HMT 2250: Budgeting for Food and Beverage

Report: Casa Tolone; Leadership styles and budgeting

Eimantas Klimas
Adham Elhares

2016

Index

Introductory statement, initial assumption, Methods Utilised

Data: Staff Hygiene
Data: Organization Structure
Data: Staff Training
Conclusion: Managment Style Utilised
Closing Remarks
Reference list

Introductory statement, initial assumption, Methods Utilised

The Chosen Unit for this report is the restaurant known as Casa Tolone-Vinoteca. The Restaurant is a
family owned and run, Italian restaurant, one of the best within the Immediate area of Lucern. Casa
Tolone was opened in 1995 by the Father of the family and has eventually passed to the sons to be
managed and develop further.
The Report is being done in Order to provide a better understanding of the affect Leadership styles have on
the staff and there performance and productivity and ergo the affect on the budget. As the chosen unit is a
High quality and high performing property, naturally it can serve as a positive example for the learning
purposes, this report strives to achieve. Keeping in mind, that the restaurant is family owned, allows us to
assume, that the owners will have a higher interest in saving and reducing cost, as more is on stake, than say
for a chain restaurants managers, which means much can be learned from analyzing Casa Tolone. Further
what we can see from the name, namely Vinoteca is that the restaurant quite likely, has a focus on wines
and thus allows us to assume, that wine sales are responsible for most of the revenue, but this can only
happen if the waiting staff is highly knowledgeable in regards to wine and have great salemanship, allowing
us to draw the conclusion, that it posesess a low turnower rate and a quite happy staff, which is ussually
more achievable by a more free style of leadership.
This of course allows us to assume about the business, that it does everything by the book and would not
have any flaws in regards to budgeting theory, of course this is a pre-formed bias, that has to be ignored in
order not to let the psychological phenomena, know as confirmation bias to take hold and allow us to make
an accurate report in regards to the business.
After an infield analysis of the bussiness, interview with the manager and research on the topic this data was
collected and these conclusions, could be reached.

Data: Staff Hygiene

Firstly of course the general well-being and the hygiene of the staff, must be observed, before drawing
other conclusions on collected data as this is a strong indicator on the leadership being utilised and its affect
on the productivity. As is stated in chapter 11 of Allen B.Aschs Book Hospitality Cost Control: A practical
Approach Some of the non-financial techniques that help to motivate workers include having positive and
comfortable work surroundings or hygiene as Frederick Herzber would refer to it. After an infield analysis
of Casa Tolone, this was observed to be achieved. From the initial observation, during the staff meal,
everyone was content, in a good mood, shared a single table, no extra tension due to the presence of the
manager could be observed. During service, the staff retained, this attitude and seemed to be under little
control and seemed to be able to act as they seemed fit.This strongly points to there being a high level of
hygiene within the workplace.
Further based on the observation it seemed, that the employees and managers interacted freely between each
other, which means that a free two-way dialoge is open within the restaurant. This is an essential element for
motivating employees as it allows for all the parties involved to become aware of situations and adjust
accordingly creating a higher work hygiene and productivity.

Data: Organization Structure

After the interview with the manager, along with the initial information about the business as a family owned
bussiness, it could be concluded, that the organization had a wide or flat organizational structure as Ronald
J.Ebert refers in chapter 6 of his book Business Essentials Study Guide. Further referencing Ronald
J.Ebert, this means, that the organization due to its structure, allows for one manager to manage many
employees at once and that a great deal of responsibility is delegated to the employees, giving them greater
authority to make decisions, which means that the workflow is more streamlined and results in higher
productivity, leading to a positive result in regard to the budget.This is fact is further confirmed in the
interview, where the manager described themselves as flexible, meaning that they allow customers to make
custom orders, and the waiters due not have to run to the manager to ask for permision, but can make these
calls himself, leading to increased sales and employee empowerment. Citing from
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/employee-empowerment.htm, employee empowerment brings
along with it greater productivity, work satisfaction, reduced costs, greater ownership of the work and
increased quality of the delivered work, which all could be observed in the staff ofCasa Tolone.

Of course as is stated in http://smallbusiness.chron.com/tall-vs-flat-organizational-structure-283.html, this

structure does have its drawbacks, namely the fact that the workload for managers increases drastically, and
there can be confusion among the roles, but the site also states, that these problems arise only when there are
too many employees reporting to a manager, but due toCasa Tolones size these problems are averted.

Data: Staff Training

Further, as staff is our focus of this report, an importnant indicator in regards to productivity, labor costs and
management level is the turnover rate of staff. As stated in chapter 10 of Hospitality Cost Control:A
Practical Approach A chief cause of turnover is improper training employees., thus a proper analysis of
training methods used is needed. In the interview with the manager it was discovered, that the restaurant
sends employees to wine courses, this along with general content and empowerment, mentioned before
would be a strong indicator of a low turnover rate, which means money is not being wasted on training new
employees, looking for them or the unemployment insurance. It was mentioned during the interview, that
each employee is being trained by an other employee, so on the job, training is utilised, this could be viewed
as a flaw, as the restaurant was observed, utilising interns, which while an effective labor cost reducing
strategem, does have the drawback of potentially affecting quality, due to the lack of experience on the
interns part and the fact, that the on the job training is a bit flawed in regards in imparting all the required
knowledge for every situation.

Conclusion: Managment Style Utilised

From what is so far observed and recorded a conclusion can be made about the Leadership style being
utilised. Due to the present wide organizational structure, due to the present two-way communication ideas
flow freely and a freedom when performing duties one can conclude, that a democratic method of leadership
is being uttilised. This style in theory is know as the most cost effective method of leadership and this is
confirmed by the collected data. Thus the chosen method of management by Casa Tolone is a cost
effective one. Further when discussing the management style, the instruments utilised must be mentioned.
At first glance one would assume, that due to presence of empowerment, that managment by delegation is
utlised, but this is incorrect as is stated at http://www.differencebtw.com/difference-between-delegation-andempowerment/ , the difference lies in the fact, that when empowerment is used It gives an employee the
authority and decision making power as oposed to delegation, which is simply an other form of
commanding. Thus based on the fact seen before us it can be assumed, that management by exception is
utlised, as it relies on skilled employees to react to non-standart situations. It could be argued, that Casa
Tolone Utilised the total quality management tool as customer satisafaction is put above everything and
employees are given freedom to achieve, this for example if a customer wants a certain dish to be prepared
and the restaurant has the correct ingredients, this will be done and the employees will have to make it in a
way, that they see fit.

Closing Remark
From the Collected data and the conclusion reached, It can be seen that a Democratic style of leadership is
the goal, which every institution should aim to implement in its organization as its guarantees a cost effective
use of employees, allows to reduce additional costs as motivated employees are more likely to put extra
effort into the work. Of course it should be kept in mind, that the research was done in a western country and
its viability within diffrent cultures should be analysed.

References

Hospitality Cost Control: A practical Approach

Ronald J.Ebert refers in chapter 6 of his book Business Essentials Study Guide
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/employee-empowerment.htm
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/tall-vs-flat-organizational-structure-283.html
http://www.differencebtw.com/difference-between-delegation-and-empowerment/
Infield Research