If you have issues with Turnitin, please contact your location teaching staff as soon as possible.
o You might find the Factiva database, hosted through the SCU Library website a useful tool for sourcing relevant newspaper/trade journal articles. Consult with Library staff if you are not familiar with this database.
Assessment 1 (Part A):
Your organisation and its Strategic Service Vision (Stages 1 & 2)
Many organisations face choices regarding the types of services they wish to offer and to whom, and the operational procedures they employ. Frameworks are sometimes used to assist in these decisions. Using Heskett’s ‘strategic service vision’ framework as a template, specifically stages one and two, provide:
• an overview of your organisation o you might also like to create a logo for your organisation! • its ‘target market segments’ and • its ‘service concept’.
In addition to the above, the following questions should be addressed:
Q1. Outline the core and peripheral services that make up the bundle of services you will offer to the customers of your organisation.
Q2. Provide a description of the proposed servicescape.
• NOTE: although this is relevant to Part B, it will provide substance to your overview.
Q3. The service sector is now a key generator of economic prosperity in many countries. However, changes in the context in which businesses operate are having an impact on their ability to provide this economic wealth. Using newspaper articles (print or online) written in the past 12 months:
• identify three current issues that would impact on your specific organisation, and strategies that your organisation might implement to minimise these factors.
• Ensure you reference these correctly
Q4. Using a range of sources of information, including non-academic and academic articles as supporting evidence:
• identify and evaluate four factors that you think will impact on your business in the future.
Guidelines to your Strategic Service Vision report – Part A
This assessment is designed as an experiential learning exercise by having you apply theoretical concepts to a potential real-world situation in a critical manner. You should adopt the mindset of a real business owner/investor for the organisation you have elected to base your report on. NOTE: do not submit general service concepts that might be applied across lots of organisations: this assessment is specifically about the organisation you have created.
Your strategic service vision report must be presented using academic report format. It should conform to the following format, and should also include a professionally laid out table of contents prior to the executive summary. The word count for each section is a guide to help you, but you may be longer or shorter in some sections depending upon your organisation.
Executive summary [250 words]
An executive summary of a report is a summary that contains a statement of the report’s purpose and an overview of the findings. Write in past tense (e.g. The purpose of this report was to…). If an executive summary is well written the reader should be able to understand the main points, findings, and conclusions of the actual report without having to read the full report.
Section one – Introduction [100 words]
This is a brief statement of the purpose of the report, what its objectives are, and an overview of how the report is structured
Section two – Organisation overview [400 words]
This is where you will briefly showcase your organisation, its name, description of operations, its bundle of services [Q1] and its servicescape [Q2]. A good place to start is Topic 2 of the Study Guide (core and supplementary services) and your text book (servicescape). Your goal here will be to sell the idea of your organisation to the reader/marker. You might like to include a logo here too!
Section three – Target market segments [400 words]
In this section you are to refer to Heskett’s strategic service vision, stage 1 and using the most relevant headings, identify the type of customers you plan to attract. Although there are a number of headings, you are not restricted to this list and it is recommended that you source other data and/or literature to help determine the appropriate markets. Study Guide Topic 2 is useful for this section.
Section four – Current and future implications [400 words]
You need to identify three (3) current issues [Q3] (sourced from non-academic and academic literature) that are impacting your organisation. It is important here to source information that is actually relevant to your organisation and you must critically analyse the information, potentially exploring strategies to minimise these factors and implications.
Also on this section, you need to identify four (4) issues that may impact your organisation in the future [Q4]. Use a range of source material to support your identified issues.
Section five – Service concept [100 words]
Here you are laying down the foundations for Part B of your assessment. It is the how and what of service design, where you need to bridge the customer s’ needs (as determined in your Target Market research) and the intent of your organisation. You should be aiming to show how you wish the services to be perceived by the customers and other stakeholders. For example, if your organisation is a backpacker accommodation, you might emphasise a cheaper service, utilizing mobile technology whereas a luxury resort may emphasise quality service and personalised attention.
Section six – Conclusion [100 words]
Within this section restate the purpose of the report, then provide an overview of main points covered in your analysis. Ensure that you do not include any new information, only that which has been discussed within the main body of the report.
Reference list
All works cited must be included in your reference list. Citations must conform to the
Harvard referencing style.
Appendices
This is an optional section in which you are able to place relevant material which would have otherwise disrupted the logical flow of your report e.g. business data reports. Material included in this section will not count towards the overall word count for this assessment.
Marking Criteria [25 marks]
Section 2 Organisation Overview [Q1 & Q2] 5 marks
Section 3 Target market segments 5 Marks
Section 4 Current and future implications [Q3 & Q4] 5 Marks
Section 5 Service concept 4 Marks
Referencing 3 Mark
Report Presentation 3 marks
General marking criteria
Demonstrated ability to critically analyse sources
You are expected to ask critical questions of the material you read. Only minimal marks will be awarded in cases where you have merely re-stated what the authors have already said. Can you identify any potential flaws in the concepts? Is there a difference in opinion between scholars? Who do you think is right, and why? These are potential areas of critical analysis you could focus on.
Evidence of original thought and creativity
You must show that you have developed an ability to think about how the theories and concepts covered might be applied in the real world though their links to your own created organisation
Quality of presentation structure; overall content; quality of bibliographic details; written expression
You should present your work in a logical, easy to read format. It should also conform to the structure outlined previously. NOTE: any suggestion of plagiarism, ghost written assessments or use of ‘sham referencing’ will be immediately reported for Academic Misconduct
Assessment 2 Part B:
Your organisation and its Strategic Service Vision (Stages 3 & 4)
Continuing on from your first assessment, Assessment 2 (Part B) will once again be structured around Heskett’s ‘strategic service vision’ framework although your focus will be specifically on stages three and four. Your role will be to develop an ‘operating strategy’ and discuss those relevant features of the ‘service delivery system’ for your created organisation.
In addition to the above, the following questions/tasks should be addressed:
Q1. Productivity and quality are both key facets of the service process. Using the academic literature, explain how your organisation will balance the quality of its service whilst maximising its productivity.
Q2. Construct a simple blueprint for one service process in your organisation.
Q3. Select any two methods for managing capacity and explain how these could be used to better match supply and demand for a service offered by your organisation.
Q4. Explain how your employees can affect the quality of service received by your external customer. What measurements could you use to gauge and manage the satisfaction of your employees?
Q5.
Choose any service quality model as described in Chapter 12, and analyse and apply the model to your own organisation.
Guidelines to your Strategic Service Vision report – Part B
Once again, this assessment is designed as an experiential learning exercise by having you apply theoretical concepts to a potential real-world situation (through your created organisation) in a critical manner.
The report should conform to the following format, and should also include a professionally laid out table of contents prior to the executive summary:
Executive summary [250 words]
An executive summary of a report is a summary that contains a statement of the report’s purpose and an overview of the findings. Write in past tense (e.g. The purpose of this report was to…). If an executive summary is well written the reader should be able to understand the main points, findings, and conclusions of the actual report without having to read the full report.
Section one – Introduction [150 words]
This is a brief statement of the purpose of the report, what its objectives are, and an overview of how the report is structured. You should also include a brief overview of your created organisation.
Section two – Operating strategy [500 words]
As you will see from Heskett’s framework, you need to identify the important elements of the strategy although be mindful of the Service Management Trinity and limit your discussion to Operations, Marketing and Human Resources. There are several ways in which you can approach this and you may like to refer to Topic 4 in the Study Guide as a framework for your discussion.
Section three – Service blueprint [300 words]
You are to prepare a service blueprint here [Q2] and a diagrammatic presentation of this is warranted. You should identify and discuss two (2) critical points within the service delivery process that are likely to have a significant bearing on the customer’s experience. Clarify why these points in the process are particularly important and how you would manage them.
Section four – The service delivery system [300 words]
This is your opportunity to detail some of those actions that will support your operating strategy. Topic 2 identifies some important questions although you should focus specifically on the following:
a) What should be the nature of the service process at each step?
b) What should be the serving protocol – reservations system, first-come, first served, or a priority system for certain types of customers?
c) Given that services are perishable, what capacity management issues do you foresee and how do you plan to address these issues [Q3]
In addition, you should address the issue of productivity and quality [Q1] As each organisation will address these differently, aim to discuss the trade-offs that are relevant to your chosen organisation and seek to support this with academic literature.
Section five – Service employee management [300 words]
As noted by Lovelock et al. (2015), the encounter with service staff is often the most important aspect of a service. Given this importance, it is prudent to attract and hire employees that add value and gain your organisation a competitive advantage. This can present many management issues such as training and staff retention. Discuss how your employees can affect the quality received by your customers [Q4].
Furthermore, how will you gauge and manage the satisfaction of your employees.
Section six – Quality management measures [300 words]
This final section will draw upon information discussed in Topic 4 and 6 in the Study Guide. Although an essential element of this section is to identify a service quality model [Q5] such as that discussed in Chapter 12 of your text, you are to bring together many of the service provisions discussed previously, which will ensure the provision of quality services. To get you started, you may wish to develop a ‘service guarantee’ and match elements of this guarantee to some of the key aspects of the service delivery system or employee management.
Section seven – Conclusion [100 words]
Within this section re-state the purpose of the report, and then provide an overview of main points covered in your analysis. Ensure that you do not include any new information, only that which has been discussed within the main body of the report.
Reference list
All works cited must be included in your reference list.
Appendices
This is an optional section in which you are able to place relevant material which would have otherwise disrupted the logical flow of your report e.g. business data reports. Material included in this section will not count towards the overall word count for this assessment.
Marking Criteria [35 marks]
Section 2 Operating strategy 6 marks
Section 3 Service Blueprint 5 Marks
Section 4 The service delivery system 6 Marks
Section 5 Service employee management 6 Marks
Section 6 Quality management measures 6 Marks
Referencing 3 Marks
Report Presentation 3 Marks
General marking criteria
Demonstrated ability to critically analyse sources
You are expected to ask critical questions of the material you read. Only minimal marks will be awarded in cases where you have merely re-stated what the authors have already said. Can you identify any potential flaws in the concepts? Is there a difference in opinion between scholars? Who do you think is right, and why? These are potential areas of critical analysis you could focus on.
Evidence of original thought and creativity
You must show that you have developed an ability to think about how the theories and concepts covered might be applied in the real world though their links to your own created organisation
Quality of presentation structure; overall content; quality of bibliographic details; written expression
You should present your work in a logical, easy to read format. It should also conform to the structure outlined previously. NOTE: any suggestion of plagiarism, ghost written assessments or use of ‘sham referencing’ will be immediately reported for Academic Misconduct
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