Case Study Regency Grand Hotel Essay

Introduction: The Regency Grand was Thai owned and operated. It was a profitable and successful company during it 15 year existence with very high morale within the company. Employee’s worked according to management’s instructions. Employees were not allowed to be innovated and creative. All decisions were at management level. When Regency was bought out by a US Hotel chain, the general manager decided to retire early. The American based company then appointed John Becker as general manager. John has 10 years experience with the American company. John was appointed due to his previous success integrating newly acquired hotels in the US. In most previous acquisitions, Becker took over operation with poor profitability and low morale. After he implemented changes the employees morale decline, absenteeism increased, customer complaints increased, and poor ratings in the media. 1. Culture–The US based company failed to research or invested in any culture changes that might affect employees when they acquired the Regency Hotel. 2. Change–John made sweeping changes that once worked in the past for fledging acquired hotels. Becker failed to plan and implement change. He did not involve any staff in the change process nor did he have a change agent to help oversee the change process within the newly acquired hotel. John based his decisions off what was successful in the past in American style business. He failed to consider the Regency was already successful and profitable with high employee morale. 3. Communication–John empowered employees to make minor decisions while only elevating major decisions to management. John failed to communicate expectations of what are minor decisions and what are major decisions. He also encouraged employees to be innovative and creative. * Problem Statement: There are several issues with this case, but the three main problems in this case are Culture, Change, and Communication. The American based company provided no culture training to John Becker or the staff at the Regency. John Becker had no plan for changes he implemented.  Lastly, but most important was the poor communications within the entire company. Even with the best plan; if it is not communicated properly then it will fail. * Analysis and Evaluation: During his staff meeting with management John did not communicate his expectations, nor did he ensure every manager understood the tool empowerment. Using the MARS model under roles perception, if tasks such as John expectations, standards, rules, and definitions such as the difference between major and minor issues were properly communicated then managers would not over turn employees decisions. Employees would have job satisfaction, high morale and a sense of purpose. Employee’s decisions were over turn by management led to increases in absenteeism, turnover, and customer complaints resulting in the decline of service in the media’s eye. Using the Expectancy Theory of Motivation, provide role clarity and increase reward with desired outcomes. ABC of Behavior Modification can be use to set effective goals use the Specific, Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-frames Exciting Reviewed (SMARTER) Alternative actions to improve the performance are 1- Build a manager/employee guide to communicate the standards, rules, expectations, and define what major/minor decisions are. Hire a SIGMA 6 facilitator to oversee the process. Provide comment boxes for suggestions of improvement, feedback, and open communication. In addition to employees Performance appraisals, provide a 360 scoring of managers/employees such as online surveys. 2- In addition to the first choice, open lines of communication within the organization such as the open door policy. Get the whole team involved in the decision making process through meetings gear to meeting their needs both for management and the employees. Provide employees an avenue to voice concerns (anonymous if needed), and address issues on an individual bases. * Recommendation: The best of the alternatives listed above is 2. This alternative provides open communication, training to the entire staff, and both managers/employees handbooks that outlines expectations, rules, and standards. It also provides an expert to oversee the process. This  alternative also fights for feedback both from management and employees. You must communicate the change to the entire staff, listen to the concerns, and allow for anonymous feedback. After meeting with management to explain the change, have a facilitator oversee this process. After the management team is onboard. You should involve the employees with the same concept as the management. Get the whole team involved in the development ideas for the guide. Assign certain team both management and employees with the task of creating the guides. This should be implementing immediately.