Introduction
Industrial and organizational psychology is an important part of management, because the psychological environment, the atmosphere on the working place influences the productivity of the employees. Its history starts in the 19th century when the active industrialization of the Western world began (Spector, 2012).
Many organizations suffer from problems with the personnel when they decide to ignore the basic issues of the organizational psychology (Spector, 2012). It is possible to state that the optimal application of the main principles of industrial and organizational psychology gives managers a possibility to increase the efficiency of employees and thus increase the company’s profits.
In the current research the problems of the small business in general and the restaurant business in particular are discussed due to the popularity of this sphere in the United States. It focuses only on the small business, because extended organizations like the restaurant chains can afford professional psychological and organizational help, which allows them to avoid problems with the employees.
The interview with the administrator of the small restaurant Mrs. Evans might be helpful in understanding the major problems that managers face while working with the employees. It might also be an effective tool for finding the ways out of the existing problems. This essay features two main problems of this business, possible solutions, and the scholarly commentary on them from the viewpoint of the industrial and organizational psychology.
Summary of the Interview
The interview consists of 5 questions regarding the professional experience of Mrs. Evans as the restaurant administrator. The questions aim at disclosing the theme of the two main problems in this sphere of entrepreneurship, but other minor problems are also mentioned. Mrs. Evans also gives specific background information about the restaurant industry so that the causes of the discussed problems might be more evident to those who have not previously investigated into this theme.
First of all, the small restaurants that are located in the tourist cities near the ocean or in the mountains suffer from the seasonal migrations of people. For example, Mrs. Evans used to start her career in the small family business in a small beach town, where the majority of tourists arrived only in summer.
There were few people in this town in early autumn and spring, when the weather was still fine, but in winter the town almost fell asleep. As the result, the number of tourists changed with the season. There were many visitors in the restaurant during summer months, but in winter only the retired couples who lived in this town, visited the small family restaurant.
The seasonal changes also influence the schedule according to which the personnel works. The restaurant is not able to pay the employees in winter when there are no visitors and the income is low. The restaurant can not guarantee that its employees will have a stable work for several years, so that they can plan something in their lives.
Such uncertainty makes the positions of the restaurant employee the variants for those people who are not able to find something better. As the result, it becomes the position for students, for those who do not have any professional qualification, and for those who simply can not work in one place for a long period of time.
The process of hiring professional people is the second major problem that Mrs. Evans faced during her career as the administrator. As it was mentioned earlier, the positions in the small restaurants are not privileged and well-payed. They are characterized mainly by the uncertainty in the next day.
As the result, there are not many variants from which the restaurant manager can choose when there is a need to find a chef or a waiter. Mrs. Evans describes the routine of hiring a new candidate in the restaurant business in the interview. Even though she understands that the majority of people tell her the lies during the interview, she continues to ask them the same questions.
First, she asks the candidate about his/her professional level, skills, and professional experience. This is the question where it is difficult to check the real knowledge of a person. Mrs. Evans is not a skilled cook or waitress, and her opinion about the level of professionalism of the employees is rather subjective. Even though their professional level becomes evident to everyone during the irst weeks of work, this important information can not be understood at once.
The second issue that is worth mentioning is the training of the new employees in small restaurants. The training period usually lasts for a month, and it is combined with work. In the result, a new employee makes many mistakes during his/her work during the month of training, which is natural, and during the next month, when the supervision ends. Zuber (2001) writes that the cost of such training programs for the personnel is rather high, especially for small business.
There is nothing extraordinary in this scheme, but the majority of the candidates stay in one restaurant only for the hot season (Zuber, 2001). So the person works in the normal way only one month, which is not profitable for the restaurant.
They do not see the profits of staying in one place for many years, because it is not a stable work and there are no opportunities for professional growth in it. That is why the employees do not want to solve the conflicts at work, they prefer to ignore them and to change the restaurant.
Commentary and Recommendations
As it was already mentioned in this essay, the small restaurants can not afford the services of the professional organization psychologist. Though, their problems do not allow them to ignore the current situation, because the personnel issues affect their business performance greatly.
The first recommendation is practical and it is the change of the procedure in hiring the new employees. The personnel should be tested, not just asked about their level of professionalism. It might reduce the time and the efforts of the restaurant in preparing a good employee.
The level of skills should also be supported by monetary bonuses. It might become a good motivation for people to work harder and to be more committed to the particular restaurant in the long perspective.
The second recommendation is more theoretical and it deals with the general strategic redesign of the restaurant. A restaurant needs to unite its employees if it wants to increase its efficiency. Though, a complete redesign of business is a challenge and it is possible to slightly alter the company's strategy to meet the new reality of the competition (Aronowitz et al., 2015).
Another important aspect is that the administrator should pay attention to human resources. The companies consider the roles the employees play in the organization more important than their personal inclinations (Collis, Rukstad, 2015). The emphasis on talents might lead to extraordinary results. It is also crucial to monitor the progress, because it helps to understand the effectiveness of redesign.
Conclusion
Small restaurant business is a difficult sphere of work with the quick flow of employees and high competition. People change quickly and often work only during the hot season, when there are many visitors in the restaurant. This temporary nature of work leads to the low motivation of the employees to grow professionally and to resolve conflicts that might appear during their work.
It is possible to state that the overall strategy of such business should become more personnel-oriented. In this case the employees might feel that they are the part of the restaurant and their motivation might increase.
Interview Questions
1. Please, tell us about your professional experience in the restaurant business.
2. Can you name two major problems that a restaurant administrator faces with the employees?
3. What are the general problems of the restaurant business and how they affect the problems with personnel?
4. In what ways do you cope with the organizational problems?
5. Have you ever worked with the organizational psychologist and do you think that it might help?
References
Aronowitz, S., De Smet, A., McGinty, D. (2015). Getting organizational redesign right. McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/getting_organizational_redesign_right
Collis, D., Rukstad, M. (2015). Can you say what your strategy is? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2008/04/can-you-say-what-your-strategy-is
Dermody, M. B., Young, M., & Taylor, S. (2004). Identifying job motivation factors of restaurant servers: insight for the development of effective recruitment and retention strategies. International Journal Of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 5(3), 1-14.
Spector, P. E. (2012). Industrial and organizational psychology: research and practice (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Zuber, A. (2001). A career in food service: high turnover, staff in flux leaves morale low, training costs high. Nation’s Restaurant News, 35(21), 147.
