TUI is a diverse culture of opportunities for customers, shareholders and employee’s which is
expanding all over the world. In combining First Choice and Thomson’s award winning
airlines to become Thomson airways, the merge has meant that the TUI company can offer a
wider range of destinations to deliver the ultimate holiday experience. TUI have rapidly
become the world’s number one integrated tourism business which operates in 180 countries
with 31 major source markets, and over 30 million customers, which is continuing to thrive at
an extensive rate.
Although TUI has become a multi-cultural society, the business still faces threats and
challenges every day. Most significantly, the rise in the development of the online tour
operator, and of course more recently the global threat of terrorism and the impact that has on
the company, destinations, suppliers, and the customer.
This report aims to critically evaluate the impact of theoretical perspectives on workplace
practice with reference to employee motivation, engagement and satisfaction.
1. Management
“The process of dealing with or controlling things or people” – Managing to Manage, Derek
Torrington, 2013.
1.1 The Purpose and Role of Management in the Work Place
A manager’s duty within the workplace will cover a realm of duties, most of them will be
supervisory. Larger organisations like TUI, will have management levels, each on a different
tier with specific duties. On the other hand, smaller organisations such like local businesses,
often just have one manager who will do everything themselves – at times they may oversee
the business, but they will mostly be hands-on too.
For a business to triumph, managers need to become relatable and compassionate towards
lower level employee’s but will still need to take on supervisory duties, but perhaps more
coherently. This level of management has become particularly prominent in the 21st century
and has changed the way managers are being trained and shaped.
Realistically, a ‘great’ manager will be optimistic, caring, empathetic and approachable, as
well as having a mysterious acumen (greatplacetowork.com). A great manager will break the
barrier between ‘manager’ and ‘subordinates’, and will carry themselves with an
understanding of the mind-set of the employee’s and the mission of the organisation.
In turn, this will then generate a much more effective work place, by empowering staff
members, that will get them on board with that mission. Typically, this will be carried out in
four main steps: Staffing, Communication, Training, and Business Growth. (APPENDICES
1)
Usually, what makes a great manager is the manger that is one step higher than them and so
on. They will be leaders who set clear direction and vision and will be ‘great’ because they
supply that manager with everything they need in order to perform the best every day,
meaning they will want to go above and beyond, day after day.
1.2
The Implementation of Objectives in the Working Environment
Objectives concisely and visually portray an overall, anticipated outcome that the business
has a strategic goal towards. For an entire organisation to be successful, greater emphasis
needs to be placed on staff members so that everyone knows what he or she needs to
accomplish in both the present and future. When this is understood it is much easier to
contribute, thus increasing productivity and producing a pro-active team. “Organizational
goals inform employees where the organization is going and how it plans to get there. When
employees need to make difficult decisions, they can refer to the organization's goals for
guidance.
Goals promote planning to determine how goals will be achieved. Employees often set goals
in order to satisfy a need; thus, goals can be motivational and increase performance”.
(APPENDICES 2) – ("Why Are Goals And Objectives Important?")
2. Mission, Vision, Values and Objectives
TUI’s dynamic culture has a very clear mission and a variety of values to further enhance the
ultimate goal of increasing profit and value, whilst still being a reputable company and
remaining sustainably economic. As an employer, TUI’s vision is quite simply ‘Spreading
Smiles’. The company prides itself on being a ‘team’ of ‘talented, spirited and genuine
people delivering great customer experiences and spreading smiles around the globe’ (tui
travel plc).
With that in mind, the company supports its vision with three core pillars that describe the
attributes and attitudes TUI look for and value in their people: Winning Together, Freedom to
Shine and Pushing Boundaries, (APPENDICES 3).
The vision and values that TUI as a company and an employer adhere to are apparent in
every single staff member, no matter where they may be within the organisation. The training
programmes that TUI provide to get all employee’s on par with this attitude is substantial yet
highly effective, as proven by results in mystery shopper reports, training modules and in the
company’s growing success rate: ‘In the completed financial year, we have taken a number of
key decisions to ensure that the TUI Group can continue its growth course unabated” –
Friedrich Joussen, Joint CEO, TUI Group. Moreover, TUI’s vision and values provide a
framework for how employees interact with each other as well as with customers, and forms
the basis of the company’s corporate values.
3.1
Objectives
TUI’s overall objectives are:
• Profitable top-line growth & further efficiency enhancements in source markets
• Continue strategy of capacity growth in hotels & cruises
• Maximise growth & value of other businesses
• Deliver merger synergies
• Focus on balance sheet simplicity, flexibility and strong free cash flow generation
(tuigroup.com, Strategy & Equity Story, 2016.)
3. Management in Practice
In any organisation, it is the responsibility of the manager to strive for the best and achieve
results through the efforts of other people and the utilisation of human resources. The way in
which mangers portray their managerial role with responsibilities and duties is important.
Furthermore, a manager’s behaviour and their adapted method of management will influence
the attitudes and the levels of performance achieved by subordinate employee’s. The
effectiveness of management practice in theory is to lead by example: “a person responsible
for controlling or administering an organisation or group of staff” – Oxford dictionary.
However, the cooperation of staff members relies entirely on the atmosphere of the
organisational culture itself, meaning the success rate of the business could either flourish or
decline, depending on how engaged employee’s feel, and how motivated they are by
managers.
Motivation within the work place is crucial for developing a successful and engaged team,
which in turn will decrease staff turnover and will implement business by increasing
productivity. ‘Mullins’ in his eighth edition of “Management and Organisational behaviour”
(page 453), explains that to be effective, all members of an organisation should have high
performance aspirations and suggests that these performance goals should not be imposed,
but should be set by a ‘participative mechanism involving group decision making and a
multiple overlapping group structure’. Mullins looks at this perspective as a choice of
variables: Casual, Intervening and End-result (APPENDICES 4), which works as a step by
step method to help keep the organisation on track. Similarly, Maslow and his theory, the
hierarchy of needs (APPENDICES 5), argues that people are wanting beings and will always
want more, however he implies that the more people progress through the hierarchy, the less
their needs become.
The TUI Group have adopted a variety of motivational techniques, which help to keep
employee’s excited and engaged. These techniques have to be fair and consistent to work in
favour of achieving strategic objectives for the organisation and its stakeholders (Michael
Armstrong & Tina Stephens, 2005). These are received throughout all of the career paths
within the TUI group and include:
• Educational visits (where an employee will be given the opportunity to apply for a
chance to visit a destination for a week or two to develop their knowledge about a particular country, to then share this with colleagues and customers when they arrive home to allow for the holiday experience to be brought to life)
• ‘One Team’ training days (these training days can consist of training on any aspect of the business. In retail this more relevantly includes cruise training, Disney days, destination days, meeting local experts, meeting the suppliers etc. It is a chance for all regions to get together, to share tips and to get to know one another which really strengthens the ‘one team’ goal)
• Awards (in retail these awards can be for length of service, great team player, top performer, best team etc. Overseas this consists of the same but also features a few informal awards too)
• Incentives (‘for every long haul holiday you sell win a £10 Love to Shop voucher’. In December 2015, every retail employee that had been with the company for over a year, received a £500 voucher to use towards a holiday in the next two years, terms and conditions apply)
• Commission (for achieving and excelling your own personal target and for hitting as a shop)
In contrast to these materialistic incentives, TUI also adhere to Armstrong’s idea of employee
reward not always having to be financial, “not just about financial rewards, pay and
employee benefit. It is equally concerned with non-financial rewards such as recognition,
learning and development opportunities and increased job responsibilities.” – Armstrong,
2010.
These include:
• Career ladder progression (a world of opportunity)
• One to one progress reviews (a one to one discussion with a manager about your progress, and recognition for doing well in the form of more responsibility and job opportunities etc.)
Ghoshal and Bartlett (1995) suggest that the overall aim of reward management should be to
‘add value to people’. It is not just about attaching value to them. More specifically the pair
suggest that the aims are there to, support the achievements of business goals through high
performance, develop and support the organisations culture, and define what is important in
terms of behaviours and outcomes.
4. CONCLUSION
To survive in the 21st century businesses that want to be and remain successful, need to
critically evaluate techniques that current managers have become accustomed to. They
should, therefore lead the way in shaping the future by implementing changes to create a new
generation of leaders – not managers! The distinction between the two is vital and needs to
become impeccable, as it is the determining factor in the future of any business, and whether
it survives or not. In addition to this, it’s imperative that current individuals in managerial
roles allow themselves to be flexible in a way that they will want to learn how to become a
better leader, thus creating a more efficacious working environment.
The changing nature of businesses and the generations we employ are forever adjusting; TUI
Group in particular, have a selection of constructive methods of motivation in place, all of
which employees are completely engaged in. As seen in the report, TUI Group are highly and
continually successful. They are versatile and resilient, winning numbers of awards
including the UK’s number one tour operator and have a platform of staff around the globe,
all wanting to deliver the ultimate goal, ‘Spreading Smiles’.
In conclusion, motivation is the driving force of all establishments as employee’s will put in
to the company and the work that they do, what they feel they are gaining from it, whether
monetary, financial, materialistic or just recognition awards. With the government increasing
both the minimum and the living wage, it is important to remember this is not a means of
reward. We as managers wanting to change the direction the industry is heading, should still
actively seek out informed decisions about the motivational strategies we have in place, as
well as to be adaptive in the rewards we use as the times change.