Why would hospitality managers want to know more about the topic?

HFT 3540 Guest Service Management
Service Issue Project
Objective and Description:
The objective of this project is for you to understand current service management issues and use analytical approaches to discuss these issues. Through this project, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of service management concepts and apply your knowledge to a real world guest services management.
You choose a topic (service issue) to work on. It can be any issue that is related to guest services management, including but not limited to service problems, service innovations, service technology, etc. Next, set project objectives and plan how you will approach the topic to accomplish these objectives. Then, gather information regarding the topic through on-line, library, interviews etc. Finally, discuss the topic in-depth and provide managerial implications.
You are more than welcome to be creative in terms of choosing the topic and approaching it. The project should be focused on delivering meaningful managerial implications that can enhance our understanding of guest service management at the end. More specifically, your information (examples, research, analysis, discussion, interpretation) should be related (to the course), clear (in terms of the objectives), meaningful (to guest service managers), original (something new to offer), justified (with rationale), consistent (with a logical flow), sufficient (with enough information), focused (with relevant information), and organized (in a meaningful manner).
This project requires your self-motivation. You can work as an individual or a team. If you work alone, time and resource management are very important. If you work as a team, good teamwork and responsible contributions are absolutely crucial for your team to produce a quality work. Take an opportunity to challenge yourself and go the extra mile for your own learning!
Important note: The project is NOT an essay based on personal thoughts and experiences, but rather a research paper that utilizes relevant, scholarly research to support your findings. The project is NOT a trend/issue paper that you gather some relevant academic and industry articles and just summarize them by writing what is already known about the topic/trend/issue. The project should be an analytical discussion paper based on evidences. You identify/choose an issue, propose your argument (objective), collect and analyze information/data in order to address your objective, report findings and interpret them, and write recommendations based on the findings to improve guest service management practices
Project structure:
Cover page: Include the course information, project title, team member names, and submission date
:
Why is this topic chosen?
Why is the topic important for hospitality managers? Why would hospitality managers want to know more about the topic?
What is known about the topic and what is less known about the topic? What do you want to learn from the project? What new information will you offer through the project?
What is your approach to the topic? Why is your approach/perspective different from what is known? Why is your approach meaningful?
What are your objectives of the project? “Make your statement!” State clearly what you want to explore, examine, discuss, find, and/or report in the project.
The introduction should be clear and concise but should emphasize the main objectives of your project
Use appropriate references to support your arguments
Evaluation Criteria: Clear? Focused? Original? Justified?
3. Analysis and Discussion:
Analyze information and discuss the findings in a logical and meaningful manner. [4 – 6 pages]
Guiding questions:
What information did you find regarding the topic? Is information thorough and sufficient to provide a good understanding of the topic/issue? What additional information can be helpful for you to address the topic/issue?
How can the information be organized effectively? What are some of the themes for organizing the information?
How is the information related to your objective? Does the information that you collected provide sufficient support for your address your objective?
What approach (procedures) is taken to analyze the information/data?
What are the findings from your analysis? What conclusion(s) can you draw based on your analysis results/findings?
Importantly what are your “interpretations” of the findings?
You can use any sources of information such as industry articles, academic articles, newspapers, videos, surveys, interviews etc. Library searches can most certainly be useful. Gather/collect relevant *data/information, analyze it, identify patterns within the data/information, and “discuss it logically” relating to your perspective. Contrasting different viewpoints, comparing different approaches/methods, discussing strengths and weaknesses of different application examples, and/or providing constructive criticism are strongly suggested in enrich your discussion.
4. Data/information: includes data/stats, incidents/cases reported on news/media, online customer reviews, or any other existing data/information that you obtain. You may also conduct surveys, interviews, or observations for your project. Please note that articles(academic, industry, magazine, associations/organizations, online etc.) are NOT your data/information to analyze. Articles serve as references for supporting your arguments and discussions.
Whether you use qualitative information (e.g., interview) or quantitative data (e.g., survey with numeric rating scales), explain the procedures about what information is collected from where/whom including how many participants and background (sample size), how they are chosen (justification), how interview/survey/observation/cases/reviews were conducted/collected, etc.
The goal of your analysis is to identify patterns in your data.
If you have an analysis of qualitative data (e.g., interviews, cases/incidents, customer reviews), integrate your information effectively and present your results by summarizing effectively (e.g., tables or themes)
If you have an analysis of quantitative data (e.g., survey or empirical data) present your results by summarizing effectively (e.g., tables, charts).
Report your results clearly and effectively.
You may use tables or graphs to summarize the findings of your data analysis.
Discuss what you found by referring the results and interpret what those results mean
Use subheadings to organize your discussion effectively and avoid unnecessary repetitions.
Cite all the sources of information appropriately to avoid plagiarism (Citation Format: APA Style)
Evaluation Criteria: Comprehensive? Relevant? Supportive? Reasoned? Synthesized? Logical? Referenced? Organized
5. Managerial Implications: Discuss the managerial implications of your project. [2 – 4 pages]
Guiding questions:
What are the major findings or discussion points from the project? Did your project accomplish your objectives? In other words, how well do those findings address the objectives that you stated in the introduction?
What are your recommendations for the service organizations in regard to the topic/issue? Are those recommendations based on your discussion?
How can service organizations improve guest services management based on your discussion/findings? In what way, can your discussions/findings enhance managers’ understanding regarding the topic/issue?
What are some concerns/consideration/limitations of your approach/findings?
What are your personal learning points from the project?
Discuss how your project has accomplished your objectives.
Provide recommendations for guest service organizations
You may include your learning points (take home messages for yourself)
Overall Quality and Organization
Overall handling of the topic
Overall quality of writing
Overall flow of arguments
Overall thoroughness of the paper
Overall format and organization of the paper
Appropriate citations (6 to 10 APA style)
Format: I expect a “quality” guest service management issue project. The total length of the paper should be approximately 6 – 10 pages (Double spaced, font 12, 1-inch margin everywhere). For a team project, I expect 1.5 – 2 additional pages per person. For example, at team of 4 will have approximately 10~14 pages.
If applicable, please attach any additional supporting materials as an Appendix, not in the body of the paper.
Project Grading: Please refer to the rubric that is associated with this project for grading criteria.

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