The Strategic Leadership within the Hilton Hotels - Essay Example

? HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP: THE CASE STUSY OF HILTON HOTEL Table of contents Table of contents………………………………………………………………………………..2 1. Executive summary…………………………………………………………………………….3 2. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….3 3. Discussion……………………………………………………………………………………….4 3.1 Strategic……………………………………………………………………………………...4 3.2 Transformational……………………………………………………………………………..5 3.3 Transactional………………………………………………………………………………....5 3.4 Issues ………………………………………………………………………………………..5 3.4.1 Corporate vision and mission…………………………………………………..5 3.4.2 Cultural diversity……………………………………………………………....6 3.4.3 Nurturing and delegation………………………………………………………6 3.4.4 Teamwork……………………………………………………………………….7 3.5 Impacts……………………………………………………………………………………….7 3.5.1 Unity of working teams…………………………………………………………7 3.5.2 Setting organizational tone, strategy and right culture……………………….8 3.5.3 Improved individual employee personal performance…………………………8 4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….9 5. Recommendation ……………….……………………………………………………………....9 References……………………………………………………………………………………….10 1. Executive summary The hospitality industry has had great evolution over ages especially so in the aspect of leadership and management. It is one of the most dynamic industries across the globe in the modern day context with so much differentiation of products and embracing varying leadership styles in order to cope with the ever-increasing pressure in competition. To be more specific, it is a common observation of new and emergent organizations as well as dominant players within the industry to adopt different types of leadership styles in order to be more relevant within the industry and compete more favorably. It is in this understanding that this paper intends to critically analyze the leadership style upheld by the Hilton global hotel with special attention to the leadership of the serving CEO, Christopher J Nassetta. 2. Introduction Leadership is the art of imparting influence to people and making them willingly cooperate towards realizing an organizations purpose. In our analysis, Christopher, the CEO to Hilton Hotels exhibits great aspects of a leader and practices a range of leadership styles. In particular, he practices strategic leadership styles which entails the capacity of a leader to shape an organization’s decisions, deliver high value over time through not only his/her own efforts but by inspiring and guiding other people in the organization too (Wong, 2003, p. v). He also shows transactional leadership traits which are explained through the ‘exchange’ aspect that he cultivates between the leaders and the subordinates. Besides, Christopher practices transformational leadership styles, which shows high level of responsibility in creation of interactions and motivations (emotional attachment) within the leadership structure of an organization. 3. Discussion There are some basic aspects of a leader, which are used to explain and describe strategic leadership. These are ‘defining and delivering to stakeholders’, ‘sustaining competitive advantage over time’, ‘developing and communicating the organization’s purpose’, ‘setting ethical standards’ and ‘managing human resource and organizational decisions’ (Hitt et al, nd. p. 376). In this paper, three different leadership styles for Christopher as exhibited in running Hilton hotel are discussed. These are strategic leadership, transformational leadership as well as the transactional leadership styles. 3.1 Strategic leadership The strategic leadership within the Hilton hotels as shown by the CEO Christopher revolves around conducting an analysis, deciding on an appropriate course of action and finally taking the action. Here, the CEO shows a great command in raising the standards of performance of the hotels through application of leadership qualities that were gained through the previous positions in leadership within the same hotel industry. He has been strategic in policy making which is necessary in order survive within the highly competitive industry from the external environment, and from internal organization. This can be affirmed through the analysis of the hotel’s missions, visions, goals and objectives as against the other players within the industry. In the path-goal theory, emphasis is on the role of a leader in leading the way and having the subordinates follow. Christopher has clearly shown the aspect through taking the lead in shaping the organization within the tight competition as is currently facing the industry. He is a risk taker, an encourager as well as a support to the team. In this case, the leader is responsible of going ahead, while the subordinates follow; remove the ‘roadblocks’ that would hinder the rest from keeping up as well as increasing the gains reap along the way by the employees (Changing minds, 2002-2013, para 3; House, 1971, p. 321 ). 3.2 Transformational leadership In transformational leadership, there is some emotional attachment where the subordinate would be willing to carry out a task even without any kind of a reward. It therefore thrives within mutual relations as against ‘transaction’ kind of a relation (Aarons, 2006, p. 8). The LMX theory is used in the analysis of how a leader perceives the subordinates or fellow members of a team. It therefore focuses on the effectiveness that arises when the leader as well as the subordinates has favorable ‘leader-member’ relationship. It relies on distinctions notable in the role assignment by the leader, role making as well as role allocation all stemming from the leader towards the subordinates (‘The Leader-Member Exchange Theory’, 2013, para 1-5). Concerning the style, Christopher distinctively commands great morale and motivation towards subordinates and team members working together. This connects him (the leader) and the subordinates and bonds a leader and the project being pursued as well as the collective identity that defines an organization (skinner, nd, para 4). 3.3 Transactional leadership In transactional leadership aspects, Christopher would be commended in having the organization learn through appropriate remunerations, which would be supported, by the relatively few complaints as well as the labor complaints within the organization. There is effective interaction between the leader staffs and the subordinate staff that illustrates his embrace of transformational traits in leadership. 3.4 Issues 3.4.1 Corporate vision and mission The current serving CEO to Hilton, Christopher J. Nassetta was appointed into the office in 2007 and has been very instrumental in driving the Hotel towards the set missions and vision over the years. His success in leading the company is attributed largely to his previous position in leadership within the hotel industry where he held a similar position with the ‘Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc’ (“President & Chief Executive Officer”, 2012, para 1-2). A leader in the hospitality industry in general must be a vision bearer of the organization, which he leads and as such serves to be the bearer of the direction to be pursued by others (Cutler 2010, para 1-5). The leaders is responsible of assigning tasks to team members who on the other hand will be responsible of driving the organization towards the realization of the common goal being pursued. Understanding the ‘personal level’ abilities of the team members and individual employees are critical for any leader within the industry in order to share the available tasks effectively according to the abilities and the result is effectiveness in realizing the goals being pursued. However, besides carrying and sharing the vision, effectiveness in communication is a basic trait to any successful leader in this industry because, communication is essential in delegating duties and sharing tasks between members of a team. In general, therefore, an effective leader in the hospitality industry requires having such attributes as being a motivator, setting examples and an effective communicator. Nevertheless, a common feature between hospitality industry leaders and other business leaders is the skills for ‘people’ and the ‘business’ (‘Leadership In Hospitality Industry’, nd, para 1-9). Christopher would be classified as such a leader as would be ascertained by the great success that his tenure in office as the CEO has experienced in the hotel and its operations within the hospitality industry. 3.4.2 Cultural diversity The hotel has operation outlets within ninety-one countries across the globe within which different cultures are embraced. This diversity necessitates that the leadership adopted and applied be very dynamic and inclusive. The success of the hotel within the hospitality industry that is characterized by tight competition is largely attributable to the leadership structure in place. Teamwork is a common feature in the leadership structure within the Hilton Hotels with the CEO holding the most influential role in the leadership structure of the Hotels. 3.4.3 Nurturing and delegation The change in generational era and the current dynamics in leadership have failed to accept the one-man leadership within organizations and are growingly adopting the team leadership. This is because team leadership is seen to deliver commendably in terms of the result orientation as compared to other kinds of leadership (Gerras and Clark 2011, p. 2). Through still maintaining the leadership authority, the leaders in today systems have been seen to adopt the rather successful approach of delegation and nurturing the subordinates for better results. 3.4.4 Teamwork Effective leadership of such a global venture as Hilton Hotel adapts teamwork for effectiveness in coordinating the efforts of different players within the same organization but within different geographical location. Team leadership entails the organized and well planned kind of leadership through which a number of people are involved in championing direction for the small groups of people. It is characterized of many people (team members) who collaborate in efforts towards a certain course of results through a well-organized group of individuals who champion the directions of actions. These leaders are knowledgeable, skilled and must exhibit the ability to guide and show the way to the other members of the team (Zaccaro et al 2001, p. 452-453). This is therefore one of the critical aspect that characterizes the leadership of this hotel due to the wide distribution of the branches across the globe. Team leaders however have to face the shortcoming of limited resources and device the most favorable mechanisms of addressing this shortcoming for the overall performance of the organization. The other basic challenge within team leadership is pointed out to be ease of communication as well as coordination for the reason of dispersion with which most of team members are faced. Members of a team in, most cases are widely distributed within geographical regions (Martin and Bal 2007, p. 6). Besides the inclusivity of different culture in the different branches brings on board cultural diversity which is also influential in the nature of leadership that is exhibited. There are however some shortcomings that are associated with the variations in culture as seen in the management of Hilton Hotel. 3.5Impacts 3.5.1 Unity of working teams Christopher has exhibited a great deal of transformational leadership in his tenure as the CEO to Hilton hotel since 2007. According to an interview with Adam Bryant, Christopher admits that the organization as it was when he took over required lots of transformation concerning culture as well as priorities to the hotel. He noted that when he joined the hotel, there lacked unification of the teams that were working for the hotel and the segmentations noted led to high levels of fragmentation and duplication, which affected the organization negatively. There was therefore the need to have the Hotel and the teams cooperate in operations in order to realize the set goals and objectives collectively. Therefore, the good part of his leadership in the hotel has been in transforming the culture within the organization and aligning the collective efforts towards a common direction for effectiveness. 3.5.2 Setting organizational tone, strategy and right culture Through identifying the confusion that was characteristic to the management of the hotel, Christopher confirms that he had a strategic role to play as the CEO to the hotel in restoring the right culture, setting the strategy to be followed as well as setting the organizational tone. He leads the organization through the philosophy of self-actualization and steering the efforts of other people towards a common direction. He has great respect to team work and has shown to be a team player in his efforts to work together with different teams of leaders across the globe, who are responsible for the running the constituent branches of the hotel all over the globe (Bryant 2012, para 1-6). Characteristic features in transformational leadership are motivation of teams and building team morale through setting examples to be emulated by followers in order to realize targeted performance. Transformational leadership redesigns the values and attitudes of other people (in our case the employs) towards pursuance of set goals. 3.5.3 Improved individual employee personal performance Besides the transformational kind of leadership that the CEO exhibits in his line of duty, he is equally qualified to fit in transcendent kind of leadership. Transcendent leadership is the form of leadership that we would say, comes from ‘self’ as it gets to ‘others’. The leader is then seen to lead him/her self, leads others and then leads an organizations. Therefore, a “transcendent leadership” is the one that influence emanates from self, to other people and ultimately influences the organization (Crossan M, Vera D. and Nanjad L. 2008, para 1). Through the previously discussed interview with Bryant, Christopher has high self-esteem, which is seen through his ambition to transform the performance of the Hotel through cultural change. He is seen to acknowledge personal performance besides the strategic role that is played through teamwork. However, despite Christopher exhibiting a great deal in motivating and showing the way to the team of leaders he works with, he leads through example as would be described by his role in participating in managing the entire organization. 4 Conclusion As we conclude, this paper rightfully recognizes the great success in the leadership that Christopher has realized in Hilton Hotel. He exhibits great skill in mobilizing, delegating as well as supervisory role as he leads the global venture. Great interpersonal skill and team player would be attributed greatly to his capacity to realize the commendable performance recorded. However, the leadership of the Hilton Hotel is faced with diverse problems, basic of which are the cultural diversity as exhibited across the globe. The leaders responsible in managing the respective branches of the hotel are therefore charged with the responsibility of ensuring inclusivity to the various cultures represented and to managing the cultural diversity represented within the management teams. 5 Recommendation This paper highly recommends that Christopher invest greatly in improving public relations as a critical aspect within the hotel industry. Competition has continuously intensified within the industry thus calling for sound policy frameworks, which would improve on image of such a hotel as the Hilton and thus go a long way in good performance within the industry. REFERENCES Aarons G. A., 2006. Transformational and Transactional Leadership: Association with Attitudes toward Evidence-Based Practice. Psychiatr Serv; 57(8), pp.1162–1169 Bryant A., 2012. On a Busy Road, a Company Needs Guardrails. 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