Leadership And Management in Action - Blue Waters Hotel - Case Study Example

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN ACTION By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Case Study Report Analysis and Discussion Most of the managers at Blue Waters Hotel are Baby Boomers (aged between 40s and 50s) while most of the employees are Generation Y. Baby Boomers are believed to be the creators of the office, and have a preference for avoidance of conflict, face-to-face interaction, as well as making decisions through consensus. Baby boomers apart from valuing individual satisfaction and seeking high accomplishment, they offer the energy to get a team as well as project noticed (Greenwood & Gibson, 2009). They contribute all their energy themselves to carry out their task and will anticipate nothing less from any worker. On the other hand, Generation Y are more tech savvy and well educated as compared to earlier generations, but handling and managing them in the place of work poses exclusive challenges to managers. Scores of Generation Ys do not see the value of working on a daily basis and fancy the freedom to carry out their personal activities during workdays (Kian et al., 2013, p.53). Evidently the state of affairs is distinct for a number of certain roles, like patient services, internship, or during times of team meeting at big companies. Therefore, managers of Blue Waters are managing a tech savvy group of persons, who care much about themselves than work, and also they fancy tasks that are more challenging; instead of the routine boring undertakings. Blue Waters has a small administrative department, and the department managers do the majority of the hiring of employees considering that they have very limited training in HR functions. The hotel does not understand that professionals with great Human Resource skills can add value to the organization. The added value include recruiting and retaining talented employees, developing an industrious labor force, training managers and employees to improve productivity, making sure that the organization remains compliant, as well as raising the performance bar (Longenecker & Fink, 2013, p.31). Undoubtedly, HR may be the distinction between achievement and failure in any business organization. Teams for HR management are accountable for a broad range of functions in the business, and as observed in Blue Waters misplaced responsibilities can result in employee dissatisfaction. At one time, the HR department was on average just responsible for administrative functions, like recruiting as well as benefits, but in the contemporary business environment, HRM teams are also dynamically engaged in the organization’s strategic planning (Mostaghim et al., 2013, p.663). Recruiting Based on the SHRM (2008) study, they established that generational differences with forthcoming retirements of the Baby Boomer will heavily impact most business organizations. Considering that the Baby Boomer generation was the largest group of employees until Generation Y joined the labor force. Evidently, Generation X became accustomed to the Boomer style of work because they were a smaller group, but Generation Y is bigger and desires a better work-life balance as well as distinct styles of management (Greenwood & Gibson, 2009). For this reason, lack of HR departments at Blue Waters has made it hard to reconsider the training programs to contain the younger workforce. Instead the small administrative department that houses the HR department’s roles and responsibilities are looking at conventional workplace setups, with poor telecommuting alternatives; thus making it hard for Generation Y to continue working for the hotel. Surveys for customer satisfaction revealed high satisfaction levels among Australian customers, but not Japanese visitors. Japanese visitors had lamented about language barrier between them and workers, which as a result made communication more difficult. Language barriers can make uncomplicated tasks to be complex (Lohmann, 2011, p.160). Irrespective of the setting, language barriers issues as noticed at Blue Waters can have an effect on the life quality for everyone involved. The lack of ability to speak in a certain language makes it for customers to completely express their individuality as well as form bonds with the business (Madera et al., 2014, p.119). The Japanese in this case may feel out-of-the-way from other. Besides that, language barriers can stir up favoritism as well as isolation of groups, whereby customers and employees who talk the same language can keep away from other language groups. Blue Waters has employed some migrants including Chinese and Indians, and so professional growth is somewhat slowed down because this group of workers cannot communicate with colleagues on a deeper level. Without doubt language barrier can lead to frustration for every involved party (Madera et al., 2014, p.121). A Japanese customer at Blue Waters may feel pathetic, dishonored and miserable for being unable to comprehend the language of the person serving him. This frustration can make the Japanese customers avoid Blue Waters considering the large percentage of hotel guests are from Japan. The majority performance management at Blue Waters takes place in an unstructured way and is carried out by department managers. The hotel must understand that performance management must be reviewed from an integrated point of view. In this case, synergy must be developed between the system of performance management and HRM processes, strategic planning, structure, organisational culture, as well as other key organisational processes and systems (Hill & Jones, 2007, p.403). Organisational, teams and individual strategic goals have to be coordinated considering that with no integration; no performance management system has the ability to do well individually, regardless of how excellent the performance management system could be (Tantau et al., 2010). In spite of lacking a modern performance management system, Blue Waters also lacks a proactive communication strategy considering that a good communication will help reinforce achievements gained. At Blue Waters, Employees lament that the flow of information is limited, and communication between managers and employees is limited to just instruction. Basically, communication is one of the most vital success attributes of an effective performance management system (Madera, 2011, p.378). Importantly, an effective communication needs the provision of pertinent information, decreases anxieties as well as fears, lessens change resistance, and results in employee commitment to the organisation. Leadership must be devoted to create an effective communication system. What’s more, leaders must be motivated to create the ability to generate a collective vision, motivate workers and put up a performance management system that steers the whole organisation towards the organisational goals and objectives (Bull & Brown, 2012, p.142). At Blue Waters, managers do not support bottom-to-top communication (that is communication from junior staff to senior manager) so generating a good coexistence between the managers (baby boomers), and employees (Generation Y) remains a dream, yet to be realised. Recommendations Blue Waters must understand that Generation Y workers always need several alternatives as well as options right at their fingertips; so, giving them the freedom to work in their own way, but towards an organisational end goal will be valued. Furthermore, Blue Waters managers may still keep control over hotel projects by giving details on what outcome is needed, but permitting workers to make decide how they will arrive at their desired outcome will improve the relationship between the two. Blue Waters should know that Generation Y values a balanced work-life more as compared to other generations and by considering this, managers will gain from taking into account means to balance the employees working day. Furthermore, Generation Y employees value managers who are thoughtful and open-minded. Based on HR issues, Blue Waters must consider strategic vision, bearing in mind that effective HR strategies cannot stay alive in a vacuum. Therefore to be effective, Blue Waters’ managers have to be aligned with the strategic vision of the hotel. In this regard, the vision will offer a clue of where the hotel is heading and the kind of workers needed to assist it get there. Together with other leaders of the organisation, workers have to consider whether the strategic vision is valid with regard to internal as well as external factors and whether marketplace changes can be suggestive of a novel vision. Effective communication is vital in any business organisation, and for Blue Waters managers to develop effective communication they must maintain and establish and integrity since it is the trust foundation in any organization. For integrity to prevail, it has to start from the top management and then move down to employees. This connotes that Blue Waters managers’ must keep their promises and for all time be honest, regardless of how challenging it could be, or they will continue losing employees to their competitors. Blue Water managers should also communicate values and vision to its staff: this proves the value of communication, given that it offers the channel for truth as well as information. By communicating the organization's vision, management defines where it's going. By communicating its values, the methods for getting there are established. In addition, the managers should concentrate on shared, instead of individual goals. When workers feel that all people are coming together to realize a shared vision, instead of a series of individual agendas, it results to trust. Therefore, this is the essence of collaboration,, and when a team work collectively, the member trust each other. Finally, Blue waters need to expand its administrative office to contain HR department, which can offer training programs to the workers in order to overcome the issues of language barrier and recruiting. References Bull, M. & Brown, T., 2012. 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