Allure cruise ship and Star Cruises are among the major players in the North American cruise industry. Star Cruises was incorporated in 1993 as under the umbrella of Galactica Limited. The company, with a notable presence in the North, South, Asia and Europe has a fleet of 19 cruise ships and over 20000 berths. The fleet operates under different brands and the customers are segmented in terms of needs and preferences.
Star Cruises has recorded a stable revenue of over 100 million US dollars over the last ten years. Additionally, it has introduced new routes with the African context in mind. It has berths in Liberia and Egypt is on the radar. As part of its expansion, it plans to enter the South African market too. The company’s organizational structure is hierarchical. The CEO is the head followed a number of executives who report directly to him.
This includes sales executives, finance, operations and customer’s executives. The shipboard structure is the same as Allure. The captain is the head of the ship and others such as customer service, engineering operations among others report to him directly. The major difference between star cruises and Allure is the organizational structure, routes of operations size in terms of cruises and assets and the corporate focus (Jeffs 2008).
The ship industry falls in the category of luxury industries. However, it forms only 2% of the global tourism industry. Some of the first entrants include Walt Disney Corporation in 1923 and Carnival Corporation. The industry is defined by the strategic focus of individual companies and the market niche they serve. The competition from the industry is broad. A consumer may choose another cruise company or bypass it completely for another transport company (Kamery 2009).
There are many regulations that govern the industry. They range from environmental, safety, consumer demand regulations and fuel competition. Many countries have stringent regulations. For example, the United States environmental protection agency is one of them. The competition, as mentioned earlier, is stiff as it comes from many other transport services such as airlines and ship services (Kamery 2009).
The effect of climate and weather is detrimental to the cruise industry. The safety of passengers is at stake if the weather is not good. In comparison, the airline industry fairs better when the weather is involved as compared to the cruise industry.
The staff on board a cruise ship has many morale issues. For example, it demoralizes to be without family for a long time. This puts pressure on the performance of employees. Secondly, it takes a long time to complete a single journey. Sometimes it takes months and this may hamper good performance of the employees.
The leaders on board may boost the morale of the employees by ensuring that when they are on board they have a family member such as a kid or spouse. It is also important to offer long vacations to the employees and to ensure that they have benefits to boost morale. Another one mentioned is the food offered to the employees. The leadership can solve this by allowing staff to bring their foodstuffs or been allowed to purchase food offered on board.
The socialization between the employees and passengers is prohibited. However, sometimes this happens. The Allure policy allows some employees to fraternize with passengers and this affects the morale of the other employees. However, I would encourage Allure to rescind the policy and to afford all employees a generalized policy, which either prohibits or allows this socialization (Hill 2005).
Employees are also faced by incidents sexual harassment by passengers or fellow crewmembers. The company should adopt a strict policy, which includes possible suits against those who engage in such acts. However, it is imperative to allow mingling of all crews as this will encourage the development of organizational culture.
The quarters aboard the cruise ship should be monitored to ensure regulations and rules are not violated. Additionally, employees should sign a strict code of ethics agreement, which stipulates the behavior within the ship. This will allow ensure they have guidelines that can lead to sacking if they engage in unlawful acts (Kamery 2009).
The executives also highlight the cultural differences. The Filipino and Jamaican cultural difference is of particular highlight. The Jamaicans are known to be outgoing, fun loving individuals who have the possibility of going overboard when it comes to stringent rules.
However, Filipinos are conservative and sometimes get annoyed at simple flirtations. The leadership should ensure that the need for a mixed cultural setting adaptation is evident in training of the employees. Additionally, they should also be trained on the fact that they will be in a multicultural setting in terms of the passengers on board.
The issue of mafias should not be taken cheaply. Management should ensure that it could treat every customer with respect despite ensuring absence such tendencies. This case is a perfect example of a contemporary business environment. It points towards a situation in a current business setting where leadership and cultural differences play out to affect the operations of a business (Brunner 2009).
References
Brunner, R. (2009). Case Studies in Finance. London: Mc Graw Hill.
Hill, C. (2005). International Business. London: McGraw Hill.
Jeffs, C. (2008). Strategic Management. New York: Sage Publications.
Kamery, R. (2009). An Overview of the Cruise Industry: An Alternative to Land-Based Vacations. Web.