Hotel Management Assignment

Introduction

The study focuses on analysing and demonstrating the business practices for the purpose of evaluating the interpersonal skills of the managers. Imperial hotel has been chosen for analysing the responsibilities of the managers and identifying the necessary solutions which are required for improving the performance of the hotel. The case study concerning Imperial Hotel deals with six major problems which are co-linked with each other. The case study also states some suggestions put forward by the newly appointed general manager Peter Farnsworth. This report shall deal with short-term and long-term suggestions for resolving the issue of ineffective leadership and management by the previous Head of Department and supervisory staff. The suggestions of Peter Farnsworth shall also be analysed in this study and effective recommendations shall be put forth for improving the overall performance of the hotel.

Problem Definition

Imperial hotel is one of the four star hotels in London operating under the chain of Star Hotels brand. Star Hotels operates around 25 hotels in the United Kingdom. It mainly caters to international tourists and business guests. However, in the recent past the performance of the hotel was not satisfactory. The hotel has been facing several problems, such as, high employee turnover, negative work culture, ineffective leadership ability, poor managerial decisions, poor team working and operating procedures which reduces the profitability as well as the overall business performance of the organization. The main reason behind the poor performance is the inability of the previous management. In order to resolve the issues a new manager Peter Farnsworth has been appointed. The instant study focuses on the problem of inefficient management and the steps which can be adopted by the newly appointed general manager for resolving the issues arising due to the inability of the previous managers in managing the affairs of the business.

Brief insight into Imperial Hotel and the Problem

The Imperial hotel is one of the star hotels in London which is known for its quality services of food, lodging, accommodation. However, in the recent past the performance of the hotel has deteriorated. The hotel has been graded lowest amongst all the Star Hotels in terms of poor customer satisfaction. The previous management has demonstrated poor managerial skills which was the prime reason underlying this issue. In this context the newly appointed general manager has the responsibility of improving the performance of the hotel. The previous management failed to take strong business decisions in order to solve the problems. The previous management has been experienced a range of problems in order to manage the business activities which affected the performance of the employees and the hotel’s overall profitability. Customers are dissatisfied with the services of the hotel. The management had to lower the room charge as compared to other star hotels in order to increase the occupancy rate.

Thesis statement

Improvement in the leadership pattern and organizational work culture will lead the Imperial hotel to attain the stage of desired level of customer satisfaction and brand preference.

Causes of Poor Performance

The previous manager was unable to manage the overall business operation and had experienced several problems during his tenure in the hotel. Poor performance of the staffs has affected the overall profitability of the Imperial hotel. The guests become unsatisfied with the poor performance of the hotel staff which led to the hotel scoring the lowest in customer satisfaction amongst the other hotels under the Star Hotels chain. Though the overall sales has improved during the current financial year in terms of occupancy rate of the hotel room, the per night price of each single room is relatively low as compared to other star hotels in local market. The management of the Imperial hotel has invested profusely in order to improve the profitability but due to the poor performance of the staff, the total revenue remains lower in the current financial year as compared to other Star Hotels. The poor performance of the staff has resulted from lack of leadership abilities of the senior managers of the hotel which led to internal problems and difficulties.

Interlink between the Problems

The interlink between the major six problems of the hotel shall be discussed in this study which has a major significance in improving the performance level of the employees and taking proper measures for solving the issues. The Imperial hotel has been experiencing six major problems which are inter-linked with each other. The study focuses on the ineffective leadership of the previous management which has hampered the overall profitability of the hotel. Ineffective leadership implies poor decision making ability and potentiality of team handling which reduces the performance level of the employees. The customers are dissatisfied with the performance of the employees which is the first problem highlighted in the case study. Poor managerial skills led to negative working environment which made the staff dissatisfied and forced them to leave the organization. Imperial hotel has been experiencing high turnover with nearly 80% of the staff leaving the hotel within a year which is highlighted as the second problem in the case study. The previous general manager failed to maintain proper rules and regulations at the hotel which created negative work culture amongst the employees. The overall performance of the hotel has reduced due to poor attendance and increased level of sick leave which is an another example of ineffective leadership and the same has been cited as the third problem in the case study. The fifth and sixth problem highlights the poor teamwork and operating procedure of Imperial hotel which results from ineffective leadership. The previous general manager completely fails to manage the overall business operation due to lack of leadership ability and poor decision making potential which created a range of problem and it also affected the overall profitability of the hotel.

Analysis of Peter's suggestions:

As Peter is the new leader of the Imperial hotel, he has identified that leading by example, reviewing the monitoring procedure, incentivising the supportive management and cross sectional collaboration may improve the quality of service, the team performance and the overall customer satisfaction level of the company. However, an analysis of his suggestions can put a light onto the effectiveness of his ideas: Lead by example: According to Avolio and Yammarino (2013) the most modern leadership approach suggest the strategy of transformational leadership. The directive pattern of autocratic leadership can be identified as backdated in the modern organizational setup. Hence, it is important for the leader to be that ideal character that he expects from his fellow followers and employees. As mentioned by Mujtaba (2013) leading by example creates a culture of pro-activeness among the employees as they found their leader to take real initiatives and avoid a tendency of transferring responsibility to others. Hence, Peter’s idea of leading by example has the potentiality to bring change within the organizational culture. It may encourage the employees to take initiative for the betterment of the organizational performance. Review monitoring procedures and IT support: As discussed by Wu, Song and Shen (2016) monitoring of the employee performance is one of the major responsibilities of the managers as it is directly related to the organizational performance and the level of customer satisfaction. The imperial hotel suffered this lack of monitoring and reporting and review which resulted in distorted service to the customers. As opined by Kim, Asada and Hirai (2016) for managing the performance of the employees the management needs to provide specific goals and feedback to the employees and a regular monitoring helps in retaining a good standard of performance. Peter has not provided any specific method of performance monitoring. However, as mentioned by Corman and Tănăsescu (2014) 360-degree feedback can be helpful in upholding a good level of service by the hospitality staffs. I addition to this, the management needs to install the CCTV cameras, biometric attendance system etc. to the organization, so that the issue of distorted reporting can be avoided.

Incentivise supportive management: As discussed by Colbert, Barrick and Bradley (2014) the suggestion of supportive management largely involves the idea of delegation of work. Here, the managers do not assign tasks and receive it, but they work through the task with the employees to reach the organizational goals and the employees become fully empowered in a particular area. As mentioned by Armstrong (2016) the aim of such a leadership is to increase employee motivation, their competency and the level of participation in the decision making process. Hence, the idea of incentivising supportive management will help Peter in creating a culture of talent improvement and democracy, which will increase the motivational level and service quality of the employees.

In the organizational context, the cross-departmental collaboration is an absolute competitive advantage to the companies. According to Xie, Zhang and Zhang (2014) the cross-departmental collaboration helps the organization is providing the best customer service and support. With collaboration in cross-functional teams, it becomes easier to deliver the service in minimum period. On the other hand, Guizzardi, Monti and Ranieri (2016) has mentioned that in the context to delivering a complex service to the client cross-functional teams are needed to provide the best quality and inclusive service. It helps in amplifying the professional skills of the employees and encourages creative ideas for solving organizational issues. Thus, the cross-department collaboration helps in increasing the customer satisfaction level. Hence, it can be speculated that the suggestions of Peter are likely to improve the performance of the organization by increasing employee motivation, effective monitoring, collaboration and participation.

Holistic approach-look at the picture

Peter, being the newly appointed general manager of Imperial hotel, identifies the drawbacks which need to be sorted out on an immediate basis because it effect on the performance level of the employees. Peter has analysed the key problem areas and given his suggestion which are mostly concerned with reviewing the monitoring process, bringing cross-departmental collaboration and adopting incentivise supportive management system. This is considered as the short-term approach of evaluating and improving the performance level of the employees. The Imperial hotel requires a long-term approach which would sustain for a longer period and will not require to be changed in near future. The business performance has been affected by the organizational structure which needs to be assessed by Peter for the purpose of increasing the work efficiencies of the employees. Peter should make the management able to understand the key elements of organizational structure which are essentially established at that time when it does not perform well. The organizational structure has been designed to identify the number of levels in the hierarchy and specifying the group of individuals into the departments. Peter should redesign the organizational structure of the Imperial hotel in order to define the responsibilities of each departments and people. It is believed that the business performance has been affected by the organizational structure when the organization does not perform well (Dubey and Singhal, 2016). The proper structure needs to be suggested by Peter that clarifies the four features which are Proper distribution of tasks, sub-divisions, Lines of authority and the position of different posts within the hierarchy. The hierarchy has been divided into the corporate level, divisional level and the operating level where the responsibilities for the overall management, implementation of the policy, allocation of budget, technical work are properly divided and distributed among the group of people into the hotel. The concept of horizontal structure has been suggested by Peter to the management of Imperial hotel that can be divided into five ways which are functional, divisional, matrix, teams and networks in order to achieve the business target and increase the profitability of the hotel (ABUBAKAR, 2016).

The management decision and the overall business performance should be evaluated by Peter for the purpose of making proper business decisions and maximizing the solution for the given problems. There are six steps in managerial decision making process which are required to be followed for analyzing the factors associated with the different decision situation (Gruber and Wigmore, 2016). The responsibility of the managers is to take the right decision at the right time for the purpose of solving the problems associated with the business. The senior level managers need to be trained in making the proper business decisions which help the employees to perform their task effectively. The decision making process helps the managers in recognizing the decision requirements, analyzing the actual causes, developing the alternatives actions, selecting the desired alternative plan, implementing the chosen alternatives and finally evaluating the feedbacks (Rowland, 2016.). Taking the proper business decisions at the right time is the permanent solution for the Imperial hotel to improve the performance level of the employees in order to satisfy the customers and generate more revenues (Martins, Four-Babb, Lazzarin, et al. 2016).

Compare problems of Imperial hotel with other hotels same level ( 4 stars )

In the hotel industry, the companies tend to face more or less same issues with their operation and management. As discussed by Guizzardi, Monti and Ranieri (2016) most of the 4 star hotels in the UK are facing the common issue of staff turnover rate, mainly in the lower level employees. The lack of required competence and low level of payment are largely responsible for this scenario. Hence, it can be stated that the Imperial hotel is not facing a unique issue in this regard. However, other hotels are not experiencing a high employee turnover rate in the managerial positions, which is a real threat to the Imperial. On the other hand, a basic issue that the UK 4 star hotels are facing is the lack of cross-functional collaboration. As discussed by Phillips et al. (2016) there are reported cases regarding the lack of authentic data in the hotel website or huge time consumption in providing service to the customers due to lack of communication and co-ordination among the cross functional teams. The imperial is also facing this issue, which is increasing the operational cost of the company.

However, as mentioned by Guizzardi, Monti and Ranieri (2016) in most of the UK 4 star hotels there are strong and effective utilization of the IT system regarding hotel booking, collecting customer feedback and many more, which is severely lacking in the Imperial hotel. It is largely affecting the customer satisfaction level and they are switching to the alternatives and other competitors in the market. Moreover, the basic managerial issue that the imperial is experiencing is the lack of effective management, which is leading to the issues like negative work culture and absenteeism among the employees. As mentioned by Wu, Song and Shen (2016) in most of the UK based 4 star hotels, the issue of absenteeism is not much high. In spite of high employee turnover rate, the existence of effective leadership and a systematic approach of performance evaluation are helpful in controlling the issue of absenteeism.

Conclusion

From the above study it can be concluded that the employee performance has greatly been affected by the poor management and ineffective leadership. The previous general manager has been experiencing several business problems due to lack of potentiality in managing the team performance and overall business activities. The conclusion can be drawn that the newly appointed general manager needs to redesign the organizational structure and provide the proper training to the senior managers for the purpose of improving their abilities in making the proper business decisions. It will improve the staff performance and the overall profitability of the Imperial hotel.

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Recommendation

1. The organization need to follow a proper organizational structure where every employee is liable to fulfil the given responsibilities. The senior managers should understand the business ethics, which will help them in planning and designing the organizational structure. Moreover, with a structured organizational ladder, clear accountability can be created among the employees.
2. The Imperial hotel management needs to introduce a leadership pattern that would support a transformational and supportive leadership. With an improved pattern of leadership, the motivational level of the employees will be increased and the performance of the hotel can be improved.
3. The Competency and Values Framework (CVF) needs to be designed by Peter for supporting to all policing professionals. Peter should adopt the framework for setting out the behaviours and values, which includes a description and a list of behaviours of the professionals.

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