Harbor Inn Problems, Issues Analysis and Discussion - Case Study Example

Harbour Inn Case Study Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Harbor Inn Problems / Issues analysis and Discussion From the case study Harbour inn, there are critical problems that can be generally analyzed in relation to workforce management, remuneration and services provision, staffing and workplaces conflict. In relation to staffing the hotel has experienced a high staff turnover compared to any average company. It is demonstrated that a high lack of staff motivation and job satisfaction has aggravated this rate. The current staffs are not motivated to work as well. According to Bacon and Storey, 2000 bad management together with poor working condition and salary are the main causes of demoralisation in any business. This means that the workplace environment is not stimulating for employees, leading to a short-term and unproductive relationship between them and the employers (Karnes 2008). In most cases, the problem has been caused by failure of strategic staffing where the job description in the recruitment strategy promote contacting and retention of employees. Savolainen, 2000 asserts that the implications of bad employee-employer relationship may not affect the employees in the long-run but primarily the hotel quality of services. Secondly, the company lacked compensation and remuneration programs. From the case study, David says the hotel did not offer incentives and rewards for outstanding workers. According to David, this happened to be one of the things demoralizing the employees. Analysts in hospitality industry argue that lack of appreciation, disrespect and denial of chances to engage their creativity and skill demoralize employees. Consequently, they lose interest in the organization. Such employees do not do or communicate anything extra other than the expected (Stenseng 2012). Moreover, good services provision for employees boosts their morale. Looking at case study, this was not the case. Having been an employee for three months at Harbour inn, Susan has not received a parking spot as earlier promised, she does not get any security escort to and from the available parking spot far from the workplace, her training program is not materializing, and the promised extra working hours are not eventuated. In fact, she rarely gets to meet her managers. In this case of poor service provision for employees proves poor leadership and lack of concern. Quigley, 2000 asserts that any organizations that provides poor services to its employees and expect them to deliver effectively is a failed system of leadership. According Taborda, 2000 an organizations will lose much more to mend the arising mess from mistreated employees, than it could have used to provide them good service. The issue of workplace conflicts is also evident from the case study. David argues that managers and supervisors hardly communicate with the staff. As such, the issue of poor communication arises. Broken communication in organizations results to poor decision making. This in turn causes confusion, lack of direction, and disrespect in the work place. Workers are not able to trust their managers’ decision making competence, while managers do not trust their workers can handle tasks or responsibilities effectively, and without mistakes (Keyton 2002). What’s more, mistrust erodes and jeopardizes workers productivity and the overall success of the company (Taborda 2000). Likewise, the diversity in Harbour inn adds to the problem. This diversity is evident both in age and generational differences. At Harbour inn, supervisors and managers are in the late 40s and early 50s, while all workers range between 18 to 25 years. For that reason, the gap between the two parties widens making it difficult for the them to relate well and freely. Each generation’s age group comes with their own experiences, view, perspectives, values and ethics. Conversely, they force the organization to use a different focus. This results in procedure and police changes in the workplaces (Keyton 2002). Recommendations With view of the above, Harbour inn it is recommendable for Harbour Inn to employ various strategic changes in the business to ensure its survival in the future. The first and most fundamental thing at Harbour inn is it must strategize and change leadership and management, and their operations. According to Chathoth and Olsen, 2002 considnering the forces of change in the hospitality industry and their impact on the companies, it is of paramount importance to identify and position leaders with leadership characteristics, to help in sustaining the competative advantage of the business in a dynamic local or global or enviroment. In this case, Harbour inn needs a management that will turn the current situation to a more suitable enviroment for wokrkers. To begin with, a management that listens, acknowledges and respects the staff must be put in place. A job well done must be noticed and acknowledged. Secondly,the inn must put in a more approachable managers and leaders to allow staff talk to them about senstive issues, and difficulties in the work place. From the case study, David assserts that managers are rarely available for team meetings. Ths same complain is evident when Susan says that she rarely sees haer manager. This means the hotel needs a management that is near to its workers. Chathoth and Oslen, 2002 posits that an aproachable manager is the one that does not hide his position, admits mistakes, creates a culture that allows mistakes from workers, respect and does not humiliate staff, in addition to having good listening skills. Indeed, David says that incase the managers took time to listen to what employees had to say, things would be done much better in the hotel that it was at the time. As Wojtecki and Peters, 2000) observes, listening and giving growth opportunities to junior memebrs of an organization makes all the difference in an organization. Quigley, 2000 states that good leaders and managers manage divesity of both age and gereational differences. Diversity being one of the major issues in Harbour inn, putting in place people who can handle the same effectively is imperative. By so doing, diversity leads to a positive and beneficial change for all employees, since every one is regarded as a person who can make a valuable contribution. In this regard, managers who take time to understand others perspective, will make manging less of the challenge. Once a health leadership and management are in place, another area that should be considered to make changes is to come up with a retention strategy to decrease employee turnover. Employee turnover plagues the business immensely (Chatterjee 2000). The leaving employees deprive the company valuable knowledge, and some guest may follow them. As such, the inn`s reputation is negatively. New staffs increase the need for orientation, in some cases training and also take time before they adjust to a new environment. Harbour inn must take any available opportunity to augment employees’ satisfaction. Creating a friendly working environment, engaging employees in development plans, offer further training, remunerate employees with incentives, respecting employees and portraying a positive image as an employer. Additionally, when recruiting staff dynamics should be taken into account and duties must be well defined. In turn, it will cause sound teams that instigate creative ideas, and work willingly to significantly delivering apt customer service (Chatterjee 2000). Thirdly, the hotel should come up with a reward and remuneration structure. Motivating and retaining employees is a main value driver in any business. Also, business strategies should be aligned with remuneration and rewarding polices. Again, this program should be highly successful. Without a successful remuneration and reward strategy it makes it difficult to incentivize employees’ performance without altering business objectives. As well, the program is only success if it can build a positive attitude amongst employees, pull high caliber staff, or even retain the existing employees (Williams 2008). Rewards such as a day off, certification, and promotion can be incorporated too. As much as people are paid for the work done, salary is much placed in the reward category. Harbour inn is obligated to conduct a salary survey to come up with a compensation and benefits program that is helpful to both employees and employers. Salary is one of the main criteria of declining a job. In this regard, factors such as benefits and competitive pay ensure retaining of skilled and knowledgeable staff. This means the nonstandard staff turnover at Harbour inn is curbed. Data obtained from these surveys may as well help in designing and managing compensation programs with internal consistency and par with the industry`s standards (Becton et al 2007). Furthermore, better service provision structure is imperative. These include services like employee free training for personal and professional development, provision of transport to and from work among other things. Savolainen, 2000 affirms that employees are an important asset for any business. In other words, the survival of business depends on them as much as it relies on the customer. Without staff there is no one to run business daily operations and routines of the business, and ensure it is competitive within the job market. Employee training enhances their productivity. From the case study, the available training was not successful. Susan complained about it slow progression, meaning its not effective to enable her achieve the intended knowledge (Stenseng 2012). To ensure its survival and further penetration in the market place, Harbour inn must incorporate constant change in regard to service provision to its workforce. References Bacon, N. & Storey, J 2000, New Employee Relations Strategies in Britain: Towards Individualism or Partnership? British Journal of Industrial Relations Vol 38, Issue 3 , 407-427. Becton, J. B., William, F, G., & Mike, S 2007, Evaluating and Rewarding OCBs Reward Systems. Employee Relations Vo: 30, Issue: 5 , 494-514. Chathoth, P. K., & Osle, M, D 2002, Organisational Leadership and Strategy in The Hospitality Industry. Journal of Services Research, Vol 2, No 1 , 1-29. Chatterjee, N 2000, A Study of Organisational Culture and Its Effect onEemployee Retention. ASBM Journal of Management Vol 2, Issue 2 , 147-158. Karnes, R. E 2008, A Change in Business Ethics: The Impact on Employer–Employee Relations. Journal of Business Ethics Vol 87, Issue 2 , 189-197. Keyton, J 2002, Communicating in groups: Building Relationships for Effective Decision Making (2nd ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill. Quigley, M. E 2000, ‘Three dimensions of leadership’,. Executive Excellence Vol 17, No 10 , 7-10. Savolainen, T 2000, Towards a New Workplace Culture: Development Strategies for Employer-Employee Relations. Journal of Workplace Learning Vol 12, Issue 8 , 318-326. Stenseng, H 2012, The future of the hotel industry. Oslo : Oslo School of Management, class of 2013. Taborda, C. G 2000, Leadership, Teamwork, and Empowerment: Future Management Trends. Cost Engineering Vol 42, No 10 , 41-44. Williams, J 2008, Employee Engagement. Professional Safety Vol 53, Issue 1 , 40-45. Wojtecki, J. G., & Peter, R, G 2000, Communicating Organizational Change: Information Technology Meets The Carbon- Based Employee Unit. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass . 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