Introduction to Management: Applying Theories to Imperial Hotel Issues

This essay addresses the high staff turnover rate at The Imperial Hotel, a 4-star hotel in West London, by analyzing various management theories and proposing solutions. It examines Scientific Management Theory, Bureaucratic Management Theory, Human Relations Theory, Systems Theory, ...Read More

Introduction to Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction –.............................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the individual problem –.........................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................8
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Introduction:
The Imperial Hotel, which is a part of 100 year old 4 star hotels chain “The Star Hotels”, is
located in a pause suburb of West London. Located in the heart of West London, this
organization mainly serves the upper class people and the international tourists with high
expectation of luxury and conformable accommodation and staying experience. Presently, the
organization is suffering from several major problems that are hindering the profitability,
growth rate of the company and leading the hotel at the edge of demise. The lack of
managerial efficiency is leading to the gradual deterioration of fame and profitability of the
company and has made it the lowest graded company among the 25 hotels, operating under
the Star Hotel Chain. One of the major areas of concern is the high rate of staff turnover,
with 80 percent of the staff leaving within a year. In the current scenario, it has been observed
that most of the business organizations are facing several kind of challenges and difficulties,
in order to retain and manage large number of staff in the business organization. This
particular scenario, has directly affected the business operations and activities. This situation
has resulted into the urgency of effective management and efficiency managerial decision
making.
Several problems like poor work culture, excessive work pressure, poor pay scale and lack of
management have resulted into this unexpected level of staff turnover. The following section
would deal with this dilemma and provide effective solutions for the given problem. By
evaluating the management theories, the following section would describe the ways that can
be beneficial for dealing with this dilemma of high rate of staff turnover. It has to be noted
that, the human assets are the major assets of the company and a proper employee
management is an inextricable part of the company. Therefore, proper managerial decisions
are required for retaining the employees. It has to be ensured that The Imperial Hotel is using
effective train and development strategies for improving and sharpening the skills of the
existing members.
Analysis of the individual problem:
In order to solve the dilemma rearing the high rate of turnover in The Imperial Hotel, it is
essential to have a proper understanding of the major management theories, such theories are
developed on the basis of the methods used by organizations for dealing with and managing
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its human resources within the organizations. The management theories are developed by
several major some philosophers, scientists and some other major personalities.
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Figure 1: Major theories of management
(Source: Created by author) `
The major theories of management are described in the following way:
Scientific management theory
This management theory emerged in the late 19th century and continued to be major
management theory till the mid of 20th century (Waring, 2016). During this time period the
organizations were growing significantly. The large and industrialized organizations followed
a strict manner while dealing with its employees and used to follow a disciplined structure for
managing organizational activities. The major characteristic of this type of management
technique in the area of human resource management is the system of penalizing the
employees for negative performance, while rewarding them for contributing in organizational
profitability. This management technique has similarity with the transactional leadership style
where the organization emphasizes on reward and recognition system. This managerial style
is also used widely in several multinational organizations in present days also (Shafritz et al.,
2015). The reward and recognition system has found to be beneficial for retaining employees
and giving them courage for more productivity. In the organization, The Imperial Hotel, the
lack of reward and recognition system has resulted into the loss of employee motivation and
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Major
theories of
management
Human
Relations
theory
Scientific
management
theory
Theory X and
theory Y
Chaos theory
Systems
theory
Bureaucratic
Management
Theory

this can be one of the core reasons for the lack of employee engagement in the organization.
This indicates that the organization must incorporate such reward and recognition system.
However, due to the high rate of turnover, the system of penalizing employees has to be
omitted. The imposition of strict rules and over strict environment can make the situation
worse and further hinder and this is where the limitation of this managerial style lies.
Bureaucratic Management Theory
Developed by Max Weber, this theory chiefly emphasizes on dividing the organizational
structure in different hierarchical level and imposing a strong line of authority and control
over the other subordinate organizations (Bratton and Gold, 2017). According to the
propagator of this theory, an organization can achieve detailed standard and comprehensive
operating procedures by implementing strict rules and regulations (Sturdy et al., 2016). This
theory cannot be applicable in the case of Imperial hotel as the mismanagement from the side
of supervisors and the deficit of healthy organizational culture are major reasons for this high
rate of turnover.
Employees are getting more and more concern and aware of their contributions to the
organizations and they are becoming less tolerant towards the subjugating attitudes of the
upper level manager (Giachetti, 2016). Therefore, if an organization frames its organizational
structure in a hierarchical manner, then it has to ensure that the upper level manners and not
using any subordinating approaches towards the lower level manager.
Human Relations theory
Developed by Elton Mayo, this theory is based on the core principles of humanity as
dehumanization started gulping modern civilization and organizations started treating
workforce as productive engines devoid of any emotional needs (Hill et al., 2014).
Cooperative relations among the workers and fulfilling the emotional needs of the employees
are the two major characteristics of this theory. According to this theory, an organization
must provide more attention to the capabilities of individuals. This theory emphasizes on
aligning the requirements of the employees with the requirements of the organization.
An organization can only achieve its objectives, if the requirements of the employees are
fulfilled properly. This theory emphasizes on the Soft HRM approaches that indicate that
personnel of a company must get rewarded for the contributions that the individual are
making towards the organization (Knutsen, 2016). This also propagates the idea that, the
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employees must be provided with the opportunity stating their requirements and for
interactions with each other.
One of the major issues of The Imperial Hotel is that the deficit of healthy work environment.
The unsociable work hours, aggressive supervisory as well as management style, negative
perceptions of the workers are major reasons that have been identified behind the high rate of
turnover of the employees. This dilemma can be solved only with the practical application of
the theory. The company must arrange social gathering, events where employees would be
able to develop a proper relationship with one another. The work hours has to be divided in
such a way so that it becomes a little sociable and a family like environment is developed
within the organization. This theory focuses on the importance of shifting from Hard HRM
practices to Soft HRM practices that can significantly boost up the productive and optimistic
work culture of an organization.
Systems theory
The systems theory propagates the idea of looking at the organization as a system with its
parts. The removal of one part or the glitch in one of the parts may result into impacting the
overall system (Giachetti, 2016). The organization has to be considered as a system with
inputs, processes, outcomes and outputs. In the case of an organization, the inputs refer to the
resources like financial resources, human resources, raw materials and other resources. The
resources go through a process that includes proper planning, organization, control
motivation and management. Outputs indicate to the products and services of the company,
while the outcomes refer to the productivity and the contribution of the company. According
to this theory, the process has to be efficient enough to fetch proper outcome from the inputs
(Cascio, 2018).
This theory is also applicable in the case of The Imperial Hotel. It is evident that some
internal glitch in the process of the organization is leading to the disastrous consequences.
The glitch is due to the lack of management and human resource management. The payroll
structure of the company is not efficient enough to meet the requirements of the employees.
The core area of West London where the hotel is located is a highly expensive area and
therefore the employee has to incur a high transportation cost on an everyday basis. The
salary structure is not sufficient enough to meet such requirements and therefore some
potential employees have chosen to leave the organization. This can be solved by
implementing an effective human resource management.
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In order to retain employees from joining other competitor organizations, Imperial hotel must
initiate benchmark pay scale and salary structure against competitor organizations. The
performance of the existing employees can be improved and the efficient employees can be
retained with the help of effective reward and recognition system. It is observed that such
methods of appreciating the efforts of employees have a certain positive influence on
employees (Marchington et al., 2016). Psychological needs sometimes become more
important than financial requirement. Therefore, the use of such methods would be highly
beneficial for retaining employees along with creating a completive environment within the
organization.
Chaos theory
This theory accepts change and chaos as inevitable and promotes the idea that chaos is
constant and cannot be avoided. Hotel Imperial has to adapt change as inevitable part of the
organization and has to take effective measurements in order to be adaptive with the changing
scenario (Sparrow et al., 2016). Currently, the organization is facing the chaos of employee
retention as the turnover rate has touched to the level of 80 % a year. The organization would
have to accept the glitch in its own planning and procedure and would have to undertake
effective measurement for dealing with such issues.
Theory X and theory Y
Developed by Douglas McGregor, this theory categorizes the employees in two different
segments that are X and Y. The employees, who have lack of ambition and desires to have
more incentive to improve performance, are categorized as X type of workers (Reiche et al.,
2016). On the other hand, the employees who have trust for knowledge and want to learn
from working with their company, is categorized as the Y type of employees. The
organization, Imperial Hotel must let the employees train in such a way so that they become
the second category of employees. Proper planning and management are required for this
purpose. With the help of people management and planning, like implementation of Soft
HRM practices, introduction of reward and recognition system and others, the organization
can overcome the dilemma with employee retention.
Conclusion
The above report provides a beneficial analysis of the methods that can be undertaken for
solving the dilemma of employee turnover in The Imperial Hotel. Some effective and
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beneficial solutions are provided by analyzing the management theories. Several management
theories are developed by experts, based on the management approaches organizations have
been using for years. The theories also suggests the major approaches that organizations like
The Imperial Hotel must use for resolving dilemma such as high rate of employee turnover.
It is observed that the management theories clearly illustrate the possible approaches that can
be taken for resolving the dilemma.
For example, according to the Human Relations Theory, a friendly work culture is required
for retaining employees. This indicates to the use of Soft HRM practices that can
significantly reduce the negative consequences of using harsh approaches towards
employees. From the systems theory, it can be anticipated that proper planning and
management is required for managing the process of an organization and for fetching
expected outputs from the inputs of the organizations. By analyzing the theories the above
study provides a clear understanding of the approaches that can be beneficial for dealing with
employee turnover. It is suggested that the company must use effective reward and
recognition strategies for retaining its employees.
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Bibliography
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Giachetti, R.E., 2016. Design of enterprise systems: Theory, architecture, and methods. CRC
Press.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Knutsen, T.L., 2016. A history of international relations theory. Oxford University Press.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource
management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Reiche, B.S., Stahl, G.K., Mendenhall, M.E. and Oddou, G.R. eds., 2016. Readings and cases
in international human resource management. Taylor & Francis.
Shafritz, J.M., Ott, J.S. and Jang, Y.S., 2015. Classics of organization theory. Cengage
Learning.
Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Sturdy, A., Wright, C. and Wylie, N., 2016. Managers as consultants: The hybridity and
tensions of neo-bureaucratic management. Organization, 23(2), pp.184-205.
Waring, S.P., 2016. Taylorism transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC
Press Books.
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