Category: unit 6

Hi Daneen,

I loved reading your blog !!Technology use in hospitality field is variedly established as the advancement of technology is rapidly practiced up to date in all fields of consumer production, export and utilization. Likewise, it’s been implemented in the health care field and it’s very well explained by you in your blog. I was impressed the way you have described about the various sections of practice that is central to the unit you work, that is Hospice care and to the training of each new employee at that unit. Care of the person and family; pain management, management of other symptoms; end of life planning/dying and death management; loss, grief and bereavement support; interdisciplinary collaborative practice and professional issues and advocacy (“Orientation Hospice Residence Nurses”, 2017) as listed by you in your blog gives a clear idea on how to plan ahead in training the employees on specific areas within a set of time wherein they acquire the ability to focus  and gain experience in dealing with various situations thereby developing skills with knowledge based practice. Implementing online modules, online training course, training videos, hands on practice and one on one session or interviews as practiced in your work place will surely benefit the employee throughout. Among these points, the best way to gain quality training is one on one session compared to online learning as it helps to deepen the learning skills with supervision that enhances the ability of an employee as well identifies the drawbacks in an employee directly. This is a traditional way of practice and if this is incorporated with use of technology using video conferences, video chats and video surveillance, it will be of great help to the management. Though there are disadvantages in any technology, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Georgeena

Firms in all industries depend vitally on technology (Peppard & Ward, 2004). Hospitality companies attempt to understand how technologies can grant them competitive advantages through enhanced productivity and value maximization (Buhalis, 1998). But not all firms enjoy competitive advantages through technology. Instead, the impacts of technology depend on a plethora of factors.

Technology, including information technology, online platforms, and social media, has revolutionized the global market and, perhaps even more important, provided new opportunities to engage and harness resources from customers and employees, such that firms can more readily gain valuable ideas, feedback, and other useful information (Bilgihan, Okumus, Khal Nusair, & Joon-Wuk Kwun, 2011; Chahal & Kumar, 2014; Hammedi et al., 2015; Zhang, Kandampully, & Bilgihan, 2015).

Firms such as Marriott, Hilton, Starbucks, Disney, and Starwood have transformed themselves into “people technology hybrid organizations”. The newly adopted strategies enable organizations to use technology to engage with and reap the creativity of their employees and customers, to co-innovate new products and services. Such hybrid firms recognize the role of technology as an enabler, but they also understand that trust and emotional engagement with people (Akroush, Abu-ElSamen, Samawi, & Odetallah, 2013), both within and outside the organization (Harrison-Walker, 2001), are essential to the transformation of the firm through creativity and innovation.

In the past, firms often viewed each customer as a single entity. But today, customers are gradually considered as “social customers” who are always into Word-of-Mouth activities on online and offline contexts (Gligorijevic & Luck, 2012). Social customers represent the voices and thoughts of hundreds or thousands of like-minded individuals (Bugshan, 2014; Zhang et al., 2015). Firms thus recognize that engaging and enabling social customers is an effective strategy.

Customer behaviours are shaped by providers, while employee performance and commitment are shaped by the organizations they are embedded within (Wong, 2015). Affectively committed customers exhibit a strong motivation to help a firm improve its business and show a great need to maintain positive relationships with the firm’s frontline employees (Salanova, Sonia, & Jose, 2005). Therefore, organizational citizenship behaviour is another key factor that could influence the performance of people for the organizational success. Citizenship behaviour aimed at the organization includes activities such as promoting a hotel’s products and making favourable comments about the property outside of work (Gracia, Bakker, & Grau, 2011; Liu & Mattila, 2015; Wu, Sturman, and Wang 2013, Wu, Tse, Fu, Kwan, & Liu, 2013). Citizenship behaviour in support of co-workers includes assisting them as needed and taking time to listen to co-workers’ concerns (Ma, Qu, Wilson, & Eastman, 2013; Wu, Sturman et al., 2013, Wu, Tse et al., 2013). Customer-focused citizenship behaviour includes activities such as maintaining a positive attitude at work and performing duties carefully and accurately (Ma et al., 2013; Wu, Sturman et al., 2013, Wu, Tse et al., 2013). Furthermore, employee empowerment is widely viewed as a promising approach to improve operating efficiency and customer service (Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, Suarez- Acosta, & Aguiar-Quintana, 2014).

Similarly, many firms acknowledge the importance of engaging and nurturing the creativity of their employees. Such firms offer initiatives to ensure the people within the organization have appropriate environments and support, to nurture their creativity and innovation (Kim, Im, & Slater, 2013; O’Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000). The creativity of employees and customers must be harnessed, through technology, to enable the organization to undertake ongoing innovation. As an enabler, technology provides customers direct access to the internal workings of the firm, because the two entities partner in creative innovations, in which technology and people interact dynamically (Barile & Saviano, 2014). The role of organizations to engage in activities to encourage, value and reward innovation and creativity efforts is becoming more relevant in contemporary organizations.

Innovation is one of the key factors to firm success (Ngo & O’Cass, 2013), and the main driver of innovation is the creative minds of the people who make up organizations (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2003). Technology provides an exciting sense of innovation for many customers, even if the feelings may be short lived if the technology is emulated by competitors. Still, this capability helps hospitality firms capture the imagination of many customers. Creating a mechanism to allow firms to tap into people’s creative minds thus has become a strategic priority of many leading hospitality organizations. Early research associated innovation with activities within the organization, with the assumption that innovations reside inside the firm. But more recent studies instead claim that individual users who ‘‘set the trend” for others and have certain technical knowledge are increasingly important to organizations (Chandra & Leenders, 2012). Customers are very valuable sources of innovation (Chesbrough, 2006; Kandampully et al., 2015), and their ideas and knowledge become more accessible online. Effectively bringing together both employees and customers to establish relationships with the firm can assist in and advance creative innovation. In this competitive hospitality market, gaining market leadership is a challenging task. The need for dramatic changes in the way hospitality firms operate today is due to the extensive changes in hotel guests’ adoption and use of mobile and self-service technology.

The role of organizations to engage in activities to encourage, value and reward innovation and creativity efforts is becoming more relevant in contemporary organizations. Further, the adoption of innovation is easier when organizations have organic rather than mechanistic characteristics (Damanpour, 1991). Such organic organizations have a greater variety of specialists that would provide a broader knowledge base.

Being an adult learner, I could learn exhaustively about my subject as well as topics associated with it. Though at times keeping in view my schedule, it becomes tough to practically sit in a classroom and grasp all that is being said or taught to me, the projects assigned to me helps me to build up my knowledge qualitatively as well as quantitatively. As a practicing nurse I get the opportunity to put into practice all that I learn as well as assimilate the information around me.

First Principle: There is a huge difference in my learning and understanding capacity if as to when I was a young learner as a child and the adult learner as I am now. In the former case I literally took in everything I studied in the four walls of a classroom as the ultimate fact whereas in the latter case I can scrutinize and evaluate what I am learning, so also question whenever needed the authenticity and practicality of a given notion. I am able to move from being a dependent learner to an independent and self-reliant learner. From an early age, children are conditioned to recognize educators as authority figures who have broad-based power to tell them what to do, when and how. By contrast, adults expect that even the most credentialed expert will behave as a partner to them in a participative learning journey. (https://online.rutgers.edu/blog/principles-of-adult-learning-theory/) There is a need to explain the reasons specific things are being taught. (https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles)

Second Principle: As mentioned earlier, being a practicing nurse, I can accumulate the information that I come across in my profession and otherwise which experience is in fact best source for learning. Adult learners are a valuable resource because they bring the richness and diversity of their lives with them. They should be given the opportunity to use their existing knowledge and experience, which they can apply to new learning experiences.

Third Principle: Being an adult learner on one side and a professional on the other, it keeps me motivated and hankering for a knowledgeable life: They become ready to learn things to cope effectively with real-life situations. (https://ala.asn.au/adult-learning/the-principles-of-adult-learning/).  As a practicing nurse I am to be well aware of my role in the society and the knowledge I acquire helps me to develop into a better professional as well as a better socially responsible being.For the most part, adults have little time to learn new content for its own sake. Instead, they are interested in approaching tasks directly related to their occupation. To thrive in most learning environments, they must be clear on how each lesson fits into their goals for self-advancement. (https://online.rutgers.edu/blog/principles-of-adult-learning-theory/)

Fourth Principle: As I grow in my profession I face situations that need immediate application of knowledge as well as situations in which future application of knowledge is required. I tend to learn focusing on problems that I may come across rather. It is but natural that the focus is on how to tackle problems rather than just gaining knowledge in the learning process.As a general rule, adults need to be involved in planning their instruction and evaluating their results. They should be provided with an environment in which mistakes are safe, expected and a basis for continued learning, in keeping with a problem-centered approach to new ideas. (https://online.rutgers.edu/blog/principles-of-adult-learning-theory/)

Fifth Principle: More than satisfying or making other’s content, it is my own urge to be content in what I do. It is my intrinsic urge to work for the best results and hence my keenness in learning also increases as a result of it. Adults are responsive to external motivators such as a better job or increased salary. However, the best motivators are internal; for example, increased job satisfaction, heightened self-esteem, better quality of life and personal growth and development. (https://ala.asn.au/adult-learning/the-principles-of-adult-learning/)

Sixth Principle: As an individual matures or grows, they stop being dependent on others to gain knowledge. Personally, I prefer to evaluate upon the need to learn something. In doing so we can frame our own perspective and opinions about life and the challenges it offers. Knowles recognized that adults cannot simply act as passive receptacles of others’ expertise as children often do. (https://online.rutgers.edu/blog/principles-of-adult-learning-theory/) Since adults are self-directed, instruction should allow learners to discover things and knowledge for themselves without depending on people. (https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles).