MG625 Case Study: Analyzing Culture Change at Barnacle Bay Hotel

This case study report examines the challenges faced by Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel, affectionately known as 'Barnacles,' a family-run hotel on the Scottish coast. The report delves into the issues impacting the hotel's operations, including slack time among staff, peak time service inadequacies, cleanliness concerns, and guest service delays. It proposes cultural changes such as increased staff engagement, improved service counters, enhanced cleanliness standards, and adequate staffing levels. The report also explores approaches to change, emphasizing the need for financial investments and improved service quality. Furthermore, it discusses leadership's role in driving change, addressing change resistance, and conflict situations. The conclusion highlights the importance of cultural change for the hotel's sustainability in a competitive market, emphasizing the impact of leadership skills in implementing changes and managing resistance.

Running head: CULTURE CHANGE IN BARNACLE BAY COUNTRY HOUSE HOTEL
Culture Change in Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
2.1 The Issues within the Business Organisation........................................................................2
2.2 Culture Change within the Organisation...............................................................................3
2.3 Approaches for Change within the Organisation...................................................................4
2.4 Leadership for Change and Change Resistance and Conflict Situations...............................4
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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1. Introduction
This report focuses on the case study of The Barnacle Bay Country House Hotel, which is
popularly known as ‘Barnacles’. The hotel primarily has a menu that has been created in order to
make their services to be highly competitive in the world. In the highly competitive world, the
hotel sector is facing major kind of challenges from their competitor, Peacock Hall. The
following part of the report focuses on the deep analysis of the business grounds of the
organisation (Han and Hyun 2015). The report also focuses on the different issues faced by the
business and also helps in proposing changes for the further growth of the business.
2. Discussion
2.1 The Issues within the Business Organisation
Rita Clement who is the present owner-manager of Barnacles has performed a thorough
analysis of the offerings and their present state of the business. Rita has analysed that in order to
put a firm footing within the business grounds and bringing efficiency in their present state of
operations, they would need to ensure that the business has a great financial investment (Vasquez
2014). With a huge form of financial investment, there is a possibility that Barnacles would have
a huge form of organisational agility for making swifter forms of new kinds of business
opportunities.
Some of the particular issues that is faced within Barnacles are:
 There is a much amount of slack time. The employed staff are not active in their work
operations as they employ most of the time by chatting with other employees and guests.
 There are some peak times in certain months where the hotel staff is too busy in serving
other customers who have gathered at the bar section (Horner and Swarbrooke 2016).

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The staff are not able to attend to other staff who have arrived at the reception of the
restaurant.
 The standards of cleanliness within the hotel premises are up to the standards that are
expected. There is a certain lack in the attention of detailing (Lo, Wu and Tsai 2015).
There are some kind of situations where the guests are served with improper food or
wrong dishes.
 There were some kind of situations in which though the hotel had gained higher standards
in terms of friendliness, some guests had a complaint that they had to wait for long hours
to get served.
These issues should be clearly looked into so that the business organisation would be able
to make changes within the culture of the hotel.
2.2 Culture Change within the Organisation
Based on the faced issues within the organisation, it could be recommended that there
should be a proper form of remedial standard in order to help the business to overcome the raised
issues.
Some of the cultural changes that could be implemented within the organisation are:
 The staff within the organisation should be kept active throughout their working hours.
They should also be kept engaged in several working activities such that they would be
efficiently be able to serve the customers.
 In order to avoid the long queues that are flocked at the bars, it the hotel should
implement some other counters and employ some more staff who would be able to meet
up to the expectations of the customers.

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 There should be some proper standards based on cleanliness. There are some times
when the guests are checked into rooms without a proper cleaning (Fraj, Matute and
Melero 2015). There is a lack during big banquets. The guests should be served with
proper cleaned dishes. They should also be provided with cleaned rooms.
 There should also be a high level of employing of staff within the hotel business. It
should be properly ensured that the guests should not wait for too long in order to
receive any kind of service.
2.3 Approaches for Change within the Organisation
The different approaches for bringing in changes within the organisation would be
possible with the impact of serious investments from banks. Rita would have to approach the
financial service providers and ask for help to be provided within the hospitality sector (Zeng
and Gerritsen 2014). With the approach of changes within the organisation, it would be
beneficial for uplift the employee turnover as compared to most hotels. The regular clients of the
hotel business should be served well and provided them with the best kind of features (Jones,
Hillier and Comfort 2016). The impact of huge investment from the financial providers would be
helpful for the business sector to implement new services and also employ new staff in order to
lead to a secure future within the highly competitive market.
2.4 Leadership for Change and Change Resistance and Conflict Situations
Cultural change within the organisation is an important factor as it would be helpful in
allowing the employees to learn new kind of skills, explore new kinds of opportunities and thus
become much creative in several new ways. Every kinds of changes within the hospitality sector
would face severe kinds of resistance. Barnacles would also have to implement major kind of
changes within the sector in order to retain the existing visitors and also attract new kinds of

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visitors (Booth 2015). Rita would have to bring forward the leadership skills in order to lead the
business for bringing in massive changes within the industry.
3. Conclusion
Based on the discussion from the above report, it could be concluded that cultural change
would be considered as a major factor for the benefits of the organisation. Barnacles is facing a
tremendous challenge based on the highly competitive market. Their primary competitor,
Peacock Hall is on the verge of implementing new kind of services and features within their
sector in order to gain a much higher visitor base. Based on the various kind of issues faced by
Barnacles, the report helps in suggesting different approaches for change within the industry. It
also discusses about the impact of leadership skills for enabling changes and resistance to
conflict during the implementation of such changes. These kind of approaches would be useful
for maintaining sustainability within the business based on the highly competitive market.

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References
Booth, S.A., 2015. Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern enterprises.
Routledge.
Fraj, E., Matute, J. and Melero, I., 2015. Environmental strategies and organizational
competitiveness in the hotel industry: The role of learning and innovation as determinants of
environmental success. Tourism Management, 46, pp.30-42.
Han, H. and Hyun, S.S., 2015. Customer retention in the medical tourism industry: Impact of
quality, satisfaction, trust, and price reasonableness. Tourism Management, 46, pp.20-29.
Horner, S. and Swarbrooke, J., 2016. Consumer behaviour in tourism. Routledge.
Jones, P., Hillier, D. and Comfort, D., 2016. Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some
personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), pp.36-67.
Lo, A., Wu, C. and Tsai, H., 2015. The impact of service quality on positive consumption
emotions in resort and hotel spa experiences. Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management, 24(2), pp.155-179.
Vasquez, D., 2014. Employee retention for economic stabilization: A qualitative
phenomenological study in the hospitality sector.
Zeng, B. and Gerritsen, R., 2014. What do we know about social media in tourism? A
review. Tourism Management Perspectives, 10, pp.27-36.

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