Empowerment Management Strategy Essay

Different hotels try to improve their services and introduce new strategies that would make the level of services higher and help to gain customers’ loyalty. In this respect, empowerment is one of the management strategy tools that are usually used to enable employees make decisions in the front line. At the same time, empowerment is said to be one of the main obstacles for the ‘command-control process’ (Somers, 1997, p. 32).

However, empowerment is considered to be a positive tool that improves the performance of employees and satisfaction of customers. The aspect where the employee should be empowered and the method to influence the situation are the key concerns in case the managers what to empower employees (Lashley, 2001, p. 135), especially if this is related to a small five-star hotel/motel where all employees got used to acting in accordance with specific instructions.

In other words, a small five-star hotel/motel should be approached in a bit different way that a large hotel because of the employees and their role in its maintenance. For instance, to manage something in a small hotel, it is not necessary to engage all levels of management whereas in large hotels it turns out to be inevitable.

Empowerment can be understood differently in different countries with regard to the level of development of the hotel industry and tourism as well as perception of the hotel by customers being one of the most highly-motivating and encouraging factors in this case. As claimed by Imai (1986), “In Japan, empowerment is characterised as being process-oriented rather than result0oriented management” (as cited in Sofield, 2003, p. 96).

Empowerment in the hotel sector, as stated by Jones and Davies (1991), is “basically about pushing responsibility and decision making down the organization to those employees closest to the customer” (p. 213 as cited in Sofield, 2003, p. 96). In other words, many authors perceive empowerment as a means for a manger to get rid of some portion of responsibility whereas it simply encourages frontline employees for more initiative in decision-making.

Group empowerment is another useful tool in management that enables a manger to control employees that are free to make decisions in accordance with the situational necessity. “…autonomous groups do require an organisational culture where hierarchy, status, and control are set aside in favour of results, trust, and empowerment” (Pizam, 2005, p. 293).

In this respect, hierarchy and corporate culture become important elelment of empowerment because employees should strictly realize what the optimal decision in every type of situation is. According to Nykiel (2007), “empowerment can be defined as the redistribution of power, enabling employees to perform their jobs more efficiently and effectively” (p. 255).

Though employees in a small five-star hotel/motel do not experience the same pressure of control and competition as in Ritz-Carlton Hotel as reported by Bruce (2007, p. 99), they should strive for perfection and reach the excellence in terms of the quality of services and responsiveness. As the rating of the hotel is high, the employees should contribute to its high quality services by performing rather effectively as well.

Lower-level managers are often aligned with the ordinary employees in terms of the level of responsibilities and freedoms for autonomous decision-making. As suggested by Garrison, Noreen, and Brewer (2009), more power should be given to lower-level managers (p. 540) or, as in the current situation, to the employees in a small five-star hotel/motel.

In this respect, one of the great advantages of the decentralized decision-making would be a closer contact with the customers and a more adequate response to their needs and requirements. Quick response can be reached with the help of empowerment which can also become a reason for a more strict control and monitoring of employees’ activities.

Many studies support the idea of positive effect of empowerment (Malhotra, 1997; Talwar, 2006) whereas O’Fallon and Rutherford (2010) claim that the hotels cannot be centralised or decentralised in terms of the decision making activities of managers and employees as they are rather tending to have more decisions made according to the approval of a manger or without it (autonomously) (p. 74).

Centralised or decentralised decisions should be positive for customers; at the same time, management strategies such as empowerment should be aimed at employees encouraging them to better perform their daily activities (Goldsmith, 2003, p. 268). “…decentralised decision making spreads authority widely throughout the organization” (Malhotra, 1997, p. 148).

Initiative of employees in the process of solving problems can be really effective (Peters & Pikkemaat, 2006, p. 122). According to Corgel, Sturman, and Verma (2011), one of the benefits of decentralized decision-making approach is an opportunity for “the conservation of [your] headquarters’ resources” (p. 431). Skills and capabilities remain an integral part of management as well as training is absolutely necessary to encourage employees make decisions autonomously.

Andrews (2009) states that competency is an integral part of the industry of services (p. 144); moreover, it is necessary to remember that every employee should be competent in the issues related to customers because it may be needed to meet the requests of customers at the front line without involving higher-level mangers. As such, empowerment can be effective in case it is introduced in the right way.

References

Andrews, S. (2009). Hotel front office: A training manual (2^nd ed.). New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Bruce, A. (2007). Be your own mentor. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Corgel, J. B., Sturman, M. C., & Verma, R. (Eds.). (2011). The Cornell school of hotel administration on hospitality: Cutting edge thinking and practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Garrison, R., Noreen, E., & Brewer, P. (2009). Managerial accounting (11^th ed.). Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Goldsmith, M. (2003). Global leadership: the next generation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.

Lashley, C. (2001). Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence (2^nd ed.). Jordan Hill, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Malhotra, R. K. (1997). Encyclopaedia of hotel management and tourism, Volume 1. New Delhi: Anmol Publications PVT, Ltd.

Nykiel, R. A. (2007). Handbook of marketing research methodologies for hospitality and tourism. London: Routledge.

O’Fallon, M. J., & Rutherford, D. G. (2010). Hotel management and operations (5^th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Peters, M., & Pikkemaat, B. (2006). Innovation in hospitality and tourism. London: Routledge.

Pizam, A. (Ed.). (2005). International encyclopaedia of hospitality management. Jordan Hill, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Sofield, T. H. B. (2003). Empowerment for sustainable tourism development. Kidlington, Oxford: Emerald Group Publishing.

Somers, K. (1997). Defining the boundaries of empowerment. In B. Ginnodo (ed.), The power of empowerment: What the experts say and 16 actionable case studies (32-44). Arlington Heights, IL: Bill Ginnodo.

Talwar, P. (Ed.). (2006). Hotel and hospitality management: Housekeeping. Delhi: Gyan Books.