Developing Management Skills: A Case Study of Arosfa Hotel

This report explores the development of management skills through a case study of Arosfa Hotel, a local hotel in Central London. It examines different management styles, leadership characteristics, communication processes, and organizational culture. The report also assesses the author's own management skills, analyzes their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), and sets objectives and targets for personal development. Finally, it outlines a development plan to enhance communication, leadership, time management, and problem-solving skills.

Developing Manager

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Compare different management styles..................................................................................2
1.2 Discuss leadership characteristics..........................................................................................4
1.3 Evaluate communication process in selected business..........................................................5
1.4 Analyse organizational culture and change in selected business...........................................7
LO2..................................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Assess own management skills performance........................................................................8
2.2 Analyse personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats......................................9
2.3 Set and priorities objectives and targets to develop own potential......................................10
LO3................................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Lead and motivate a team to achieve an agreed goal or objective......................................11
3.2 Justify managerial decisions made to support achievement of agreed goal or objective and
recommendations for improvements.........................................................................................12
LO4................................................................................................................................................14
4.1 Explain how managerial and personal skills will support career development...................14
4.2 Review career and personal development needs, current performance, and future needs to
produce a development plan......................................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................18

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Different types of Management Styles.............................................................................2
Figure 2: Communication process...................................................................................................5
Figure 3: Communication Process...................................................................................................6
Figure 4: Strategic Planning..........................................................................................................12
Figure 5: Management and personal skills....................................................................................15

LIST OF TABLE
Table 1: Impact of leadership styles................................................................................................4
Table 2: SWOT Analysis.................................................................................................................9
Table 3: Development Plan...........................................................................................................16

Introduction
Changing and developing management deals with changes that occur in business environment. It
involves implementation and planning of various processes which are beneficial for an
organization. For studying the report, we will consider Arosfa Hotel situated in central London.
It operates as a local hotel and provides various services comfort accommodation services along
with wireless internet facility, breakfast, En suite facilities and many more. It offers online
booking services for satisfying the customers.
The report will help to understand different management styles and leadership characteristics as
per the management behaviour. Communication processes and organizational culture is analysed
in hospitality organization. Various types of managerial skills are assessed by using SWOT
analysis. Third task of the report will focus on explaining the motivational factors to lead the
housekeeping department of Arosfa Hotel. Development plan in the last task will help to explain
the current and future needs in an organization.
1

LO1
1.1 Compare different management styles
Being the trainee manager in Arosfa Hotel which is the local hotel situated in Central London, it
is important to address the various issues related to management and leadership currently being
faced by an organization. It is the core responsibility of managers in hospitality industry to
handle difficult circumstances that will depend upon their management style.
Figure 1: Different types of Management Styles
(Source: Management Styles, 2018)
Autocratic Management Style: This style of management is also referring to as authoritarian
leadership in which all the decisions are taken by the manager which are necessarily followed by
their employees (Andrew McDermott, 2018). In such style, no communication exists between
employee and manger for taking any decision. Management under this style strictly follows the
hierarchy and the mangers at top level have the power to control each and every detail in an
organization.
Democratic Management Style: Managers under this style communicate with employees before
taking any decision. Subordinates and other staff members feel motivated as entire decision
making is centred on their recommendations, opinions and views. It is one of the most followed
management style in various organizations in which communication is followed in both down
and upward directions. Under Democratic management style, management put all the positive
efforts to gain best from their employees and staff members.
2

Laissez management Style: Under such management style, managers show high level of trust on
co workers and employees. Managers rely on employees to a greater extent to increase their
productive by showing confidence in them (Schoar and Zuo, 2017). They follow the hands-off
approach but at the same time they highly support and motivate their employees. Manager who
follows Laissez management style involves themselves in situations when something went
wrong. Team members are instructed to self review and direct their own performance to verify
the outputs and results.
From the above discussion it can be concluded that trainee manager in Arosfa Hotel considers
the Autocratic management style to address the employees of an organization. All the decisions
to a greater extent are taken by the managers and employees on the other hand understand the
need of that decision and co operate with managers by following and implementing the decision.
Mangers in hotel industry as per the need of situation also rely on democratic management style
and involve employees in making critical decision.
3

1.2 Discuss leadership characteristics
Based on the above explanation of various management styles, it can be conclude that all the
management styles that are followed in an organization have more or less impact on various
characteristics of leadership as well as on productivity of other team members.
Table 1: Impact of leadership styles
Leadership
Style Description Impact
Autocratic
Management
Style
Leaders are responsible for taking
decision without any involvement of
other sub ordinates or co workers
(Kendra Cherry, 2018)
Under this style employee of hotel
industry feels Demotivated and therefore
employee turnover rate is very high. De-
motivation will directly affect the
productivity of an employee and will
result to decrease the profitability of an
organization.
Democratic
Management
Style
Leaders involve employees in taking
critical decisions.
Employee turnover becomes low and
they feel motivated which in turn will
influence the productivity and
profitability of an organization in
positive manner.
Laissez
Management
Style
Leaders under this management style
highly rely on employees for taking
decision. They are only involved on
the request of employees when
something goes wrong.
Employees under this leadership style
feel that they are valued and work hard to
increase the productivity. On the other
hand, sometimes employee misuses the
power of authorities of taking decision.
Based on the leadership characteristics it can be concluded that various leadership styles are
implemented and utilised by managers as per the need and changing situations of an organization
4

1.3 Evaluate communication process in selected business
Communication plays an important role in smooth functioning of any organization.
Figure 2: Communication process
This process of communication is for clients where encoding and decoding of messages takes
place. Arosfa Hotel uses online and social media platforms to communicate with customers and
to make aware about new products and services (Barnlund, 2017).
Newly appointed manger in Arosfa Hotel evaluates various types of communication and
suggests distribution channels for effective sharing of information amongst the employees. There
are mainly three types of communication processes that are followed in an organization which
can be explained as:
Downward Communication: It involves communication from authorities of higher management
to employees at lower level in hospitality industry. Managers convey about various policies and
direct lower employees with the help of notice board and emails. Downward communication
also organizes conferences and meeting to convey about new orders in an organization. Written
communication is highly effective in downward type of communication (Juntti and Downward,
2017).
5

Upward Communication: Unlike downward communication, lower level of employees share or
discuss issues in this type of communication. Employees of Arosfa Hotel generally use Email to
send their daily and weekly basis reports.
Horizontal Communication: This involves communication between the employees at same
position or level in an organization. For an instance, communication of manager with other
managers
This type of communication helps in increasing the bonding among the employees.
Communication channel used are email, chatting and meetings. Verbal Communication is used
in horizontal type of communication.
Figure 3: Communication Process
Source: Author
6
Communication
process
Horizontal
Communication Upward
Communication
Downward
Communication

1.4 Analyse organizational culture and change in selected business.
There are various factors like role and tasks of employees as well as power of taking decisions
define the organizational culture of Arosfa Hotel. Different types of culture can be explained as
follows:
Role Culture: This type of culture enables the employees of an organization to work as per their
roles by following certain rules and regulations. Power of an individual is decided as per the
roles in an organization.
Personal Culture: This culture helps in maintaining the personal beliefs and interests that
differentiate individual from others. Personal culture also resolves issues and conflicts among
employees as well as in business environment.
Power Culture: Power comes with designation and therefore, in the hospitality industry high
level management is responsible or have power to take various decisions as per the situation
(Berkenkotter and Huckin, 2016).
Task Culture: Managers at higher level in such type of culture helps subordinates to resolve
work related issues to accomplish the goals and objectives on time.
Hierarchical Culture: This type of culture enables mangers to handle large number of team
members. Senior mangers assign duties to employees and explain their roles very clearly.
There are several factors that force an organization to adapt changes in cultural values as well as
current style of working. Hierarchical culture is being followed in an organization which should
be modified to some extend where employees must also be involved in decision making to feel
them motivated (Giroux, 2016). Economic conditions of an organization are enhanced by
increasing the potential of taking risk. Opinions and beliefs of employees are respected for
creating positive workplace environment. Therefore, economic and workplace environment are
the factors that highly impact on cultural environment of an organization.
7

LO2
2.1 Assess own management skills performance
Being the manger Arosfa Hotel, it is important for assessing my own management skills for
grabbing the future opportunities as well as for the security of the current job.
Motivational skills: Being the manager, I posses the quality of motivating my team members by
involving them in various decision making process. Appreciation by giving them reward,
incentives and other benefits as per their performance also motivate them to increase their
productivity.
Time Management: It is important to have time management skills for the completion of task
on assigned time (Oettingen et.al.2015). I therefore focus on managing and assigning the task as
per the time taken for each task.
Communication Skills: Interpersonal and communication skills helps me to develop stronger
and healthy relationship with customers which is very important for the growth of an individual
in hospitality industry. Good communication skills help me to interact with my juniors and
seniors in respectable manner.
Decision Making Skills: I possess skills of analysing the situations and take decisions
accordingly. This quality helps me to implement various business strategies which are beneficial
for an organization. Skills of decision making help me to choose the best among the various
alternatives in business environment
All the above managerial skills will help me to mange and motivate team members which will
directly increase the productivity.
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2.2 Analyse personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
SWOT analysis will help me to identify the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities in
the hotel industry. This will further help me to enhance and develop skills for gaining more
opportunities.
Table 2: SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Motivational Skills
 Interpersonal and communication skills
 Efficient Time Management
 Decision Making Skills (Cottrell, 2015)
Weakness
 Short temper
 Not good speaker
Opportunities
 Growth in hotel industry provides new
career opportunities
 Skill development
Threats
 Internal competition of lacking behind
 Economical factors like recession
To overcome the weaknesses as per the SWOT analysis, I must focus on controlling the anger as
this will put a negative impact on my team members. I must learn to understand the issues and
react accordingly and to do this I must observe the behaviour of my senior colleagues.
Participating in group discussion will help me to build confidence to speak in front of my team
members. From the above SWOT analysis it is clear that all the strengths are necessary for team
building and increasing the effective productivity of an organization. Hotel Industry is a growing
industry and therefore, it comes with lots and opportunities and threats. In order to gain the
recognised position, mangers must work on developing and enhancing the managerial skills by
identifying weaknesses and work upon it.
9

2.3 Set and priorities objectives and targets to develop own potential
On the basis of SWOT analysis, it can be stated that potential of an employee can be enhanced
and developed by self learning and assessment techniques. For achieving goals and objectives, it
is important to analyses of development skills is very important. Self learning is a technique that
will help an individual to achieve and identify various opportunities in the hospitality market.
Self learning and assessment will also help to achieve high quality of outputs. Therefore it can be
concluded that for prioritising objectives and targets it is important to enhance the skills of self
learning and self assessment.
Being at the position of trainee manager in Arosfa Hotel, I have high focus on scaling up my
abilities to grab the future opportunities in hospitality industry. Currently I have been working
with local hotel in Central London and therefore, I aim to work with multinational hotel in
future. Therefore I work hard to enhance my skills and work on weaknesses to withstand the
internal competition (Theaker, 2017). Development of my own potential will not only help me to
grow but on the other it will help my team members to grow. Motivational quality will help to
uplift the morale of team members to achieve goals and objectives on specified time period.
10

LO3
3.1 Lead and motivate a team to achieve an agreed goal or objective.
As per the current scenario, manager has been asked to manage the housekeeping department in
absence of their manager. In order to plan the activities related to process as well as management
of resources it is necessary to lead the team in an efficient manner. For achieving the set
objective, it is also important to keep the team motivated by engaging them into structure and
culture organisational values. This will make them deliver services of high quality. Therefore, to
lead and motivate the team members in order to achieve goals and objectives, manager must
implement the following ways:
Motivation: It is the core responsibility of managers to boost up the morale of an employee for
increasing their productivity. Being the manager, it is the core responsibility of identifying and
understanding the needs of employees by considering the Maslow hierarchical needs which will
help to identify the psychological, safety, social and esteem needs of an employee (Gardner,
2014).
In the current scenario, employees are motivate by assuring them of giving rewards, incentives
and other benefits if the rooms of the hotels are cleaned as per the expectation and on prescribed
time. This will help employees to increase their efficiency and work hard to achieve goals as per
the set time period. Employees can also be motivated by involving them in assigning duties as
per the capabilities which in turn will help to achieve the targets as soon as possible.
Training for building efficient team: For the building of efficient and knowledgeable team,
mangers must provide training to employees so that they can perform as per the expectation.
Training and meetings will help employees to understand their roles and duties in a better way.
For team building, manager must analyse the skills and capabilities of an individual for assigning
various duties.
The above mentioned factors will definitely help the team to motivate which in turn will able to
achieve goals and objectives.
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3.2 Justify managerial decisions made to support achievement of agreed goal or objective and
recommendations for improvements.
Being the manager at Arosfa Hotel, it is important for me to take managerial decisions in order to
achieve organizational goals and objectives.
Strategic decision making: Being the manager it is my responsibility of developing and
implementing various plans for smooth functioning of an organization. For the processing and
planning of activities it is important to allocate roles and duties to employees. This will help in
analysing the issues and performance of the employees that highly influence the productivity and
hinders the achievement of goals and objectives. By identifying the issues, I will take decisions
that will be beneficial for employees as well as organization. Strategic Planning can be done in
an effective manner by considering the reviews and feedbacks of customers regarding their past
experience in hotel (Course, 2015).
Figure 4: Strategic Planning
(Source: Strategic Planning Capabilities, 2018)
Employer and employee relationship: Relationship between employer and employee plays an
important role in accomplishment of objectives. Relationship can be maintained by
communicating with employees in an interactive manner which boosts up the morale of an
employee and indirectly will contribute to achieve objectives.
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Recommendations: To improve the managerial decisions in order to achieve goals and
objectives it has been recommended to show high focus on providing high level of customer
satisfaction. Thos can be increases by providing training to employees on regular basis to keep
them updated about new policies and regulations. As per my designation, I will focus on
optimising the profit and revenues by bring business innovation.
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LO4
4.1 Explain how managerial and personal skills will support career development.
I am working hard to grab the opportunity to work in multinational hotel in London or to gain
higher position in Arosfa Hotel. Therefore it is important for me to have my own personal and
managerial skills to develop my career.
Effective communication skills: The most important element in the hotel industry that helps in
growing is effective communication skills. I posses good command over communication that
helps me to interact with local and international tourists the only area I lack behind in is less
knowledge of different languages and therefore, I will focus on learning new languages by
joining classes.
Leadership qualities: To grab the opportunity of gaining higher position in an organization, it is
important for me to lead the team in efficient manner (Siegel, 2015). I have the quality of leading
a team which can be identified by the efficient completion of many projects with the support of
my team. Therefore leadership is one of the important qualities to build the career in future.
Management of Time: Time management helps to provide high level of customer satisfaction in
hospitality industry. There is scope of learning time management as many a times I lack behind
in completing the tasks on time.
14

Figure 5: Management and personal skills
(Source: Satyendra, 2014)
15

4.2 Review career and personal development needs, current performance, and future needs to
produce a development plan.
Personal Development can be defined the plan of action that helps in development of career as
well enhance the skills of an individual. Therefore, it is essential to identify the future and
present needs. Below is the proposed development plan that helps in reviewing the development
needs, future needs and current performance.
Table 3: Development Plan
Personal and career development
skills Actions to improve the skills Time taken to
achieve objective
Communication and Interpersonal
Skills
To improve the communication skills,
individuals must join speaking and
communication classes. They must also
participate in group discussions (Cottrell,
2015)
3 months
Short Temper
Meditation is the best way to control the
anger. Also an individual can learn from
observing the behaviour of senior
members.
2 months
Leadership Quality
This skill can be enhanced by observing
the efficient leaders in an organization or
by reading books related to leadership.
4 months
Management Of Time
An individual can mange time by
assigning time to each process in the task
and plan the ways on as completing as
soon as possible. This can be done by
reviewing past performance of employees.
Long term process
Problem Solving Skills
This can be improved by assessing the
past performance of individuals from the
records.
Long term process
Team Building Skills With the help of training process, one can
identify the skills of employees which
1 month
16

help in building of efficient team.
Conclusion
From the above report, it has been concluded that development of skills are important for
grabbing the career opportunities in hospitality industry. Managers in an organization must make
sure that appropriate leadership style and communication techniques have been implemented in
an organization. In the current report, SWOT analyses has been used to analyse the management
skills which is important for achieving goals and objectives for future growth of career.
Motivation is also one of the factors that affect the team of an organization to achieve set goals
and objectives which will indirectly influence the growth of manager in an organization. As per
the SWOT analysis, an individual can develop plan that will help to improve the skills for future
growth of managers in hospitality industry.
17

References
Books and Journals
Barnlund, D.C., 2017. A transactional model of communication. In Communication theory (pp.
47-57). Routledge.
Berkenkotter, C. and Huckin, T.N., 2016. Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication:
Cognition/culture/power. Routledge.
Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Course, I.D., 2015. Strategic decision making.
Gardner, R.C., 2014. Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. In Bilingualism,
multiculturalism, and second language learning (pp. 63-84). Psychology Press.
Giroux, H.A., 2016. Stealing innocence: Youth, corporate power and the politics of culture.
Springer.
Juntti, M. and Downward, S.D., 2017. Interrogating sustainable productivism: Lessons from the
‘Almerían miracle’. Land Use Policy, 66, pp.1-9.
Oettingen, G., Kappes, H.B., Guttenberg, K.B. and Gollwitzer, P.M., 2015. Self‐regulation of
time management: Mental contrasting with implementation intentions. European Journal of
Social Psychology, 45(2), pp.218-229.
Schoar, A. and Zuo, L., 2017. Shaped by booms and busts: How the economy impacts CEO
careers and management styles. The Review of Financial Studies, 30(5), pp.1425-1456.
Siegel, D., 2015. Leaders in the shadows: the leadership qualities of municipal chief
administrative officers. University of Toronto Press.
Theaker, A., 2017. What is public relations?. In The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit (pp. 17-
27). Routledge.
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Online references
Andrew McDermott, 2018 [Online] [Assessed through] <
https://www.workzone.com/blog/management-styles/ >,[Assessed on 20th April 2018]
Kendra Cherry, 2018 [Online] [Assessed through] < https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-
autocratic-leadership-2795314>,[Assessed on 20th April 2018]
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