Leadership and Management in Action - Accord Hotel - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Executive summary i Employee Education, Training and Development 1 Functions of Training 1 Training programs 2 Leadership and Management Styles 2 Transactional leader 2 Transformational Leader 2 Leadership and Trust 3 Trust and Commitment 3 Reconciliation effects of trust 3 How to motivate employees to maximize job performance 4 Use of Rewards 4 Service Quality Orientation (SQO) 4 Welfare Package 4 Job Rotation 5 Performance Management System 5 Performance Appraisal and Balance Score Cards 5 Teamwork, compliance and service standards 6 How to encourage Teamwork 6 Effective Conflict Resolution 6 Offering Support to Employees 6 Regular Passage of Information 6 Appreciation of new Workers in the Hotel 6 Recruitment and Selection of team leaders and Supervisors………………………………….6 Duties and Responsibilities of a supervisor 6 Executive Summary This report provides comprehensive recommendations on leadership and management practices to be implemented in Accord 4.5 star Hotel. The report analyses the prospect of the Hotel in its present position. The Hotel has selected a management team that is expected to run the activities in various departments. However, supervisors and team leaders have not been selected yet. The organization need to build more engagement of the workforce, therefore the report have make recommendations on how to conduct training on Food and Beverage department and housekeeping. Transactional and transformational leadership styles have also been described in the report as a way of enhancing excellent performance. The report also explores the specific ways in which a manager can enhance successful teamwork. This has been reflected form Chinese Tourism Industry with the focus of instituting these qualities to the organization culture. The use of performance appraisal and Balance Score Cards has been recommended in managing employees’ performance. Also, effective ways of increasing performance, for example, use of rewards have been discussed. Since the Hotel has not selected supervisors, the report has recommended compliance, commitment and teamwork as the essential elements which should be integrated into the job description of a supervisor. Employee Education, Training and Development Human Resource Department of the Organization will be responsible for identification and implementation of training needs and training programs respectively. The basic function of this activity is to provide managers and supervisors of all departments; 1) Technical knowledge and understanding to carry out job-related tasks, 2) Establish a continuing development of staffs’ talents as well as competences in their responsibilities. As a consultant therefore, I should mentor Human Resource Department of the Hotel to work with all the line managers in the departments and identify detailed training needs that will promote continuous development of employees. According to DeCenzo and Robbins (2007) staff in the hospitality industry needs skills on people management, business intelligence, systematic skills and chain planning. The research shows that hospitality industry in India is growing at the rate of 8% which pose threat to industries in Australia, among them, Accord 4.5 Star Hotel. This is just but a quick look. In addition to staff development, the department (HR) should embrace business courtesy, etiquettes, effective communication and dinning during training programs. Shangri-La Resorts is among the major players in the industry. It has effective training programs with excellent content that Accord 4.5 Star Hotel should pick some relevant programs from it. High-quality food productions, high-class drink services and excellent house keeping will probably attract many customers. Therefore training and developing workers along these lines of needs will make the Hotel more competitive in the market. 1 Hartry (2001) says that investing in people is not the same as investing in machines therefore team leaders and supervisors should have skills on how to assess job performance before and after training, and the impact of training efforts on employees’ turnover right in their departments. Leadership and management styles Chiang and Wang (2012) stated that employees’ retention in hospitality industry is worthwhile when it comes to developing competitiveness of an organization. Therefore, good strategies on leadership styles should be practice in Accord Hotel in order to retain high profiled employees. Both transactional and transformational leaders understand workers besides helping them to be committed to their work objectives. A) Transactional leader Team leaders and supervisors of various departments in Accord Hotel should use rewards or initiatives to develop good culture. For instance, a supervisor in catering department may initiate token of appreciation for workers who are hardworking. Actually, this is a transactional leader. B) Transformational leader This is a leader who obtains high performance while working with and through people. He/she is charismatic and intellectually simulating with high strategic thinking capacity. Accord Hotel needs to embrace technology, work with people of different backgrounds (Australia, China, India and Malaysia) and develop its own culture to meet the overall goal. Therefore, supervisors, team leaders and managers should understand the associations linking leadership and trust, trust and commitment and reconciling effects of trust into the Hotel’s culture. This is a responsibility of a transformational leader. Leadership and trust The transaction between employee responsibilities and performance requires trust. For instance, the hotel has 250 rooms and all rooms need to be attended. We have one supervisor in charge of house keeping. Therefore, he/she should develop a cognitive trust to evaluate the personality traits of each employee assigned to work in the rooms. Trust and Commitment Anticipated good performance by supervisors which build a cognitive trust in employees makes them be committed in their tasks. A research by Barger showed that employees trust is correlated to effective management style demonstrated by managers in an organization. Therefore, managers of different department should demonstrate both heroic and engagement leadership skills to enhance good corporation with employees. Reconciliation effects of trust In this case, managers of different departments should not only be focusing on rewards as a way of achieving high performance and successful completion of assigned responsibilities. However, an effective leader will as well reconcile with employees and draw a plan for performance improvement. If the plan will be successful, then employees will trust in leader’s initiative and therefore they get motivated in doing their work. Consequently, when working out a solution, team leaders should asks related questions that emphasizes a universal ground, focus on affirmative aspects and implement flexible job-related practices that will meet employees’ expectations. Most often when devising a strategy of performance management, managers should make it precise, easy and use common language when communicating. How to motivate employees to maximize job performance in Accord 4.5 Star Hotel Based on Maslow’s theory of motivation, employees would seek for satisfying their high level needs. For instance, being recognized, increase in accountability, personal development and nature of the work he/she is doing. Accord is a new Hotel in the market. Employees have been selected from diverse grounds with the aim of achieving good performance. Therefore, to reach the set objectives, employees should be motivated in the following ways; a) Use of rewards: Adams (1965) stated that rewards allocation to employees should meet the rule of equity, equality and necessity. This will get rid of morale reduction during social interaction of employees. Also, rewards can be exchanged with accomplishment of tasks in time for instance; hard working employees should have a work incentive. Managers should also adopt information from Herzberg’s theory whereby they make sure hygiene factors of the employee are well taken care of. b) Service Quality Orientation (SQO): Workers normally exhibit certain behaviors as they work in their sections (Buick and Thomas, 2001). These behaviors are collectively integrated and used to align interest between the business and workers as well as the clients/customers. This will allow human resource management department in Accord Hotel to sustain desirable values that improves performance of employees. c) Welfare Package: provision of good housing conditions is an example of a welfare package. Accord Hotel management should ensure that workers’ welfare has an associate benefits. For instance, the Hotel should provide at least some few local housing for those employees working in the catering department to cut down commuting time which may cause inconveniencies during daily operations. Alternatively, the Hotel may have a staff vehicle that ferries workers from their work to where they stay. d) Job rotation: Both staff and Non-staff should be involved in this practice (Jackson, 1998). Majority of the employees that have been selected have completed degree in Hotel management and others have hospitality experience. Since the Hotel is new and has not identified who is good at what, job rotation is greatly encouraged to enhance specialization and thus improving performance in the long-run. Performance Management Systems The most important department in the Hotel is the financial department. It sustains all the other departments including Food and Beverages, Front Desk and House keeping. Therefore, all employees working in these departments should be overseen regularly to ensure that good reputation is always maintained. Performance management system should focus on customer service, service standards, compliance and teamwork (Milissen, 2009). During customer service, we expect an employee to start by greeting a customer with a smile while on the other side managers are expected to procure quality foods and drinks to the restaurant. May be a customer have pass by Accord to have a cocktail after a stressful work office. We expect an employee to have typical hospitality knowledge on psychology in order to serve the customer well. Turning tables, making beds and servicing the customers quickly to meet customer preference are the standards needed to raise the reputation of the hotel. Therefore, there is a need for performance appraisal during performance management in these departments. Performance appraisal will evaluate employees through the following lines; Teamwork, compliance and service standards. Performance management in organization involves gathering of information, thus Balance Score Cards should also be used to support performance appraisal practice in Accord Hotel. The system thus will guide employees to understand their responsibilities, have the relevant skills to perform their work effectively, develop capacity and tem interaction in aiming at the set objectives in the department (Armstrong and Baron, 2004) How to encourage teamwork in the Hotel The direct team in Accord Hotel will be the lobby workers, housekeeping and accounts while the indirect teams will include those workers working in stores, food and beverage department and IT specialists. Therefore, as a supervisor, one should carry out the following roles (Jackson, 1998); a) Appreciate the presents of new employees in the department. This should be done by working together with the newly employed staffs so that they feel welcomed and later pulls into the group and work together. b) Regular passage of information. As a supervisor or a team leader, you should maintain the information flowing to keep you effective. c) Offering support to employees. Supporting employees leads to cooperation between the supervisor and the worker which will in-turn make the supervisor a team player in the group. d) Effective conflict resolution. If a problem or a conflict arise, supervisors should not encourage talking behind other peoples’ back but rather facilitate positive communication that protect the dignity of the worker in the work environment. Recruitment and Selection of team leaders and Supervisors Since Accord Hotel has not select supervisors as well as team leaders yet, I should recommend the following consideration during the procedure: First, the management of the hotel should start by implementing internal recruiting. They should develop their own carrier leader by training employees and leaving applications for the positions. This will boost the morale of the newly promoted employees as well as lowering cost that may have been incurred during external recruiting. Secondly, the job description of the supervisors should allow compressed scheduling of work. This means that an employee may work an equivalent time that he/she may have worked the whole week. This will allow en employee to have sufficient break before coming back on duty. Leading food and beverage and housekeeping success should be the highest priority for the supervisors. Therefore, these should be their duties and responsibilities (DeCenzo, and Robbins, 2007); Regular planning of culinary utensils to be served on time to avoid delay thus enhancing efficiency between shifts of customers. Oversees prepared food that leaves the kitchen to guarantee quality of food given to the customer. Supervisors should be able to make new menu stuff using acquired cooking knowledge and creativity that will fit the Australian, Indian and Chinese fine dinning. The supervisor should also ensure that workers working in the hotel have good hygiene and they are dressed well in their work uniforms. Also, the work environment either in rooms or catering should be ever clean. Reference Adams, JS 1965, Inequity in Social exchange. Advance in Experimental Social Psychology, Academic Press, New York, vol.2, pp. 260-300. Armstrong, M. and Baron, A 2004, Managing performance: performance management in action. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Australian Government 2009, Fair Work OMBUDSMAN, Best Practice Guide Managing Underperformance, pp. 3-7. Buick, I. and Thomas, M 2001,Who do middle managers in hotels burn out? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 300-312. Chiang, AF. and Wang YY 2012, Hotel and Business Management. Department of Tourism Industry. Chinese Culture University, Taipei, www.dx.doi/org/4172/jhbm.1000103. DeCenzo, AD. and Robbins, PS, 2007, Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, John Wiley & Sons, London, p. 126. DO/KCCD Employment, Training and Development Manger, Kern Community College District Job Description. Hatry, HP 2001, Performance Measurement, 2nd edn , Urban Institute Press, pp. 342, ISBN 978-0-87766-734-6. Jackson, T 1998, Foreign Companies and Chinese Workers: Employee Motivation in the People’s Republic of China, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 274-300. Kirby, A 2003, StorageTek expands its Employees Horizons. Training & Management Development Methods, vol. 17, Iss. 4, pp. 961-963. Milissen, F 2009, Customer Relationship Management and Performance Management: Exploring an Actionable Link in Hospitality, Academy of Hotel Management, Netherlands. Team teamwork, 2009, < http://labteamteamwork.posterous.com/10-ways-to-enhance-teamwork 2011-2012 Criteria for Performance Excellence. www.nist.gov/baldgrige. Read More