NAME: TAFADZWA P CHITATA

REG NUMBER: R118123BC

ATTACHMENT PERIOD MAY – DEC 2014
DUE DATE 31 JAN 2015

INDUSTRIAL ATTACHMENT REPORT

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF A
BACHELOR OF BUSINNESS STUDIES DEGREE
(MARKETING)
ABSTRACT
It is the university’s requirement that in order to complete a degree programme in the
faculty of management and administration, a student has to go on attachment for a
period of up to 12 months. The attachment period is meant to bridge the gap between
theory and practice. After attachment the student id expected to submit a report that
details the responsibilities and duties undertaken by the student during attachment. It is
against this background that this report has been prepared.
The report will discuss the background and history of the organisation where attachment
was undertaken and also describe the core business of the organization. The report will
give an overview of the of the prevailing business economic environment that existed
during the period and how it affected the organization concerned. It also seeks to
provide insight in into the relevance of courses learnt prior to attachment to the work
environment. The report in addition gives detailed description of duties and
responsibilities undertaken while on attachment. Managerial problems noted during this
period are also cited and possible solutions to these problems are included. Finally the
report includes recommendations to the university to make attachment more
meaningful.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
1. Introduction
CHAPTER 2
2. Company Background
2.1 Vision Statement
2.2 Mission statement
2.3 Value statements
2.4 Core business
CHAPTER 3
3 Business environments
3.1 Macro Business Environment
3.2 Industry environment
CHAPTER 4
4 Attachment experience
4.1 Extent of theory application in work environment
4.2 New skills acquired
CHAPTER 5
5.1 Managerial problems identified
5.2 Literature review
5.3 Results/ possible solutions
5.4 Recommendations
CHAPTER 6
6.1 Challenges faced
CHAPTER 7
7.1 Suggestions of improving industrial attachment
CHAPTER 8
8.1 Conclusion

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Africa University is the first private, fully accredited, degree-granting, United-Methodist-
related instruction of higher learning on the continent of Africa as established and
approved by General Conference. The university is Pan-African in design and spirit.
Twenty five notions of Africa were represented in the student population for the 2011.
/2012 academic year. The majority of faculty of management and administration staff
are Africans. Professors and policy makers comprise permanent and visiting educators
from the United States, Europe, around the world. The official language at the university
is English which the official language of Zimbabwe is also.
The faculty of management and administration (FMA) offers a number of training
options for those interested in careers in business development and management,
marketing, finance administration. At the undergraduate level FMA has a full time 4-year
programme leading to degrees in accounting, economics, management and marketing.
FMA offers a fulltime 2-year MBA program and a part time EMBA program for senior
managers and administrators.
All undergraduate programs in the Faculty of management and administration are
aimed at enhancing the intellectual ability of students through a period of work related
learning (attachment). In order to fulfil the requirements of the faculty of management
and administration the faculty states that every third year student should go for a 12
month Industrial attachment to acquire hands on experience in industry commerce and
administration as well as bridge the gap between theory and practice. The attachment
period starts at the beginning of the second semester and ends at the close of the 1 st
semester the following academic year and it forms a central part of the degree
programme and plays a pivotal role in the choice of career paths.

CHAPTER 2
2. COMPANY HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
Elliot Hotel and Conference Centre was established in 2007 when the current managing

director Mr Elliot M. Muthavhatsindi Londa saw a gap in the Catering Industry for quality

Accommodation and Conferencing facilities. There was a need for more pragmatic,

service-focused providers who were willing to grow with businesses and take on a role

of a hospitality provider. Since 2007 Elliot Hotel and Conference Centre now works with

a plenty of industries and diverse cultures in Zimbabwe and abroad. Elliot Hotel and

Conference Centre aims to at all times maintain the upmost levels of service for its

customers and strives to place itself at the forefront of Catering Industry within the

country and Internationally.

Elliot Hotel and Conference Centre is an organisation comprised of a diversity of social

cultures and it is an organisation with many activities. It is an organisation containing

excellent services and aiming to be the epitome of royal hospitality. . It opened with only

21 employees, currently the hotel as a total of 33 employees. Elliot Hotel and

Conference Centre is one of the most prominent hotels in Bainbridge district. It has a

simple structure and it is designed mostly for people who are travelling and who are on

their business mission. The Hotel is one of the most prominent Small to Medium

Enterprises. It has developed and acquired a two (2) star status according to Tourism

and Hospitality Property ratings. .

2.1 Mission Statement

The Elliot Hotel and Conference Centre shall be the epitome of excellent service and

guest satisfaction in Matabeleland South Region giving fair returns to the investor, with

continued growth and development for the employees.

The organisation shall attain the above mission by:

 continually engage with guests so as to serve to the best of its abilities

 continually engage in training and development of employees to improve

knowledge about the fast changing business environment

 compensate, reward and award excellent performance of its employees

The organization’s mission statement has the most important impact to the performance

of the organisation. At Elliot Hotel the vision statement is the key to the progress of the

organisation, it has helped the organisation to propel up to the standard that it had

reached. Its aim is to engage its guests and to provide its customers with the utmost

services to the fullness of their expectation. The organisation achieves and receives its

satisfaction by continually engaging its guest through different marketing strategies. The

front office department has professional workforce to enhance good communication and

maintain courtesy; the most proficient requirement in the catering and hospitality

industry. Since my engagement, I have seen the organization developing and it has

managed to resuscitate itself by the maintenance of its clients and gaining more

credibility and popularity from new prospects

2.2 VISION STATEMENT

To be the best destination in Matabeleland South in terms of Hotel and catering

property ratings by retaining 10% of gross profit per annum to maintaining and

developing the product.

2.4 CORE BUSINESS

Elliot hotel and conference centre is a fully accredited 2 star hotel that provides hotel

rooms to. Accommodation and is completed by a fully functional restaurant and bar. It

also provides conference facilities for corporate and individuals and is also a sort after

venue for functions and parties. It also offers office space for rent at the Elliot Office

Park.

ACCOMOMDATION

The hotel has 30 rooms divided into different t classes.

10 standard rooms

10 economy rooms

10 executive rooms

Standard rooms comprise of a double bed or two single beds, a bathroom with a tub a

fan to cope with heat.

Economy rooms comprise of a double bed bathroom with a shower and air conditioner

and are priced more than the standard rooms

The executive rooms have a double bed bathroom with a shower and air conditioner

and a small bar fridge and are the most expensive of all the rooms.
Restaurant

The hotel is complimented by a restaurant that serves all types off meals from traditional

to western inspired dishes and pastries.

Bar

The hotel has an outside bar for guests who want to have all assortments of

refreshments ranging from no alcoholic to wines and from cocktails to imported beers.

Conferencing

The hotel has conference rooms that are used for corporate functions and board

meetings. The Vho Thivhonali conference has a capacity of 200 delegates. The Elliot

office park board room has the capacity. The garden area is used for outdoor functions

such as weddings and parties.

Elliot Office Park

The Elliot office park is located behind the hotel and is comprised of 34 offices that

house local businesses or businesses that require office space and some of the clients

include NGOs such as Save the Children, corporate companies such as liquid telecoms,

and renowned local clearance companies such as Hardpart Investments.

3 ORGINISATIONAL STRUCTURE
DIRECTOR
The director is responsible for overall strategy formulation and the direction of the
company
HOTEL MANAGER
The hotel manager is in charge of the day to day running of the hotel and is responsible
for ensuring that the hotel gives the best service to its customers. The hotel manager
reports to the director.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER
The human resource manager is responsible for the hiring and handling of all employee
matters and relations and reports to the director.
FRONT OFFICE MANAGER
The front office manager is responsible for the management of the reception and front
desk the role of this individual is to ensure that the front desk is operating smoothly and
that guests are well received the payments received and complaints handled and any
other issues that the receptionist or front desk person will not be able to handle. The
front office manager reports directly to the hotel manager.

RISK CONTROL OFFICER

The hotel handles a lot of cash and as such needs to ensure that this income is
protected from all threats both internal and external. The risk control officer is
responsible for the handling and safe keeping of all daily revenues handed over by the
front desk manager. The risk control officer reports to the hotel manager.

ACCOUNTANT
The accountant was responsible for all monetary transactions with t suppliers creditors
and debtors the financial planning and control of all the company resources. The
accountant reports to the hotel manager. And the accounts clerk works with the
accountant reporting to the accountant.
MARKETING MANAGER
The marketing manager is responsible for ensuring that the hotel constantly has
customers be it for hotel accommodation corporate functions and weddings. They
formulate and implement marketing strategies for the hotel. The marketing manager
works with the marketing, guest relations and Office park and they all pull together to try
and retain old customers and win over new customers as well. The marketing manager
reports to the hotel manager and is also manages the Elliot Office Park.

RESTARAUNT MANAGER
The restaurant manager is responsible for the running of the restaurant and bar at a
profit. Purchasing of all stocks for the restaurant and the bar. The manager is also
responsible for ensure that quality products are put out by the restaurant and that the
bar offers the best service and drinks. The restaurant is a strategic business unit with
the manager reporting to the hotel manager.
4. BUSINESS ENVIROMENT

4.1 MACRO-ENVIROMENT

ECONOMIC

The minister of finance Patrick Chinamasa on 10 September 2014 announced that

import duty of cars among other things was going up. In particular the import duty on
small vehicles was going to be increased to such levels that the initial cost price was
also going to be import duty.

THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has announced a new duty regime for car imports which will see
importers paying more than 100 percent of the value of the car with effect from yesterday.
This follows the gazetting of Statutory Instrument Number 148 of 2014 which reviewed the rates of
Customs Duty on the importation of certain motor vehicles with effect from 1 November.
Government gazetted the reviewed rates after Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick
Chinamasa announced that Government wanted to increase duty on motor vehicles, which he said
contributed 10 percent of the country’s estimated $4 million import bill in the first half of this year.

Zimra last Friday announced the new customs duty which sees duty for passenger motor vehicles with an
engine capacity of up to 1  500cc go up from 20 percent to 40 percent, double cabs from 40 percent to 60
percent while for single cabs and panel vans of a payload exceeding 800 kilogrammes but not exceeding
1 400 kilogrammes the duty has gone up from 20 to 40 percent.

by Sunday News Reporter | Sunday, Nov 2, 2014 | online edition

With the main customers of the hotel being people travelling to the car sales in Mussina
to buy vehicles both for company use and private, this had a negative effect on the
guest volumes that the hotel and all other hotels have received since the increase in
duty came into effect. With the hotels proximity to the South African border the
economic environment of the neighbouring country also affected the company. The
gains a and losses of the South African rand against the dollar were of particular
interest as when the rand dropped against the dollar Zimbabweans flocked to South
Africa to shop for all different types of products and this was good for business and
when the rand gained against the dollar people preferred to hold on to their money and
this was not good for business.

POLITICAL
The relationship between the current government and Non-governmental organisations
has not improved since. As such some NGOS HAS closed shop or downgraded their
operations. The main customer for conference facilities were these the IMO , world
vision, welt hunger, just to mention a few but in the year that just passed IMO has
downgraded and even laid off staff and their spending cuts also affected the company
as they only hosted a few conferences in comparison to the previous financial year. The
location of the hotel makes it a hotspot for all kinds of people from different walks of life
and different countries as such the police keep a keen eye on the company which for
security reasons is good because no thefts or any other such crimes have befallen the
hotel but the it also has a negative effect on business as some people might shun away
from the hotel for fear of persecution for political reasons.

SOCIO-CULTURAL

The hotel is situated in Matebeland south and in this part of the country the dominant
language is Venda and the owner of director of the hotel is also of Venda descent as
such the perception of local customers is that if you work at the hotel you have to speak
Venda and if you don’t they question your integrity and dedication to the company. With
the HIV&AIDS prevalence rate in Beitbridge’s being the highest in the country society
has a negative attitude towards hotel establishments as they see them as promoting
infidelity and such behaviour and the staff bear the brunt of these negative remarks and
perceptions.
Venda culture and cultural barrier
There is a negative attitude towards hotels.

TECHNOLOGICAL
The hotel has failed to keep up with the technological advances in the industry. The only
payment method available to guests at the hotel is cash up front and in this day and age
of electronic payment and mobile money the hotel still does not have this option
available for guests. The Zimbabwe mobile money industry has seen a boom with all
major mobile network service providers offering mobile money payments precisely
Econet wireless has EcoCash, NetOne has One Wallet and Telecel has Telecash. The
Zimbabwe banking industry has also finally caught up with the rest of the world and now
provides customers with functional debit and credit cards as well as the corresponding
payment point infrastructure. This aha s brought the notion of plastic money to the
country. The hotel still hasn’t made the online and payment option available to
customers.

INDUSTRY ENVIROMENT

The industry has seen changes in the past years, the introduction of new players and
existing players upping their prospectus. The industry environment took a hit when
NSSA completed Beitbridge’s hotel was completed and it was leased to industry giants
Rainbow Tourism Group. All the other players had to change their pricing strategies,
being the biggest and newest player RTG took a monopoly like stance and everyone
else was forced to price their products below what RTG had priced. To further illustrate
this point RTG opened with opening specials of $49.00 per person sharing and this
room comprises air-conditioning small fridge en-suite bathroom Wi-Fi access card pool
and all other niceties that most hotels don’t have meaning that the most expensive
anyone else could charge was 40 with the exception of African Suns Bainbridge
express hotel.

The most competitors of Elliot hotel and Conference centre include:

 Beitbridge’s Rainbow Hotel
 Beitbridge’s Express
 Beitbridge’s Hotel (BBH)
 White Lodge
 Travellers Rest Lodge
 Limpopo Lodge
 Peter’s Motel,
 market share

Rainbow Beitbridge
Beitbridge Express
Beitbridge Hotel
White Lodge
Elliot Hotel
Peters Motel
Limpompo Lodge

Fig 4.1

Figure 4 shows the competitors of Elliot Hotel and their respective market shares.
CHAPTER 5

Attachment Experience
I was attached at EHCC from May to December of 2014 and this period of work related
learning was informative. My attachment was met with tough times for the company and
the industry, all the other players were still suffering the blowback of RTG opening its
Beitbridge’s earlier that year. The company had to lay off some of its staff and I was
assigned to the marketing department but was expandable and moved around the
organisation. The following are the major activities that i had the opportunity of
undertaking while at EHCC.

 marketing management
 field marketing
 event management & event coordination
 guest relations
 front desk

Marketing management
Marketing management was more focused on the office work aspect of marketing the
hotel and its businesses. This involved designing company branded wear which
included calendars to give out to guests and tenants during the festive season for use
next year, designing marketing flyers to be used by marketing team members who were
doing field marketing and to be placed at ZTA offices, designing t-shirts and caps to be
worn by staff on weekends and at corporate social functions. Designing and Placing
adverts in local and regional publications such as the Beitbridge business link, the
Sunday mail, the chronicle and the herald, the adverts were for hotel accommodation
conference facilities and office space. The main focus of marketing management was to
drive the name of the hotel out to consumers and find ways to get new customers as
well as ensuring that guests returned to the hotel and if not recommended or spoke well
about it. This drive included putting up billboards along the busiest road in Zimbabwe
such that anyone travelling into or out of the country knew that there was a place to rest
if they felt they needed to. It also meant playing an active role in local sporting event
and in particular the Beitbridge to Mussina marathon by setting up a water point for the
athletes along the Beitbridge to Bulawayo road. For corporate bookings companies go
through quotations of all available service providers in the air and it was part of
marketing management to come to a reasonable compromise for both parties and to
prepare the quotation for the agreed terms. This required acute negotiation skills and
knowledge of competitor products and in order to have this contact with the competition
was necessary, so that you could have a picture of what you are up against. Since the
inception of Rainbow the smaller competitors have had to come together in an order to
sustain their business, by trying to come up with conference packages that were able to
attract clients away from Rainbow but at the same time would also give them profits.
Marketing management also included coordinating and assigning marketing personnel
and resources, this meant checking with the front desk and guests relations how many
rooms were occupied for that and if there was a need for flyers to be distributed that day
and if there was a conference that was approaching that needed to be setup for. If there
was no need for such deployment the teams would spent the day brainstorming on how
further to market the hotel.

Field marketing
As part of the marketing team i had to go outside the office and make use of the oldest
and most reliable tool in marketing which is direct marketing. Field marketing involved
going out to the places where our target customers were likely to be found which the car
sales of ex Japanese vehicles are across the border in Mussina and the clearing Zimra
bays leased from BIDVest Manica. Buying a car from these car sales for any person is a
long and tiresome process. First the buyer identifies the car they want once they have
bought the car they want they have to wait for it to be transported to Zimbabwe. The
seller in an effort to maximise and make use of economies of scale the transport vehicle
will only depart for Zimbabwe once all 8 spaces on the truck are filled. Once the truck
has set out for Zimbabwe it will experience delays while in the queue at the border.
When the transport vehicles leave the border and sets for Manica the buyer has to wait
for it to be unloaded and put into the holding bays. At this point Zimra comes in to the
picture and they begin the paper work for duty and temporary plates.
At this point the day would be well advanced and its night time and they need a place to
put up for the night. Having been at the car sales earlier in the day and met these
buyers and made them aware of the products on offer these buyers become our guests
and customers.
This method of filed marketing and flyer distribution though ancient has proved
successful for the company. It is also used for marketing conference packages and the
wedding venues. For conference packages specific organisations with the potential to
host conferences and in this case it was the Non-Governmental Organisations such as
International Immigration Organisation, world vision, welt hunger, Bainbridge town
council, Bainbridge rural district council just to mention a few.

Event management and coordination

Event management was part of the marketing department functions and they have to
coordinate and manage both functions weddings parties meetings and any other
conference type activity. These functions make use of the hotels two conference halls
and the garden area. Once the organisations and individuals that had been marketed to
were interested in using the hotel facilities it was the duty of the marketing team to show
them to the garden area where the wedding would take place if they or take them to the
conference room if they were interested in making use of the conference rooms. For
decide to come and see the facilities we have on offer to ensure the success of any
event adequate preparation to the specific requirements of all the clients

Guest relations
Guest relations is part of the front desk operations that handles all reservations s and
enquiries as well as interactions with guests.
People are different by nature and have different tastes and requirements when it
comes to hotel rooms. The challenge that it presents is that the hotel is trying to sell one
standardised product to different kind’s people, and the solution to this problem at Elliot
Hotel is the Guest relations personnel. When a guest checks in they could have
problems with their rooms and these are not usually problems with the hotel per say but
that the guest could require extra than what has been offered. For instance not enough
soap, not enough towels, some may run out coffee or tea. The most common is usually
failure to operate the air conditioning unit or the shower. Instead of overworking and
congesting the receptions which will be checking in guests the guest relations takes
care of all these requests and ensures that they stay happy. The guest relations post
also handles all reservations and s and groups. Not all people that come to the hotel
intend to stay on that particular day that they come; some come to make enquiries
about the accommodation rates and other facilities. It is the sole purpose of the guest
relations personnel to make the sale to such people, they are mandated to show the
prospective guests around the hotel in order to fully market the hotel and convince them
to make reservations or s. This is basically ensuring that the front desk has knowledge
that certain rooms are not to be sold on particular dates as they have already been sold
to someone else already.

Front desk
The front desk or the reception is the part of the hotel that directly handles all guests.
The front desk is basically the face of the hotel and as such the personnel are held to a
very high standard when it comes to work ethic product knowledge and presentability.
This is because the first person the guest interacts with is the person at the front desk
and when guests enquire about the room price and availability, the front desk personnel
has to know everything, from which rooms is reserved and what rooms have been
cleaned and are ready for occupation. Receiving checking in and checking out guests
are the main roles of the front desk, when a guest arrives they are greeted with a smile
and welcomed to the hotel they are told of the different rooms available at the different
prices. They can show them around to the different rooms and let the guest make an
informed choice that suits their choice and budget. Once the guest has settled on a
choice the front desk personnel has to take payment and the porter helps with any bags
the guests may have. Once the guest is settled the front desk capture the details of the
guest in guest log book. Guest information is a requirement of the law so it has to be
taken down all the time and failure to do so is not taken lightly. The front desk has three
shifts,
Morning 06:00-14:00
Afternoon 14:00 – 22:00
Evening 22:00 – 06:00
Upon completion of each shift the front desk personnel hand over all monies received
during their shift the front office manager or risk control officer when the manager is not
available. The outgoing person makes the incoming person aware of any reservations
that have been made for that day and any special requests that have been made by
guests. The front desk personnel are also responsible for keeping the reception area
clean at all times.

Extent of theory application in work environment

The attachment experience is meant to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
The theory learnt in the two and half years before attachment is complemented by the
practical lessons learnt in the industry. During attachment I realised that the theory and
practice complement each other well. This was shown by the ease with which I fitted
into the work environment.
With most organisations including Elliot Hotel becoming computerised, it was to my
benefit that Africa University has equipped us with knowledge of computer systems
such Microsoft systems, databases and computer information systems. This knowledge
was beneficial as the organisation was upping its computerisation drive and I became a
valuable member of the team being put in charge of managing its online marketing
campaign. This included designing the website and making updates on the companies
Facebook and twitter pages as well as making the company’s presence being felt on the
world wide web by signing onto travel and tourism websites such as trip
advisor………………
Marketing entails a lot of communication and the Concepts learnt in communication
skills were invaluable in the workplace. Skills such as telecommunication and effective
letter and memo writing were of great use because of the extensive communication that
happened between different departments and the marketing department. For every
function that the marketing department was going to host they had to put out a memo.

As part of the marketing management we had to determine how the hotel had done in
the past and how it was doing now and how it could be doing in the future. The material
learnt in research methods came in handy as and made the task that much easier. As
part of the marketing team it was us who were responsible for marketing strategies and
market drives and market concepts taught in marketing as well as promotions and
advertising were applied in the workplace. As part of the department I had to look for
new business to occupy our office space and having knowledge of marketing concepts
was invaluable.

Working in a small department and some time in teams was made much easier by
having prior knowledge of teamwork that as gained through studying human resource
management and industrial relations and tapping into this information allowed me to
excel.

As part of working at the Elliot Office Park we were tasked to draft up lease agreements
for the office tenants for the office space they were renting at this stage I appreciated
the business law class that I did and put that knowledge to good use.

The university has done well to develop the curriculum in such a way that subjects
learnt are easily applied into the work environment.

New skills acquired

The attached period was particularly enlightening one as it gave me a chance to quickly
grasp the kind of business the organisation was involved in. as a marketing student the
attachment period at EHCC was a beneficial as it was an introduction to the tourism and
hospitality industry. Having not studied tourism and hospitality it proved to be an
educative experience.
The hotel hosts conferences and weddings and this fell under the purview of the
marketing department and they are responsible for ensuring that these functions go on
without a glitch and a member of the department is appointed AS A coordinator of the
function this allowed to gain invaluable skills in event management. Leadership skills
were also gained through delegation and people management in an effort to get
everyone to pull in the same direction and be able to host functions without any
problems.
Business etiquette and business language is a skill that most people take for granted
and can only be acquired and perfected while on the job and I managed to acquire and
perfect these skill through attending meetings, sales pitches and communicating with
suppliers and other business contacts. Taking down minutes during a meeting and
preparation of those minutes for distribution to those present at the meetings is another
skill I managed to acquire
CHAPTER 6
Managerial problems identified
All organisations have their weaknesses and constantly face challenge’s related to
managing the business and Elliot Hotel was no exception.

The organization’s main challenge is on the use power where most of the decisions are
binding as per the Director’s discretion. The organisation has an autocratic style
whereby the director and his executive communicate with everyone who is on the shop
floor to enforce his decisions without the help of the managers. This is always causing
confusion, conflicts. This also meant all decisions were made by one person and in
situations like this feedback took a long time as did approval for new projects and any
spending and this resulted in the hotel missing out on great opportunities because of
delays in feedback and approvals.

The hotel experienced high labour turnover rate during the time I was attached. The
main reasons were employees quitting and haphazard and poorly executed hiring and
firing policies. The main cause of employees leaving their employment with the hotel
was poor remuneration, the wages the staff was paid was way below the industry and
this was made worse by the director/owner constantly pressuring the human resources
department to find ways to cut the wage bill. This only made things worse as employees
were then sent for unpaid leave for up to two weeks, this was further compounded by
hiring new staff while others are being send for unpaid leave and choosing not to pay for
overtime.
The hiring was over seen by the director/owner and final decision lay with him as such
the hiring process was flawed and filled with nepotism and this led to a workforce that
was not qualified to do their respective job and who also questioned directives from
supervisors and other department heads, and also very lazy and did the bare minimum
that was required of them.
The lack of a proper reporting structure was another problem that the hotel faced, this
problem was brought about by the nepotistic hiring practices used by the company, as
employees were no longer sure if they should report to the owners relative or to their
supervisor as the relative demanded to be kept in the loop at all times as per the
director/owners directive. This led to very long response times when a problem arose,
the relative having been told about the problem is unaware of what to do rectify it due to
their lack of knowledge and them tells the director of the problem who then gives him
the directive to take the problem to the supervisor or department head. The amount of
time wasted is clear in this case and in an industry were our business is open every day
of the year time is very important.
The hotel failed to keep their employees motivated mainly because of lack of job
security as well as low wages and lack of recognition for the effort they put into their
jobs. The hotel also failed to show compassion for its employees in their times of need
and tragedy.
The lack of proper hiring policies also meant that employees were not properly
orientated or trained when they joined the organisation as such they never really knew
the company code of conduct and subsequently were at most times reprimanded for
breaking company rules they had no knowledge of and this was demotivating.
Management failed to implement new ideas and this was a cause of frustration for the
employees who came up with the ideas and resulted in them being demotivated and not
putting forward any new ideas to help improve the hotel.
The grapevine is present in almost every organisation and to deny its existence is
unwise for and management but to rely on it as the main source of information is also a
problem. The hotel management and in particular the director relied heavily on the
information provided by the grapevine and decisions made were mainly based on this
information. The main problem with this is that personal issues usually get into the way
of the real information and the information is usually distorted and biased and as such
the decisions will be equally bad.
Conflict between employees amongst themselves and with management and the failure
to resolve these issues in a timeously and professional manner was a problem
management faced and this led to a hostile work environment and this negatively
affected productivity.
Lack of knowledge was a problem that the organisation faced. The staff had a general
idea of what to do but no real knowledge of what they were doing and how it impacted
the organisation as a brand or how it impacted on productivity and other issues like that.
This led to a workforce that could get the job done at a very minimum level and had no
idea of the implications or how to be better at their jobs.

Management also failed to plan adequately for the future and this resulted in the
business failing to react adequately and in time when faced with problems. The main
area they failed to plan for was a reduction in business sales due to new entrants in the
market and the effect of government legislature.

6.1 Literature review

This chapter contains literature from various distinguished scholars who have particular
interest in the problems mention above an analysis and a critique will be made to review
what different authors have written on the subject.

Human resource management

Human resource management concerns the human side of enterprises and the factors
that determine worker relationships with their employing organization. It is concerned
with the philosophies, policies, programmes, practices and decisions that affect the
people who work for an organisation. Human resource management activities are aimed
at securing retaining and directing the people in the organization to achieve its strategic
goals. Human resource management encompasses the following.
 The aggregate size of the organizations labour force in context of the overall
corporate plan
 How much to spend on training the workforce given strategic decisions on target
quality levels, services price and occupancy volumes (Products price and
production volumes)
 Human asset accounting. The systematic measurement and analysis of the costs
and financial benefits of alternative personnel policies (monetary consequences
of staff development exercises, effects of various salary structures) and the
valuation of human worth of the organisations employees.
Research (Pettigrew & Whipp, 1991; Patterson et al. 1997) has shown that the
management of people makes a difference to company performance. The 1997 study
confirmed that:
 The more workers were satisfied with their jobs the better the company is likely to
perform in terms of subsequent profitability and particularly profitability.
 Organizational culture significantly affects company performance. A culture of
concern for employee welfare is by far one of the most striking predictions of
increased performance.
 The practices which seem to be most important in affecting performance are job
design (in terms of flexibility, job responsibility variety and use of formal teams)
and the acquisition and development of skills (selection, induction, training and
appraisal).
 Human resource management practises are more influential in how successful a
company will be than either investment in research and development, the
sophistication of the technology used, an emphasis on quality or even the use of
competitive strategies.

OUTCOME OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

According to the Harvard researchers the effectiveness of the outcomes to human
resources management should be evaluated under four headings; commitment,
competence, congruence and cost-effectiveness.

1. Commitment; concerns employees loyalty to the organization, personal

motivation and liking for their work. The degree of employee commitment maybe
assessed via attitude surveys, labour turnover and absenteeism statistics and
through interviews with workers who quit their jobs.
2. Competence; relates to employee skills and abilities, training requirements and
potential for higher level work. These maybe estimated through employee
appraisal systems and preparations of skills inventories. Human resource
 management should be designed to attract retain and motivate competent
employees.
3. Congruence; means that management and workers share the same vision of the
organisations goals and work together to attain them. In a well-managed
organisation, employees at all levels of authority will share common perspectives
about the factors that determine its prosperity and future prospect. Staff should
feel they possess a common objective. They need to experience a sense of
affinity with the organisation and want to pursue a common cause. Congruence
is evident in the absence of grievances and conflicts with the organisation and in
harmonious industrial relations.
4. Cost-effectiveness; concerns itself with operational efficiency. Human resources
should be used to the best advantage and in the most productive of ways.
Outputs must be maximised at the lowest input cost and the organisation must
be quick to respond to market opportunities and environmental change.

The Harvard model suggests that Human resource policies should seek to increase the
level of each of the four C’s for example the commitment maybe enhanced through
improving the flow of management worker communication while competence can be
Increased through extra training. However the challenge is on how to measure
variables and conflicts between cost-effectiveness and congruence are bound to arise.

LABOUR TURNOVER

Labour turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. If the
employer is said to have a high turnover relative to its competitors, it means that
employees of that company have a shorter average tenure than those of other
companies in the same industry. High turnover can be harmful to a company’s
productivity if skilled workers are often leaving and the worker population contains a
high percentage of novice workers. High turnover rates of skilled professionals can pose
a risk to the organization due to human capital (such as skills, training and knowledge)
lost. Notably given the natural specialisation of skilled professionals these employees
are likely to be re-employed within the same industry by a competitor; therefore turnover
of these individuals incurs both replacement costs to the organization as well as
resulting in a competitive disadvantage to the business. High labour turnover maybe
due to low pay long working hours and or other conditions of employment regarded by
workers as unsatisfactory, other causes include:

 Excessively monotonous work

 Absence of promotion prospects
 Bad recruitment and staff induction procedures
 Ineffective grievance procedures
 Poor communication within the organisation

The lack of career opportunities and challenges, dissatisfaction with the job scope or
conflict with management has been cited as predictors of high turnover.

The labour turnover ratio rate is calculated using the following formula:

number of employees with more than one years service

total number of employ ees employed one year ago

High labour turnover is undesirable for several reasons. Recruitment and selection
costs increase new entrants are relatively unproductive during the early stages of
service and additional demands are placed on the remaining staff. Morale is typically
lower in organisations with high turnover. However certain categories exhibit on average
exceptionally high labour turnover rates notably young workers and those engaged in
boring and repetitive duties

MOTIVATION

Motivation involves a conscious decision to perform one or more activities with greater
attention than other activities competing for attention. Motivation refers to a
psychological concept that is primarily concerned with increasing the strength and
direction of peoples work related behaviours to influence the quality and quantity of
peoples performance output. Motivation contains three elements:
 Some need, motive or goal that triggers action
 A selection process that directs the choice of action and
 The intensity of effort applied in that chosen action

One of the first things to realise is that people motivation is dynamic: it needs constant
nurturing as it can be positively or negatively affected by many day to day features of
organisational life. Some of the factors proven to influence people’s motivation are:
 A managers leadership style
 The degree of autonomy and authority allowed
 The amount of stress or distress experienced at work
 The opportunities for growth and advancement
 The amount of personal satisfaction people derive from their job
 The degree to which people are committed to their organization or career.

Abraham Maslow proposed a five level hierarchy of needs as the basis of his
explanation of needs based motivation.
self
act
uali
sati
on
self esteem
needs

belonging

safety needs

physiological needs

Fig 6.1 A. Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

The hierarchy of needs begins with physical wellbeing as the most basic, and then
progresses successively through safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation
needs. According to Maslow’s hierarchy, once a lower level need has been largely
satisfied the impact on behaviour diminishes. The individual then is freed up to progress
to the next level need, and it becomes a major determination of behaviour. However
Maslow’s theory has been controversial among researchers as results fail to confirm the
lock-step sequence of the five hierarchical levels and the principle that lower level
needs must be gratified before higher needs.

Process theories recognise that people have different competing needs; that behaviour
is a function of both the person and the situation; that people are decision making
organisms; and any decisions made are based on the link between behaviour and
outcomes. The process approach proposes that people will direct their efforts towards
goals they value

According to Gurteen (2008) Knowledge Management is “the collection of processes

that govern the creation, dissemination and leveraging of knowledge to fulfil
organisational objectives. In other words, it refers to the distinct but interdependent
processes of knowledge creation, storage and retrieval, as well as knowledge transfer
and retrieval (Alavi & Laidner: 2001). Knowledge management (KM) is an important
process through which modern day organisations manage their intellectual and
knowledge based assets, that is, its people. It involves codifying what employees,
partners and customers know, and sharing that information among employees,
departments and even with other organisations in an effort to devise best practices.

Knowledge management seeks to optimize the effective application of intellectual

capital to achieve objectives. This means employing a systematic approach to getting
an organization to make the best possible use of knowledge in implementing its
mission, broadly viewed as either sustainable competitive advantage or long term high
performance. Therefore, KM is simply a broad discipline concerned with using to the
best advantage, knowledge experience that has been gained across an organization.
KM is an activity that is mainly the responsibility of the Human Resources department of
an organisation. However, with the rapid technological advancement in the business
world, KM activities have become more effective as an integrated or joint effort between
the HR departments, the information technology department, and also include other
functions of an organization.

Today, KM activities central to HRM include: knowledge creation; knowledge

classification; organisational learning; knowledge harvesting; knowledge distribution and
knowledge sharing. In organisations that practice the above activities of effective KM it
results in: improved task execution; continuous improvement; cultural change;
knowledge retention; as well as added value from knowledge asset to give the
organization a competitive edge over rivals.

According to Campion, Cheraskin and Michael (1994)1, “job rotations are lateral
transfers of employees between jobs in an organization”. Job rotation is used for
employing a group of workers in order to provide on-the-job training. But there are also
other types of job rotations; such as daily job rotations for ergonomic issues, and regular
rotations for appointment and orientation. Job rotation originated in Japan as early as
the late 1950s and soon spread abroad of the world. It has been developed and
mainstreamed as an active labour market tool in Denmark late 1980’s and was paid
much attention to as a collaborative development amongst trade unions, employers and
training institutes . Now there are more and more firms have practised job rotation in
many countries. Even governments of some countries have taken job rotation as the
tool to promote employment. Many researched have been done about the positive and
negative influences of job rotation on firms, and differences of job rotation practices in
vary countries have been compared. In this paper, we will focus our attention on
another aspect of job rotation: the contributions of job rotation on the human capital. It
contains four aspects including the beneficial effects on the acquirement of human
capital, on the maintenance of human capital, on the translation of the human capital
and on the development of human capital in firms.
It is well known that there are three theories of job rotation: employee learning theory;
employer learning theory and employee motivation theory. The employees learning
theory means that employees who rotate learn more knowledge and skills because they
are exposed to a wider range of experiences. The more an employee moves, the more
he learns. The employer learning theory is that the firm itself learns more about its own
employees through rotating and finds the job that an employee is best at. The employee
motivation theory regards to that job rotation can motivate employees who would
otherwise become bored and tired of always performing the same tasks. These theories
deliver different predictions regarding the types of employees who are more likely to
rotate and the types of firms where rotation is more likely.

The Value Analysis on Job Rotation with China having been one member of WTO, the
competition amongst firms in China has concentrated on constructing of core
competitive abilities. Constructing the core competitive abilities should depend on
human capital. Hence, how to acquire human capital becomes a key issue for firms. In
light of the human capital theory, there are several avenues could be used to foster
human capital. One of them is human resource movement. However, it is
disadvantageous to a firm if human resource moves outside because it leads to the loss
of human capital. Job rotation, another movement of human resources, not only
promotes the human capital accumulation, but also results in other benefits for firms.

The value of job rotation on acquirement and maintenance of human capital

Learning is the most important approach for acquirement of human capital. Job rotation
has many advantages comparing with other methods of learning. From previous
research, we can find that the benefits attributed to job rotation on human capital result
from following reasons:
Job rotation results in a positive attitude towards learning. The efficiency of learning
often depends on employee’s attitude towards learning. A positive attitude will result in
high efficiency of learning. On the contrary, a negative attitude will lead to lower learning
efficiency. When an employee rotates to a new position, he has to face the issue that
how to meet the requirement of new position. Under such circumstance, the employee
always generates the eagerness for the knowledge and skills relative with the position
that boosts the employee to do his best to learn. He will learn not only in his working
time ， but also in his spare time. That increases the efficiency of learning greatly and
decreases the cost on training because of integrating the learning resources of firms
and individuals. So job rotation is an effective way to develop employees’ abilities.
According to Champion, Cheraskin and Stevens (1994),job rotation produces two
beneficial effects. First, an employee who rotates accumulates experience more quickly
than an employee who does not rotate. Hence job rotation is mentioned as an effective
tool for career development. Second, an employee who rotates accumulates experience
in more areas than an employee who does not rotate. Hence, if an employee rotates
more frequently, it is easier to train him to become a generalist. According to Ouchi
(1981), the fact that Japanese employees are generalists compared to U.S. employees
is due to differences in the frequencies of rotation

Many small business managers believe they prepare business plans, budgets and
cashflow forecasts mainly to keep their bank manager happy. While there may be a
requirement in this area, the primary use of these important planning tools is to help you
manage your business on a day-to-day basis.

Your projected income and expenditure and cashflow budgets are the tools that you use
on a regular basis to measure if your business performance is meeting planned
expectations. They will confirm for you on a regular basis that you are heading in the
right direction. To run well, your business demands that you look and plan ahead and
regularly monitor the important performance indicators.

What are the key indicators?

1. Level of sales

Sales contribute a gross margin, which in turn pays for the fixed costs and hopefully
leaves a profit. If sales levels fall then the overall margin to pay these costs is less.

2. Gross margins

If you achieve lower than budgeted margins (perhaps because of offering discounts)
you again have less to pay fixed costs.

3. Monitoring fixed and variable costs

Make sure they do not creep upwards over time. Continually question if you need to
spend money on that particular cost item. Regularly review key performance indicators.

4. Debt collecting

Next to cash the money people owe to you is the most liquid asset you own. Make sure
your cashflow forecast is not thrown out because you are slow to collect what is owed to
you.

6.2 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO MANAGERIAL PROBLEMS

In order to overcome the problems mentioned earlier the Hotel should consider
improving the following areas.

The company should improve on the following areas to improve on staff turnover:

 Improve management and employee relations

 Foster a working environment that is liberal and friendly
 Improve employee benefits i.e. remuneration and fringe benefits
 Management should open lines of communication
 Resource mobilization enhance service delivery
 The hotel should consider revamping the human resources so that it will be able
to properly handle employee concerns.
 The company should consider giving recognition to the employees that excel in
their jobs and motivating the staff (job security, workplace security, appraisals,
time off, commission)
 Develop and make it known to employees the appropriate hierarchy and
reporting structure and disregard the grape vine.
 Organising refresher courses
The above mentioned will now be explained in detail in context of Elliot Hotel &
Conference Centre.

Improve management and employee relations

One way of improving management and employee relations is by early engagement
And engagement along the way this shows employees that they are wanted through
recognition rewards making them feel included. In previous years, Elliot Hotel &
Conference Centre awarded employees that they felt were working hard by giving the
employee award and paid commission to employees that managed to get clients for
conferences and office space. This recognition motivated employees and improved
management and employee relations. However due to reasons unknown the Hotel
discarded this practice. It would be advisable for Elliot Hotel & Conference Centre to
reintroduce this practice in order to improve relations. Improved management and
employee relations help to overcome high labour turnover. A reason for high turnover is
the conflict between employees and management and once relations are improved this
problem may be overcome. Conflict resolution for employees that are fighting needs to
be dealt with in a professional and timely fashion in order to remove tension from the
work environment.

Foster a working environment that is liberal and friendly

Providing a stimulating workplace environment which foster happy motivated and

empowered individuals lower labour turnover and absentee rates. In addition, promoting
a work environment that fosters personal and professional growth promotes harmony
and encouragement on all levels is felt company wide.

Improve employee benefits i.e. remuneration and fringe benefits

Abraham Maslow argues that remuneration influences the motivational levels of

employees. Maslow states that the most basic needs of an individual (thirst, hunger,
shelter) have to be met before an individual cab focus on higher needs such as esteem
and self-actualisation. Hertzberg also propose that adequacy of pay and fringe benefits
remove dissatisfaction in employees. As a result if these are not met employees are
most likely to leave the organisation in pursuit of these benefits. Elliot Hotel &
Conference Centre would do well to improve remunerations and fringe benefits in order
to retain staff. Instead remunerating staff through monthly allowances the Hotel should
consider paying competitive salaries and also paying employees overtime to overcome
high turnover.

Management should open lines of communication

The communication lines between management and employees need to be always
clear such that employees when they air their grievances feel that they have been heard
and being heard reinforces a sense of belonging and keeps employees motivated. It is
also for when management want to communicate with employees it makes it easier for
instructions to travel down if the communication lines are as good when going up.

Resource mobilization enhance service delivery

The hotel has lagged behind in some of the industry technological advances and as
such should spent money in order to get up to speed and be a serious competitor in the
industry. With Wi-Fi being a standard Elliot Hotel & Conference Centre only offers it in
its executive rooms, instead of keys they also need to adopt the use of key cards. This
improvement will make the final product that much easier to sell for employees.

The hotel should consider revamping the human resources so that it will be able
to properly handle employee concerns.

The Human resource department is failing to execute its duties adequately due to being
overshadowed by the director. In order for the human resource department to function
fully it needs to be left to run without interference and as such, follow the proper hiring
procedures, induction and training of new employees. An organizations workforce is a
huge asset and as such they should be selected accordingly and for the right reasons
and not for their relation to the owner or management. The department also needs to
ensure that employees are well motivated and have job security.

The company should consider giving recognition to the employees that excel in
their jobs and motivating the staff
Recognition for hard work through awards such as the employee of the month or best
employee voted by customers is one of the any tools the Hotel can use to give
recognition to employees for the work they do. This together by offering job security and
on the job security paid time off can keep the staff motivated and continue to increase
productivity.

Reorient employees on the appropriate hierarchy and reporting structure.

Where the hierarchy of an organisation is unclear to the employees confusion ensures,
communication between employees and management is vital and employees should be
well aware of the reporting structure and disregard informal and wrong channels. To
achieve these employees need to be fully aware of the hierarchy and whom they report
to.

Organise refresher Courses

Continual training and reinforcement develops a workforce that is competent consistent

effective and efficient. This training creates a passion in employees for their jobs and
will curb turnover. In the context of Elliot Hotel & Conference Centre hosting seminars
for their employees would the solution but would be much more effective if carried
outside the work environment as the relaxed and informal environment would
encourage greater participation. Short courses at local colleges would be more helpful
and if the company provides a full refund to the employee provided they pass the
course.
Recommendations
The Director needs to appreciate the role played by the human resource department
and let it operate under the guidance of the human resource manager and the expertise
that the holder of this has in that field and not meddle in their decision making process.
Once the Human Resource is a fully functioning department it can also address
recruitment and selection issues as well as induction and orientation.
The Hotel needs to remunerate it employees adequately as per industry standard to
ensure that employees are well motivated and further more communication channels
need to be strengthened between management and employees and as such
management needs to disregard the grape or at the least be cautious of the information
they receive through it.
As part of remunerating employees the hotel needs to start paying for over time and
giving paid off days. The hotel needs to adopt a culture of concern for employee
welfare; this is by far one of the most accurate predictors of increased performance. To
achieve this the human resource department needs to have on file the number of
dependents each employee has and due follow up on when an employee has taken
time to deal with a personal matter be it sickness birth or death of the employees family
and were the employees requires help chip in.
Most of the employees were not inducted and trained properly when they joined the
organisation and as such I recommend that the hotel re-inducts them and re-train all
them with the aim of ensuring that they all know they departments well and their
department heads and who to report to and the proper procedure of reporting and airing
their grievances. This re-education process will give employees and sense of belonging
and security.
The hotel needs to offer job security to its employees the uncertainty prevents
employees from fully exerting themselves fully in the execution of their duties, and
productivity is negatively affected. A portion of the employees don’t have written
contracts and the ones that have contracts for a year or less, this is not good for
motivation and instead of fully immersed in their work employees are constantly looking
for greener pastures and this results in a high absenteeism rate. The recommendation
would to offer long contracts and give assurances that employees will not be fired with
due course and all labour regulations will be followed to the letter before dismissal.
Recognition for effort and hard work are important for employee morale and to get this
up again I recommend the hotel reintroduce the employee of the month award.
The work load for the front desk has been a cause for concern and I would recommend
shorter 6 hours shifts and the shift be done by 2 employees at the same time to give
guests a smooth fast service. With two instead of one employee working there the
morale will be higher as the hours will be shorter and the work load lighter.
Management needs to disregard the grapevine and I recommend that they don’t tolerate
or promote by listening to it or making decisions based solely by the information it
provides.
The hotel has tried to keep abreast of technology but they have not been that
successful and I recommend that they introduce electronic payments that accept VISA
ZIMSWITCH and MASTERCARD as well as money payment offered by the local
network service providers namely EcoCash, Telecash, and One Wallet. This will make
things easier for payment options especially most people prefer not to carry large sums
of cash when travelling. The introduction of online bookings would be a step in the right
direction and linking the front desk, marketing department and guest relations
computers on the same network would allow for real time updates on reservations.
Management needs to realise that they need to invest in the hotel in order to see an
increase in profitability and to invest considerably as well. This was not the case when it
came to the marketing budget as we failed to get the billboard we wanted as the
company refused to spend money on advertising and frustrations like these lead to a
demoralised workforce who feel any new idea they come up goes up against a brick
wall and never sees the light.
Adequate planning for the future is needed in order to

CHAPTER 7
Challenges faced during attachment
The geographical location and unorthodox hiring practices at Elliot Hotel presented a
challenge to me as everyone assumed I was either fluent in Ndebele or Venda this was
worsened by the guests mainly locals who assumed the same and that my lack of
knowledge of these subjects meant I was not dedicated to the organisation. With time I
managed to learn and was able to communicate barely in Venda and Ndebele.

THE lack of proper induction by the human resource department meant that I had to find
my way around on my own and the marketing department didn’t pick up the slack and
induct me. The main challenge that this presented was that I was constantly getting lost
or had no clue what they were speaking about so during my first week I was not useful
at all.

The hotel industry is one of the busiest in the world as evidenced by hotels always
being open all year round and this presents a challenge for the human resource
department to ensure that there are people at work for 365 days without weekends or
public holidays. As an attaché we were at the forefront of that problem as we were not
given our allocated 2days off every fortnight which meant always being at work and that
gave me very little time to rest and fatigue caught up with but the main problem was not
having time to review and capture the things that we were learning on the job.
CHAPTER 8
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING ATTACHMENT
The university needs to that all students on attachment can register online as students
will have to miss work and travel from faraway to register for instance in my case
travelling from Beitbridge to Mutare requires a full day and to register I had to take 3
days off work during which I missed out on vital work that was going on at that time

The university should also consider the use of internet to communicate with students.
Given the accessibility of the university website, a webpage should be developed for the
students on attachment so that they are constantly updated on the goings on at the
university with regards to attachment. On this webpage students would be advised of
when supervisors will be coming for assessments, information for such things as
registration status of students and report writing would be posted on this page.
Communication in this way would be better improved and this would ensure a smooth
flow of attachment.
The university should also try by all means to get feedback from the organisations to
which the students were attached, these organisations would suggest improvements in
the curricula to better equip students for attachment. Companies have a chance to
contribute in the designing of the curriculum that colleges offer. This by nature will
create a human resource base that is best suited for the industry needs. The integration
between organisations and the university will help the university develop and enrich the
curriculum
CHAPTER 9
CONCLUSION
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http://www.seiofbluemountain.com/upload/product/201001/1263275593iydvebvf.p
df

Campion, M. A., Cheraskin, L. S., & Michael, J. (1994, December). Career-related

antecedents and outcomes of job rotation. Academy of Management Journal, v
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Metin M. Cosgel, Thomas J. Miceli, On Job Rotation, Department of Economics

Working Paper Series of University of Connecticut, ( Working Paper 1998-02)
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Jaime Ortega, Job Rotation as a Mechanism for Learning. Centre for Labour
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http://www.sundaynews.co.zw/zimra-hikes-car-duty-100-percent/

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Sustainable_Business/Planning_for_the_future