The challenges of managing communication, leadership and decision making - Essay Example

Critically analyze and evaluate the challenges of managing communication, leadership and decision making Introduction Management and execution is a complex process that entails the coordination of a number of assets and internal teams as well as frequent scheduled interactions with the customer. In changing economic and social conditions, it is often difficult for hospitality operators to provide a consistent set of services and products for tasks across multiple properties, a fact that often negatively impacts brand equity. The main challenges derive from changing nature of business itself, new methods and techniques applied by hospitality management. Work Teams within Hospitality Industry According to Manz and Neck (1997) the self-managing teams "threatens effective group decision making" (18). Policies reflect management thinking on basic matters and inform those interested in the activities of the company about the company's intentions regarding them. The role of managers is to level possible disagreements and create positive climate and atmosphere. In hospitality sector, cohesive groups and self-managing teams creates a tension and pressure which has a negative impact on critical analysis and decision-making process. The challenge of management is to restructure (if necessary) self-managing teams and introduce new methods and forms of communication between teams members. Cohesiveness is more likely when members of a team are to gather for a reasonable length of time, and changes occur only slowly. Strict guidelines and rules established by a manager will help to avoid conflict situations and turnover of members (Bardi 2002.). Low morale and a negative attitude are often associated with a large number of team members undertaking similar work. This requires realistic planning by which the degree and quality of goal achievement can be determined (Davidson 2003). Teamwork coordination should be stated clearly and communicated to those concerned, and to those who are subject to the operation of the control system. Decision-making has a great influence on effective teamwork, because it involves some degree of participation. Team decision-making uses an overlapping form of structure (Dittmer 2001). Cross-cultural environment and cross-cultural teams create another challenge for management. This issue is typical for hospitality management and communication based on the nature of business itself. Hospitality management operates on the global scale and has to deal with different customer groups and culturally diverse employees. In this case, communication and leadership are the main tools used by management to eliminate cultural differences and tension (Beardwell et al 2001). There are always certain groups in any society that are discriminated against unfavorably due to the prejudices and preconceptions of the people with whom they have to deal. These preconceptions are sometimes verbalized, but often not, and the people holding these preconceptions may well be unaware of the way that they see and judge things and people. The key to managing a diverse workforce is increasing individual awareness of and sensitivity to differences of race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, physical ability, and age. The locus of change is the individual and change itself is both intra- and inter-personal. The action plan will can be based on employee' survey (questionnaire) aimed to identify the main areas of improvement and current problems faced by hospitality managers (Dow 1999). Primarily, it is crucial to develop mutual acceptance and membership within each team. Members in different departments and corporate office environment should have an initial mistrust of each other and a fear of inadequacies. If they remain defensive and limit their behavior through conformity and ritual, the manager should adopt diversity policies to reduce a negative impact (Bowen, Ford 2004). The priority is with questions of likes and dislikes, and power or dependency of group members. Critics admit that there is the situation when departments have observed a lack of flexibility and a slow decision-making process is common for many organizations working on the basis of command and control style. It does not serve its customers well, and as a result, such situation can decrease profitability. Effective management of language differences and cultural issues allows hospitality industry to respond to changing social and economic conditions and deliver high services quality to diverse customer groups. Training and special programs for staff is one of the best approaches to cross-cultural management (Armstrong 2003). It is important to take into account that equal opportunities approaches stress disadvantaged groups, and the need, for example, to set targets for those groups to ensure their representation in the workplace reflects their representation in wider society - in occupations where groups are underrepresented, such as the small numbers of ethnic minorities who are employed as firefighters and police officers, or the small numbers of women in senior management roles Challenge of Leadership and Communication Challenge of leadership within hospitality industry means careful selection of key corporate figures and project managers. The leader should underline that the norms and principles are the same for all team members and all employees should follow these guidelines in order to achieve the best results. Also, coming up holidays will be planed in order to coordinate everyone's schedules and responsibilities. In this situation, a team leader has to consider both the needs of individual members of staff, and the promotion of a high level of team identity (Powers, Barrows 2002). Also, compatibility of the members has a great influence on ten dynamics and effective performance. The more homogeneous the team in terms of such features as shared backgrounds, interests, attitudes and values of its members, the easier it is usually to promote cohesiveness (Peyrefitte, Golden 2002). Variations in other individual differences, such as the personality or skills of members, may serve to complement each other and help make for a cohesive team. Once members of departments or teams learn to accept each other they begin to express their feelings and conflicts. Norms of procedure will be established and there will be acceptance of legitimate influence over the group. Members develop a liking, or at least a sense of caring for each other. There will be more open communications and reactions. More constructive problem-solving and decision-making behavior strategies develop (Stutts 2001). The challenge of the leader is to ensure that the workforce is informed, involved, sharing in success. If the leaders follow these principles, the level of production will likely to conform to a standard acceptable as a norm by the team and may result in maintaining either a high level of output. During the first meeting, each member should feel personal uniqueness and importance for the groups, which will influence the level of morale and attitudes of the team members. "A sense of belonging to the team is very important. It is built upon the loyalty essential to successful industrial relations" (Stacey 1996, 23). After the meeting, the leader should analyze and evaluate the role of each member in the group, his expectations and hopes, general atmosphere in the group and the level of morale. The point to consider is, who makes decisions in an organization, and what are the criteria in delegating some decisions to subordinates These questions can be answered by finding out those decisions where the chances of being wrong are high and the cost of correction is large: these can then be reserved for top management (Rutherford 2001). Existing management theories take into account only some challenges of these days including leadership and diversity management. Most of them were developed during the last half of the XX century and cannot be applied to modern social environment. They see structure of hospitality industry and cultural diversity as a primary goal of hospitality management neglecting the role of personal function and human interaction within the industry. The 'old' theories do not take into account comparative HRM and culturally determined corporate culture. According to Torrington (1994, cited Armstrong 2003: 130): "international HRM is not just about copying practices from the Americans, Japanese, Germans and so on which will not necessarily translate culturally". Also, they do not analyze the impact on values and traditions followed by generation Y on service quality and delivery. Possible Solutions The starting point should be an analysis of the business needs of the hospitality operators within its context (culture, structure, technology and processes). This may indicate clearly what has to be done. Thereafter, it may be useful to pick and mix various 'best practice' ingredients, and develop an approach which applies those that are appropriate in a way which is aligned to the identified business needs. Specification in the hotel industries are determined as a result of an organization's policy, which in turn resulted from decisions on its market policy, which in turn resulted from its consideration of the market or customer needs, requirements, and the activities of competitors. This is the process of designing quality into the service. What works well in one organization will not necessarily work well in another because it may not fit its strategy, culture, management style, technology or working practices. This is clearly an important dimension of customer service, because hospitality industry is depended upon providing services at the exact time. This is a measurement which is, to some extent, within the control of the administration. Conclusion Challenges faced by hospitality industry prevent it from rapid growth and create some barriers to effective communication and interaction. Hospitality industry should attempt to achieve its objectives achieving control through effective leadership and cultural diversity management. Many hotels are now disillusioned with this as a solution, since the practical difficulties and costs of coordinating a wide range of activities often outweigh the theoretical benefits. References 1. Armstrong, M. 2003. Human Resource Management. A Handbook. Kogan Page. 2nd edn. Boston: Kent Publishing. 2. Bardi J.A. 2002. Hotel Front Office Management Wiley; 3 edition. 3. Beardwell, I. Holden, L., Claydon, T. 2004. Human Resource Management, London Pitman Publishing. 4. Bowen, J., Ford, T.C. Dec 2004. What experts say about managing hospitality service delivery systems. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 16 (7), pp. 394 - 401. 5. Davidson, M. C.G. 2003. Does organizational climate add to service quality in hotels International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 15 (4), pp. 206 -213. 6. Dittmer P. 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