The restaurant and food service industry in Puerto Rico : data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for employment newly covered by the amendments of 1966 /

"WH67-669."

Data pertinent to the review of minimum wage rates under the Fair Labor Standards Act in the restaurant and food service industry in Puerto Rico /

"September 1968."

Selected research abstracts of published and unpublished reports pertaining to the food service industry including recommendations for research needs.

Prepared for Market Research and Development Division, Food Research Center for Catholic Institutions.

Past, Present, and Future: The Food Service Industry and Its Changes

In the article - Past, Present, and Future: The Food Service Industry and Its Changes - by Brother Herman E. Zaccarelli, International Director, Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management Institute at Purdue University, Brother Zaccarelli initially states: “Educators play an important role in the evolution of the food service industry. The author discusses that evolution and suggests how educators can be change agents along with management in that evolutionary progression.” The author goes on to wax philosophically, as well as speak generically about the food service industry; to why it offers fascinating and rewarding careers. Additionally, he writes about the influence educators have on students in this regard. “Educators can speak about how the food service industry has benefited them both personally and professionally,” says Brother Zaccarelli. “We get excited about alerting students to the many opportunities and, in fact, serve as “salespersons” for the industry to whoever (school administrators, legislators, and peers in the educational institution) will listen.” Brother Zaccarelli also speaks to growth and changes in food service, and even more importantly about the people and faces behind everything that food service, and hospitality in general comprise. The author will have you know, that people are what drive an educator. “What makes the food service industry so great? At the heart of this question's answer is people: the people whom it serves in institutional and commercial operations of all types; the people who work within it; the people who provide the goods, services, and equipment to it; the people who study it,” says Brother Zaccarelli. “All of these groups have, of course, a vested personal and/or professional interest in seeing our industry improve.” Another concept the author would like you to absorb, and it’s even more so true today than yesterday, is the prevalence of convergence and divergence within food service. For food service and beyond, it is the common denominators and differences that make the hospitality-food service industry so dynamic and vibrant. These are the winds of change presented to an educator who wants to have a positive impact on students. The author warns that the many elements involved in the food service industry conspire to erode quality of service in an industry that is also persistently expanding, and whose cornerstone principles are underpinned by service itself. “The three concerns addressed - quality, employees, and marketing - are intimately related,” Brother Zaccarelli says in stripping-down the industry to bare essentials. He defines and addresses the issues related to each with an eye toward how education can reconcile said issues.

Take the "Con" Out of Consulting in the Food Service Industry

Consultants can help a food service operator with almost any problem which needs solving. Howeve6 the manager must "manage" the consultant. The author offers a design for planning for hiring and evaluating the work of anyone given the job of analyzing existing systems and diagnosing problems.

The Food Service Industry Environment: Market Volatility Analysis

In their dialogue entitled - The Food Service Industry Environment: Market Volatility Analysis - by Alex F. De Noble, Assistant Professor of Management, San Diego State University and Michael D. Olsen, Associate Professor and Director, Division of Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, De Noble and Olson preface the discussion by saying: “Hospitality executives, as a whole, do not believe they exist in a volatile environment and spend little time or effort in assessing how current and future activity in the environment will affect their success or failure. The authors highlight potential differences that may exist between executives' perceptions and objective indicators of environmental volatility within the hospitality industry and suggest that executives change these perceptions by incorporating the assumption of a much more dynamic environment into their future strategic planning efforts. Objective, empirical evidence of the dynamic nature of the hospitality environment is presented and compared to several studies pertaining to environmental perceptions of the industry.” That weighty thesis statement presumes that hospitality executives/managers do not fully comprehend the environment in which they operate. The authors provide a contrast, which conventional wisdom would seem to support and satisfy. “Broadly speaking, the operating environment of an organization is represented by its task domain,” say the authors. “This task domain consists of such elements as a firm's customers, suppliers, competitors, and regulatory groups.” These are dynamic actors and the underpinnings of change, say the authors by way of citation. “The most difficult aspect for management in this regard tends to be the development of a proper definition of the environment of their particular firm. Being able to precisely define who the customers, competitors, suppliers, and regulatory groups are within the environment of the firm is no easy task, yet is imperative if proper planning is to occur,” De Noble and Olson further contribute to support their thesis statement. The article is bloated, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, with tables both survey and empirically driven, to illustrate market volatility. One such table is the Bates and Eldredge outline; Table-6 in the article. “This comprehensive outline…should prove to be useful to most executives in expanding their perception of the environment of their firm,” say De Noble and Olson. “It is, however, only a suggested outline,” they advise. “…risk should be incorporated into every investment decision, especially in a volatile environment,” say the authors. De Noble and Olson close with an intriguing formula to gauge volatility in an environment.

Growth of the Food Service Industry

The food service industry has come into its own recognition as a growing segment of the total food market. The author looks at the recent expansion of the industry in volume, diversification of restaurant types, and menu variety

Labor Cost Analysis for the Food Service Industry

There are many factors which can assist in controlling the cost of labor in the food service industry. The author discusses a number of these, including scheduling, establishing production standards, forecasting workloads, analyzing employee turnover, combating absenteeism, and controlling overtime.

The Food Service Industry: Beliefs Held by Academics

In his study - The Food Service Industry: Beliefs Held by Academics - by Jack Ninemeier, Associate Professor, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at Michigan State University, Associate Professor Ninemeier initially describes his study this way: “Those in the academic sector exert a great deal of influence on those they are training to enter the food service industry. One author surveyed educational institutions across the country to ascertain attitudes of teachers toward various segments of the industry.” Those essential segments of the industry serve as the underpinnings of this discussion and are four-fold. They are lodging, institutional, multi-unit, and single-unit properties. For each segment the analysis addressed factors relating to Marketing, management and operating concerns: Marketing, operations, fiscal management, innovation, future of the segment Employee-related concerns: quality of work life, training/education opportunities, career opportunities The study uses a survey of academicians as a guide; they point to segments of the food service industry students might be inclined to enter, or even ignore. The survey was done via a questionnaire sent from the campus of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at Michigan State University to 1850 full-time faculty members in two and four-year hospitality programs in the United States. Through the survey, Ninemeier wishes to reasonably address specific problems now confronting the food service industry. Those problems include but are not limited to: reducing employee turnover, retaining staff, increasing productivity and revenue, and attracting new staff. “Teachers in these programs are, therefore, an important plank in industry's platform designed to recruit students with appropriate background knowledge and interest in their operations,” Ninemeier says. Your author actually illustrates the survey results, in table form. The importance to an employee, of tangibles and intangibles such as morale, ego/esteem, wages, and benefits are each explored through the survey. According to the study, an interesting dichotomy exists in the institutional property element. Although, beliefs the academics hold about the institutional element suggest that it offers low job stress, attractive working conditions, and non-demanding competitive pressures, the survey and Ninemeier also observe: “Academics do not believe that many of their graduates will enter the institutional segment.” “If academic beliefs are incorrect, an educational program to educate academics about management and employee opportunities in the segment may be in order,” Ninemeier waxes philosophically.

Economics of Operating An Employee Food Service

The author, who has spent 30 years as an operations executive in the food service industry seeks to acquaint management with some of the basic economics of operating an employee food service. The article is designed to assist the executive in understanding the basic philosophies and concepts of providing a food service to employees, as well as the cost factors involved in giving that service.

A New Look at Institutional Food Service Management

Institutional food service management, especially by contract management companies, offers unrecognized career opportunities for many of today's hospitality students. It is one of the best kept secrets in the food service industry. This article endeavors to provide a new look at and overview of the industry as it has evolved and now stands.

Electronic Perception Technology Applications in Food Service

Electronic Perception Technology (EPT) enables automated equipment to gain artificial sight commonly referred to as "machine-vision” by employing specialty software and embedded sensors to create a “Visual" input field that can be used as a front-end application for transactional behavior. The authors review this new technology and present feasible future applications to the food service industry in enhancing guest services while providing a competitive advantage.

Genetically Altered Foods: A Policy Issue for Multi-unit Food Service Operators

Although it is a substantial issue, the technology behind genetically altered foods and the concerns being raised about them are not well understood by most people. The authors discuss how genetically altered foods might fit into the business strategies of multi-unit food service operators as well as current policies and predispositions of multi-unit food service companies toward the use of genetically altered foods. They also outline the issues surrounding genetically altered food as they relate to the food service industry and provide a picture of where multi-unit food service operators currently stand on the technology

Recreational Food Service: A Growing Employment Option

The recreational food service industry represents a wealth of potential job opportunities for graduates of hospitality management degree programs. Most hospitality management curricula are saturated with core courses and basic hospitality education course work, leaving little room for additional components. Recreational food service, however, could be easily integrated into an existing pro- gram and made available for students interested in this growing employment option. The author presents one option as a model curriculum approach.

Food Service Management: A Case Study in Adaptation

The rapid growth of the food service industry has redefined the role of the manager today. According to the executive director of the National Restaurant Association, future trends and pressures will accelerate these changes and necessitate a new look at these managers.