Mentoring and Agile: Points of Contact in Restaurant Management

The topicality. The escalation of the pandemic and the oscillating lockdown create depressive moods in the restaurant business: owners balance on the verge of choosing between survival and violation of quarantine conditions, staff are forced to change professions. The realities of further uncertainty require the transformation of the restaurant’s business environment and strengthening the competencies of staff suitable for crisis management. The strategic framework requires effective tactical sessions given the specifics of working in a lockdown: restaurant business adjusts service formats and continues effective communication through distribution systems, distancing services, organizing targeted delivery to customers and sales of restaurant products. Customer-oriented management thus acquires new meaning and flexible forms, where mentoring becomes a flagship in a disoriented economic environment. Therefore, the introduction of mentoring, which is correlated with Agile-management technologies, is an important component of the strategy of restaurant business development and a relevant object of study. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the study is a theoretical analysis of mentoring and the formation of its reference model, which determines the areas of restaurant management improvement in pandemic risks. The inter paradigmatic nature of the research objects determines the use of a set of general scientific methods, such as theoretical analysis and synthesis, modeling, elimination, which provided a thorough consideration of the components of mentoring and Agile-management of business processes in the restaurant, their modeling into a single system of anti-crisis lockdown. Results. An empirical analysis of the definitions of “mentoring” and “Agile” has been made. A reference model of mentoring has been formed and its main components have been investigated. The basic provisions of Agile-control in a restaurant in the conditions of oscillating lockdown have been developed. Recommendations for compiling mentoring and Agile management into an effective model of restaurant tactical development have been developed. Conclusions and discussions. The study showed that the actualization of mentoring and flexible management methods is an urgent scientific task, as it allows studying and scientifically substantiating the recommendation complex for their implementation in the practice of business entities. Further research needs to be deepened to assess the mentoring effectiveness and Agile-management in restaurants in the post-harvest period.