Leadership and Management in Marriott Bonvoy: A Comprehensive Analysis

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes Marriott Bonvoy's leadership and management.

University
Hospitality Management
By
Date
Name
Lecturer’s Name

Hospitality Management
Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 1: Reviewing classical management philosophies & leadership models.......................................4
P1: classical management theory and its impact on the company..........................................................4
P2: Role of leaders and their leadership and management styles...........................................................4
P3: Leadership and management styles in Marriott Bonvoy...................................................................5
M1: Impact of leadership styles on organizational culture and structure...............................................5
D1: Impact of leadership style based on management theory in the hospitality business......................6
Task 2: The factors influencing diverse organizational structures and styles in service sectors.........6
P4: Impact of external and internal factors in management styles and structures.................................6
M2: Impact of advanced digital technology............................................................................................7
D2: Impact of digital technology on Marriott’s management styles........................................................8
Task 3: Evaluation current and future leadership skills for Marriot Bonvoy......................................9
P5: Evaluating existing management and leadership including hard and soft skills................................9
P6: Future leadership & management competencies required Marriott Bonvoy....................................9
M3: Assessment of the existing and future management competencies..............................................10
D3: Impact of leadership skills on organizational change management................................................11
Task 4: Establish leadership & management competencies in hospitality sector...............................12
P7: Compare and contrast diverse service business organizations’ change process & leadership in
executing change...................................................................................................................................12
M4: Impact of change management in leadership & management skills..............................................12
D4: Impact of management skills on organizational change management...........................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................................16
Page 2 of 17

Hospitality Management
Introduction
The report is concerned with the management and leadership for service sectors. Marriott
Bonvoy is selected for completing the assignment. Various leadership and management styles
were discussed in this report along with its benefits on the business. In order to achieve
improvement in organizational production, hotel companies like Marriott Bonvoy implement
different leadership styles and skills. As a result, the chances of developing a good competitive
advantage is also increased. The objective of the company is to improve the community they
serve and open doors to new opportunities. However, these objectives were fulfilled by the
managers and leaders of the company. The main leaders of the company were J. Willard and
Alice Marriott. These two individuals were the founders of the company. Today, the leaders of
this company are engaged in diversity and inclusion which is their core value as well as strategic
business goals. Marriott is an accommodation leader with more than three thousand and eight
hundred properties as well as the broadest portfolio of brands in the UK’s hotel industry.
Moreover, the organization has firmly established a culture and a custom of innovation, service
and leading performance.
Page 3 of 17

Hospitality Management
Task 1: Reviewing classical management philosophies & leadership models
P1: classical management theory and its impact on the company
According to classical management theory, the employees and workers of a particular
organization have economic and physical requirements. This particular theory was presented in
the late nineteenth century and became famous in the 1st half of the 20th century. Besides,
classical management theory does not take into explanation the social requirements and job
gratification. This theory advocates a specialism of labor, profit maximization, and centralized
decision-making and leadership (Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, 2015). Organizations implement this
theory for streamlining their daily business operations and to increase organizational
productivity. Moreover, this theory outlines an ideal workplace and an ideal workplace depends
on 3 fundamental concepts such as hierarchical organization, specialization as well as
inducements. However, an autocratic leadership model is a fundamental part of this particular
theory.
Hotel companies like Marriott Bonvoy would be benefitted by applying classical management
theory in their workplace. This theory would provide the hotel company a clear hierarchical
structure with 3 distinct management levels. The top management would include the CEO and
the board of directors. Besides, the middle management would include the supervisors who
would be setting departmental objectives based on the budgets approved. The lowest levels are
the employees and managers whose work is to look after the daily business activities
(Glinkowska and Kaczmarek, 2015). Besides that, classical management would help Marriott’s
business to clearly define the division of labor and bring motivation among the employees by
introducing monetary rewards.
P2: Role of leaders and their leadership and management styles
In the hospitality sector, the leaders are responsible for carrying out the daily business activities
like problem-solving, strengthening the customer relationship, upgrading and developing digital
technology as well as documentation. Most of the problems in hospitality sectors are between the
employees. The leaders solve these issues by strengthening their communication system and
Page 4 of 17

Hospitality Management
prohibits cultural conflicts. Consequently, the leaders are able to motivate their employees
towards developing their personal career and improving organizational performances. Besides
that, customer relations play a significant role in developing a brand (Vacar, 2016). The
customers may complain to the managers against the performance of employees towards
customer satisfaction and so the leaders and managers must take proper steps to solve those
issues. In Marriott Bonvoy, installation of Wi-Fi service and mobile check-in facilities are
looked after the leaders. Today, computer technology impacts the hospitality business positively.
The managers do not have to be a technician but he/she should be competent with the keyboard.
Leadership styles like autocratic leadership play a significant role in the development of a hotel
business. According to autocratic leadership style, companies should have a single leader who
would make a particular business decision. These leaders are responsible for directing and
organizing all the employees and their choices are made at the top level and then it’s
communicated down. Moreover, when small business choices are to be developed, this type of
leadership style comes into effect.
P3: Leadership and management styles in Marriott Bonvoy
In the hospitality business, Laissez-faire and democratic leadership style also play a critical role
in accomplishing organizational goals and purposes. Laissez-faire leadership style is the opposite
of autocratic leadership style and it focuses on assigning individual tasks to the team members.
This leadership style has a little supervision because these leaders do not spend their time on
managing the employees, they spend their time on dedicating to other projects (Hariri,
Monypenny and Prideaux, 2014). For example, when new employees are welcomed, the leaders
of Marriott Bonvoy explains that their engineers can set as well as maintain their own work
schedules as long as they are following towards and hitting objectives that they set together as a
team.
A combination of Laissez-faire and autocratic types of leaders make up democratic leaders.
Democratic leaders ask for input and consider the response from their group before making a
decision. Democratic leadership model is also called participative leadership. Besides that, these
leaders emphasize collaboration as well as the free flow of business concepts and ideas. One of
Page 5 of 17

Hospitality Management
the most significant jobs of democratic leaders is that they instill mutual respect among those
candidates who prefer to communicate openly.
M1: Impact of leadership styles on organizational culture and structure
Leadership styles like authoritarian leadership impact the organizational culture and its structure.
If hotel companies like Marriott Bonvoy implement authoritarian leadership, it means that the
management follows a top-down manner where authority and power rest in the organization's
senior team management. This sort of leadership can develop a work environment in which
decisions are made and completed without a huge amount of sending and in reverse talk, which
can incite increased efficiency and productivity (Bergen and Bressler, 2014). In case Marriott
Bonvoy has a connotation with young agents, this style can be entirely practical as it gives
direction, consigns particular tasks and sets up standards that are clear and huge. Suppose
Marriott Bonvoy needs to upgrade its cloud computing technology, the order must flow down
from the top level management to the bottom level. At the bottom level, the employees who have
technical skills would look after the upgradation and development of hotel's technology.
D1: Impact of leadership style based on management theory in the hospitality business
The autocratic leadership model is a critical part of classical management hypothesis. According
to this management model, there is no persuasive reason to advice substantial teams of
employees for decisions to be developed. A single leader settles on an authorized conclusion and
it is imparted plunging for all to pursue. Moreover, this leadership method can be beneficial
when choices should be made rapidly by one leader (Pęciak, 2016). Since classical management
theory has a hierarchical organizational structure and therefore the decisions made at the top
level by the autocratic leaders runs down to the bottom level. The autocratic leader is in control,
and it is the leader's vision that is transferred to representatives. There is no perplexity about the
bearing of the organization. Besides that, its central goal and vision are clear.
Task 2: The factors influencing diverse organizational structures and styles in service
sectors
P4: Impact of external and internal factors in management styles and structures
Page 6 of 17

Hospitality Management
Internal
Organizational and Operational: These two factors are a significant part of the administrative
and operational process. Moreover, it consists of imprecise and disorganized record keeping.
These factors interrupt to an organization's supply chain as well as outdated IT systems (Huff
and Rogers, 2015). If companies like Marriott Bonvoy do not overcome these issues, their
customers might see the management as unreliable. Employee training and work scheduling fall
under these two factors. Training and scheduling are controlled and looked after by the
organizational managers and leaders.
Strategic Risk: This factor affect Marriot's ability to each towards their organizational goals
included in their business plans. Besides that, the leaders and managers of the company are
responsible for bringing technical changes in the business plan. Sometimes changes made due to
customer demand may pose a threat to the development of an organization's business goals (Sax
and Andersen, 2018). The improvement of technology needs more investment and due to which
the services and products may be overpriced. Due to overprice of products and services, the
company may lose some of their potential customers.
External
Technology: Today, hotel companies are implementing the latest technology trends for
improving their business production. Initially, cloud computing technology has become a famous
technology where the management and leaders use it for the purpose of storing online customer
data. As a result, the management can retrieve data whenever they need it without the risk of
losing data as the data are not stored in the external or internal hard disk. Marriott implements
mobile check-in and Wi-Fi technology in their hotels for improving customer satisfaction level
(Ratten, 2015).
Legal: All the legal issues related to the hospitality sector are controlled and monitored by the
leaders and managers. The hospitality industry has unique legal issues such as property crimes
and staff securities. Theft and burglary are the two most significant crimes in hotel businesses.
Sometimes, the customers seek for legal actions against the service providers for burglary
activities. The HR managers need to provide ethical pieces of training to the service providers
regarding how to treat customers during their stay (Oppenheim, 2011).
Page 7 of 17

Hospitality Management
M2: Impact of advanced digital technology
Since Marriott Bonvoy provides Wi-Fi facilities to its customers, the management needs to be
concerned about cybersecurity. During internet access from Wi-Fi, the customers may face
security issues in their mobiles or laptops. Therefore, the leaders who have the skills to handle
cybersecurity issues must engage themselves in solving the problem. Due to the cybersecurity
issues, customer data may be hacked and the business may suffer a huge loss by losing potential
customers. On the other hand, the managers of Marriott Bonvoy are encouraged to intensely
highlight on cybersecurity in the year of 2019 for avoiding dangerous situations, information and
identify theft as well as the loss of their brand’s reliable image. Digital technology urges leaders
to identify and recognize the issue (Trappe and Straub, 2018). One basic issue elevated to leaders
by arranged assortment is supervising records in diverse tongues. Technical courses of action
such as the translators and converters are helping leaders to talk with the agent in their
neighborhood lingos. For example, Google translator is implemented in UAE to change over
Arabic files to English and a different way. Leaders in this manner can examine authentically
with delegates of another ethnic source.
Today, the advancement of technology impacts the hospitality business. The edges of countries
have not left with any imprisonments on the passage of businesses and trades. Consequently, it
has developed the overall GDP to augment with various bends. Besides that, the other
consequence of this globalization is an average assortment. There could be no ideal model over
United Arab Emirates which has a more remarkable number of people of a remote start than
local people. However, the issue of handling an alternate staff is extended too.
D2: Impact of digital technology on Marriott’s management styles
Digital technologies like the use of projectors and screens help the leaders of Marriott's to
conduct a training process. The training process is conducted with the help of PowerPoint
presentations so that the process becomes easier to understand. The leaders need to implement
unique training methods which would apply the latest technologies to gain the attention of
employees. The problem is that the employees are reluctant towards organizational change and
evidence have proved that the hospitality industry-based employees are reluctant towards
undergoing a training process (Kazan, 2016). Besides, these attitudes force leaders to do their
Page 8 of 17

Hospitality Management
work of motivating the employees towards training process by introducing new technologies in
the training method.
On the other hand, the implementation of digital technology helps the leaders of Marriot Bonvoy
to establish a sound work environment. In the modern generation, the structure of business needs
to employee friendly and it should urge the representatives to perform adequately. This is an
extreme assignment for leaders as these requests are opposing to one another. Besides,
innovation again has a job here to address the issue. With productive approaches to keep up an
appropriate correspondence, overseeing assorted variety and different issues tended to before,
innovation encourages managers and leaders to manufacture an effective just as representative
agreeable condition (Carpenter, 2015).
Task 3: Evaluation current and future leadership skills for Marriot Bonvoy
P5: Evaluating existing management and leadership including hard and soft skills
When a person applies for a job position, he/she needs to include his/her hard skills in his/her
resumes. Hard skills are necessary for all business types including the hospitality industry.
Moreover, hard skills and competencies are significant to develop individual career
development. Best examples of hard skills are a person's certificate or degree, knowledge about
foreign languages, mathematics, and programming. On the other hand, soft skills are also known
as transferable or interpersonal competencies. Best examples of soft skills are communication
skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills (Matsuo, 2017).
Suppose taking one example of hard skill like knowledge about foreign language. This particular
skill is crucial to maintain the organization's diverse culture. The employees of Marriott Bonvoy
need to communicate internally by speaking diverse languages. The HR managers are
responsible for providing training to employees regarding various international language.
Consequently, the training process helps the employees to gain knowledge about various
international languages and avoids cultural conflicts. This, in turn, helps the management to
improve internal communication process of employees and reduces yearly employee turnover
issues (Vinot and Roger, 2019). Soft skills like leadership skills are significant for the leaders of
Marriott Bonvoy to carry out their leadership activities. One of the most important leadership
Page 9 of 17

Hospitality Management
skills is motivating employees towards the better of organizational goals and future career of the
individual. The employees are motivated when they are paid incentives and bonuses for their
hard work.
P6: Future leadership & management competencies required Marriott Bonvoy
Advanced Digital Competencies
In the hospitality business, the managers and leaders need advanced digital skills to operate their
future business activities. At first, the managers and leaders must be an expert data analyst. Most
of the organizations are sitting on a peak of unexploited information about their process,
workforce, and customers. The recording of these data will continue to increase if the digital
transformation advances. The leaders must have the skill to transform four types of data analysis
such as descriptive enquiry, analytical study, authoritarian analysis, and prognostic analysis.
Moreover, managers and leaders must be mobile expertise. For example, Marriott Bonvoy has
free Wi-Fi and mobile check-in facilities (Riboni and Bettini, 2015). The managers must have
knowledge about the use of a bar code scanner as this scanner is used for scanning the customer
ID when a customer checks in the hotel. Besides, the managers must know the use of
predominance of apps and it will help them to stay upgraded according to the future digital
changes in the business.
M3: Assessment of the existing and future management competencies
Current Skills
Currently, Marriott Bonvoy is focusing on developing communication skills inside the
workplace. The development of communication skills would help the Marriot Bonvoy to achieve
good cultural diversity inside the workplace. Additionally, a good communication skill inside the
workplace increases employee engagement and participation. Honest and effective
communication in Marriott Bonvoy can integrate employees. If the workers are talking with each
other at work, that is a critical development towards structure a good team (Dwyer, 2012).
Besides that, the employees who envision talking with their accomplices are more enthused
about coming to work. However, an advanced communication system is fundamentally
continuously basic if the workforce is unique. The communication process will become
Page 10 of 17

Hospitality Management
straightforward for employees who experience cultural clashes if the HR managers provide them
proper training to cope up with the language barriers. Organizational policies that unquestionably
spell out how the association applies prizes and disciplines can clear things up. Moreover, good
communication provides clear guidelines prompting employees on the most proficient method to
treat each other to keep up a vital separation from the unwanted conflict.
Future Skills
Future competencies like the implementation of cloud computing technology help in improving
the career of leaders and managers. In hotel industries, cloud computing helps in the cost-cutting
process. The management of Marriott Bonvoy can upfront the costs that are low because the
organization only pay for the cloud storage as well as computing power that the hotel requires
(Barrett, 2018). Despite complexity levels, a substantial maintenance package from the vendor,
cloud computing reduces operational costs. One of the main advantages of cloud computing is
that it reduces the use of complex hardware system and the person who operates cloud
computing solutions only need an internet connection for accessing the app. Besides that, cloud
computing solutions are secure and consistent and the management can easily store customer and
organization's confidential information remotely and securely. One of the most popular benefits
of cloud computing in hotel industries is that it helps in improving the guest experience of the
company.
D3: Impact of leadership skills on organizational change management
Change management is a broad concept and it is an efficient method for managing and
embracing new organizational methodologies, processes, and technologies. Change management
inside a hospitality business is difficult to perform as it requires cultural changes need to adjust
better methodologies for coordinating with their leaders and peers. Besides that, proactive
change management would not just effect change, yet similarly, control and help people
acclimate to it, at both the various leveled and individual measurements. However, leadership in
Marriott Bonvoy is the best source of security from change (Shaw, 2015). Their leaders fathom
the business case for change and they have the nation's biggest advocates who will help the
leader to adapt to these organizational changes. Regardless, change repeatedly anticipates that
leaders should yield control, and that may reduce their aptitude in hotel companies like Marriott
Page 11 of 17

Hospitality Management
Bonvoy. In case leaders need to affect change, they should check out and empower participation
from the all-inclusive community will's personality truly obstructed. Restriction can obstinately
influence employees and lead them to behave in an unfriendly manner, for instance, employees
leaving the organization or referencing exchanges. Productive change management requires an
anticipated message and action from leadership at all components of the relationship, from junior
chiefs to the C-suite.
Task 4: Establish leadership & management competencies in hospitality sector
P7: Compare and contrast diverse service business organizations’ change process &
leadership in executing change
In this section, two different service industry is chosen for the analysis. The two different service
sectors are hospitality business and supermarket business. In the hospitality business, the skills
required by a leader to operate the business successful are adaptability skills, accommodation
skills, team orientation, entrepreneurial competencies and passionate. The leaders of the
hospitality sector must have the skill to adjust the employees in a change management process
despite affecting employee's job satisfaction level. Moreover, flexible tourism and hospitality
experts are ready to tackle any job at hand which includes responding to the demands of the
tourist as well as completing a checklist of the hotel's team. On the other hand, the leader must
know how to develop his team who can constructively work with other teams of this particular
hotel brand (Lehmann, 2017).
In the supermarket industry, the leadership skills include time management, recruitment, and
staffing skills, managing a change and building motivated service and sales term. During a
change management process, the leader must put effort to lighten the load of teamwork by
assigning individual responsibilities to every team members. On the other hand, the leaders must
establish group goals and identify and secure resources so that the employees can perform their
job well during the change process. The leaders of the supermarket industry must also leverage
individual differences as well as value diversity.
M4: Impact of change management in leadership & management skills
Page 12 of 17