The Executive Housekeeper as Department
Manager
Overview
 This chapter explains how management can
be applied to the role of executive
housekeeper, it must be able to combine
concern for production and concern for
people in order t run the department
effectively
 As a department head, the executive
housekeeper must be proficient in
technical, people related and conceptual
skills.
 And as a manager, the executive
housekeeper must understand the concept
within the concepts of time management,
problem resolution, quality control, and
decision-making, and operate within the
precepts of industry- accepted codes of
ethics
-Americans have often been described as a people
on the move, a mobile society; and since their
earliest history Americans have required bed and
board.
-Travelers in the early 1700s found a hospitality
similar to that in their countries of origin, even
though these new accommodations may have been
in roadhouses, missions, or private homes and the
housekeeping may have included only a bed of
straw that was changed weekly.
 With the growth of transportation—
roadways, river travel, railroads, and air
travel—Americans became even more
mobile.
 Inns, Hotels, motor hotels, resorts, and the
like have kept pace, fallen by the wayside ,
been overbuilt, or been refurbished to meet
quality demands.
Creating Proper Attitudes
 Professional housekeeping requires staff
with a sense of pride.
 Housekeeping staff must show concern for
guests, which will make the guest want to
return- basic ingredient for growth in
occupancy and success in the hotel
business.
 A prime responsibility of the executive
housekeeper is to develop this concern in
the staff, it is just as important as the other
functions of cleaning bathrooms, making
beds and making rooms ready for
occupancy.
 It is the responsibility of a manager to
create and maintain an environment in
which people can work towards the goals of
the company.
 As the manager, the executive housekeeper
must possess strong managerial skills in
order to perform this task well.
 Members of management staff must be
concerned with the productivity of the work
force and people, and must be able
efficiently coordinate effort in the work
place.
 While the evolution od the housekeeping
profession was taking place, professional
management was also being developed.
 In fact, there is evidence that over 6000
years ago in Egypt and Greece, complex
social groups required management and
administration.
 The Classical School
 Administrative theory
- Henry Fayol (1841-1925)
- Is principally concerned with the
management of the total organization.
5 Functions of management
 Planning
 Organizing
 Commanding
 Coordinating
 Controlling
 Scientific Management
- Frederick W. Taylor ( 1856-1915)
- Is concerned with the individual worker
and the improvement of production
efficiency by means of an analysis of
work using the scientific method.
Scientific Method
 The sole basis for obtaining information
from which to derive facts, form
conclusions, make recommendations and
take action.
 Taylor’s contribution was a basis for
understanding how to administer a project
and the people involved.
 Taylor’s scientific management theory
argued it was the job of workplace
managers to develop the proper production
system for achieving economic efficiency.
4 Principles of Scientific Management
 Select methods based on science, not “rule
of thumb” used scientific method to
determine one best way
 Assign workers jobs based on their
aptitudes. Assess one employees that are
capable for specific job.
 Monitor worker performance.
 Properly divide the workload between
managers and workers.
The Behavioral School
 Robert Owen believe that workers
needed to be “kept in a good state
of repair”
 He claimed that returns from
investment in human resources
would far exceed a similar
investment in machinery and
equipment.
Elton Mayo
 Mayo concluded that there were
factors other than the physical
aspect of work that had an effect on
productivity.
 Social and Psychological factors
of workers
 Relationship with managers and
co-workers
Douglas McGreogor
 Summarized certain assumptions
about traditional, or work-centered,
theory of management under the
heading Theory X. He also presented
Theory Y which is the opposite of
Theory X.
Theory Y
 Participative Management style
 Managerial thinking that implies
that work is natural and to be
enjoyed by the worker; that the
committed worker will exercise self-
discipline and direction; that
avoidance of responsibility, lack of
ambition, and emphasis on security
 Participative Management
 Characterized by worker participation in
discussions regarding decisions that
ultimately affect the worker.
 Participation occurs when management
allows hourly workers to discuss their own
observances and ideas with department
managers.
Theory Z
Japanese management model that asserts
productivity can be enhance in an organization by
involving all employees in the planning and
decision-making process.
 Employee want to build cooperative
relationships with their employers, peers,
and other employees in the firm.
 They value family life, culture, and
traditions, and social institutions as much as
material success.
 They have well-developed sense of
dedication, moral obligations, and self-
discipline.
Quality Circle
 A way of explaining total worker
involvement in the processes as well as in
the management decisions about
production and quality that will ultimately
affect worker welfare.
 Quality circles aim to give individual
members the opportunity to contribute to
problem-solving and have an emphasis on
teamwork and collaboration.
Functions of a Manager
 Continuous Function — related actions
(analyze problems, making decisions,
communicate) that managers do
continuously.
 Sequential functions — group of related
actions (planning, organizing, staffing,
directing and controlling) that a manager
may be seen to do in a given sequence.
The Executive housekeeper as a
department head
 The position of executive housekeeper in
the organizational structure of lodging
operation is the of department head or
member of the middle management team.
 Today’s successful executive housekeeper
requires skills beyond those of a person
who is just in charge of keeping the place
clean, an effective manager of the
housekeeping department must be
object/thing, people, and idea oriented.
Managers Task
 Ideas – To think conceptually about matters
that need to be resolved.
 Things – To administer or manage the
details of executive affairs.
 People – To exercise leadership and
influence people so that they accomplish
desired goals.
Housekeeping:
 Is not a “glamorous” occupation.
 Is viewed by a majority of American public
as being at the bottom of the occupational
hierarchy in terms of status, pay, benefits,
and intrinsic worth.
 Employees are among the lowest paid of all
workers in the hotel.
Motivation and Productivity
 The motivation of employees is
accomplished by the manager creating an
environment in which employees can
motivate themselves.
 Manager want their employees to become
productive and to accomplish their duties in
a more effective and efficient manner.
 Managers want their organization to be
populated with happy competent people
who believe that ”work is as natural as play
or rest”.
 Reaching the Motives
 What motivates the employees?
 Why other employees leaves?
 What current employees really want
regarding wages, benefits and working
conditions.
Selections
 Recruiting is often viewed as a costly and
time-consuming process for the
management and the property.
 Employee Referral – asking the employee to
refer people whom they know for entry-
level position openings.
Why managers do not delegate?
 Some managers do not understand their
roles as managers
 Managers who enjoy physically doing work
are sometimes reluctant to let go of such
tasks.
 Less competent people fear the
consequences of being outperformed.
 Some managers feel that delegation is an
all-or-nothing situation
 Some managers feel that if they do not do
the task themselves, it will not be done
properly.

Training Rewards and Motivation

 A formal training program is indispensable  Recognizing and rewarding proper
element in achieving productivity goal. employee performance is essential.
 All employees want to know if their
performance meets managements
Delegation: The Key to Managerial Success expectations.
Delegation
 The creation of a responsibility for, or the
assignment if a task to a subordinate,
providing that person with the necessary
authority to carry out the task and exacting
an accountability for the results of the
subordinate’s effort.
 To delegate means to pass authority to
someone who will act on behalf of the
delegator.

Methods of Delegation
 By results expected
 By setting performance standards
 By establishing procedures