Impact of Digital Technology on Thomas Cook's Management

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TRAVEL AND TOURISM MANAGEMNT
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Part 1 (LO1, LO2)......................................................................................................................3
Classical management theories and their relevance in Thomas Cook...................................3
Critical analysis of digital technology influencing management and leadership styles.........5
Part 2 (LO3, LO4)......................................................................................................................7
Current management roles in Thomas Cook..........................................................................7
Evaluation of influencing current hard and soft skills...........................................................8
Evaluation of current and future management and leadership skills.....................................9
Critical evaluation of evolution of management skills........................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Innovation and technological processes have been rapidly increasing and affecting the
tourism sector. With the revolutionized digital technology organizations involved in the
tourism business has been changing their business operating processes. Technological
advancements have made the processes of business highly integrated and also reshaped the
business. The tour operators have also changed their business operating process following the
growing trend of technological advancements. The tour operator discussed in this current
study is Thomas Cook Group (Thomas Cook) and TIU Group (TUI). The present research
paper consists of a research report and a briefing paper describing to what extent digital
technology has affected the role of the Human Resource manager in an organization. The
assignment describes the skills required to perform managerial roles and to what extent
evolution in the managerial position roles took place due to the influence of digital
technology. After analyzing and evaluating the changed management structure of Thomas
Cook and TUI group many management theories and leadership styles were also identified in
this assignment.
Part 1 (LO1, LO2)
Classical management theories and their relevance in Thomas Cook
Weber has shown his interest in the industrial capitalism, which is defined as the economic
system where any industry is controlled as well as operated for profit in a private way. He
believed in the fact that the large scale companies like government departments and factories
had been the characteristics of a capitalist economy (Rothstein, 2015). He observed that
capitalism in US has encouraged Innovation and competition and therefore businesses where
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successfully run by some professional managers which were interlinked with the economic
relationships. Weber was highly concerned that the authority cannot be stated as a function of
ability and experience but is won by a social status. Six different characteristics of
Bureaucracy includes hierarchical management structure division of labour formal procedure
of selection career orientation, regulations and rules as well as impersonality. This theory is
perfectly appropriate for Thomas Cook as it is a privatised organisation with all these
characteristics.
Henry Fayol who has introduced another Management Theory believed in administration. He
has condensed his radical experiences and ideas into a particular set of the management
principles and duties. Unlike Weber, economist Fayol was highly concerned with the ways in
which workers contributed to the company and how they had been managed (Hatchuel, and
Segrestin, 2018). He felt as a matter of fact that the successful companies with successful
management is interconnected to motivated and satisfied employees. This means that his sole
emphasis was on employee management and engagement in a company. Five basic duties of
the management as introduced by farewell are foresight, organisation, command, coordinate
and control. All of these duties if introduced by Thomas Cook can lead to four management
functions- planning organising leading and controlling (Parker, 2016). He highly believed in
the existence of Management principles in order to run any organisation. Trusting in in the
theory introduced by Henry Fayol, Thomas Cook can set variety of principles under
management for which it will be easier for the managers to lead and the employees to follow.
Frederick Taylor likewise has introduced the scientific theory of Management which is also
classical management Framework emphasizes more on efficiency much like Max Weber.
While as per tailor instead of scolding employees the employers must reward their workers in
order to increase the productivity which is an efficient move. Thomas Cook has literally
followed Taylor's scientific management theory and there are reward and recognition
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programs for which every employee is rewarded for their productivity and effort engaging
with customers and inviting clients (Witzel, and Warner, 2015). The fundamental object of
the management must be in securing maximum prosperity for an employer period with
maximum prosperity of every employee. He has focused more on productivity of employee in
order to gain organisational productivity as a whole. Digital revolution has made it easier for
the employees to to connect to customers online and gain their feedback which is highly
required for employees to smoothen their work.
Critical analysis of digital technology influencing management and leadership styles
On the turning point of the present century, holiday planning can entail the visit to the local
travelling agent. Everybody must be thankful for the breakthroughs within Technology as
well as high-speed internet that have made travellers to book their flight as well as hotels
online in a more convenient way together with their stay. Digitalisation has opened up the
scope of enabling people to travel more and far across their hometowns. People now search
online reviews over mobiles getting connected to Wi-Fi or internet providers of different
Telecom companies. In today's generation and Diesel age travellers manage the book and
plan the entire travel online. For the travelling agency rise of digitalization has sincerely
disrupted the entire industry.
While the digitalization and internet have killed off several High Street travel agents the
others are interested to adapt to the changing Marketplace with several embarrassing internets
through introducing the online bookings. As part of the Omni channel strategy the company,
Thomas Cook has already observed the requirement to ensure their customers are served in a
seamless way by the help of whichever online channel the prefer-desktop, tablet, mobile or
offline in the store or over a phone. Thomas Cook has already step job it's a digital revolution
by introducing the experiences of virtual reality across the chosen stores. Here, the digital
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innovation has increased capitalism as introduced by Weber in the market of travelling and
hence Thomas Cook is a victim of it.
However, one of the greatest disasters in the entire travel industry has been the Air BNB
which have spot launch of its competitive companies like One Fine Stay. Digital
Technologies that only transforming the hospitality phases from searching of particular hotel
to checking into it and unlocking the door as well as personalizing every stay. Since the
travelling is mobile inherently the travellers definitely expect to utilise their mobile devices
for enriching they are travelling experiences. Thomas Cook has chronologically stated that's
digital technology has helped it to solve the customers better. It stated that the one web
platform which has Shell on the pain every trading sites worldwide as well as sofa has gone
live in the markets including Netherlands and UK which has definitely resulted in the
improved conversions and bookings. Online bookings have grown by around 12% while the
conversion has increased buy or most 20% in the very first half of the financial year 2015. by
this time bookings via Smartphone and tablet has grown by 65% since the last year while the
mobile app of Thomas Cook was downloaded more than approximately 100000 times and
has been used on an average of 8 least 6 times every time load. Thomas Cook desperately
wanted leveraging the emerging Technologies as well as digital ecosystems and to drive out
the service and sales.it has embarked on the digital initiative as well as introduced The E-
Commerce Platform for making the uses of its web much more flexible together with an easy
access and the rich interface. They have already built up the dynamic platform having full
ownership of the IP as well as source code. In order to undertake this project the company
Thomas Cook has adopted the virtualizations solution to be the base.
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Part 2 (LO3, LO4)
The organizations like Thomas Cook has been reshaping the organizational structure so that
they can deliver the most amount of comfort and services to the customers since the taste and
preferences as well as the demands for customers is changing (Leeflang et al. 2014). With the
change in digital technology, the organizations have also faced difficulty initially to
customize themselves to the changing trend. Thomas Cook and TUI group are leading travel
operators in the UK whose business trends has been affected by technological advancements.
The skills and competencies required for the role of managers have also been changing for
these tour operators.
Current management roles in Thomas Cook
The present management roles in the Thomas Cook group are that of a Store Manager,
promotional manager, and tour manager. The company Thomas Cook has store managers in
all the stores that are situated all over the country. It is an international brand and has stores
in several parts of the UK as well. Under the cluster manager in each region, there are several
store managers.
The promotional or the developing manager task is also important. They handle serious
functions that include controlling as well as managing the organization and its processes such
as transforming and then ensuring that that the technological changes have been correctly
incorporated in the organization. There are several companies in the market and competition
among the tour operators is high. Thus a company needs to get involved in promotional
activities so that its services are recognized by a large number of people. They use the
democratic leadership approach and they believe in working together to influence the process
of decision making. They encourage innovation and creativity. Digital technology has helped
these managers to keep in track of the performance of the other staffs (Dede, 2010).
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The store managers are in charge of an entire store and hence are responsible for enhancing
the experiences of the people visiting the store and asking for guidance on a tour. The store
manager applies the directive strategy of management has the responsibility of developing a
system in his store that is unique and can be integrated into the whole organization. In the
tourism industry, building relationships is important so that sales of goods and services can
be ensured. Current a store manager appears to be the leader of the stores. The store manager
also uses the role of transaction leadership. This leadership involves giving instructions to the
team members and when those organizational goals are achieved then awards and recognition
shall be given to the staffs. The approach is directive in nature and timeline is provided for
the workers to complete their job (Emery, 2010).
The tour manager has the task of creating an environment in which communication would be
easier and exchanging information can be easier between the travelers and the managers. The
leadership style followed by a tour manager is servant leadership. There is a common motto
for these leaders who are serving first and then leading. The needs of the customers are
prioritized before their own need. During a tour, the tour managers appear to be the leaders of
the travelers and hence their only motive is to ensure a good experience to the customers and
hence they have no space to show status.
Evaluation of influencing current hard and soft skills
Digitalization has become the key component that leads to exponential growth in various
domains. The main aim of the developing or HR manager is to make a proper plan for
changing the nature of the organizations and plan the future of the employees in this digital
world that would create a better image for the company in the world market. In the era before
the technological advancement took place, communication was done mostly through verbal
and or through the written medium. However, in this era of digital advancement
communication is often done through a digital medium such as emails or by text messages.
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Leadership is the core component of decision making that defines the rules of a group. The
organizational manager acts as a leader who plays some major role in defining the
expenditures, resources, and workforce of an organization (Stone et al. 2015).
Through digital medium more formal communication takes place and there is a lack of verbal
communication and kindness approach towards colleagues in the workplace. Inter-
organizational correspondence depends on structures, structures, and procedures of
connections which thus depend on data correspondence innovation for the most part to team
up connections, oversee correspondence stream and characterize structures inside the
association. Pioneers concretize these linkages, structure strong systems, and usher data
sharing to frame interdependencies that are identified with assets, staff, and results. Due to
interaction through a digital medium often between the senior level managers and the lower
level staffs there sometimes arises a lack of transparency. Understanding human behaviors
are not easy through the digital medium (Mohammadyari and Singh, 2015).
Evaluation of current and future management and leadership skills
The most significant impact of innovation on board arranging is the accessibility of immense
measures of information on deals, stock, and creation for the store managers. Digital
technology utilizes data innovation to assemble outside information from deals groups,
branch workplaces, retail outlets, providers and coordination accomplices. It also helps
likewise to incorporate market information from free investigators and statistical surveying
organizations, in addition to inward information on client requests, request and creation
include. Interpersonal interaction instruments that have been developed through digital media
innovations can assist the promotional managers with planning their HR. Consultancy from
various online sites has built up a framework that empowers representatives to post their
profiles and work history (Colbert, Yee and George, 2016). The managers and different
representatives can get to the profiles over an intranet to distinguish individuals with the
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abilities expected to give master counselor and join a task group. The promotional managers
can also plan activities through an online and social medium by hiring social media experts
(Edmunds, Thorpe and Conole, 2012). Currently, in the organization, there is a
communication gap among the employees since all official work is done through online
medium. Team meetings and discussions got minimized due to the lack of face-to-face
interaction of the participants because most official interactions take place through a digital
medium. Also, one has been to very efficient in English and with interactive language as
instructions sent through the digital medium will reach all the employees.
Critical evaluation of evolution of management skills
Digitalization followed by the computerized change are factors that lead to changes in the
corporate world since they build up new advances dependent on the web with suggestions for
society all in all. Digitization portrays the procedure of the transformation of simple and
boisterous data into computerized information (Leeflang et al. 2014). Digitalization is
utilized to depict any adjustments in the association because of their expanding utilization of
advanced innovations to improve both the exhibition and the extent of the business. The
physical and advanced world are meeting progressively every now and again and need to
work connected at the hip, with the goal that assembling organizations can likewise turn out
to be computerized. Organizations that have commanded the market are gone up against by
new contenders that rethink the setup businesses (Colbert, Yee and George, 2016).
Due to digital technology, the requirement of human beings in the workplace is decreasing
day by day. Digitalization helps to make work easier however the workforce that was used
previously in a company has been reducing day by day. The managers in the organization
need to be as great at assessing competitors and workers for specific abilities as they are for
specialized aptitudes (Van Deursen and Van Dijk, 2011). The managers need to have a solid
basic reasoning and imaginative critical thinking abilities so that the pace of the work
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environment keeps on quickening. The store manager, tour manager or the developing
manager needs to be both naturally ready to recognize those capacities in others, and
furthermore remain side by side of rising apparatuses and appraisals that all the more
precisely assess them in applicants and creating workers (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
Comparing and contrasting the change management system of TUI and Thomas Cook
Due to digital innovation, there will be no activity that is resistant to its belongings.
Digitalization has brought new difficulties, clashes, and openings identified with expertise
building, working environment jobs, information the executives, security, and others.
Managers need to comprehend innovation enough to stay informed concerning and envision
rising issues (Buchanan and McCalman, 2018). However, digital transformation has not
succeeded and in most cases, the growth of the company has fallen due to digital
advancement. For Thomas Cook digitalization appeared to be cost efficient however for TIU
group digitalization has decreased the productivity of the employees and they were unable to
analyze the level of customer satisfaction. Being viable at structure societies in nontraditional
groups will require new dimensions of straightforwardness and correspondence.
At the point when an authoritative change is required, the suitable initiative style may make
this progress fairly simpler, for example, the transformational and value-based styles to
improve administrative commitment and eagerness in regards to the change. A few
associations may utilize pioneers who have diverse administration styles, for example,
transformational towards spurring others and innovativeness, while value-based pioneers are
generally centered on setting the tone for others to pursue without space for advancement
(Leeflang et al. 2014). The participative initiative can give representatives basic leadership
capacities and impact positive results as required for an effective change in the board system.
Due to the change in the role of the managers when implementing computerized techniques
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their leadership styles also faces a changed as lack of personal touch arises (Brynjolfsson and
McAfee, 2012). Technological innovation also brings a certain level of uncertainty. For
Thomas Cook, the direct sales with the customers got reduced. Customers mostly make an
inquiry online and the tour packages are planned online. Even in TIU the face-to-face
interaction among the customers and managers has been diminished. Thomas Cook still has
agents’ hires for marketing the services it provides however TIU group does most of its
marketing through online or by word of mouth.
Conclusion
A computerized change requires a huge move in procedures and techniques inside an
association and requires that representatives see how this change may affect the roles and
responsibilities of the managers. There are lots of advantages for joining digitalization as
established in new innovations being presented. Advanced devices don't just help Managers
in their everyday working life, yet additionally helps the association in adapting to the speed
of changes. Utilizing digitalized devices, employees and managers can complete their
undertakings all the more proficiently and successfully. Likewise, representatives referenced
that the use of new advancements enables them to trade data all the more rapidly and
correspondence with partners, regardless of whether physically isolated, is rearranged.
Additionally, advanced digitalized techniques likewise have focal points on an outside
dimension, as computerized channels like online networking encourage keeping in contact
with customers and along these lines empowering to assemble a closer relationship
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