Introduction
This report is based on The Imperial Hotel in London and highlights one of the problems the hotel is facing regarding their performance. The Imperial Hotel is an international chain of 4-star hotels, 25 of the hotels being in the UK. The branch located in London’s West End is the hotel in concern. The hotel has been experiencing a range of issues from high staff turnover rate, poor guest satisfaction to negative work culture and other very concerning issues. Ineffective leadership and management by previous Heads of Departments (HODs) and supervisory staff is the issue being discussed in this report. Most of the issues the hotel faces can be traced back to ineffective leadership from the managers and supervisors. Peter has identified instances where the managers have failed to fulfil their responsibilities such as not monitoring employees to check if procedures are being followed, failing to monitor the standard of work all over the hotel, dishonesty when reporting customer feedback and so on. We will be analysing where the hotel’s managerial approach falls in the Blake Mouton Grid, using the Herzberg’s two-factor theory to explore how to motivate the managers and so on.
Analysis
Peter Farnsworth is considering employing talented managers to help turn around the performance of the hotel. This could be very positive for the hotel. The existing managers have worked at the hotel for over 10 years, so because of how long they have been working at the hotel, they might have gotten complacent. It could be that the managers feel secure with their jobs, so they do not see the need to work hard. Hiring talented managers is likely to have a lot of benefits. On one hand, you could argue that hiring of new talented managers will increase productivity due to increased competition between employees. On the other hand, there are a few drawbacks to change in the management. The drawbacks could include the capital required to hire and train the new managers, the time it will take to train the new managers, alongside the time it will take for those managers to settle in. But it could again be argued that hiring talented managers would mean they would not need as much time for training.
Another suggestion for Peter Fansworth would be to train the existing managers on their responsibilities, the standards they need to uphold and control them tightly as they are being taught the correct procedures. A new management model could be introduced. The internal process model by Max Weber could be adopted, which suggests emphasis be placed on defining responsibility, the administrative processes and utilising rules and regulations for stability and coordination. It seems this is exactly what is missing at The Imperial Hotel. The rules and regulations are not utilised properly, responsibilities are not being seriously fulfilled. This could prove to be very effective, also because most of the hotel’s problems are internal and not external. If we are to use the Blake & Mouton’s Leadership Grid to compare the performance of the managers at The Imperial Hotel they would be close to the ‘impoverished management’ area. With low concern for people and low concern for production. This is the worst approach any manager can adopt. There is no logical reason to voluntarily fall under this category. The most suitable approach the hotel managers can take could be ideally the ‘team management’ approach where the employees are highly cared for and the production is also of a high concern. However, even ‘middle-of-the-road management’ approach would suffice The Imperial Hotel while they try and improve their performance. The ‘authority-compliance management’ could also be utilised in a hotel. However, with the staff turnover rate already at a shocking 80%, that would not be wise.
The hotel gives managers bonuses based on their department’s performance. This may be effective in certain situations however, in The Imperial Hotel’s case the managers are not accurately reflecting on how their departments are actually doing in order to not miss out on the bonus. The managers have even gotten hostile while defending their department’s position in HODs meetings. This is harmful as there is no opportunity for open discussion and debate on the departments’ performance. It seems all of the managers are claiming that their department is adhering to the standards and performing well, while we clearly know that the hotel is not performing very well in a lot of areas as seen in the survey. The survey shows that the hotel received positive feedback in regard to the lobby condition and the quality of the room service food, while everything else has negative feedback. This further proves that rewarding managers with bonuses has not proven effective. Peter suggested cross-department collaboration where all of the departments work together for one goal, like they normally should. Every department gets rewarded if the hotel receives a customer feedback that scores up to 70% for example. This could encourage a team mentality and there will not be competition amongst the departments but a superior goal to beat the customer feedback score. On the other hand, only rewarding employees when everyone performs well could lead to animosity between employees as they might claim the others are not working as hard as them. This could have the opposite effect.
Another method of solving the ineffective leadership and management issue could be to increase their pay. It may be that the existing managers have not received a pay rise and feel that they deserve more. Herzberg suggests the wages of an employee is something that demotivates employees if it is not present. Peter could discuss the appropriate wages with the existing managers and the managers could be reminded about the standards they are to uphold and enforce. This could be great as it would be more affordable compared to hiring new managers and training them. Also, the managers already have a lot of experience working at the hotel and it is only a matter of tighter control which could lead to managers fulfilling their responsibilities. However, you could argue that in certain cases you need new enthusiastic, confident and talented employees to bring change as it is not likely an employee that was previously underperforming would drastically improve due to a pay rise. Additionally, you would have to question the existing employees’ loyalty and dedication towards the hotel. If they are only working for monetary fulfilment or if they want the hotel to perform well.
According to Wiley’s (1997) findings besides good wages, full appreciation for the work done, promotion and growth in the organisation, interesting work and job security are the top five factors that motivate people at their jobs. It could be that the existing managers at The Imperial Hotel were never praised for their work. Additionally, since there is no other position besides Head of Department, there is no room for growth. This might have been one of the reasons that caused the managers to become complacent. Peter will have to take these findings into consideration and make more organisational changes. Introducing two new positions in the hierarchy for two assistant managers could be a good idea. The assistant managers will be responsible for supervising the managers and will report to the General Manager. Not only will this ensure the managers perform consistently, the introduction of new positions will give the department managers something to work towards and additional responsibilities can be given to assistant managers. However, this would mean extra costs, decision making will be slower as the hierarchal structure gets taller and animosity might brew amongst managers for their freedom being taken away. Recognition of a job well done or full appreciation for work done is often among the top motivators of employee performance (Koch, 1990). This is another thing Peter could focus on. Th
e Assistant Managers and Peter himself would be the ones supervising the managers and giving credit where it is due. This can also be done by the managers to the employees, as it is likely to increase employee productivity as well.
Peter should also consider getting the customers involved in the improvement of the hotel. Most of the customer satisfaction feedback has been immensely negative. What Peter could do is, invite customers who have spent time at the hotel to come in for a seminar where they can all give suggestions on what they might want to see changed or improved. The customers could be given discounts on their next stay, or vouchers for the hotel in return. That would be very beneficial for the hotel as they would get constructive and specific feedback as the employees may have never spent time at the hotel as a customer. On top of that, according to a systematic review by Mustak, Jaakkola and Halinen (2013) having the customers participate leads to them perceiving the brand more favourably and customer loyalty. This will only help with the hotel’s sales. They could also make these seminars a regular event, perhaps bi-monthly or twice every year.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in order to deal with the ineffective leadership and management practises changes in the hierarchal structure might be necessary. By adding more managerial positions for department managers to work towards, it will provide them motivation and they will also be supervised. Which is important to be satisfied according to Herzberg’s Hygiene Motivation theory. Weber’s internal process model that is strict and requires rules and regulations may benefit The Imperial Hotel while they are trying to meet the standard of an average 4-star hotel. The cost of hiring new managers is higher than retraining existing employees but Peter will need to do both of those as his existing managers have gotten way too complacent. Replacing all of his managers may be a risky choice as experience is a very important factor. That may be an option in the future if the new managers perform well. Also, getting customers involved has a lot of benefits such as increased customer loyalty, so holding seminars, similar to stakeholder meetings could be a great idea. Most of Peter’s suggestions are sound and may be very effective.