Quality Management, Environmental Management and Organizational Design in the Hotel Industry: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the paper analyzes the relationship between quality management and environmental management and their effects on hotel performance. Second, the article examines the relationship between these two management systems and organizational design. The paper uses an exploratory, qualitative approach based on interviews with managers and experts in the hotel industry. Based on a content analysis of interviews, the results lead to several propositions. Specifically, quality and environmental management influence hotel performance through mediating variables. Moreover, the implementation of quality management facilitates the implementation of environmental management. Furthermore, the implementation of these two management systems is associated with an increase of formalization and decentralization. The paper contributes to the analysis of quality management, environmental management, organizational design and performance in a joint manner, which has not been attempted before in the hotel industry. In addition, it helps extend the findings about these links in manufacturing and service organizations to the hotel industry.

Organizational design, quality management and competitive advantage in hotels

Purpose – The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between practices of quality management (QM) and the characteristics of organizational design, and QM and competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a partial least squares approach to test these relationships in 350 hotels in Spain. Findings – The findings show that QM influences specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions, and that QM practices influence both cost and differentiation competitive advantage. The results also indicate the importance of QM strategic and operational systems as practices that have a key impact on the characteristics of organizational design. Similarly, the QM operational system is key in the relationship between QM and cost competitive advantage. Finally, the QM operational, information and strategic systems positively influence differentiation competitive advantage. Practical implications – When hotels adopt QM practices, there will be significant changes in a number of organizational variables, including specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions. This paper provides empirical evidence that QM practices improve both cost and differentiation competitive advantage in the hotel industry. Originality/value – There has been little research on the effects of QM on organizational design in the hotel industry. The contribution of this paper is that analyze the effects of QM on organizational design and competitive advantage, extending knowledge about these issues in a specific sector.

Teachers’ beliefs about diversity: an analysis from a personal and professional perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs that teachers have about diversity and their level of sensitivity towards some topics related to it. Moreover, beliefs were compared according to teachers’ personal and professional views and teaching experience. The Personal and Professional Beliefs about Diversity Scales (Pohan and Aguilar, 1999) were administered to a sample of 233 teachers. Results showed highly positive beliefs towards diversity in all its dimensions (cultural, linguistic and social diversity, ability, gender, sexual orientation and religion), especially regarding its personal implications compared to the professional ones. Likewise, it was observed a significant relationship between years of teaching experience and professional beliefs about diversity, so teachers with no school experience showed a higher tolerance than those with teaching experience, mainly in aspects related to cultural, linguistic and social differences, ability and gender. The implications that these results have for educational practice and the need for the development of multicultural education courses that favour an effective teaching are discussed.

Architectural Technology and the BIM Acronym 3: Getting to Grips with BIM

Among Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in particular, the UK Government’s ambitions regarding BIM uptake and diffusion across the construction sector may be tempered by a realpolitik shaped in part by interactions between the industry, Higher Education (HE) and professional practice. That premise also has a global perspective. Building on the previous 2 papers, Architectural technology and the BIM Acronym 1 and 2, this third iteration is a synthesis of research and investigations carried out over a number of years directly related to the practical implementation of BIM and its impact upon BE SMEs. First challenges, risks and potential benefits for SMEs and micros in facing up to the necessity to engage with digital tools in a competitive and volatile marketplace are discussed including tailoring BIM to suit business models, and filtering out achievable BIM outcomes from generic and bespoke aspects of practice. Second the focus is on setting up and managing teams engaging with BIM scenarios, including the role of clients; addresses a range of paradigms including lonely BIM and collaborative working. The significance of taking a whole life view with BIM is investigated including embedding soft landings principles into project planning and realisation. Thirdly procedures for setting up and managing common data environments are identified and the value of achieving smooth information flow is addressed. The overall objective of this paper is to provide SMEs with a practical strategy to develop a toolkit to BIM implementation.