C&L Restaurant #32 

The C & L Restaurant chain has a proud history. It was started in 2004 by two brothers, Cecil and Leicle with one restaurant and has grown to 75 locations in a tri-state area. The restaurant is a fast-casual res- taurant with an extensive menu of scratch, speed scratch and conve- nience items where guests come for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. C&L restaurants pride themselves on a consistently high level of customer satisfaction and repeat customers. 

Miguel Ortiz, the general manager of store #32 is concerned. He has received increasing numbers of guest complaints in the past twelve months. The restaurant has been in business in this location for ten years. There has been very little change in the original menu offerings that have been the corner stone of their success. The staff of the restau- rant, both front and back-of-the-house, has been relatively stable dur- ing that time. The customer base for the restaurant has not changed and they still seem to be drawing their regular crowd. The customers are complaining about both the quality of the food and the service. Miguel is concerned that if the level and severity of complaints continue the business will be impacted. 

Miguel has brought his concern to the attention of the kitchen manager and the dining room manager. He has directed them to moti- vate the staff to reduce the number of complaints. The response of both department heads has been to increase supervision of produc- tion and service. Additionally each has meet privately with Miguel to explain that the poor performance in the other department head’s area is undermining their individual efforts to reduce the number of complaints. 

The kitchen and service staff is comprised primarily of individuals with 5 or more years with the restaurant in the same positions. They were well trained when originally hired and have been doing the same job for a number of years. They are generally unconcerned about the guest complaints because when a guest complains they respond quickly to correct the problem. 

Case Study Questions 

Case Studies | 233 

234 | 

Human Resource Management in a Hospitality Environment 

• Is the primary challenge facing Miguel as General Manager one of supervision, management, or leadership?
   
• What are the primary causes for the challenges occurring at C&L Restaurant #32?
   
• What role did supervision/management play in the decline at C&L Restaurant #32?
   
• What role did leadership play in the decline at C&L Restaurant #32?
   
• What types of supervision/management actions need to take place to stop the decline at C&L Restaurant #32?
   
• What types of leadership actions need to take place to stop the decline at C&L Restaurant #32?