The hotel industry has bene notoriously difficult to manage due to the seasonal nature of the demand and the challenges of developing a unique competitive advantage. However, Marriott has managed to introduce a sustainable and financially lucrative framework for operating in the global hospitality market. Due to the profuse emphasis on planning and organizing as a crucial part of the managerial functions, as well as the focus on innovation and the opportunities for expansion, Marriott has managed to raise its reputation in the global market and retain its reputation of a respectable and trustworthy organization.
Analysis
The approach that managers have been using at Marriott to contain the negative effects of the adverse factors that have been reducing the performance of the organization currently include organization and planning of Marriott’s further steps in the target economic environment. The specified approach allows for consistency in the corporate business strategy and the opportunity to maintain corporate ethical values during decision-making due to the increased preparedness (Chen & Tabari, 2017). Therefore, the existing managerial function at Marriott can be described as moderately positive and effective in its striving to attain the goals of keeping the company’s internal processes consistent while minimizing external threats.
Figure 1. Marriott: SWOT.
As the SWOT analysis provided above shows, Marriott has been performing quite well recently, which can be attributed to the managerial function deployed in the organization. Specifically, the focus on planning and innovation has proven to be the main determinant in the organization’s success in the global hospitality industry setting (Chen & Tabari, 2017). Currently, the main goal of the managerial function at Marriott should consider tightening control over information management as one of the core issues that have caused the present situation with Marriott’s PR plummeting.
Additionally, the management of staff members’ performance as one of the core aspects of the managerial function needs to be addressed closer. Namely, the available data indicates that the rigidity of Marriott’s code of conduct has led to major impediments in promoting positive change and the acceptance of innovative strategies for effective performance in employees (Goh & Okumus, 2020). In fact, the described characteristic of Marriott’s human resource management (HRM) framework could be linked to the data management failure by considering the impact of the human factor on the situation (Henriquez, 2020). Therefore, Marriott’s managers will also need to revisit their approach toward HRM by offering staff members greater flexibility in decision-making.
However, several issues observed at Marriott indicate that its managerial function could be improved. Mainly, the flaws in Marriott’s managerial framework can be condensed to multiple flaws in its approach to controlling organizational processes and the related concerns (Litvin & Sobel, 2019). Indeed, according to the available evidence, control issues have been affecting Marriott significantly, causing dissatisfaction in customers and, consequently, a major drop in its revenues (Henriquez, 2020). For this reason, using the managerial function to establish closer control over the key organizational and production-related processes while relieving staff members of the current pressure of consistent supervision should be seen as one of the crucial priorities for Marriott at present.
Additionally, the management of the company’s PR and the development of its brand should be seen as the areas that require additional attention of the company managers. Namely, the specified concerns will need to be connected through meticulous planning based on a thorough analysis of the target market. The planning process will require restructuring the current managerial function, which seems to be set on controlling employees, yet does so in a highly inefficient manner.
Additionally, the strategy used at Marriot for the management of information appears to be one of the weaker aspects of the company’s performance. Namely, the managerial function seems to have been lacking the combination of an innovative approach for the continuous update of the security system combined with the management of employees’ use of the system in question. Namely, staff members need to be supported in their compliance with set standards for maintaining corporate data security, which seems to have been omitted at Marriott, thus, leading to a rather dire situation. Currently, Marriott shows a rather unfortunate lack of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in staff members despite the rigid control of the HR managers (Dobie et al., 2018).
Therefore, to address the concern in question, it is highly advisable to shift the perspective to the promotion of innovative thinking and decision-making in employees while exerting control over the representation of the company in media and planning the next steps in advancing it in the target market.
Overall, the lack of control over managerial process as one of the key characteristics of Marriott’s current managerial function has led to the development of multiple threats to successful data management. For example, some of the recent instances of customer data breach have shown that Marriott must update its information security, management tools (Henriquez, 2020). The lawsuits that the described issue has spawned have not added to the competitiveness of the organization, either, causing its further descent into economic regression (Henriquez, 2020). Therefore, problems with controlling and securing the data flow presently remains one of the core managerial issues that Marriott will have to handle in order to improve its score within the industry and among its target audiences.
Recommendations
The rigidity of the corporate ethics at Marriott combined with its focus on innovation lead to believe that the current situation can be amended. For this purpose, the organization will have to revisit its standards for control and management of employees’ performance, as well as the organizational processes, in general. Specifically, the focus on planning and forecasting as essential aspects of the managerial function must be implemented at Marriott. Thus, the company will be able to adjust to the market trends while responding adequately to the feedback offered by its target audience, as well as the general public. Consequently, Marriot will develop the strategy that will allow it to amend its reputation.
By emphasizing the importance of organization and planning, as well as the use of innovation to streamline key managerial processes within the company, Marriott has created opportunities for overcoming some of the key challenges and retaining its competitiveness in the hospitality industry on a global level. With the emphasis on innovation and planning as two aspects of the same framework, managers at Marriott have been approaching key issues with consistency and innovation simultaneously, which has created the environment for a highly positive approach toward managing corporate issues.
The proposed approach allows dealing with external and internal concerns at the same tie due to the combination of profound analysis and the stability to notice global trends, using corporate strengths to respond to them appropriately. Therefore, even though Marriott has been facing certain issues such as the presence of bad marketing due to information breach concerns, Marriott has the potential for maintaining its reputation in the global hospitality industry.
Furthermore, given the current legal concerns that Marriott has been facing as a result of its recent failure to secure the personal data of its customers, improvements in data management and, p-particularly, the enhancement of its information security system, are strongly required. Particularly, in the context of the company’s managerial function, the specified change implies that the extent of organizational control over security issues will have to be established, and that regular checks of the data security status must be introduced into the target context. Specifically, M
Finally, Marriott will need to consider opportunities for enhancing its strengths, particularly, its focus on innovation compared with its brand reputation, which still remains strong despite the issues described above. Therefore, as a manager, one must focus on careful planning and market analysis, namely, the assessment of past activities and the development of a sustainable performance strategy based on the current outcomes. Specifically, managers at Marriott will need to control the accuracy and thoroughness of market analysis to elicit data for the identification of a performance framework that will help Marriott minimize costs while increasing its brand attractiveness and, thus, gain more customers.
With the current emphasis on innovation observed in the managerial strategies used at Marriott, the company will be able to continue advancing in the global hospitality industry as long as appropriate measures for enhancing data security and controlling the company’s PR approach are integrated into its organizational management. By focusing on establishing rigid control and supervision tools to ensure that key objectives are completed an all organizational processes are streamlined, Marriott will be able to resolve the current conundrum with data privacy and the related complaints.
References
Chen, W., & Tabari, S. (2017). A study of negative customer online reviews and managerial responses on social media — Case study of the Marriott Hotel Group in Beijing. Journal of Marketing and Consumer Research, 41, 53-64.
Dobie, S., Schneider, J., Kesgin, M., & Lagiewski, R. (2018). Hotels as critical hubs for destination disaster resilience: An analysis of hotel corporations’ CSR activities supporting disaster relief and resilience. Infrastructures, 3(4), 46. Web.
Goh, E., & Okumus, F. (2020). Avoiding the hospitality workforce bubble: Strategies to attract and retain generation Z talent in the hospitality workforce. Tourism Management Perspectives, 33, 1-9. Web.
Henriquez, M. (2020). ICO fines Marriott International for failing to keep customers’ personal data secure. Security Magazine. Web.
Litvin, S. W., & Sobel, R. N. (2019). Organic versus solicited hotel TripAdvisor reviews: Measuring their respective characteristics. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 60(4), 370-377. Web.