Principles and Functions of Catering Management

George R. Terry has aptly defined a principle as a fundamental statement or truth providing a guide to thought and action. Principles are formulated on the basis of past experiences of managers in related situations, through a process of recording mentally or in writing, the effects of decisions taken in the past. Although no two similar situations can be dealt with in exactly the same manner, present decisions can be based on the results of past decisions taken (under fairly similar circumstances) depending on the future goals to be achieved. Thus principles are not rigid foolproof rules to be applied for finding solutions to problems, but flexible, practical, consistent, and relevant guidelines for use in similar sets of situations. Principles, therefore, provide a hypothesis for predicting future happenings when they are used with the manager’s own judgement of how and when to apply them. These guidelines are called principles of management. When managers make decisions that have constantly proved wrong, the fault does not lie in the management principles, but in the judgements made when applying them to a particular situation. For example, a catering manager may follow the principle of serving meals strictly between 12.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. every day. But one day there is an unexpected rush of customers, and prepared meals get finished by 2.00 p.m. How will the manager apply this principle? His judgement can lead to the following actions: • Close down service at 2.00 p.m. on that day. • Quickly use some ready to serve foods held in stock to make up meals and meet the rush. • Request staff to make sandwiches and arrange for serving eggs to order for the remaining half hour of the service. In this manner there can be so many different reactions to a particular situation that it may seem confusing to make a decision. But the principle if applied with value judgement, helps to make decisions easier and more effective. A manager who places greater value on the goodwill of his customers will not think twice about keeping the food service open, and providing whatever he can to satisfy his customers. He would not take the risk of turning away even a single customer. Chapter