Leadership Report: Management Theories and Crowne Plaza Case Study

This report examines leadership and management principles within the context of the Crowne Plaza hotel, a multinational chain in the United Kingdom. The report begins by defining leadership and its significance in influencing organizational members. It then delves into classical management theories, such as bureaucratic management theory, and their practical applications in the service industry, specifically within Crowne Plaza. The report also explores contemporary management theories like systems theory and their impact on the hotel's operations. Furthermore, it analyzes the roles and responsibilities of leaders, including providing vision, establishing communication protocols, and inspiring team members. Different leadership styles, such as autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, and paternalistic, are discussed in relation to the hotel's environment. The report also covers organizational culture, focusing on the task culture adopted by Crowne Plaza, and examines the roles of both leaders and managers in fostering effective communication and achieving organizational objectives. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and offering insights into the practical application of leadership and management principles in the service sector.

LEADERSHIP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Various classical management theories and apply these in service industry.........................1
P2 Role of the leader and different leadership styles in a service sector industry context.........2
P3 Management and leadership styles........................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Internal and external factors that influence management styles and structures in hospitality
businesses ...................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P6 Future management and leadership skills required by the service sector and how these can
be achieved..................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers to an ability of a person or group of people to influence the other
members in a company. It is quality of individual behaviour where they guide the people in
organising efforts. The leadership is an ability of superior in order to induce the subordinates to
work with the zeal and confidence. Leadership may be explained position of the power that is
held through person in group and gives effective opportunity to develop interpersonal influence
group members in context to directing and mobilising efforts to attain certain objectives (Aaker
and Joachimsthaler, 2012). This present report is based on Crowne Plaza hotel that is
multinational chain of the full service in United Kingdom. It provide its services to the business
travels and to conventions markets. Under this report will be discussed about the various
classical management theories and their application in service sector. Internal and external
factors which influence management structure and style in hospitality business will be discussed
in this report.
TASK 1
P1 Various classical management theories and apply these in service industry
The management theories are concepts which surroundings to recommended
management strategies and consists tools like guidelines and frameworks which can be execute
in the modern firms. It is set of the general rules which guide managers to mange company.
These are helpful for staff members to related with goals of business and also execute the
effective means to attain them with in specific period of time. The hospitality sector uses
components from the traditional management theory and the better practices which are based on
the industry specific experience (Antonakis and House, 2013). The Crowne Plaza is large size
hotel and it provides the effective service to people or guests. In order to manage the work or
activities, this hotel use the better management theories in a significant manner. The classical and
contemporary theories are mention below:
Classical management theory- It is branch of the management theory that is evolved around
19th century. This theory was developed at the time of industrial revolution when the issues are
concerned with the factory system and identify the roles which management plays in company. It
is body of the management and in this thoughts are based on belief that staff members have
social, physical and economical needs. The classical management theory mention below:
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Bureaucratic management theory- This management theory is developed through Max
Weber and it is applied to the production system and also human resource management. It is
clearly designated the roles for staff members as well as management based on the hierarchies
that help in streamline the authority. Its main focus on structuring the firms in hierarchical
manner with the clear rules and regulations ( Blanchard, 2015). In context to hospitality sector,
Crowne Plaza hotel set the responsibilities and roles of staff so that they can perform in a clear
way without arising any conflict. In this hotel, HR manager provides training to employees on
the basis of their designated task for enhance their skills and knowledge. Through this, staff can
able to provide the better services to visitors or guides related to accommodation, food etc.
Contemporary management theory- It is class of the behavioural theory and it suggest that
there is not any better way to organise the proper corporation, make decision, lead business and
also take the optimal course of an action that is contingent and also based on internal and
external condition. The theory related to Contemporary management mention below:
System Theory- It has a significant impact on the management science and also
understanding the firms. It is thought line in management filed with stress an interdependence
and interactive nature of internal and external factors in company. This theory is set of the
interdependent parts that coordinate with the efforts in context to attain common objectives. The
management and staff members in Crowne Plaza hotel make proper coordination with each other
for the purpose of attaining the set objectives (Cameron and et. al., 2014). In context to this, it
motivates employees and provide the better reason to sustain at workplace for long period of
time. This theory is helpful for the Crowne Plaza hotel to interact with large environment in an
effective manner.
P2 Role of the leader and different leadership styles in a service sector industry context
Leader is a person that commands or leads group and organisation. It holds dominant
position with in a specific area and also able to control the other people. Leader guide its team
members so that they can able to perform tasks or activities in an effective manner. In Crowne
Plaza hotel , leader guide its team members and also provide them right direction to doing work
effectively without arising the conflict. In this, leader listen opinion of people and include them
in the decision making process (Denis, Langley and Sergi, 2012). There are some roles of leader
mention below:
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Provide vision- In this, it is a main role of a leader to provide the vision for hotel team so
that they can focus on that effectively. If staff do not know about the specific goals then they can
not able to perform in a proper manner. When team members will know about the vision they
they will focus on them and plays a necessary role in success of business. The management of
Crowne Plaza set the vision and provide information to staff about it so that they can focus on
attaining it with in specific time period (Covin and Slevin, 2017).
Develop effective communication protocols and organisational structure- Under this, it
is necessary for a leader to set up defined organisational structure that consists organisational
chart outlining command chain and also protocols for the better communication. For the better
communication, Crowne Plaza develop an effective communication protocols. It is necessary
that hotel should use the better channel of communication such as email, memos etc.
Inspire and Motivate- The main role of a leader to influence, guide and also inspire the
other people to participate in common effort. The good leaders provide direction to members and
also motivate them to work in a better manner. Leaders motivate as well as inspire their team
members by provide them training, take feedback from them regarding their job performance,
keep them informed etc. The leader of Crowne Plaza hotel enhance motivation of its team
members by give them effective direction, include them in decision making, develop positive
working environment, better communication etc. Through this they motivate and focus on
complete the activities and attain the set objectives (Eagly and Carli, 2012).
Leadership style is method of providing direction, executing the plans and also
motivation people by leader. It is related with the characteristics behaviours when motivating
managing, and guiding the people of groups. There are some leadership styles mention below:
Autocratic- This leadership style is known as authoritarian leadership and it is
characterised through control of a person over all the decisions. These types of leaders make
choices on their judgements as well as ideas. They do not like to take advices from other people
or team members. They do not involve its team members in the process of decision making.
Under this, leader control all decision and also take little inputs from the other group members.
Democratic- It is known as participative leadership and in this group members take more
participative role in process of decision making. This type of leaders take opinions of its team
members and also consider them (Goleman , Boyatzis and McKee, 2013). They are open minded
and also use the collegial styles to run a team in a proper manner.
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Laissez Faire- This this leadership style, leader hands- off and also give permission to its
team members to make effective decisions. Generally, it leads to minimum productivity between
team members. Under this, leader gives freedom to its subordinates and they can work their won
way. There is only a role of leader to explain objectives, policies, limitations and programmes for
action and leave remaining process to achieved through subordinates.
Paternalist styles- It is a kind of the managerial approach that consist dominant authority
figure and acts as patriarch and also treat the staff members fairly. In exchange from this, leaders
expects trust and loyalty from the staff members. This leadership style develop a better ambiance
at workplace and include team members as family (Grint, Kones and Holt, 2016).
These all are the effective leadership styles and each business organisations uses the
different leadership styles. Crowne Plaza hotel uses the democratic leadership style at workplace
and treat all the members equally. In this, leader give the opinion of its team members and also
enhance their motivation.
P3 Management and leadership styles
Organisational culture is explained as underlying the assumptions, beliefs and values
which contribute to psychological and social environment of company. It consists experiences,
values, philosophy and expectations of company that hold together. Under this, culture is based
on the Hendy's four types which are mention below:
Power Culture- In this, power is held through some people whose influence spreads
throughout company. In context to this, there are some rules and regulations in power culture
which need to be followed. The people which have power are necessary at workplace and also
make the decisions. They are able to delegate the responsibilities to other people.
Task culture- Under this, firms where the teams are developed to attain targets or able to
solve the critical issues (Hargreaves and Fink, 2012). In an organisation, there are some people
with the common specialisation as well as interest come together for the purpose of form a team.
Generally, there are four to five members involve in a ream and they contribute equally to
complete tasks in an innovative way.
Person culture- In organisation, staff members feel that they are most important part. In
this, people are more concerned regarding their own as comparison to company. In such culture,
staff members come to office for sake of money and they never attached to it.
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Role culture- It is a culture where each staff member is delegated towards
responsibilities and roles on the basis of qualification, interest and specialisation to extract out of
them. Each person is accountable for the something and tale ownership of assigned work.
Among these all culture, Crowne Plaza hotel uses the task culture. In this all members
work in a team for attain the specific objectives. They work together and also give their equal
contribution by using the innovative method (Heifetz and Linsky, 2017). The main reason behind
using this culture is to bring all the people together at workplace and also select right person at
right level in context to gather relevant resources for finish the specific work.
Leaders and managers both plays a necessary role in hospitality business. Their main
focus on developing the business by following the culture and structure of company. As Crowne
Plaza use task culture so in relation to this role of managers and leaders mention below:
Role of leaders
Communication- Under this, leader plays a necessary role in developing the
communication among the team members. As Crowne Plaza follows task culture in which all
team member are aware about their assigned task in a detailed manner. In order to communicate
regarding task, hotel effective digital technology such as social media, email etc. Through this,
all team members can easily communicate and also focus on completing the task with in a given
period of time (Mayer and et. al., 2012).
Provide direction- In this, main role of a leader is to give the better direction to team
members so that they can work in an effective manner and not face any kind of complexities. In
context to this, hotel adopts the task culture and leader guide and provide right direction to
members. For doing task and also completing it, team members use digital technology and there
is a role of leader to guide them so that they can deal with it in a significant way.
Role of managers
Planning- The main role of manager is to make plan to achieving the set objectives. It is
necessary for manager to aware about the environmental situations and also forecast the future
conditions. For this, there is a need to manager to anticipate past data. In context to this, Crowne
Plaza hotel use the digital tool to compare past data for getting the better results.
Motivation- It is procedure of stimulating the people to actions for attain specific
objectives. It is a main reason for objectives, actions and willingness of people (Renz, 2016).
Under this, manager motivate employees to complete the assigned task with in specific time
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period. In order to enhance motivation of employees, hotel can adopt new technology and
machineries which help in doing the work quickly and effectively.
TASK 2
P4 Internal and external factors that influence management styles and structures in hospitality
businesses
Internal factors are those which can exhibits company. These can affect the business
strongly which can meet with objectives. The company can control internal factors easily and
also perform the business operations in an effective manner. There are some internal factors
mention below which influence on management structure and styles in context to digital
technology:
Human resource- It is a backbone of company and it is related to people which work in
company. Under this, performance of business can be impacted through quality and also those
people which work for it. In order to hire the people, there is a proper structure which human
resource manager need to be followed (Rice, 2013). If in case manager will not followed it then
it will impact on the management structure. On the other hand, Crowne Plaza use technology to
hire and select candidates regarding specific role.
Finance- There is a need to business to have an adequate funds in context to survive as
well as develop business in a successful manner. Under this, the top management can only take
the decision regarding adopt the new technology and also arrange adequate funds. On the other
hand, there is no involvement of lower management in managing the funds. So, it affects
negatively in mind of staff members and also develop negative impact on management structure.
External factors are the outside factors which impact on business. These can affect on
ability of business or make investment in attain strategic objectives. These factors are complex to
control through management. Some of the external factors mention below which can influence
on management styles of structure:
Socio-Cultural Factors- This factor influence products to purchase and pay the price
willing. Under this, demands and needs of customers are changes significantly (Spears and
Lawrence, 2016). For this, Crowne plaza hotel should need to search the innovative ideas and
adopt the new technology for develop unique products according to customers demands. As
Crowne Plaza adopts the hierarchical structure and in this top management can only take
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decision to develop thee products and use new feature to attract the customers. They do not
involve the team members more in the decision making. In this manner, it negatively affect on
the management structure.
Technology- Under this, technology plays a necessary role in performing and managing
the activities or tasks in an effective manner (Spillane, 2012). As Crowne Plaza hotel uses the
hierarchical organisational structure in which information flow from upper to lower. If hotel will
adopt the new technology then in this case top management will firstly know about it and lower
management will get knowledge later so it will develop negative impact on the management
structure as well as style.
TASK 3
P6 Future management and leadership skills required by the service sector and how these can be
achieved
For a manager and leader of an organisation it is very much important for them to have
proper skill set with them. Along with this, it is very much important for them to be very much
sound in soft skills along with hard skills. There are ample number of soft and hard skills
required by manager and leader of Crowne Plaza, so that they can deal with different conditions
and also with negative conditions ( Ward, 2016). This also help them in guiding their team
members and also leading them, so that they can attain their goals and objectives. Some soft
skills required by manager of Crowne Plaza are motivation, communication, conflict
management, decision making and other. Along with this, hard skills required by them are data
analysis, project management, proficiency in research and analysis. Along with manager, it is
very much important for leader of Crowne Plaza to have proper soft and hard skills with them, so
that they lead organisation in effective manner.
Soft skills required by leader of Crowne Plazza are creative, responsible, risk take and
other. Along with this, hard skills required by them are accountable, can read and write mother
and at least one mother language. Also for making improvement and growing these skills both
manager and leader can adopt POD planning for their skills, which is an online hub used by
individuals and organisations for managing events. This is a software which use to work online
and also use to organise and manage different events they are performing (Cameron and et. al.,
2014). In present content leader and manager of Crowne Plazza can use this in effective manner
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and this can play an important role in development of their skills and competences. As they can
manage and control their skill development plan and training sessions by this, so that they can
get proper information that what step is needed by them or what they have to do for more
improvement.
Also they can use this software to make a proper plan for their soft and hard skill
development. As they can make proper schedule for their training and development sessions that
when they have to take which session of how much time. Along with this, here they can manage
and control their skills, that training and development session for which skill is required by them
and for which skill they need to take session before another (Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee,
2013). As this will help their time and also help them in learning at very good speed, which will
get reflect on their performance in very less time period. Doing all this will help manager and
leader of Crowne Plaza in getting reflection on their own skills and performance so that they can
develop their soft and hard skills in better manner.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above mention report that leaders and mangers both plays
a necessary role in enhancing productivity of business and making it successful. In this report
various roles of leaders has been discussed that guide team members so that they can work in a
effective manner. The classical and contemporary theories of management helps in manage the
activities and structure significantly. Crowne Plaza hotel uses the task culture in which each
employees is aware about own task and activities. In this report, external as well as internal
factors has been studied which influence on the structure and management styles in a detailed
manner.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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Edition (pp. 3-33). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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relations: Still searching for definitive answers. Journal of Chinese Political Science.
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Cameron, K. S. and et. al., 2014. Competing values leadership. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Covin, J. G. and Slevin, D. P., 2017. The entrepreneurial imperatives of strategic leadership.
Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.307-327.
Denis, J. L., Langley, A. and Sergi, V., 2012. Leadership in the plural. The Academy of
Management Annals. 6(1). pp.211-283.
Eagly, A. H. and Carli, L. L., 2012. Women and the labyrinth of leadership. Contemporary
issues in leadership, pp.147-162.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E. and McKee, A., 2013. Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of
emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Press.
Grint, K., Jones, O. S. and Holt, C., 2016. What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
Leadership, p.3.
Hargreaves, A. and Fink, D., 2012. Sustainable leadership(Vol. 6). John Wiley & Sons.
Heifetz, R. and Linsky, M., 2017. Leadership on the line, with a new preface: Staying alive
through the dangers of change. Harvard Business Press.
Mayer, D. M. And et. al., 2012. Who displays ethical leadership, and why does it matter? An
examination of antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership. Academy of
Management Journal. 55(1). pp.151-171.
Renz, D. O., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John
Wiley & Sons.
Rice, A. K., 2013. Learning for leadership: Interpersonal and intergroup relations. Routledge.
Spears, L. C. and Lawrence, M. eds., 2016. Practicing servant-leadership: Succeeding through
trust, bravery, and forgiveness. John Wiley & Sons.
Spillane, J. P., 2012. Distributed leadership (Vol. 4). John Wiley & Sons.
Ward, J., 2016. Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth,
profitability, and family leadership. Springer.
Online
Leadership., 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/leadership.asp>.
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