BOICNMT220: Change Strategies Comparison - Hilton and Marriott Hotels

This essay provides a comparative analysis of the change management strategies employed by Hilton and Marriott Hotels within the hospitality industry. The study examines how Hilton Hotels responded to internal challenges, such as incidents of racism, by implementing changes in staff management and customer service. It highlights the introduction of customer personalization and performance monitoring systems as key initiatives. Conversely, the essay explores Marriott's focus on innovation, including technological advancements like mobile check-in and environmental sustainability efforts, such as reducing plastic waste. The comparison delves into the influence of communication planning, training, and organizational culture on the change management processes of both companies. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of change management in providing a framework for organizational adaptation and improvement, highlighting how Hilton focused on internal culture and Marriott on market competitiveness through unique service offerings and global expansion strategies. Furthermore, the essay references change management theories to explain the goals-oriented models, values, and beliefs that drive change initiatives in the hospitality sector. The essay also touches upon the change initiatives adopted by Hilton and Marriott Hotels due to avoiding the further racism risks in the company and gaining the competitive advantage in the hospitality industry respectively.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
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Name of the university
Name of the student
Author note

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The objectives of organizational change management is to ensure the changes in the
workplace so that the positive growth can be introduced (Hayes 2018). Ensuring efficiency in the
workplace, employee understanding ability as well as commitment towards individuals’ growth
is being fulfilled. The purpose of this study is to focus on managing the current situation is that
depending on the current situation so that the company can focus on different strategic initiatives
adopted by companies in case of bringing the changes in the workplace. Change management is
being considered as an effective framework that helps the organization to understand the
importance of changes and its effects on the organization and people who are associated with
this. The change management helps to standardize the process for increasing the efficiency of
individuals in the workplace. The change management can play an effective role so that the
situation can be managed as well as control the organizational environment. In order to conduct
the research Hilton Hotel and Marriott hotel have been selected. By developing the comparison
between these two organizations, the study has focused on change initiatives adopted by the
companies. In this study, the comparison of Hilton and Marriott Hotels have been done and its
impacts on the global hospitality industry have been mentioned.
The Hilton Hotel has become a global brand in hospitality industry. American
multinational hospitality organization was established in the year 1919 by Conrad Hilton
(Newsroom.hilton.com 2019). The company has introduced, total numbers of 15 brands in
different market segments. In the year 2017, the company has achieved US$9.140 billion
business revenue. Due to various growth opportunity in the hospitality industry, the Hilton hotel
has developed its strong customer base. On the other hand, Marriott is a renowned name in
hospitality sector from last 92 year. A Marriott hotel is America based hospitality service

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providing organization, which has expanded its business across the world. In the year 2017, the
revenue off the company reached US$ 22.894 billion (News.marriott.com 2019).
Hilton is one of the popular brands in the hospitality industry. Analyzing the internal
situation in Hilton hotel, it has been identified that racism is one of the important challenges in
the case of managing the situation in the workplace (Usatoday.com 2019). Two employees have
got terminated after the racial discriminative behavior aroused in the company. A manager in
Hilton hotel has shown disappointing behavior to the customers, when the customer complained
regarding the broken amenities in the room. Using the raciest terminology, the customers have
got insulted by the manager. As its result, customer service as well as inappropriate structure in
the organization has become the important concern for the Hilton Hotel authority
(Bizjournals.com 2019). After this incident, decreasing customer satisfaction not only driven the
negative popularity of the organization but also it has brought negative impact on its business
growth. In order to deal with the situation, effective change initiatives have been introduced by
the authority. The staff management system in this hotel has got updated after this incident so
that the company can focus on improving the customer services. In order to improve the
performance standard the Hilton hotel authority has introduced customer personalization as well
as performance monitoring system so that value of the customers can be satisfied
(Bizjournals.com 2019). Being a strong global brand with diversified portfolio, it has become
necessary for the company to standardize its services so that it can maintain in sustainable
position in the competitive hospitality industry.
In the words of Kimes (2016), in order to enhance the abilities of the employees, new
technologies have been adopted by the organization. In order to enhance the efficiency of
individuals, effective leadership practice has been adopted by the company. Elegant dining

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rooms and graceful lobbies have been introduced by the organization so that better experience
can be provided by the company. By spending millions for renovating the internal space of the
hotel, it has introduced attractive designs for grabbing the attention of large numbers of
customers (Customerthink.com 2019). On the other hand, in case of avoiding discriminative
situations in the workplace, the hotel author has focused on rectifying the imbalanced internal
structure. Training and development process have also been introduced in case of improve
customer service and increase the rate of profitability. In the year 2013, the organization had
taken the initiative for building the strong organizational culture for improving the customer
service in the company (Pugh 2016). The organization aims to become an attractive job
destination for the employees by improving its employment management standard.
Following the emerging business trends, offering standard services for the business travel
professionals has become necessary in the hospitality sector. Analyzing the growth trends in
hospitality industry, it can be said that business travel professionals have important
contribution in the hospitality industry. In order to deal with emerging business environment,
Marriot has introduced different offers for business travel professionals. By maintaining the
continuous investment it has increased the speed of business growth (News.marriott.com
2019). By undertaking the high profile additions in the meeting space, it has become the
international lodging leader in the market. The organization aims to unveil the scores of new
lifestyle and luxury properties so that guest experience can be improved. In the competitive
hospitality industry, satisfying the needs of the customers has become necessary for sustaining in
the environment. In order to standardize its services, innovativeness has been introduced by the
company through providing Netflix in room entertainment, mobile check-in and check-out

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facility have been introduced by the company for improving its service standard
(Customerthink.com 2019).
As stated by Cameron and Green (2015), Marriott has also made standard contribution in
case of managing environmental sustainability. In case of contributing in the environment the
Marriott authority has focused on removing the plastic straws worldwide. By arguing this
Doppelt (2017) opined that the organization has made the strong commitment towards improving
its waste management system in the company. In the global hospitality industry change initiative
of Marriott has brought revolution. Replacing the small toiletry bottles, waste has been reduced
in the organization. In order to standardize the customer services in the company, Marriott has
brought technological innovation in its services. Social media approach is being considered as
one of the important change initiative adopted by the organization in case of ensuring customer
loyalty. Adding more information in the social media pages the organization aims to maintain
transparency in the workplace. Increasing the social media traffic the organization aims to
expand its customer base (Usatoday.com 2019). By arguing this Doppelt (2017) opined that
analyzing the international expansion strategy of this company it has been identified that by
targeting the business travel professionals, it has brought strong brand management system so
that the global sales can be increased. Therefore, analyzing different change initiative adopted by
the organization, it has been identified that upgrading the customer satisfaction is the major
motto of the organization.
The process of change management in the hospitality industry is being influenced based
on different elements such as communication planning, training, resistance management,
employee and customer feedbacks and organizational culture (Hayes 2018). Analyzing all the
change management initiatives adopted by both the companies, it has been identified that in case

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of Hilton hotel, internal organizational culture was the major challenge faced by the company.
In this situation, driving the positive culture in the workplace, the change management initiatives
have been introduced in the workplace, which indirectly brought the effective customer
satisfaction. Analyzing the change initiatives in this company it has focused on improvising s
been identified that the hotel authority has focused on improvising the customer values so that
the current ethical standard can be introduced in the workplace. By arguing this Cameron and
Green (2017) opined that by comparing the change initiative of Hilton hotel to the Marriott Hotel
change initiatives, it can be said that focusing on introducing uniqueness, different change
initiative shave been introduced in the hotel. Not only focusing on introducing unique services,
but also Marriott has brought the sustainable changes in the workplace.
In a recent report, it has been identified that Hilton Hotel has also taken the strong initiative
towards committing Paris climate Agreement so that the science based target can be adopted
(Onemileatatime.com 2019). Through the new customer research initiatives, the company has
aimed to improve the situation it has been identified that the company has focused on managing
the current challenges in the case of managing the situation so that the situation so that the
situation in the company can be improved. By arguing this Cameron and Green (2017) opined
that New customer research program has been introduced by the Hilton hotel authority so that
the social as well as environmental efforts can be managed. The hotel authority has decided to
cut environmental footprint so that the emerging situational impact can be managed. Through
this change initiatives, the organization aimed to influence the buying preferences of the
customers. Analyzing both the change management perspectives of Hilton and Marriott Hotel, it
can be said that in the first case, the hotel authority aimed to introduce an effective initiatives so
that internal culture in the company can be improved. In this case, the organization has directly

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focused on improving the efficiency of the employees so that strong organizational culture can
influence the brand reputation. On the other hand, in the perspective of introducing uniqueness
for avoiding competitiveness in the market.
Analyzing different theoretical aspects of change management, it can be said that theory
of change is being developed based on the goal oriented models. The change management
initiatives are being introduced based on the values, beliefs and visionary aspects of the
organizations (Onemileatatime.com 2019). In case of hospitality industry, providing effective
services to the customers change initiatives are being introduced. In the comparison of change
management process in both the organizations, it has been identified that ion case of Hilton, the
change initiatives have been adopted due to avoiding the further racism risks in the company. It
was an emergency situation, which has influenced the company to introduce effective change
initiative. On the other hand, in case of Marriott the change initiatives have been adopted in case
of gaining the competitive advantage in the hospitality industry.
In this analysis it can be concluded that change management plays an important role in
case of providing the conceptual scaffolding to the people thought the implementation of change
processes in the organization. Change management is being considered as an effective
framework that helps the organization to understand the importance of changes and its effects on
the organization and people who are associated with this. The change management helps to
standardize the process for increasing the efficiency of individuals in the workplace. The change
management can play an effective role so that the situation can be managed as well as control the
organizational environment. Analyzing both the change management perspectives of Hilton and
Marriott Hotel, it can be said that in the first case, the hotel authority aimed to introduce an
effective initiatives so that internal culture in the company can be improved. In this case, the

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organization has directly focused on improving the efficiency of the employees so that strong
organizational culture can influence the brand reputation. On the other hand, in the perspective of
introducing uniqueness for avoiding competitiveness in the market. Analyzing both the change
management processes in the organizations it can be said that in case of avoiding the
organizational risk, the Hilton hotel strategy can influence the others organizations to bring
improvement.

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Reference list
Bizjournals.com 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2018/12/31/hilton-dismisses-two-workers-after-
mistreatment-of.html [Accessed on 19th April, 2019]
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Customerthink.com 2019. Retrieved from: http://customerthink.com/marriotts-new-social-
media-approach-innovative-or-out-of-touch/ [Accessed on 19th April, 2019]
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.
Kimes, S.E., 2016. The evolution of hotel revenue management. Journal of Revenue and Pricing
Management, 15(3-4), pp.247-251.
Newman, A., 2016. Communication planning: A template for organizational change.
News.marriott.com 2019. Retrieved from: https://news.marriott.com/2018/07/marriott-
international-to-remove-plastic-straws-worldwide-by-july-2019/ [Accessed on 19th April, 2019]
News.marriott.com 2019. Retrieved from: https://news.marriott.com/2016/07/marriott-
international-expand-improve-offerings-business-travel-professionals/ [Accessed on 19th April,
2019]

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Newsroom.hilton.com 2019. Retrieved from:
https://newsroom.hilton.com/corporate/news/hilton-commits-to-cutting-environmental-footprint-
in-half-and-doubling-social-impact-investment [Accessed on 19th April, 2019]
Onemileatatime.com 2019. Retrieved from: https://onemileatatime.com/marriott-platinum-suite-
upgrades/ [Accessed on 19th April, 2019]
Pugh, L., 2016. Change management in information services. Routledge.
Stout, B.W., 2017. Market Analysis, Management Consulting, and Miscommunication. Marriott
Student Review, 1(2), p.7.
Usatoday.com 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2018/12/28/hilton-employees-accused-racism-
oregon-placed-leave/2435996002/ [Accessed on 19th April, 2019]