Leadership, CSR, and Social Media: Hilton Garden Inn Analysis Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership styles and organizational responsibility within the hospitality sector, specifically focusing on Hilton Garden Inn. The report begins by defining leadership and its importance in achieving organizational goals, highlighting key leadership traits such as communication, decisiveness, innovation, honesty, and vision. It then explores different leadership styles, including autocratic, democratic, transactional, and transformational leadership, with an emphasis on the democratic style adopted by Hilton Garden Inn. The report further discusses organizational responsibility, encompassing strategic, economic, social, and environmental performance, and examines how Hilton Garden Inn integrates these aspects into its operations. Responsible leadership is also discussed, emphasizing the importance of ethical decision-making and stakeholder engagement. The report concludes by evaluating Hilton Garden Inn's social media practices and their implications for customer satisfaction, providing insights into how the company leverages digital platforms to enhance its brand image and customer relationships.

Emerging Trends in the
Hospitality Industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Q.1 Analyzing different leadership styles take place within organizations in the hospitality
sector...........................................................................................................................................1
Q.2 Discussing the concepts of organizational responsibility & responsible leadership and its
applicability.................................................................................................................................3
Q.3 Critically examining CSR benefits in the context of Hilton Garden Inn ............................6
Q.4 Evaluating social media practices of Hilton Garden Inn along with the implications for
better customer satisfaction.........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In recent times, the hospitality sector of the UK seems dynamic due to the decision of
Brexit. UK hospitality sector is highly growing and makes a remarkable contribution to
economic growth. However, the situation of pandemic (Covid-19) affected both the productivity
and profitability of Hilton adversely. Currently, a high level of competition takes place within
the UK hospitality sector, as there are several units that we're providing customers with unique
services at suitable prices. For this report, Hilton Garden Inn has been selected, which offers
luxurious accommodation services along with restaurants to the customers in an innovative
manner. This restaurants unit is operating at the global level and listed on the recognized stock
exchange of London. This report will provide a deeper insight into the concepts of leadership
and organizational accountability. It presents a leadership style followed by Hilton Garden Inn
within different cultural aspects. Along with this, the report will highlight h activities undertaken
by the concerned firm for the welfare of others. The report will also depict how the business unit
can get the desired level of the outcome by practising CSR. Further, it also entails the
significance of social media in relation to evolving satisfaction among customers.
Q.1 Analyzing different leadership styles take place within organizations in the hospitality sector
Leadership
In the context of business settings, leadership may be defined as an act that emphasizes
the achievement of common goals through motivate personnel. With regard to Hilton, leaders
play a vital role in guiding personnel so that predetermined goals can be attained. Also, through
effective leadership, leaders motivate their team and also directs them so that they attain the
defined target of a firm (Van Vugt and von Rueden, 2020). Further, it can be stated that through
leadership, leader of a firm set direction, build the vision and create something new that helps to
take a business at a further level of success.
Leadership traits
In order to attain success within a globally competitive level, companies develop
strategies in order to meet the defined aim. For that, different leaders assist the business to
generate revenue; thus, they required effective traits as well, which are as mentioned below:
Communication skills: A leader should instruct subordinates at work, and that is why
they must possess strong communication skills that help to translate their thoughts and ideas into
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words (Six key leadership traits, 2017). Also, they have strong verbal and oral communication
skills in order to communicate messages in a proper manner.
Decisiveness: A leader must possess strong decision-making skills in order to make the
right decision. The leader leads a team and having strong decisiveness assists business to make
an effective decision for the welfare of a firm. For that, they must possess strong critical thinking
abilities in order to generate the best outcomes.
Innovative: Another important skill possessed by a leader that helps to provide
innovative ideas (Lange and Hernandez-Bark, 2020). Having creativity in their work assists
business to generate the best variety of services for their customers. Also, leaders motivate their
team members so that they assist the company in deriving the best output for the welfare of a
firm.
Honesty and transparency: one of the essential skill that helps the leader to gain trust
from their members, and also being loyal towards their team also assists the company to develop
long term relationship. Therefore, honesty is the most valued trait for any business leader and
being transparent to their teams also provoke them to support their members.
Visionary: Leaders have a good vision, and they also keep them updated with regard to
changes in the market. Every business has its own leaders who assist the company in taking into
a further level of success (Khan and Soomro, 2020). Also, ensuring a vision for the future is
essential for the business, and thus they need help from the leader; that is why they possess
strong visionary.
Different types of leadership.
There are numerous leadership styles that can be undertaken by the firms operating
within the hospitality sector, such as:
Autocratic leadership
It is a management style where one person controls all decision, but they put little inputs
from their group members. The leaders follow such a style to make their own decision without
involving others (Shkoler and Tziner, 2020). With the help of such a leadership style, leaders
make a fast decision and also improve communication which in turn improved productivity.
Democratic leadership
One of the most common leadership style in which leaders involve all stakeholders and
collect views before making any decision. This is opted by those leaders who possess strong,
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talented and experienced workers, which in turn assists them in making effective decision. Also,
by opting for such a leadership style, the company encourages a creative environment and
develop strong connectivity between team members as well. Therefore, it is mostly used by
leaders because it helps to solve complex issues.
Transactional leadership
This style mainly focused on the role of supervision, the organization in which leaders
focused upon rewards as well as punishments in order to motivate their followers. Therefore,
this style of leadership is not a good fit for those places where creativity and innovative ideas are
valued (What is Transactional leadership? How structure leads to results, 2021). Thus, this is
followed by only self-motivated people who work well in a structured and make the decision by
analyzing the situation as well.
Transformational leadership
This style is followed where a leader works with a team in order to identify the need for
change and also create a vision to guide a change by motivating them properly. Thus, employees
who followed such a leadership style will take a business towards a change and also shape the
future success of a company as well. In addition to this, through this style, the company build a
healthy culture and also encourage staff to learn new skills as well. Apart from this, it reduces
turnover cost and keeps the company open, to be honest, and transparent towards others.
Leadership styles take place within Hilton Garden Inn.
Among all styles, Hilton Garden Inn will use Democratic leadership styles in which all
employees bring their views in order to make a better decision for the company. Also, this will
helps a firm to build a strong team relationship, which in turn increase morale as well as job
satisfaction. In the same way, the leader of the quoted restaurant will also use such a style, which
in turn assists the business to develop trust and raise productivity level as well (Dhanesh, 2020).
In addition to this, it is also analyzed that through such leadership, Hilton Garden Inn allow the
leader to capitalize on their employee's individual talent and strength so that it generates high
revenue and build a strong customer base as well. Having democratic leaders in the workplace
reflects that the company have transparent communication in which all employees have
participated within a decision-making process with an aim to sustain brand image at the global
level.
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Q.2 Discussing the concepts of organizational responsibility & responsible leadership and their
applicability
Organizational responsibility
In recent times, the organization is not run without having effective organizational
responsibilities. This is defined as policies and actions that are taken into accounts by
stakeholder's expectation so that company's performance can be evaluated in a proper manner.
Also, every organization have their own protocols that help the business to follows in a
uniformed guideline (Zhang and et.al., 2020). In the context of Hilton Garden Inn, there are
different roles and responsibilities defined by the company to their people, and they all work
together in order to attain the defined aim. There are different examples of organizational
responsibilities, which are as mentioned below:
 Strategic responsibilities: One of the most important responsibilities of Hilton Garden
Inn, where the company make a profit by offering the best variety of services to its
customers that helps to maximize the sales and customers. Also, this, in turn, assists a
business to grow at a different level by developing different strategies by involving all-
important key stakeholders. However, on a critical note, it is analyzed that with such
responsibility, the company is not able to generate the best output and does not involve
itself to make the decision.
 Economic performance: Another important responsibility that helps to improve the
productivity of employees and there are many indicators used by quoted restaurant such
that to provide a safe working environment, the company develop strategies and provide
learning opportunities (Nguyen and et.al., 2020). On a contrary note, it is examined if it
is not used, then the company is not able to evaluate the performance.
 Social performance: It is deal with the principles, practices that are used to generate a
better relationship with people, organizations, communities with an aim to deliver the
best results for the welfare of society. Similarly, the quoted firm is also used different
techniques in order to introduce its social performance in society, such that offer free
books to kids in order to develop their interest in a business. Whereas to gain brand
image at the global level, the company perform social activities, and if such is not
performed, then customers will not be aware of its CSR activities.
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 Environmental performance: One of the basic responsibility of every business in
which they have to develop strategies that assist in protecting the environment. This
helps a business to create a positive impression upon society as well (Saha and et.al.,
2020). In the context of Hilton Garden Inn, a company trying to minimize food wastage
by up to 50% by 2030. Therefore, it is also leading towards a commitment of sending
zero scraps to landfill that helps to promote a positive environment for others; on the
other side, if such strategies have not opted, then it will cause a negative impact upon the
environment.
Responsible leadership
It is another critical term that is used by the organization in order to stay ahead in the
competition. Such that it is all about making the sustainable business decision which is taken by
involving all stakeholders which contribute towards community, environment and future
generations. A responsible leader is one who makes an informed ethical judgment about existing
norms and rules and has a zeal to make positive changes within a firm so that it will not cause
any adverse impact upon business performance (Javed and et.al., 2020). Therefore, it is
considered one of the important key aspect that makes the cultural change in companies and
fostering their employees to improve the performance. It is possible while opting
transformational leadership style because this style keeps motivating the employees to involve
within the team and raise their performance by providing the best ideas. There are different
examples of associate with the term such that:
 Direction: It is the key point of responsible leadership in which leaders provide direction
to their employees so that they can help to meet the defined aim and objectives of a firm
(Khan and Soomro, 2020). Also, in Hilton Garden Inn, an effective leader always assists
their employees to identify the best opportunities so that they attain the set target as well.
However, it has also been evaluated that without responsible leadership, a company do
not run in an effective manner because there is no-one who leads their employees
towards a set target.
 Engagement: The main engagement of leader is motivating their team members for
performance, and responsibilities that are given can be completed to achieve the overall
objectives (Kim and Jeong, 2018). Leaders engage worker in the task to achieve the
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ultimate objectives for the company. They increase the working efficiency of employees
by developing enthusiasm for working and commitment towards the company. Leaders
motivate employees and boost their performance to work efficiently in the company in
order to complete their task within a given time period. The commitment made towards
the company by the leader is to attain objectives in a given period.
 Alignment: Leaders assign roles and responsibilities to the team member to complete
the work of the Hilton garden inn in a smooth manner. Leaders also help in developing
and motivating their employees to work together by performing the task that is given to
them for the growth of the company. It is the most important function of leadership that
is coordinating between the information flow and decision taken by the company to
attain the target (Lange and Hernandez-Bark, 2020). It helps employees to focus on
work without wasting their time figuring out what to do and how to do it—for example,
clearly understanding the roles and responsibility of the employees of the company.
 Renewal: Leader, along with their employee, encourage them to accept the changes and
start working in a new culture. They coordinate with them at the time of information,
activities and decisions that are taken and performed by the team members to achieve the
objective of the organization by implementing strategies. It will also motivate the
employees as they will get new opportunities by adopting and getting trained in the new
culture (Shkoler and Tziner, 2020). As a responsible leader, it is important to make all
the information clear about the new culture to its employee to shows the awareness of the
restaurant towards the market and society.
Q.3 Critically examining CSR benefits in the context of Hilton Garden Inn
Corporate social responsibility is the concept that is used by the company to integrate the
interest and needs of the customers, suppliers, shareholders, communities, planet into corporate
strategies and employees. CSR generally related to the balance of the environment just because
they had taken help, so it is time to give some return (Corporate Social Responsibility,
Government, and Civil Society, 2021). It is about being a responsible business and, as a part of
an integrated and strategic approach, creates shared value for business and society. Corporate
responsibility is the voluntary activity that businesses take over and above legal requirements to
pull off and enhance economic, environmental and societal impacts. In the UK, corporate social
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responsibility is seen as the best practices that are used by both city and the government. For the
hotels, corporations are responsible not only for shareholders but also for the whole society. It
helps in creating value for both internal and external stakeholders. The aim of this responsibility
is to help learners to understand how they can create a strategy that is related to environmental,
economic and societal issues and can work in ways that resourceful, ethical and sustainable.
Corporate social responsibility activities can enhance customer perceptions of the business to
attract more customers. Hilton inn is taking the help of the environment to become a successful
market; every business needs help environment concerning their operation part. They are
responsible for defining the management concepts that are related to the social and
environmental concerns which have a direct impact on the business operations. The company
need to make some part of its profit as CSR to fulfil the requirement of law and to follow moral
ethics. In Hilton inn, sustainability and efficiency play a significant role or part in the business
model.
Benefits of corporate social responsibility to the Hospitality industry
Corporate social responsibilities activities are very common in every organization, especially in
the hospitality industry that gives benefits are:
Helps in increasing the brand value of the company: Corporate social responsibility will not
only create a positive brand image but will also lead the brand awareness in the mind of its
potential customers. CSR will build brand equity by enhancing its future goodwill and profits.
They are the modes for the company to increase its reputation.
CSR helps the company to become environmental friendly: CSR helps the company to
reduce the damaging effect that will have an impact on the environment of the business process.
CSR make the company environmental friendly by running a campaign like go green by using
green products.
Helps in improving financial performance: Corporate financial responsibility helps in
improving the financial performance of the business by creating a positive image among the
stakeholders by decreasing overall costs. By using these CSR activities company also improves
its profitability and performance (Gursoy, D., 2018).
Benefits of corporate social responsibility to the government:
The main purpose of government is to use corporate social responsibility is to conduct
companies in an ethical manner that will result in a positive impact on society through
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sustainable growth. CSR activities allow the government to establish framework conditions that
are related to encouraging and voluntary corporate responsibility. By this government create
value for both societal and brand image.
Work period: With the help of corporate social responsibility, the government can increase
employee loyalty and job satisfaction and boost employee engagement. Corporate social
responsibility plays an important role in developing activities that are related to rebalancing
responsibilities.
It helps in reducing burden: Strong relationships with the firms reduce the burden of the
government and also create social value and welfare. They give relaxation to the working of
government by following some movements that are women empowerment, children welfare and
go green to give success to government initiatives. It also reduces the burden on the government
by terms of welfare services that are expected to be delivered by them.
It is a self-regulatory model that refers to the stakeholder concept that benefits the government to
the extent that it improves responsibility and necessity to enforce regulations and institute
legislation (Santeramo, F.G., and et.al, 2018).
Benefits of corporate social responsibility to civil society: Corporate society has helped civil
society that is operated on CSR or acting as a free market in return, they encourage more
funding. Initiatives of CSR like matching gift programmer that are received up to double the
amount or result in increasing their funding. Work makes the instability for the charities to bring
more attention accompanying to the cause.
If the company is using sustainable systems, then they can post on their social media channels
and create a story to know people about the efforts. By seeing that customers will follow them
and will engage in the brand and operations of Hilton inn.
Corporate social responsibility results in effective change in society that is related to improve the
standard of food and education, opportunities for employment, change in thinking about
corporate. It helps them to create social welfare for the people who don't have a home to live in
(Patterson, I. and Balderas, A., 2018).
They provide services to the people where health and facilities are not provided by the
government due to some issues. By corporate social responsibility, they can lead to long- term
collaborations if the partnership between the companies and charities are formed using corporate
social responsibilities.
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Q.4 Evaluating social media practices of Hilton Garden Inn along with the implications for
better customer satisfaction
Social media is one of the fast and most increasing rising trends over the world and helping the
Hospitality industry to grow their business. Social media helps Hilton inn to attract new
customers to know what are services & food offered and to make people aware of it by posting
videos and pictures on their social media pages. Customers are satisfied through the social media
platform, and it helps the Hilton inn to get new customers by increasing their revenue. For every
business, they need money for survival, and to make money, they need customers. Hilton inn
can also grow its business with a new platform like Youtube, which is also a social media site.
Advertisement on social media is cost affecting, and it helps them to find the customers who are
interested to know what are the unique services and food provided by the Hilton inn. The
website of the restaurant is also one of the major platforms that are used by companies to attract
new customers and also by knowing what the satisfaction and experience of people are.
By using social media company post the picture and video of real people by showing the values
of them that they feel good about their choice to stay with Hilton inn (Kim, H. J. and Jeong, M.,
2018).
Various social media practices that are performed by Hilton garden inn are unique and engaging:
Instagram: The main motive of Hilton to use Instagram as its social media promotion is that it
helps them to share images and video with their audience. The Instagram page of Hilton is
branded as a newsroom by representing all the properties of Hilton across the globe. The page of
Hilton is promoted by celebrities with their glamour shot and by the celebrations like event,
marriage etc. A recent post of Hilton inn has shared the journey of former refuge, which turned
into an employee and is publicly honoured by the brand.
Twitter: It is the microblogging that allows people to send and share the short post that is
known as tweets. Twitter is a very trending social media app that is used by every citizen of the
world. The main purpose of Hilton to use this social media site is to connect with people and
allow them to share their thoughts about their hospitality. By using Twitter, Hilton shares their
travel industry software, brand partnership, business article and their new offers.
Facebook: For the hospitality industry, Facebook helps them to reach their brand to a valuable
audience. Hilton uses Facebook to communicate with its audience by sharing posts and by
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investing in Facebook ADS and promotions. The Facebook page of Hilton is very popular and
helps the audience to know the information about their services and food offered by them.
LinkedIn: It is the world largest network on the internet. It is the social media practice that is
focused on career development and professional networking. LinkedIn is used to find internship
and rights jobs. Hilton had around 90000 followers that feature the history, content and news
that appeals to B2B audience and business travellers.
YouTube: By using youtube, they post videos related to the holiday of the people, how they
have enjoyed their hospitality and their reviews. YouTube helps in providing an outlet that can
reach customers across the globe. Hilton inn uses youtube to increase its market value and grow
its business by posting good videos and pictures (Sanjeev, G. M. and Birdie, A. K., 2019).
Customers satisfaction is important for every company because they not only have an impact on
the business bottom line, but they also have an impact on retention rate and team morale.
Customer experience is not about what the company is doing for itself. It is about what the
company is serving its customers by giving benefits and values. These have all the information
of Hilton In like their menu with prices and all the information that will make it easier for them
to choose. This also giver a better experience to customers so that they don't have to waste their
time selecting what to order and will also show honest review by customers about the restaurant
and food that are provided by Hilton Inn. This strategy is used by the hospitality sectors to
attract a large number of customers. Customers satisfaction is important for every company
because they not only have an impact on the business bottom line, but they also have an
impact on retention rate and team morale. If their customers have good experience and
satisfaction, they will tell that to their friends. The satisfaction of customers is based on thriving
and surviving. Better customer satisfaction will create customer loyalty, greater brand equity,
higher lifetime customer value and customer retention. The main factor that affects customer
satisfaction is restaurant service, quality, price and taste of the restaurant.
What is the nature of Social Media practices by your chosen organisation?
The nature of social media practices that is used by Hilton is facebook, instgram, twitter,
linkedln and youtube.
What are the Social Media related benefits to your chosen organisation?
The social media benefits for Hilton inn is it helps in reaching new customers, increasing direct
bookings, boosting the brands that are served by hotel along with this it also help the
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organisation to keep their focus on the social media marketing that will target their specific
people by using marketing campaigns.
What are the risks involved in Social Media?
The risk in social media is that if any customer have a bad experience from the services that are
served by Hilton then they have this modes to talk about all the problems they have faced. It will
also result in turning some potential customers away
What are the strategies to overcome the above risks?
To overcome this risks the hotel can apologize to the cutomers for the poor experience they have
faced. Along with this they can also offere refund or discounts like free meal which will result in
getting back into customers good books.
CONCLUSION
By summing up this report, it can be concluded that effectual leadership practices help
Hilton Garden Inn in fulfilling organizational goals. It can be summarized from the evaluation
that the manager of the quoted restaurants unit has the accountability to develop a sound
strategic framework that enhances organizational performance. Besides this, it can be inferred
from the evaluation that CSR practices assist Hilton Garden Inn in increasing market share,
brand image and thereby both productivity and profitability. Moreover, now customers give
priority to the firm, which performs activities in a sustainable manner. It can be seen in the
report that through the means of social media sites manager of Hilton Garden Inn can assess the
views, preferences and expectation of customers. Along with this, it also offers an opportunity in
relation to solving queries of customers quickly and thereby increases their satisfaction level. It
has been articulated that through undertaking social media practices restaurant unit can offer
high-quality services to the customers as per their requirements. This, in turn, helps in gaining a
competitive edge over others by building high customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
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