Leadership and Management Strategies: A Case Study of Marriott Hotels

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management practices within Marriott, a leading international hotel and resort brand. It begins by introducing key concepts of leadership and management, emphasizing their importance in the hospitality industry. The report then delves into the application of classical management theories, specifically the bureaucratic approach, within Marriott, exploring how the company structures its operations. It examines the role of leaders and different leadership styles, such as autocratic and democratic, in the hospitality sector and analyzes Marriott's adoption of a contingency management style. The report investigates internal and external factors influencing Marriott's management styles and structures, including physical resources, corporate culture, technology, finance, government regulations, and economic factors. It assesses the current management and leadership skills, both hard and soft, required in the industry, and discusses the future skills needed, such as customer service and adaptability. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of employee training and development in fostering effective leadership and management within Marriott and the hospitality industry more broadly.

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT FOR
SERVICE INDUSTRIES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO1 .................................................................................................................................................3
Assessment of different classical management theories in context of Marriott..........................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
Investigation of internal and external factors that influence different management styles and
structures in Marriott ...................................................................................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
Assessment of current management and leadership ‘hard’ and soft’ skills.................................7
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
Demonstration of management and leadership skills in hospitality industry in context of
Marriott........................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management are two terms that are considered to be the synonym of one
another. It is important to understand that leadership is the essential part for effective
management within the organization (Car, Atun, 2018). A manager of the company must have
traits of a leader and must possesses leadership qualities within them.
Marriott's hotels and resorts is internationals brand of services based on hotel and resort
based in Bethesda, Maryland. It is a leading loading hotel with over 26,00 lodging properties in
UK and 65 other countries. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has offered
employment around 133,000 employees (Nyangwe, 2018).
This report will illustrate the concept of management theories and leadership styles of
Marriott along with various internal and external factors that influence different management
styles and structures. This study will also highlight the current and future management and
leadership skills for the company chosen from hospitality service industry.
MAIN BODY
LO1
Assessment of different classical management theories in context of Marriott
The theory of classical management is obsessed with the improvement of various levels
of employees for improving their productivity. At each and every level, the employees are
supposed to conduct operations and perform tasks according to specific procedures which are
created by organization to attain maximum productivity. Moreover, this theory focuses on
organization's impersonal side (King, 2017). According to this theory, it is important for both the
managers and employees to not involve personal interactions with the firm. Rules and
regulations have to be followed exactly and retention or rejection have to be followed only with
the consideration of skills possessed by employees.
The Marriott follows Bureaucratic approach of classical management theory. This theory
operates under a hierarchy structure and each and every group of employees has to report to their
higher authorities. Marriott follows proper structure, specialization of work, rationality and
democracy in organization to achieve pre-defined goals (Akbar, Tracogna, 2018).

Role of leader and different leadership style followed in hospitality industry
The role of leaders in the hospitality industry is put focus on practicality of the business.
It means, to develop a high performing team of employees in high performing hotel, focus on
goal should be highly important but along with people oriented ways only. It is important to
achieve a workable environment within the organization to maintain a balance between both the
approaches.
In hospitality industry, most commonly used leadership style by the leaders are
Autocratic leadership style because of high volume of unpredictable demands of customers.
However, managers in the hospitality industry can provide different motivators for employees
that will improve their job satisfaction level within the company. The leadership quality of
managers are highly important in hospitality industry to bring mutual respect because it is critical
to bring within the working environment (Huertas-Valdivia, 2019). If the customer is
complaining about the workings of any employee and if managers takes side of the customer
irrespective of employee, then the manager is in risk to lose the respect of his staff member.
Management and leadership style followed by Marriott
Marriott has adopted contingency management style which revolves around the human
relations approach. The company gives tremendous importance to its associates as they are the
only reason for the success of their brand image. Associate opinions are highly valued by the
members of Marriott management and for this they are required to take brainstorming sessions
sometimes. Such involvements improve the productivity and efficiency which ultimately helps in
taking decisions. Members of management know that to maximize profitability and productivity
(Gandolfi, 2018). Employees must be awarded a level of responsibility within the company and
most importantly, be treated as respectable member within the company.
Marriott follows Democratic leadership style as democratic leader is the one who invites
participation from others in the organization as part of the decision- making process. The
managers of Marriott include everyone and encourage them to participate in decision-making
processes of the company which leading to increase the feeling of involvement, recognition and
satisfaction among employees.

Management and leadership style in hospitality industry in relation to organizational structure
and culture
Democratic leadership style has been used by the leaders of the Marriott because of
various benefits for individuals and organization in several ways. It helps to boost motivation,
allows using subordinates knowledge and experience in the decision-making process helps to
create loyalty to achieve team goals and ensures mutual communication, thus eliminating
communication problems. It also helps to increase morale and job satisfaction among employees.
As in a place where the employees feel valued and where the contribution are clearly respected,
the employees are likely to work for longer span of time.
It encourages the creativity feature among employees which helps them to achieve pre-
defined goals of the organization. As in Marriott the leaders take efficient directions in order to
guide their employees in a way that they are able to achieve ultimate goals and objectives of the
company which fulfil the basic requirement of the company which is to become profitable and
sustain their image in the market space ( Mishra, 2018).
LO2
Investigation of internal and external factors that influence different management styles and
structures in Marriott
The internal and external factor that affect the Marriott management style and structure and need
to be changed according to time and environmental changes. This factor may be defined as:
 Internal factors: The factors showed up internally occurred in organization and can be
changed easily with time to avoid the losses.
1. Physical resource: They are the assets of the company that affect the structure and style
of the management, if not changed with time and changing environment of business
(Hassi, 2019). Leadership help company to adopt the changes and protect their physical
resources from damage. These resources include raw material, building, facilities that are
provided by Marriott.
2. Corporate Culture: The culture shows the attitude, values, norms and belief of the
organization towards the working and their employees. These can be changed according
to time to achieve the vision of company with adopting new change of style.

3. Current technology: The company need to change their technology with time to work
cost effective and gain more of profit margin with smooth work flow in company. By
adopting the latest technology in the company management, it assists to accomplish
objective more easily.
4. Finance: The finance of the company are the key element to run the organization.
Finance is the most important factor that affect the working of the business and its
operating activity and need to well planed.5. Marketing issues: Marketing tactic used by Marriott hotels is quit effective to their reach
the large audience to server. But they also face some issues like managing website,
responding to customers query generated through online and offline marketing.
 External factors: This factor affect the company working from outside factors like
government and trade policies. These are not under the control of company and need to
be adapted with changing factors.
1. Change in government: With change in government leads to change in rules and
regulation, policies regarding the business working can also affect companies
management and need to change its style according to suitability of business (Bavik,
2020).
2. Economic factor: Hospitality industry management can be affected with the change in
economic condition of the country operating. It assists company to operate with
efficiently in fluctuating condition of country.
3. Environmental factors: These factors which directly affect the operation of the
company due to change in environment. For example: sales of company with the change
in environment. These many changes with the change in environment like taste and
preference of the consumers or competitor prices can also affect the management of
Hospitality industry.
The main strength of Marriott hotel is they have a well-trained staff for their hotels and
their services they are offering to customers in a competitive price that attract more of customers
towards the hotel. The talented resources are pooled in to serve best to their customers which
comes from training and development of employee for their future growth. Leaders are good
communicator between the employees and management that aid to smooth flow of work.
Technology used by the Marriott assist customer to provide with better service and experience.

Whereas, the major weakness of Marriott is that employees are not seeing for the longer period
working with the hotel due to their insufficient payable conditions and their policies that may
affect the employee satisfaction level (Vuković, and et.al., 2018).
The employees of Marriott hotel are well motivated with the efficient management style
followed by company. They not only motivated but employees is also performed quit effective
towards their training period and task they are provided with. The company feels accelerated in
their decision-making process with new ideas and values coming from all employee
participation. With motivation employees also feels satisfactory towards with company by
following participative leadership strategy to know the ideas of employee for different tasks.
Daily task and responsibilities are meet by every employee with efficient work and time saving
in completion of tasks. This make to follow the company mission and vision of the Marriott
Hotels.
LO3
Assessment of current management and leadership ‘hard’ and soft’ skills
When any business first emphasize on employee training, they always tend to focus on
hard skills that are essential for day to day operations. In hospitality industry such as in Marriott
as well, it is highly important to have complete knowledge about hard skills which includes
computer skills because it helps to save a lot of time while doing their work at workplace,
technical skills which is essential to handle customer requirements whether in a very basic term,
management skills which are highly important in order to manage employees as well as guests,
marketing skills which support the hospitality industry in very effective manner because
ultimately business is totally dependent upon effective marketing strategies, analytical skills
which helps to analyse whether this particular task is important or manager can leave it for some
other day, writing skills which is also an essential requirement in hospitality industry to attend
the customers efficiently, accounting skills as well as career specific skill (Fikri, Asbari, 2020).
While soft skills focuses on training programs which helps the managers to prepare
present as well as future executives to face challenges. The major soft skills that need to be
taught to employees to help them to become more efficient executives in hospitality industry. In
Marriott the leaders focuses on communication part of their employees because to attend the
customers' communication plays a vital role. Successful leaders knows how to facilitate open and

effective communication both within their team and outside the environment of organization as
well. Teamwork is another soft skill in order to know how to organize and run a team. With the
efficient usage of democratic leadership style, the leaders of Marriott ensures the efficient
teamwork within the organization. Decision-making skill is one of the reason of leadership
training as most of the managers and leaders are bad at making decisions. This is the most
important soft leadership and management skill which is required within the company (Asbari,
Purwanto, 2020) .
Future management and leadership skills required in hospitality and measures to achieve them
There are wide variety of management and leadership skills that are required in
hospitality sector which includes: Customer service skills: Working in hospitality industry typically requires leaders to
work in a fast paced environment that deals with people on daily basis and thus requires
good customer service skills. With the effective usage of this skill Marriott will ensure
that their employees will understand the needs of customers and able to deliver a positive
customer service experiences at all times. Networking skills: Networking is perceived as a way to stimulate business and generate
repeat customers. To enhance hospitality career, it is important to have knowledge to
build a loyal clientele who are interested in returning to the hotels and restaurants. With
this skill Marriott will able to enhance its brand image in the market place. Multitasking skills: It is highly important in the hospitality industry to posses the ability
to complete multiple roles and rearrangement of different tasks simultaneously while
meeting deadlines. Marriott's leaders must adopt this skill for its future development
which ensures that their work manages according to time and are being able to handle
pressure while doing multitasking (Hendarman, Cantner, 2018). Cultural awareness: Having a great level of cultural awareness helps the hospitality
industry to build successful relationship with customer by understanding cultural norms
of the company. If the employees of Marriott equipped with good cultural awareness, this
will help the organization to make customers feel more comfortable.

Evaluate current and future management and leadership skills that are crucial for the service
sector
From the complete study it has been evaluated that management and leadership skills are
highly important in order to enhance the services of Marriott. Such as management skills helps
the leaders to manage their team members efficiently and make them satisfied. Marketing skills
helps the Marriott to enhance the brand image of the organization in the market space and attract
more customers towards them (Börner, Scrivner, 2018). Decision-making skills helps the
managers and leaders of Marriott to take decisions effectively which are according to the
betterment of the employees as well as organization.
Critical evaluation of leadership and management skills of Marriott
Advantages of leadership and management skills:
 Favourable inclination of employees towards job
 Creative urge
 Improve morale of candidates
 Nurturing leadership skills among leaders as well as managers
 Reduce resistance to change
Disadvantages of leadership and management skills:
 Delayed decision-making
 Difficulty in making secrecy
 Indiscipline among organization
 Exploitation of employees
 No accountability possible
LO 4
Demonstration of management and leadership skills in hospitality industry in context of Marriott
In organization, managers is playing different role to perform in a company and manage
various situation that comes in and depend on the management style. The different management
style are differed from manager to manager and company to company and can be better

acknowledge by comparing the two Hospitality industry (govia-Pérez and et.al., 2019). It will
show that every manger had very different style to solve the problems and tactic to manage the
situations. The comparison is between Marriott and Hilton Hotels that is of same level of
operation.
Management of Marriott Management of Hilton
 The company used Democratic style of
management where employees can
raise their view point on the decisions
or proposed idea towards the same.
 Employees are allowed to take
participate in decision and allow
employee to show their positive and
negative points on same (Kaya,and
Karatepe, 2020)
 This style creates the employee loyal
and connected towards the company
and feels important.
 These make the company to increase
their services to customers.
 Company can generate new ideas with
the aid of employees participation and
target for better objectives of company.
 This may take time to make the final
decision by the company side.
 Marriott's management help employee
to know their skills regarding the
decision-making process their creativity
thing of each of them.
 Only few people decision are taken into
consideration and for others it can
create demotivation for not considered
 The management of Hilton group of
Hotels decide their management style
with the changing environment. But
autocratic style are used by the
company.
 The involvement of employees are not
considered by the manager for their
view points on the decisions.
 Hilton Hotel had very strong mangers
to make the decision on their own
without any involvement of their
team(Ling, Liu, and Wu, 2017).
 This sometimes bring dissatisfaction
feeling in employees and may affect the
loyal employees too.
 The company can make their decision
with limited ideas as only manager and
top management thought are
considered.
 But decision process is fast in Hilton as
only few authorities are involved.
 The creative level of employees is not
being valued by Hilton management.
 People may feel demotivation toward
the company decision and not taking
any view point for any decision taken

their decision. by management.
The change process of management style adopted by company may affect the working
operation. This affect directly to employee working in a company with new management style to
adopt the changes instantly. All employee may not feel comfortable for work with the changing
management system. Employee take time to make a usage as regular working in changing
environment. The changes are adapted due to changing environment that make employee to work
with innovative style for company. With the change in time it assists employee to work with new
ideas with proper training and development of employees by company (Popli, and Rizvi, 2017).
Employee can develop their skills and talent with the change of working in company. Companies
make the employees well-trained with time to increase their efficiency level of working.
Talented resources is very much important for the organization to make the work flow
smooth with the help of leaders of company. Those leaders assist company through training and
development of the talented employees in a manner to achieve the company's objective and
vision. They not only assist ton achieve the target goal of company but also continue the talented
employees in company for long run.
The soft skills play an important roll of manager to trained their team in the working
environment and to perform effectively to attain the target goal. It makes employee satisfied and
motivated to work for company in a healthy environment. While, the hard skills that may affect
the employee working performance (Bharwani and Talib, 2017). Employee may feel
dissatisfaction and demotivation towards the company and their manager. This lead to leave the
company due to poor working conditions.
CONCLUSION
The report concludes that Marriott management leader help in to adapt the changes of
management style in system. The culture of organization help company to increases the working
performance of employee and remain talented resources in company for long period. The
Marriott adapted different management style that increases the employee efficiency towards their
task and responsibilities the internal and external factors that are affected by the different styles
in company. However, future skills that need to be developed by the leaders to train talented
resources in hospitality industry. Lastly, comparing with Hilton management style that are

followed and Marriott management style followed and comparing with each other to know the
better findings from both.