Change Management at Hotel Ink - Case Study Example

Change Management at Hotel Ink Name Course Name and Code Date Change is inherent in any environment and organizations have to integrate change models and frameworks in managing businesses. However, lack of effective change management strategies inhibits the effectiveness of an organization. Change management is a continuous process that incorporates efforts, dedication, expertise and time to implement and run. Change requires the inclusion of the employees and strategic approach to ensuring the adoption process is effective and guided by internal and external requirements for an organization. Hotel Ink operates in Australia and in the past decade (2003-2013), the revenues, reputation, and profitability have been commendable. However, competition and external environmental requirements are changing meaning that the hotel has to integrate the changes into its respective operations. In addition, the Managing Director of the hotel term was expiring meaning a new Managing Director was required to continue leading the organization. In the last three years, Hotel Ink has been experiencing challenges because of the external and internal considerations. For example, newer legislations and regulations requiring sustainability and reviewing the labor requirements have affected the company. The revenues and profitability are decreasing while complaints about poor service and quality of service are numerous and growing. The social media and other media channels are filled with information on the poor state at Hotel Ink. The solution to these numerous problems is effective to change management to incorporate the regulations requirements and management changes. The change process at Hotel Ink employed different theories and models. Change is unavoidable in any organization whether in terms of management or strategic approach to accomplishing the goals and objectives (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). Hotel Ink first change was the hiring or picking of the new Managing Director to lead the organization (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). Through a board meeting and after numerous consultations, a new Managing Director was picked and tasked with transforming the organization (Higgs & Rowland, 2010). The goals and aims of the new Managing Director were to improve revenues, generate more profits, create an effective team and to address the numerous complaints (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). It meant the Managing Director should be visionary and be able to integrate the different processes and systems. The Managing Director had experience in different sectors and had worked for a long time in the hospitality industry. Moreover, the Managing Director understood the changing regulatory environment and strategic objectives of the organization (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). The Managing Director employed consultation and brought together the different employees in different management levels to present their views on the challenges facing the organization and propose strategies to address the problem (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). The consultation process was appropriate because the employees understood the requirements of the consumers and the weaknesses of the current system. Moreover, engaging the employees creates a positive teamwork and the employees feel or perceive they are involved in change requirements (Thompson & Martin, 2010). Hence, effective change management is viable through seeking the support of employees and other team members (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). The Managing Director also introduced a different type of leadership. The MD embraced both transformative and situational leadership styles. The MD encouraged other members of the management unit to use these two leadership style to advance the requirements of the organization. The aim of these leadership styles is to ensure the context and situation are incorporated in the decision making. The leaders should understand the operational environment is dynamic meaning transformative leadership is important. The management had to change with the changing scenarios ensuring the Hotel Ink is updated based on changing environmental requirements: both internal and external. Decision making and effective communication strategies were important, and the MD encouraged the employees and management to capitalize communication during decision making (Thompson & Martin, 2010). According to the MD, the communication is two-way; the management requests information from the employees and the management communicates with the employees under the direction of the organization (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). The aim is to ensure the employees freely communicate with each other and also with the management. Data and information are important for making decisions, and most of the information are presented by the employees (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). The strategic decision and processes are proposed by the management, and the employees are required to implement these decisions conclusively (Kusluvan et al., 2010). Hence, without effective communication, it becomes a challenge collecting information and also communicating the strategies. Streamlining the communication process and effective decision making process improved the operations and levels of customer satisfaction at the Hotel Ink. Resources are integral to the success of operations, and when it comes to resources, conflicts and misunderstandings are common (Thompson & Martin, 2010). The MD was able to allocate the resources effectively based on the requirements and tasks of each of the positions at the organization (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). The employees and management were encouraged to share the resources and utilize the resources effectively. The employees were informed of the threats of conflicts, and conflict resolution through effective communication was encouraged (Thompson & Martin, 2010). The employees were encouraged to understand and appreciate each other, and to appreciate the strengths of each other while being patient and understanding when it comes to weaknesses. The MD strategy was effective because the number of conflicts both in terms of resource allocation and conflicts based on communication or misunderstandings decreased immensely. Fulfilling the needs of the employees is important because motivated employees improve efficiency and productivity (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). The change of MD created an opportunity in which the requirements of the employees were listened and structures created to meet the requirements (Mader, Scott & Razak, 2013). For example, the MD employed both intrinsic, and extrinsic motivational factors in ensuring the different needs of the employees are integrated into advancing the objectives of the organization (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). It includes employee development through effective training and development skills, and proposal on improvement on remunerations and employee provided positive outcomes are reflected in the financial statements (Higgs & Rowland, 2010). Acknowledgment of employee effectiveness in operations and other modalities would be reflected through recognition and provision of rewards (Langley et al. 2013). These numerous processes were targeted towards ensuring the employees are motivated towards achieving the organizational goals and objectives while integrating the requirements of the employees. A learning organization creates an enabling environment in which it allows continuously transformation of the employees and organization through learning (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). Learning organization main features include team learning, shared vision, mental models, personal mastery and systems thinking (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). Conversely, organization development (OD) is practice and theory aimed at expanding effectiveness and knowledge of employees in an organization to accomplish the requirements of change and performance. Initially, learning and development were not integral or important to the organization (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). The lack of these techniques was among the factors contributing to the ineffective of the organization. However, the introduction of the new management team addressed the learning and development requirements effectively. Hotel Ink did not appreciate change and did not incorporate structures and processes to address the changing environmental requirements (Mader, Scott & Razak, 2013). Hotel Ink did not create a competitive advantage because the organization did not learn faster compared to the competitors and did not develop a customer responsive culture. Hotel Ink employed strategies after the competitors had gained an advantage (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). The processes and structures were changed to reflect the changing internal and external environment (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). Hotel Ink started maintaining knowledge about the process and introduced new products to create a competitive advantage (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). In addition, Hotel Ink did a market research and continuous market analyzes to understand the happenings in the external environment and produced creative solutions through the use of skills and knowledge within the organization (Thompson & Martin, 2010). To achieve this requirement, the culture of trust and reliable communication was capitalized. Benchmarking is important because it enables an organization to understand its respective position relative to market leaders (Mader, Scott & Razak, 2013). Hotel Ink was unable to understand the market dynamics because it did not benchmark its operations. The MD was able to change the methodology of incorporating strategies through reviewing the successes of the major competitors and also benchmarking with international organizations (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). Hotel Ink incorporates both the strengths of the local competitors and international competitors in creating modalities and approaches to advance the aims and goals of the organization (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). The benchmarking defined the position of Hotel Ink relative to competitors enabling a scenario which targets were proposed and implemented accordingly (Ngcobo & Tikly, 2010). Therefore, Hotel Ink should continue using benchmarking fundamentals to continue improving the service and product provision. Moreover, Hotel Ink will have the resources to enable continuous learning and developmental requirements. In addition, employees are the important assets to any organization (Shaw, Bailey & Williams, 2011). The employees should have the skills and techniques to accomplish organizational requirements and objectives (Mader, Scott & Razak, 2013). Previously, training and development were not integral to the organization, but the MD introduced training and development. Hotel Ink supported training of the employees and in some instances, financed the employees to attend seminars and workshops (Higgs & Rowland, 2010). The employees were also sponsored to pursue further specialization. The training and development enabled the employees to learn new skills and approaches to advance their respective obligations (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). The employees realized they were employing obsolete strategies and skills in playing their respective roles and responsibilities (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). Furthermore, Hotel Ink encouraged the employees to continue reading through the provision of learning materials in the workplace (Gill et al. 2010). Hence, training and development contributed to the improvement of operations resulting in effectiveness in operation management; the customers were satisfied while revenues increased. The learning and organization development should incorporate system thinking (McCarthy & Eastman, 2013). It begins by identifying the goals and objectives of an organization. The systems available and resources are merged to ensure the goals and objectives are achieved. It may be viewed as effective resource allocation, but the approach is to ensure the different sectors complements each other (Higgs & Rowland, 2010). For example, Hotel Ink has numerous departments ranging from marketing to procurement. These different departments should accomplish their roles and responsibilities effectively ensuring the wider requirements of the organization are understood (Thompson & Martin, 2010). It is similar to teamwork in which clear systems are identified and relationships between the sectors integrated to accomplish the requirements of the organization (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). The system may also include time management and scheduling of tasks. A systemic approach ensures each sector accomplishes respective tasks and activities accordingly. Therefore, the different sectors within the hotel should not be seen differently, but each sector complements the entire requirements of the hotel in general (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). Systemic thinking and employing systematic understanding enables the hotel to continue strengthening the internal processes with defined roles and responsibilities. Hotel Ink has specific goals and objectives, but the achievement of these components is dependent on the creation of effective systems and strategic approach that incorporates the different fundamental of the organization (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). The MD changed the approach of determining whether the milestones have been achieved and defining the reasons why the milestones were not achieved (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013). Each department had specific milestones defined by specific goals and reports were to be provided every Friday to determine the successes and failures (Mader, Scott & Razak, 2013). The organization was able to learn from the mistakes and utilize the successes to continue improving the internal processes. In addition, mitigation strategies were introduced early enough provided discrepancies were reported (Varkey & Antonio, 2010). Hence, problems were addressed before the situation became worse. Hence, the change enabled effectiveness in ensuring the organization continued to improve its respective processes. In conclusion, change management is integral and important in advancing the requirements of an organization. Numerous components and factors are involved in change management including leadership and adjustment to the external forces. Hotel Ink, of late, has been experiencing managerial and competition challenges because of poor leadership and learning of creating effective systems to advance organizational learning. The change of leadership through an introduction of an MD improved the internal processes. The MD introduced numerous measures and strategies to advance the requirements of Hotel Ink. Some of the strategies include effective communication strategies and including different stakeholders in accomplishing the requirements of the organization. In addition, organizational learning and organization development were introduced, and the different members of the organization were encouraged to participate. It resulted in understanding the marketing and customer dynamics resulting in a creation of new processes and procedures. New products and services were introduced to reflect the changing environmental requirements and conditions. Effective change management is premised on strategic approach of the different members, and the success is based on effective communication and integral of strategic requirements. Change management requires the involvement of the different members and the voice of the members should be included in the management of an organization. Therefore, the Hotel Ink change management strategy reflects positively in terms of customer perception and revenue generation. For any organization aiming to advance organization change, some of the factors that have to be considered include changing the leadership and creating internal processes to collect information about the working environment. References Anderson, D. and Anderson, L.A. (2010). Beyond Change Management: How To Achieve Breakthrough Results Through Conscious Change Leadership. London: John Wiley & Sons. Boella, M., & Goss-Turner, S. (2013). Human resource management in the hospitality industry: A guide to best practice. Routledge. Gill, A., Fitzgerald, S., Bhutani, S., Mand, H., & Sharma, S. (2010). The relationship between transformational leadership and employee desire for empowerment. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 22(2), 263-273. Higgs, M., & Rowland, D. (2010). 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