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Technological: NA
Cultural:
The American culture revolves around the philosophy of self service and hence
customer visit to hotels do not involve expectations on grounds of personal
communication, service and extraordinary treatment.
Whereas Asian culture is such which involves personal and customized treatment
by the employees to give the guests a pleasant and memorable experience of their
stay in the hotel. The Personal Valet would take care of all the needs and requests
of the guests and ensure that they are taken care of well.
Hence introducing the Asian culture of hospitality into America and
implementing was a challenge for Portman.
SWOT Analysis:
INTERNAL STRENGTHS INTERNAL WEAKNESSES
- Ability to foresee the future and introduce - Inability to keep the employees motivated
the concept of a niche and luxurious and committed to work.
service, which involved getting the Asian - Weak training skills and inability to focus
standards of hospitality to the U.S. on the employees needs and keep it satisfied
- Recognized the importance of Intangible all throughout.
psychic needs of the guests and hence - Absence of a proper HR structure and
wanted to satisfy that through a memorable suitable rewards and efficiency check
experience through servancy. systems.
- Realized the importance of Employee - Inability to be able to meet its long term
satisfaction and hence focused on personal strategy due to the gap between external
as well as professional growth of the alignment and Internal Alignment.
employee. - Inability to successfully implement and
ensure that the objectives and goals of each
level of the hierarchy are achieved. The
vision and mission of the company were
successfully trickled down to the lower
levels but no effort was taken to ensure that
proper systems were introduced to help
achieve these.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS:
1) Lack of Proper HR structure:
What is lacking in Portman is the presence of a proper HR structure and policies. As far
as recruitment is concerned, Portman does recruit and select the employees they feel
suitable as per their expectations and also have an associate contract that needs to be
signed by every employee which clearly defines their work boundaries and expectations
that the organization has from them.
But what is missing is the proper demarcation of work responsibilities and defining jobs.
Also since there is no proper performance evaluation, appraisal and feedback system in
place, PVs tend to take their responsibilities and their job more casually due to which
some of them end up working to make up for the others.
Managing Dynamics of
individual behavior:
Perception, Personality,
Motivation and Learning
This could be related to the Pygmalion Effect which wasnt present in this case:
Also, Kelleys Attribution Model can also be applied in this case where specific
information can be used to make specific social attributions for the behavior and
outcomes of others:
(1) Consistency: Here what could be observed is whether an employee at Portman
behaves in the same fashion over time. The PVs who are not working efficiently,
their behavior could be examined to establish if his behavior is consistent or not.
(2) Distinctiveness: Here it could be observed if the employees behave the same in
different situations. It could be possible that the current work structure and
environment at Portman could be such that makes the employee behave in a particular
way. By improving situations, the employee could probably work better and
efficiently and thats what needs to be observed.
(3) Consensus: Here it could be observed whether the other employees other than the
target employee are also behaving the same way in a particular scenario.
Application of this model would make it easier for the superiors to divide the causes of
such behavior into three classes: person, stimulus or situation, which would have an
important influence in processes such as reward distribution, performance appraisal or
selection.
Applying the concepts of Pay Dispersion and Equity, wherein minimum wages are paid
to all but extra pay to those who are working efficiently could keep the employees
motivated.
Maslows need hierarchy model can also be applied here wherein the PVs when
recruited are made to feel like an important part of the organization and hence they expect
their self actualization needs to be satisfied. But since they end up spending more time in
cleaning bathrooms than serving and catering to the requests of their guests, they end up
dissatisfied and this causes discontent and reduction in their motivation and dedication
levels. Hence satisfaction of this need in the triangle is also necessary to expect OCB
from the employees.
ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS:
Recruit workers as per requirement: This alternative involves keeping employees
during the busy months of the hotel and laying them off in the rest of the months when
they are not needed. This would reduce costs considerably as the costs of keeping the
employees are reduced.
But the major drawback with this alternative is that if this solution is implemented, the
employees would not display dedication and OCB, because in order to do that they need
to feel a part of the organization and that is not achieved in this case. A similar conflict
was experienced in Portman when floaters were employed to fill up the gaps of required
workers during high demand. The permanent PVs were not able to relate to them and
understand their way of working.
Hence this alternative was not a very feasible one.
Principle of Equity (equity with differential wages): This principle of motivation states
that employees are ensured not just equal wages to all but also equality on the basis of
performance and that an employee is paid as much as the other is for doing the same
work with equal dedication and commitment.
Hence the PVs could be paid minimum wages and based on their efficiency could be
paid extra. Also a system of Job Rotation could be implemented wherein the current
system of work hours on the basis of seniority could be modified in a way that an
employee that works for 40 hours this week and another employee who works for 16
hours could then work vice versa for the next week. This would ensure that employees
are made to work for equal hours on an aggregate basis but are fluctuating throughout the
year. Wages could be paid accordingly.
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION:
The recommended solution would be as follows:
Menes proposal of having Team Captain (TC) within every group could be
implemented but their roles and job description would be slightly modified than
the one mentioned by Mene, wherein every TC would be accountable for the
performance of every PV in his group and he would be handling the job register
wherein he ensures that every PV works as per the work assigned to him in the
stipulated time and notes it in the register.
Also the TC would keep rotating within the team on a regular basis (for eg.
weekly, fortnightly, monthly etc.) so that every member in the team gets a chance
to become TC which would not only motivate them in a way but make them feel
as if theyre being promoted and given a chance to lead and be accountable for
the performance of the people under them.
Rotation of employee work hours wherein during periods of low occupancy the
employees are made to work for reduced work hours rather than laying them off
and similarly during busy schedules, allot them higher work hours. This would
ensure that the workers are maintained in the organization all throughout the year
and this would encourage OCB and Job satisfaction and Commitment as well as
dedication towards work. Wages could be paid according to the work hours and a
minimum wage rate would be fixed which would be paid irrespective of
occupancy.
Implementation of Performance evaluation and appraisal, and a Feedback system,
wherein via the job register and feedback by the Supervisors, the performance of
each PV is evaluated both as a PV as well as a TC. Regular feedbacks are given
to them and efforts are taken to find out the reasons if any, for any inefficiency
found. Also, feedback from employees towards the current support services
would make the organization serve the guest s better by providing the employees
with the proper services and facilities needed to support this function.
This up-down as well as down-up mechanism would ensure control as well as
belongingness and accountability in the organization.
SUPERVISOR
TC TC TC
PV PV PV PV PV PV PV PV
PV PV PV PV
Hence there would be 5 such supervisors who would have 3 TCs each under them which would
keep rotating, and under each TC would be the 4 other members of the group as the TC would be
one member amongst the team of 5. The supervisors would then report to the higher levels of the
structure with each level in the hierarchy accountable for the performance of their subordinates.