School of Hospitality Management Monthly Update: July 2007
This Monthly Update from the School of Hospitality Management at Penn State serves to keep you informed and interested in the news as it happens - for alumni, industry, faculty & students.
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Re-Bound: India
Five representatives from the School of Hospitality were in New Delhi, India for the 2nd International Conference on Services Management. The conference is co-hosted by Penn State's School of Hospitality, Institute for International Management & Technology in Gurgaon, and Oxford –Brookes University in the UK. This year's conference theme was Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Conference Chairs from Penn State, Dave Cranage and Arun Upneja met with their Indian counterpart, Vinnie Jauhari, to discuss next year's agenda to be held at Penn State. The theme of the 3rd International Conference on Services Management slated for the June '08 conference is Service Quality.
"This is an enormous opportunity for the School to partake in an international forum that portends positive impact for the future," said director, Bert van Hoof. Van Hoof chaired one of the sessions at the conference. "I was really impressed with the level and diversity of the papers presented," he said.
Three Penn Staters won Outstanding Awards for their papers: Amit Sharma, "Production efficiency analysis of small hotels in Tanzania"; David Cranage, "Optimism Recovery from Product Failure: Doing too much or too little"; and Vivienne Wildes, "Motivation to work in service: How internal service quality overcomes occupational stigma to attract and retain service workers". These papers will appear in a Special Edition of the Journal of Services Research.
Vivienne Wildes also presented a paper entitled: Corporate Social Responsibility: How can managers really lead and serve at the same time.
Students Enjoy Summer Internships
Generally speaking, internships are an awesome way to mix business and pleasure. This summer, many undergraduate students in the School of Hospitality Management are spreading their wings in pursuit of just that experience.
Students often pass good internship experiences on to the next crop.
Seniors Dana Katz and Peter Diorio are spending this summer in Alaska's Denali National Park as ARAMARK interns. Diorio is working as assistant manager in housekeeping while Katz works in one of the restaurants.
Diorio won a $1,000 International Gold and Silver Plate Scholarship from the International Food Manufacturers Association (IFMA) to support his stay.
"Our experience in Alaska has been eye-opening," says Katz. "We have engaged in activities such as white-water rafting, hiking, camping, and fishing, just to name a few." On the management side Katz says he's learned to communicate with the vast number of workers who do not speak English as their primary language.
Leaving the city and seeing a different range of mountains every time they turn around took some getting used to, says Katz. He recommends the internship to anyone thinking about work in Alaska. "Overall, the experience is useful because we are gaining experience in the hospitality industry and learning how to adapt to very different environments," he says.
Addison Bartlett worked for ARAMARK Harrison Lodging in Alaska last summer as an assistant front desk manager at the Denali Bluffs Hotel. This summer he is on a rotational restaurant internship with Great American Restaurants at their Sweetwater Tavern in Sterling, Virginia.
"This internship has shown me yet another aspect of the restaurant industry," says Bartlett.
To line up a great summer internship Bartlett recommends talking to company representatives when they visit Penn State during the academic year. "Make contacts," says Bartlett. "These contacts allow you to decide which company is the best fit for you," he said.
Alex Beddall found her internship at the Philadelphia Convention Center through fellow student, Brooke Bishop. "This is the perfect place for me to mix my interests," said Beddall. "I love working in Philadelphia, learning about the city, building a portfolio, and taking the trolley to work."
Beddall's internship assignments include taking photographs of various speakers. "I was backstage with Barack Obama when he spoke to the National Education Association," she said. Two days prior Beddall heard a rousing speech by Hillary Clinton.
"What a great opportunity!" she exclaimed. Sometimes feeling a bit like Mary Tyler Moore, Beddall said she recommends any one of the paid, eight-week Convention Center summer internships for students looking for a great Philadelphia experience.
President of the Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society, Leigh Silkunas, is interning in revenue management at Pittsburgh's Westin Convention Center.
"I love it!" she says. "Internships are for trying new things and exploring other options," Silkunas explained. "I always thought that I wanted to pursue F&B, and part of me still does, but I'm really pleased that I pushed myself to try RM. I knew that I liked RM classes, but seeing it in action, real time, has been a great learning experience and I'm much open to it as a post-graduation career option."
Four SHM students, Sonya Grebs, Megan Pisone, Anna Schneider, and Stephanie Newcomer are doing it up this summer as interns at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, PA.
Nemacolin is a 3,200 acre resort in southwestern PA, with two PGA-Tour golf courses, a rare animal park, an antique car museum, a ski slope, a shooting range, an off-road driving course complete with a fleet of Hummers, and its own landing strip. Visiting instructor in charge on interns, Jeff Heim, said "When I asked how often the landing strip was used, the reply was 'not very often only 5 to 10 times a week.' "
The wine cellar at Nemacolin boasts 25,000 bottles, including a 1945 Chateau-Lafit Rothschild.
Other students are in inaugural programs. Danielle Merilli is the first intern at On the Border, a Mexican restaurant in Cranberry Township outside of Pittsburgh. Mike McNulty, the managing director in charge of Danielle's pilot internship program has a variety of tasks and learning experiences planned.
Senior, Kelliann Halligan, approached her managers at Quaker Steak and Lube during spring semester to arrange for their first internship. Quaker Steak and Lube's five year plan includes several new stores. Piloting an internship program might be just the right win-win to help see them through.
The Future is here
Nine from the Penn State chapter of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals traveled to Orlando to attend the Hospitality Industry Technology Exhibition and Conference (HITEC) from June 24th to 29th at the Orange County Convention Center.
While at the exhibition, the students were able to visit Guestroom 2010, which included up-and-coming technology that will be appearing in guestrooms in the near future. "It was a great opportunity to witness the newest room technologies and see them in action," said Karen Marley (senior) who also volunteered to work at the booth.
They were also able to attend sessions with multiple speakers covering topics that ranged from Revenue Management to the Impact of IT on Customer Relationship Management.
"The exhibit hall was amazing," said Marley. "With our society's ever increasing dependency on technology it is imperative for all those in the industry to have a grasp of current issues and pending decisions," she said. "HITEC enabled students and industry members to gather, interact, and become excited about what the future holds."
Students attending HITEC included: Matthew Elensky, Sonya Grebs, Zachary Harris, Karen Marley, Daniel McNulty, Kylie Morse, Kara Pisklak, Jessica Robinson, and Laura Yi. They were accompanied by their advisors, Peter Nyheim and Jeff Heim.
Check out the full article at www.hitec.org/content.cfm?pgid=106
Article of the Year
"The Role of Brand Affiliation in Hotel Market Value," by John O’Neill and Qu Xiao, published in Volume 47 of the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly (CQ) has been named the Article of the Year.
The paper, describes a groundbreaking analysis of the effect of brand affiliation on a hotel property’s value. It was named in a judging process that included ratings by the CQ editorial board, faculty at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, and members of the Advisory Board of Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research, which publishes the Cornell Quarterly.
“We’ve long suspected that certain brands carry more value for a hotel property,” said Linda Canina, editor of the CQ and associate professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. “Without naming names, this article demonstrates and quantifies that effect.”
O’Neill is an associate professor and Xiao is a doctoral student in the School of Hospitality Management at Penn State.
Recipe for Success
A cooking challenge is one of the latest programs offered by the Hospitality Leadership Initiative (HLI) to make headlines. HLI is run by Ruth Ann Jackson.
Managers from Kennametal Industries, a worldwide metalworking company with corporate offices in Latrobe, Pennsylvania made news recently when they participated in leadership workshops designed to teach skills necessary for success. Ann Quinn Corr, writing for the Centre Daily Times, described the Iron Chef-like cooking challenge centered on food, time constraints, and peer pressure in an article entitled Kitchen challenge helps metalworking managers hone leadership skills".
Senior lecturer, Peter Yersin prepared a wine tasting to complement the groups' entrees while Dave Cranage chose "winners" in various categories. And, yes…everyone won. See the full article at: www.centredaily.com/living/story/136764.html
Farm to Fork
Research by Amit Sharma was recently showcased in an article entitled "From Farm to Fork" by Sarah Bzdega on Business Record.com.
Sharma recently completed a study examining the economic factors that influence restaurants and producers to purchase or sell locally grown or produced foods. Through his research, Sharma found that restaurants using locally grown foods see this as a way to attract people who want a quality dining experience and who may be willing to pay more for organic and local foods. In addition to being committed to it, he said, these restaurants also need to be led by a highly trained chef.
"What's essential is a trained chef, someone who can, at the drop of a hat, think of how to make use of certain local products," Sharma said, "because local produce is seasonal," and dependent on the weather and other variables. Thus, chefs don't always know what they'll receive from farms, and have to be creative and have customers who enjoy new dishes rather than set menus.
Read the full article.
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Send us your news - we'll include it in the School of Hospitality Monthly Update. Contact Vivienne Wildes at vjw100@psu.edu