Case#1: Ramada Demonstrates its Personal Best
Samika Moody
RES/351
11/20/2012
Wayne Bjerregaard

Case#1: Ramada Demonstrates its Personal Best
1. Build the management-research question hierarchy for Ramada.
The management dilemma in this case is the difference in number of employees hired at each Ramada franchise that could potentially affect customer service ratings. The management question is how can customer satisfaction be influenced throughout each property and Ramada franchise? Some research questions that can be considered are: what about hiring the best people to help continue the brand of Ramada’s quality of service? What about providing a training program to help portray the kind of quality service employees should be demonstrating to customers? Also how can management help motivate the employees to serve customers better?
The investigative question to evaluate is if new employees as well as old employees and management will be committed to change during this process? The measurement questions would consist of what customer service models can we imitate or refer to? What program can we develop similar to what we have observed among other customer service models? The management decision is Ramada now hires employees by screening for characteristics revealed by Predictive Index. Ramada now trains employees through CD-based multi-media training where employees can self learn at their own pace due to the training programs flexibility. Lastly, the motivation program focuses more on rewarding employees for various reasons other than exceptional performance.

2. Apply the research process model to the Ramada research initiative.
A. Explain the role and process of exploration in Ramada’s research.
The role and process of exploration in Ramada’s research allowed for the company to see what other successful companies were doing so that they can observe and slowly develop and imitate their own program, and it also allowed room for new ideas and for employees to be hands on with the process as well.
B. What role did secondary data play in the exploration phase of the research?
The secondary data helped coincide and identify with the areas that could be influenced by customer service and also guide the measurement questions and management decisions.
C. What steps and phases in the process model can you match to the
Ramada research? The steps and phases from the process model that can be matched to the Ramada research is phase one and the first six steps all apply to the Ramada research case.
D. What research process decisions were made? (Remember to include research by outside suppliers.)
The research process decisions that were made were: the screening of characteristics which were gathered from Predictive Index. Also the information researched from the hospitality industry’s stellar examples demonstrated that employees prefer a more involved and hands on approach when it comes to training on the job.
E. What sampling methodology was used? Why was this appropriate for this study?
The sampling methodology that was used was a survey. The survey was needed to gather information from employees regarding how effective Ramada’s training methods were and to determine what motivates employees.
F. Describe the research design and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
The research design was a sampling design. The sampling design got immediate results even though it only targeted a small amount of the employee population.

G. What role did property owners/managers play in the research design? The property owners and managers played their part of data analysis.

H. Why did Ramada choose to conduct the research in a nontraditional, party like atmosphere? What are some advantages and disadvantages of such an approach?
Ramada wanted the environment to influence the employees to feel comfortable so they could get the responses they need. The advantage would be that it would allow manager and employee interaction and the disadvantages is that management would have a chance at not receiving the response they need.

3. How are the research findings reflected in the ultimate management decisions?
The research findings are reflected in the ultimate management decisions by showing the influence of how they played a part in providing better customer satisfaction, evaluated hiring skills, better training and motivation programs as well.