Work and Organisational Change in the Lakeside Hall Hotel - Case Study Example

HR2015 – Work and Organisational Change Case Study – The Lakeside Hall Hotel Instructor’s name Student’s name Course code Course name Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Force Field Analysis 2 Diagnostic Model 6 Strengths 7 Weakness 9 Opportunity 9 Threats 10 Appropriate Organization Change 11 Change in Attitude 11 Change in Performance Measure 12 Change of Customer Service and Customer Retention 13 Change of market Strategy 13 Emphasis on Ethics and image Building 14 Periodic Review 14 Trainings 15 Transformation of the facilities 15 Automation of Decision Making 16 Force Field Analysis The present state of The Lakeside Hall Hotel qualifies if to be in the rank of four star Hotels considering that it is located along the shore, enabling the management to take advantage of rare natural endowments. Many travellers certainly prefer the Hotel because it creates home for them, of curse far from their original homes. Another aspect that places The Lakeside Hotel in the frontline is its mode of management. The organization enforces professional management, where one management staff is usually on duty every week. The staffs on duty are passionately committed to the supervision of every task during the week, ensuring that every challenge receives appropriate resolution. The third aspect in this case is Customer service. The management emphasizes on high quality service delivery, making clients prefer the Hotel to others around. The cost of customer retention is kept to the minimum. This explains why clients do reservations for many continuous days (Smith, 2003, p23). Managers on duty make sure that every client receives service and proper feedback from the Hotel staff members on duty. Clients also enjoy sufficient communication from the workers owing to direct contact and effective communication channels. The fourth aspect that supports the operation of the Hotel is its space. The hotel has enough space to accommodate large number of anticipated clients, and still leaves enough space for development. The space provides supportive environment for relaxation and retreat activities (Smith, 2003, p26). Notwithstanding the advantages that The Lakeside Hall Hotel prides in, there are certain negative events that have unfolded with time to the bewilderment of the general public. Reports have arisen from clients, about indecency of the hotel rooms, citing the availability of pornographic materials in the rooms. This sends wrong signals and discourages potential clients from approaching the Hotel for services. This calls for an urgent change to correct the situation before it deteriorates further. It appears that the present management has not realised the need for corporate image protection. One of the areas the management has to concentrate on as an annual strategy is ethics and image retention. It is a pity that the client relates the Hotel to a brothel. Of course that to the client is her perception about the Hotel. It is upon the management and the decision makers to enforce changes that will eventually challenge the mentality of the clients. If the organization is to realize its long term strategic goals, then it has to create room for intensive training on customer service, personal effectiveness, reputational risks and responsible leadership (Smith, 2001, p32). It has to do this in a hurry, because clients may possibly respond to their perceptions without consulting the Hotel. They may soon realize diminishing influx of clients with time, posing a risk of collapse of business. The organization has to change the priority they give to their customer, by responding to their opinions instantly. Of course when customers begin to complain, whether they are wrong or right, there is need for urgent action. This is a real risk issue within the management of the Lakeside Hall Hotel, where staff members take days before responding to customer frequent complains. They not only complain about the outlook of the rooms but also about food quality, cleanliness and staff attitude. Even so, no employee of the Lakeside Hall Hotel seems to own the responsibility of the failure in customer service. The kind of training the employees require has to emphasize on the dire need for team work and consultation. The management has no option but to invest in shaping the attitude of all employees towards customer service. The Human resources department of the Hotel have the responsibility to oversee the trainings that take place in the organization, apart from organizing the training courses. To implement change, there is need to charge every employee with filling and signing performance contracts. This has the potential of changing the Hotel from being process oriented to being performance oriented. If the company does not realise the impact of performance of each staff, it should be an indicator that some staff are non-value-adding to the Hotel (Ortenblad, 2002, p91). It therefore means the Hotel should change the number of staffs in different departments, and distribute staff members according to their areas of specialization. It is evident that presently, some sales staff members are not conversant with the corporate objectives of the organization. This is a shameful state of affairs considering that the hotel holds a 4 star status worldwide. The expectation of the international community on the Hotel doesn’t correspond to its real situation. Changing the operation of the Hotel to performance oriented will save the organization from unnecessary costs of wages to redundant staff members. The management needs to realize the need to change its marketing strategies. It has to come to their realization that it is needless to target large corporate clients if the present customer service delivery is not attractive. It ends up into being wasted efforts, since there is extremely low probability of retaining them. Perhaps the reason why the Hotel sets unrealistic targets is the failure to align its functions to its core objectives. It focuses on sales and marketing to get corporate clients, evidence that it has high ambitions. The management doesn’t realize the value of retaining small and medium-size clients who in reality sustained the performance of the Hotel during its heydays of excellence. It needs to change from the use of expensive advertisement and marketing to quality customer service. It exposes the weakness of the organization in the aspect of market risk analysis. Of course, regardless of the increase in number of new customers, what counts is their satisfaction index resulting from the quality of services they receive. Nothing can stop them from quitting so long as they do not receive services of their expectation. The Lakeside Hall Hotel decision makers are in dire need of Market risk analysis, whereby they need to compare the annual revenue earnings of the Hotel compared to its operational expenses. It also needs to do comparison between its customer retention to that of its competitors. Diagnostic Model The Lakeside Hall Hotel is evidently in a risky edge, at a risk of losing the value of all its efforts. Of course it still holds a famous name as a 4 star Hotel in the eyes of its close observers, oblivious of its internal weaknesses. As a corrective measure, the first step is to perform an analysis of the present position of the hotel, in order to have a sustainable and realistic approach for obtaining a permanent solution to its diminishing condition. It calls for conducting SWOT analysis of the Hotel as opposed to Pestle analysis. This is because SWOT analysis is specific about the capability and market position of the Hotel. It explores the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and the Threats facing the hotel. It also measures the competitive advantage of the Hotel against its competitors, unlike the McKinsey’s ‘S’ model. The latter only deals with external influence on the organization. The issues with the Hotel have nothing to do with politics or Economic situation. Technological challenges also feature as an aspect of performance but its influence is minimal. The Hotel appears to have social and environmental factors influence with regards to ethics and corporate image. SWOT analysis is capable of exploring all vital factors including what PESTEL is able to articulate. The choice for SWOT is because it can cover all the aspects in a more comprehensive manner, relevant to the prevailing situation. SWOT analysis is exhaustive in evaluation of prevailing situation before the beginning of change implementation, and it takes care of any anticipated uncertainty that may arise. PESTEL dwells majorly on external factors, which are of minimal impact in the case of the Lakeside hall Hotel. The situation in the Hotel calls for change in the internal structures rather than external influence. Even so, by considering the Opportunities and threats in the SWOT analysis, this approach covers all elements of PESTEL analysis indirectly. Strengths From the onset of the operation of the Hotel, it was clear that the Hotel was moving upwards and had great ambitions. It also comes out clearly that the deteriorating qualities of service has not appeared to the management and decision makers. One of the strength of the Hotel is Good management. The hotel management has always ensured that there are two staff member on duty to oversee the service during operation hours. Clients therefore feel the effect of hospitality of the staff members, and they readily receive services when they are in need. Secondly, The Lakeside Hall Hotel has managed to acquire Strong Clientele. It is obvious that it presently has a number of large corporate clients who have proved for a long time to be loyal in spite of the presence of competitors. The Lakeside Hall Hotel has also acquired a reputable brand name. It attained the status of a 4 star Hotel, which recognizes it as a world-class standard Hotel. The challenge it has had is only how to retain the Strong Brand. The Hotel also has Strength of having a rare exposure to the sea shore. This makes other competitors envy it because majority of tourists in the region prefer such a panoramic view of the environment. It has a natural endowment of favourable climatic conditions such that many clients prefer to make reservations for many days. Obviously, this is a sign that they like this environment. It favours even couples as a retreat and relaxation resort centre. Proper Communication Channels give the Hotel a strong ground. The Hotel has adopted technology to facilitate its communication both within and to the external entities through advertisement. The Hotel even secured a space within Sunday Times newspaper. It is evident that even the clients are able to do reservations through the internet, and even receive invoices through the same. Finally on strengths, it is evident that the Hotel has Enough Facilities to accommodate and serve visitors. The facilities suggest that the Hotel is indeed 4-star, having a great potential to expand. Weakness In spite of all the strengths, the Lakeside Hall Hotel has weaknesses that suppress its efforts to excel. One typical weakness that is inevitable in the present situation is Poor customer services. This manifests in the frequent complaints and negative comments from customers. The staff member’s attitude towards customer service is discouraging needs drastic improvement. Owing to the service, the hotel suffers consequences of inadequate Customer Retention. Secondly, The Hotel operates without performance ratings. It is not easy to quantify the value that each staff adds to the Hotel. It therefore requires a Performance-Based approach towards to ignite self commitment among its staff to reduce the cost of operation (Simon & Rugchart, 2003, p17). The performance measures should be aligned with the corporate objective of the Hotel. The weaknesses of the Opportunity The future of the Hotel is secure, notwithstanding the difficulties and its weaknesses. One of the opportunities is the Wide-spread Marketing Strategy, which it has lately adopted, particularly with a focus towards corporate customers. Commitment to the pursuit of this magnitude of clientele gives the Hotel a hope for future excellence. Secondly, the Hotel has spread its wings to a vast domain of the international community through advertisement. Extensive advertisement creates the awareness of the Hotel’s services, values, vision and mission. The result of this is an optimistic future for the Hotel, with special focus on international operation. The third element of strength is the Possibility of Diversification. Having control over expensive fixed assets including land among other natural resources, it is possible for the Hotel to set up variety of revenue generating activities. The fourth opportunity that the Hotel offers is the area of personal development. The Hotel allows staff members to get chances of studying. With this the staff members can acquire fundamental skills including customer services, leadership and organizational leadership. Threats Amidst challenges and opportunities, there are conditions that tend to resist the achievement of the corporate objective of the Hotel. First, there has been an increase in Customer Complains and arguments. Some of the comments give the Hotel tainted Image that may prompt customers to migrate to other competitors. When customers begin to compare the Hotel to a brothel, there is a risk of massive customer migration. This comment ought not to have proceeded from potential customer. The staff members have to realize that it was their fault, presenting immoral images in the hotel rooms. It betrays the trust and the respect that clients and the general public. It exhibits unprofessionalism (Chase, 2003, p34). The impact can be greater should a new competent Hotel Commence operation. The last threat in this study is Lack of knowledge among staff. Some of the staff members are ignorant of the required standards of customer services. The Hotel runs at a risk of losing its clients as a result of lack of poor understanding of institutional products and standard of services. It a threat to the Hotel’s, the fact that customers are increasingly complaining about the kind of services, and they do not offer any complement. That is a dangerous expression of disillusionments. Competitors can easily take advantage of the situation and give the Lakeside Hall Hotel a remarkable competition. Critical analysis of the situations around the Hotel reveals the reason why change is inevitable. The management has to present solutions in a professional. Appropriate Organization Change After critical conceptual and logical analysis of the prevailing situations in Lakeside Hall Hotel, there is need for quick response in implementation of vital changes. From the findings, here are the change management consultant’s recommendations on the areas that require paradigm shift. Change in Attitude It appeared that the action of the staff members do not reflect their appreciation towards the Hotel. They do not exhibit willingness to take responsibility for building the corporate brand. The change of attitude is essential and needs to take place very swiftly to rescue the image of the Hotel. When customers begin to complain there has to be immediate action to correct situations and assure them of permanent solutions. Instead of blaming the staff members, there is need for evaluation of their working condition and implement vital changes aimed at Staff motivation. Example of motivation strategies is to review the remuneration scales periodically and implement necessary salary increments. Another way is by recognizing and promoting staff members based on performance measures (Mu & Gnyawali, 2003, p700). Each member of staff has to be trained on the roles of attitude in work performance. In cases involving stress, there is need for stress management course, to teach the employees stress management skills, so that they do not express their stress towards clients. Change in Performance Measure In the annual strategic plans of the hotel, there has to be a communication of the corporate strategy across all levels of operation in the whole organization. This gives the employees the necessary direction and the expectation. It encourages employees to rate their own performance, initiate necessary improvement and concentrate on value adding activities. Performance measures have to assign significant weights to the most value adding areas such as revenue generation, cost reduction and customer satisfaction (DiBella, 2001, p21). It means every action contributes towards the ratings of the performance ratings, upon which employees receive rewards in form of bonus and promotions. The weights assigned to the value adding areas encourage staff members to take work seriously. Change of Customer Service and Customer Retention Even though there are long serving loyal clients, there is need to change the customer service from the present situation of poor foods, poor cleanliness and arrangement of facilities. Standards of customer service have to change urgently. There is Quality customer service involves proper listening to understand the client’s position. There is need to give customers’ priority and retain them through quality service delivery. Customer service consultants will have the duty to solicit customer opinions and find solutions to them. The slogan of the company will be enticing to the customers, by recognizing their value, for example, “Customer is the Master, and we are the Servants”. The intention is not just to use impressive wordings, but to live true to the fulfilment of the promise in the wordings. Change of market Strategy There present situation shows that the Hotel has captured many corporate clients. This has to change swiftly. Instead of selecting only corporate clients, it is wiser to accommodate all classes of client. This is because the Hotel may be perceived as being discriminative. It therefore has to identify with all classes of clients, giving them equal service opportunity. The new management method will emphasize on customer retention more than customer search and advertisement. Sales promotion will be aiming at both customer acquisition and customer maintenance. The future projection is that with proper marketing strategy, customers will be able to move from other Hotels in favour of the Lakeside Hall Hotel. Emphasis on Ethics and image Building The image of the Hotel has suffered mutilated image resulting from availability of obscene materials in the rooms. The rooms will have to be inspected before clients occupy them to ensure they do not have any offensive materials. The slogan of the Hotel will also undergo modification to motivate the members of staff towards the achievement of a reputable image. The policies of the Hotel will change such that any unethical practices perpetrated by members of staff will receive severe disciplinary treatment, including dismissal from the Hotel, of course after exhaustive investigation on the situations around such incidences. It is also true that not all customer complaints are genuine. Investigations have to ascertain the validity of the complaints before making critical decisions. There will be a special committee to review all advertisements and eliminate any ethical and reputational risks involved. This is because Lakeside Hall Hotel already holds an international 4-star status and has a legacy to maintain. International community already has a formed opinion about the Hotel; therefore advertisements are the most potential avenues for rectifying reputational challenges. It means all staff members have to pass tests on honesty, professionalism and personality test. Periodic Review The progress of the Hotel’s performance has to undergo a systematic assessment, either quarterly or half annually. This is to evaluate the impact of the changes on the corporate business objective. The review has to mention the aspects of customer retention, client acquisition, financial gains and need for change. Out of the review, possible recommendations are forwarded to the decision making groups, who of course inform the entire organization of such changes before implementation. Trainings There will be new training courses aiming at Product knowledge, Customer service excellence, ethics and organization leadership. The trainings will equip the employees of the Hotel with professionalism in customer service. The result of the trainings will be improved hospitality and evidence of product knowledge, which eventually translate into direct improvement in customer satisfaction. At the end of every training session staff members will receive certificates of excellence. The focus of the training courses is to eliminate product and service ignorance, and instil a sense of self responsibility. A new element in the training will be the assessment through simulation of real working environment. Transformation of the facilities Since the lakeside Hall Hotel has a vast endowment of resources, the new management will have to implement a way to maximize the use and reuse of the resources. The large space within the Hotel is an advantage only upon realization of optimal benefits from it. While it is fair to acknowledge the achievements of the Hotel, the achievements leave wider rooms for improvement. If the management is not vigilant enough, staff members begin to slow down their tempo to the detriment of the organization. The Hotel will do research from other international Hospitality investors to discovers ways of applying diversification and optimal resource utilization. There is no need of having a lot of resources which do not add value to the organization. This will save the Hotel from unnecessary cost incurred in purchase of fixed assets, some of which are redundant. The new facilities will also require refurbishment to acquire a new outlook for the organization. The organization will begin leasing of some redundant assets to generate revenue from external sources. Automation of Decision Making The hotel will plan to procure an automated decision support system to aid the management in making sound decisions on critical matters. The system will have a pre-defined relationship between critical decisions to relevant parameters. It will be easy for the management to consider all factors affecting the organization with regards to the decisions and to suggest consequence management strategies. The decision support system will not entirely make decision but will only provide direction to the management towards logical scenarios related to the decision making parameters. In the event of new issues, the decision support will require inclusion of parameters in its knowledgebase. References Chase, ML 2003, The learning organization, Quincy University Quincy, IL.P. 34. DiBella, AJ 2001, Learning practices: assessment and action for organizational improvement. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River.P. 21. Mu, S & Gnyawali. DR2003. Developing synergistic knowledge in student groups. Journal of Higher Education vol.74, no.6.PP. 689-711. Ortenblad, A 2002, Organizational learning: a radical perspective. International Journal of Managment Reviews vol. 4, no.1,PP. 87-100. Simon, F & K. Rugchart 2003, Lessons learning from creating a learning organization. Reflections: The SOL Journal vol.4, no.3.PP.14-21. Smith, M. K 2003, Chris Argyris: theories of action, double-loop learning and organizational learning, The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Infed.org, 26-30. Smith, MK 2003, The learning organization,The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Infed.org, 23. Smith, MK 2001, Peter Senge and the learning organization. The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Infed.org, 32. Read More