Resolving Issues: A Leadership Report on the Imperial Hotel Case

This report examines the challenges faced by the Imperial Hotel in London, focusing on issues such as low staff satisfaction, guest complaints about check-in/out processes, room quality, and employee behavior. The report provides a detailed analysis of the problems, emphasizing the need for strategic management solutions. It explores strategies like implementing online booking applications, offering room customization options, and improving employee training programs. Furthermore, the report advocates for the implementation of a transaction processing system to address billing inaccuracies and the establishment of a customer support team to improve responsiveness. The report also highlights the importance of applying management theories, such as Taylor's scientific management, to motivate employees through performance-based incentives and fair treatment. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding employee needs, providing training, and conducting regular inspections to ensure overall operational efficiency and guest satisfaction. The goal is to enhance the hotel's performance and customer experience through improved leadership and management practices.

Imperial Hotel
Case

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 4
Plan for resolving issues................................................................................................. 4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 8
References..................................................................................................................... 9
Introduction
Management refers science as well as art of taking people all together for
accomplishment of preferred objectives and goals through integration and coordination resources

effectively and efficiently. It denotes tasks and activities that are undertaken via planning,
controlling, organizing and leading. This report is based on Imperial Hotel London that is
situated on east side of Russell Square. It has a remarkable location along with great facilities
and they are rendered at affordable prices. This deals with the problem related with poor staff
satisfaction.
The Imperial Hotel, London is a 4-Star hotel and operates in 25 hotels within United
Kingdom. They have around 500 bedrooms that comprise of en-suite facilities, 4 restaurants as
well as 3 bars, conference facilities for near about 1000 people and 12 conference rooms. In
addition to this, there are 6 head departments, 450 employees and contractors who are
responsible for laundry services, cleaning and management of leisure. Peter Farnsworth is
responsible for dealing with situation of poor guest satisfaction. It was ranked as a lowest i.e.
60% within organization benchmarking grading. As per guest satisfaction survey (GSS) a formal
monthly survey is carried out with their important business clients. The complaints which are
made are related with checking in as well as checking out of the hotel, poor quality of staff as
well as quality of rooms. Basically, their staff becomes rude depending upon certain
circumstances due to which guests have to wait in queue as well as the final bills which are
generated are wrong. But the biggest issue is these complaints are never addressed or even there
is also a delay in response. Quality of rooms, along with basic necessities like shower is not
working, technology is not proper, etc. are common issues.
Plan for resolving issues
The brief introduction has been given with respect to issues faced by The Imperial Hotel
London. This shows that there is a need of strong methods or strategies through which these
problems can be resolved. Though management is already providing certain motivation to their
employees but that might not be enough for them to work up to higher potential. At present
scenario, management of The Imperial Hotel is giving their employees incentives for meeting
high standards of work so that overall productivity can be minimized. It comprises employee of
month and it is for all the employees of hotel i.e. £200. Instead of this, with respect to each
department also it (employee of month) is also given that is £50. Along with this, staff who as
well as their contractors who meet their targets individually or in a group for continuous three
months are also given gift vouchers of around £200 and stay within any one star hotel. Apart

from this, at the end of every year parties are organized by hotel and fees of college are also paid
up to 2-4 NVQ levels. This shows that management is trying hard to encourage their employees
to perform harder. But still something is lacking which needs to be improvised so that
satisfaction of employees can be attained. Management needs to have strong policies through
which they can boost up morale of employees. For this, they can have following strategies:
i. The foremost problem that visitors or guest face is within check in and check out as they
have to wait in queue for this. This takes lots of time means it is wasted rather that can
be utilized for having rest or something else. In this case, management of hotel can have
their own application which must be kept updated with respect to availability of rooms,
if they are available then online booking can be made as well as while check in, it can be
just a room number which they have to give while they visit the hotel. This will take less
time as their all the details will be on screen of receptionist and it will hardly take just 1
minute to hand over a key of room. With respect to, rooms are not good; management
can also give their customers with an option of customization in their app while guests
are making their bookings. In this they can have options for colour of curtains,
preferences of room either on top floor, middle or at corner and various others. But it
must be clearly specified that additional charges for them are applicable or not.
ii. Other problem that was faced by guests was rude behavior of employees as well as
cleanliness of washrooms and rooms. For this management can either hire a new
contractor for carrying out these responsibilities with respect to cleaning. On behalf of
employee’s behavior, management of Imperial hotel can opt for providing training to
them in context of their job roles and tasks they have to carry out. This must also contain
soft spoken skills so that they know the manner in which they have to respond to queries
raised by guests. In addition to this, if any kind of unwanted or unexpected situations
occur then how they have to react must be taught to them so that they do not get blank in
such cases.
iii. The other problem that is being faced by guests is that the bills which are given to them
are not correct. In this case, management of Imperial Hotel can go for transaction
processing system which must be connected to all other departments and can make entry
whenever customer has opted for something. For an instance, guest has ordered dinner in
their room, then the details of that must be entered on TPS similarly if any other orders

have been made by them in bar or any additional services then that must be entered
simultaneously so that will formulating final bill, there do not arise any kind of problems
both to management and guests.
iv. Response time with respect to complaints was more; in this context management can
have customer support team who will be liable to respond to complaints made by
customer. It will also assist them to make improvisation within their working structure as
they will know what exactly customers need accordingly management of Imperial Hotel
can make alterations so that customers expectations are fulfilled.
These are certain plans that can be used by management of Imperial Hotel while rendering
their services to guest along with this they can opt for management theories so that they can
ensure that employees are working according to desired standards that have been formulated by
them. There exist diverse theories of management but there is need to identify which will be apt
for Imperial Hotel to make their employees to a certain extent that demands of guests can be met.
They can go for scientific theory of management that is given by Taylor and is responsible for
analyzing as well as synthesis of workflow. It aims at improvisation of economic efficiency
through labour productivity.
Scientific theory of management: Taylor have a viewpoint that money is the only factor
that can motivate people. They thought that employees should be paid as per work they have
done on specific day i.e. fair day's pay for a fair day's work and this pay must be associated with total
amount that is to be paid at the last of month. Thus they introduced Differential piece rate system for
giving wages to employees. It comprised that if efficiency of work carried out employees is higher as
compared to standards that have been formulated by management then employees must be paid 120% of
normal piece rate. This will boost up their morale to work harder and meet the set criteria with respect to
all the aspects such as communication carried out with guests, tasks carried out, assistance to team
member and various others. The other factor was that if efficiency of work is not as per the designed
standards then employees should be given 80% of normal piece rate. It seems quite fair as it will lead to
motivation to individuals who work as per required standards in both terms with respect to their
performance and one who do not work as it will lead to feeling or a sense of being treated fairly. This acts
as a strong factor and also leads to competition among each other this will automatically lead to
enhancement within performance of entire Imperial Hotel London.

Scientific management has certain principles, that involves time and motion study in which study is
carried out with respect to ways in which job can be carried out. In addition to this, management of
Imperial Hotel can look forward to find out the ways in which tasks or jobs can be done. Teach, train &
develop employees through improvised methods. For an instance management of Imperial Hotel has
brought new equipments to make work smoother so staff members must be given training with respect to
that by which they can carry out their tasks quickly as well as in required standards, same goes in case of
technology. These new methods of working must be executed in their work. Interest of employees &
employer must be harmonized by which understanding can be developed in between them. This will
make staff to share problems faced by them as well as it will allow them to share their ideas through
which Imperial Hotel may have better results. This also denotes that management should involve their
employees while formulation of decisions and before finalizing any strategy so that can also have
opinions with respect to certain problems & might lead to have effectual outcomes. Fair levels of
performance, as management of Imperial Hotel is giving their employees, employee of month then they
have to be fair so that it do not lead to de-motivate employees who are really working harder to
accomplish their goals and receive that specific amount. They can opt to pay a premium for higher
performance.
Through the usage of Scientific theory of management Imperial Hotel London can
enhance their production by usage of latest technology as well as methodologies that have been
designed. Along with this, it will lead them to furnish better quality services as employees will
be motivated in terms of both enhancements within their skills as well as in terms of their
financial requirements. In addition to this, when employees will be fairly treated a sense of self
esteem and respect will be generated that will lead them to work as per the set standards. In
addition to this, management can carry out a regular inspection either at a span of six months or
yearly basis of entire hotel so that if any equipment (like in case shower is not working) is not
apt then it must be replaced. All this will have affirmative impact on performance of overall
organization as everyone will be valued in terms of work done by them and will be appreciated
accordingly.
Conclusion
From above it can be concluded that, it is necessary for management to understand needs
to employees as well as recognize their potential so that they can work in effective manner. This
can be understood by an example, like suppose if management of Imperial Hotel London has

given a receptionist, responsibility for managing cooking department then definitely there will be
a decline in their performance, the reason behind this is that they do not posses knowledge with
respect to that unit. It is evident that management needs to be very careful while designating the
responsibilities. Along with this, they need ]to make sure that while any latest technology or
equipment is used by them then training must be provided to employees so that they can learn it
and work on it accordingly rather than pressuring them to learn by themselves. This will be
reflected by their behavior and it is evident from case study that people have to wait in queue
while check in and check out. If person do not know to use computer in an appropriate manner
then definitely it will be taking time.
It is clear that, management needs to have very clear about what instructions are being
given to employees and actions which they will be taking in case if they excel in their
responsibilities & vice versa. It will give clear guidelines to them and it also ensures that at latter
moment there will be no problems with respect to this. All this will have affirmative impact on
overall performance of hotel. This do not means that these strategies are for longer term but with
passage of time they must be altered to boost up employees to have higher productivity as well
as profitability.
References
Books & Journals
Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H., 2012. Making sense of management: A critical introduction.
Sage.

Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A., Camm, J.D. and Cochran, J.J., 2015. An
introduction to management science: quantitative approaches to decision making.
Cengage learning.
Haddow, G.D., Bullock, J.A. and Coppola, D.P., 2017. Introduction to emergency management.
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Hoque, K., 2013. Human resource management in the hotel industry: Strategy, innovation and
performance. Routledge.
Hughes, O.E., 2012. Public management and administration: An introduction. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Ivanov, S., 2014. Hotel revenue management: From theory to practice. Zangador.
Kotas, R., 2014. Management accounting for hotels and restaurants. Routledge.
Radwan, H.R., Jones, E. and Minoli, D., 2012. Solid waste management in small hotels: a
comparison of green and non-green small hotels in Wales. Journal of Sustainable
Tourism, 20(4), pp.533-550.