University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 29, May 1

    HRIM Program selected for nationwide research project

     The UD Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management
Program has been selected as one of 12 out of more than 200
hospitality programs nationwide to participate in the
Research Alliance project, sponsored by the Educational
Institute of the American Hotel and Motel Association,
according to Paul Wise, director.
     "We are pleased and excited to be included in the
Educational Institute's research project. It's is a mark of
recognition of the high quality of the UD program, thanks to
the efforts of our faculty and staff," Wise said.
     Other participating schools include Cornell University,
Florida State University, Michigan State and Pennsylvania
State universities among others.
     Based on a triad relationship involving universities,
corporations and the Educational Institute, the project will
explore issues associated with human resources and
organizational development within the hospitality industry,
Wise said.
     Using modern technology, the project will provide
pragmatic and reliable information that can be used by the
industry on such topics as training, labor force trends and
customer satisfaction.
     Each school has been assigned a research area.
Delaware's will examine how organizations determine their
training needs.
     Francis Kwansa will serve as the project's team leader
at UD, working with faculty researchers from four other
schools on a survey of 250 selected hospitality-oriented
corporations.
     For example, under the topic "Employee Turnover," some
of the issues addressed would be how turnover rates affect
organizations, how turnover affects customer satisfaction,
what economic conditions influence turnover rates and what
is "good versus bad" turnover.
     The University also was selected to provide another
service for the project, serving as a data center,
coordinated by Edward Ratledge, urban affairs and public
policy. "The information collected by the 12 teams will be
fed into the data center for warehousing, retieval,
interpretation and analysis. The upcoming merger of the
human resources college with urban affairs facilitates this
kind of cooperation," Wise said.
     When the project is completed, the information will be
used to create models for the industry. The Educational
Institute, which is the publishing arm of the American Hotel
and Motel Association, plans to disseminate the information
in its publications, in trade journals and at conferences,
as well as on its web site, in cooperation with the involved
schools and researchers.
     "This collaborative research program will provide both
academic hospitality programs and the industry useful
information and tools for improving education and corporate
management," Wise said.
                                         -Sue Swyers Moncure