The Courthouse Hotel - Case Study Example

The Courthouse Hotel Word Count: 1978 I. Critique The current organisation of the Courthouse Hotel is weak in certain standards of management. Henri Fayol defined fourteen Principles of Management. According to this model, the Courthouse Hotel would be considered deficient in the areas Stability of Tenure of Personnel, Espirit de Corps, and Unity of Direction. The significance of this is that the current staff's morale is depleted. Specifically, low morale in this situation is due to lack of employee achievement and direction. Stability of Tenure is an issue which values job security and career progress assured to the employees. At the Courthouse Hotel, individuals in management positions felt that there were no opportunities for further achievement. For this reason, turnover rates at the Courthouse Hotel are high. Turnover in this form is detrimental to the entire morale of the organisation. Staff witness unsatisfied co-workers quitting their jobs because of the assumption that in terms of personal avenues for success, the company is a dead-end. As a consequence, the entire group suffers lack of confidence in the organisation. The Courthouse Hotel has poor retention rates. People resourcing and hiring practises are faulty and disordered. Staff persons are employed on an as-needed basis, which means the hotel uncertainly staffed, insufficiently prepared for business or anticipated business growth. As the current people resourcing practise stands, the hotel will not succeed. Hiring procedures will not meet the needs of a sixty percent growth in trade. In terms of staff already employed by the hotel, these employees show no little satisfaction with their jobs. Employees ponder the improved flexibility and conditions offered by the national and international hotel chains in town. Facing company change, the new business owner should fear leave-taking. Unless assured of their future success with the Courthouse Hotel, the current staff will leave before the fruits of renovations are encountered. The acute fault of people resourcing in this situation is that as a consequence of the unorganized, non-purposeful hiring (the temporary ad-hoc basis) current employees would perceive 1) limited opportunity for advancement, 2)no cohesive body-wide direction, and 3) be wary of the owner's regard for employee stability. II. Recommendations A). Management Strategy Based upon the observed framework of the old hotel and the future needs of the renovated hotel, staff stability must be fortified. Considering the anticipated sixty percent growth of trade, the continuation of present employees is desired for sheer capatown of staff. The strategy suggested to the new owner of the Courthouse Hotel is the Ashridge Mission Model (. This model comes from the Cultural School of Strategic Management, teaching that the organisation must function as a cohesive unit, succeeding internally as well as externally (Mintzberg 2005). The company mission is a strategic tool to provide unity of direction and confidence of staff. The strengths of the Ashridge Mission Model counter the defects of the Courthouse Hotel. Pertaining to Stability of Tenure, the 'Mission' of the model is intended to motivate staff to excellent performance, thereby instilling confidence in their position. Pertaining to Unity of Direction, or the inaccessibility of staff feeling was inaccessible to all staff, the Ashridge model's strength is in its Mission Statement. The Mission Statement "provides a sense of direction" and is intended to "refocus an organisation during crises."(Ashridge) Although reorganisation is not a crisis, the incapatown of the current management to facilitate change while reinforcing staff morale is an acute predicament. The shared values provide unity among employees and improve their Espirit de Corps. The value in using this model to restrategise people resourcing is clear. Employees have reason to lack morale and confidence in their management team, also confidence that they will retain their jobs. The have little motivation to do so. The Ashridge Model is often used in reorganisation. Its aim at cohesive unity of the organisation is reached through mutual understanding of purpose. Purpose strengthens the lack-lustre positions and reinforces staff motivation to stay in their jobs. In order to ensure that all needs of the renovation are met and that the current staff and new staff form one cohesive unit, it is advisable to utilize a Core Transformation Team (Dawson 2004). A small management group from the pool of current hotel employees will comprise the Core Transformation Team. This team will facilitate change with all previous employees and work as the new business owner's liaisons. From an organisational psychology perspective, old employees will be more capable of handling change and training procedures through the auspices of these individuals than they would a group of alien consultants. Dually, the communication between the Core Transformation Team and the current hotel staff will ensure that despite stressful reorganisation of the hotel, employees do not opt to move to the three chain hotels in the town. Management should complete a Vacancy Assessment Chart. A Vacancy Assessment Chart will identify the quantity of workers needed and the preferred skills that they have ("The Recruitment" 2004). In this way, management has previous interpretation of needs prior to implementing changes. Also, it is possible that previous employees possess the desired skills, and if they do not, they may be included in the training that I propose the new hotel owner give to all employees. B). Staffing Strategy Through the renovation, the new owner must be very wary of losing previous employees. Through the renovation process, the previous employees will feel uncertain of their future with the Courthouse Hotel. As was noted in the case study, the national and international chain hotels are capable of offering more flexibility in scheduling as well as better work conditions. While hiring committees seek out new employees to meet the increased worker-need of the Courthouse Hotel, previous employees must be attended to as well. For the organisation's psychological health, employees will feel satisfied with their company as long as they feel they are being paid attention to. Three specific areas will be addressed around the previous staff. One, they must be reassured of their importance to the Courthouse Hotel. In "Managing staff through change," the English corporation NHS Employees reminds that 'Communication must be frequent, repeated, honest, relevant, and most importantly, two way' (2006, p. 2). The importance of a resolution to this issue is tantamount. People Resourcing strategy for managing staff "should be developed and out in place as soon as decision have been made on what change is needed and before anything is communicated to the staff. Second, in regard to previous employees, they should, along with new employees, be offered profit sharing. In the midst of the Courthouse Hotel renovating its facilities in order to appeal to the more upscale and international clientele, their organisation and employee benefit structure must be renovated as well, to the level that its competitors in the town, national and international hotel chains are able. Third, the 'old' employees' importance to the organisation must not separate them from the new employees hired. Employees will be given a Change Readiness Assessment that will define their needed areas of improvement, the accountability of these employees in the future. The added bonus of this is that their responses will define areas of staff training that they will be attending. New staff as well as old staff will attend training. The importance of this is in the integration of two sets of staff. The hospitality industry, in terms of people resourcing, falls prey to a familiar problem in organisations. Through the restructuring of the hotel, it would be habit in the management proceedings to keep upper tiers of staff (management, consultants, etc.) informed of the changes and successes of the company, whilst the lower tiers of employees, including the integral service staff ignorant of these processes and restructuring achievements, or lack thereof. C). Staff Skills The renovation and ensuing growth of the Courthouse Hotel includes Four Star Services. Their standard of business will be higher. The premises will entail a new banqueting suite, restaurant, leisure club, and portering service, all needing to be up to par for the wealthier clientele. Although it may be the tendency of people resourcing in this situation (as in any business growth) to specialize employees in certain areas of the hotel, this would be a mistake. Specialisation of workers is not advisable in customer service settings ("Cross" 1999). Training for the new staff will be tailored so that the employees are versed in the entire array of services provided. Cross-training the staff will boost employee morale ("Cross" 1999). Moreover, the technique helps companies ensure that every staff member is versed in customer service. Thereby, the issue of raising standards of customer service is resolved. In order to counteract inevitable downfalls of the weak system, it is advisable that people resourcing be done with the specific goals of assuring employees of their potential with the company. This will be a strategic issue amid and the ensuing reallocation of employee tasks and positions. From a people resourcing perspective, the current methods are inadequate. The upcoming changes must be done with a wider search base. As the hotel hopes to raise its standards for excellence and provide services for the elite, the Courthouse management should use hiring services from the progressive technological global environment, and not just from around town. III. Follow-up The evaluation of any approach the Courthouse Hotel takes on people resourcing will not be based upon its ability to succeed during the following summer's convention. In fact, it is advisable that the Courthouse Hotel plan not to be advertised so early. Most estimations of business renovation suggest that the peak changes develop into fruition after two to four years (Almaraz 1994; Carr 2004). Evaluation of people resourcing in this situation will critique the cohesiveness of the hotel unit, employee satisfaction, and management commitment. These areas are critical to the success of an organisation based in customer service and the hospitality industry. The achievement of these goals benefits the organisation and is a concurrent tool for assessing the strategic plan taken. References Almaraz, J (1994). "Quality Management and the Process of Change", Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 6-14. "Ashridge Mission Model (Campbell)", 12 Manage: Rigor and Relevance. Accessed 20 October 2006. www.12manage.com Bei Yu, B & Egri, C (2005). "Human resource management practises and effective organizational commitment: A comparison of Chinese employees in a state-owned enterprise and a joint venture", Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, vol. 43, pp 332-60. Carr, A (2004). "Critical Theory and the management of change in organizations", Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 208-20. CIPD (2006). People Resourcing. Dawson, Colin. "The Meeting of the Future", AustCom, Newsletter for the Society of Technical Communication, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 3-12. Fayol, H & Gray, E (1987). General and Industrial Management. Rev. ed. Belmont, CA, Lake Publishing Co. Hise, P (1999). "Recruiting Strategies: Company Profile", Inc. Magazine. Inc.com (1999). "21st Century Presents Familiar HR Challenges", Human Resource Management News. Inc.com (1999). "Cross Training", 101 Great Ideas for Managing People. Lockyer, C & Scholarios, D (2004). "Selecting hotel staff: why best practise does not always work", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 125-135. Mintzberg, H, Ahlstrand, B & Lampel, J (2005). Strategy Safari - A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic Management. New York, The Free Press. NHS Employers (2006). Managing staff through change, viewed 21 October 2006. Periera, J (2006). "How a Culture of Altruism Helps Attract Top Talent", The Wall Street Journal Online, viewed 21 October 2006, Career Journal Europe.com. Rosete, D (2006). "The impact of organizational values and performance management congruency on satisfaction and commitment", Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 7-24. Rosky, J (2005). "Strategic staffing is truly teamwork", Los Angeles Business Journal, 15 August 2005 Issue. "The Recruitment Process for Staff Positions at the George Washington University", The Department of Human Resource Services. Washington D.C. George Washington University. Pp. 9-10. Read More