Improving Teamwork and Efficiency at the Imperial Hotel: A Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This case study analyzes the Imperial Hotel's operational challenges and proposes solutions.

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT- CASE STUDY THE IMPERIAL HOTEL
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the Individual Problem.................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
The “Imperial Hotel” is situated in the heart of West End in London which is owned & managed
part of the international branded chain of various hotels in the 4-star markets & is very well-
known. The “Star Hotels” operates 25 Hotels in the country of U.K. The complete assignment
indicates about one of the major problems faced by the “Imperial Hotel” which is the poor team
working among the front house staff including the inefficient use of all the systems of
information technologys such as the property management & reservation systems. The front
house staff involves the areas of reception, restaurant & bars, and conference & banqueting. The
complete working of the “Imperial Hotel” is dependent upon the number of guests arriving at the
Hotel along with the time period for which they stay in the Hotel. This problem is being analyzed
& evaluated completely in the presence of the new general manager “Peter Farnsworth” who has
currently taken over the complete management of the Hotel. All the necessary problems were
identified by him & also the effective measures or the creative business strategies are also to be
implemented by the overall management of the Hotel so as to eliminate all the identified
problems from the Hotel. The identified major problems of “Front House Staff” have the
“pivotal customer facing role” which offers the effective services & the complete support to all
the guests who visit the Imperial Hotel.
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Analysis of the Individual Problem
All those guests who visit the “Imperial Hotel” have a high level of expectations in relation to all
the service standards developed & maintained by the hotel. Various effective services/ facilities
are being provided by the hotel including the conference facilities for approximate 1000 people,
4 restaurants & 3 bars, 500 bedrooms with all the en-suite facilities, leisure center with
swimming pool & around 12 conference rooms. The “Imperial Hotel” also has the effective staff
members who are 450 in a total of a number including 300 full-time members & remaining are
the part-time members. It has the 6 head of departments of food & beverages, guest services,
human resources, housekeeping, the front of house & reception and training. Apart from all these
internal staffs, the hotel also has some other staff contractors outside the hotel such as the
laundry services, specialists for special cleaning and the management of the leisure center
(PARK, 2014).
The previous manager of the hotel was facing the huge number of problems in managing the
overall activities/ operations of the different departments of the hotel & also in managing all the
staff members of the hotel because of which these problems were resulting in the poor staff
morale & the low percentage in the employees’ retention, i.e. huge number of staff members
leaving the “Imperial Hotel”. Apart from this, it has also been identified that the lowest grade is
been given to the Imperial Hotel in the whole “Star Chain” because of the least satisfaction
among all the arrived guests to the hotel. These kinds of poor performances were having the
adverse, as well as the negative impact on the overall organizational cost of the hotel & reducing
the overall amount of profitability along with hotel productivity and proficiency. All these
problems are also hampering the target budget of the hotel & resulting in the loss of income
(PARK, 2014).
It has been identified by the new general manager of the “Imperial Hotel” that the housekeeping
staff has not been given the adequate & relevant information of all the guests who have arrived
the hotel & all those who are leaving the hotel at what respective time period because of which
they are not been able to clean the rooms on time & also the kitchen departments are not able to
prepare the food as per the standard number of guests. The teams of reception work in the shift
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of 8 hours & each team have each of the respective supervisors who manage the whole team as it
is very essential for the “Imperial Hotel” to remain the front reception open for the complete 24
hours for the guest arrivals (Waiguny, et.al. 2014). The hotel utilizes the system of “Micros
Fidelio reservation & Property management” for transferring & sharing the relevant
information or accurate data in accordance with the reservation of all the guests. All the
departments of the hotel including the conferencing, kitchen & restaurants are completely
dependent upon the reception staff for the number of guests & other necessary data in terms of
entering or leaving the “Imperial Hotel”. The new head of reception department who work with
the new general manager has identified the various other problems along with the above ones
which involves the arising conflicts among different departments of the hotel for providing of
the inaccurate & irrelevant data or information for the arrival of guests, availability of the hotel
rooms & the number of guests who are staying in the hotel (Waiguny, et.al. 2014). Because of
these issues, the housekeeping staff is not able to clean the rooms on time & the guests need to
wait for the long hours to get their keys to rooms.
This creates a bad impression on the service sector of the hotel on the minds of all the guests
who need to wait for a longer period of time. Along with the housekeeping staff, there were huge
complaints which were identified by the head of the department that the conference &
banqueting staff are also facing the major problems with the improper data in term of terms of
the number of guests who are arriving to attend the meetings & conferences. In order to
eliminate all these major issues, effective measures & policies are to be implemented in an
effective & efficient manner. The dynamics of the reception staff is not good for the culture of
the “Imperial Hotel” & these may also result in the clash of some effective or strong personalities
within the overall department (Kuo and Kalargyrou, 2014). The new general manager of the
hotel will review that all the teams are completely structured in an effective manner, the
individual performance will be get reviewed in terms of their performance productivity &
proficiency. He has also decided to provide effective rewards & frame the standard incentive
plan for good performance. The effective training & development sessions will also need to be
provided so as to develop & build up the strong personality of each & every individual working
in the hotel. The manager will also implement the team-based approach to enhance the high
level of coordination among the different staff departments (Kuo and Kalargyrou, 2014).
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Apart from all these the general manager of the “Imperial Hotel” must also implement the
effective theories of management in order to solve out all these identified issues in a successful
manner. One of the effective management theories which can be implemented is the theory of
“Frederick W. Taylor” which evaluates the complete work process in a systematic manner in
order to maximize the level of prosperity for both the employees as well as the employers. He
examined the scientific methods for determining the best ways to do all the organizational things
in the appropriate manner. He suggests that the best person is to be selected to perform certain
kind of work, all the employees must be completely trained with the help of effective methods,
and financial incentives should be provided for motivating all of them. Another effective
management theory is of “Max Weber” who focuses more on the concept of “bureaucracy”. He
suggests that all the work must be accomplished in accordance with the defined rules &
regulations for enhancing stability among all the employees, fairness must be enhanced in the
business organization, hierarchical structure should be followed by the manager of “Imperial
Hotel” and the division should be made correctly in between the complete management & the
organizational employees (Kensbock, et.al. 2016).
The management theory of “Elton Mayo” is another effective theory which focuses upon the
human factor & their influence on the overall productivity. The main aim of this theory is to
discover the effect on the output of all the dynamic & changing factors in the complete physical
environment. According to this theory, the new general manager of “Imperial Hotel” should
acquire social skills in order to maximize human relationships in a positive manner. The other
effective management theory of management is “Herzberg’s Hygiene-Motivation Theory”
which determines the effective factors which can increase the level of motivation among all the
employees working in the hotel. The hygiene factors of the “Imperial Hotel” include company
policies, favorable working conditions, compensation, and effective supervision. The motivating
factors include responsibility, advancement, recognition, achievement, and working-itself
(Kensbock, et.al. 2016). All these are the effective theories of management which should be
implemented & applied by the new general manager of “Imperial Hotel” in order to eliminate all
the identified issues & problems & to enhance the effective coordination among different
functional departments of the hotel.
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The general manager is also suggested to improve the IT system of property management & all
the employees must be provided with the complete effective training of the improved IT systems.
The exercises should also be ensured & enhanced building up the cross-teams. Also, the different
bonus schemes for all the teams should be reviewed. The employees must be given with the
financial incentive plan so that they can feel a higher level of motivation & encouragement in
performing their assigned roles & responsibilities (Mohsin, et.al. 2015). All the employees
should be highly satisfied with the “Imperial Hotel” so that the percentage of employees’
retention can be increased & reach up to the maximum level. The employees must be trained
about how they should keep their behavior & attitude towards all the guests arriving at the hotel
& how they can effectively deal with the major challenges faced by all of them in the emergency
situations. The general manager should also keep the short programs for all those guests who
wait for their room keys like the musical program, dance program or any small acts relating to
the current situations so that they may not feel bored & can enjoy their precious time (Knox,
et.al. 2015). This will not only eliminate the problem of waiting by the guests but also add up the
value to the higher grade in the “Star chain”. The general manager should also conduct the
effective meetings with all the staff members of different departments in which all the employees
must free to openly share their innovative thoughts & creative views & also all the problems/
issues faced by them if any. All the employees must be provided with full support in terms of
both emotional & financial (Robinson, et.al. 2014).
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Conclusion
It has been concluded that the new general manager of “Imperial Hotel” should eliminate all the
issues & problems which were been identified in the presence of the ole general manager of
“Imperial Hotel”. All the problems & issues are been determined which are prevailing within the
different functional departments of the hotel & among all the staff members of different
departments. The effective measures & ways are also been evaluated which should be
implemented by the general manager so as to enhance the higher level of profitability,
productivity & proficiency of the “Imperial Hotel” as a whole. Apart from all those effective
recommendations, different theories of management are also being determined & evaluated
which can be applied & implemented by the business managers of the hotel in an effective &
efficient manner. The high level of programs must be conducted & organized for all the
employees so that they could be fully & properly trained & developed in all the areas of the
hotel. The new & developed IT systems should be adapted & fixed in the hotel so that the
reception department can work more effectively & appropriately (Murphy, 2013). Also, the
departments of kitchen, conferences & housekeeping must be given with the accurate & relevant
data or information regarding the number of guests visiting the hotel or respective departments.
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References
 Kensbock, S., Jennings, G., Bailey, J. and Patiar, A., 2016. Performing: Hotel room
attendants’ employment experiences. Annals of Tourism Research, 56, pp.112-127.
 Knox, A., Warhurst, C., Nickson, D. and Dutton, E., 2015. More than a feeling: using
hotel room attendants to improve understanding of job quality. The International Journal
of Human Resource Management, 26(12), pp.1547-1567.
 Kuo, P.J. and Kalargyrou, V., 2014. Consumers' perspectives on service staff with
disabilities in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 26(2), pp.164-182.
 Mohsin, A., Lengler, J. and Aguzzoli, R., 2015. Staff turnover in hotels: Exploring the
quadratic and linear relationships. Tourism Management, 51, pp.35-48.
 Murphy, H.C., 2013. The Property Management System: The View from the Front Desk
on Training and Performance. In Information and Communication Technologies in
Tourism 2014(pp. 777-783). Springer, Cham.
 PARK, H., 2014. Front Of The House Sanitation And Consumers’perceptions Of
Sanitation. Food Safety: Researching the Hazard in Hazardous Foods, p.233.
 Robinson, R.N., Kralj, A., Solnet, D.J., Goh, E. and Callan, V., 2014. Thinking job
embeddedness not turnover: Towards a better understanding of frontline hotel worker
retention. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, pp.101-109.
 Waiguny, M., Kniesel, H. and Diehl, S., 2014. Is it worth responding? The effect of
different response strategies on the attitude toward the reviewed hotel.
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