Abstract
This submission provides thirty-one papers in the area of hospitality operations management. The selection of these papers from the total of over one hundred produced over a ten-year period has been made to illustrate the contribution that has been made to the field. To place the selected works in context the submission discusses the particular characteristics of the hospitality industry that affect the way that hospitality operations work. It discusses the development of operations management and operations management research in general, its application to the hospitality industry and the growth and development of the understanding of hospitality operations management through research. The submission goes on to develop a method of categorising research in this field by the amalgamation of two models - the three circle model and the hierarchical systems model. The research work is then presented in a series of cognitive maps showing the interconnections between the research studies categorised by theme and type of output. In this way the reader is led through the thirty-one papers in a consistent manner. The submission concludes with a discussion of the contribution of the research to the body of hospitality knowledge. In particular, the work has made specific contributions in: The development of a coherent and consistent framework for the understanding and investigation of hospitality operations management The understanding of positive and negative factors that affect customers’ perceptions of service quality The identification of approaches to the implementation of quality management within hospitality operations The role and activities of the manager in hospitality operations The strategic and operational implications of the adoption of practices for workforce flexibility in hospitality operations The use of the critical incident technique in research investigations The final section of the submission identifies the methodological perspectives underlying the work and supports the value of a complementarist approach to the selection of research methodology.