Unit 1
Unit 1
Unit 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION
This is the first unit of the Course on Entrepreneurship and Food Service Management
and deals with the history and development of food service organizations, the factors
that have played important roles in their development and today’s continuing trends.
When we think of a food service unit we think of hotels, restaurants, lunch rooms,
fast foods operations, catering services, schools, hospitals, institutional food services,
industrial and military food services and vending machines. All these places of food
services have become popular because of number of factors. These include:
• Eating out has become a necessity
• Convenience and quick service provided by an eatery
• It is steadily replacing drudgery of cooking at home
• Both the couples being engaged in earning they are forced to eat out
• Office goers, professionals prefer fast food joints to going home for lunch.
Different types and sizes of food service establishments are available today –
commercial, non-commercial, home-based. These different types of establishments
are covered in this unit.
9
Entrepreneurship and Food In addition, the different approaches which catering managers have used from time
Service Management to time for managing their establishments have been dealt with, keeping in mind the
research efforts that led to management thought over the years. Traditional, as well
as, modern management techniques have been presented.
Lastly, the processes involved in managing an establishment or institution have been
introduced to enable potential managers to learn about goal-setting, forecasting,
making decisions about resources, communicating, decision making and leadership
qualities necessary for goal achievement.
Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• define a food service establishment,
• trace the history and development of food service institutions,
• identify the factors that led to their development,
• discuss the different types of establishments that exist and their recent trends,
• describe the traditional and modern approaches to management that can be used
in an organization, and
• explain the principles and functions of management and the processes involved
in setting and achieving goals.
We shall begin our study about the food service establishments by first tracing the
history and development of these establishments followed by the recent trends.
The factors which influenced the development of food service establishments are
discussed next.
10
History and Development
of Food Service System
Tradition and
Culture
n
Re
tio
Fe ligi
za
rv ou
ali
ou s
ob
r
Gl
Factors
in development
Royal Statu
gical
Technolo ent of food services
cem
Advan
s
So
c ial strial
C ha Indu ment
ng lo p
es Deve
The development encouraged tourism, travel and eating out trends and
consequently led to the creation of varied types of catering options to offer
solutions to new needs in the form of commercial, semi-commercial such as
coffee shops, cafes and roadside motels and mid-way establishments to feed,
serve and rest the traveler.
Today, a large percentage of the population eat out at least once a month, and
the trend for home delivery of meals and snacks is also on the rise as evidenced
by the expansion plans of existing food services and a rise in the number of
multinational catering franchises showing interest in the Indian market.
• Welfare and Rehabilitation: The focus of the government was gradually drawn
to the large population not only as pure numbers, but their proportions in terms
of unemployment, access to literacy and educational facilities, medical and
healthcare problems of normal and handicapped citizens. To add to this was the
increase in crime rates and prisons swelled too, where proper food was needed
to feed the prisoners. This led to an increase in welfare and rehabilitation centers
and the concept of institutional food services came into the limelight to address
the needs of inmates of all kinds of institutions whether orphanages, boarding
houses, hospitals or others.
• Healthcare: Increase in health, medical care and welfare schemes gave rise to
hospitals, clinics, crèches, old age homes and welfare centers within which it
became necessary to operate catering facilities to fulfill the needs of patients,
staff and visitors.
In addition, welfare services were planned by the government to help eradicate
hunger and malnutrition in deprived areas through local public health centers,
anganwadis and schools. This led to the development of mobile catering and
health units in rural and distant areas to take care of health needs through
supplementary feeding and mid-day meal programmes for school children.
The need to take the food to the people provided an impetus to entrepreneurs
to start mobile and contract catering services even in the urban cities under
licensed schemes.
• Education: With more and more families sending children to schools, colleges
and universities, residence halls, dormitories and hostels providing boarding and
lodging facilities sprang up on the premises as a matter of necessity. When the
demand increased further, men, women and youth hostels came into existence.
Snack bars and cafeterias grew on campuses to provide food services to day
students, staff and visitors who were not permitted to use hostel facilities on a
regular basis.
School education also became distanced from homes and canteen and hostel
catering facilities became a necessity for the young and active clients. For
government schools where children could not pay for their food in canteens,
13
Entrepreneurship and Food subsidized mid-day meals providing at least 1/6-1/5th of children’s daily requirements
Service Management of essential nutrients was initiated. This scheme has yet to cover all school
children but the intention was to try and increase attendance in schools and
eradicate malnutrition to the extent possible, while educating them in the process.
• Unemployment: With the population of our country well over the one billion
mark, unemployment is a real problem even among the educated youth let alone
those who have little or no access to literacy or schools of learning. It is for
these masses that food vending provided the means of earning a living and gave
impetus to self-employment. Vending and other forms of self-employment is a
common sight in most residential localities where single food items in the form
of hot tikkis or two item meals like chana bhatura, dal roti and the like what we
call as street foods are made freshly and sold on demand. The main ingredients
are usually pre-prepared to the extent possible and then finished on demand.
Having reviewed the various factors which have lend to the development of
food service establishments, next we shall focus on recent trends in this area.
If you look around when you go out to eat, it is common to find restaurants specializing
in South and North Indian food, Chinese, Mexican, Taiwanese, Japanese, Lebanese
and other regional and international cuisines. We are sure you have eaten at one of
the specialty restaurants. With globalization a modern form of self employment has
emerged with national and multinationals joining hands in the catering arena. This
form known as franchising comes with the total package of training to maintain the
standards of the parent company in terms of establishment design, production
procedures, raw material, product and service quality, accounting procedures and the
lot. Some restaurants and fast food outlets reaching out all over the country are
Nirulas, Moti Mahal, Haldiram among the national chains and McDonalds, Pizza
Hut and many more among the International chains.
Entrepreneurial catering ventures have developed and are seen in various forms as
take home meal counters, home delivery services and the like. Today women
entrepreneurs with special food preparation and management skills are working from
their homes to augment their income and deliver home made meals to those who
cannot spend that much time in their own home kitchens.
We have entered the information technology era and the recent trends developing are
on-line catering, whether to order meals, download menus for ordering, examine
catalogues for purchasing equipment and so on, all at the click of the mouse. One
can visualize information technology (IT) being used for catering services in a
widely progressive manner in the future even by entrepreneurs supplying lunches to
offices taking orders through their networks and coordinating supplies as required
irrespective of location of the kitchens. The e-dabbawala is not far, as conceptualized
by the Director of e-business solutions at their Bangalore Labs. In time it is
expected to deliver sumptuous meals anywhere anytime.
14
Research and development efforts in the area of food processing and related technologies, History and Development
have already made it possible to package cooked ready to eat meal items that can be of Food Service System
picked off the supermarket shelf, heated or eaten as such. Have you seen such
products in the market? Look for them under the brand name of Taste bite or MTR
and see for yourself how easy it has become for institutions and householders to
present a meal to unexpected guests.
Tourism and travel is on the increase as modes of travel have graduated from the road
to sea and air. Food service establishments have tried to keep pace with the demand
of the traveler according to his or her needs through making night lodges available to
those on long pilgrimages to catering facilities on luxury bus, trains to sea and air liners.
Today catering institutions form the backbone of the tourist trade and are important
foreign exchange earners. The only drawback is that the industry is characterized by
a large number of small services which have mushroomed in response to the needs
of individuals and groups and have therefore not developed in an organized manner.
Such food establishments include the chai (tea), paan and chaat stalls, ice cream
parlours, vendors offering various food items or meals, fast food corners and mobile
services.
Recent developments in sports facilities, both leisure and competitive have also
generated special feeding requirements of clients, which pose challenges for food
and service providers at these locations. With the introduction of adventure sports
such as deep sea diving, mountaineering and so on, people are now being catered to
through constant research and development efforts in food and material sciences.
Today, ready-to-serve and eat foods of every region in the country, are available in
retort pouches that can withstand sterilization temperatures of 121°C without affecting
the quality of the food.
You must have traveled recently. Which food services did you see or use for meals
and refreshment on the way? Make a list and we will talk about them a little later.
Of course, you would not have gone on a space craft, but do you know that the food
industry also tries to meet the special needs of the astronauts and the military posted
in mountainous regions at freezing temperatures, and prepares light weight food
packages for them. You may recall studying about the space food systems and meals
in the Advance Nutrition Course (MFN-004) in the Unit 18 based on Nutrition
Requirement for Special Conditions.
Another important trend in recent times has been the promotion of national and
international trade and cooperation in every field. This has led to a spurt in conference
catering, group living and provision of feeding facilities for people with varying
geographic and cultural backgrounds. The exposure to different foods of various
countries has created a demand for specialty catering services which are now becoming
a common sight in the form of food service establishments serving regional foods.
You would have seen or even eaten at Chinese, Mexican, South Indian, North Indian
or even Japanese food services and fast food restaurants in the country.
While the type and number of food service establishments are increasing everyday,
the need to focus on relatively small scale establishments, feeding 50-200 customers
a day, in terms of providing professionally planned services is great, in order to
ensure a fair deal to customers in terms of health, satisfaction and enjoyment of food.
In India, with over 20 million middle class consumers and an increasing number of
catering training institutions, the scope for catering entrepreneurial development
holds a great promise. At the same time, this would increase employment opportunities
for the unemployed youth of a country whose population has already crossed the one
billion mark.
With a brief review on the history, development and the recent trends seen in the
food service establishment, let us now learn about the different types of food service
establishments.
15
Entrepreneurship and Food
Service Management 1.3 TYPES OF FOOD SERVICE ESTABLISHMENTS
Food services basically fall into two categories, commercial and non-commercial. Let
us see what do both these entail and what are the differences between them.
Other type of commercial food services found today are contract catering services.
These operate on behalf of anyone who wishes to celebrate an event according to
their own menu; at any place they want, whether in their home, in a lawn or a hired
hall in the locality or a community center. You must have seen such events as
marriages where all the arrangements are made by caterers, according to the menu
decided by the host. Can you think of any other functions you have attended where
the food is not prepared and served from the home kitchen but outsiders come and
arrange the food and the service and then also clear up after the party or function?
It is, therefore, clear that food establishments that are set up to make a profit from
the operations are called commercial organizations. Food services that make more
than 25 per cent profit fall into this category.
However, there are small establishments that do not have very high costs of staff
such as roadside establishments, vendors, or mobile services. These therefore, charge
less from customers and make profits within 15-25 per cent. Such establishments
are called semi-commercial services as they do not spend much money on furniture
or decoration to attract customers and thereby lower their total costs of operation.
These establishments cover all their expenses either through government grants or
subsidies or through public donations and generally do not aim at profits from sale
of the food and services provided. Financially they are said to breakeven, although
they may in part charge a price from those inmates/beneficiaries who can afford to
pay, such as for private ward patients in hospitals.
Having gone through the discussion so far, let us take a break and recall what we
have learnt so far by answering the questions included in the check your progress
exercise 1.
16
History and Development
Check Your Progress Exercise 1 of Food Service System
1) Describe the term food service establishment. Highlight the factors influencing
its development.
……………………………………………………………………………..
...…………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
2) List the food service establishments you have seen on the way while traveling
from home to your place of work, leisure or play. Try and write down against
each, the type of establishments you think they are. For example: Restaurant
— commercial.
……………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
3) How many times do you eat outside your home in a month? State the reasons
why you eat out. Tally your responses with what you have learnt.
……………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
4) Match the food service establishments in column A with the reasons for their
development given in column B.
A B
a) Dhaba i. Education
b) Restaurant ii. Technology
c) Canteen iii. Road development
d) Air Catering iv. Tourism
e. Commercial Establishment v. Entertainment/leisure
5) Define a specialty food service establishment. Give three examples of such
services.
……………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………..
So, that was easy. It is important to understand that running a food service unit is
not an easy task. It requires management skills and knowledge. Next, we shall focus
on what is management and the approaches to food service management.
Allen states that the definitions and interpretation of management vary widely. Some
see management as a complex of administrative and personal skills. Others view it
17
Entrepreneurship and Food as a technique of leadership. Still others define it as a means of co-ordination and
Service Management cooperation.
The traditional ethic is clearly depicted by the Confucian philosophy which originated
in China and spread to Korea and other countries. This defines five basic relationships
between people by which society can be organized at the social, political and economic
levels, as indicated in Figure 1.2. .
Master — subject
Husband — wife
Parent — sibling
Self — friends
Franchiser — franchisee
Let us see what these relationships are and how they work in an organization where
a number of people interact at work.
Master-subject
This relationship is widely seen in catering enterprises where the owner is the sole
manager as in the case of small roadside establishments such as Dhabas, tea or
coffee shops, bakeries and so on. In such situations, the management style is
authoritative, and communication is one-way usually in a downward direction from
master to subject.
19
Entrepreneurship and Food Husband-wife
Service Management
Ventures started by couple’s exhibit this relationship in their management style which
shows male domination in management decisions in a traditionally male dominated
society. The advantage of this relationship is that it is based on love and understanding
and therefore division of work and effort is willing, participative and effective. The
skills are well used, the wife taking charge of food production and service while the
husband deals with external forces and activities such as purchasing, inventory
management, customer networking and finance. Examples of such services are
supply of meals to homes, offices, or take-away services from which customer picks
up the meals or food items, having ordered them telephonically in advance.
Parent-sibling
With this relationship, the establishment expands with the family, its members
contributing to the work according to their age, ability, skills which they gradually
learn from the parents on-the-job. Unity, loyalty and goal focus is assured because
of familial bonds between the members of the organization, which may be a cafeteria,
contract catering business, specialty or other restaurant.
Self-friends
Management thinking changed with time and greater investments were needed. This
was achieved by extending family businesses by joining with friends who exhibited
mutual loyalties, and were willing to share responsibilities of a business in terms of
partnerships for investment, risk and profits alike. The characteristics of this
relationship were care, concern and mutual respect which formed the basis of success
in running a food service organization such as a motel, hotel, lodge, hostel or
restaurant in partnership.
Franchiser-franchisee
This represents a contractual relationship between one organization and another, the
franchiser allowing the use of its established trade name in exchange for royalty
payments. The franchisee was however, trained by the former to ensure that standards
of food and service were maintained under the given trade name irrespective of the
location of the newer enterprise. Examples of such enterprises are Nirula, Pizza Hut,
McDonald, Sagar Ratna, Udipi restaurants and so on.
The traditional management arrangements, as discussed above, although still practiced
in some establishments, have gradually undergone changes resulting from behavioural
and social research on groups at work. The different approaches that thus evolved
are discussed as practiced from time to time.
The Classical organization theory resulted from the need to find guidelines for
managing complex organizations and Henri Fayol was the first to systematize them.
20
According to him, sound managerial practice falls into patterns that can be identified History and Development
and analyzed. This gave rise to the classical bureaucratic model that was followed by of Food Service System
managers in establishments. Many transitional theories with slight modifications followed
which were referred to as neo-classical approaches. Let us review this approach.
Neoclassical approaches
Neoclassical approaches evolved as a result of experimentation with improvements
tried by managers using human relations and behavioural approaches. Two theories
were developed by Douglas McGregor known as Theory X and Theory Y, which
were based on two sets of assumptions about the nature of people.
The traditional assumptions included in Theory X were that:
• Human beings have an inherent dislike for work and will avoid it if they can.
• Most people need to be coerced, controlled, directed and or threatened with
punishment to get them to put in enough effort to achieve organizational objectives,
and
• Human beings prefer to be directed, wish to avoid responsibility, have little
ambition and want security.
Theory Y assumptions were stated as:
• The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or
rest.
• External control and threat of punishment are not the only means of producing
effort, and people will exercise self-direction and self-control to achieve objectives
or goals to which they are committed.
• The degree of commitment is proportionate to the size of rewards associated with
their achievement.
• Average human beings learn, under proper conditions, not only to accept but also
seek responsibility.
• The capacity to exercise a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in
the solution of problems, is widely distributed among people, and
• The potential of people is usually only partially utilized.
Now that you have gone through the two theories, can you suggest what the difference
between the two theories is? Write down the difference and tally your response with
the differences highlighted next.
Some important distinctive features of classical & neoclassical approach are highlighted
in Table 1.1. Going through this table you could also differentiate between the two
approaches.
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Entrepreneurship and Food Table 1.1: Points of distinction in classical and neoclassical approach
Service Management
Points of Classical Approach Neoclassical Approach
Distinction
Focus Functions and economic Emotion and humans qualities
demand of workers of workers
Structure Impersonal and mechanistic Social system
Application Autocratic management and Democratic process
strict rules
Emphasize Discipline and Rationality Personal security and
Social demand
Work goal of Maximum remuneration Attainment of organization
worker and reward goal
Concept about men Economic being Social being
Content Scientific management, Hawthorne experiment,
administrative management human relation movement
and bureaucratic and organizational behaviour
management
Relation Formal Informal
Nature Mechanistic Organistic
Source: Rafiul M. & Sadrul M., 2013, Classical and neoclassical approaches of management, IOSR,
Journal of Business and management, volume 14, Issue 6, Bangladesh.
We will all agree today, that managers should behave respectfully to their employees
too, thanks to the research done and implemented by Owen, Fayol, and others in the
management field.
Next, let us review the scientific approach to food service management.
Workforce
The views of workers was basically monetary gain and incentive pay which were part
of scientific management, although much harder work had to be performed to meet
the standards laid down.
Organization
The scientific approach enabled organizations to set clear goals and organize processes,
procedures and work areas more efficiently to achieve them. The result was that
efficiency and thereby productivity improved and profits got better ensured. Thus, a
value was placed on work performed which indirectly benefited the organization, as
it involved better planning, organizing and overall functioning of all staff in the
organization. While Taylorism grew out of experimentation and experience on the job,
a problem arose, that workers were afraid of completing a job too soon because they
believed that their pay would be lowered as a result. To remove these fears, Taylor
encouraged productive workers rewarding them by increasing their wage rates. Gradually
training schemes based on procedures followed by high performers were prepared,
skills required for various jobs were established for use in staff selection and evaluation
standards set up for each type of work. Management thus, started to become scientifically
researched and practiced.
Having understood the scientific approach, next we shall get to know the management
by objective approach.
The systems approach therefore, sees the organization as receiving inputs from its
environment and interrelating them through various job divisions or systems to produce
the products or service.s which flow back into the environment to satisfy needs. The
systems model is thus seen as inputs and outflows from one system to another as
shown in Figure 1.3.
23
Entrepreneurship and Food External
Service Management Environment
ng Organisa
Technical/Economic teri tio
System Ca Social System
Internal
n
Banks External
Institutions
Input Competition
Sub Systems Output
Customers
Government Suppliers
Environment
So
cio em
-technical Syst
Source: Reprinted with permission from Institutional Food Management, Sethi, New Age,
International, 2004.
Types of systems
There are basically three types of systems – closed, open and socio-technical systems.
Let us get to know these systems.
• Closed systems: Closed systems usually have few inter-relating parts which
operate on the assumption that the external environment is constant and does
not change to influence the functioning of the organization. When changes do
occur they are slower than the internal changes and organizations adapt to them
to bring back a state of equilibrium.
• Open systems: These are similar to closed ones except that they take into account
the interactions with the external environment as well.
• Socio-technical systems: In such systems the link is provided between the social
and the technical system by a set of activities, interactions and sentiments which
are partly molded by the technical system. One such factor is the division of work
developed in a system through which the task requirements interrelate to individuals’
24 needs, as an interdependent socio-technical system.
Thus, the systems approach helps to distinguish between productive, maintenance, History and Development
adaptive and managerial-political functions of an organization. There are however, of Food Service System
certain limitations of the systems approach. These limitations are highlighted next.
• Selecting the best person for each job using psychological testing techniques,
• Creating the best psychological conditions, and
• Motivating employees.
The human relations and behavioural approaches had two basic objectives –
i) economic effectiveness, and ii) employee satisfaction which can further be extended
to customer satisfaction with respect to service organizations.
1.5.9 Just-in-Time
Just in Time or JIT approach was the result of the increasing desire of managers to
enhance efficiency for achieving better profits. This approach is applied basically to
production management in an effort to control costs of storage space, time and
effort. The idea was to receive raw materials just in time for production as required
with minimum stocks being held on the premises.
The JIT approach was first developed by the Japanese in 1970’s and has since
inspired managers globally to adopt it to cut the costs of production. In food services,
this approach is followed when fresh, highly perishable foods, like meats, milk, fruits
and vegetables, are directly delivered to the kitchens for production of meals, rather
than stored in the establishment. The concept gains importance in India given the
seasonality of raw food production in different regions of the country, and the price
sensitivity of the consumer. Only in large establishments where the quantity delivered
is very large, these foods are stored for short periods under refrigeration or in cold
rooms, for issue as required.
The JIT approach results in appreciable cost reduction in terms of storage, handling
and staff costs, making the products and services offered by food establishments more
affordable for consumers and more profitable for the food manufacturing and catering
26
sectors. Savings of 5-10 per cent have been reported in inventory and storage costs History and Development
as reported by some researchers. JIT thus improves efficiency of production and of Food Service System
improves quality because foods are not stored excessively and deterioration is
automatically prevented.
JIT thus follows a demand pull rather than a supply push approach enabling managers
to schedule production on demand rather than have unsold products in the hope that
they will be demanded. Implementing the JIT approach has definite advantages. These
advantages are enumerated next.
Advantages of JIT
The advantages of JIT include:
• Direct cost reduction
• Staff and space reduction
• Decreases cost of handling
• Reduces or eliminates damages in storage
• Makes work flow easier, and
• Saves time and energy
Thus, the TQM, approach signifies a state of constant dynamism within an organization
because of technological advances and systems development which has made it
possible to monitor work and processes more effectively for constant quality
improvement.
With TQM, we end our discussion on the different approaches to food service
management. Surely, you may have found the discussion a bit technical but certainly
interesting. Do read this section once again for better understanding and
conceptualization. To help you recall what you have learnt in this section, we have
included few exercises in the check your progress exercise 2. Answer these exercises
and evaluate where you stand.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
iv) OR - ...............................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
In the last section we covered the approaches to food service management. Next, we
shall study about the processes and principles involved in managing an organization.
Here, let us try and look at some decisions that you take almost routinely every day
to reach your place of work. What do you do when you wake up in the morning?
Possibly:
— Look at you watch and react by saying Oh! I’m late.
— Jump out of bed.
— No time for a relaxed cup of tea.
— Pull out some clothes and rush to get ready.
— Get stressed, miss breakfast.
— Run to catch your bus or drive fast unmindful of safety.
— Reach late and try to catch up with work throughout the day.
— Can’t achieve as expected.
— Reach home frustrated and disturb harmony.
Look at your reactions above and observe the processes that you have gone through
to make decisions at various points in time. You will find that you went through three
types of processes, physical, mental and emotional. Now reverse the situation and
wake up well in time. You will still go through the three types of processes but reach
office in time, eat well, be happier and satisfied at the end of the day. We all have
good days and bad days, so do managers but they still have to take decisions as the
situation demands.
In food service establishments, it is common for operative level staff to complain that
the manager draws more salary, has greater comfort at work and sits in a chair most
of the time ordering others to do the hard work. This is however, a misconception
29
Entrepreneurship and Food since managers are mainly involved on the mental plane, using their judgment in
Service Management particular situations and making decisions that help the organization towards its goals.
In order to operate efficiently, the managers follow certain principles which are briefly
outlined and discussed next.
Authority
Division of and
work responsibility Discipline
Span of
control Unitary
command
Unity
Unitary
PRINCIPLES OF direction
MANAGEMENT
Individual
Initiative goals second to
organizational
goals
Work
stability Payment for
Loyalty work
and
devotion Orderliness Hierarchy
Larger organizations need to apply this principle more than very small operations
like dhabas, tea stalls etc. in which staff numbers vary from 2-5 only and require to
do all the tasks together, under the supervision of one manager. The principle of
division of labour however, needs to be applied with care in food services because
strict application might lead to staff becoming too specialized in their jobs to takeover
the tasks of others. For example, if a cook leaves the assistant cook may not be able
to produce the same quality food for the customer, to the detriment of the
establishment. Therefore a certain amount of job rotation also needs to be followed
to train others to fill in for staff that may be absent, sick or on leave.
Authority and responsibility: The principle of authority works in two ways one, it
is exercised because of the position in the chain of command of the organization, and
two, it is because of a person’s intelligence, experience and the sense of values he
holds. Both types of authority complement each other. In any work situation some
of the official authority may be delegated along with the responsibility a task carries
with it. For example the task of meal production and job distribution may be delegated
by a manager to the head cook, who then also gets the responsibility of ensuring
quality food to the customer. Authority may thus be dispersed or centralized for an
organization, depending on its size and location.
Unitary command: Unitary command means that there should only be one manager
to give the orders or command at work in any area of the establishment under his
control. Application of this principle goes a long way in establishing loyalty towards
managers and the organization. Imagine if two or three people were to give different
orders or instructions for completing the same task. What would happen? There would
be confusion in the mind of the worker and questions like:
• Whose instructions should be followed?
• Will other managers go against me if I do not follow their orders?
• What should I do?
Apart from the mental confusion, many commands given together is time wasting to
implement, as well as, frustrating for the worker, lead to dissatisfaction and fatigue.
Organizing
Directing
Planning
MANAGEMENT
FUNCTIONS
Coordinating
Controlling Evaluating
Planning
Planning is the continuous process by which a manager scrutinizes past performance,
reviews its applicability in the light of environmental changes, and forecasts future
trends. The planning process generally starts by an awareness of an opportunity or
a problem, which can be foreseen or forecasted in the future. In the light of forecasts
the manager then scrutinizes the establishments for its strengths and weaknesses,
and sets new objectives and goals on the basis of certain assumptions called planning
premises. These include forecasts pertaining to technological advancement, economic
and social factors, government controls, customer attitudes and competitive forces.
All planning involves the following three steps:
1) Gathering information relating to building, finances, and all other resources to
make a workable scheme.
2) Developing a blueprint of the structure indicating the arrangement of spaces and
details of activities to be performed in them, and
3) Setting goals or targets to be achieved in a set period of time, the goals being
closely related to a fairly accurate forecast of future events.
Planning is thus a continuous mental exercise of setting and resetting goals, which help
activities to proceed as realistically as possible towards them, in constantly changing
environments. Therefore any goal set must be clear to both planner and the staff
involved in activities for achieving it. This way, people know why they are doing what
and feel a sense of achievement in the end. Work then becomes purposeful, creative,
orderly, productive, cost effective and satisfying for all. Apart from benefits to the
organization, individuals benefit too, through better relations at work, economically by
getting bonuses for producing profits and personally by upgrading their skills and
experience, thus enjoying a sense of belonging to the organization.
There are basically three types of planning – short, medium and long term varying
from one to five to ten years. When the targets for achievement for each period are
set, written out clearly and understood by all staff concerned, the document is known
as a plan.
Planning food service operations involves stating objectives clearly by:
Forecasting number of customers accurately.
Knowing staff production and service skills.
Judging customer expectations through information on their food habits, cultural
background and economic status or purchasing power.
Determining menu composition and costs.
Establishing profit policy keeping in mind inflationary trends, taxes to be paid,
subsidies and free meals of employees.
Accurate projections help to lay down general policies and goals that are achievable
over different periods of time. Planning therefore is advantageous. Let us get to know
how?
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Advantages of Planning History and Development
of Food Service System
Planning has a number of advantages although some managers tend to think that
planning is a time wasting exercise. The advantages include:
• It helps to minimize time wasting activities like waiting for instructions,
ingredients and so on because of last minute purchasing, all leading to
uncertainties in task performance.
• Makes managers alert to changes and trends that may affect the activities of the
department.
• Helps integration of activities of various subunits or departments.
• Eliminates confusion if a plan is communicated well and in time to those
responsible for its implementation.
• Provides a basis for control through budgeting of time money, space and energy.
Time spent on planning therefore is time well spent provided it is not overdone.
From planning we move to the next function of management i.e. organizing.
Organizing
Once the goals have been set and understood by key people in each department, each
area of the plan has to be put into practice. In food services the key areas of
implementation revolve around the food production cycle, service areas, profit planning
and record keeping. Each department manager then translates his part of the plan into
clear-cut activities that are sequenced in a manner to flow smoothly. The ability to
coordinate the activities of staff according to their abilities and establish smooth work
flow is termed as organizing.
Steps in organizing
There are five steps involved in the process of organizing. These are:
• Breaking down tasks into specific activities.
• Each action unit is then allotted to a manageable group of people and authority
and responsibility for its performance to a leader in the group.
• Staff are allocated to each action unit and placed in positions according to their
skills with levels of authority clearly defined.
• Resources are then allocated for each activity.
• Work is equally distributed to avoid stress and fatigue.
In kitchens and service areas the staff is from different religious, cultural and
educational backgrounds, therefore, communicating with them is not as simple as
managers tend to think. People understand instructions according to their own abilities
and experiences and a simple instruction may convey a different message to different
people. An example given herewith will illustrate this point.
Example: A manager gives a simple instruction to her peon – please bring me some
coffee. The message reaches the kitchen. Let us see how this instruction is acted
upon by different staff according to their understanding.
i) To a service staff it would mean the manager wants a cup of coffee.
ii) To kitchen staff it may convey that the manager wants to see the new brand
of coffee for sampling that may have just been received for use.
iii) To the storekeeper it may mean issuing a fresh tin of coffee.
iv) The manager herself might have meant that three cups of coffee be served as
she had two visitors sitting with her. Obviously the instruction was not clear and
left to staff who interpreted it differently.
So it must be evident from the example above, how confusion can be created if
instructions are not clear. Where such a disparity of backgrounds, languages and skills
occur, it is better to communicate to the head cook or dining room supervisor who
would then pass the instruction to concerned staff in the language they understand.
The instruction is also more likely to be received, understood and acted upon
immediately because the chef and supervisors work with staff, speaking their language
and constantly instructing them for various activities on a daily basis.
Guiding: The task of directing people involves guiding them in the performance of
their jobs in a manner that standards of performance desired are achieved, and in the
process the employee also develops himself. Guiding however, does not mean standing
on a workers head all the time, but keeping a close watch on how tasks are being
performed so that if improper methods are being used they can immediately be
corrected and the employee guided to work more efficiently.
There are a number of occasions when a worker does not want to admit that he is
finding a problem in his job, for fear of being under-rated by his colleagues or
superiors. In such cases supervisors will not be able to guide in time if they wait for
staff to ask for guidance. The result will be habitual use of incorrect methods being
adopted that will affect productivity. Therefore an important component of good
guidance is supervision. Let us understand this function next.
Teaching: The person responsible for motivating people to achieve goals has got to
be able to demonstrate the work methods staff is expected to follow. Teaching people
to organize their work so that it is evenly spread throughout the day is important in
catering. This is because in food services there are periods of peak when activity at
its highest. This coincides with mealtimes when customer rush is experienced. It is
important to teach quicker methods for performing time consuming jobs to reduce
stress and perform better. A relaxed work environment also develops good learning
and working relations among staff and customers.
Reviewing: Reviewing the effect of every activity on individual and total performance
is the job of every manager. There are a number of strategic points in the production
and service cycle, which determine the quality of what is served to the customer.
Reviewing activities therefore, and modifying them when necessary to conform to
standards laid down, is essential for every food service small or large.
Leadership style, experience and ability to communicate with people, to a large extent
determines the degree to which staff can or will take instruction, be guided, supervised
and motivated to achieve and develop.
The discussion above focused on the directing function of management. Next, we shall
review the coordinating function.
Coordinating
Apart from directing the activities of staff, it is important to link them together, if group
efforts have to become meaningful. This process of linking is known as coordination.
Coordination can therefore be defined as the process of integrating the objectives
with the activities of different units of an organization in order to achieve goals
effectively. In fact Koontz defines management as an exercise in coordination, and
represents in a nutshell all the functions of management.
Constant coordination helps to tackle problems when they arise, gather ideas from
various experiences, anticipate problems and take timely action to prevent them from
recurring. The extent of a manager’s responsibility for coordination depends on the
organizations structure, policies and scope of his activity.
Henri Fayol considered coordination as the binding together, unifying and harmonizing
of all activities and efforts. The larger the organization the greater becomes the degree
of coordination required to keep individual departments together instead of alienating
their activities. Coordination results in establishing better interaction between subunits
and work is performed successfully under a single command. Good coordination
strengthens staff loyalty and a feeling of oneness permeates through the organization
resulting in greater understanding.
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Entrepreneurship and Food Controlling
Service Management
Using all the functions of management discussed so far, there is no certainty that the
targets laid down will be consistently achieved, therefore control is necessary to give
the right direction to activities. This is because achieving is not a simple process that
takes place under stable conditions. The food service establishment is constantly
surrounded by a changing environment consisting of helping and hindering forces
some of which are indicated in Figure 1.6.
HINDERING FORCES
ESTABLISHMENT GOALS
Pr
Da ctur
St
i ce
Sh
rik
m
St
Ri
or
Sta
ag
s
Men
ru
e
sin
tag
Fo
e
f
Material
od
f
e
g
Customer
al
Money
Time satisfaction
Procedures Profits
ion f
Equipment
t
f
nt
en
Re Sta
G l od
Eq etter
me
ag d
em
Fo
M Go o
ut
ial
lat
uip
B
rd
Co
an
HELPING FORCES
Figure 1.6: Some helping and hindering forces
In Figure 1.6, you may have noticed, that helping forces move the establishment
towards goals, assisting in maximizing profits through accelerating the speed of work,
whereas, the hindering forces inhibit timely achievement of goals even though their
effects are not immediately noticeable. Constant monitoring of the changes is therefore
necessary in order to use opportunities creatively to achieve goals.
Evaluation
Evaluation is a process of determining how well people have performed their
functions over time. Efficiency of production or service or of managerial effectiveness
is judged through evaluation, a process that measures how far set targets have been
achieved.
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Evaluation procedures should be set up to monitor progress periodically to ensure History and Development
success. If it is done at the end of a project, deviations cannot be detected in time of Food Service System
to correct procedures or guide activities better. In addition, the use of resources
becomes inefficient if people have to search for what went wrong where and when
on the way to the goal.
The areas of evaluation in food service establishments are:
• Staff appraisal
• Work environment
• Work conditions
• Procedures
• Equipment and maintenance
• Food product evaluation
• Profitability
For evaluating all the above periodically it is important to establish evaluation forms
designed for use in every establishment according to its goal requirements.
With evaluation we end our brief study on the functions of management here. Let us
recapitulate what we have learnt on this topic by answering the check your progress
exercise 3.
Food service establishments are basically set up to plan, produce and serve food to
a large number of people, who may come from different regions, religious and cultural
backgrounds and socio-economic levels of society all of whom may not have the same
purchasing or paying power.
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In this unit we learnt that there are basically two types of food service or catering History and Development
establishments, commercial and noncommercial. The former are setup with the explicit of Food Service System
aim of making profits by selling food to customers, while the latter function for the
benefit of those who are challenged in some way and receive food as part of a
package of welfare and rehabilitation activities. The noncommercial establishments
provide the catering service as a supplement to welfare and are therefore only expected
to plan meals, so that expenses incurred are covered directly by customers or donations
from the public or subsidized by the government.
The evolution of management approaches has been traced right from traditional to
modern day approaches, and how they have affected management thought in India
after independence. Managers have followed some of these approaches either singly
or in combination to manage their food services, according to their personality traits,
position in the establishment and leadership and decision making qualities. Further,
the science of management has changed through the decades to suit the changing
needs and challenges of organizations.
A mention has been made of people who influenced management thought from time
to time and introduced theories that formed the basis of improvement in managing
abilities within organizations, according to their size, location and other factors that
may help to achieve goals as planned or hinder them. The advantages and
disadvantages of certain approaches have also been outlined to help managers to use
their judgment appropriately while making important decisions on behalf of the
establishment.
The principles and functions of management have been discussed in detail with
suitable examples of actual situations that can arise in food establishments to warrant
the use of judgment of managers to make decisions. The importance of planning,
organizing, directing, coordinating, controlling and evaluation has been stressed for
improving efficiency of units and achievement of preset goals, whether, short term,
medium term or long term.
1.8 GLOSSARY
Abbey : a term usually used in England, for a religious place in
which missionaries or priests stay. However, in ancient
times travelers were given permission to spend a night if
they needed help, and were looked after.
Bhatura : a type of Indian fried bread made from fermented refined
wheat flour dough.
Chaat : a sour and spicy preparation in which a number of ready
to use ingredients are mixed together just prior to
consumption. The dish is spicy and makes a good appetizer
or an in-between meal snack.
Chai : hindi term for tea.
Chana : hindi word for Bengal gram, often used de-husked and
boiled in chaat and curries.
Dal : pulse preparation served with meals in India.
Dhaba : a traditional roadside food service establishment which
usually prepares and serves main meals commonly eaten
in the region.
Dharamshala : resting place for pilgrims in India. Usually built near
places of worship.
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Entrepreneurship and Food Franchising : this is a process of leasing out the management expertize
Service Management of an establishment to the buyer who then pays a fixed
royalty to the parent organization. Examples are fast
food services like MacDonalds, Wimpy, Pizza hut,
Dominoes etc.
Gurudwara : place of worship of Sikhs.
Langar : the food distributed to all present at mealtimes at places
of worship of the Hindus.
Paan : beetle-nut leaf used in India, filled with a mixture of
digestives, usually eaten after main meals. Customers
choose the type of fillings they want, sweet or plain.
The leaf is then folded over and handed over to the
buyer for immediate consumption. In some regions
households offer it to their guests on arrival as a sign
of hospitality.
Prasada : food offered to the Lord in places of worship and then
distributed to all present as a token of His blessings in
temples and gurudwaras.
Ramadaan : is the holy month of the Muslims during which they fast
religiously. Roti : A type of chappati or Indian bread
rolled from wheat flour dough and cooked on a hot
griddle.
Tikki : name for a type of potato cutlet plain or stuffed, which
is shallow fried on a hot griddle.
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4) (a) – iii; (b) – iv; (c) – i; (d) –ii; (e) – v History and Development
of Food Service System
5) Specialty food service establishment is one which specializes in the production and
service of foods typical of a region or country. Examples include: (i) Chinese (ii)
South Indian (iii) Italian.
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Entrepreneurship and Food 3) The five elements used for directing the activities of a food service establishment
Service Management are: Instructing, Guiding, Supervising, Teaching and Reviewing.
4) i) exercise, coordination
ii) Supervising, watch
iii) work-flow, organizing
iv) well, evaluating
5) i) Juran — TQM
ii) Japanese — JIT
iii) Drucker — MBO
iv) McGregor — Neoclassical
v) Owen — Classical
vi) Chinese — Traditional
6) a) False, b) False, c) True, d) False, e) True.
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