Management and Leadership in Restaurants

Management and Leadership

The restaurant business is a world like no other. It has its own unique class of people that work in every area from the front of the house, to the back of the house to management. With so many different types of people coming and going, management must be able to adapt to every situation that may arise. These situations may vary from problems employees may have with guests, problems with one another or even problems they may be having at home that could affect their work. Not to mention production numbers, inventory, and scheduling problems that may come up. Every situation is as unique as the people involved.

To be a successful manager of a restaurant, or any business for that matter, one must find a way to equally combine each of the four main functions of management which include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. During the planning process the management staff will come up with goals for the company to attain (Bateman, Snell, 2009). They will also come up with the appropriate course of action to take in order to achieve these goals. Looking at current trends, anticipating the future and determining the proper resources are just a few ways that management can achieve these goals.

The organizational function is a way to coordinate everything needed to achieve the goals set during the planning process. The main resources needed to complete this process are human, financial, physical, and informational. The management staff must be able to hire people who have the right skills for each position. They must be able to find employees that will work well together and provide them with the most up-to-date information to ensure their job is done correctly and to the best of their ability. The combination of all these factors will increase financial wealth for both the business and its employees.

Managers must be good leaders as well. A leader is someone who is able to motivate their employees to do better and be more productive. They can encourage good communication between different departments as well as between individuals. This idea of being a good leader and the development of good leadership qualities will be discussed in more detail later in this paper.

The last function of management is called controlling. It seems like it would have a rather negative effect on business but this function is not a way for the management staff to dominate its employees but rather to monitor their performance. During the controlling stage, management can implement any changes that may need to take place to ensure the goals originally set up during the planning stage can be achieved. Learning from past mistakes and adapting to changes will ensure that this stage is completed with minimal problems.

All managers may be able to perform each of these functions well but there is a difference between being just a manager and being a leader. A manger is someone who comes in day after day and just does what is expected of them. They tell their employees what to do, they make decisions about production and inventory, and they fix problems with guests. Managers want to be more of a friend than your boss because they want their employees to be as productive as possible. The happier the employees are the more they get done. This makes the management staff look better to the owners and may give them a competitive advantage when promotions come around.

A true leader, on the other hand, finds a happy medium between what is best for the restaurant as a whole and for each individual employee. Good leadership qualities include drive, motivation, integrity, self-confidence, and knowledge of the business. Drive refers to characteristics such as a need for achievement, constant strive for improvement, ambition and tenacity (Bateman, Snell, 2009). Motivation is a want or desire to lead. Integrity is a person's credibility. If a person says that they will do something and actually does it, they are said to have a great amount of integrity. Some people mistake this next quality will arrogance. Being self-confidence simply means that the person realizes that set backs are inevitable and overcomes them with ease. Lastly, a good leader must have a high level of knowledge of the business. They have a unique perspective on the business that allows them to stay one step ahead of the competition as well as know every technical aspect of the job.

There are many definitions for organizational culture. The one that seems to fit best here is a system of knowledge, standards