"The objective of this study is the establishment of a workable restaurant personnel policy that will one day be set up as the policy in the writer's restaurant. In order to secure a basis, a survey was made of the policies existing in some of the restaurants in this locality. After surveying these conditions the writer made a study of the factors included in personnel policies in general and those pertinent to the restaurant industry"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "March, 1950." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science under Plan II." / Advisor: J. Frank Dame, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-57).

The objectives of this study is two-fold: First, is to explore the nature of human resource management (HRM) functional activities in the multiunit restaurant firms, focusing at the unit restaurant managers level. The second objective is to investigate the relationship between the firm's business strategy and its HRM practices. This study addresses the critical need for empirical research that examines HRM practices in restaurant firms, and presents a possible solution to the acute management shortage problem in the industry. Data are collected from 14 publicly-traded multiunit restaurant firms. A case study approach is taken to provide an in-depth examination of each firm. Primary data are derived via interviews and structured mailed questionnaires. Information is also collected through published sources. The results indicate that restaurant firms do have similar HRM functional activities' emphasis. Some of those activities were found to support the firm's business strategy. An analysis of the qualitative data indicate that although the HRM executives are involved in the firms' strategic planning process, the current acute labor shortage and high turnover problems demand them to focus on administrative issues instead. The study provides exploratory evidence for the effectiveness of a positive link between HRM practices and business strategy. It has contributed to a deeper understanding of the issues and functions of the HRM divisions in the multiunit restaurant firms. / Ph. D.

Scheduling workers in a restaurant is a difficult and time consuming task that involves matching the needs of the restaurant with respect to filling various shifts for different positions, the varying availabilities of the workers, along with their seniority levels and qualifications, among other factors. The restaurant manager/scheduler must adhere to these individual workers' restrictions, while at the same time satisfy the restaurant's needs. Another issue that a manager tries to accommodate is to equitably assign shifts to workers, attempting to balance their expressed wishes with their relative merits and qualifications; although in practice, this goal is rarely achieved. In this thesis, a mathematical model is developed to solve the scheduling problem, with attention focused on maximizing worker satisfaction levels, considering their seniority levels and their qualifications, while meeting with the restaurant's needs of filling various required shifts for various positions with capable workers. We show that this model possesses a hidden network structure that can be revealed via some simple variable substitutions. Consequently, an efficient network-flow approach can be used to solve the model and derive an optimal (integer) solution. We illustrate the model and the proposed algorithmic approach by generating a schedule using real data obtained via specially designed surveys from the Cheddar's restaurant in Newport News, Virginia. Further results on a variety of test problems are used to evaluate the performance of the algorithm, and suitable pre- and post-processor considerations are addressed to permit the use of this technology in a productive environment. / Master of Science