Main Qualities and Characteristics of Hotel Manager - Coursework Example

Hotel manager Table of contents Introduction 3 2. Research on a particular career/ hotel manager - ‘Career Pie’ model 3 3. Analysis of present skills and how these compare with those required for the chosen career/job. 6 4. Conclusion 7 References 9 1. Introduction The benefits and drawbacks related to each career cannot be easily identified. At a first level, the characteristics and the prospects of a particular career may seem as attractive, compared to other careers within the same market. In order to identify the actual value of a career it would be necessary to develop an extensive research on existing literature. Furthermore, the use of a relevant framework could help to assess a career’s potentials, both in the short and the long term. The findings of the research developed on a particular career, hotel manager, are presented in this paper. These findings are then compared to own skills so that any gaps are identified and are appropriately addressed. The improvement of existing personal skills seems to be unavoidable so that a high performance in regard to the chosen career, hotel manager, is secured. 2. Research on a particular career/ hotel manager - ‘Career Pie’ model The research developed on the chosen career, i.e. the hotel manager, is presented using the ‘Career Pie’ model, as presented below in Graph 1. Graph 1 – ‘Career Pie’ model (source: Oxford University Press 2010) The above graph shows seven criteria on which the evaluation of a career would be based. These criteria could be analyzed in regard to the career chosen, the hotel manager, using information retrieved through relevant literature: a) Job Outline: in its modern version the chosen career is highly differentiated, compared to the past (Bernstein 2004, p.245). Indeed, ‘in the past, hotel managers were often the owners of hotels’ (Bernstein 2004, p.245). This fact offered to hotel managers a significant power, compared to other professionals (Bernstein 2004); hotel managers would decide on all aspects of hotels’ operations, including the need for repairs, for public relations (PR), for marketing, for changing staff and so on (Bernstein 2004). Most commonly, a hotel manager has its office by the reception of the hotel, so that he is able to handle immediately any problem related to the hotel’s daily operations (Griffin 2011). In general, a hotel manager has a supervisory role in regard to hotel’s needs and performance (Griffin 2011); he can also have a decisive role, developing plans for facing daily problems and for keeping a balance between costs/ expenses so that the hotel achieves a particular level of profits (Griffin 2011); b) Skills; a hotel manager needs to have specific skills, such as: b1) ability to communicate; b2) willingness to take initiatives (Bardi 2011, p.345); b3) the ‘leadership skills’ (Bardi 2011, p.345) of a hotel manager are often of critical importance for the promotion of change and innovation in a hotel; the ability of an individual. In addition, a hotel manager has to be able to understand whether each employee has been assigned tasks that are aligned with his skills or not (Bardi 2011, p.345); in any case, a hotel manager should be able to develop an effective job analysis process, securing that employee performance will be high (Bardi 2011, p.345); c) Knowledge: hotel managers need to be aware of the industry’s demands (Labor Statistics Bureau 2008). For this reason, preferably, a hotel manager would have ‘experience in regard to the hospitality industry, not necessarily in the same position’ (Labor Statistics Bureau 2008). Any educational background on the hospitality industry or other subject related to this industry would be an advantage but it is not a prerequisite for the particular position (Labor Statistics Bureau 2008); d) Environment: A hotel environment can be quite complex; a hotel manager has to communicate daily not only with employees, as in most organizations, but also with customers (Kusluvan 2003); For this reason, a hotel manager has to be able to understand the needs of both employees and customers and share their concerns in regard to a series of issues (Kusluvan 2003). In other words, the environment of a hotel is different from other workplaces at the following point: customers stay within the hotel, while in other workplaces there is only visit of customers for buying products/ services; Dealing with customers’ needs on a 24hrs basis is a challenging characteristic of hotels, as a workplace (Appelbaum and Bernhardt 2006); e) Rewards: the level of compensation of a hotel manager is usually high; additional benefits are also significant; the level of monetary benefits related to this role is depended on the size of the hotel and the level of its profitability (Jones and Lockwood 2002); f) Prospects: a hotel manager has the supervision of all daily operations related to the hotel involved (Sommerville 2007); the prospects related to the particular role refer not necessarily to the promotion to a higher position, but also to the increase of duties/ power (Sommerville 2007). For example, the manager of one of the hotels of an international competitor, such as Hilton, is asked to act as the manager of the chain’s hotels in a particular region (Griffin 2011); at the same time, a hotel manager who could not intervene in the hotel’s marketing in the past may be asked to make proposals for the hotel’s promotion within the local market (Griffin 2011); g) Unknown: the duties of a hotel manager may not be standardized; in general, a hotel manager is expected to have the control of all business operations and plans, including ‘marketing, HR and business monitoring’ (O’Fallon and Rutherford 2010, p.411). Still, it is possible for a hotel’s activities to be expanded, referring to issues that are not normally incorporated in a hotel’s operations; the provision of health care services to individuals is an indicative example of such phenomenon (O’Fallon and Rutherford 2010). A hotel manager needs to be able to respond to emergent or non-common organizational needs, so that organizational performance is kept at high levels (O’Fallon and Rutherford 2010). 3. Analysis of present skills and how these compare with those required for the chosen career/job. At this point, own skills would be compared with those required for the career of a hotel manager in order to check whether the target for succeeding in this role is feasible or not. Present skills, as related to those required for the specific position could be analyzed as follows: a) personally, I enjoy communicating and cooperating with people in my social and professional environment; I have participated successfully in a series of projects developed within the class and I managed to perform high both as member of a team and as a leader, in the cases that I had the responsibility to take critical decisions and to monitor the process of work; b) I have not working experience in regard to the hospitality industry; still, I would be willing to participate in relevant training programs and acquire the knowledge required; c) I would expect that my efforts are appropriately rewarded but only at the level that such term can be met, depending on the financial performance of the organization involved; in general, the level of the position’s compensation would be important for me but not decisive; d) at the next level, I would prefer a role that has many prospects, such as the career chosen, i.e. the hotel manager position; I could perform high in a position but only if the prospects for personal development would be significant, otherwise, I would lose my interest on the position involved; e) I have a working experience in different positions; although these roles were not of the same power as the chosen career, they have helped me in developing important skills: e1) ability to handle unexpected problems, i.e. to manage unknown situations without having time to prepare myself and e2) ability to perform high in different organizational environments, developing tasks of various characteristics/ value. As noted above, environment is critical for the hotel manager role. A hotel manager needs to be able to cooperate effectively in different conditions and to communicate with people at all levels of the organization. My present skills, as analyzed above, indicate that I would be able to respond to the demands of the chosen career; training would be necessary for fully understanding the demands of such position. 4. Conclusion Choosing a career can be a challenging task. The development of an extensive research can help to understand the demands and the benefits of a career. At the same time, the literature related to this field could be used for checking the performance of a career under market pressures (O’Fallon and Rutherford 2010). In regard to the career chosen, that of a hotel manager, the following explanations should be given: a) the specific career requires the experience on the hospitality industry; however, training is welcomed, as an alternative, in the case of lack of such experience (Labor Statistics Bureau 2008); b) the demands of this role can be many, depending on the size of the hotel involved; c) the rewards of the position are not always aligned with its responsibilities. Still, the particular role is quite attractive being able to offer important benefits, as described earlier. Of course, being hired in the specific role would possibly require the improvement of own skills, as in my case. Still, the chances for performing high in this role are significant especially when appropriate support is available. References Appelbaum, E. and Bernhardt, A., 2006. Low-Wage America: How Employers Are Reshaping Opportunity in the Workplace. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Bardi, J., 2011. Hotel Front Office Management. 5th ed. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Bernstein, A., 2004. Guide to Your Career. 5th ed. New York: The Princeton Review. Griffin, R., 2011. Fundamentals of Management. 6th ed. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Jones, P. and Lockwood, A., 2002. The Management Of Hotel Operations. Belmont: Cengage Learning EMEA. Kusluvan, S., 2003. Managing Employee Attitudes and Behaviors in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry. New York: Nova Publishers. Labor Statistics Bureau (US), 2008. Career Guide to Industries, 2008-09. Washington: Government Printing Office. O’Fallon, M. and Rutherford, D., 2010. Hotel Management and Operations. 5th ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Sommerville, K., 2007. Hospitality Employee Management and Supervision: Concepts and Practical Applications. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Read More