Business Report: Digitalization Impact on Marriott's Capabilities

This report investigates the impact of digitalization on organizational capability changes, specifically focusing on Marriott International. The study begins with an introduction to digitalization, its importance, and the chosen case study. A comprehensive literature review explores the role of digitalization in organizations, challenges during implementation, and its impact on change management. The methodology outlines the research approach, followed by results and findings from data analysis and thematic analysis. An evaluation of these findings, drawing from both primary and secondary research, is presented. The report concludes with recommendations for Marriott, based on the research findings. The research aims to identify the role of digitalization, articulate challenges faced, and determine how digitalization aids in managing changes within the organization. Key areas covered include the benefits of digitalization, employee pushback, lack of expertise, and the use of digital platforms for effective change management. The report also highlights the importance of research in understanding digitalization's impact on organizational capabilities and the development of effective strategies.

Business and Management

Table of Contents
Topic: Impact of digitalization on organisational capability changes.............................................4
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................9
The role of digitalisation in organisation.....................................................................................9
Challenges arise during implementation of digitalisation.........................................................10
Role of digitalisations in managing changes within organisation.............................................12
Chapter 3: Methodology............................................................................................................13
Chapter 4: Results & Findings.......................................................................................................17
Data analysis..............................................................................................................................17
Thematic Analysis.....................................................................................................................18
Chapter 5: Evaluation of Findings.................................................................................................23
Findings from primary research.................................................................................................23
Findings from secondary research.............................................................................................23
Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendation................................................................................25
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................25
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................25
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................27
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................2

Topic: Impact of digitalization on organisational capability changes
Chapter 1: Introduction
Digitalization is considered as process of converting or translating information in a digital
format. It is also considered as method which provides assistance to a company through which
they can operate its business practices as well as operations in impressive way by accomplishing
their desire target according to set standard. In current time it is necessary for each and every
organization to adopt digitalization because through that they can do practices and operations in
effective manner as well as it also improve performance and minimize error (Burton, Obeland
Håkonsson, 2020). Organization selected for conducting this research project is Marriott
International hotel which is American multinational diversified firm operating in hospitality
industry. It is introduced by J. Willard Marriott and Alice Marriot in year 1927 as well as its head
office is situated at Bethesda, Maryland United State. The respective company nested their
business around the world which helps them in covering more numbers of audiences. It is
essential for respective hotel to adopt digitalization at their workplace as that will help in
assessing management in conducting business activities and operation in effective ways which
leads to attainment of pre determined goal successfully (Heeks, 2020). The respective project
will include information related to how digitalization is playing effective role in a company. In
addition to this it will also include role of digitalization in a company as well as what are the
challenges which are faced by staffs while implementing digitalization at the workplace. It also
includes practices as well as managing changes which a company may adopt for understanding
whole concept of digitalization in effective manner.
Theoretical background and research focus
Research aims
“To determine the impact of digitalization on organisational capabilities changes”. A case study
on Marriott International
Research objectives
• To identify the role of digitalisation in organisation.
• To articulate the major conflicts which have taken place via the implantation of
digitalisation at workplace.
• To determine how digitalisation help in managing changes within the organisation.

Research questions
• What are the roles of digitalisation in organisation?
• What are the challenges faced by employees while implementing digitalisation in
activities of Marriott International?
• How digitalisations help in managing changes within organisation?
Review key publications and themes
• What are the roles of digitalisation in organisation?
As per the article published on Digital Agency Network (DAN), 2020, digitalization is
considered as situation when a person use digital technology in order to change a business model
as well as provide new revenue as well as valuable opportunities for growth (What Is The Role
Of Digitalisation In Business Growth?, 2020). Through digitalization a company able to gain
competitive advantage at the workplace as through it management and employees able to
conduct things faster, cheaper and better than their competitive companies. Moreover, by
adopting digitalization a company able to improve their quality as well as promote consistency at
the workplace. There are several roles played by digitalization in a company through which
company able to conduct their business operations and functions in effective manner. From
which some of the essential role are mentioned below:-
• The role of digitalization is that it helps a company in saving their cost by minimizing
wastage, using resources properly and many more. This is so because when an organization
adopt digitalization they able to conduct their work properly with minimum or no wastage which
reduce cost of extra usage of resources.
• Digitalization also helps an organization in conducting effective customer interaction so
that they can develop as well as maintain proper relationship with customers(Coreynenand et.al.,
2020). Through this company also able to build good relation with customers which make them
loyal which leads to increase in sales successfully by retaining them for long time.
• By adopting effective digitalization a company able to attain their desire mission as well
as vision. This is so because digitalization helps in adopting as well as implementing technology
properly which minimise error and leads to adopting changes successfully at the workplace.
These are the main roles of digitalization which a company may experienced while conducting
their business operations and functions effective manner.

• What are the challenges faced by employees while implementing digitalisation in
activities of Marriott International?
As per the blog given on JABIL, 2020, companies which adopt digital transformation or
digitalization experienced numbers of benefits such as enhance market shares, high engagement
of employee’s moral, enhance customer revenue, customer’s engagement and so on. But it is
seen that a company experience numbers of challenges while adopting digitalization at their
workplace due to which the implication is not easy for the firm as well as their management (Top
5 Digital Transformation Challenges (and How to Overcome Them), 2020). One of the major
challenges which are faced by an organization is employee’s pushback, according to which in
many companies employees are not in favor to adopt digital technology at the workplace.
They generally think that company is adopting high technology which leads to job loss as well as
their value get decreased at the workplace due to which they force not to implement digital
platform at the workplace. Along with this, another challenge is relate to lack of expertise that
will leads digitization initiatives, in respect of this challenge if a company have less
knowledgeable as well as experience staff they not able to implement challenges properly
according to the standard which impact on the performance. In addition to this, budget is also
considered as major challenges due to which company not able to adopt digitalization at their
workplace for change (Heeks, 2020). In context of this, when a company implement new
technology they need to change each and every setups as well as they also need to provide
training to staffs so that they can enhance skill that leads to conducting work properly for
attaining goal.
• How digitalisations help in managing changes within organisation?
As per the article given on timecamp it can be determine that through digitalization a company
can adopt change in effective as well appropriate manner. This is so because digital platform
provide numbers of ways through which an organization management adopt as well as
implement changes in successful manner (5 Ways in which digitization is changing business
world, 2019). For example artificial intelligence is one of the parts of digitalization according to
which a company may use AI for conducting operations as well as practices related to business
in proper way which leads to attainment of goal successfully. In addition to this digital platform
also help a company in conducting work effectively so that they can ensure that changes which is
adopted by management are effective as well as that will help in growing business at the

potential market. Along with this digitalization also help a company in providing quality training
as well as development to employees in different way so that their skills, capabilities and
knowledge can be enhanced successfully (Latilla and et.al., 2020). In addition to this, through
company manger as well as leader able to ensure that employees are performing properly which
help those in attaining desire goal successfully with high quality performance as well as
minimum wastage.
Research hypotheses
A research hypothesis is considered as clear, specific and testable predictive as well as
proposition statement which is about the standard outcome of a particular research study that is
based on specific property of a population like assumed difference among the group on a specific
variable as well as affiliation among variables. In respect of respective research, a research
hypothesis is based on determining impact of digitalization on a company capability of adopting
changes(Hoekman, 2020). This is so because for every company a change is necessary because
through that they can improve their workplace as well as working. In addition to this a change
can be implemented by a company through adopting proper digitalization in effective and
appropriate ways so that company may conduct their business operations and functions properly.
By conducting respective research, Marriott International hotel able to develop strategies as well
as plans in effective way for adopting digitalization successfully at their workplace.
Justification and contextualization
Why is your research important?
It is important to conduct respective research because through it researcher able to gather
information related to the impact of digitalization on a company capability changes. This is so
because in current time it is essential to adopt digitalization in each and every sector as that will
help in conducting business operations and functions in effective manner. In respect of respective
research when researcher gather information, data and statistics they able to understand about the
digitalization as well as how it impact on the capabilities and effectiveness of a
company(Kohtamäkiand et.al., 2020). In addition to this, by conducting respective research,
project manager able to gather information related to the role of digitalization in a company as
well as respective research is also important to gather information related to challenges which are
experienced by employees while implementing digitalization at Marriott international hotel.

Respective research is also important as that aid in determining how adopting digitalization help
in managing changes at the workplace.
Why is it important to find what you are trying to find?
In current time each and every company is adopting digitalization as through that they
will do its practices in successfully way as well as it also aid them in doing activities and
functions related to business in proper manner which leads to accomplishment of desire aim
successfully. So it is determined that every firm needs to adopt digital platform at the workplace
and they also need to develop strategies accordingly. In addition to this the aim of creating
respective report on digitalization is to help companies in determining impact of digital platform
in adopting change at workplace. So it is essential that researcher conduct research on specific
topic so that they can develop strategies as well as plans accordingly. Along with this objective
for conducting respective research is know about the role of digital platform in a firm according
to which management need to develop strategies and plan respectively. Research also include
information related to the issues experienced by an organization while implementing
digitalization at the workplace which help in determining strategies for resolving issues
successfully. Through this research researcher try to find how digitalization aid in managing
changes at the workplace.
How will it build on the existing body of evidence?
Hereevidence is considered as technique or tool that is adopted by a project manager for
gathering information as well as data in a proper way as that will help in attaining predetermined
objective as well as target effectively(Latif, Mahmoodand Ali, 2020). There are main two kind of
methodology of researchthatresearcherwill implement i.e. primary and secondary method.
Primary method is first hand collected data due to which it is expensive as well as time taking
method. In addition to this, secondary data are those which are collected by researcher from the
existing book, articles, newspaper and many more. In context of respective research, researcher
adopt data related to digitalization through the existing sources like online as well as offline
books, articles, blogs, newspaper and so on. In addition to this data gathered by researcher is
described in the section of Literature review.
Problem statement
In current time digitalization is adopted and implemented by each and every company
because through that they able to conduct their work in effective manner as well as it also leads

to growth of company effectively. In addition to this, digitalization also make work of employees
easily as well as it will also enhance their productivity successfully. In respect of Marriott
International hotel they are conducting their operations at the worldwide level as well as they
also use high technology but due to some reason they not able to fully utilized it. This is so
because their employees are not much experienced as well as there are some employees who are
not interested in adopted technology (Scholz and et. al., 2020). So it is essential for the respective
hotel management to aware employees about the impact of digitalization on the hotel capabilities
of change so that they get motivated as well as encouraged for adopting changes related to
technology in effective manner.
Is it timely? Does it respond to an existing need? What makes it so?
Yes project is done in a planned as well as timely way because project manager of
research create proper plan and strategies that aid researcher in doing work in systematic manner.
In addition to this researcher also adopt work breakdown structure according to which they can
divide whole work into small section which help members of research team in conducting work
easily as well as in timely manner(Latillaand et. al., 2020). Along with this researcher of
respective report also implement Gantt chart when help them in developing schedule for
conducting each and every work in a timely manner for the attainment of desire goal as well as
outcome in effective way. Yes it will respond to the existing need as researcher able to conduct
project properly as well as timely which help in attainment of goal. The main factors or method
help researcher in doing work properly are work breakdown structure as well as Gantt chart.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
The role of digitalisation in organisation
According to the viewpoints of Sainger (2018), it has been evaluated that behind
successfully running of business at both small and large level, digitalisations plays a crucial role.
It provides a competitive advantages by conducting operations at more fast, better and cheaper
rates. By integrating creative digital solutions, a firm gets efficient competitive edge over rivals,
through renovation or creating innovation in business. Digital technologies not only help in
improving quality of products, but also aid in promoting consistency in services (What Is The Role
Of Digitalisation In Business Growth?, 2020). In context with Marriott International, it has started
business 93 years ago i.e. in the year 1927 by Alice Marriott and Willard Marriott at small level.

But today, it has spread its branches in more than 7484 locations at worldwide level, where near
about 174,000 employees of different background but highly skilled working over there.
Therefore, having large expansion of business gives a number of reasons to this firm to adopt the
concept of digitalisation. It includes saving cost of operations, reaching at global level, making
effective interactions with customers, achieve set mission and vision statement in prescribed time
and more. Among all these things, the most advantage factor that Marriott seeks to gain while
adopting digital technologies is to move one step ahead from its major competitors like Hyatt
Hotel Corporations, Accor Hotel, Four Season Hotel, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and
more (Alsetoohy and et. al., 2019).
Digitalisations provides a number of advantages where most beneficial role is IT
development, through implementation of digital technologies, design of services, marketing and
sales etc. can be developed. By digitalising the business, highly skilled employees can be
recruited in each and every department, that further aids in increasing more competencies of
organisation. Optimum utilization of digital technologies like automated check-in and check-out
facilities, chat-bots, mobility solutions, block-chain and crypto-currency etc. will lead hotels to
attain better positioning within online market. With regards to Marriott Hotel, mobile apps aid a
simple and effective way to engage customers from the moment they are searching for a hotel
until after stay of them (Dasser, 2019). This would help reinforce the loyalty of respective hotel
or rewards program. Moreover, through apps and online websites, management of Marriott
collect useful information like type of accommodation facilities they want, usage frequency,
popular food dishes and items, in order to leverage such information for improving its guest
service. Similarly, incorporating the advanced technologies such as AI and IoT-based
applications allow its guests to plan and book trips, that allows administrations and staff for
providing streamlined services and improving cost, security and time efficiency including overall
customer experience.
Challenges arise during implementation of digitalisation
As per opinion and theoretical views of Udovita (2020), it has been analysed that today,
most of the organisations undergoing a digital transformation in business. It provides a number
of benefits to them like increase market share, enhance customer revenue, high employee morale,
user engagement and more. Through digitalisation, hotels can provide power to customers to
manage and plan own bookings, with listed price, a crypto-currency within a real time exchange

rates, etc. It also helps in offering rooms on attractive discount prices to guests and retain their
interest more longer, by dealing with consistency (Top 5 Digital Transformation Challenges (and How to
Overcome Them), 2020). But transforming business on digital platform arise a number of challenges
as well, in front of every business. With respect to Marriott International, as it has large
workplace with more than 174,000 employees, so it creates difficulties in front of management to
engage them with digitalising way of working. Along with this, lack of expertise for leading
initiatives of new technologies, frame organisational structure with lack of effective strategy and
more, arise a number of problems for its management during transformation of digitalisation.
This process takes a combination of both IT skills and technology to go through digital
transformation, where lack of knowledge will make it difficult for employees to work on the
same. If current systems are holding workers back, then it’s time to reevaluate the technology
partnerships including what it has to offer.
Digitalizing business will bring along its own myriad of some technical challenges where
company need the right people on board. Along with this, organizing training to workforce for
being digitally literate may take lots of time, but consider as advantage factor build the skills
required for innovation (Akbar and Tracogna, 2018). Through making early investments in
people for enhancement of their digital knowledge and skills, aid management of Marriot to stay
ahead with increasing capabilities of offering more consistent services, to generate high customer
experience. But no overarching strategy for transformation of digital technologies like chatbots,
AI and more, arise difficulties in front of management for handling employee pushback issues.
Because experiencing such transformation refers to epitome of discomfort which makes
employees threatened to work with the same, due to lack of proper knowledge. However,
providing training and digital learning program might help in improving their skills and makes
them capable to work accordingly. But having a large workforce seems to be difficult for
Marriott to develop skills of all staff members. In this regard, if only selected people get training
then it may arise feeling discrimination and inequality at workplace, which further impact on
performance of all. Therefore, it becomes necessary for hoteliers to strike a right balance
between workforce and automation, so that higher advantages could be gained. This would also
states that investment in bringing and updating technology is essential for long-term success, but
hotels must ensure that it should not come at the personal service cost.

Similarly, another main factor that arise problems in front of employees and management
of Marriott Hotel, is creating changes in organisational structure during digital transformation.
Driving changes at unprecedented level raise issues in terms of managing workforce with
automation technology. The digital transformation also refers to a substantial initiative which
may require changes in daily routine work of employees. This includes changing in roles and
responsibilities, changing departments and overhaul of organizational structure. For example –
implementing AI and other digital technologies, there is a wide changes within duties of staff
associated in IT department. In fact, creating such changes states that organizational structure
should be in flow, because the new frontier of technology, data science and the customer
experience will require it be so.
Role of digitalisations in managing changes within organisation
According to view points of Lam and Law (2019), it has been analysed that biggest concerns
that organisations dealing in hotel industry focus more with digital workplace, is way technology
is developing fast than capacity of humans to learn and keep up (5 Ways in which digitization is
changing business world, 2019). AI intelligence and machine learning provides an opportunity for
capitalising the human needs via anticipating actions and learning behaviours, in terms of
performing daily routine organisational activities. In context with Marriott, Technological
progress made it possible for this hotel to adjust work schedule as per personal needs and
lifestyle. As many services are provided via technological tools like mobile apps, chatbots etc.,
so its management can easily rely on freelancers as well as remote workers who can deliver their
work through internet and varied platforms. This would help in managing work more efficiently
and make changes in working schedule as per priority needs, more easily. But apart from
simplified workflows that technology has made in hotels, it is essential for management to
ensure that employees must be informed with digitalisation, especially when it comes to change
management. In making communications with employees, technology plays a crucial role in
realising the success of initiatives related to managing changes. It includes way of people
affected with changes, their needs to work on the same as well as how commitment and high
engagement of workforce could be achieved through right actions. Since in Marriott which has
large workforce, face-to-face interaction is not possible or even practicable to be done with each
employee, as they are distributed across various locations at worldwide level. Therefore,