Assignment on Developing Manager

Introduction

Development of employees or managers is very important in today’s world. Competition has been at a very rapid rate and to cope up with the changing environment personal and professional development of the managers is very important. It helps in providing better career opportunities in the market. There are various skills which are required to be efficient and effective manager in the organization manager works. Team work and leadership skills are some of the most important skills required. There are various leadership styles used by the managers depending upon the situation. In this report various leadership styles will be discussed by taking examples of organizations working in  travel and tourism  sector. Mangers encourage their team members to grow in their career and to develop new skills and competencies which will increase their demand in the market. Employee should be encouraged to be competitive in the market. Communication skills, discipline, encouraging etc. are some of the other qualities which should be present in a leader. Organizational culture and structure is also very important in motivating employees and in aligning the goals and objectives of employees with the goals and objectives of the organization (Marcoulides, 1993). Employees should also get growth opportunities with the growth of the organization. Employee satisfaction is very important and it leads to customer satisfaction. Employees should develop the plans to improve their skills and competencies. Self-managed learning should be encouraged in the organization. SWOT analysis is the starting point in developing a plan to improve your skills. A plan will be developed considering myself as a general Manager of a Hotel. SWOT analysis will help in finding out strengths and weaknesses and then solutions to get rid of those weaknesses will be developed in this report. Continuous monitoring of the development plan is required. There are various ways to motivate and encourage employees. This report will discuss various models to keep the employees motivated. Development plan will be monitored and necessary changes will be done on the basis of amount of improvement in the performance.

Task 1: Understand principles and practices of management behavior

Compare different management styles in two organizations of your choice

Two organizations in Hospitality and Travel and Tourism sectors which are selected to be studied in this task are British Airways and Hilton Hotels.

• Management Style in British Airways: British Airways is one of the biggest airline services providing organization in UK. It is the second largest Airline in terms of number of passengers after easy jet. It serves to around 150 destinations in the entire world. Organization faced lots of problems in 2005 because of economic downturns. Organization was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was the management of Willie Walsh which helped the organization in getting out of this critical situation. His management style as considered as “Brutally Honest”. Management style used by the CEO was coercive management style which was the need of the hour. Merger of British Airways with IAG Airlines happened that time which helped in reviving the organization (Grundy, 2013). Coercive management style is also named as directive management style. Employees work under full control of leaders under this type of leadership style. Employees have to obey the orders or commands given by the leaders and fulfill the tasks given at any cost.
• Management Style in Hilton Group Plc: Hilton PLC group is based out of America and it has huge presence in hospitality sector. Hilton group has around 4112 hotels and 680117 rooms. It operates in 91 countries. Forbes ranked the organization as 38^th largest privately held organization in US in 2013. Management style followed by the organization is active management style where focus is given on employee motivation and innovation. Leader tries to make employees feel comfortable and happy under his leadership. Leader leads from the front by taking up the work and showing the way of doing work to his followers. In Hilton four major factors for motivation and job satisfaction are achievement, responsibility, advancement and work it.
• Comparison: Active management style is very much different from coercive management styles. Active style leads to employee satisfaction but coercive style leads to pressure and stress on the employees. Employees have to complete the orders and they cannot take their own decisions in coercive style but in active style employees are allowed to take innovative steps and leadership.

Discuss leadership characteristics in the chosen organizations

Organization chosen in the above task is British Airways and Hilton PLC Group and leadership styles in these organizations are Coercive and Active styles respectively. Characteristics of these leadership styles will be discussed in this task. In Airline and hotel industry general manager has huge leadership responsibilities. If we talk of coercive leadership i.e. in British Airways, leader leads from the front (Richmond, 1983). He orders his employees by showing them how to do the job. He motivates employees to work hard to get rid of critical situation. He supervises his employees properly. He finds out the weaknesses of the team members and should be able to show them the way to get rid of their weaknesses. In case of active leadership style leader is very cordial and amicable to his employees. Work environment becomes very healthy and smooth. Active leader believes in motivating and encouraging employees by providing rewards and awards. Communications skills are very important traits to be present in a leader. Leader should be very calm and polite with the employees and also with the customers. Discipline and control is the most important quality of a leader. Employees who have disciplined and focus leader also stay focused towards their work.

Leadership style used in Hilton PLC is Active leadership style. In Hilton PLC managers ask juniors about the roles and responsibilities they want to take. And then they are fit into their suitable teams. In British Airways leaders are very strict. They have the power to throw any employee out of the office if they find anyone at fault. Employees have to be punctual and they have to work for more than 9 hours in a day which is much higher.

Evaluate communication processes in selected businesses

Both the organizations mentioned above are Multi-National Companies having operations in lots of countries. Number of employees and customers is large. Hence communication plays a very important role in running the operations smoothly. Information sharing can be done only by having appropriate communication channels. There are three types of communication in British Airways and in Hilton group Plc. Both the organizations have different ways of sharing information. Three types are as follows:

• Downward communication: Downward communication is used to share information from higher level managers to low level employees.
  • Examples of communication channels in Hilton PLC and British Airways: Emails, notice boards, skip level meetings, conferences etc. are used to share information in case of downward communication (Desanctis, 1998). Senior managers send emails and juniors have to respond as soon as possible. Seniors also have option to call the junior managers anytime.
• Upward communication: Communication when low level employees have to share information or update about anything to their seniors.
  • Examples of communication channels in Hilton PLC and British Airways: Emails are the very basic communication ways used in both Hilton PLC and British Airways. Juniors have to send weekly or daily status reports to their seniors. Emails and status meetings can be used as communication channels for these type of tasks. Service industry depends a lot on upward communication. Employees need some communication channel to raise their concerns and issue in front of the seniors in Hilton PLC and British Airways.
• Horizontal Communication: Communication between the employees at the same level is called horizontal communication.
  • Examples of communication channels in Hilton PLC and British Airways: Chatting, group talks, emails, meetings etc. are used to share information in this case. Employees in a team should stay like friends which help in creating healthy environment in the organization.

The above mention communication processes are applicable in both the industries as both the industries are from service sector and have lots of things in common.

Analyze organizational culture and change in selected businesses:

Employee motivation and  organization behavior  also depends on the type of organization culture and structure followed by the organization. Organization culture is defined as the visions, values, rules, regulations, language, beliefs and habits followed by the employees of the organization. In this task organization culture of British Airways and Hilton PLC will be discussed: Organizational structure followed by British Airways is flat where all the employees are at the same level (Carzo, 1969). This organization structure leads to clan organization culture in the organization. Flat organization structure leads to friendly and healthy organizational culture. There should not be any hesitation while speaking to any of your colleague in an organization. Empowerment is given to employees to take their decisions without any fear. Flight attendants should have the power to take any decision related to service provided to the customers. They need to flexible depending upon the situation. Customer satisfaction should be given more importance as compared to the rules and policies set by the organization. There needs to be sympathy and friendly relationship between the employees instead of just being competitive to each other.

Organization culture followed by Hilton Hotels is a mix of Adhocracy and Market Oriented culture. It believes in innovation and entrepreneurial capabilities in its employees. Employees are encouraged to take responsibilities and have risk taking potential. It also focuses on results. CEO of the organization believes a lot in having best suitable culture for the employees. Nassetta believes that organization culture will help in attracting new talent from across the globe and according to his estimates organization will create 200000 more jobs in next 3 to 5 years.

Both are service sector companies and there are lots of changes happening in the business as customer satisfaction is getting more importance. Quality of the product or the service provided should be good. Competition is getting severe. Employees are getting lots of opportunities outside hence employee satisfaction is also very important. Considering all these changes happening in the business both the organization need to make changes in their respective cultures which are more suitable for employee and customer satisfaction. Nassetta brought an organizational change in Hilton PLC. He changed the projects and asked for better results from each team. He wanted to improve profits and revenue for the organization. This organizational change led to market oriented culture in the organization. British Airways was facing higher attrition rate and hen organization brought a change for employee satisfaction which led to flat organizational structure and clan organizational culture.

Task 2: Be able to review own potential as a prospective manager

Assess own management skills performance

In this task I consider myself as general Manager of Hilton PLC. And I believe I am suitable for this as I have following qualities:

• Motivating: General Manager is the top most position in an organization. There many followers to General Manager in an organization. Hence General Manager should be able to motivate others. Showing some care to the employees’ concerns increases his dedication towards the work. Appreciation and motivation also encourages employees to keep themselves updated to the changing technologies and environment.
• Decision making skills: General Manager has to make many strong and quick decisions to implement the business strategies. He should have knowledge of all the fields and should have good analytical skills. My analytical skills have always been good. I was good with the numbers as I have always scored more than 90% in mathematics. Having good analytical skills help in comparing the various alternative options and selecting the best solution to the problem.
• Communication skills: Communication and interpersonal skills are very important in a leader who is at General Manager Post in an organization. My interpersonal skills are also above average as I am good in making stronger and long term relationships with my juniors and seniors in college. It will help me in my career also in making stronger and longer relationship with the clients.

Job description

Below are some of the responsibilities.

• Fielding Complaints- Customer service assistant has to take care of all the complaints and problems of the customers in their shopping experience in the store. Customer service assistant should know the way to handle the issues faced by the customers efficiently. To solve the issue he might have to deal with the other departments of the organization. So he should be ready with the contact numbers of other departments. At last customer should leave [leased from the store.
• Handling Money- Customer service assistants are also present at the counter to collect money from the customers. Billing should happen on first come first serve basis. Random and delayed billing makes other customers angry.
• Understand store policies- Customer service attendants should know all the policies such as return policy, money back policy etc. He should be aware of all the products in the store and where these products are present.

Below are some of the personal specifications:

Communication skills- Customers interact directly with the service attendants for any problem and for any query. These assistants should have excellent communication skills.

• Basis knowledge of computer- These assistants will be handling the billing of the store and billing happens with the help of a computer. So basis knowledge of computer is very important.
• He should have good level of literacy and numeracy.
• He should be able to collect feedback from the client and he should be able to change himself according to the feedback.

Analyze personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

SWOT analyses are the first step in developing a skill development plan for a employee. SWOT analysis for me as a General Manager of a hotel is as follows:

Strengths Managerial skills such as communication, decision making etc. mentioned above also are my strongest strengths which will be helpful in my entire career. I can motivate and encourage employees for better performance and in aligning their goals and objectives with the organization’s goals and objectives. Self- motivation is my strength. I believe in leading from the front and showing hot to complete a task. I am a very good motivator. I am good in finding out the needs and demands and needs of an employee. I prefer to give awards and rewards to the employees to keep them motivated.

Weaknesses Fear of public speaking is one of my biggest weaknesses. I am new and I don’t have much experience in public speaking but I am working on these issues and have joined some of the courses and coaching classes. I get angry on small things hence short temperedness is also one of my weaknesses as I get irritated very soon. I need to work on this issue. Meditation classes and yoga might be helpful in this case.

Opportunities Hotel industry is growing and there is huge potential and opportunities in this market. There are lots of new jobs coming in this sector. There is huge potential of learning various skills in this market.

Threats Competition from the other managers from the hospitality industry is a threat which can hinder my growth in future. All the other external factors like recession, slow economic growth, and environmental factors can also be threat to the career.

Set and prioritize objectives and targets to develop own potential

On the basis of SWOT analysis I will be able to find out my shortcomings and weaknesses which can impact my career in near future. I will list down all the objectives and then on the basis of priority I will start working on these weaknesses. Setting of goals and objectives in life are very important to achieve growth and respect in the industry (Kurrtilla, 2000). All the opportunities should be mapped and then aligned with the strengths which were mentioned in the  SWOT analysis . Strengths will be used to grab these opportunities and to deal with the external threats. To develop myself a s a leader I will develop a plan for around next 5-6 years to develop myself as personally and professionally and to overcome my weaknesses.

• I will also try to learn team work and team building skills. Managerial concepts studied in my education will be implemented and their practical importance will be found out.
• I see myself as CEO of one of the famous hospitality organization in next 8 years. I will separate myself from my weaknesses of being short tempered and being under pressure in public speaking.
• I will focus on Meditation and Yoga to stay calm and cool in critical situations. Clubs will be joined where people are encouraged to speak without any fear. It will develop me personally and professionally and will also give me more confidence.
• Targets will be set up for six months and after every six months evaluation will be done to find out the improvement in my goals. Answers of following question will be noted down after every six months.
  • What do I want to achieve?
  • How will I achieve it?
  • What all resources are available to help me achieve my goal in terms of skills and knowledge?
  • What all things can I give up to achieve my goal i.e. identify all the secondary things and prioritize my work.

Above objectives are listed in the order of priority.

I will be answering these questions after each phase which will help me in understanding how far I am from achieving my goals.

Task 3: Be able to show managerial skills within a business and services context

Lead and motivate a team to achieve an agreed goal or objective

Let us suppose that the organization is facing with a situation of higher attrition rate. Employees are not staying in the organization for longer period of time and they are leaving the organization whenever they get better opportunity outside. Employees are not satisfied with the organization and there is no employer loyalty. It leads to higher cost. Employee satisfaction and motivation is very important which can be achieved with the help of following Motivational theories:

Employee satisfaction is very important for organization’s growth. Employee satisfaction leads to healthier environment in the organization. Employees see their own growth with the growth of the organization and hence they will try to keep the customers satisfied and customer satisfaction is the ultimate thing to achieve in an organization and especially in a service industry. Satisfaction of the staff members is very important to utilize their skills to 100% potential. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs should be used by me as a General Manager of an Hospitality sector organization (McGuire, 2011).

The different five stages of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are as follows:

• Self-actualization
• Esteem needs
• Social needs
• Safety needs
• Psychological needs

First is the basic psychological need which includes proper salaries, food to eat, lunch breaks, place to stay etc. Next is the safety of the employees. Social needs come after the safety needs of an employee in an organization. Social needs means to have good status in the society and which can come by having luxury car, home, laptop, phone etc. Employee will be able to satisfy his social needs with the help of his salary. Hence salary hikes should be given after regular intervals of time on the basis of performance and job level. Recognition and appreciation also helps in satisfying social needs of the employees as it will make them feel proud in front of other employees. It will also motivate non-performers. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is very effective tool to be used by General Manager to generate better results for the organization and for all the stakeholders.

Justify managerial decisions made to support achievement of agreed goal or objective and recommendations for improvements

General Manager cannot just take the decisions without any justification. There needs to be proper planning and research required behind any decision. Impact of the decision on all the stakeholders should be analyzed. Positives and negatives of the decision should be noted down. I recommended Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to General Manager for employee motivation and satisfaction. Growth is very important for any individual and if employee knows that his hard work will lead to better salary hikes and incentives it will definitely lead employee to perform better. Promotions should be given quarterly to the eligible employees. It reduces the attrition rate in the organization. Instead of just implementing Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs there are some other ways to increase the satisfaction level of the employees. Training to be better team player is very important. It helps in smooth and conflict free functioning of a team.

Mentoring and coaching of the employees is another important way for employee satisfaction. Employees should be given an opportunity to develop their skills and competencies which will increase their demand in the market. Employees should be encouraged to improve their communication and interpersonal skills. Policies and regulations should be set up to take care of employees’ concerns and issues. Strict actions should be taken against any kind of discrimination (Neumark, 1988). Rewards and awards should be given to the employees for their performances. Even the low performers should be given an opportunity to improve and prove themselves.

For example some employees might be satisfied with the location transfer and some might want promotion or salary hike. Attrition rate will reduce and it will save lots of money and time for the organization. Employees’ professional need should be found out and they should be trained on the required skills and competencies. Employees can also be encouraged by providing proper mentoring and coaching to them. Organization also needs to focus on communication and interpersonal skills of employees as Hilton hotel is a service industry and employees will interact directly with the customers.

Conclusion

Continuous development is very important to survive in this competitive market. Entire report helped us in studying different management and leadership styles in an organization. Importance of communication channel is also discussed. Organization structure and culture has huge impact on the employee and customer satisfaction. Work environment depends a lot on the type of structure or culture followed by the organization. Development plan is very important for being successful and development plan starts with the SWOT analysis which helps in knowing the strengths and weaknesses of an employee. Future growth strategies can be developed. Continuous review and evaluation of the development plan is also required to develop future strategies.

References

Blake, R. R., Mouton, J. S., & Bidwell, A. C. 1962. Managerial grid. Advanced Management-Office Executive.
Carzo Jr, R., & Yanouzas, J. N. 1969. Effects of flat and tall organization structure. Administrative Science Quarterly, 178-191.
Desanctis, G., & Monge, P. 1998. Communication processes for virtual organizations. Journal of Computer?Mediated Communication, 3(4), 0-0.
Grundy, M., & Moxon, R. 2013. The effectiveness of airline crisis management on brand protection: A case study of British Airways. Journal of Air Transport Management, 28, 55-61.
Kurttila, M., Pesonen, M., Kangas, J., & Kajanus, M. 2000. Utilizing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in SWOT analysis—a hybrid method and its application to a forest-certification case. Forest Policy
and Economics, 1(1), 41-52.
Marcoulides, G. A., & Heck, R. H. 1993. Organizational culture and performance: Proposing and testing a model. Organization science, 4(2), 209-225.
McGuire, K. J. 2011. Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Neumark, D. 1988. Employers' discriminatory behavior and the estimation of wage discrimination. Journal of  Human resources , 279-295.