Three essays on organizations and their external environment

Abstract: The literature on the various links between organizations and their external environment is very extensive and fragmented. This thesis is comprised of three separate essays, each examining specific research questions related to these links. The first essay deals with the notion of industry life cycle and how the geographical concentration of an industry is linked to the particular life cycle stage in which the industry finds itself. The aim of this first essay is firstly to verify if the evolution of the Swiss hotel industry fits some of the stylized facts of the industry life cycle. The second aim is to verify if there is evidence of geographical clustering of the hotel industry, and by extension of tourism. The third aim is to verify a hypothesis that industry decline manifests itself mainly by company closures in decentralized locations. The importance for organizational survival and performance of adapting and reacting to environmental changes has long been ascertained. This adaptation requires managers, under conditions of uncertainty, to identify relevant changes in their external environment and to interpret the possible effects of those changes on their organization. Furthermore, it requires finding and adopting organizational responses in reaction to the environmental changes. The second essay explores how managers perceive their environment by reporting the results of two workshops held with managers from the European hotel industry. In the third essay we examine in more detail the role of uncertainty in the interpretation by executives of environmental changes. We integrate existing theories of interpretation and uncertainty into one framework, which we then test using national survey data from the hotel industry. In all three essays we are able to provide some evidence to support our main hypotheses, but.also make suggestions far further research into the topics examined.

Service Quality Analysis in the Five Stars Resort Hotels of Cape Verde

The objective of this study was the identification of the attributes and dimensions of service quality affecting the service performance of the five stars resort hotels located in the Cape Verde Islands. The reason boosting the initiative to do this research was the paramount role of the resort hotels in the development of the travel and tourism sector in Cape Verde, and the impact that today this sector has had in the economy of that country. The research opens with a literature review on the service quality theory in the hotel industry, starting from the middle of the 1980s with the classic model of service quality and SERVQUAL instrument to the analysis of recent models of service quality measurement in the hotel industry, as it is an example the scale of items developed in 2003 in the Lodging Quality Index (LQI). Furthermore, the study elaborates an analysis on the importance of the travel and tourism activities in the Cape Verde Islands, and it evidences the enormous importance of those activities in the performance of the Cape Verdean hotel industry. In sequence the study analyzes in details the hotel industry of Cape Verde and it identifies the market size of the five stars resort hotels and their current operators in that market. Moreover, the research develops with an online questionnaire elaborated and sent through the platforms of travel websites and communities to the guests whom have experienced the service of the five stars resort hotels located in the Cape Verde Islands. The scope of the questionnaire was to assess the attributes and dimensions of service quality in the five stars resort hotels of Cape Verde. The results of the questionnaire were in sequence analyzed through descriptive and applied statistics, using Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Content validity analysis, factor analysis, and reliability analysis of the factors were made to purify an initial scale of 47 items of service quality. An instrument with three dimensions covering twenty four attributes of service quality assessment in the five stars resort hotels of Cape Verde was finally created. The three dimensions found were: staff competence; food and entertainment; and physical facilities. This study on the service in the five stars resort hotels of Cape Verde ends with brief comments on the status of service quality according to the identified dimensions and their attributes. In the conclusion, the study summarizes the whole work and gives some directions for future research.

L’impact de l’action collective patronale sur les pratiques locales des organisations : le cas de l’industrie de l’hôtellerie au Québec

Cette recherche s’intéresse aux formes et à la capacité des associations patronales à façonner les règles du travail au niveau sectoriel, plus précisément dans le secteur de l’hôtellerie au Québec. Elle vise également à mieux comprendre comment ces règles contribuent à modifier les pratiques locales en relations industrielles de leurs entreprises membres. Notre première question de recherche vise donc à cerner l’impact des logiques de représentation et d’action des associations patronales sur les pratiques en relations industrielles. Pour certains auteurs, notamment Behrens et Traxler (2004 et 2007), Carley et al. (2010), Charest, Laroche et Hickey (à paraître), les logiques de représentation et d’action chez les acteurs patronaux se distinguent l’une de l’autre et influencent de manière différente les pratiques en relations industrielles. Ainsi, la présence, la forme et le rôle d’une association patronale auront un impact significatif sur les pratiques en relations industrielles, car les membres peuvent être influencés par les orientations de leurs associations. Notre seconde question de recherche aborde la manière dont les entreprises membres utilisent leurs ressources de pouvoir afin d’influencer les actions des associations patronales. La littérature existante à ce sujet mentionne que les acteurs patronaux détenant plusieurs ressources de pouvoir, qu’elles soient internes ou externes (Charest, Laroche et Hickey, à paraître; Laroche et Hickey, à paraître), sont en mesure d’exercer une influence dans les institutions politiques. Nous tenterons donc de vérifier si, plus une association patronale sera en mesure de mobiliser ses ressources de pouvoir, plus elle sera apte à influencer le contexte institutionnel dans lequel elle agit. Au plan théorique, cette recherche s’appuie sur les idées développées par les théories néo-institutionnalistes. D’une part, nous reconnaissons que les acteurs doivent réagir et s’adapter aux changements qui s’opèrent au sein de leur environnement. Ils développeront donc des stratégies diverses, autant en matière de coordination des actions patronales que de relations du travail au niveau local, en fonction de leur interprétation de ces transformations (Traxler et Huemer, 2007). D’autre part, nous reconnaissons que les acteurs sont aussi en mesure de mobiliser leurs ressources de pouvoir pour déployer des initiatives stratégiques qui seront susceptibles de provoquer en retour des changements au sein de leur environnement (Crouch, 2005). Ces entrepreneurs institutionnels sont ainsi à la recherche active d’opportunités et de leviers de pouvoir à utiliser pour maximiser leurs intérêts respectifs et, par le fait même, réduire les incertitudes issues de leur environnement (Campbell, 2004; Streeck et Thelen, 2005; Crouch, 2005). Notre recherche reconnaît également que les acteurs qui détiennent le plus grand pouvoir au sein d’un groupe, soient les porteurs de projets, vont être en mesure de façonner les institutions en fonction de leurs intérêts spécifiques (Thelen, 2003). C’est d’ailleurs sur ce plan que notre recherche veut se démarquer des travaux plus larges dans laquelle elle s’insère. Au plan empirique, cette recherche étudie l’acteur patronal dans l’industrie de l’hôtellerie au Québec et vise trois objectifs : 1) faire la cartographie des associations patronales dans le secteur de l’hôtellerie au Québec (formes, structures, activités, missions, etc.); 2) analyser l’impact des règles issues du processus de régulation au niveau sectoriel sur les pratiques de relations du travail locales; et 3) identifier les employeurs dominants au sein du secteur et analyser de quelle manière ils parviennent à modifier les institutions et l’environnement dans lequel ils agissent. Pour atteindre nos objectifs de recherche, nous avons utilisé une méthodologie qualitative de recherche, et plus particulièrement l’étude de cas. Cette dernière a été conduite en trois étapes : la préparation, la collecte des données et l’interprétation (Merriam, 1998). Les données de cette étude ont été recueillies à l’automne 2011, par le biais d’entrevues semi-dirigées auprès de gestionnaires d’hôtels et d’associations hôtelières dans les régions de Québec et de Montréal. Une analyse qualitative du contenu de ces entrevues a été effectuée en lien avec la revue de littérature et nos propositions de recherche. À cette fin, nous avons utilisé la technique de l’appariement logique de Yin (1994), ce qui nous a permis de comparer nos observations à nos propositions de recherche. Il est à noter que puisque cette recherche est une étude de cas, cette dernière présente des limites méthodologiques surtout liées à la généralisation des résultats. Ainsi, il est très difficile d’affirmer que les résultats de cette microanalyse soient généralisables. En contrepartie, les analyses ont servi à consolider le modèle pour utilisation dans des études futures.

A study on the Effect of Psychological Empowerment on Job Satisfaction and Job Related Stress Among the Bank Employees

The present research is carried out to understand how psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and job related stress are related.In banking sector, employees are less satisfied and less motivated than employees in other lines of work (Kelley, 1990; Bajpai, Naval and Deepak, 2004). The banking industry also suffers from high employee turnover rate (Branham, 2005; Nelson, 2007) and high level of stress (Chen and Lien, 2008). There are no adequate studies linking psychological empowerment and job satisfaction, stress, turnover etc. among employees of banking sector. Lack of psychological empowerment could be a reason for these problems faced by banking sector. Further majority of studies in psychological empowerment are carried out in manufacturing sector and studies in service sector are concentrated on hotel industry and hospitals. Empowerment takes different forms in different contexts (Zimmerman, 1995). In the light of above discussion, the present research is directed to explore the dimensions of psychological empowerment of employees in banking sector and to find out whether high psychological empowerment can increase job satisfaction and reduce job related stress among employees in banking sector

La estructura y funcionalidad de los sistemas en el modelo de Bronfenbrenner y su utilidad en entornos empresariales

El proyecto será desarrollado en base al modelo ecológico del desarrollo humano, (Bronfenbrenner, 1999) partiendo desde la explicación y conceptualización del modelo en términos generales, guiando la investigación hacia un ámbito organizacional en donde se podrá aplicar la teoría descrita por Bronfenbrenner y así, determinar cuál es la estructura y funcionalidad de los sistemas en el modelo además de establecer qué utilidad tiene en entornos empresariales por medio del análisis de los múltiples sistemas, relaciones, interacciones y efectos que tienen y que desarrollan las empresas u organizaciones en el transcurso de su vida. A lo largo de la investigación se hará referencia a diferentes conceptos relacionados tanto con el modelo como con el mundo en que se desarrollan las organizaciones, tales como clusters, sistemas, sectores, estrategias, marketing relacional, comunidad, interacciones, influencias, entre otros; los cuales permitirán acercar lo mayor posible el modelo de Bronfenbrenner al mundo empresarial y lograr desarrollar de mejor manera la intención de aplicar el modelo al mundo organizacional.

Innovació i desestacionalització de la demanda hotelera en un districte turístic: el paper de les xarxes relacionals

La tesi es planteja en quina mesura l'estructura de la xarxa social existent en un districte turístic entre els diferents actors que la conformen, i la posició que aquests ocupen en la mateixa, afecta a la estacionalitat de la demanda hotelera del districte. S'assumeix que els fluxos d'informació i coneixement entre els actors del districte, i també entre aquests i d'altres actors externs determinaran la seva capacitat d'innovació, i per tant, la seva capacitat de creació de nous productes i ofertes turístiques capaces d'atraure turistes fora de la temporada alta. Així, es pretén analitzar si els hotels millor posicionats dins de l'estructura de relacions d'un districte turístic d'àmbit comarcal es corresponen amb els que presenten una millor estacionalitat en termes d'allargament de la temporada, de mesos d'obertura i de millora de l'ocupació en els dos darrers períodes. Addicionalment, s'analitza en quina mesura els segments de mercat turístic als que els hotels dirigeixen els seus esforços expliquen les diferencies d'estacionalitat entre ells.

Desenvolvimento do turismo em Portugal: os primórdios

As ideias de promover o desenvolvimento do turismo em Portugal surgem, essencialmente, pela necessidade de resolver os problemas financeiros com que o País se defrontava nos finais do século XIX e inicio do século XX. Em alguns países europeus as visitas de estrangeiros contribuíam positivamente para o respectivo “saldo comercial” e alguns políticos portugueses vêem aí um exemplo a ser seguido. É, no entanto, a sociedade civil que toma a iniciativa de promover acções concretas para atrair estrangeiros a Portugal a que se segue, pouco depois, a criação da Organização Oficial do Turismo Português (1911). Portugal torna-se pioneiro da organização turística nacional e internacional e inicia um caminho que conduz a que, em 1927, disponha de uma organização que abrange todas as áreas do turismo e que está na origem da actual. O presente trabalho procura analisar o processo que conduziu a esta organização assim como as dificuldades atravessadas e os sucessos alcançados.

Hotelaria: um estudo de caso da Rede Othon de Hotéis

No presente trabalho o objetivo geral consiste em investigar preliminarmente o que é a hotelaria, suas origens, o seu desenvolvimento ao longo da história e particularmente na Cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Posteriormente, objetivou-se apresentar o que é a atividade hoteleira e suas ferramentas gerenciais mais utilizadas para manter padrões adequados de competitividade e eficiência. A última etapa do trabalho trata do estudo de caso sobre a Rede Othon de Hotéis, que empresa de origem brasileira. Seu fundador, foi um visionário, pois resolveu investir num ramo de atividade totalmente desconhecido para sua época. A investigação avança, no sentido de descobrir a suas origens, sua motivação e suas práticas gerenciais.

Como a utilização do leilão reverso eletrônico pode impactar as compras do setor hoteleiro brasileiro

Globalization, as an economic, social and cultural phenomenon, has profoundly changed the behavior of individuals, companies and nations. It is responsible for an increasingly borderless world and a significant increase in competition between companies, due to the rapid dissemination of information and technical and scientific advances. Every day at the global level, the growing competition between companies makes it more difficult for corporations to boost their earnings through added revenues, which makes it imperative to cut costs to be profitable. To this end, utilization of the reverse auction, which has emerged as a new purchasing tool in recent years, offers the possibility of a significant and immediate reduction in prices, as well as greater operational efficiency in purchasing. The Brazilian hotel industry has also experienced transformations with globalization. A business characterized in the 70s by small and medium-sized companies has developed into an economic segment that today includes large international chains and, therefore, also needs to cut costs to be profitable. Applying the case study approach, this research seeks to evaluate the impact that the utilization of a reverse auction as a purchasing tool has had on the hotel industry in Brazil.

O processo decisório do empreendedor frente à transição da pequena para a média empresa: casos do setor hoteleiro na cidade Curitiba-PR

O presente estudo buscou entender como as mudanças ocasionadas pelo crescimento da empresa afetam o processo decisório, com foco na transição de pequena para média empresa. Buscou-se preencher o gap existente sobre esse período de transição entre pequenas e médias empresas, principalmente sob os aspectos abordados pelas lógicas Effectuation e Causation, descritas por Sarasvathy (2001). Esta pesquisa parte do princípio de que as pequenas empresas possuem poucos níveis hierárquicos e geralmente as decisões estão centralizadas no empreendedor-proprietário. Já quando a empresa cresce e torna-se média empresa, há um aumento nas formalizações dos processos e nas hierarquias. Com isso, há uma necessidade de modificar o processo decisório, que pode ser descentralizada ou envolver mais pessoas, se comparado às pequenas empresas. O referencial teórico da pesquisa, teve como base temas relativos à pequenas e médias empresas; setor hoteleiro, estrutura organizacional; ciclo de vida das organizações; processo decisório; e, por fim, o uso das lógicas causation e effectuation, com foco nas características do processo decisório do empreendedor. A pesquisa teve de caráter qualitativo e exploratório e faz uso do método de estudos de casos, através de entrevistas em profundidade com empreendedores do setor hoteleiro, que é um setor de serviços que tem tido grande visibilidade e crescimento nos últimos anos. Foram analisados dois casos no setor hoteleiro de Curitiba- PR, que passaram recentemente pela fase de transição de pequena para média empresa. Em cada um dos casos foram entrevistados os proprietários-fundadores, os seus sucessores diretos e o gerente-geral. Também levantou-se depoimentos de clientes em sites de avalizações de hospedagem. Para análise dos dados foram atribuídas categorias analíticas, e foi realizada a análise do conteúdo, (contrapondo com o referencial teórico apresentado) e cross-case analysis (comparativo das informações obtidas em cada caso). Ao finalizar a pesquisa, concluiu-se que a transição de pequena para média empresa afeta as decisões no sentido de aumentar a formalização de processos, há uma delegação de pequenos poderes, um maior distanciamento dos funcionários e a cúpula administrativa, há uma preocupação maior com a capacitação dos funcionários, são consideração de aspectos racionais na decisão, há uma equipe de suporte para tomada de decisões, há uma preocupação com o longo prazo, as responsabilidades tornam-se mais claras, e mais autonomia é delegada aos funcionários. Pode-se dizer que não mudou o fato da administração permanecer familiar, o foco das decisões ainda mantém-se no curto prazo, as decisões permanecem flexíveis, mantém-se a centralização do poder de decisões estratégicas; há ainda uma dificuldade em separar o pessoal do profissional, definição de metas e objetivos não muito claras, investimentos em um projeto por vez, e o uso de rede de contatos ainda é importante para o desenvolvimento da empresa.

Fatores da satisfação e fidelidade de clientes na hotelaria: um estudo sobre a percepção dos gestores de hotéis

This Master of Science Thesis deals with the perception of hotels managers about the factors affecting the loyalty and satisfaction of its customers. It is surveyed a group of managers attending a hotel industry meeting and the results of their responses are compared with three surveys on tourist satisfaction and loyalty factors in Natal, Brazil, including international, national and regional tourist. The main findings suggest a divergence on the managers perception and the customer significant factors affecting satisfaction surveyed, but a certain convergence on the factors affecting loyalty. The research suggest a need for a customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement system in order to contribute for the alignment of managers perception and its customers evaluations

Impactos da adoção da INTERNET na hotelaria : a percepção dos gerentes de hotéis de médio e grande porte de Natal / RN

The hotel industry is increasingly using the Internet like a management and operational tool. That way, the hotels will be more prepared to offer quality services to their guests and increase their profits as well. However, many managers seem don t perceive the advantages brought from this new digital environment. This thesis analyse the effects of the hotel managers perceptions as for the Internet effectiveness, Internet access, Internet as a communication tool, future importance of the Internet, benefits and drawbacks of the Internet, according to property type (simple, medium comfort and luxe), property size (quantity of the apartaments), age and hotel industry experience of the managers. The methodology utilized was a survey about the hotels that had at least 40 apartments (medium and big property size), were working in Natal-RN and classified in categories in the Guia Quatro Rodas Brasil, totalizing 35 hotels. Through the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey test, the results showed that the hotel managers with more than 50 apartments, the managers of the hotel more comfortable, the younger managers and the managers less experient in the hotel industry, demonstrated more conscious about the importance of the adoption of the Internet than the rest of the others. The contribution of this work is to offer more knowledge to the hotel executives about how they can use the Internet and show the importance of the web adoption in their properties

Investigação da rentabilidade de clientes: um estudo no setor hoteleiro do Nordeste

This study presents an investigation about customer profitability in the hotel industry. It exposes the hotel industry´s history and its managerial environment, besides its importance to the society and economy, considering the increasement of the hotel industry. It realizes a literature survey about the customer profitability, emphasizing the informations that are necessary to measurement. In order to perceive the hotel reality, a questionnaire was applied in some hotels classified as middle and great size. It has covered five Brasilian Northeast states. The objective of the research is to investigate the existence of an individual measurement to the customer profitability, through the hotel´s information systems. The results reveal that 81,6% of the sampled hotels do not evaluate the individual profitability obtained with the customers , while 18,4% do it. Although, 85,8% recognize the importance of the electronic system that supplies this information for decisions. Finally, it concludes that the informations about individual customer profitability may provide a good opportunity to the hotel maximize your customer relationships

Utilização de indicadores financeiros e não-financeiros na gestão de hotéis no Rio Grande do Norte: um estudo sob a ótica do Balanced Scorecard

This study presents the results of a research on the use of financial and non-financial performance indicators used by medium and large hotels. The research was conducted in Rio Grande do Norte, a Brazilian State. The objective is to identify the usage of performance measures by these companies. Hotel industry is one of the most important sectors in the Rio Grande do Norte economy. The research takes the Balanced Scorecard as a conceptual framework, since it represents an original contribution to the literature of managerial accounting, for rethinking old issues, pointing out themes that were forgotten or badly interpreted, to discuss the requirements imposed by the economy environment, dominated by competitive companies, and increasing the understanding of the relationship between strategy and operation. The objective of the research is to investigate if the hotel managers make use of a managerial information system or not, when evaluating the performance of their business unit. The research reveals the usage of performance evaluation using a large variety of measures. Among them is worth mention: the usage of accounting profit altogether with the EVA/MVA, the process cycle time, total quality management, process transformation, strategic mission, vision, strategic measures, measures related to feedback, risk, costs, productivity, incomes, customers retention, customer satisfaction and profitability, measures using time as a component, quality of the process, cost of the processes, employees capabilities, information systems, motivation, empowerment and alignment. The research leads to the conclusion that the usage of the deriving concepts of Balanced Scorecard can improve the performance measurement systems used by hotels

Tourist Cruise Ships and the Trade in Services: Recent Trends in Countries of the Caribbean Basin

This issue of the Bulletin reviews the main trends of trade in goods and services for the countries of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in 2004. The strong recovery of trade in goods and the robust expansion of trade in services are highlighted, emphasizing the increase in services as a proportion of total exports for the smaller Caribbean economies, which may even exceed 80%.A detailed analysis of the performance of the tourism component, especially travel, showed that in 2004 there was a boom in cruise ship arrivals, a situation which poses a real challenge for some islands in terms of ensuring a permanent flow of tourists and making use of the main comparative advantages -sun, sea and beaches- and possible linkages with the rest of the economy such as the hotel industry, restaurants, business and entertainment centres, guided excursions, transport, yachting, and others. In some islands, the ratio of cruise passengers to inhabitants is particularly high, and can reach a significant factor of about 11 tourists for every inhabitant in the Bahamas, 8 in Aruba, 7 in Antigua and Barbuda and 5 in Dominica, and around 4 for a sample of eleven countries.One of the main challenges for a number of Caribbean islands is how to capitalize on such linkages by developing sustainable tourism that minimizes the possible adverse impacts on the environment and the everyday life of the citizens.