The Imperial Hotel Case Study

This case study focuses on the internal organization problems faced by the Imperial Hotel and proposes a three-point plan to overcome them. The main problem highlighted is the deficiency in the back of house staff, including kitchen, housekeeping, and maintenance. The plan includes analyzing market positioning, reducing turnover rate, improving work culture, and enhancing the performance of front house and back house staff. Management and operation theories such as Taylor's principles, Mintzberg's leadership roles, and Lewin's change management theory are applied in this scenario.

THE IMPERIAL HOTEL CASE STUDY
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Relationship with other 4 problems.................................................................................................3
The 3 point plan to overcome the problem......................................................................................4
The use of management and operation theory in this scenario........................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
The Imperial Hotel of London is losing its popularity due to several internal organisation
problems. Among which the back of house staff including kitchen, housekeeping and
maintenance are highlighted as one of the most deficient areas, which needs further improvement
to enhance the quality of services. Uncontrolled procedures and poor operating system are the
basic reasons behind this lack of performance which is not able to meet the standard operating
process. This all reasons together is generating hai operating cost for the organisation. The
numbers of rooms at this hotel are around 500 and each one of it needs service every day. There
are 12 supervisory and administrative staffs, who are continuously working with the back of
house staff to fulfil the various requirements in these different areas. Due to the high employee
turnover rate which is 60% in this department, the organisation need to collaborate with an
international recruit company. The organisation is experienced in recruiting staff in both Spain
and England and they have a successful performance rate in these two areas. This hiring process
has included Spanish staffs who have overall good performance with a one year contract. The
discrepancy occurs when the Spanish staff and non-Spanish staff did not want to work together.
In fact, the assistant head housekeeper herself a fluent Spanish speaker and provide a better
ranking for the Spanish staff which create the worst scenario and pressurizing the housekeeping
budget.
Relationship with other 4 problems
The back in house staff problem is one of the five problems identified in the working process of
the Imperial Hotel. But Star chain hotels are graded as 78% of customer satisfaction. In which
disk Hotel is rated as 60% which shows that the guest and not satisfied with the services.
Relationship with the problem one - Poor guest satisfaction is the first problem as identified.
The guest satisfaction survey has shown that the Imperial Hotel has a poor quality of staff who
did not able to manage the proper room services. The guest satisfaction survey has also outlined
that the quality of hotel rooms are being not satisfactory at all. In fact, as specified the cleanness
of the bathroom, noisy air conditioning is the specified area by the customers (Buil, Martínez .
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and Matute, 2016). These all areas are part of the housekeeping and maintenance, which is
interrelated with the poor guest performance.
Relationship with problem two- the high staff turnover rate is the second problem of the
Imperial Hotel of London. The aggressive management and supervision style is counted as the
major reason behind this high turnover rate of staffs. Employing foreign nationals from European
Union is mainly a temporary nature of employment which is followed by this hotel. The Spanish
staffs are hired with contract and this is another reason why the back house staff performance is
not consistent.
Relationship with problem three- Negative work culture is the third problem in the Imperial
Hotel of London. The commitments of the staffs are not appropriate with the organisation due to
the discrepancy in the working style of supervisory and administrative staffs (Jung and Yoon,
2015). It is already highlighted that the assistant head of housekeeping services provide extra
preferences to the Spanish originated employees and give them better ranking than the non-
Spanish staffs. This type of administrative activities is creating a negative work culture.
Relationship with problem four- The front of house staff is 4th identified problem. The
different front of house areas includes restaurants and bars, reception, conference and banqueting
area. The guest satisfaction includes the overall performance of the organisation both front of
house and back of the house. therefore the interrelationship between these two Hotel areas is
associated with each other. Specifically, the poor team performance is the main area which is
identified by most of the hotel guest. Besides, the insufficient use of its system is creating a
problem for property Management and reservation management system. The check in and check
out facilities are creating the problem in the front of house activities. In fact, the kitchen,
conferencing and restaurants need to be updated by the front of house staffs. The check in and
check out details also need to give to the housekeeping and maintenance department, which is
not following up by the front of house staffs (Buil, Martínez . and Matute, 2016). There is also a
discrepancy from the housekeeping department about the data related to the room availability
which is affecting the front of house activities. Therefore, it can be said that these two sections of
the Imperial Hotel are closely related to each other and so is their problems.
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The 3 point plan to overcome the problem
The three-point plan is needed to develop by the Imperial Hotel for overcoming the fifth problem
which is interrelated to the other problems. A total 12-month plan is needed to be established,
which can be fulfilled by the organization to overcome the current situation and develop a better
future for the organisation and employees. The few areas which will be the main focus for this
plan are the Spanish diversity, affecting factors, employee behaviour and leadership process
(Habib, Hossain and Essien, 2016).
At the first place, the Market positioning of imperial Hotel of London is needed to be properly
analysed and evaluated which should be part of the three-point plan. The use of Porter's five
forces method will be used as part of the 12-month plan. In the first five months of this plan, the
organisation is going to identify the five different forces, which are influencing the external and
internal environment.
Threats of substitute services- The organisation is already suffering for their IT infrastructure
and there is also the infrastructural problem. In terms of analysing the human services both the
front and back house staffs are lacking performance. Besides that, competitive organisations are
providing better interesting offers to the staff, which is creating a high turnover rate (Saleh, Esam
and Elias, 2016). Therefore, substitute services can easily available for the customers and this
factor is creating a high influence on the organisation. these areas need to analyse in the first
month of the plan.
The threat of new entrants- The hotel industry is growing in London and therefore the entrance
of new market competition is always one of the important areas. But the Star chain is a renowned
company and therefore the Imperial Hotel is still holding a dominant position after different
problems (Aziz, 2016). This area is needed to be analysed in the second month.
Bargaining power of the buyers- The bargaining power of the buyers will not be a very
impactful threat but in some situation, it can influence the organisation. For instance, oversupply
by some concentrated by like tour operators can influence the area of work. In the third month of
the plan, this area needs to be properly evaluated to minimise its impact.
Bargaining power of the suppliers- the supplier of this organisation can create a problem in
terms of providing Quality Services. However, abcABC International is hiring employees for the
Imperial Hotel. Any type of what discrepancy from their site can affect this organisation.
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Therefore a detailed analysis and evaluation on the different type of suppliers need to be done by
using one month from the three-point plan (Lai and Hitchcock, 2016).
Market rival or competition- There are multiple market competitors of Imperial Hotel. They
also provide the best quality of services to the customer. Their interesting pay scale packages to
the employees is one of the reasons behind the high employee turnover rate of this hotel. In the
fifth month of this plan, the hotel needs to find out new ways to overcome the situation.
The other 7 months of this 3 point plan need to fight with the five identified problems. The
immediate recommendation is the use of the training procedure for both the back house and front
house employees. the main focus to be given on improving the quality of performance and
increasing the get satisfaction level (Fouad, Hussein and Attia, 2016).
Reducing the turnover rate- For reducing the turnover rate the organisation need to hire
National employees in a permanent contract. Hiring International employees become more costly
for the organisation. Therefore developing interesting pay scale for the national employees is
needed to plan within the seven months.
For upgrading the negative work culture to a positive- ethical work environment need to be
demolished from this organisation by identifying the wrong and aggressive leadership styles.
Training needs to develop also for the supervisor and administrative staffs. The performance of
the managers needs to be verified by their performance, not by the other employee’s
understanding (Mohsin, Lengler and Aguzzoli, 2015).
Improving the performance of front house staffs- The front house staffs need to provide dead
with the best quality of IT infrastructure which will help them in managing their work activities.
In fact, the periodical training process is needed for them. After the implementation of new IT,
infrastructure training has to be given for adopting the use of technology.
Backhouse staff improvement process- All the steps followed in the previous part of the plan
will automatically help in reducing the problems of back house staffs. In fact, the training
process must include specific behaviour within the organisation, working with cultural and
national diversity, etc (Singh et al. 2015). Workplace behaviour should be one of the major parts
in improving the performance of backhouse employees.
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The use of management and operation theory in this scenario
Taylor's five principles- The prosperity between the employees and employers have to be
maximum for achieving success in the three-point plan. Taylor's five principles can be addressed
in this scenario.
 For determining the best ways, scientific methods need to be used (Ferraro, 2016)
 Quality leadership is needed in this process from a physically and mentally healthy
person
 For prescribing the methods teaching, training and development of employees are needed
 Financial incentives have to be appropriate (Turan, 2015)
 The activities need to perform by the departments with proper planning and organising
process
Mintzberg leadership roles- The work activities need to be arranged by using the Mintzberg
management role theory. There are three types of Management role played by team leaders
(Strugar-Jelača, 2018). The informational role, interpersonal role and decisional roles. New
teams have to develop by the leaders by using their interpersonal role, which are the leader,
figurehead and liaison. In this time the situation needs to be considered by the leadership to
manage the entire condition (Jamali, El Dirani and Harwood, 2015). In this case, the managers
have to play the directive and participative role which will help to focus in this 12-month plan.
The important decisions and urgency need to consider as part of this process.
Lewin's Change Management theory- The implementation of this 12-month plan will create
new changes as part of the organisational internal process. Therefore for establishing a better
condition within the organisation adaptation of this model will be appropriate. The change
Management theory focuses on 3 different stages of change implementation (Wojciechowski,
Murphy, Pearsall and French, 2016).
Unfreezing- This is the first stage of Change management where the discomfort, reason behind
the change, the necessity of change, the urgency of change will be the focus by the organisation
to sure that change is required and the employees are ready for it (Hayes, 2018).
Change- In the second step the implementation of change is done. Identification of role is done
and solutions will be provided where both positive and negative effect can occur. This is the
most important step where the execution is done for changing the scenario.
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Refreezing- this is the last step the change we came the permanent part of the organisation. Each
of the employees accepts the change and self-concept of the employees are restored. The
ongoing relationships are developed as part of this Change management process (Cummings,
Bridgman and Brown, 2016).
Conclusion
In light of the above discussion, it can be concluded that for overcoming from the current
situation of imperial Hotel of London, it can be said that change is the ultimate requirement of
this hotel to regain their previous reputation in the hotel industry. Therefore the back house staff
need to focus on providing Quality Services to the customers. The need to focus on the room
cleaning, laundry services, bathroom cleaning, key control, inferior decoration, pest control etc
as part of the housekeeping department. For recreating better performance by the 12-month plan
new IT infrastructure and modern room service facilities are required as well. But the training of
the employees is highly needed which include workplace behaviour and maintenance of policies.
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References
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Saleh, L., Esam, H. and Elias, A.N.E., 2016. Customers and staff perception towards All-
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