Emerging Trends in the Hospitality Industry - Sofitel London St James Hotel

This report explores the emerging trends in the hospitality industry with a case study of Sofitel London St James Hotel. It includes a critical analysis of leadership styles, organisational responsibility, CSR, and social media risks and strategies for risk minimisation.

Emerging trends in the
hospitality industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
About the chosen organisation...............................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
Critical analysation of appropriate leadership styled for the chosen hospitality organisation
with the justification of selection of leadership styles............................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Critical assessment of how organisational responsibility and responsible leadership leads to
corporate leadership systems to facilitate competitive advantage..........................................6
TASK 3 .........................................................................................................................................10
Critical examination how CSR delivers the advantages to the chosen organisation as well as to
wider community incorporating hospitality industry, government and civil society...........10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
Critical judgement of the benefits of social media and its related risks. Impact of such risks on
organisation and analysation of the strategies for risk minimisation...................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is considered as a vast sector that includes all types of economic
activities contributing to or depend on the tourism and travel directly or indirectly. This industry
includes a wide number of businesses which are offering the services to the customer-base and
focuses on fully satisfying the needs and wants of the market share. Such industry sector includes
hotels and resorts, restaurants and catering, bars and night clubs, cruises, amusement parks,
casinos, events and entertainments and many more. Within this report, Sofitel London St James
Hotel is taken into consideration for demonstrating different aspects of this report. There will be
a description on the different leadership styles for the respective organisation along with a
justification (Altin and et.al., 2018 ). This report also includes the concept of organisational
responsibility and responsible leadership which results in corporate leadership systems for
chasing competitive advantage. Moreover, there will be an explanation on CSR that delivers
benefits to organisation, broad communities incorporating government, hospitality industry and
civil society. Furthermore, there will also be an explanation on the benefits of social media and
its associated risks and their influence on the organisation along with analysing the strategies of
risk minimisation.
MAIN BODY
About the chosen organisation
In this report, Sofitel London St James Hotel is taken into account and this organisation is
a UK-based organisation within the hospitality industry and is located in London. The respective
organisation is offering a wide variety of services such as fitness center facilities,
accommodation, spa, dining and many more. Sofitel hotel is also hosting various events,
weddings, corporate meetings, retreat and many other services. The respective organisation is
considered as a luxury as well as local cuisine within the most exciting city of the world. The
mission of the hotel is to exceed the expectations of the guests, inspire as well as reward the
associates along with providing financial outcomes to the investor (Bharwani, Mathews and
Ghura, 2019). The mission of the organisation also includes thrilling the world and empowering
the people for realising their potential. The vision of Sofitel hotel is to be the first class integrated
entertainment and tourism destination within Asia. The fundamental objective of the organisation

is the holistic well-being of the guests which hotel aims to deliver in every aspect from healthy
or indulgent gastronomy to innovative hubs to network and recharge between sessions.
TASK 1
Critical analysation of appropriate leadership styled for the chosen hospitality organisation with
the justification of selection of leadership styles
Leadership is the process of leading, guiding, instructing and motivating the human
resources of an organisation so that they can do harder work towards the attainment of
organisational goals and objectives in an effective as well as efficient manner. Every
organisation follows a leadership style within its business in order to operate business activities
in an effective way (Demir and et.al., 2019). Leadership style is a method that is followed by the
leaders of an organisation for implementing plans, providing directions as well as motivating the
workforce. In context to Sofitel Hotel, it is a characteristic behaviour of a leader within hotel at
the time of guiding, directing, motivating and managing team and its members while performing
business operations. There are various kinds of leadership styles that are followed in an
organisation and some of these leadership styles are described as under:
 Autocratic Leadership Style: This leadership style states that only manager of an
organisation takes and control all the decisions and seeks little input from the members of
the group. Such kind of leaders critically make choices on the basis of the judgements
and the ideas as well as rarely accept the advice from their subordinates within the
workplace. In context to Sofitel Hotel, the managers of the organisation takes all the
decisions which are to be followed by the employees of the hotel. Such type of leadership
style is helpful in the situations wherein an organisation faces consistent changes or
crisis.
 Democratic Leadership Style: It is another kind of leadership style in which all the
members of a team or an organisation take active participation in the process of decision-
making (Gudkov, Dedkova and Dudina, 2018). These members bring forward their
thoughts, ideas and opinions in front of their managers and other people within the
workplace. In relation to Sofitel Hotel, this kind of leadership style encourage and
empower the human resources of the hotel by making them feel valued through
considering their ideas and results in innovation, creative solutions and unique processes

of problem-solving. It is considered as one of the more effective styles of leadership as it
permits the employees of lower levels in order to exercise the power they will require to
use in future period they may hold in a wise manner.
 Situational Leadership Style: It is a style of leadership in which the all the leaders of an
organisation take into account the readiness level of the members of the team that are
served by them along with the uniqueness of each situation (Gursoy, 2018). Within
Sofitel Hotel, these kinds of leaders have the flexibility of adapting to anything effective
within the hotel. As per this leadership style, the situational leaders have a different style
in order to handle various situations through having support of different skills sets an
abilities of the manpower working in hotel. This leadership style enhances the
productivity and efficiency within the workplace by creating comfortable working
environment.
 Transactional Leadership Style: This kind of leadership style is also known as
managerial leadership style in which the managers of an organisation depends on the
rewards as well as punishments in order to achieve optimal performance of job role from
its employees. Through this leadership style, the subordinates are motivated and directed
by appealing to their own self-interest. In context to Sofitel Hotel, the power of the
transactional leaders within the hotel comes from their formal responsibility and authority
within the workplace. This kind of leadership style facilitates in establishing the
responsibilities as well as roles for a single person and can use incentives programs in
order to motivate the human resources of the organisation.
 Transformational Leadership Style: With the help of this type of leadership style, the
workforce within the organisation gets encouraged, motivated and inspired by the
superiors of the organisation in order to create as well as innovate the changes which will
facilitate in growing as well as shaping the future success of the business (He and et.al.,
2018). In relation to Sofitel Hotel, these kinds of leaders within the hotel provide
encouragement and motivation to their subordinates towards the attainment of
organisational objectives and goals in an effective manner. Such kind of leadership style
is greatly an encouraged form of the leadership among the growth-minded organisations
as it helps in motivating the subordinates in order to see their capabilities within the
workplace.

 Delegative Leadership Style: Such type of leadership style mainly concentrates on the
the process of delegating the initiatives to the members of the team. This leadership style
can be an effective approach in case if the members of the team stay competitive and take
accountability as well as prefer involvement within the work of an individual. Within
Sofitel Hotel, the leaders of this category are hands-off and permit the members of the
team in order to make the well informed decisions related to the organisation (Kaurav,
Baber and Rajput, 2020). In such way, this kind of leadership style helps in improving the
satisfaction of its employees and may also create a fragmented workplace and along with
this, it can prevent the human resources of the organisation from working towards a
common objective and goal.
Justification of selection of leadership styles:
From above discussion of different leadership styles, it can be justified that the leaders of
the Sofitel Hotel should follow Autocratic Leadership Style because there are unpredictable
demands within the hospitality industry. This kind of leadership style enables the managers of
the respective hotel in making quick decisions and the process of faster decision-making is
considered as the key in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation. In case if
there is a situation when the business of this hotel faces constant changes then this kind of
leadership style is helpful in this situation and the leaders of the hotel can make effective
decisions at that time by not wasting their time through taking suggestions from their
subordinates. With the help of autocratic leadership style, the supervisors of the hotel will be
able to react on the situations promptly in comparison to other kinds of leadership styles because
of streamlined structure of the hotel and the ability of making fast decisions (Khan and et.al.,
2021). Hence, it can be justified that autocratic leadership style will be an effective approach for
the Sofitel Hotel.
TASK 2
Critical assessment of how organisational responsibility and responsible leadership leads to
corporate leadership systems to facilitate competitive advantage
The concept of organisational responsibility is said to be a context-specific action as well
as policies of the organisation that takes into consideration the expectations of the different
stakeholders along with the triple bottom line of social, economic and environmental

performance. The aspect of organisational responsibility is significant within the workplace in
the process of holding the businesses responsible for their impact on the broad social issues. The
process of organisational responsibility helps the administration of the business in empowering
the human resources in order to leverage any of the organisational resources at its disposal to do
effective.
This becomes essential for a business to develop the aspect of organisational
responsibility which is considered as a balanced method for ensuring that the organisation is
conducting its business operations in a smooth way that provide advantage to people (Koseoglu,
Law and Dogan, 2018). The organisation represents various kinds of instruments in order to
achieve the goals and objectives of the business. Different protocols that are in relation with the
organisational responsibility can be differentiated within the different organisations but all these
protocols are required to follow the uniform guideline. This can be on the basis of kind of
organisation as well as manner in which they perform. The main concentration of the
management of an organisation is always on the maximisation of the values of the stakeholders
that are fiduciary, legal along with the moral obligation of the administration. This process
focuses on the social institution that should create the values for both the internal as well as
external stakeholders. There are various organisational responsibilities that are required to be
followed by the managers of Sofitel Hotel and some of these organisational responsibilities
include:
 Social Performance: Sofitel Hotel is fulfilling its social responsibilities by maintaining
hygiene within the workplace and it is creating a positive influence over the health of the
people. This is also expected from the subordinates to respect all the spirit as individuals
believe in them as well as respect to them. This also becomes significant for the
administrators of Sofitel Hotel to fulfil all the legislations and the laws that will help in
improving the image in the minds of the people (Kriechbaumer and et.al., 2019). The
superiors of the respective hotel are also required to respect the social customers and
cultural heritage that is significant for them because it can impact the cultural values of
the people and they become sensitive for their cultural values.
 Economic Performance: This organisational responsibility within Sofitel Hotel helps
the business in maximising the short-term as well as long-term objectives of the hotel. It
also provide assistance to the managers of the respective organisation in earning and

maximising the level of profitability, productivity and efficiency within the business.
This organisational responsibility facilitates in improving the production process, product
as well as services of hotel, factor of production and many other aspects. The hotel is also
expected to fulfil the wealth of the different organisational investors and the owner.
Sofitel Hotel is also generating a wise number of employment opportunities for the
people who are living within the economy of the people (Liu and et.al., 2019). The
managers of the hotel are also needed to respect their suppliers for providing them raw
material of superior quality which will help the company in improving its economic
performance also will also facilitate it in gaining competitive advantages over
competitors within the market place.
 Environmental Performance: Sofitel Hotel is fulfilling this kind of organisational
responsibilities which are concerned with the environment. The environment of the hotel
is not causing harm to the natural resources at the time of conducting business operations.
The respective organisation is also maintaining clean and hygienic environment within
the workplace that is creating effective and good influence over the external environment.
The managers within the hotel are also not creating effluents to the environment and are
working in a good manner.
Responsible leadership
There are a large number of responsibilities of the business over the leaders which are
creating challenges for them (Medhekar, 2020). This is very essential for them to make sure that
the organisation is fulfilling its responsibilities through demonstrating responsible method within
Reporting on OR
initiatives internally
and externally
Institutionalization of
SRM by measuring
and rewarding
processes and results
Employee training
related to OR
Development of OR
initiatives that are
integrated with
corporate strategy
Identification and
prioritization of
stakeholders’
expectations
Vision and values
related to OR

the business through creation of the values. It is also responsible for the business to emphasis on
the approaches that are creating values for the business. This becomes significant for the leaders
of the organisation look after on their dedication as well as commitment for the creation of fair
society along with sustainable structure through encouraging the process of innovation,
providing rewards to the effective behaviours and regaining trust. The responsible leadership is
considered as a kind of leadership that is sustained itself and is also developing the business
through providing advantages to the stakeholders (Nusair, 2020). This is a type of leadership
which incorporate and considers carious external and internal system in such a way where the
laws and the regulations of the society cannot gets violated and the local culture is carried out in
relation to the market as well as regional policies. This is consist of the practices of the
influencer in terms of common objectives and aims. It also helps in enabling the people towards
the task for getting expected outcomes which could be achieved by working on their own. In
context to Sofitel Hotel, the organisation is using CLD model for the purpose of responsible
leadership.

There are various responsible leaderships that facilitates the leaders of Sofitel Hotel for
the purpose of achieving objectives as well as goals of the organisation. The description of these
responsible leadership is given as under:
 Engagement: The leaders within the respective hotel are also energising the motives and
identities of the other people (Osti and Goffi, 2021). They are giving commitment to the
members of the team and is also motivating the human resources of the organisation in
order to share the responsibilities in action of the organisation.
 Renewal: Within Sofitel Hotel, the leaders of the organisation are encouraging the
process of learning and organisational change. It is also reflecting on the effective
coordination of the activities, decision as well as information in relation to the values,
strategies and objectives of the organisation.
 Direction: In context to Sofitel Hotel, the leaders within the hotel are providing
directions to the members of the teams in order to attain the goals and values of the
organisation. Team members also share proper understanding of the agenda of team,
values, strategies and entire aim along with the approaches in which it can contribute to
the business for the purpose of attaining aims and values of hotel.
 Alignment: Within Sofitel Hotel, there is proper coordination between the agreement and
the activities and the leaders of the hotel has developed well-defined and clear boundaries
along with understanding the responsibilities and the roles as well as interdependence
among the different teams (Patterson and Balderas, 2020).
TASK 3
Critical examination how CSR delivers the advantages to the chosen organisation as well as to
wider community incorporating hospitality industry, government and civil society
Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) are defined as the policies as well as the
practices that are undertaken by an organisation and are intended to have a favourable influence
on the world. The main idea behind the concept of CSR for the organisations is to pursue other
pro-social objectives in addition to the maximisation of the profits within the business. The
policies and the practices of CSR positively influences the welfare of the society (Rodríguez-
López and et.al., 2020). This is considered as one of the growing as well as emerging area that
has achieved effectiveness and a great value because of the process of organisational

development within the world. It is the most significant and valuable prospect that helps in
enabling the organisations towards attainment of the objectives and goals along with having a
great advantage from the respective industry. The aspect of CSR facilitates in the management of
an organisation for maintaining the accuracy as well as effectiveness within the business. There
are various issues that are available at the market place which are faced by the society because of
the adverse functions of the business concern (Saha, Mani and Goyal, 2020). There are also
many other problems like issues regarding river pollutants, air pollutants and many others which
should be taken into consideration by the organisation in order to gain competitive advantages
and achieve organisational development in an effective manner. Within Sofitel Hotel, the
concept of CSR plays a vital role as it enables the administration of the hotel in performing only
such business operations that are generating welfare for the people of the society. The model of
Corporate Social Responsibility is legally necessary for the business organisations but there are a
large number of organisations that are active in the market place and have effective as well as
valuable management within the organisation. So, it becomes essential for the respective hotel to
follow the practices and policies regarding CSR. Within Sofitel Hotel, the management of the
organisation is following effective activities of this concept and play a major role in the success
and growth of the business. The benefits generated by following the practices and policies of
CSR includes the following points:
 If the administration of Sofitel Hotel will employ its human resources for the activity of
CSR, then it can help them in increasing their morale as morale of the manpower is very
significant because it gives a large amount of outcomes to the human resources.
 It is another major concern that the activities in relation to the CSR provide assistance to
the hotel in becoming popular within the market place. The popularity of an organisation
is very significant aspect within the market place that helps in enabling the managers of
the hotel ion capturing a large number of market share from the market.
Wider Community:
Through making use of the practices of CSR and its associated resources, an organisation
serves entire society in a precise manner (Salazar, 2018). All the major companies that work on
the effective practices of CSR are developing their organisational performance in order to evolve
a tabular and precise attack. The management of Sofitel Hotel should also provide welfare to the
society through giving more and more funds in relation to the corporate social obligation.

Nowadays, the organisation is functioning social responsibility that facilitates the business of the
hotel in improving its organisational performance through effectively serving the social groups.
Government: The political system of United Kingdom is considered as a key stakeholder within
the business social responsibility that is performed by an enterprise. The social responsibilities of
the business facilitates the authorities in mainly concentrating on the process of social
improvement (Sanjeev and Birdie, 2019). By taking support of the CSR practices, the GDP and
the political unit income is also an angularity. The CSR practices also play a major role in the
accelerative realistic regulation of the people. The major starting in relation to the society should
be utilised in an effective manner in order to conduct overall improvement of the society.
TASK 4
Critical judgement of the benefits of social media and its related risks. Impact of such risks on
organisation and analysation of the strategies for risk minimisation
Benefits Of Social Media in Business
Social media play very important role in business, it help organization for their development and
make business successful in market. People easily attract with social media and they easily trust
on social media which will easily help Sofitel Hotel to develop their business in market and
generate more revenue and achieve their objectives with more effectively (Schimperna,
Lombardi and Belyaeva, 2020). There have many benefits of social media which will impact on
Sofitel Hotel for their development and growth.
Decreased Marketing Cost: If organization do online advertisement with the help social media
then they don't have to spend more on advertisement for making brand recognition in market. It
will automatically reduce cost of Sofitel Hotel in marketing services of an organization and
social media is now become more very effective tools for advertisement in market for
organization.
Increased Brand Recognition: This will increased brand recognition of business in market by
using social media platform for advertisement of brand so that people easily recognize their
brand in market when see their symbol of company. It help Sofitel Hotel to increased their brand
recognition in market this will enhance their profits in market.
Richer Customer Experiences: Management of an organization have many option to connect
with customers and give various service through social media so that if some share bad

experience for organization service then management have to reply on this review in which they
apologies for that services so that customer feel good experience and this help organization to
make bond with customers. This service is also adopt by management of Sofitel Hotel so that it
can capture huge number of customer support in market.
Risk of Social Media in business
If an organization used digital platform for advertisement then it also have risk factor which stop
organization to grow and develop in markets (Vij, 2019). This will reduce brand image of
business in market because someone do unethical activity for that organization and this break
trust of organization. There are various risk involved in business by social media are:
Safety: It involve safety risk factors because of social media because it have risk where personal
information may be leaked of customers and this will break trust of customer in market towards
your organization and this will decrease their profit level and their brand reputation will also
goes down in market.
Effect On Human Resource: When organization used social media for advertisement then it
effect on human resource of an organization because they don't require human resource for
advertisement in market and this will affect negative way in organization which creates huge
problem of unemployment in market. If Sofitel Hotel use social media use in organization then
for advertisement purpose then management of Sofitel Hotel don't reduce their employment in
organization.
Reputation Loss: If an organization use social media for business development it is good
platform but sometimes it give negative impact on organization due to customers review on their
website which they share so it will destroy reputation of brand in market. If Sofitel Hotel use
social media activity for their business growth then they have to take care of all things which
give negative impact on their business otherwise it totally destroy brand image reputation of
organization.
The impact of these risks on the organisation is in such a way that it can generate a threat
for the respective hotel that can leak its significant information to its various competitors active
in the market (Wawak, Rogala and Dahlgaard-Park, 2020). Another risk that is concerned with
the social media to organisations is that it can hinders the brand image of hotel as market share
will afraid to share their personal data to organisation. This can also minimise the marketing

opportunities for respective hotel within market through which it can face difficulty in expansing
its business to a large scale in an effective manner.
The strategies to minimise these risks include providing training and development
sessions to employees of hotel regarding using social media within business operations. Creation
of social media policy and following them is another strategy that can be use by the organisation
in order to minimise the risks. Implementation of the latest technologies and updating the
existing ones is also a key strategy for hotel for minimising the risks associated with social
media.
CONCLUSION
From above explanation of the report, it has been concluded that the trends and
parameters of the market becomes changed due to the changing of the guidelines. The
development of leadership are very important for the management of the organisation because
the number of factors present in these aspects are very important to be present in the
organisation. It concluded brief discussion related to different styles of leader and the evaluation
of the best exercise to be performed in the organisation. It also concluded brief discussion
related to the organisational responsibility. It also concluded brief discussion related to the
corporate social responsibility of the organisation.

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