Table of Contents

Table of Contents List of Figures 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 Introduction: Company Background Answer Question 1 Answer Question 2 Answer Question 3 Answer Question 4 Answer Question 5 Answer Question 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

List of References

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List of Figures Figure 1: Old Town White Coffee Figure 2: Open System (Systems Approach) 3 5

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1.0

Introduction

Old Town White Coffee (OTWC) is a modernized coffee shop which serves halal food, home breed coffee and other beverages in a traditional looking coffee shop environment. OTWC has the uniqueness of their nostalgic interior design whereby the mood of the restaurant has given customers a sense of belonging for dining at a reasonable price. OTWC is established in 1999 and currently has 183 numbers of outlets in Malaysia with international presence in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA, Australia and China (OTWC 2011). There are a total of 18 OTWC outlets in Malaysia which operates 24 hours and 7 days a week, such as the outlets in KLIA and LCCT airport. . In addition to that, OTWC are also selling their own instant coffee products in the market with distribution to 1350 outlets. OTWC is currently applying for listing in main board of KLSE which will be effective in July 2011.

Figure 1: Old Town White Coffee Source: Adapted from Oldtown (2011)

2.0

Answer Question 1

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OTWCs core business is serving halal food and home breed coffee in a relaxing, authentic and comfortable environment. OWTC business is around 50% franchised and the primary target audience is working adults in the range of age 25-40 years old. OTWCs goal is to let everyone enjoy every sip of authentic Malaysian Ipoh White Coffee, anytime, anywhere and serve customers with good food, friendly smiles, authentic dishes at an affordable price. OTWCs motto is Take your time, Savour every moment which encourages people to take it slow with one step at a time and have an enjoyable time and good experience at OTWC. As a market leader and having the first mover advantage, OTWC vision and mission is to be Asia Pacifics leading white coffee producer providing high quality products to costumers globally through continuous improvement, consistent quality, incorporate innovations and technology that exceeds customer expectation. The most important core values of OTWC is to uphold the OLDTOWNs brand as a pioneer and maintain the reputation as the best local white coffee producer by delivering consistence performance, competitive pricing and trusted quality to ensure continuity and growth. In addition to that, OTWCs core values is also to conduct business with integrity by embracing good business practice, adopt international standards and demonstrate professionalism in business. Besides that, OTWC strives to spearhead breakthroughs in originality and creativity to cater for customers changing needs and expectations. With halal certifications, one of OTWC aim is to respect diversities and traditions of multiple races and cultures. In order to sustain the quality of product to all stakeholders and customers, OTWC has achieved certifications on international accreditations such HACCP, ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 (OTWC 2011).

3.0

Answer Question 2

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In systems theory, Open System is a process that transforms inputs to outputs and interacts with its wider external environment. Open System is influenced by the external environment and in turn is able to influence it.

Figure 2: Open System (Systems Approach) Source: Adapted from Slocum (2009)

In the context of OTWC business, the main inputs are manpower, equipments (machinery) and raw food (materials). The manpower in the outlets are production staffs such as chef, waitress, dish washers, cashier and management team. The equipment used is cooking utensils, coffee machine, oven, refrigerator, chair, tables and glasses. The raw food used for the food is chicken, rice, spices, sugar and coffee beans. In order to ensure the inputs are managed efficiently, there must be careful selection criteria for quality suppliers on raw foods and constant calibration of equipment to ensure it is performing optimally. Transformation process is a phase on how to transfer the inputs into profit, satisfied customers and quality products and services. OTWC transformation processes includes sufficient staffing needs, adequate staff training and number of customers per waitress ratio. In this phase, OTWC has to ensure staffs are adequately recruited and trained to perform their tasks efficiently, effectively and with courtesy. Staff appraisals should be conducted regularly to reward, retain and motivate performing staff. Besides that, OTWC have to ensure food are served fresh, clean and conform to hygiene and safety standards in the transformation stage. As a result of transformation, OTWC will achieve higher revenue, good customer service and satisfied customers in the outputs phase. In addition to this, OTWC will produce high quality meals and promote recurring business in the outputs phase. In the feedback stage, the chef and outlet managers should review and evaluate the operating procedures, food quality and customer service satisfaction level for continuous improvement. 4.0 Answer Question 3

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One of the business environmental factors that significantly influence the organizations operations is OTWC reputation as the market leader with largest chain stores of coffee shops in Malaysia. Due to such, OTWC has to manage their multiple outlet operations effectively by maintaining trained and adequate staff level at each outlet and ensuring food and beverages quality are sustained and measured against industry practice and standards. Besides that, OTWC faces fierce competition from local competitors such as Pappa Rich and well known international franchise outlets such as Startbucks and Coffee Beans. Therefore, OTWC has to maintain their product pricing competitive, outlet environment comfortable and inviting and high quality service. Human resource management plays an important role to support the business environment. Waitresses have to be continuously trained and monitored to have sufficient product knowledge, courteous, proactive and highly motivated. Customer service is crucial and customers requests and needs should be attended promptly with courtesy. Besides that, outlet managers have to ensure there are enough waitresses per customer ratio. Chef and kitchen helper should adhere to safety and hygiene policies and ensure the food and beverages served are of high quality and conforming to industry standard and practices. The supplier and distribution of the raw foods must be audited of their quality, freshness and timely delivery. The outlets physical environment must be managed in good order, organized, clean and hygiene. Outlet managers have to constantly review and communicate with their staff on performance and analyze it with customer feedback. For outlets that operate 24 hours, outlet managers have to manage the staff shifts accordingly, ensure staff and product availability and perform a surprise visit to check on the performance of the staff and outlet. In a macro overview, division or regional managers have to evaluate, review and monitor overall outlet operations to ensure consistency of food and service quality, staffing requirements, staff efficiency and compensation policy to reward and motivate branch with highest performance.

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Answer Question 4

Some of the major challenges to the quality of work life encountered by OTWC managers are fulfilling the expectations set in terms of outlet performance, quality of product, service and

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outlet environment, quality of food preparation and compliance to industry policies and guidelines. In addition to that, managers are being appraised and evaluated based on their work performance, management skill sets and communication abilities. Due to managers are required to constantly monitor, lead and control a diversified workforce, they are required to be tactful and skilful (human skills) in handling employee personality and behaviour. As a result, manager roles, job descriptions, responsibilities and performance requirement must be communicated clearly and compensated strategically aligned to market rate (Perkins & White 2009). Employee roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined, communicated and monitored according to their job description, personality and pay grades. For example, waitress roles are in the front line with customers, they are therefore required to be trained in depth on product knowledge, motivated to be courteous/ polite and responsive to customer request and needs. Chef and kitchen helpers role are in preparation of food and beverages, therefore skill sets (technical skills) in preparing food quality and hygiene practices is a must. Cleaners role is to upkeep the outlet in clean and organized manner with strong sense of responsibility and discipline. Work performance standards and requirements must be established and communicated to each OTWC outlet and stores through Quality Manual or Work Procedures and training to establish consistency in operation and management practise. All staff regardless of supervisory or waitress role should be given opportunity to allow creativity in their work methods and ideas to increase job satisfaction and self fulfilment as a form of motivation. Staff personality and habits which contributes to work performance should be rewarded and recognized constantly with award such as Best Employee of the Month. Due to stressful working environment, employees should be compensated with extrinsic rewards such as over time allowance and year end bonuses. In addition to that, shift rotation between staff must be scheduled with equity and compensated accordingly based on external market rate.

6.0

Answer Question 5

OTWC consists of diverse workforce with different age group, ability, personality and religions. For example, the cleaners are foreigners with different culture, the waiter or waitress
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is from different religions and age group, the cashier is of different background and the outlet manager is of different qualifications and experience. In general, the employees are of different personalities, abilities and motivations. Due to such diversity, there might be some negative implications such as employees arguments, discipline issues and resulted in no common objectives towards team, outlet and organization goals. In order to address this, the diversity of workforce must be recognized. OTWC has created a working environment with compensation policies that encourages integration between employees and management to achieve common objectives and goals. Training activities are conducted regularly to reshape employee attitudes and behaviours. Team rewards are given for group performance to encourage team work. Each OTWC outlet are assessed and rewarded for outlet overall performance, food and service quality and cleanliness. This has increased the motivation of staff for group performance and team work. OTWC also encourages continuous product innovation and improvement, and therefore promotes innovation of ideas among staff to learn and try new ways of improving the business and subsequently increases job satisfaction. On the other hand, the chef and kitchen helper are paid based on their skills and experiences aligned to market rate to retain / attract competent and quality chef. Foreign workers are compensated with hardship allowances, incentives and accommodation as part of human resource management strategy. Further to this, OTWC serves only halal food, and therefore employees are trained to prepare the food in a halal way with compliance to regulations. Subsequently, it is of strict company policies for all staff adhering to only consume halal food in the outlet and respect religious practices.

7.0

Answer Question 6

In order to ensure high level of job satisfaction in the workspace, OTWC managers should motivate employee using Motivational Job Design whereby providing staff the intrinsic values
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such as job satisfaction, respect and recognition. Using the theory, each staff will have task identity and significance and been given the autonomy to perform within their work scope. Managers will then constantly monitor and feedback with the employee for continuous performance. On the other hand, according to Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory, individuals cannot move to the next higher level until all needs at current or lower level are satisfied (Slocum 2009). Therefore, managers should ensure that employee lower level needs such as accommodation for foreign workers and over time allowance with market rate pay been given to employees to satisfy their safety and physiological needs. Moving up the hierarchy, managers should encourage the employees to interact and socialize within each other by motivational training or employee casual outing. In order to increase employee self esteem and self actualization, award such as Best Employee of the month should be given to staff who performs and exhibit good working attitudes. In addition, managers should have Employee Involvement Program to encourage employees to contribute ideas and promotes creativity in work place. This will provide employee certain authority and involvement in decision making, and motivating them with intrinsic value. Employees or teams who performs should also been given extrinsic rewards such as financial incentives. The rewards given must be fair and equal based on the performance criteria set for employees which are part of Expectancy Theory (Robbins 2009). This builds the confidence of achievement for the employee. According to Equity Theory, employee when is performing and striving their best to meet company objectives and goals should be compensated fairly and equally regardless of workforce diversity and must aligned with external market pay. Therefore, a set of performance objectives and key performance should be set out clearly. It is of importance that managers perform goal setting by setting their expectations and directions clearly to employees to ensure they know what to do to achieve the best results required by management. List of References Old Town White Coffee Website, OTWC (2011). Retrieved from http://www.oldtown.com.my/

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Perkins S.J. & White G. (2009) Employee Reward. Alternatives, Consequences and Contexts. CIPD London. Robbins, S. (2009) Organisational Behaviour. 10th ed., Prentice Hall (Pearson Education) Slocum Jr., J.W. & Hellriegel, D. (2009) Principles of Organizational Behavior (12th ed.). South-Western, Cengage Learning, Milton Q Australia.

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