Developing Managerial Skills and Competencies in the Travel and Tourism Industry

Developing Manager
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Compare different management styles......................................................................................3
1.2 Discuss leadership characteristics..............................................................................................6
1.3 Evaluate communication processes in selected businesses.......................................................7
1.4 Analyze organizational culture and change in selected businesses...........................................8
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................10
2.1 Assess own management skills performance..........................................................................10
2.2 Analyze personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats........................................11
2.3 Set and prioritize objectives and targets to develop own potential.........................................12
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................14
3.1 Lead and motivate a team to achieve an agreed goal or objective........................................14
3.2 Justify managerial decisions made to support achievement of agreed goal or objective and
recommendations for improvements.............................................................................................15
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................17
4.1 Explain how own managerial and personal skills will support career development...............17
4.2 Review career and personal development needs, current performance and future needs to
produce development plan.............................................................................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
Reference List................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
Travel and tourism is one of the rapidly growing industries in the global platform. The industry
is contributing highly in the GDP of respective nations; therefore, it is also responsible for the
growth and development of the overall nation. In UK, the travel and tourism industry has a
significant growth rate, while contributing in the growth and development of the nation, from
various dimensions. However, with changing nature of the businesses, the organizations are
required to adopt competitive strategies to sustain their businesses. In this context, the managers
of the organizations play vital roles in planning, organizing and decision making in the travel and
tourism organizations in UK (Aguinis, 2013). Further, managers are also responsible for shaping
the behavior and potential of the organizational workforce. However, in order to do so, the
managers need to understand their own performance potential and develop skills and
competencies to meet the actual performance criteria of manager. In this context, in the
following assignment, the key focus is upon assessing the leadership style and management
styles; which would be followed by assessment of own performance abilities and skills as a
management. Finally, a self-evaluation would also be done for developing manager’s own career
development plan.
Task 1
1.1 Compare different management styles
It is crucial to adopt the best managerial practices, for which, analyzing different management
styles is also important. Being the Junion Consultant at PKF Hotelexperts, two hotel
organizations, operating in the UK travel and tourism industry have been selected; those are
“White Chapel Tourism Development Company and Hilton Group of Hotels”, in order to
compare and analyze the management styles followed in these organizations.
Definition White Chapel
Tourism
Development
Company
Hilton Group of
Hotels
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Participative
management style
This management
style enables the
manager to
influence the
fellow workers to
participate in
organizational
decision making,
while
continuously
motivating them.
In White Chapel
Tourism Development
Company, the
managers are not
usually familiar with
the participative or
democratic style of
management. It is
because; this
management style
does not have much
alliance with the
organizational
structure of the
company.
The managers in
Hilton Group of
Hotels follow this
management style
often. Especially,
the division
managers and line
managers follow
this management
style, for facilitating
employee’s
engagement in the
organizational
decision making,
while promoting
their innovative
skills and
competence
(Blackwood et al.,
2014).
Autocratic
management style
This management
style is
characterized by
the control of
managers over all
the decisions
undertaken in the
organization,
with no
significant
participation of
The White Chapel
Tourism Development
Company follows this
management style,
aligning with its
organizational
structure. Especially,
the line managers and
senior managers in the
organization follow
this structure. In this
The Senior
managers of Hilton
Group of Hotels
follow this
management style.
This style usually
ensures less
communication
potential with the
lower level
employees; but
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fellow
employees.
Following this
management
style, the
managers are not
motivating
employees in
organizational
engagement.
context, the decision
making power is in the
hand of managers
entirely in the
organization, while
being involved from
employee’s side.
Being a large
organization, this style
is suitable in most of
the contexts, where,
the organization need
to deal with large
investment and this
management style
often safeguard from
errors (Bunăiașu et al.,
2014).
allows the managers
to secure important
decisions for the
company, like
capital investment
in an error free
manner.
Active style of
management
(Organization specific)
Here, managers
in the
organization
follow the active
style of
management,
while making
decision, through
inputting own
contributions in
the decision in
order to
outperform the
In the White Chapel
Tourism Development
Company, the active
style of management is
followed by the
managers. This
management style
allows the managers to
make the decision
based on the situation,
thereby eliminating
any risky decision
making like capital
As it is specific to
the White Chapel
Tourism
Development
Company, it is not
performed in the
Hilton Groups of
Hotels.
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investment
related
benchmark
investments. However,
this management style
does not facilitate
engagement of
employees (Butler et
al., 2016).
Laissez Faire
management style
1.2 Discuss leadership characteristics
Leadership is a crucial aspect for business success and there are some key traits possessed by
leaders, which distinguish them from others. These leadership traits are significantly important
for determining the organizational performance, as leaders contribute highly in shaping the
organizational excellence, through motivating the fellows towards their goals. In this context, the
leadership characteristics of two selected organizations are demonstrated in the following
section.
Enthusiastic and Committed – The leaders are always enthusiastic to explore innovative ways to
improvise the organizational performance, while influencing others to show enthusiasm towards
excellence. Their enthusiasm towards enhancement of business performance makes them highly
committed to achieve the goals and objectives, irrespective to any hurdles (Cunninghamet al.,
2015).
Adaptive and flexible – Leaders are risk tolerable in nature and they are always exploring new
things for improving performance; thus, they need to be flexible enough to adopt in any
situation, where they may need to mitigate conflicts and take difficult responsibilities.
Resourceful – While influencing others, the leader must have enough knowledge and
information. For this, he must be resourceful. The leader must enrich his resources with in-depth
information, through self-development.
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