Key Features of Interview with Manager at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel - Assignment Example

Management: Recently, I happened to interview a manager named Mr. X who has been working as a manager at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pittsburgh for last 7 years. My encounter with this manager proved to be highly valuable on many levels because the man offered me a wealth of information related to key management concepts. He made me realize how managers should always look for ways to make wiser investments in the area of winning trust of other employees. He stressed that the payoff of wise investments made in this area always turns out be surprisingly refreshing. During the course of explicating his experience as a manager at a highly prestigious hotel to me, he also mentioned a few management concepts. Currently, people at Mr. X’s hotel owing to his highly profitable management style share mutual goals, which is a kind of trend that results in delivering real value to customers. Following discussion will demonstrate key features of my interview with Mr. X and also explain how his experience added to my knowledge of management. Many factors internal and external to an organization can influence the role played by mangers in carrying out their job. Success of a company depends a lot on if a manager is a good planner and has a considerable experience in planning functions or not. Sometimes managers do not find it easy to fully commit themselves to their plans which can adversely affect both short and long-term goals of a company. Apart from managers’ inherent capabilities, it can be factors external to an organization like the state of an economy or a fiercely competitive business environment which can affect the role played by managers. Bad economy can prevent a manager from good planning. The essence of Mr. X’s narrative was that a manager should essentially view him/herself as a conscientious leader. This is because an ethically and socially responsible leader always remains keen on participating with his/her employees. This participative style is the key to sustain success in any organization. Mr. X also described different management styles to me. Some organizations are run like tribes where managers primarily focus on paternalistic authoritarian management. Such managers develop aggressive-defensive cultures which thrive on the use of coercive prods. These coercive means are used by employers to force employees to complete tasks (Cheng 2006, p. 59). This negatively impacts the rate of employee motivation in an organization. Participative style on the other hand advocates the idea that every member of an organization be included in important processes. This style urges managers to listen to others despite conflict of interests by becoming less egotistical. A gigantic ego prevents managers to empathize with others’ concerns. Similarly, a bureaucratic style of managing people leads to bad results as it is characterized by formalization of procedures so that they become dry and emotionless (Manetje ‎2009, p. 21). Transformational style is also worth mentioning here. It compels managers or leaders to motivate “their followers to accept new goals” (Hodgetts & Hegar 2007, p. 354). This suggests that management is not about supervision alone, rather it is really about turning resistance of followers into performance. I noticed how Mr. X stressed indefinitely on one management style in particular which he confessed to use personally as well. It is the concept of total quality management or TQM which exerts a positive influence of staggering proportions on organisational performance. Mr. X claimed that the two entities are inextricably linked to one another. Application of TQM in different areas drastically improved business performance in Mr. X’s hotel. The overall productivity of any organization depends on how efficiently managers operate and TQM is particularly valuable because it is basically all about improving management quality to the point where customer satisfaction is guaranteed. TQM is the name of a structured approach that seeks to integrate necessity of quality in all organizational processes. Research suggests that there is a limited extent to which the benefits of TQM are appreciated by general public (Oakland & Morris 2013, p. 144). However, the structural plan of TQM is organized by senior management and the bedrock of this concept is formed by a markedly reduced percentage of different errors which are otherwise typically noticed during production process. Basically, TQM is the name of a concept-based management style which paves the way to customer-defined quality making it virtually impossible for other competitors in the market to take advantage of poor quality exhibited by an organization. TQM allows managers to gain a competitive edge over rival organizations in times of fierce competitiveness (Luo 2013, p. 77). Research identifies that the philosophy of TQM has been around now for more than three decades (Kearns 2013, p. 89). But, the journey through this management style “is fraught with difficulties” (Artto & Kahkonen 2013, p. 191). So, it is worth mentioning here how Mr. X clarified that he can never let himself take full credit for implementing the concept of TQM in his hotel as this is not a kind of step which can be accredited to just one person. Rather, his management style began to emerge and show positive results when every member of his workplace made quality his/her top priority. Research also claims that if employees participate with senior management in the planning process related to management, higher commitment to TQM is noticed (Ibekwe 2007, p. 38). When managers demonstrate results of their favorite strategies to employees, even the most resistant among them become willing to make some contribution as they feel that they are not being left out on anything. Cornelison (2013) also found a direct relationship between clarity on the concept of TQM among employees and success of the companies. A growing body of research confirms that TQM is the most pervasive management approach to boost productivity in any organization to which it is applied (Griffin 2012, p. 617). Mr. X also managed to convince every employee to comply with his management style and make quality a top priority by benefiting from the power of incentives. It is said that the quality of work performance is enhanced when people are given incentives to work together and share mutual goals (Williams 2013, p. 534). This made me realize that managers should not concentrate on monetary incentives primarily. Mr. X’s management experience also suggests that the actual motive of incentives offered by managers to workers should be to reward people more thoroughly. They should give psychological relief to workers. The more psychological relief they offer, the more possibility there is of employees to change and accept new things. This attitude of Mr. X toward managing people helped to give quality a strategic meaning with the result that presently TQM is the management concept which is broadly used at the Ritz hotel to improve the service delivery process. References: Artto, KA & Kahkonen, K 2013, Managing Risks in Projects, Routledge. Cheng, F 2006, Factors Influencing Early Childhood Care and Education Faculty Pedagogical Orientation in Taiwan Technical Higher Education Institutions, ProQuest. Cornelison, P 2013, The Effectiveness of Total Quality Management Principles in the Printing Industry, viewed 11 April 2015, Griffin, R 2012, Management, Cengage Learning. Hodgetts, RM & Hegar, KW 2007, Modern Human Relations at Work, 10th ed, Cengage Learning, USA. Ibekwe, LA 2007, Using Total Quality Management to Achieve Academic Program Effectiveness, ProQuest. Kearns, P 2013, Professional HR: Evidence-based People Management and Development, Routledge. Luo, Z 2013, Mechanism Design for Sustainability: Techniques and Cases. Springer Science & Business Media. Manetje, OM 2009, Organizational Culture, viewed 11 April 2015, Oakland, JS & Morris, P 2013, Pocket Guide to TQM, Routledge. Williams, C 2013, Effective Management, 6th ed, Cengage Learning, Canada. Read More