Strategies of Time to Relax, CompuLearn, and Harrogate Hotel Chain - Case Study Example

Case Studies Student Name: Student Number: Course Code: Instructor: 9th May, 2013. Case Study One The step to acquire smaller establishments by Time to Relax is a timely move for any organization that needs to grow. It should be noted that with each step to harmonize the goals of the parent organization with those of the smaller ones needs procedural advances focused on seamlessly harmonizing the aims of all the management teams without necessarily having to make the employees from the smaller establishments feel inferior. In this respect, a careful look at managerial practises that are habitual in each establishment is critical. This is aimed at coming up with a concise learning and development procedure that is fit for all the establishments. From this set-up, it is highly-likely that a fragmented approach towards training and development will work. In creating a learning and development plan, there are factors that may come to play. First off, some the smaller establishments have been identified as located in the Northern Ireland part of UK. In this regard, the mooted plan will have to inculcate a culture-shock component where all the workers, both from the Time to Relax main branch to the smaller ones learn about the different cultural practises from the different employees. Secondly, the labour laws in North Ireland may be similar in nature to those applied in the region where Time to Relax is located. This should also create the central management’s need to learn more about these. In addition, the management practises may have been influenced by slightly different labour laws. In effect, these will have to be taken into consideration. Finally, it is prudent to learn that in coming up with a suitable learning and development model, the nature of management practises as employed by each small entity should be looked at. It is a known fact that all these establishments were under different managements. During the transition, the need to maintain the management is made so that a smoother transition is made – one without any interruption of service delivery. It would be better even, if the top management starts to effect learning and development procedures within each group. After gaining a specific momentum, then workshops may be organized for the whole organization. In refining problem identification, the top management need to effect procedural identification of each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. This will create a general impression of employee relationship with each management team. For a start, appraisal of staff through available records and customer feedback is a sure way of developing a general idea of which areas would present difficulties and in essence, shape a probable learning and development formula. From this, the general idea on whether to focus on continuous development for employees whose appraisals show positive attributes and continuing personal development for those who may lack in certain aspects. For the most part, any organization that has been identified as successful, like the case of Time to Relax, the line management may feel a little betrayed when change is effected without their involvement. Their contribution to the success of such a company can never be gainsaid. However, they may never take kindly the suggestion to incorporate learning and development specialists in the learning and development plan. In such a case, the organization will have to use these specialists at the initial stage where the smaller companies are being eased into the general system of the bigger Time to Relax. This will be effective so that the learning and development specialists impart important components of learning and development to the employees who are not likely to have benefitted from such in their smaller companies. An assessment of achievements made should be done with a befitting frequency. For instance, a monthly assessment may be carried out as a six-month plan is enough to effect complete change. Aspects such as more positive reviews from customers may be pointers towards a successful learning and development plan. In other cases, learning and development procedures requiring full-time schooling to earn certain skills may take a relatively longer period to achieve meaningful results that impact directly on the organization. As an alternative, full-time training of employees through colleges or special centres that offer training may suffice. In this case, it is only feasible when short-term causes appear appropriate. Redeployment of employees from the bigger Time to Relax offices to manage the smaller companies at a later stage would be great. This will be a form of job rotation so that management cultures at the central office may be imparted without necessarily having to go for an expensive option of seeking out new managers from without. This is important in the final stages as by then, a trend in improvement of the whole organization shall have taken root. The aforementioned criteria for creating an impact in the consolidated organization is good due to the fact that when bringing together several companies which have been under different managements, there is a habit to resist the new management teams. This may be accompanied with employees need to move to other companies as they may deem new managements as less caring. Evaluation of such issues is critical and should be done in a timely manner as they are wont to lead to a dismal performance when not checked early enough. The alternatives to learning and development that have been communicated as concerns Time to Relax management practises are equally okay for a short-term goal in creating such a plan. The option of taking short-term courses in place of continuous development may serve as a way of enhancing learning. However, line management can never be divorced from such infant steps at the onset of learning and development as they possess a general knowledge on employees and company procedures. Case Study Two Situation Analysis The Harrogate Hotel Chain case is characteristic of managements that have ill-defined roles. In essence, they may even have defined roles like in the case of the PTM who feels that they have “too much to do to do any training”. Such cases are reported in organizations that may not be keen on putting out job descriptions with specific roles. Secondly, the PTM at Morecombe may have been pushed into stealing by other factors. For instance, the feeling that they may not be well remunerated may lead them to believe that stealing compensates for that which they think they are being denied. Poor remuneration may be a fact here as shown in the attitude that other employees display towards customers. The number of complaints in customer responses is a sure testimony to this. Strategies The fragmented approach to this would consist taking a continuing personnel development plan. This is the best way to address the complaints from customers as it would ensure that each employee gets to evaluate their weak areas and learns to work on them. For a great experience, the workplace will serve as the best point to learn from learning. In assessing the causes of employee misbehaviour, it would be great to note that lack of morale, little job satisfaction and less likelihood of improvement in career prospects are also driving forces. As an immediate solution to the poor image, and for the sake of keeping the business running, the management should hire a personal relations firm to repair the dented image it has acquired as a result of the employees’ bad attitude. Assessment An outcome that is likely with employment of the above-mentioned remedies is that the PTM managers may resist change at first. This should be expected; therefore strategies like employing assured placement with positive performance appraisal may come in handy. Customer response should improve for a guarantee of placement among other employees. Here, a lot of innovative approach in learning and development will have to be approached. This is due to the fact that for a big change to be effected, double loop learning would suffice as a method of imparting knowledge on how to shift focus from a company that is fast losing on its goals to one that is achieving them. A great example will come in the form of rewarding achievements. As a step towards recognition of improving employees, the habit of shifting PTM posts in four clusters will be deployed for employees who show the zeal to change. Here, the expected outcome is the start of competition among employees on who would get the post. Caution should be exercised when employing strategies that may fall flat if not implemented well. For instance, when looking for prospective employees who may take up the role of PTM, the strategy should include taking them for skills management classes. Skills management classes on aspects such as self awareness may be appropriate so that before they take up such responsibilities, they’d be aware of their strengths and weakness. In this way, they would be able to influence other employees. An audit of the particular PTMs who have undertaken self-awareness training should indicate a will among them to change the outlook of the other employees. In doing so, a change will be achieved. This change also focuses on trying to create trainers who have the capacity to be mentors as clearly, the Harrogate had before then experienced PTMs who could not qualify as mentors. In all, the employees need to experience a paradigm shift that would start at the management level and move down to employees, affecting the whole workforce in the process. Having earlier stated that a resistance to change is likely, and that rewards would suffice for employees who receive positive reviews from customers, it is pragmatic to note that some sections of the staff may need a total overhaul altogether. Instances where a specific code of conduct is violated and leads to a significant influence on other employees or the company’s reputation would need to be punished accordingly. The instance where a PTM manager stole should lead to an automatic dismissal. So far, the established goals have put a primary focus on trying to change the unpleasant conduct among the employees. There are steps to strengthen any gains that shall have been gained by the time all this is accomplished. First off, after a successful campaign to create suitable learning and development plan, a training and development plan to enable employees earn their places in the organization will be put to use. In this plan, the employees should by now be capable of being responsible for most of their training processes. For instance, workshops should insist on urging them to embrace group activities that would increase their chances of working together. Other activities should as well be aimed at ensuring that they gain some knowledge on skills like customer-employee interaction, because from their earlier experience, they lacked tack on this particular area. Conclusion and Recommendations A summation of the processes comes with the conclusion that the first generally acceptable procedure would be working on the PTM managers going downwards. This goal in learning and development makes it easier to impact positively as you go down to the other employees. As previously stated, the PTM influence their employees as mentors, and may have been the responsible parties to the mess that had been at Gilborough Hotel Chain. After imparting a concise learning and development plan among the PTMs themselves, other employees would be dealt with through employing several tactics including performance appraisals that are followed with rewards for those who show great improvements. Finally, an audit may be carried out through several ways of trying to evaluate if any improvements have been made. In this instance, questionnaires may be administered to both employees and customers to try and come up with the substance gained from all these steps taken to improve the general workforce. Case Study Three Situational Analysis As an organization that is still in its growth stage, CompuLearn is at a phase where innovation is very rife. At this stage, innovative practises should be able to drive the organization to heights that are stated in its goals. This will be the best objective in developing the best products, thus earning a market segment that may not be rivalled in a long while. However, the fact that the finances allocated for improvement of employees’ knowledge is skewed in favour of the sales and marketing department. This could be because the current managing director has a background in this particular field. It could also stem from the fact that in the whole organization, the sales and marketing department performs relatively better than the others. Strategies The approach that CompuLearn has chosen to employ in learning and development is has a very shaky foundation since with a knowledgeable staff, trying to develop only one section of the staff could prove quite detrimental to the whole organization. For a start, the potential of knowledge to influence wealth creation, in effect the profits that the organization should realize as a result have not been strategized upon. Therefore, the first short-term goal would be to try and manage the knowledge that is evident among the staff. Secondly, and this should be taken as a long-term goal, should be the strengthening of relationships between the universities responsible for validating CompuLearn’s programs. Thirdly, the haemorrhaging of staff should be stopped through employment of strategies. Before employing these strategies, the staff should be encouraged to engage the management on reasons why they may leave for bigger companies. With these, the companies may now employ strategies like ensuring that employees are guaranteed a career path from within the organization. More often than not, a high turnover of staff is a sure indicator that the company may not be the best place for employees to grow their career. It is in line with this that employees may be leaving for companies with better prospects for their career growth. The second reason may come from the fact that highly-trained IT specialists always like to get engaged in challenging work environments that create a need in them to advance their careers. The strategy here would be to use the single loop learning in aspects of employee skills like staff interaction. For instance, the initial interaction between the staff of universities that validate CompuLearn programs and the CompuLearn staff is proof enough that they lack basic employee skills. The double loop learning may be employed in getting the employees to gain more knowledge on the other departments like customer care, finance, and HR and quality assurance. This is in line with trying to avoid the bias that has been applied towards the sales and marketing department. The staff of fifty at the Preston office is to be deployed to the various worldwide offices as a strategy in trying to expand operations. This will set centre-stage for recruitment of more staff to fill up the positions that will be available at the head office in Preston. Assessment With such a strategy to employ new workers, the process of using both single and double loop learning methods will apply. However, this is to be used as a short-term strategy since with time, the new employees will learn, through experience, the extra aspects that are required of them. As a step to ensure that they do not get attracted to companies that offer better remuneration, the company may need to create training and development plans that cater for knowledge growth. These may only be feasible through training in specially identified colleges. The universities that validate CompuLearn programs may be best-placed as centres for such learning processes. Conclusion and Recommendations First off, the need to invest in utilizing the knowledge that is evident among the staff at Compulearn is a strategy that may well be the best to create an environment that enables fast growth at CompuLearn. This is because as identified, the current staff may be critical in creating management teams at the prospective new establishments. As a strategy, they are vital in continuing with the fairly good management practises that are utilized at the head office in Preston. This strategy will also be a step towards trying to stem the cases of employees leaving for greener pastures in other organizations. It goes without mentioning that when allowing employees to take up management positions, then the company is engaged in enhancing the career development prospects of employees. The second strategy that should be employed involving the use of learning processes through single and double loop learning processes. In this strategy, the investors in people come in handy as they are a specialised learning development group that may be vital in helping to improve knowledge management to the employees. CompuLearn has few cases of problems with management personnel. This will also be important as it is less likely to create friction among line management and the specialists assigned the duties of impacting on the employees within a specified period. However, since the allocated period for this expected development is relatively long, the management teams may be integrated so that the learning process carries on in a smooth way. Therefore, investors in people may be employed on the short term at first, and then they may be brought in successive periods to carry out evaluation procedures to ensure that the knowledge management goes on without interfering with company activities. Read More