Emerging Trends in the Hospitality Industry

This report discusses the emerging trends in the hospitality industry with a focus on Whitbread PLC. It covers leadership styles, organisational responsibility, responsible leadership, and corporate leadership systems. It also examines the benefits of corporate social responsibility and social media strategies for risk minimisation.

Emerging Trends in
Hospitality Industry

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................2
Critically analyse leadership styles for hospitality organisation with justification of selection
of leadership styles.......................................................................................................................2
Critically assess how organisational responsibility and responsible leadership leads to
corporate leadership system to facilitate competitive advantage ................................................4
Application of responsible leadership in Whitbread PLC is as follows- ....................................6
Critically examine how corporate social responsibility delivers benefits to the organisation as
well as to the wider community in incorporating hospitality industry, civil society, and
government..................................................................................................................................7
Critically judge the benefits of social media and its related risk and how these risks could
affect organisation as well as analyse strategies for risk minimisation.......................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry has been described as a service industry that includes lodging, food
and beverage services, travel, tourism,event planning and many more. It refers to the interaction
between host and guest where host and hotel manager provides entertainment and relaxation to
guest as well as show empathy to guest in order to satisfied their expectation and achieve their
objectives. There are many business in hospitality industry like restaurants, hotels, bars, tourism
agencies and so on which offers these services to the target customers (Al-Malki and Juan, 2018)
. The aims of hospitality management is to implementing principles,theories and practices in the
field of this industry. In recent times, hospitality industry has wider scope as people and youth
are more attracted towards tourism and travel. It refers to a wider aspect which consists
overseeing day to day commercial and administrative operations of business in hospitality
industry. It states extensive variety of duties, activities and functions that assures better
experience to clients. Hospitality management involves marketing management, human resource
management, finance management and customer service management to effectively conduct
organisation operations. Hospitality industry offers peoples various opportunities in order to
grow in future as well as to create personal connections with people across the world. It can
enhance communication skills of person as well as helps them in increasing engagement with
operations in a business. Hospitality industry has seen a huge development in modern times that
makes it an industry which has huge demand as well as it always provides job security to its staff
member. To explain the concept of emerging trends in hospitality industry, the selected
organisation is Whitbread PLC which is a multinational British hotel. It was established in 1742
by Samuel Whitbread at England and there are around 30000 employees to provide hospitality
services to people (Whitbread is a leading hospitality business. 2022).
This report highlights appropriate leadership styles for chosen hospitality organisation
with the justification of selection of leadership style. Along with that, it assesses organisational
responsibilities and responsible leadership leads to corporate leadership systems to facilitate
competitive advantage. Further, it covers how CSR delivers benefits to organisation and to wider
community incorporating hospitality industry, government and civil society. At last, it defines
the benefits of social media and its related risk and impact on organisation as well as many
strategies for risk minimisation.
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MAIN BODY
Critically analyse leadership styles for hospitality organisation with justification of selection of
leadership styles
Leadership
Leadership refers to a process of guiding, directing, influencing and motivating others in
order to maximises their efforts towards the accomplishment of business goals effectively. It is
abilities and talent of a leader to convinces their followers and team members to follow their
instructions as well as guidelines in order to perform task with full dedication and complete it on
time effectively(Beck, Frost and Jones, 2018). In Whitbread PLC, leadership involves setting a
vision for organisation and sharing that vision with employees so they will follow and conduct
their practices to achieve that effectively.
It refers to the providing knowledge, information, data and methods to meet that vision
as well as coordinating or balancing the conflicting interests among all members or stakeholders.
A leader of Whitbread PLC step up in times of disputes as well as is capable to think as well as
act innovatively in many situations. In hospitality industry, there are many types of leaders
required to help business in order to perform at their best levels.
Leadership traits
Leadership traits refers to the personal talents and qualities which provide guidance as
well as shape effective leaders. It is characteristics of personal which reflect their personality,
skills, knowledge and behaviour to perform their job role in an organisation effectively. It helps
them to guide and lead their followers effectively as well as make better connection with them
for seam less working in an organisation. In context to Whitbread PLC, leaders have self
confidence, integrity and knowledge leadership traits in order to conduct their practices fairly
(Bhattacharyya and Rahman, 2019). Leaders of Whitbread PLC must posses self confidence to
share information effectively to their followers as well as to have own ideas, power, judgement,
skills, decision making. These leaders trust and know themselves without any arrogance or pride
to helps their team members to achieve the common target of group by innovative ideas. Another
trait of leaders in Whitbread PLC is integrity as it is very important part in order to gain the trust
of followers. Leaders must take responsibility and accountability for their good or bad actions as
well as have courage to solve the issues related to tasks. Along with that, they must respect to
their team members and listen them to make strong relationship in order to reduce differences.
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Different type of leadership
Leadership style is the methods and behaviour of leaders they possesses when managing,
motivation and directing others in an organisation. There are various types of leadership which
the leaders of Whitbread PLC can chose as per the situation in organisation in order to
accomplish the mission, vision and objectives of task effectively (Demirtas and Karaca, 2020).
Different type of leadership styles in context to Whitbread PLC are as follows-
Democratic leadership- In this leadership style, the leader take decisions on the basis of
ability and inputs of every team member. Further, they call their employees and ask their
suggestion on the project plan (Fernández‐Gago, Cabeza‐García and Nieto,2018). It is most
effective style as it allows all employees to share their ideas on the project as well as then they
will conduct discussion about many options related to their advantage and disadvantage in order
to choose most effective plan for their project. They chose best option by using voting method in
group discussion to create coordination among team member.
Laissez faire leadership style: In this style, leaders assign duties as well as give task to
employees as per their skills. Further, they give proper guidance and direction to them but they
do not involve in day to day working process. Generally, all members are fully skilled and have
proper knowledge or experience about their working so they do not need day to day guidance of
their leader. Leaders of Whitbread PLC can use this to complete tasks with experienced staff
members.
Autocratic leadership- It refers the style where leaders takes major decisions without
any suggestion or discussion with their team members and then give proper instructions to them
which they have to follow to conduct their performance to meet goals of task. The leaders of
Whitbread PLC can use this in the situation when they have to take urgent decision to make
alterations in worker performance due to uncertainties (Gottfried and Shearer, 2019).
Transformational leadership- This refers to style which leaders used to focused on
efforts and efforts of their members. The leaders of Whitbread PLC can use this style to
encourage the dedication and efforts of their potential employees in order to achieve their
organisation goals effectively. As they also make changes in their performance during the task in
order to improve the quality of their services to meet the exceptions of customers (Gursoy,
2018).
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Leadership style in Whitbread PLC
In Whitbread PLC, the leaders used democratic leadership style in order to guide,
encourage as well as motivate their team members so they work with full dedication and put their
efforts to meet the goal of company. By using this they allowed their experiences and well
skilled employees to participate in making effective strategies and plans for task so they get clear
ideas what they have to done to complete the activities of task by coordinating with each others.
It style helps the leaders to connect better with their team members so they work as a team as
well as listen them which leads to increase in productivity and performance of hotel. It provides
benefits to them as they get better knowledge and understanding about their employees mindset,
skills, background as well as needs in order to motivate them accordingly. Leaders of Whitbread
PLC used all the information related to members to encourage them in improving their
motivation and dedication towards the achievement of organisation goals which leads to increase
in profitability, market share, customer base and brand value of organisation (Lin and Kishore,
2021).
Critically assess how organisational responsibility and responsible leadership leads to corporate
leadership system to facilitate competitive advantage
Hospitality industry has wider range which consists organisational responsibilities in
direction to many variables such as social, economical, environmental and so on as well as it
termed as particular organisations policies and actions regarding expectations of stakeholders.
Moreover, responsible leadership refers to assuring that business take effective and sustainable
decisions related to suppliers, employees, customers, clients, environment, society and
community (Manuel and Herron, 2020). It is important in hospitality industry as it assures that
business and its staff member conduct their practices as per the laws and ethics, values and
policies in order to increase the customer experience as well as value of company. The
implications of organisation responsibility in Whitbread PLC is given underneath.
Strategic responsibilities-This responsibilities includes outlining and formulating
overall organisation strategies as well as making effective plans to improve performance of
business. Strategies are formulate and conducted in organisation in order to implement alteration
successfully. In relevance to Whitbread PLC, these are important task that are necessary to be
performed by management. As they have to be develop hotel,s goals , outlines vision, setting
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rules as well as planning for better growth. Managers of hotel must take responsibility to
generate better coordination and understanding with in business so that whole workforce conduct
their practices in direction of one common gaol.
Economic performance- It refers to the practices of firm that benefits its by optimally
using scare resources and by bringing innovation in their product and services. It has been
described as inherent return or benefit on cost or capital applied. Consumer or clients play a
important role in achieving economic performance of business as they are the definitive that they
are enable to pay fixed price of goods and services or not (McClure and Seock, 2020). In
Whitbread PLC, managers assures to invest funds as capital as per to what they can gain on
investment in future. Along with that, they assures that business make sufficient earning as per
determined and set in vision of hotel responsibility.
Social performance-It is concerned with business interest in community and society as
well as impacts of its operations on suppliers, consumers, stakeholders and societies. It is
responsibility of management of organisation to prevent as well as improve welfare of society
with the interest of their own. It refers to the talent and capability of individual to influence
overall performances of firm as they also have to fulfil social responsibility with the motive of
earning maximum profit. In context to Whitbread PLC, management can assure that their staff
member feel happy and safe in organisation as well as by investing in development of their
employees both personal and professional. They can also execute rule, policies related to ethics
which helps the to accomplish all social responsibilities to in order to increase reputation, values
and expectation.
Environmental performance-This performance includes rules and responsibility of
company towards environment as they conduct their practices environmental friendly in order to
decline the plastic waste, excess water consumption, affect of pollution to environment or people
health and so on. It is important for business to adopt fair and harmless practices in order to
improve quality of life for consumers and staff members. In relevance to Whitbread PLC,
management can adopt recycling system, reusable containers and waste management to assure
that it generates better life by minimising waste. It will also assists hotel as they can save their
operation cost and increased productivity by reducing wastage as a result of this it has positive
impact on their revenue, brand value and sales (Patterson and Balderas, 2020).
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Application of responsible leadership in Whitbread PLC is as follows-
Direction- It has been described as important responsivity of leaders in order to give
direction to their followers and team members so they can work with full dedication and
coordination with others towards achievement of organisation objectives. Leaders are capable to
lead their team members effectively as well as have the right to motivate them to work with full
abilities to improve their productivity by providing better and healthy working environment. In
Whitbread PLC, leader can fix target and assign duty to each member as well as constantly
monitor their work to make sure that their efforts are drive in one direction.
Engagement- It refers to the responsibility of leaders to enhance dedication and
engagement of their term member in organisation operation to create feeling among them to be
valued. They can conduct their responsibility practices effectively which leads to result in
improved dedication and high motivation among members. In context to Whitbread PLC, leaders
must adopt practices such as training and development program and giving incentives to
employees in order to increase their engagement (Qin, 2020.).
Alignment- It assists staff member to connect by a shared sense of motive resulting in
more talent, efforts, time and energy put by staff members. It refers to responsibility of
organisation leaders to clearly define the objectives and goals of company to employees and
make effective plan to align them in order to achieve that objectives on time successfully. In
Whitbread PLC, leaders can also make sure that all efforts and working of their employees are
aligned with vision and objectives of hotel that will helps in enhancing the outputs and
productivity of company.
Renewal- It refers to responsibility of leaders to promote or sponsor reflection on
processes, activities as well as result to implement frequent improvement practices. It fully
depend on abilities of leaders and top management so that they can reform and restructure
various organisation measures to constant get in paths for improvement. In Whitbread PLC,
many leaders can implement measures that monitors and tracks workers actions to effectively
adopt necessary measures to restructure practices (Rabiul and Yean, 2021).
Responsible leadership and organisation responsibility has broad scope as well as had
different implication in multiple sectors. Example in public sector, leadership responsibility is to
support and encourage employees by better communicating with them as well as providing better
working environment. Organisation responsibility is to give many benefits to pubic and provide
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services for betterment of people. Whereas, in private and third sector leadership responsibility is
inspire workforce by improving their skills so they can enhances their performance to achieve
organisation goals. Along with that organisation responsibility is to not conduct any illegal
practices in order to safeguard the interest of customers, clients, country (Salazar, 2018).
Critically examine how corporate social responsibility delivers benefits to the organisation as
well as to the wider community in incorporating hospitality industry, civil society, and
government
Whitbread Plc have collaborated with government and hospitality industry for making
investment in developing as well as nurturing careers and skills for low paid workers in order to
enhance their competencies. Apart from this collaborations, managers of Whitbread Plc are
running their highly successful programs known as Rising stars and shooting stars. It is
development programme which essentially supports the progress of staff members. Through this
they have provided efficient training to staff members of their subsidiary restaurants. This
practice help in making their business more profitable. It has been assessed that on an average,
7385 people have participated in their classroom training with their leadership courses
(Corporate Responsibility Report. 2021). Along their staff members, they have also developed
programs for their suppliers and also organised employment placements. Their development
known as Whitbread Investing in skills and employability (WISE) for enhancing skills and
competencies to their staff members, unemployed, scholars and many more. They have also
developed a new programme named Apprenticeship program which is considered as a leap
forward by Prime Minister David Cameroom.
Apart from these programs they are also doing vast for their community and society.
They have developed and maintain Costa Foundation as well as Great Ormond Street Hospital
for doing charity for children. They have planned and executed various activities for raising the
funds for these charities programme developed at Costa Foundation aids them to make adults
return to schools again, preventing forced marriages, increased demands for school space and
many more causes which help community to grow in a sizeable manner.
As UK government is very strict in maintaining the policies relating to environmental
practices and also corporate taxation. For providing benefits to government, they follow the strict
policy of government and fill their taxes on timely basis. They have developed a product policy
which ensures to provide nutrition to their customers as well as do not indulge in any food
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processing activity that hamper environment in a sizeable manner. They strictly follow online
audit system as well as product identification. They are also trying to nullifying the impact of
negative environment practices on their business operations. They are using photovoltaic solar
panels on their roof which helps to conserve the electricity in their business operations. They
closely work with their partners and associates in order to operate in a more responsible
environmental friendly practices. Through this practices, Whitbread Plc are providing wider
benefit to society, government and hospitality industry which help them tom gain competitive
advantage in industry. It is imperative for them to oversee their corporate social responsibilities
in order to grab opportunities in market and creating a brand more viable in market.
Critically judge the benefits of social media and its related risk and how these risks could affect
organisation as well as analyse strategies for risk minimisation.
Social media marketing refers to the most common and effective marketing technology
that allows people to share their ideas, thoughts, information and message to other people across
the world from anywhere and any time. It is very trendy in recent times as well as more than half
of population in world are the users of social media. It is internet based practices which provide
electronic communication services as many users can use various features of social media
platforms. The various social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Telegram and
many more which provide communication and interaction services to people so they easily
communicate with any one. Also, many big companies used these social media platform as
marketing tools to promote their product and services in order to attract large number of
customers across the world(Sanjeev and Tiwari, 2021). A person can use social media by mobile,
computer and other gadgets which have internet access. By posting content, pics, videos, poster
and many more marketers of company can share information about their product and services to
the customers as well as spread awareness about their business activities among users and
market. It also helps them to make strong and better relation with their customer by providing
them various services as well as allow them to give feedback, response and suggestion to
improve quality of services. It also helps the marketers of Whitbread PLC, to collect necessary
data and information about recent market trends, economic conditions, customer taste and
preferences and many more. In order to make changes in their current strategies and quality of
their product and services to meet the expectation and to gain competitive advantage over
competitors. They used social media platforms in their marketing activities by developing page
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and profile on them as well as posting effective and attractive content on them to attract large
number of audience in order to increase customer base, revenue and brand value. There are many
benefits of social media to Whitbread PLC which marketers can use to increase their sales.
Benefits of social media are-
Help in Reach more number of customers- Social media provide various benefits and
features to people which the marketers of Whitbread PLC can use to improve the sales of
company. As they can post details about their product and services by creating effective content
and posting on them on their page and profile of social media platform. As it helps them to reach
more number of customer as well as they can also engage them toward the activities and services
of company (Sethibe, 2018).
Increase brand awareness- It can benefit to marketers of Whitbread PLC as it allows
them to spread awareness about their organisation, services as well as drive the traffic towards
them to earn competitive benefits over competitors. They can use Facebook and its marketing
features to promote their services and increase brand awareness across the world to increase their
brand value, customer base and profitability for achieve success in long run.
Risk associated with social media-
Loss of reputation- With lots of benefits there are some risk related with social media
which Whitbread PLC have to face as there is huge chances to loss of reputation. As people are
active on social media regularly as well as they get and believe on news posted on it. So the
competitors used it as benefits and post false and wrong information about their company which
leads to decline in reputation and image of company as well as many customers step out to
experience the services of hotel again resulting decline in profitability and customer base (Smith
and Anderson, 2018).
Loss of personal details and private data- All the information posted on social media
about the company earning, investment, funds, profits, shareholders of Whitbread PLC and many
more so there is huge chances to leakage of personal details about company shareholders which
leads to conduct fraud practices by using their details.
Strategies to minimise the risk associated with social media in context to Whitbread PLC are
as follows-
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Set up difficult system password and make strict policies for approvals- As
professionals of Whitbread PLC must set technical password on social media accounts as well
as not give to any one except directors. Also, they make sure that they must provide only limited
details on social media instead of full details in order to reduce the chance of fraud (Tang, 2019).
Regular check for new social media security issues- In Whitbread PLC, marketers
must make sure that conduct deep research as well as they must check their profiles, content and
information time to time in order to find virus, mistakes and errors in their accounts and pages to
reduce the risk of social media and increase their customer base.
CONCLUSION
As per above presented information, it is concluded that in recent times hospitality
industry has wider scope as there are various trends which enhances the business and
opportunities in this industry. The trends are robot staff, smart hotels, VR ,AR, sustainable hotels
as well as unique brand experiences which increases the productivity and profitability of
organisation. Leaders must use various leadership style such as autocratic, democratic ,
transformative and many more to motivate their employees to work effectively for the
achievement of organisation goals. The organisation responsibility are Strategic responsibilities,
Economic performance, Social performance and so on as well as leadership responsibility are
direction, engagement and renewal which can use to perform their practices fairly and provide
benefits to society. Benefits of social media are it Help in Reach more number of customers and
increase brand awareness as well as risk associated with it are Loss of reputation and Loss of
personal details and private data which decline profitability of company.
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Vij, M., 2019. The emerging importance of risk management and enterprise risk management
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Online
Whitbread is a leading hospitality business. 2022. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.whitbread.co.uk/>
Corporate Responsibility Report. 2021. [online] Available through:
<https://cdn.whitbread.co.uk/media/2021/02/19214932/whitbread-corporate-
responsibility-report-2015-16-1.pdf>
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