Management of Hillside Beach Club - Case Study Example

CASE STUDY Name: College: Course: Tutor: Date: Case Study Hillside Beach Club (HBC) is enjoying tremendous success in the resort hotel sector of hospitality industry as evidenced by its high occupancy rates, extraordinary customer satisfaction, high rate of repeat guests, and escalating profits at its establishment located in the tourist town of Fethiye in Turkey. With these successes, it has not only built a reputable and robust brand but also developed a unique organizational culture that has bread a loyal human resource, which is primary source of competitive advantage over its numerous rivals in the country. Indeed, organizational and management uniqueness of Hillside Beach Club emanates from the strategic focus on the customers using an intricate system of feedback and response, inclusiveness in decision-making and collaborative innovation. This success has instigated international expansion of the resort, specifically into Cyprus, a decision that was arrived at after a lengthy search for an ideal location outside Turkey. However, the leadership and management of the Hillside Beach Club have qualms over the possibility of replicating the success of Hillside Beach Club at Fethiye in its Cyprus establishment considering that this country and its business environment differs greatly from Turkey despite their close proximity. Key drivers of the unique customer experience HBC differentiated itself from its competitors in various ways, which formed the basis of its competitive advantage in the resort industry in turkey. Specific sources of the competitive advantage that the resort enjoyed include: Creating a consistent culture of genuine hospitality Focus on feel good factors rather than opulent luxury Delicate balance between consistency and surprise Innovative ideals and insights from a management team Freedom to customers to choose their vacation formula ad preferences Gathering and acting quickly on feedback using the Supex and Onex systems of communication to create a dynamic feedback-response system and incorporating them into the decision support system Practical approach to training rather that heavy reliance on technology applications to enhance genuineness in service. Focus on customer interaction rather than seclusion and privacy Key issues and problem statement Hillside Beach Club is faced with the challenge of replicating its success in Turkey in its new location in northern Cyprus, which has marked differences from Turkey, particularly concerning the political, legal, cultural and economic landscapes. Indeed, the success enjoyed by Hillside Beach Club in Turkey has come about after a lengthy development of unique organizational culture and systems that best fits the Turkish environment. However, the environment at Cyprus may not be particularly conducive for the effectiveness of the organizational culture and systems developed at HBC and thus the challenge lies in what would make the Cyprus establishment as successful as that in Turkey (Fang, 2012). Various key issues emerge, which when put together constitute challenges that the management of Hillside Beach Club must overcome to achieve exemplary performance and organizational success. The political environment in the new location is an overbearing challenge because Northern Cyprus, wherein the new Hillside Beach Club is being developed lacks international recognition from many countries, although it enjoys close ties with Turkey (Boukas & Ziakas, 2013). This situation presents travel challenges such as problems with processing of travel visas and lack of direct flights, which are vital to the tourism industry and the success of the new Hillside Beach Club establishment as well. In addition, the political dynamics in northern Cyprus are unpredictable because the Cyprus Island remains divided and efforts to reunite the northern and southern regions of the country have not been fruitful considering that the four-year long negotiations have not arrived at a solution yet, which has bred a fertile ground for political instability. A probable solution to this challenge is to enter into direct negotiations with the authorities in northern Cyprus that would lead to perhaps a joint venture. This would help new Hillside Beach Club establishment enjoy political goodwill in the region and political protection as well. However, the management of Hillside Beach Club are moving towards solo investments, and thus joint arrangements may not auger well with the long term strategy of the resort. The cultural environment presents another formidable challenge to the management of the new Hillside Beach Club establishment because the Cypriot culture is markedly different from the Turkish one, which the Hillside Beach Club management is already accustomed to and already leverages. A possible solution to this challenge would be to enhance the cultural intelligence of the workforce at the resort, including the management and the employees as well. This means that the resort may have to expose its management to and educate its entire workforce on the Cypriot culture. This would facilitate the understanding of the cultural differences therein, and identify which cultural aspects are valued the most and even understand how the international community that would form the bulk of the visitors to the new resort perceives the Cypriot culture. The economic environment in northern Cyprus is challenging due to unfamiliar logistical aspects including transport. Already, the region is not served by any direct flights from other regions and international flights have to land in southern Cyprus, or Antalya or Istanbul before proceeding into southern Cyprus. This may make flying into southern Cyprus a long and tiring journey for international tourists, and therefore be discouraging to any interested visitors. A probable solution to this challenge is to negotiate with charter flight service provides to venture into the region directly and the leadership of northern Cyprus to allow direct flights as well. However, such negotiations may be lengthy and do not provide a guarantee that a solution can be arrived at in a timely manner. Another challenge from the economy is that northern Cyprus may lack a good transport networks to facilitate the transporting of building materials and supplies to the new Hillside Beach Club establishment. Indeed, high transportation costs may be injurious to the profitability of the establishment. Indeed, while the discovery of natural gas and oil reserves in the region may boost the economy of northern Cyprus, the economic benefits may take long to be realized, and thus may not work with the strategic timetable of the initial establishment of new Hillside Beach Club resort, and may also be accompanied by political instability alongside (Boukas & Ziakas, 2013). Given these challenges, the management of Hillside Beach Club is grappling with how exactly to approach establishing the new resort particularly regarding whether to train Cypriots for or second Hillside Beach Club employees to the new location, how much the management is willing to commit to the new establishment, and the nature of the negotiations that the management should enter into with the northern Cyprus leadership, which already lacks international recognition. Ultimately, the management of the Hillside Beach Club is faced with the problem of translating the organizational culture, quality of service and loyalty of employees into the new location in northern Cyprus in the prevailing political, economic and cultural circumstances. Solution options From the issues highlighted, the solution options that are feasible for establishing the new resort in northern Cyprus that would help transfer the established culture and even success of the parent Hillside Beach Club include a) seconding some of the staff to the new location, b) recruiting Cypriots and undertaking them through intensive training, and c) seconding some staff and hiring some Cypriots as well to develop a unique blend of a workforce. Recommended strategic option It is recommended that some staff, which includes managers and employees, be seconded to the new Hillside Beach Club resort while new employees from the indigenous community are recruited and undertaken though intensive training and internship by the seconded staff. This approach has various advantages. First, it would help the incoming staff of Hillside Beach Club resort to become familiar and assimilate into the culture of northern Cyprus. Second, it would help transfer skill and develop new attitudes and approaches to the new location and new employees, considering that northern Cypriots rank highly in polychronicity (Karatepe, et al., 2013; Markides2013). Third, it would provide a guarantee to the repeat guests at the resort that the new location in northern Cyprus would provide the same level of hospitality and experience as the resort at Fethiye in Turkey, which is their reason for their repeat patronage in the first place. In addition, the unique team would facilitate the development of a unique servicescape that would be characteristic of northern Cyprus while alongside integrating the socialisation ambience, co-creativity of the employees and the guests that have been the signature of HBC in Turkey. Implementation of recommendation The seconding and recruitment activities can take place concurrently although the seconding of staff should take precedence over recruitment. Specifically, the top management of Hillside Beach Club resort should seek for volunteers for assignment to the new location, based on their skill level, loyalty, willingness and performance. The team that is constituted should form the nucleus of the workforce at the new location, whose task would be to recruit Cypriots and other suitable employees from other regions to ensure that the multicultural and multi-skill outlook of the workforce is achieved (Dunning, 2014). Thereafter, the new employees should be exposed to the operations and organizational culture of the Hillside Beach Club resort at Fethiye by undergoing regular internships and exchange programs at the parent resort (Fang, 2012). This would not only help the acculturation of the new staff to the way of working at the Hillside Beach Club resort but would also provide valuable insights about the Cyprus location, that can be used to formulate strategies for the new resort, enhancing its chances of replicating the success enjoyed by the Fethiye resort. Conclusion While the Hillside Beach Club resort is committed to expand into northern Cyprus, the management has to contend with the challenges they face from the new location, particularly those emanating from the political, cultural and economic environments. While many of these challenges are beyond the control of the Hillside Beach Club resort management, of may take much time to resolve, the recommended approach would be to create a workforce comprising of existing HBS employees and new employees recruited from Cyprus and other regions. Thereafter, while endeavouring to create a unique organizational culture based on employee loyalty, focusing on guest happiness and feel good factors, and being responsive to customers and emerging trends, the new location can replicate the success enjoyed at the resort at Fethiye despite operating in a challenging environment. References Boukas, N., & Ziakas, V. (2013). Impacts of the global economic crisis on Cyprus tourism and policy responses. International Journal of Tourism Research, 15(4), 329-345. Dunning, J. H. (2014). The Globalization of Business (Routledge Revivals): The Challenge of the 1990s. Routledge. Fang, T. (2012). Yin Yang: A new perspective on culture. Management and organization Review, 8(1), 25-50. Karatepe, O. M., Karadas, G., Azar, A. K., & Naderiadib, N. (2013). Does work engagement mediate the effect of polychronicity on performance outcomes? A study in the hospitality industry in Northern Cyprus. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 12(1), 52-70. Markides, C. C. (2013). Business model innovation: what can the ambidexterity literature teach us? The Academy of Management Perspectives, 27(4), 313-323. Read More