Introduction
In the modern day, competition has led organizations to re-evaluate their strategies and identify new approaches to enhance their competitiveness. The need to improve the competitiveness of businesses has to the identification of efficiency improvement measures to enhance efficiency that leads to increased productivity and profitability of the organization. Junction Hotel is strategically located and it has operated for a long period. However, with the changing trends in the business environment, there is an increasing need to enhance their efficiency strategies to enhance their competitiveness in the business environment. Organizations adopt strategic approaches through effective management of human resource management because of their role in enhancing the success of an organization. As such, an organization need to develop a suitable environment that enhance learning and development of the employees. Further, an organization has to keep changing in line with new trends in the industry (Wang & Pizam, 2011, p. 41). The inability of an organization to adopt new changes in the market offers the competitors a competitive edge, while their strategies continue becoming obsolete. As such, it is essential for an organization to keep evaluating its strategies to ensure they remain competitive.
The Social Organization
Simon Chance need to know that employees have social and psychological needs in addition to their monetary need which Junction Hotel should meet as their employers. Human relations aspect of motivation involves morale, leadership, and factors that help employees to work at a team. The environments where employees work significantly influence their performance. Social factors have more influence on the workers’ performance than physical and economic factors (Gursoy, et al., 2015, p. 72). Working in a team and receiving attention from the supervisor can have a greater impact on the level of motivation on employee than physical conditions of the surrounding conditions like lighting and heating of a room.
Therefore, Chance can use the finding of Hawthorne studies to reorganize the hotel by establishing for formal organizations by creating an organizational chart which will identify different departments and their responsibilities. For example, Linda Wilkinson’s roles should be clearly defined to avoid confusion with other workers. The chat will also identify those roles that Meg Mortimer can delegate to her deputy. The authority of Meg over Linda and other employees in the cleaning and reception sections should be specified to reduce the level of interference in their everyday activities. Working as a team for the reception team will help to reduce the amount of workload for Linda who is stressed because heavy workload. Other departments should also be encouraged to work in teams to improve employees’ motivation levels in the entire facility. Work groups and teams will help the workers to complete their task quickly and efficiently. People will only work in areas that they are competent which will improve the level of accuracy in service delivery (Gursoy, et al., 2015, p. 32). Teamwork allows employees to feel comfortable while expressing their views and opinions. It will also make employees feel that they are engaged in the change process because they will have an opportunity to express their feeling about the changes.
Psychological Perspectives
Dynamic of motivation are very important and Charles should carefully evaluate what will make Junction Hotel to support his change initiatives. If he does not win their support for his transformation program, they will oppose his efforts and the whole exercise will fail. He should explore different motivation approaches including psychological ones to encourage the people in the hotel to focus on the big picture rather than on their self-interests (Wang & Pizam, 2011, p. 84). A psychological perspective that Charles can use includes needs-oriented theories, the hierarchy of needs and need for achievement theory and cognition-oriented theory.
The needs-oriented theory defines motivation as the fulfilment of different human deeds which include human desires to meet their basic and emotional needs that surround a person’s psychological well-being. It is related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that suggest for the fulfilment of those needs in a particular order starting with the most basic one like food, shelter to the most complex ones like self-esteem and self-actualization. The need for achievement theory suggests three specific needs for workplace environment which are an achievement, authority, and affiliation (Gursoy, et al., 2015 , p. 56). The cognition-oriented theories revolve around personal expectations and realizing equitable compensation for a particular effort or results. All these psychological perspectives are important in the development of strategies that will help the new manager to receive support from the current employees of the hotel. The workers need to be assured that they will not be victimized for their past mistakes; otherwise, they will not embrace the proposed changes.
Knowledge & Learning
Organizational learning and knowledge are some of the concepts or techniques used in the management of contemporary organizations to improve the efficiency of the employees and therefore that of the organization as a whole. Learning and knowledge techniques are mutually exclusive meaning that one cannot do without the other. Managers use various tools to enhance the skills of the employees at different levels, which constitutes to learning. The result of the learning process equips the staff with new knowledge to perform their duties more efficiently (Smith & Lyles, 2011, p. 32). Organizational learning is an incremental process. As such, the management should design a clear process under which the goals of learning and knowledge at the organization are to be achieved.
Human Resource managers employ learning techniques so that their employees can conceive, reflect and action the current and future organizational needs. For example, the HR managers at Junction Hotel could take advantage of learning tools to equip their employees with new skills needed to better the service offering, which would, in turn, make the organization more competitive. It is imperative to note that the key goal of organizational learning is improving the employees' skills. At the same time, learning helps ensure more efficient managerial control. This is because organizational learning helps specific teams identify their roles to the organizations, which in turn eases the managers' effort to control various work processes.
In this case, learning would help reduce the supervisions of the staff welcoming guests at the hotel. At the same time, learning helps increase the coordination of different teams in the organization say the receptionists and the accommodation teams. This helps increase the efficient at the organization by ensuring the work processes continue without any interruptions. In modern organizations, learning is achieved by holding training sessions, which are done regularly or when the managers find it necessary. As such, the HR managers at Junction Hotel should formulate a schedule to training their employees in a bid to improve the organizational efficiency.
Organizational Culture
Apart from the learning technique, managers can build an organizational culture to improve the efficiency and reduce the control efforts at various levels of the organizations. Nevertheless, what is organizational culture? The latter represents the unique characteristics shared by all the members of an organization. The organizational culture provides a guideline for the behaviour of all employees whether they are dealing with themselves or with the customers. Organizational culture focuses mostly on the acceptable behaviour of the company staff. As such, managers should clearly define the acceptable company code of conduct through continuous training and during the induction of new employees.
As such, the HR managers at Junction Hotel could use the training/ learning sessions to enhance the company culture, as another step in improving the business' efficiency and competitive advantage. Currently, most organizations have emphasized the need for organizational culture as a leadership technique, which has, in turn, enables the members to gain the direction required to perform their duties (Schein, 2010, p. 12). Apart from proving direction of the employees, the organizational culture encourages a healthy workplace competition, which is vital in improving the overall efficiency. It helps the employees boost their level of performance to reap the promotions benefits or the recognition by the management (Smith & Lyles, 2011, p. 72). Concerning our company, it would be imperative that the overall management develops a proactive and competitive culture at the company. For instance, if the receptions and hotel attendants were trained to be active and enthusiastic while handling guests, the customers would acquire a positive experience about the company, which would make it more competitive in the industry.
Organizational change
Organizational changes are always resisted by most of the employees and some of the management staff. As a result it is important to prepare the workforce psychologically to assure them that they changes are crucial for the common good of the stakeholders. The changes at the hotel should be gradual and involve all the stakeholders as they all play a vital role in the organization (Bommer, Rich, & Rubin, 2005, p. 740). Human resources management concentrates on the acquisition and development of knowledge and skills, while maintaining and motivating the human resources. Personnel management, on the other hand, focuses on the personnel administration, employee relations, and labour as a strategy of management. The managers should challenge the employees to come up with ideas that are exclusive to fit the particular circumstances of the organizational change. The leaders also provide the employees with the necessary resources for the enhancement of creativity and innovation. Employees who are intellectually stimulated are creative in their approach to problem-solving; such employees have confidence in themselves and require minimum supervision.
Leadership and power
Leadership styles are strategies employed by managers and team leaders in organizations to provide the direction in pursuit of the goals set by the companies. It is paramount to point out that the leadership strategy adopted by each manager in an organization has a lot of influence on the productivity of the team (Bommer, Rich, & Rubin, 2005, p. 736). The leadership styles determine every aspect of the organizations including brand image, perceptions of the body by the consumers and the stakeholders among other attitudes developed. The leadership styles have a huge impact on the employee and hence a significant effect on the productivity of the enterprise due to the linear nature of the interaction between the leaders and the employees
Transformational leadership approaches are necessary strategies to organizations as they endeavour to provide services to customers and also to meet the expectations of the stakeholders. In the application of the transformational leadership styles, the managers and team leaders endeavour to exert influence on the individuals rather on entire members of the groups or the teams. In the approach, each employee is treated as an individual rather than a member of any given group or team (Bommer, Rich, & Rubin, 2005, p. 736). The management of the hotel should recognize the importance of acknowledging the individual differences in its approach so that the individual employee is provided with the opportunity to offer their best performance. The individual employee is given space to demonstrate different strengths without necessarily comparing them with anyone else, giving them the chance to bring out the best versions of themselves. Although the contribution of an employee is important, it is the individual contributions that ultimately affect the eventual results of the entire teams.
The transformational leaders use intellectual stimulation in their style of management (Bommer, Rich, & Rubin, 2005, p. 738) .The employees are provided with space for innovation and creativity by enriching their environment with factors that are thought-provocative the hotel should provide the employees with environments where they are free to think and hence can come up with unique ideas and innovations that eventually are beneficial to the hotel. They also look at any problem from different perspectives before making decisions.
The hotel should adjust well to the government policies and regulations. The hotel should therefore, collaborate well with the government on policy issues due to the significant role it plays in the facilitation of the conducive business environment. The enterprise should continue to comply with the government in the regulation of the hospitality industry to maximize performance and enhance the achievement of goals.
Efficiency
Cost cutting
Diagnosis of the performance issues facing Joint Hotel shows that the genesis of poor performance is in the internal operations rather than external environment. Lack of clear organization structure, procedures, core competencies, and extensive use of paper work inhibits the organization from providing the necessary services needed by the modern consumer. Conversely, these deficiencies lead to poor customer’s service and satisfaction, which discourages returns. Turning around the performance of the company requires adaptation to customer cultures, needs, and trends. A modern leisure consumer has a globalized mind-set, which means that the products of any organization in the hospitality industry must incorporate structures that accommodate factors such as technology, speed, and diversity. The modern consumer is in control of the prices and quality of products, can access services from anywhere, shops around the clock, and share content and feedback with other consumers on the internet (Nayar et al., 2013, p. 12). As such, there is need to focus on repositioning the organizations products and services by improving scalability through automation, consolidating IT infrastructures, and aligning policies and procedures to attract diverse groups of consumers. The significant steps entail development of business strategies that are aimed at globalization of services. This requires extension of services, redeployment of resources, and innovation in management. Creating the company’s presence on the internet and the social media is almost equivalent to globalizing activities. Consumers of leisure services first research on the internet before settling on their destination. This especially true among buyers of luxury leisure services who rely on the feedback and ratings by other consumers to make the call. Digitization of data will break the barrier of distance and language hence enabling Joint Hotel to have a better access to domestic and foreign customers.
Development of service products with a high usage rate depends on ongoing investment support in the improvement of the characteristics of the personnel that are in direct contact with the customers. Having a team that profess professionalism and authenticity in their service and concern to the customers is a competitive advantage for any organization selling service products. These attributes are evidently lacking in Joint Hotel, which is inefficient in management of staff, roles, and the chain of production. To rationalize the quality of services offered, the management must evaluate intensity of labour, complexity of inputs and outputs, consumer involvement, available skills, and gaps in human resource and customization of products. Conversely, the management should consider dividing workers into various categories that may include the symbolic analysts, 2) in-person servers, and 3) the routine producers (Reich, 1992, p. 56). The symbolic analysts have higher level of education and experience in intellectual management of key areas that require skills such as problem solving and identification, visualization, and incorporation of new technologies. The routine producer and in-person servers that include the restaurant personnel are tasked with the realization of strategies identified by the symbolic analysts. Categorization of the workforce ensures that there is no duplication of roles and friction among employees, hence a lean and efficient human resource system. For routine service operations, six major factors should be considered. They include customer contact, customization, complexity, information intensity, labour intensity, and cultural adaptation. Time and labour intensive activities are in most cases the cause of inefficiencies in human resource operations. This can be mitigated by ensuring that a well-educated labour is employed and investing in computer aided communication systems.
Corporate social responsibility
The organization has embraced corporate social responsibility through various activities and programs in the society. Hotel Junction recognizes and appreciates the actions of every individual in the society and how they impact on the environment and community. Corporate social responsibility plays an imperative role in the firm’s image and perception by the populace. Creating a friendly and serene environment for business operations always take precedence in business organizations. Hotel Junction has manifested some of its corporate social responsibility through participation and support of schools through donations. As part of the corporate social responsibility, the hotel has supported the education of the underprivileged (Gursoy, et al., 2015 , p. 65). The firm has also taken water recycling and other energy saving measures to preserve the environment. Besides the organization’s goal of profit making and maximizing shareholders wealth, the Junction Hotel creates value back to the society where it operates.
The hotel has undertaken social oriented investments, created employment opportunities, and increased wealth within the society. According to the hotel’s vision, it endeavours in achieving a better and brighter future without compromising the present outcomes. The firm’s approach to corporate social responsibility is basically to identify risks and opportunities facing the resilience of the business operations in the long-term. The management of these risks helps improve the environment in which the business operates; hence directly affecting the productivity. Hotel junction objectives are to provide the best in services while utilizing and conserving the environment. In partnership with various organizations, Hotel Junction has implemented eco-friendly policies that have ensured all employees make green decisions. All the business processes and operations are undertaken with a keen observation of their impact on the environment and community at large.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Hotel Junction has embraced different strategies and practices to gain an upper hand in the hotel and tourism industry. Many players have entered the industry resulting in an increased competition in product and service delivery. Hotel Junction needs to improve efficiency and effectiveness of business operations through strategy innovation in various business functionalities within the firm. Business organizations ought to embark on myriad practices and measures that ensure growth and development while observing the environment.
Reference List
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Gursoy, D., Yolal, M. & Lee, T., 2015 . THE 5th ADVANCES IN HOSPITALITY & TOURISM MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT (AHTMM) CONFERENCE 18-21 June 2015 Beppu, Japan. Beppu, JAPAN, Hotel Business Management Simulation, pp. 1 - 599.
Nayar, A., Nair, R. & Koch, V., 2013. Aligning and rationalizing your business applications: How to simplify the IT portfolio and reduce costs in financial services. pwc, pp. 1-14.
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