Leadership and Management for the Service Sector Challenges in the 21st Century

This article discusses the challenges faced by managers in the service sector, with a focus on Premier Inn. Topics covered include leadership, technology, diversity, and compliance.

Leadership and
Management for the
service sector

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
Books and journals:..............................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
The word leadership is very significant in management. It signifies an ability or art of a
person or a group of person to guide or influence his team members and other members in an
organization. Leaders are identified and needed in most important aspects of society, politics,
region, business, or community based organization. Leadership and management are
interchangeable but signifies the same concept. Leadership includes forming a vision and
influence others to work towards that vision (Martins, 2020). While on the other side,
management is the oversight of the strategical steps which is needed to accomplish that particular
work. The company chosen in this essay is “Premier Inn” which is a British hotel brand in UK.
In 1987, the brand was founded by Whitbread as Travel Inn. Lately, he took over Premier Lodge
in 2004 and combined with Travel Inn. So, their current business is known as Premier Travel
Inn. It is one of the largest hotel brand in UK which operates their business in different locations
which cover suburbs, City centers and airports. It is a hotel which has more than 72,000 rooms
and 800 hotels. It has allocated their business in different countries such as UK, Ireland, UAE
and Qatar. The topic which is chosen is “challenges to face managers within the 21st
century”.
MAIN BODY
The term “leadership” can develop several images in mind such as a political leader, an
explorer or an executive. Leader always tries to support themselves and their followers to do
right things. They set goals, vision, direction and try to create something unique and different.
Leadership is meant by an art or ability of influencing and motivating a group of individuals to
act towards accomplishing shared objectives (Laub, 2018). In business terms, this can be
understood as a guiding and directing employees and colleagues with a tactic to meet the certain
needs and requirements of an organization. Effective leadership depends on original and
borrowed ideas that can be communicated effectively to their team members which helps them to
engage in an activity. In any organization, the leader acts differently from manager. A leader is
an individual who guides, directs, motivates and influences the team member’s behavior towards
the attainment of certain goals and objectives. While, manager is a person who is responsible in
an organization for the management of work of his team of individuals and takes required actions
whenever the situation is demanding. A leader provides a guidance and direction to the team

members that can encourage to attain them effortlessly. While a manager performing the role of
formulating the organizational structure and delegating responsibilities and authorities to the
staff members. In context of Premier Inn, there are various qualities that help leaders to attain
success in his leadership.
Integrity is one of the essential quality that every leader must keep. A good leader in
Premier Inn, should be understand that integrity is the foundation of any effective leadership. It
does not matter how the situation is difficult or hard a leader and he must courage with his
thoughts and principles without compromising. He should deliver ethical promises which he can
fulfil. According to the viewpoint of Leading Effectively Staff (2021), another quality of good
leadership is communication. A leader must possess with effective communication skills in order
to transmit the information to influence his followers. He must be able to listen carefully and
communicate with lots of people across roles, social identities, geographies and many more.
When a leader possesses a skill of good communication across the organization then it directly
affects the achievement of business goals (Karlshaus, 2020). Also, open conversation and
effective communication with team members can actually enhance the culture of any work place.
A leader also has an ability to influence other. In organization, being able to influence or
convince other people through emotional logical or cooperative appeals is a very significant
characteristic of effective and inspiring leaders. Influence does not mean manipulation but it
required to be done transparently and in authentic way. It needs to develop trust among people as
well as emotional intelligence (What Are the Characteristics of a Good Leader, 2021). Courage
is the quality of a good leader. Sometimes it can be very difficult to speak up at workplace
whether a leader wants to share his new idea or provide a feedback or a concern to his followers
or one above him. Instead of ignoring any issues or stirring conflicts, courage in a good
leadership move things in the right way. In Premier Inn, an organization with high level of
psychological safety further support courage and truth. Treating people with respect is another
essential quality of a good leader. It will ease conflict and tensions trust and enhance
effectiveness in an organization.
Change is the rule of nature and managing employees in an organization is never an easy
task. The pandemic has created a rapidly changing business surrounding and developed a number
of new hurdles. Due to such situation, managers in 21st century facing lots of challenges and

obstacles. In 21st century, there are many challenges or barriers that prevent leaders and
managers from accomplishing their task and achieving goals at the workplace. In context of
Premier Inn, the managers of the company try to handle such issues and challenges that drive
their organization towards low productivity (Choudhary and Paharia, 2018). Nowadays,
managers are the leaders of change who motivates, influences and inspire the groups of people to
attain objectives and goals while directing and guiding them through the process. While leading
the group of people they help their followers to achieve individual and common goals is often
rewarding. In context of Premier Inn, there are some challenges that are facing by managers.
Technology, keeping up with technology is very hard, tiresome and difficult,
organizations find it very expensive to keep upgraded technology with it. On a fast pace,
technology keeps changing. It requires strategic analysis and extensive research of acquiring new
innovation in the organization (Hartviksen and Et.al., 2018). Enforcing latest and advanced
technology requires employees retraining and in few cases making employees terminated. It is
quite challenging for the managers to understand how an efficiency can be achieved internally
through embracing new technologies to operational processes. Managers must take note of the
value in enquiry, forecasting future development in order to keep ahead of their competition.
Being understaffed is another challenge that is facing by managers. It is challenging for the
managers to identify when is the right time to recruit new candidates in order to fulfill the
responsibilities in the department. Hiring process is a time-taken process so it is good for
managers to get help from human resource managers when pursing a new employee in the
company. The HR department can help in job description, in the hiring process, taking interview
and select the right candidate within the company.
Conflicts within the teams is another challenge that are facing by managers. Managers
find themselves amidst conflicts between their workers and how effectively they can resolve and
safeguarding an uninterrupted flow of work within the groups and achievement of individual and
shared goals. When conflicts are openly raised, voiced and talked about managers often happen
to be in the typical situation of judgement and the result of the dispute lies on the decision
making.
Lack of clarity is also a challenge, in context to Premier Inn, the company operates their
business at different locations where they have diverse employees who have different native

languages. It's very common that information to get lost in translation. Lack of meaningful
feedback, constant communication with each and every employee is the key to success for
manager or leader or any organization (Dhir, 2019). Constant feedback are valued by employees
because it makes them recognized and valued and provide a chance to grow within the same
organization. There are many issues in the organization where lack of feedback which is very
significant is rooted by the manager as well as frequency of communication between employees
and manager is also affected. It is very important that managers have chat with them on a daily
basis and also discuss their failures and success and providing them help in personal and work
life which show that managers of Premier Inn care for their staff members.
Absence of structure, it is a very common challenge that are facing by managers of
Premier Inn, especially to directs a new group. It is depending on the work culture of
organization that some of the team members required to be directed or supervised more closely
than other member to maintain and improve productivity levels. Well-being of employees, as the
Covid-19 proven to be a gloomy threat that affecting the employees and business (John and
Et.al., 2018). Nowadays, employees shifted to work remotely from their offices and they are
feeling less connected with their managers and leaders. Health and safety concern is also an
another issue that results in anxiety of most of the employees.
Supporting diversity and inclusion in the organization, safeguarding diversity and
inclusion is one of the biggest challenges facing managers. Diversity the organization focuses on
appreciating and respecting all employees for their differences. For example, age, education,
ethnicity, religion, disability, gender and many more. Inclusion in an organization, make sure
that workers feel supported and valued as individuals, regardless of their cultural and physical
differences. Premium Inn has been able to show that organizations which have more diverse
culture are performing better than others.
Making the right hiring decisions of employees is another major challenge which is
facing by managers. There are candidates who have skills and experiences that might be search
by the managers and they are likely to perform the tasks. But this does not actually mean that
they are going to perform well in the group activities (Kim, Moon and Shin, 2018). It is very
essential for the manager of Premier Inn, to make a combination of right skills and right culture
both in the organization. If manager does not take proper attention in the hiring then it can affect

the performance and morale of team. He might also deal with other obstacles so hiring the right
candidate in the company is very important.
Retaining star workers in the competitive market is also challenging in 21st century. In a
competitive market, skills in employees is very vital and have to be more specialized. If
managers having the employees with right skills and talent then they will do their upmost to
retain them in the organization (Elrehail, 2018). It is a challenge that managers must have the
skilled and talented staff in the company, while ensuring that they are learning the new skills,
have a clear path of the succession in their lives. A further challenges that is remote working by
employees where they are not limited to roles by their geographical location. So it is very hard to
retain star employees in the Premier Inn.
Burnout is one of the hot topic now a days, which means a state of mental, emotional and
physical exhaustion by excessive workload (Tomkins, Hartley and Bristow, 2020). It happens
when an employee feel emotionally drained, overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands
in the company. In a research, it has been identified that out of 7,500 workers in a full time job,
23% of employees often feel burnout. As a manager, finding the right balance of team's health as
well as own great performance in the organization is very important. In context of Premier Inn,
the managers who don't take rest from their jobs and never recharge their batteries found
themselves in burnout situation. This will not only harm engagement and well-being but also
sets an unrealistic employees in front of the workers which is not good. It can also damage the
productivity and affects morale too.
Globalization, as the Premier Inn is multinational company, HR managers of the brand
deals with employees and teams in geographical distributed areas. A customer demographic of
brand is also more diverse. It is challenging for the employees to devise new strategies and plans
for the development of inclusive workforce that advantages the technologies. Managers must
grasps workforce diversity and deal towards attaining a new audience through them.
Compliance with laws and regulations, is also challenging for the managers to deal and
keep record of laws and regulations that are applicable to the company. When a manager not
having the correct policies can impact the organization's development and resources too. When a
manager fails to have right policies might lead to fines, lawsuits and even closure of the
organization (Rehmani and Khokhar, 2018). So, it is challenging for the managers to stay

updated with the changing laws and regulations related with work environment, labour laws and
many more.
Understanding Generation Z, in the past recent years, organizations had to adapt
technologies, social market channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and many
more (Murphy and Anderson 2020). In Premier Inn's context, the business have to deal with the
millennial generation. More importantly, they have to deal with their opinions, work patterns and
styles and whatever they might bring to the front.
There following are some strategies and ways to overcome challenges that are facing by
managers.
In order to overcome decreased performance levels in the company, managers have to
constantly review processes, policies and procedures which can increase the efficiency within the
organization. A manager of the Premier Inn may conduct workflow analysis to review existing
systems and restructure the weak areas. One to one meetings may facilitate a great chance to
reestablish work hours and expectations in respect of work productivity.
Having a strong selection process is very important in the organization. Using the
selection test or assessments will help to find how a candidate would react in specific situation,
which also gives insight what they are like as a worker in the organization. Involving another
members is also a great option to know and get the second opinion to know whether the person is
appropriate or not (Ulrich, 2018). This will assist to fine whether the candidate is able to perform
the activities and solve the problems.
In order to resolve conflicts between employees, it is very necessary to understand the
issue completely before taking any action. Sometimes, a conflict in an organization may be
healthy as it leads to creativity and innovative solutions, but it is very important that it must go in
productive direction. When conflict arised is personal then it is the duty of manager to step in
before it starts to affecting professional relationships as well as rest of the team. One method is to
remind about the workplace culture and values. In context of Premier Inn, if the values are based
on trust, positivity and respect, and people are hired for such values then personal conflicts
should be decreased.

As a world is full of competition, retaining employee is also very important. To retain
employees within the organization, managers must care and appreciate their work in front of
others. Paying the workers what they are worth is always should be a priority. It may includes
recognition, rewards, exciting perks and benefits.
In case of burnout, using annual leave or regular breaks to recharge the batteries of
employees is a great strategy, because employees feel more productive when they are happy,
refreshed and healthy (Petrie and Swanson, 2018). By setting this example, employees would
know what the manager want them to do in the company. This will result in reduced anxiety,
loneliness and burnouts.
Motivation is the key to develop abilities in the employees. Get the team motivated and
excited about the future by constantly communicating business goals, objectives and plans to
them. Also, managers have to provide the way to keep employees up to date and adapt to
advancing knowledge. E-learning can be a great method to evolve employees and to fulfill the
gaps of skills. It has been observed that when employees refreshed and learned new skills , they
are likely to face any challenges which may come in their path. It is a great method to self-
retention when they see knowledge is invested and progression is achieved.
A great leader performs several roles in his leadership in order to create effective
management, productive teams and rewarding cultures. In context of Premier Inn, a leader
performs a crucial role to drive success in his practice.
A leader performs a role of providing vision for the whole team. It is impossible to
participate for the employees if they do not the purpose or vision of their practice. When
followers know the purpose and goals they are more focused and value their roles to drive the
success of the Premier Inn.
As the meaning of leadership is to motivate, inspire and influence others to perform their
work. A leader cannot be recognize good in his leadership when he only barks orders to his
employees or provide directives with not guidance or brief. Instead, they have to use motivation
techniques and use effective communication to facilitate actions to their team members (Duggal,
Brindle and Bagenal, 2018). Leaders can inspires by facilitating specific and timely feedback
regarding their work performances, and make sure that employee's training requirements are met.

A role of a great leader also considers effective time management. If the leader consume
most of his time in complaining and reacting to issues than this reflects a sign that leader is not
delegating and empowering followers in an effective way. It is essential that good leader must
surround himself with the right employee in the right directions. It facilitate a leadership rather
than managing them.
There are certain leadership theories that demonstrates how and why particular people
become leaders in an organization. Such theories show the traits and behaviors that can help an
individual to boost his leadership abilities.
Contingency theory, this theory says that there is no single method or style that can be
applied to all the situations. There are variables in the situation in which a good leader must
choose the right course of actions and decisions, taking into consideration those variables. In
context to Premier Inn, must identify the perfect balance between needs, behavior and context.
Leaders in the organization not only possesses the traits or qualities but also able to examine the
requirements of their team members and in hand situation.
Situational theory, this theory signifies that leaders have to act smartly in different
situations as it requires to adopt different leadership style (Alqahtani, Noman and Kaur, 2021). It
is similar to contingency theory as it does not consider anyone particular leadership style. As per
the viewpoint of Paul Hersey, it is a combination of two factors; the leadership style and maturity
level of team members. In Premier Inn' s context, the leaders must behave by judging the
situations.
Transformational Leadership theory, it is also called as relationship theories. It chiefly
focuses on the relationship between leaders and his team members. In this leadership theory, the
leaders focuses on the relationship that he maintain with his followers or the interactions that he
is having with his followers. These kind of leaders making work enjoyable, talk to his followers
and working to fulfill their demands. Premier Inn leaders want to create a positive work
environment which often gets high productive results from their followers.
Behavioral theory, in this theory the focus is on the leader's behavior and actions rather
than his qualities and traits. This theory emphasize that effective leadership is the outcome of
many developed skills (Lüscher, 2018). An individual required three prime skills to direct or

supervise his followers that are conceptual skills, human skills and technical skills. Conceptual
skills allow the leader to come up with fresh ideas for running the society or the organization,
human skills enable him to interact with other members and technical skills refers to the
knowledge of leader that requires for a process or technique. It has many benefits as leaders may
learn and decide what actions they want to implement in order to show effective leadership
skills. This needs flexibility and adapt based on the situations. But on the other side, it has
drawback that as it allows flexibility, the leaders do not understand how behave in some specific
situations.
Participative theory, this theory emphasize that the ideal leadership style is one that
involve team members in the decision-making. This kind of leaders encourage contribution and
participation from team members and support followers feel more committed and relevant to
decision-making process. It is also known as democratic leadership style. In context of Premier
Inn, the leaders aids a conversation and then take all the outcomes or suggestions and comes up
with best possible actions. Every single member is involved in the decision-making process for
the group as well as for the Premier Inn, with the leader simple supervise.
A Leadership styles can be understood as the methods and behaviors of the leader when
supervising, managing and directing others (Bartsch and Et.al., 2020). The style of a leader also
determine how they make strategies and implement plans while accounting for the stakeholder's
expectations and the well being of the group.
Authoritarian leadership, this style of leadership allows a leader to impose expectations
and explain consequences. It defines a one person show where a leader is the most
knowledgeable in the group who defines how the situation can be turned out successful. In
Premier Inn, it defines the confidence level of leader who map the route and set expectations
while energizing and engaging team members along the way (Muczyk and Adler, 2018). There
are some benefits of authoritarian leadership such as; while implementation plans, mistakes can
be reduced, while making crucial decisions, time can be reduced, also it develops consistent
results and many more. There are some drawbacks such as; it kills followers innovation and
creativity, it reduces team collaboration, also it increases turnover rate of employees.
Participative leadership, this refers to the involvement of followers in the decision-
making process. Leaders must involve, engage, motivate their followers to participate or

contribute in the decision-making process. Sometimes, it can be time-consuming process if there
are disagreements in the team. Advantages of participative leadership are it encourages
employee's creativity, high level of productivity can be attained, it increases employee's job
satisfaction and motivation. Drawbacks are there is a high chance of being apologetic to his
followers, it is a time-consuming process, the transparency of information is lacking which
results in security issues, if employees are unskilled then results can be poor.
Delegative leadership, also named as “laissez-faire leadership”. This style signifies the
initiative to followers (Lumby, 2019). Delegating authorities can be a successful strategies if
followers are competent to take authorities and more likely to engage in individual work.
Somehow, the disagreements among team members will lead to low morale and poor motivation,
also may divide or split a group. There are many benefits of this group such as creativity and
innovation is highly appreciated, it develops positive work surrounding in Premier Inn, it gives a
chances to employees to use experiences and competence. Disadvantages are it produces
difficulty in the adaptation of change, command responsibilities is not cleared.
Coach-style leadership or coaching, in this style of leadership, a leader considers the
strengths of his team members, also focus on the strategies that will allow their follower to work
in a better and productive way. It highly concentrates on the growth, development and success of
each and every employee. In context of Premier Inn, the leaders do not focus on the individuals
who have similar skills and objectives instead they are focusing on to build a team where each
follower has a area of expertise in something different. A leader focuses on the develop a strong
team who can communicate in a better way and grasps each other different skills to attain shared
goals (Berkovich, 2018). A manager who is adopting this leadership style might help staff
members enhance their skills by giving some tasks, supervising them and facilitating with
constructive feedback. They also motivate to learn new skills from each other in the group.
Transactional Leadership, it reflects transactions between a leader and his team
members. It may involve rewards, punishments, other transactions to get the task completed.
Premier Inn leaders set clear goals, objectives where followers will be rewarded for their
agreement. This is style of “give” and “take” where leaders are concerned with established
procedures and routines rather than making any transactional changes to the Premier Inn. There
are some benefits of transactional leadership such as employees are allowed to choose reward

systems, leaders can easily implement their plans and which are easy to follow by the followers,
motivation and productivity of employee can be increased (Ayman and Lauritsen, 2018). Also,
leaders produce particular, measurable and time bound objectives that can be attained by the
followers. Disadvantages are empathy is not appreciated, creativity and innovation is reduced, it
creates more followers rather than leaders among individuals.
Bureaucratic leadership, in this style of leadership, the leaders might listen and
appreciate the input of followers, but the leader tend to cull the employee's input if it develops
conflicts with past practices and policies of company (Pike and Et.al., 2018). In context of
Premier Inn, if the leaders seems that the offered strategy by employees is new and untraditional,
leaders who adopts bureaucratic style might reject it as the organization is already successful
with the existing processes and try something new may waste resources and time if it does not
gone well. Employees might feel lack of freedom and not encouraged for the organizations who
are pursuing quick growth and ambitious goals.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been understood that leadership is very significant
function of management which deals in supervising the company's resources for the attainment
of goal and for improved efficiency. Leaders and managers plays different roles in an
organization. A leader supervises, guides and directs his team members, whereas managers
manage employees in the company who works for them. Leaders set clear goals for the followers
to attain them where managers motivates them to achieve. The discussion outlines the challenges
that are facing by manager in 21st century. There are various challenges such as understaffed
employees, conflicts, technologies, health and safety concern of employees and many more.
There are several leadership theories has been discussed above such as contingency theory,
situational theory, behavioral theory and so on. The leadership styles refers the methods that is
used to supervise, guide and lead the followers. The assessment is also discussed with strategies
to overcome such challenges. Also, a leader performs several roles to supervise their followers
such as mentor, coach, motivator and many more. Therefore, if any organization is not having
effective leadership than it cannot function in productive and efficient way. The purpose of
organization can be achieved through human resources so it becomes very important to handle
such resources.

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