The imperial hotel

The Imperial Hotel

Ineffective leadership and management by previous Heads of Department and supervisory staff including poor monitoring and control procedures

Introduction

The Imperial Hotel is a 500-bedroom hotel that is part of the Star Hotels in London, which is a 4-star market hotel and considered to be a well-known internal branded chain of hotels. Star Hotels operate around 25 hotels in the United Kingdom. The Imperial Hotel which is located in the heart of London’s West End and is the focus of numerous international business and tourists’ guests. Recently, the hotel has found itself to be in trouble with many issues arising in managing the hotel. The one problem that will be discussed here is the ineffective leadership and management by previous Heads of Department (HODs) and supervisory staff which comprises of inadequate monitoring and control procedures.

Leadership is an activity that, relying on the communication process, for the specified purpose (goals) to influence the relationships between people and the human behaviours. Some of the leadership skills are of paramount importance so that a leader can be successful, and the hotel can run well. These are: working together ability, results in orientation, communication, creativity, innovation skill, performance, cooperation, understanding self and others and risk-taking.

My opinion is these abilities of the previous management were missing, and this is one of the core reason for the problem in the Imperial Hotel.

The ineffective leadership and management by the previous General Manager have caused the hotel to be in a risky position. There are issues of high levels of staff turnover, the disappointing sales performance, and the poor results on the Guest Satisfaction Surveys which has further highlighted the quality of leadership and management aspects in all departments of the hotel. The norm was that HODs bonuses were linked to the performance of their department, would become hostile in defending their own departments’ position in HOD meetings. Moreover, there is also the issue of monitoring and control procedures which has shown that supervisors and managers are not monitoring the standard of work and reporting practices are weak as well. Other aspects that are also highlighted are a gap in good management, need for strong leadership and collaboration among departments.

Hospitality Industry and Analysis of the individual problem

The hospitality industry in London is on the rise. Although there is a chance that the economic factor will play a role which would cause the hospitality industry to face a certain downfall, it would continue to face a steady growth in the coming year of 2019. The management of the hospitality industry ensures that they are focused on customer service, by offering them the best of services as per their needs (PwC, 2018). It is important that each level of the management is aware whom they to report to so that there is no miscommunication taking place. Comparing the Imperial Hotel with other hotels in the hospitality industry of London, it would not be wrong to state that at present, the Imperial Hotel is struggling. Management needs to improve the overall structure and how it works to ensure that the hotel retains market leadership and is the first choice for customers. There is a high chance that if the situation does not improve for Imperial Hotel, it will lose the competition with other hotels in London. Further in the paper are specific measures that the management can implement to ensure things start to get in line for them or else they would have to face serious trouble.

The ineffective leadership and management can affect all other departments in the hotel. Nowadays customer satisfaction is the most critical competitive advantage and key performance indicator in the hospitality industry. Where the management tries to focus on customer expectations there, it can avoid poor customer satisfaction. Poor leadership can cause employee turnover if the leadership style and managers are negative therefore cause employees to leave. Negative culture is created when the employer thinks that the creator of products or services and everything should be under his control. Teamwork means cooperation, and if it is a missing collaboration between the manager and the subordinates, then this proves that interaction exists within the workgroup. Communication is the key to encourage teamwork. Therefore, Peter has to know these essential aspects in keeping up the excellent interaction in the group. As highlighted at the beginning of the report, the Imperial Hotel is facing severe leadership and management issues owing to which the hotel is suffering concerning consumers as well as the brand position. The new general manager has analysed the issues that have taken place regarding the HODs and the supervisory staff. He has suggested specific suggestions that can be implemented to ensure that the issues are carried out, and the hotel can function appropriately.

The four suggestions that Peter Farnsworth has suggested managing the problems are:

• Lead by example

• Review monitoring procedures and IT support

• Incentivise supportive management

• Devise cross-department collaboration

Lead by example

Renz, (2016) state that the term “lead by example” basically means that the individual in power should do what he says. For instance, if the individual in position says to his subordinates that no one is to leave before 6, but he leaves at 5:30, then this is not lead by example situation. This is more like “do as I say, not as I do” example. In order to fulfil the “lead by example” situation, the individual in power must ensure that if his employees are leaving at 6, he should leave at 6 or after 6, which means after they all have left (Nienaber, 2010). This would ensure that the individual in power is doing the lead by example aspect.

Vaccaro, Jansen, Van Den Bosch, and Volberda, (2012) state that most of the individuals who opt for such strategies are leaders, and not managers. The saying about these two aspects is “managers do things rights, leaders do the right things”. Therefore, many organisations prefer to have individuals at key positions that can be leaders and not managers. The idea is to move forward in achieving the goal, along with all the employees (Gomez-Mejia, and Balkin, 2011).

In the case of the Imperial Hotel, it can be seen that the HODs that are working in the hotel

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