Introduction to Management Problem 2

This report examines the high staff turnover at Imperial Hotel and identifies three main causes: poor work culture, unsociable work hours, and lack of training and pay. It proposes solutions based on management theories to address these issues and improve staff retention.

INTRODUCTION TO
MANAGEMENT
(PROBLEM 2)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PROBLEM ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The concept of management is very broad in its application. It mainly includes processes
dealing with organizing, coordinating and controlling the efforts of employees in order to
accomplish efficient allocation of scarce resources in production, selling or distribution of goods
and services. On the other hand, management theory is the discipline that attempts to address the
way in which a business manager organizes, understands as well as implements activities based
on their technical know-how in order to successfully achieve organizational goals and objectives.
Apart from this this theory also aims to provide effective means to achieve economies of scale,
employee satisfaction and customer retention. For this purpose, it is important for management
to have humans that are able to communicate for chasing the vision and mission predefined in
any enterprise.
This report discusses a business and management based case study of Imperial Hotel that
is based in London. The scenario lists out certain problems relating to the staff turnover and the
factors found to be the main causes behind such a phenomenon prevalent in the hotel's
operational framework. The given report discusses these causes and identifies three point plans
for resolving them through the implementation of management theories and principles for each
cause.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
According to Blomme, Sok and Tromp (2013), staff turnover rate in an organization talks
about the rate at which the employees of the business' workforce tend to leave in a given period
of time, usually a year. Just like customer retention, staff retention is also important for an
organisation operating in any industry. As Bratton and Gold (2017) explain staff retention helps
in the containment of the human resources of a business that helps in producing and selling or
rendering of products or services respectively. This is due to the fact that every employee
recruited undergoes a specific set of training so that their skill-set is in complete harmony with
the job roles such individuals are expected to execute to achieve business goals and objectives.
According to Daskin and Tezer (2012), each time a business loses one of its employees, it gains
a cost in terms of reinstating new talent in place of the previous one as the process involved in
the recruitment, selection, hiring and training is expensive. This results in deviation of the
business operations from enhancing service or product offering processes towards utilizing all
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their time in obtaining human capital and managing them. However, a healthy turnover rate is a
normal phenomenon observed in each organisation which is usually equivalent or less than the
average turnover rate rife in the concerned industry.
Drucker (2012) observes that high staff turnover rate prevalent in a business leads to
deflation in morale of the workforce of such organisation. This is highly problematic as one
needs to be motivated to do something and achieve something. If the individual is not motivated
to work in the organisation, their and business objectives will not resonate at required levels
ultimately leading to a switching of job on part of the employee to a better business opportunity.
In addition to this, the after-effects of such turnover would decrease the morale of remaining
employees working in that organisation.
Imperial Hotel is a four-star hotel based out of London. Its main patronage includes
business individuals travelling overseas as well as tourists. As per the given case scenario, it is
observed that the Hotel has been experiencing high staff turnover. This turnover rate has
increased to as high as 80% which means that out of every 10 employees of the hotel, 8
employees tend to leave annually. The main cause of this problem is said to be the temporary
nature of employment. The total staff of the hotel includes 450 employees out of which 150 for
part-time workforce and remaining constitute the full-time workforce. These employees mostly
include students, foreign nationals mainly hailing from European Union motivated to work only
for short periods. It is also observed that the staff turnover mostly includes those individuals that
comprise of hotel's front line staff. As per the benchmark of quality performance, based on
percentage of variance, provided in the appendices 3 of the given case scenario, the staff
efficiency or positive attitude of hotel staff is marked an adverse 12% variance. This is highly
problematic as the hospitality sector is mainly based on the quality of services provide that
include the warm, positive and homely attitude by the hotel and its staff.
The exit interviews held for the hotel staff revealed that:
 Poor perception of work culture:
As explained by Lazaroiu (2015), work culture relates to the values and behaviours that
determine the internal environment of the organisation. A negative or poor work culture would
distort communication among the teams as well as the departments, give rise to lack of empathy
among employees and encourage bad habits such as high absenteeism or late reporting to
workplace among the workforce. Since Imperial Hotel has a poor perception of work culture it is
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possible that they already have these conditions present in their work environment. The main
cause attributed to this was the aggressive behaviour adopted by the management officials
towards the staff. Also, a culture of turnover has been prevalent in the organisation. Therefore, as
explained by Miner (2015), it is important to not only implement healthy systems that prosper
the work culture among groups but also have a positive effect on the officials responsible to
manage such groups. Unsociable work hours:
According to Pinder (2014), unsociable work hours conform to those shifts or period of
time that are not included in the normal operating hours of a business. These have positive as
well as negative effects on the workforce and the organization as a whole. However, in the given
case scenario, these have a negative impact on the hotel's internal operations. As most of the
workforce of Imperial Hotel comprises students, it is only sensible that they would be
demotivated to work for long unsociable hours as they are also burdened with their educational
responsibilities which is a given priority to such individuals. Also, working long hours results in
fatigue and sleep deprivation which ultimately demoralizes the students or any other staff
member to fulfil their duties on a continuous basis as they are too tired to maintain a healthy
work-life balance in their routine. Lack of proper training and pay levels:
One of the main motivators for any employee is the pay they receive by doing that work.
Since Imperial Hotel has not been able to successfully impart both training as well as wages in
comparison to its competitors, this will impact the staff at a grave level. Thus, it can be taken as
one of the biggest factor to contribute to the high turnover ratio prevalent in the organisation.
Additionally, it has rendered the business with low competitive advantage in the market as there
is a high cost incurred by the hotel in recruiting talent and helping them grow. Apart from this,
lesser pool availabile to promote from has also contributed in creating problems for the
organisation.
In order to address these problems, the management at Imperial Hotel must adopt a
organizational behaviour approach. As per Shields and et.al. (2015), this form of management
approach observes the employee behaviour and motivation in response to the work-related
conditions. It was propounded by Elton Mayo in 1932. This theory inferred that work-groups
having least cohesiveness among them resulted in inefficiencies on their part as well as decrease
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in motivation levels to an extent where they were not all inspired to achieve business goals or
objectives. In addition to this approach, Mr. Fransworth must utilize the employee equity theory
to imbibe leadership skills among the employees. This would not develop an efficient and
positive attitude in the personnel but also turn around the demoralized work culture of Imperial
Hotel. Adam propounded Equity that theory attempts to create a balance between the inputs
contributed by the workforce of an organisation with that of the outputs generated. Inputs here
include employee's work ethic, enthusiasm and skills used to complete a task whereas outputs
consist of employee salaries, perquisites availed and benefits derived such as reward and
recognition as well as job security. In order to attain this, the employers must suitably reward the
employees in order to encourage healthy competition, a sense of belonging and recognition as
well as motivation. Also, they should ensure that no one has to work through unsociable hours by
keeping a check or implementing proper shift system in the hotel. This would help the worker in
developing both leadership skills as well as job security and increased competitive advantage for
the hotel.
As stated by Shin (2016), every individual has a unique set of needs that propel them to
commit actions which ultimately satisfy such wants. In order to reduce employee turnover, Mr.
Fransworth must address these needs by making sure that the organizational goals and objectives
of Imperial Hotel do not stunt the personal growth of an employee which would include
recognition of their achievements in monetary as well as non-monetary manner, usually in the
form of cash rewards and promotions.
To summarize the above analysis, Imperial Hotel has been experiencing an 80% staff
turnover rate on an annual basis due to three main reasons viz. poor perception of work culture,
unsociable work hours in addition to lack of proper training and pay systems. Therefore, it needs
to better its payment, incentive as well as training programs in order to enhance work culture and
motivation among the staff. To achieve this, the hotel can employ organizational behaviour
approaches specifically related to Elton Mayo's Hawthorne Studies, Adam's Equity Theory and
Maslow's theory of Hierarchy of Needs. For this purpose, it is recommended that the manager
chooses three possible action plans essentially relating to team building, fair work balance in
relation to inputs given and outputs received by staff. In addition to this, establishing a
complementary relationship between the objectives of organisation and personal goals of
employees must be hotel's highest priority given the current scenario. This would enable the staff
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to commit to their roles and responsibilities similar to the way the top management dedicates
itself to their responsibility in creating employee as well as customer satisfaction.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that management is an important foundation
for any business or industry. Failure to implement proper managerial authority and systems
would result in collapse of the entire operations of a business. This would result in creation of
problems such as staff turnover rates or attrition, decline in the quality of work culture and
morale among the personnel. As seen in the case of Imperial Hotel, the organisation has been
dealing with the high attrition rate which has led to decrease in the availability of adequate
number of people to manage and operate the hotel's operations in a timely, orderly as well as
efficient manner. This is mainly due to the poor morale and perception of hotel's organizational
environment which can be honed by giving proper training to work groups in relation to team-
building and cohesiveness. Therefore, in order to address such issues, the new manager of the
hotel, Mr. Fransworth must develop a work environment where employee rewards and job
security outgrow the inputs contributed by employee during their work hours. Additionally, he
should make sure that there is no clash between the organisational and personnel needs by
recognizing and promoting deserving candidates. This will create a sense of achievement and
belonging among them ultimately boosting their work ethic and motivate them to achieve better.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Blomme, R. J., Sok, J. and Tromp, D. M., 2013. The influence of organizational culture on
negative work-home interference among highly educated employees in the hospitality
industry. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism. 14(1). pp.1-23.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Daskin, M. and Tezer, M., 2012. Organizational politics and turnover: An empirical research
from hospitality industry. Turizam: međunarodni znanstveno-stručni časopis. 60(3),
pp.273-291.
Drucker, P., 2012. Management. Routledge.
Lazaroiu, G., 2015. Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and Philosophical
Investigations. 14. p.97.
Miner, J. B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.
Pinder, C. C., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.
Shields, J. and et.al., 2015. Managing employee performance & reward: Concepts, practices,
strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Shin, T., 2016. Fair pay or power play? Pay equity, managerial power, and compensation
adjustments for CEOs. Journal of Management. 42(2). pp.419-448.
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