Managing Human Resources at Taj Hotel Group - Case Study Example

Abbreviations

PMS – performance management system

PM – performance management

HRM – human resource management

CDC – career development committee

KRA – key results area

BSC – balanced scorecard

RBV – resource-based view

PAC’s – potential assessment centres

TAS – Tata administrative system

Executive Summary

This study aims to investigate the drastic management changes, experienced by Taj Hotel Group. During the late 1990s, being the prominent players within the Indian hospitality market, the corporation has experienced the new era start, generated by the blend of economic, cultural and strategic metamorphoses in the internal environment (Aguinis, 2009). The Taj Hotel Group case exemplifies the chain reactions sequence, launched by the new framework introduction to the habitual management style as well as accompanying challenges, inevitable for organizational change.

The study is aimed at reflecting the both system peculiarities under Kekar and Kumar, analysing the major management methods strengths and weaknesses. The topic will be disclosed from the theoretical and contextual perspectives to provide the comprehensive analysis (Nair, 2004). The managerial function implies the permanent decision-making. Therefore, the study will discuss the created dilemma and afterwards perform the unbiased assessment of the advisable response. The concluding section of the study will contain the author’s overall perception of the case study, which will be reflected in the set of recommendations.

During more than 25 years, Taj Hotel Group has acquired the status of the leader of the Indian hospitality industry. Under Ajit Kerkar’s leadership, the economic dimension was characterized as superb while the corporate governance relevance raised a number of questions (Kaplan and Norton, n.d.). The company’s intention of the international expansion underlined the new framework vitality, as the greater scope required a larger amount of responsibility. At this point, Kumar was selected to take Kerkar’s place.

First and foremost, the corporate governance dramatic distinctions are discussed in the case study: the controversy is implied by the approach difference, where the system, strategy, and tools took were introduced to change the informal and doubtful method. The particular working environment created by Kerkar represented the serious challenge for Kumar, as the ecosystem cradled for about 30 years had to be eliminated and built from the ground up (Aguinis, 2009). The challenge embodiment was in one of the team members Bhowmick with his own perception and new leader ideas, further approved by Career Development Committee.

In order to provide impartial and adequate analysis, the two PMS require thorough assessment from the different perspectives. Based on the derived reasoning, Kumar’s decision-making upon the Bhowmick’s leadership ideas will be estimated in terms of relevance and rationality, regarding the stakeholders interests of Taj Hotels Group.

Performance Management System Contextual Assessment

Indisputably, the human resource management does not include the concrete system availability, therefore, Kerkar’s managerial style cannot be defined due to underdeveloped techniques used. The organizational change from minus to plus demanded the soft transformations, and Kumar managed to involve the existing culture into the new model (Wu, 2013). The metamorphoses in Taj Hotel Group exemplifies the necessity to distinguish human resources management from the performance management. In contrast to the latter, the former emphasizes the long-term perspective, reflected in employee development and retaining, as the most valuable asset. Thus, the difference is of operational and strategic origin.

HRM from the theoretical standpoint is implied a higher degree of flexibility and unitarism reliability, which causes a positive impact on the trust building while making the utmost of the available human capital. To the contrast, the performance management is mirrored in corporate efforts to acquire competitiveness by means of performance expansion (Gosling et al., 2012). Basically, the PM framework is centered around the employee-organization objectives alignment and is used to establish the strategic linkage between the worker, his skills and objectives and the organizational goal.

The implementation of the HR vision provides the assistance to the workforce in terms of the contribution maximization and at the same time building the corporate roadmap, regarding the effectiveness, the quality level, and the customer experience. It is clear from the strategic theory, that the sufficient HR as the coherent mechanism, providing company’s assistance for value adding using the human resources to the maximum. The rapidly transforming global arena imposes the business uniqueness necessity; therefore, the uniqueness as the ultimate company’s objective implies the focus on resource-based vision, which in its turn is unattainable without proper PM.

The HRM in its nature does not acknowledge the generalized and unified approach and the corporate management requires specially tailored framework based on the particular resources, corporate culture, and capabilities. In this case, the maximum responsibility is in the manager’s hands, and the decision-making process is to be performed with utmost awareness. Under the leadership of Kerkar, the management style established in Taj Hotels Group was of the controversial character, as the below market average salaries were paralleled with the staff loyalty, cradled on the trustful personal relations through all the levels. The managerial hierarchy was inspired by the communication openness and equality, which created the favourable premise for team devotion and commitment.

It should be noted, that the procedure of Kerkar’s appointment had a certain effect on the management style, as the JRD Tata had provided Kerkar with considerable autonomy, deprived of any senior management interference. The appointment practice has been successfully preserved and exercised further, which is evident from Bhowmick situation (Bo¨hle, Bu¨rgermeister and Porschen, 2012). The Kerkar’s method informality is initially cemented in the intuitional recruitment, totally based on the subjective perception, where the rationality is overshadowed by an emotional and human factor.

The team devotion and commitment are the major achievements to be attributed to Kerkar’s performance management strengths, which partially can be related to the resource-based view, however, the employee loyalty intangibility complicates the opportunity to be measured. Regarding Kerkar’s framework from the expectancy theory standpoint, the personal factors are the spine of the staff performance and having the adequate vision of the required efforts and the reward perspective establish the basis for decent work.

Putting the management and leadership on the scales, the Kerkar’s case is vested with charismatic leadership traits, which include the withdrawal from conventional views, innovative approach, attention to the team’s preferences and needs and the susceptibility towards the environment. Representing the face of the company, Kerkar as the exemplary behavioural patterns provider transmitted the self-confidence and increased performance aspirations.

Nevertheless, the approach informality is predisposed to the impartial and prejudicial attitude, which raises a vast array of questions in the context of corporate governance. The managerial practices of Kerkar have increased the void between the favoured and unfavoured staff members, which were manifested in the improper motivation. The biased attitude has become the major cause for serious employee discontent, which underlined the PM insufficiency and immaturity. The dominance of the subjectivity upon objectivity, the paternalistic and unsystematized method have reinforced the Taj’s need of the PM alterations.

According to the leadership theory, the leader’s mission is to influence the internal company’s environment in a way, that helps the corporation to adjust to the external circumstances, basing on the proper resource allocation. The adaptation phenomenon is derived from the core competencies definition, that lay the foundation for the competitiveness (Raj, 2013). In this case, the major leader’s function is to apply the vast tools range to elaborate the efficient strategy that would play a crucial role for the product and service quality, a corporate image on behalf supportive cooperation (Aguinis, 2009). The presence of all above-mentioned attributes indicated Kumar’s belongingness to transformational leadership.

Kumar managed to introduce rationality element into the established organizational culture through adequate properties distribution. Kumar’s target was to generate the system, which would enable the employee-corporation objectives alignment. The new framework was appreciated by the employees characterized as unfavoured, who had faced the unjust attitude under Kerkar’s leadership. On the contrast, the new approach created dissatisfaction and insecurity wave among the favoured staff members, accustomed to their historically convenient standing.

Being the formal system representative, Krishna Kumar felt the first thing to be changed was the motivational misbalance, and subjectivity was to be removed by introducing the transparent and goal-driven appraisal framework. Kumar applied the balanced scorecard, which the main rational mechanism in human resource management. With the new system elaboration, the employee promotion was no longer reliant on the personal relationships and the leader’s subjective perception; the extensive range of the tools – TAS, CDC, PAC’s and KRA’s – helped Kumar to establish visible connection between the worker’s efforts, performance and appropriate appraisal, as the basis for the fair evaluation. The key achievement of Kumar’s management was building the comprehensive task perception and the concrete expectations assigned to the employee, and the staff members were provided with the ability of self-monitoring.

However, the shortcoming of the introduced system was that the method did not involve the ability to assess the human constituent and context. Kumar’s alterations appeared to be an expensive undertaking, and the certain team members percentage criticized the generalized and equal approach. Moreover, the new system presented the challenge for both – A and B players, as the PMS track program could not deliver the eligible, which had a negative impact on the working environment and motivation.

In general, the introduced changes under Kumar’s management have their strengths and weaknesses, as the drastic organizational change is an uneasy task for a newly appointed professional (Mitchell, 2007). Apart from the negative implications, Taj Hotel Group became more exposed to the global arena and highly competitive market (Rizvi, 2016). The systematic and formal approach has significantly enhanced the corporate image and established the firm spine for further development to the proper manner.

Kumar’s dilemma was related to the uneasy decision in terms of the candidate appointment. The request was made by an influential senior manager Browmick, and the declining could have serious implications for Kumar. On the other hand, Browmick’s well-established position within the company did not permit Kumar to neglect the request. The circumstances practically forced Kumar to reconsider the new performance management and add more subjectivity to the decision-making. Provided the case study does not provide the two candidates professional descriptions, therefore, the conundrum is to be regarded through the old and new systems juxtaposing.

There is a number of reasons for Kumar not to accept Browmick’s ideas. First and foremost, the denial would reinforce Kumar’s belief in the chosen path and the new performance management (Kaplan and Norton, 2001). Furthermore, such a behaviour is the motivation for the team members for having the active position, as the basis for promotion. Secondly, in the B players context, the request denial would provide a certain hope degree, that the new system should be accepted (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford, 2010). Thirdly, not accepting Browmick’s opinion means accepting CDC’s decision, which is the high corporate values appreciation and safe corporate governance.

Additionally, Kumar needs to realize Browmick is the logical result of the previous system that merely resists the organizational change, the cost of which is high. Basically, accepting Browmick’s ideas would return the achievements to the zero point. The most appropriate step for Kumar, in this case, would be the return request made to Browmick for providing quantitative and qualitative grounds for the favoured candidate, which would make everything make sense.

However, Browmisk’s ideas acceptance does also have grounds. During Kerkar’s leadership, Browmick managed to develop his skills in terms of recruitment, based on the subjectivity, which proved to be effective. Moreover, the formal approach and balanced scorecard, in particular, is severely criticized for the one-sided approach, that does not regard a number of important factors, such as perceptions, thinking manner or real attitude towards the work.

The nature of management system implies the existence of the supporters and the opponents, and the case of Taj Hotel Group is not an exception. Perceiving the new system from A player perspective, the successful employees will be more successful and they will be provided with the benefits in the face of appraisals and financial rewards. The old system adherents would rather criticize the alterations as the rewards and appraisal demand serious efforts, and personal relationships are no longer in use. Considering the new framework introduced by Kumar, the B players are provided with more chances, as the transparency and self-monitoring detect the areas to work on, and the employee knows his own development path. Nevertheless, in contrast to B players, A players appeared in more advantageous position, therefore, the new performance management is to be adjusted to B players to stimulate their progress.

Coping with the created dilemma requires Kumar to regard the situation impartially and rationally. The theorists underline the leader’s ability to make the exceptions to the rules in pursuit of enhanced corporate performance. However, the primary objective for Kumar is to reinforce the established performance management position among Taj’s team and to minimize the demotivation possibility. Therefore, both CDC and Browmick are obliged to provide their argumentation and reasoning for the two candidates. In general, Taj’s case reveals the subjectivity as an integral part of the efficient and well-balanced management. Thus, Kumar needs to establish the equilibrium in the new performance management to ensure the proper decision-making.

Upon finishing the work on this study, the author has significantly expanded the insight of the key concepts of human resource management, and deepened the knowledge of the leadership and managerial practices. The case study investigation has helped the author to elaborate the algorithm of aligning the theoretic background and the practical implementation. The cohesion of conceptual and contextualized approaches has considerably influenced the module comprehension, and the essay author aspires to have tackled the assigned module learning objectives mirrored in the critical assessment, reflection and summarizing. Thus, the acquired skills and knowledge in the field of human resource management are crucial for the successful professional practice.