Introduction
The most important idea that has to be taken into consideration when dwelling on the issue that the Imperial Hotelâs management is dealing with is the fact that local organizational culture is driven by employee performance. Overall, this recurrently leads to a scenario where month-by-month sales do not increase as the average room rate goes up, and the number of customers tends to zero. Even though there are monthly check-ups aimed at the review of existing bonus schemes for employees, the financial performance of the Imperial Hotel still lacks depth, as the management cannot control the costs of their services. Even though a new general manager is in place, a toxic organizational environment still prevails.
The fact that the Imperial Hotel is a 365/24 facility also makes it hard for the management to develop schedules with flexible working hours, where staff would remain contented and motivated to perform at the highest level possible. With numerous employees taking sick leaves at short notice, the hotel is currently hit by understaffing.
The presence of specific commitments (such as family and children, for instance) among the female employees also raises the concern of these females having additional part-time jobs that interfere with their primary role at the Imperial Hotel. The current paper aims to discuss how the new general manager could translate a negative work culture into a positive environment where employees perform on the verge of their capabilities with the help of Mayoâs Human Relations Theory and servant management style.
Analysis of an Individual Problem
For Elton Mayo, the idea behind managing the workforce related to how the management could display acknowledgement of employeesâ accomplishments while also increasing the positive impact of interpersonal communication. Mayoâs theory could be a beneficial addition to the current case study as the Human Relations Theory (HRT) has appraisal and teamwork as the cornerstones of organisational success. Therefore, the manager is going to find ways to emphasise motivation and cooperation as the two essential points that distance Mayoâs theory from its much more bureaucratic counterparts (Trahair and Zaleznik 2017).
The author is going to apply the HRT rather carefully, in order not to place too much emphasis on employeesâ personal factors. The manager should strive to evade personality-induced promotions and only assess oneâs career path based on their job accomplishments (Trahair and Zaleznik 2017). In order not to dehumanise employees while providing them with enough strict rules to follow, the new general manager will benefit from a smart symbiosis of bureaucratic concepts and human-centeredness.
On the other hand, the manager should take on the servant management style so as to support the Imperial Hotel employees throughout the process of applying changes to the organisational culture. In order to get the most from the servant administration, the manager would have to spend their time mentoring employees and making sure that each of them receives enough support to give up on negative organisational behaviours (Onday 2016). Instead of enforcing numerous rules without warning, the manager would coach employees and explain why organisational culture stands at the forefront of any company, especially in the hospitality sector. According to Onday (2016), one of the potential challenges for the manager could be the need to possess enough experience in coaching and leadership.
The new manager, most likely, possesses a set of strong interpersonal skills, which makes him the perfect role model for his employees. If a manager intends on building a mentoring relationship with employees, the latter will be most likely to stay away from their negative behaviour patterns and keep on improving their performance (Ronald and Malcolm 2017). Without an ethical, trustworthy manager, the value of servant management would tend to zero, as the majority of advances occur within the professional field.
After applying the steps below, the manager will create more room for open collaboration, manager-employee trust, and a strong bond to maintain and nourish. The manager is going to take past mistakes and use them as leadership lessons for employees who have a great deal of unrealised potential (Ronald and Malcolm 2017). Given that the majority of the Imperial Hotel staff are highly-skilled professionals, their response to the servant management style would help them attain increased levels of performance and productivity.
Introduce Proper Communication Incentives
The first step toward making sure that negative organisational culture slowly fades away is to listen to what employees have to say. The Imperial Hotel has a long history and is rightfully considered to be one of the most valued leisure spots in the region, which makes it reasonable to pay attention to employeesâ grievances. This would help the manager address the issues at hand, validating and acknowledging employeesâ most unpleasant experiences that have to be approached as soon as possible (Busse and Warner 2017).
Instead of completing blind surveys and holding town hall meetings with the staff, it is recommended to accomplish a series of personalised conversations with the most active members of the staff to find out their view of the situation. This step does not approve of the idea that the communication issues are going to disappear. Still, the team will have a chance to speak up and dwell on what are their biggest concerns regarding the past, present, and future of the Imperial Hotel.
In order to achieve objective results during the interviews, the new manager would have to be as transparent as possible. The most crucial objective here would be to understand the context in which the hotel staff operates, as this would be a crucial boost to how the team views the new manager and his vision (Boddy 2017). Given that the current organisational culture tolerates disrespect among employees, transparent communication would positively affect the level of employeesâ job satisfaction.
It would reduce the amount of frustration that the staff has been previously exposed to on a daily basis, and make employees more happy via updated rewards and weekly meetings intended to celebrate employee accomplishments (Busse and Warner 2017). In turn, the managerâs encouragement would create an environment where employees are not afraid to communicate with each other and speak up at times when their voice is essential.
Set Realistic Performance Expectations
Despite the presence of a negative organisational culture, the new manager should not kick-start staff performance by exposing them to an increased workload and inadequate working hours. Instead, it would be much more reasonable to set longer deadlines and carefully navigate through the existing employee skills, aspirations, and behaviours (Gochhayat, Giri and Suar 2017).
The majority of hotel tasks are outdated and it would take an indefinite period to reassign responsibilities and create an environment where every employee only completes what they have on their to-do lists. Instead of focusing on what had to be done, the manager should assess future responsibilities and only help employees complete the tasks that have not been started yet. There is no reason to assign deadlines and workloads that relate to the errands established by the previous manager.
When the employees are going to complete their work, the new manager of the Imperial Hotel should take the time to acknowledge their accomplishments. In the case where the manager appreciates the contribution made by every employee, the overall success will become much closer. The rationale behind acknowledging employee success is that the lack of happiness on the job was one of the essential barriers to a more positive organisational culture (Ronald and Malcolm 2017).
The ability to show appreciation would positively affect the managerâs relationship with the staff, making employees feel valued and respected. This positive reinforcement of proper organisational behaviours is going to become beneficial to the Imperial Hotel, as employees would be happy to complete their tasks within the given deadlines and do their job well (Driver 2017). Such a supportive environment would significantly reduce the number of sick leaves and absenteeism hours.
Foster Emotional Intelligence and Employee Feedback
One of the essential aspects on the way to reworking the existing negative organisational culture is to treat all employees the same. Staff members should see that the new manager is not aimed at creating resentment through favouritism (Boddy 2017). At this stage, the manager should also carefully review the existing company policies and make sure that there are no employee groups that are unfairly prioritised based on non-specific factors.
Here, the idea consists in the fact that the manager should function as a servant and gather all the possible feedback from employees, especially given that their view could be different from the managerâs (Lee, Lee and Sohn 2017). The possibility to create an even workplace should be seen as an essential task that cannot be ignored if the manager expects to win respect of the staff and take action against absenteeism and employee discontent. Under the circumstances that are currently in effect, it would be most reasonable to apply fair rules to all employees to minimise the chances of being exposed to an increasing worker overturn.
The problem of emotional intelligence cannot be ignored either, as the majority of employees are rather likely to suffer from burnout due to the lack of appropriate deadlines and a reasonable workload that would not put a strain on their health. In order to make sure that organisational culture is not a burnout-friendly environment, the manager would have to support the staff through the process of resolving the existing situation by holding full training sessions on emotional and mental health (Lee, Lee and Sohn 2017).
Mental health and emotional intelligence go hand in hand within the hospitality industry as the 365/24 work process has an indelible impact on the staff. Without good relationships with the manager and all the colleagues, the team would not be happy to perform their job duties. According to Ronald and Malcolm (2017), organisational culture is a superior concept that relies on interpersonal communication and the ability of the manager to drive performance through rewards and assistance.
Therefore, job satisfaction will be out of reach if the staff is going to engage in dismissive behaviours and continue disrespecting the values and quality services of the Imperial Hotel. With the help of improved emotional intelligence, it will be most likely that the manager would prioritise adequately. He will make sure that the staff expands their knowledge instead of getting into the same negative behaviours as under the âruleâ of the previous general manager (Hannagan 2008). Even if only indirectly linked to organisational performance, emotional intelligence could be a serious boost to employee morale and their willingness to get the job done.
Conclusion
The current paper proposes to approach the issue of a negative work culture from the vital three points:
- the manager should communicate effectively and promote healthy communication among the employees,
- the workload for the staff should be realistic, as they should not be fully responsible for the previous managerâs inability to prioritise, and
- the concept of emotional intelligence should be put at the forefront of organisational culture.
The rationale behind addressing these three points is that the new manager is going to help the staff through servant leadership, mentoring them and helping them learn at the same time. Without a doubt, Mayoâs Human Resources Theory would also have a severe impact on the proposal as the manager would concentrate on the well-being of his employees.
Even though a completely healthy environment is not promised to establish instantaneously, the manager is going to approach the issues of absenteeism and short notice leaves at a slow pace. This would allow the staff recognise the importance of communicating with each other and making sure that the manager is on the same page with the team in terms of their working conditions, workload intensity, deadline flexibility, and numerous other issues that damaged the Imperial Hotel during the previous managerâs administration. The impact of the proposed steps is going to be positive, as the Imperial Hotel employees are going to
- learn more about emotional intelligence,
- provide timely feedback, and
- start completing tasks within the given deadlines.
Reference List
Boddy, D. 2017 Management: an introduction (7th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education.
Busse, R. and Warner, M. (2017) âThe legacy of the Hawthorne experiments: a critical analysis of the human relations school of thoughtâ, History of Economic Ideas, 25(2), pp. 91-114.
Driver, M. (2017) âMotivation and identity: a psychoanalytic perspective on the turn to identity in motivation researchâ, Human Relations, 70(5), pp. 617-637.
Gochhayat, J., Giri, V. N. and Suar, D. (2017) âInfluence of organizational culture on organizational effectiveness: the mediating role of organizational communicationâ, Global Business Review, 18(3), pp. 691-702.
Hannagan, T. 2008 Management: concepts and practices (5th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education.
Lee, G., Lee, M. and Sohn, Y. 2017 âHigh-performance work systems and firm performance: moderating effects of organizational communicationâ, Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 33(5), pp. 951-962.
Onday, O. 2016 âHuman resource theory: from Hawthorne experiments of Mayo to groupthink of Janisâ, Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 4(1), pp. 95-110.
Ronald, B. and Malcolm, W. 2017 âThe role of the Human Relations School vis a vis today’s Human Resource Managementâ, Advances in Management, 10(10), pp. 1-5.
Trahair, R. C. and Zaleznik, A. 2017 Elton Mayo: the humanist temper. Routledge: New York.