Every business always seeks for the best way to run their organization, especially

in how to lead and manage the human resource which plays an important part in the

success of the company. In hospitality industry, this matter has to be considered more

carefully because most of activities are directly dealing with customers so that the staffs

need perform correctly every single time. The John Winston Hotel is a case study which

can reflect how the management and leadership affect on the activities of the business.

Since a long time ago, The JohnWinson Hotel has been one of the finest 5 star hotels with

good reputation. Although the old operational still works well, the Executive want to

change the traditional management so that they can improve the current performance.

Instead of having different cost centers, the hotel is divided into different business unit

which work independently and gain their objectives. However, they still have to

contribute to the organizational goals. As it is a big change for the hotel staffs, from the

manager line to the casuals, there are numbers of problems need to be solved before they

can gain improvements from this change.

Basically, the overall goal of the organization is set higher. Before, the main goal

is just bringing customer a good service quality but now it is to deliver service that

exceeded customers’ expectation. It might be claimed that an overall goal can be

considered to be high and cannot be practiced. However, according to the Goal-setting

Theory, a more difficult goal will lead to a higher performance compared with easy goals.

There is a relationship between goal and performance. People tend to adjust their effort

based on which level of difficulty that goal set. A specific and difficult goal is more

efficient than “do your best” (O’Neil & Drillings 1994, p. 14-17). In order to reach that

goals, there are some big changes should be made and the most important part is human
resource. One of the main problems is the number of casual staff. As hospitality in one of

the industries that have highest rate of labor turnover. This issue does not only waste

money of business for training, it also affects the quality standard of the business (Day &

Buultjens 2007). So as to provide a high quality service, the staff should be highly

skilled. In other words, the number of casual and unqualified staffs should be limited to

the smallest number.. The second step is to motivate staffs. As the staffs in the hotel are

from all of the generation including baby-boomer (people born from 1945-1964),

generation X (people born from 1965-1980) and generation Y (people born from 1981-

2000), it is hard to find a way that fit all of them. The baby-boomers want a stable job

and they are more likely to accept the chain of command. They prefer to get the direction

from managers and tell them what to do. In contrast, they generation X tend to focus

more on their personal job satisfaction. They are not as loyal as baby boomers to their

employers (Yu 2005, p. 1-4). Generation Y are even more independent than generation

X. They decide to respect their manager not because of the position but the way they are

valuated. Generations Y can leave their job and seek for a new one just because they feel

do not like it (Preston 2007). Besides, the leadership style also has to be changed. In spite

of being respectful, it is still autocratic with policies and procedures. However, the new

drive is that “no guest would be disadvantaged by the policies of the hotel”. In other

words, decision making must not be from the managers but also can be by normal staff in

some necessary cases as long as it can satisfy customers.

The decision of the Executive in changing the hotel affects different departments

appropriately. Laundry department is a particular example. Having been the cost centers

for years, being an independent as a small business is something too new for the
department. Peter Warren, the manager of the laundry is so worried because if they

cannot change and achieve the new goals, their department will be contracted out with

other unit. Before the Executive’s decision, doing the laundry for other units such as

restaurant or house keeping is an obvious job of laundry department. However, now the

other units can choose better services outside. Moreover, they are also asked to provide

faster service for customer which changes from six hour turn around to one hour turn

around. And it seems to be hard for them because of some staff members who might be

negatively affected by this change. Minh is a specific example. Although his English is

poor and his skill is not qualified, he is highly educated in his country and is respected by

other staffs. He can do the job for two people and he is a good teacher of new staffs.

Normally, if a staff is not qualified, they can be replaced by other people. However, in

this case, the hotel still need some none like Minh to make sure the work is going well.

McShane and Travaglione (2005, p. 39) claim that “the external environment is changing

so rapidly that many organizations prefer to hire people for their generic competencies

rather than job-specific skills. In Minh’s case, his personality traits and values can

compensate this limited ability. It can be considered as a same situation with Effie who is

a slow learner but she works hard and can perform well with help. Although it is hard to

be totally confident about achieving the goals, if the staffs accept more interfere from the

manager to make sure the work is done well, the laundry department will be able to run

independently. According to Hersey and Blanchard’s situational theory, the leadership

style should be applied in this case is Selling within the manager highly supports and

gives direction to the employees.

 The house keeping department is in a similar situation with laundry. They were

asked to reduce the clean time for each room but it is also hard for Petra, the manager to

make a new schedule and due with her staffs. Some of them are able to adapt the new

working condition like Alice, who is knowledgeable and enthusiastic. However, there are

still some staffs like Sarah who has not strong knowledge, likes to break and not able to

take responsibilities but she still can follow directions well. In this case, Alice and Sarah

should corporate to gain team effectiveness. Both of them need to be motivated and work

together efficiently. Besides, the manger also plays an important role in ensuring the team

effectiveness by supporting the staff to have chance to understand and work with each

other well (McShane & Travaglione 2005, p. 265-270).

Through the case study The John Winston Hotel above, it is showed that the

success of a business is related to not only the manager but also all the staff. Every

member has different abilities as well as personalities. In order to achieve the highest

performance, the managers have to choose a suitable leadership style and way to motivate

every individual and also support them to make the work done well. In addition, team

member should learn to understand and work together so as to attain the team objectives

as well as organizational goals.

Reference

Day, M & Buultjens, J 2007, 'Casual employment and commitment: a case study in the
hospitality industry', in Diverging Employment Relations Patterns in Australia and New
Zealand: Proceedings of the 21st Association of Industrial Relations Academics of
Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ) Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 7-9
February, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

McShane, S & Travaglione, T 2005, Organizational Behavior on Pacific Rim, McGraw-

Hill Australia Pty Limited, New South Wales.

Preston, M 2007, Who’d Hire Gen-Y, Smartcompany, viewed March 21 2011, <
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/hiring/who-d-hire-a-gen-y.html>

O’Neil, S & Drillings, M 1994, Motivation: Theory and Research, Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, New Jersey.

Yu, HC & Miller, P 2005, 'Leadership style - The X Generation and Baby Boomers
compared in different cultural contexts', Leadership and Organization Development
Journal, vol. 26, no.1, pp.35-50.