Activate “restorative nurturance” in hospitality organisations
“Nurture” is the central element of hospitality. The concept of hospitality has its genesis in ancient times and in spiritual realms, and has stronger philosophical moorings than one would expect. When viewed along those lines, “nurture” becomes an integral part of the conceptualisation of hospitality, in a way that is much more profound and pronounced than the way in which the contemporary concept of “leisure” is attached to hospitality. Hospitality institutions nurture their guests and customers to restore and recuperate, and hence the nomenclature of “restorative nurturance”.
In order to understand the conception and composition of “restorative nurturance”, one needs to delve into the philosophy of hospitality, including its ways of life, and the characteristics of hospitable places, welcoming gestures and good hosts. Moreover, research in cognitive psychology has established that nurturance during the act of hospitality can bring about overall well-being and restoration. In order to create exemplary institutions, leaders in hospitality need to go far deeper than the usual preoccupation with the tactics of marketing and service, and ensure that strategic and tactical actions stem from the philosophies, convictions, mindsets and attitudes that have their bases in “restorative nurturance”.
However, embracing the concepts of well-being and restorative nurturance is not an easy task. There are material implications for the hospitality environment, providers and infrastructure that need to be understood. In addition, the organisation climate plays an important role on the ethos and capabilities of frontline and supervisory employees. With the aim of establishing “restorative nurturance” in the hospitality organisation, we now turn our attention to its preconditions.
The first precondition is a conducive hospitality environment comprising four elements. First, the institution’s distal and proximal goals, which have to be expressed in terms of the central purpose of ‘restorative well-being’. Second, the identity that the employees have of guests (i.e., their customers) and hosts (i.e., themselves). Third, the business goals of the organisation expressed in terms of customer service. Fourth, the ideal way of life in a hospitality ecosystem, expressed and exemplified by core beliefs held by the organisation and its peoples.
The second precondition is a conducive organisation climate. While hospitality environment provides the external facing view, organisation climate provides a view that is internally oriented. Research has established the strong impact of organisation climate on the quality of service in hospitality settings. A positive climate enables a stable pattern of social interactions within the organisation, leading to service reliability and a positive impact on customer-facing processes. Reduced volatility in service experience goes a long way in ensuring the restoration and nurturing of guests.
The third precondition for the hospitality organisation is to instil capabilities and mindsets that go into the making of good hosts. The primary role of hospitality is to be “good hosts”, and it is by being good hosts that hospitality institutions restore and nurture. The attitudes and traits needed in hospitality are markedly different from those required in services in general. Service predisposition in hospitality is an entirely unique concept, and comprises qualities of mind, identity of self, attitudes and behavioural traits.
The fourth precondition is linked explicitly and directly to service quality. The latter is a complex concept in its own right, and turns more difficult in the domain of hospitality. The main impediment is the difficulty in articulating characteristics of “good perceived quality”. Service quality in the end is the final measure of what the consumer perceives, and hence the extent to which she feels restored and nurtured.
The fifth precondition focuses on the matter of guest experience. Restorative nurturance is achieved with greater ease in situations where the guest feels a greater level of happiness. Hospitality organisations can play an active and deliberate role in ensuring this, by guiding the guest’s mind towards positive aspects of her experience. Research in cognitive psychology underpins this phenomenon, and confirms that mindfulness while experiencing pleasure and anticipation prior to the event enhances customer’s perception of the overall event, thereby enhancing happiness.
The final precondition is linked to the intractable issue of “emotional labour” – a stark reality in hospitality. Restorative nurturance is near impossible to achieve as long as the effects of emotional labour remain prominent. Emotional labour results in emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and interpersonal stressors, leading to employee unhappiness, burnout and declining performance. It has a debilitating impact on the employee’s ability to attend to her job, and to the needs of the guest. Emotional labour can be classified into several types, each with their own symptoms, causal factors and alleviating solutions. Should leaders of hospitality institutions aim to provide restorative nurturance, they will need to understand the nature of emotional labour in their organisation and undertake measures to allay it.
“Restorative nurturance” is therefore a central concept in hospitality, and an exalted goal that encompasses and well surpasses the more contemporary goal of “leisure”. The fruits of being able to deliver restorative nurturance are substantive and sustained, and manifest as enhanced performance. Achieving this goal requires material adjustments and repurposing of hospitality goals, environment, capabilities, processes and infrastructure. In specific, it requires hospitality leaders to put in place the preconditions described above.