COOPERATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Corporate social responsibility is the mode that companies use to get involved in the community as a strategy that creates long-term benefits for both the community and companies (Koestoer, 2008) Cooperate social responsibility is the role of the establishment which gives free and fair goods and service to the community it operates e.g. Charging fair prices. Strandberg (2009) states that CSR is the balance integration of social and environmental in to business decisions and operations.

The hospitality business has not enjoyed the best character as a great industry to work in over recent years, but now things are set to change with the increased publicity over CSR (Clarke and Chen2007). Cooperate social responsibilities is the ideas that a business needs to be anxious with more than just profit. Protecting the environment and address social problems such as poverty and hunger. A business social responsibility is also stated through its moral standard—how it treats its various stakeholders, including, vendors, employees and customers (Hill, 2013). In this section I will be looking at how Cresta group of hotels tackle the Corporate Social Responsibilty issues. The Group’s Corporate Social Responsibilty program concentrates on assisting the communities in which the Group operates through donations of various items.

The Group, in its active involvement, aid social development and the protection of quality of life. The Group believes that goodwill and being good hearted may not be a core function in the business but is central to our social license to do business. That is how the Group would donate various items including cash to charity. Beneficiaries of the donations and sponsorships include among others;  Women Against Rape in Maun , Kazungula Orphanage in Kasane , Chobe District  Council in Kasane, Kasane Hospital ,  Rankoromake Camphill school in Otse ,  Tsholofelo Foundation in Gaborone, Gemstone Group in Gaborone , My African Dream countrywide and  Masiela Trust Fund countrywide.  The Group has got a standing commitment to donate to the Masiela Trust Fund. The Group donates P1 of every bed night spent in the hotels to Masiela trust Fund. These donations go a long way to assist the orphans identified by Masiela Trust Fund. The Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program focuses on the following areas; Support for disadvantaged and or handicapped, Skills development ,  Education ,    Public health facilities that need assistance, Non-Governmental Organisations- These must   be focused on improving the general welfare  of Batswana in some form or the other and Needy communities whose projects are intended   to improve the lives of many Batswana.

 How does Cresta Group of hotels practice cooperate social responsibility?

REFERENCE

Hill. B., (2013) The Impact of cooperate social responsibility on organisational stability

Davis. S.S., (2014) Examples of Social Responsibilities Strategies: University of California, Los Angeles

Strandberg, C., (2009) The role of human resource management in corporate social responsibility,Canada

Koestoer, Y.,(2008) corporate social responsibility   in developing countries,USA

Teams, Groups and individual

Armstrong (1995) states personnel management is the procedure and practice of getting people in establishment, assessing and rewarding for performance, and increasing their full prospective for the achievement of organizational objectives.

 

Cresta Group of Hotels practice productivity for the employees in sport participating across the hotels, the Group has different sporting codes being played, soccer, volleyball, netball.  The Group also promotes country sporting competitions between the Cresta in Botswana and Cresta in Zimbabwe. The interaction between these groups is believed to impact positively on employee motivation and build team work within the cresta employees as the learn to work as groups.

Question: What could be the liabilities of a human resource manager at Cresta Group for the teams, groups and individuals?

Reference

Armstrong, M. (2006) Strategic Human Resource Management. 3^rd edn. KOGAN Page: London.

Condrey, Stephen E. (e.d) (2010) Human Resources Management in Government, Jossy – Bass, San Francisco.

FINANCE

FINANCE

FINANCIAL SATEMENTS

This section covers financial management of which it will be focusing on aspects such as the financial statements at Cresta Marakanelo Hotels. Financial statements are meaningful, written records which allow the business owner to identify the business’s financial strengths and weaknesses and increase the life and profitability of the business. Financial statements are prepared annually but the income Statement should be developed on a monthly or, at least, a quarterly basis (Small business development centre 2010). The financial statement shows the balance sheet, ratios and income statements.

FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

The company has managed to have a sustainable finance from 2010 to 2013. This was due to the consistent working capital management. The group banks with Barclays Bank of Botswana Limited, Barclays Bank Zambia, African Banking Corporation of Botswana Limited, African Banking Corporation Zambia Limited, BancABC (Botswana & Zambia), First National Bank of Botswana Limited, STANLIB Investment Management Services (Pty) Ltd and Stanbic Bank Botswana Limited. The employees of Cresta are focused, dedicated and committed to produce positive results. This makes the group to always make more revenue each year. According to Sainsbury (2013) says that at Cresta Marakanelo, the company expects to regain market share at its hotels in Gaborone, which will in turn drive revenue and profitability growth in 2014. In addition, the group opened two hotels in 2013 which are expected to continue to grow their contribution to overall profitability. Discussions are at an advanced stage for the company to lease a new hotel and conference centre in Botswana. Construction is expected to start in the third quarter of 2014. All of this shows that the company has been doing well in the market and it is continuing to grow yearly.

Why do companies provide financial statements?

REFERENCES

Karunarathne. W.V.A.D. Hubei. W. Rajapaske. R.M.D.A.P.(2013) The value relevance of financial statements’ information: with special reference to the listed companies in colombo stock exchange. Usefulness of accounting information. Sri Lanka.

Pride W.M., Hughes J.R., and Kapoor J.R. (2012) Introduction to business. The balance sheet 11th Edition. China Translation and printing services. China.

Riley J. (2012) Introduction to Accounting. [Online]. Available at: hppt: //www.tutor.net/blog/index.php/site/author/11/. (Accessed: 10 July 2014).

TA Holdings (2012). Cresta Annual Report. Harare. Zimbabwe.

Zager. K and Zager. L (2006).The role of financial information in decision making process. Finacial statements.

 

 

Marketing (service recovery)

                               

Service Recovery

As the heading points out, it is almost impossible to eradicate all failures, errors will inescapably occur. Companies do however the possibility to avoid that customers develop negative emotions and dissatisfaction, a notion called service recovery. Firms with the ability to react when mistakes are made will therefore have much better chances to retain profitable customers (Meuter &Michel, 2008). According to Miller et al (2000) in (Meuter & Michel, 2008) service recovery and complaint management both address services encounter failures, the different between them is that complaint management is based on firms ability to react to a complaint when mistake has been made, whereas, service recovery on top this also includes the company’s ability to react on a mistake and please the customer before the customer finds it necessary to complaint. Most customers are reluctant to complaint. Therefore it is important with proactive service recovery efforts to minimize negative outcomes such as loss of customers when mistake has been made (Meuter &Michel, 2008). Another aspect companies must consider is that service is situation specific (Boshoff & Leong, 1998). That means that companies cannot rely on good records, it must perform at its best when it comes to a specific situation of service recovery.

Otherwise the situation can turn the other way around and the good record can instead become a bad record. At Cresta Group of Hotels General Managers of each hotel is responsible to resolve the customer complaint issues. There is an escalation that could be done in the event the customer is not satisfied with the complaint resolution at the hotel. The complaints are further escalated to the Group’s Operations Manager who is based at the Group’s headquarters in Gaborone.

 

 How will service recovery benefit Cresta group?    


References

Boshoff, C., & Leong, J. (1998). Empowerment, Attribution and Apologizing As Dimensions of Service Recovery. An Experimental Study. International Journal of Service Industry Management. Vol. 9. No. 1, 24-47.

Meuter, M. L., & Michel, S. (2008). The service recovery paradox: true but overrated. International Journal of Service Industry Management. Vol. 19, No. 4, 441-457.

Mitchell. (2002). How to create communications materials employees will actual use. Harvard business review, 80, (10), and 99.

                       

Marketing (Internal Marketing)

Marketing

Marketing is defined as the process of determining the needs and wants of consumers and being able to deliver products that satisfy those needs and wants. Marketing includes all of the activities necessary to move a product from the producer to the consumer (Grönroos,2000). Marketing is to establish, maintain and enhance relationships with customers and other parties at a profit so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is done by a mutual exchange and Fulfillment of promises. In this report the writer discuss certain aspects of marketing which are internal marketing, service recovery and customer retention.

Internal marketing

When different external factors affect organizations internally, it is important to have a good internal marketing in the service companies especially the hotel industry. Marketing is often thought to be directed towards customers, but it should also be towards employees of the company, because it is they who are in contact with customers (Mitchell, 2002). According to Shimp, (1997) marketing is more about creating value between external and internal parts of an organization and it is achieved through effective communication. Internal marketing is also seen as a part of marketing communication.

 Rydbery and Lyttien, (2005) pointed out that the employee turnover in service companies usually is higher than in other business sectors. The main reason for the turnover is said to be lack of internal marketing practices implemented by the practitioner. Hult, Hurley, Giunipero, and Nichols (2000) pointed out that internal marketing means bearing in mind the internal employee as the internal client and to deliberate on making the  internal customer’s (employee) satisfaction. Liou & Chen, (2001) categorized internal marketing into seven perceptions such as life development, work environment, welfare and salary, individual condition, internal communication, decision participation and service training. Hu, (2003) extracted six perspectives from internal marketing; including work environment, individual development, internal communication, empathy, salary, management empowerment, education and training. Fornell, and Wernerfelt, (1987) thought that internal marketing, like orientation thought of planning practice, could accomplish several aims. It could (1) counteract or conquer organizational disputes for alliance or reform to gain the customer’s satisfaction; (2) create motivation and customer orientation to harmonize and integrate employees; finally, (3) it would cause employees to execute the company’s strategy and functional strategy efficiently.

In the case of Cresta Group of hotels the Human Resources Committee is responsible for ensuring that all matters affecting employees are decided under the authority of the Board and that it keeps abreast of developments in the market place, with regards to remuneration. The Group values its employees and endeavors to recruit and retain the best skills in the market. The focus for developing human capital is based on training, continuous reviews for compensation and benefits.

In the quest of the Group’s drive to improve productivity for the employees; sports was identified as one of the elements that play an important part. Participating across the hotels, the Group has various sporting codes being played, soccer, volleyball, netball, etc. The Group also promotes country sporting competitions between the Cresta in Botswana and Cresta in Zimbabwe. The interaction between these groups is believed to impact positively on employee motivation. Management in conjunction with the Human Resources Committee, continuously reviews incentive schemes for the employees. The Group has got a Performance Appraisal System that issued to reward employees. The results of the appraisal system are also used as inputs for training the employees on various areas.

General employee engagement at various levels of the organization has yielded positive results for the Group. This has led to an improved customer focus. Their employees are allowed to associate themselves with a recognized hospitality Union which will negotiate for better living conditions on their behalf. In the Committee of the Union, there are staff representatives sitting in the meetings to participate in the negotiations for the rest of the staff members.

 

Q.1 what are impacts of internal marketing in hotel industry?

References

Fornell, C. and Wernerfelt, B. (1987) Defensive marketing strategy by customer complaint

Grönroos, C. (2000). Service management and marketing: A customer relationship management approach (2nd Ed.). New York: Wiley.340-344.

Hu, M.L. (2003). A study of internal marketing and satisfaction - a case of international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Tourism management research, 3(2), 1-25.

Liou, B.F. & Chen, Y.S. (2001). A study of medical industry internal marketing - An example of a regional teaching hospital. Journal of health care management, 2(1), 123-136

Mitchell. (2002). How to create communications materials employees will actual use. Harvard business review, 80, (10), and 99.

Rydbery, I, and Lyttien, JP, (2005). Internal marketing in hotel chain-a case study Elite Stadhotell Lul

Shimp, T.A. (1997). Advertising, promotion and supplemental aspects of integrated marketing communication. Forth Worth: Dryden press. Expendea.