Exploring management practice of black owned restaurants in Durban.

Abstract

Without proper management practices, small businesses such as restaurants face the risk of failure in South Africa. The aim of the study was to explore management practices in black owned restaurants in Durban. In this regard, the study focused on management functions of planning, organising, controlling, coordinating and leading to explore how these are actually done in the business context of black owned small restaurants. The study focused on the practice of management function rather than the knowledge of these functions in black owned restaurants. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. Using purposive sampling, eight black owned small restaurant businesses were selected in Durban for this study. All these restaurants had a minimum of 10 permanent employees. Data was collected through face-to-face, semi-structured and in-depth interviews. Key results show that practices of planning were characterized as tactical, and short-term primarily for contingencies rather than future growth. Profoundly, planning practices did not focus on unpacking the core strategy of restaurant businesses. Equally notable were coordinating practices regarding various internal resources and activities for service quality while coercive controlling of food and service quality standards, staff on daily and weekly basis characterized how black owned restaurant businesses were managed in Durban. Practices of leadership hinged on a style of engaging employees in different ways but also lobbying for business support. Given the above, it is critical that black owned restaurants also adopt a more strategic view in their practices of planning not only on food stock, staff and style of interactions; but also other elements of the internal functioning of the business and future growth. Without clarity on overall strategy, black owned restaurant businesses will continue to focus on tactics without direction. Additionally, control practices which are more enabling but also embrace the customer view of quality are key if management control systems and routines are to enhance internal functioning of black owned restaurants in Durban. Practices of management function need to focus not only on few elements of internal functioning such as staff, structure, system, skill and style while ignoring strategy and shared values. In practicing management, it is vital for black owned small restaurants to adopt a holistic approach rather than predominantly focus on few parts of the whole as this may not yield optimum functioning. Areas for future research are also highlighted.