Imperial Hotel Case Study: Leadership and Management Issues

This case study examines the leadership and management challenges faced by the Imperial Hotel, a multi-cuisine establishment in London. The analysis highlights issues such as ineffective leadership, poor supervision, communication gaps between management and staff, and weak reporting practices. The study applies Mintzberg's management theory to address these problems, suggesting strategies like improved planning, organizing, commanding, and controlling. The case also explores the impact of these issues on employee attrition, guest satisfaction, and overall performance. Solutions proposed include incentive-based management, cross-department collaboration, and democratic leadership styles to enhance communication, improve employee morale, and ultimately, boost the hotel's competitive advantage. The study concludes with a summary of the identified problems and the proposed solutions, emphasizing the importance of effective leadership traits and management practices in overcoming these challenges.

IMPERIAL HOTEL CASE
STUDY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
ANALYSES....................................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Ineffective leadership means that leaders are not engaged in giving effective teaching to
their followers. This can be given in any organisation. Ineffective leadership by the leaders leads
to rise in rate of employees attrition. It rises tension in between workers and board of
management. For overcoming these leaders must get engage in using effective skills and traits.
They must be honest, fair and equal in their management. Also, all the tasks should be properly
and specifically managed by them (Stogdill, 2014).
Present study lays emphasis on Imperial hotel that is facing problems and issues related
to ineffective leadership and inappropriate management. Imperial hotel is a multi-cuisine
industry that has been established in London, United Kingdom. The hotel was been established
in year 1905 Case study provides that the managers and supervisors are failing to handle and
supervise various administrative functions that includes supervision of kitchen work. Problems
also arises daily in house-keeping. Everything is kept mismanaged in the Imperial hotel due to
ineffective leadership. It was analysed that the monitoring and controlling of supervisory staff
was also been lacking. Also, hospitality organisation There exists a gap between the management
communication. Ineffective leadership is also because of insufficient and not effective interaction
among board of management and workers. Also, from case study it has been analysed that they
have weak reporting practices. Hotel Imperial needs to lay emphasis on that. Report highlights
about the keen problems that is been existing in the hospitality organisation. It also provides the
solution for the same.
MAIN BODY
Hotel Imperial can make use of various management theories in order to solve their
current problems. These theories can help them in gaining competitive advantage. They can
make use of Mintzberg scientific management theory (Finkelstein and Hambrick, 2016). For
reducing gap between management functions and ineffective leadership the use of this theory
will be appropriate for hospitality organisation. It includes the functions like:
Planning: To improve the supervision related to kitchen and house hold work, planning
by the managers and supervisors can be done. This can help them in making their leadership
better and efficient. Also, they would be able to better manage the things and task in Hotel
Imperial. Planning related to management of resources and giving training to information
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technology department can also be done by supervisors. Planning can help them in improving
their monitoring.
Organising: Supervisor and managers in order to improve their leadership skills in hotel
Imperial can engage in organising the resources effectively. They can also organise and manage
time of house hold and kitchen staff. This can help them in better managing the things.
Organising and keenly monitoring the things can support hospitality organisation in making the
conditions better for them (Hughes, 2013).
Commanding: Also the board of management of Hotel Imperial can command the
employees about been on time and also providing them training related to time management.
This can help them in overcoming the problems that they are facing. Also it will help them in
gaining competitive advantage.
Controlling- Supervisors and managers of hotel Imperial can control and manage the use
of resources. Also, they can control the behaviour and attitude of their kitchen and house-hold
staff. Team building activities can be done in the hospitality organisation in order to engage and
create employment loyalty. This will help them in reducing management gap.
ANALYSES
Problem
Higher authorities of Imperial hotel have realized that leadership style of people are good.
That has created many issues in business unit. It has been observed that general manager of
Imperial hotel was unable to lead its staff members well. Most of the talented people have left
their job because of dissatisfaction from leader. The major problem identified in the firm that
manager of company was unable to monitor performance of employees (Cope and Murray,
2017). That was resulted declining sales performance of organisation.
Through guest satisfaction survey it has been identified that guest of Imperial hotel are
not satisfied with the food and services of company. They had to wait longer duration and they
do not receive quality services here. Head of all department fail to control over operational
activities of business (Hutchinson and et.al., 2015). Supervisors of Imperial hotel were unable to
monitor standard of work and work done by other staff members such as housekeeping
department, kitchen etc. There are many departments in the hotel and all they have to perform as
per the industry standards. If they fail to perform their duties well then entity my face serious
consequence of it. Many complains have been raised by guest of hotel that they are not receiving
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quality services in the hotel. That has affected reputation of Imperial hotel and has decreased
sales of business unit (Farnham, 2015).
It is responsibility of leader and manager of company that to lead team members well and
continuously monitor their performance. Such type of activates support entity in attracting more
buyers and developing positive brand image in the mind of guests. Due to unhealthy atmosphere
in workplace many talented people have left their job that has seriously affected the profitability
and productivity of hotel. One complain has been raised by guest that entity do not fulfill its
promise and do not provide them committed discounts (Schedlitzki and Edwards, 2017).
Ineffective leadership creates serious damage to brand image of the organisation.
Solution
In order to resolve this problem, it is very important for the leader and manager of
Imperial hotel that to prepare effective strategies and implement it at workplace in significant
manner os that all such kind of issues can be resolved soon (Kaiser, LeBreton and Hogan, 2015).
There are several ways through which these problems can be resolved:
Incentive supportive management
The main agenda of Imperial hotel is to improve productivity and performance of its staff
members those who work in different department of hotel. Leaders of Imperial hotel has to
provide its staff members incentives that can boost their energy and can motivate them to
perform better in business unit. There are two types of rewards: monetary and non-monetary.
Both these types of tools are helpful in encouraging people and retaining them in the firm for
longer duration. Rewards generally provided by company if the employee achieve their goal
(Implement staff incentive scheme, 2018). Imperial hotel should offer staff perks to its valuable
employees and have to give them additional benefit apart from salary. This would make them
happy and they will put their hard efforts to enhance business profit. They will serve consumers
and well and will offer them goods and services as per their requirements. This type of strategy is
helpful in increasing satisfaction level of customers as well.
Benefits of implements staff incentive management system is that it will help Imperial
hotel in persuading candidate to join business and retain in firm for longer duration. This boost
productivity of person and enhance their loyalty towards brand. Such satisfactory people pay
more attention on organisational objective and put their hard efforts to meet with these objectives
(Cope and Murray, 2017). This is the best way through which Imperial hotel would be able to
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enhance bonding with its talented people. The major issue in the hotel was that talented people
were leaving job thus, entity was facing skill gap. If company offers attractive incentives to its
staff then it would be able to retain its workers in business and would be able to raise their
confidence.
Cross department collaboration
This is another great solution through which issues related to ineffective leadership and
management can be resolved. As one of the major issue in the organisation is that all department
do not communicate well. Thus, it is very difficult for the leaders to monitor all activities. In
such condition actual goal would not be able to accomplished. If Imperial hotel enhance
collaboration between all departments then it will help in circulating necessary information
(Hutchinson and et.al., 2015). For example, if marketing department pas necessary detail about
needs of consumers then customer services department would be able to offer satisfactory
services to the consumers. This may help hotel in resolving such issues and raising standard of
working practices. It is very important for the hotel that to raise its standard. Effective
communication is the best way to resolve monitoring issue in business unit (Farnham, 2015).
Manager and leader of Imperial hotel has to adopt democratic leadership style. This helps
organisation in involving employees in decision making process. By this way people will feel
happy and comfortable. By this way they will share their experience with management and will
share innovative ideas. This aids the firm in retaining skilled workers in company for longer
duration and raising their performance. These satisfactory people perform their duties well and
always provide best services to guests of hotel (Kaiser, LeBreton and Hogan, 2015).
Democratic leaders always enhance collaboration among all departments so that people can
interact with each other properly and can share necessary information without any hesitation.
This strategy is helpful in minimizing controlling and monitoring problems. By this way guests
will be able to get immediate services. This will be beneficial for the organisation in improving
its market reputation and providing standard services to its guests.
CONCLUSION
From, the above study it has been summarised that Hotel Imperial is facing various
problems related to ineffective leadership, monitoring and controlling. In order to improve this
hospitality organisation has made use of various management theory. Management theory by
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Mintzberg has helped them in planning about managing employees and their behaviour related to
same. Also, hospitality organisation has been engaged in enhancing their skills and traits related
to leadership. The use of this management theory has helped them in increasing their efficiency
and gaining competitive advantage.
Also, with the help of this they have been better able to manage things. Hotel imperial
has also made use of team activities like role playing and management games to improve the
work of kitchen staff and house-hold keeping. This has assisted them in removing gap in the
supervision process. Controlling functions has allowed hospitality organisation in managing the
behaviour and attitude of house-hold staff member. It has enhanced their coordination.
Supervisors and managers has also been engaged in monitoring the performance of all workers.
This has helped them in working as team and enhanced the efficiency level of Hotel Imperial.
Leaders and managers in order to make their leadership effective has also made use of various
traits like honesty, fairness and equality. This has helped them in making better relationship with
the household members and kitchen staff. By this they were also able to gain the competitive
advantage. It has assisted hotel Imperial in improving their leadership and monitoring.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alimo-Metcalfe, B. and Alban-Metcalfe, J., 2015. Leadership: time for a new
direction?. Leadership. 1(1). pp.51-71.
Cope, V. and Murray, M., 2017. Leadership styles in nursing. Nursing Standard
(2014+). 31(43). pp.61.
Farnham, D., 2015. Human Resource Management in Context: Insights, Strategy and Solutions.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Finkelstein, S. and Hambrick, D., 2016. Strategic leadership. St. Paul: West Educational
Publishing.
Hughes, R.L., 2013. Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. Richard D. Irwin, Inc.,
1333 Burridge Parkway, Burridge, IL 60521.
Hutchinson, M., Daly, J., Usher, K. and Jackson, D., 2015. Leadership when there are no easy
answers: applying leader moral courage to wicked problems. Journal of clinical
nursing. 24(21-22). pp.3021-3023.
Kaiser, R.B., LeBreton, J.M. and Hogan, J., 2015. The dark side of personality and extreme
leader behavior. Applied Psychology. 64(1). pp.55-92.
Nanus, B., 2012. Visionary Leadership: Creating a Compelling Sense of Direction for Your
Organization. Jossey-Bass Inc., 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco.CA 94104-1310.
Schedlitzki, D. and Edwards, G., 2017. Studying leadership: Traditional and critical
approaches. Sage.
Stogdill, R.M., 2014. Handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and research. New York, NY,
US: Free Press.
Online
Implement staff incentive schemes. 2018. [online]. Available through <
https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-staff-incentive-schemes >
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