Introduction
Organizational change is necessary for promoting business to higher levels of profitability, productivity, and performance. An organization’s performance may be high, but it cannot be improved without implementing change to organizational processes (Haines, 2004).
The major challenge, therefore, is associated with empowerment and the barriers that organizational behavior imposes on effective change management (Robbins and Coulter, 2007). This was the scenario at the Regency Grand Hotel, whereby employees were accustomed to the hierarchical form of management and, as a result, they had difficulties in adjusting to the new flat leadership approaches.
Reluctance of employees to introduce innovative ideas was explained by the fear of being punished for their mistakes and initiatives. Moreover, motivation and creativity were discouraged because all employees should follow instructions diligently. This paper provides an executive summary on the case study relating to the Regency Grand Hotel and a review of managerial dilemmas with respect to organizational behavior concepts.
Executive Summary
The Regency Grand Hotel was successful under the old management and hierarchical leadership, whereby all decisions taken had to be approved by the management. Careful observance of all instructions was highly rewarded by the managers who considered employees’ welfare a priority. However, the acquisition of the Hotel by the American hotel chain led to serious shifts in the management system.
The appointment of John Becker as the new general manager provided new managerial strategies of empowerment to motivate and encourage creativity and innovation among the employees. Particular emphasis was placed on a guest-oriented approach to enhance the quality of customer service. Specifically, the manager considered it necessary to empower the employees with decision-making authority and make them take the initiate in difficult situations.
The general manager realized that organizational reconstruction was quite challenging because the decision-making power had previously been possessed by superior managerial department. Therefore, Becker had to spend a great amount of time interacting and communicating with employees to understand the problem and provide possible solutions. His main purpose was to make his subordinates understand that minor issues could be solved at lower levels of management without approval of higher authorities.
Despite Becker’s attempts to introduce new behavioral patterns, the subordinates failed to follow new principles of management. They had serious difficulties in accommodating to a new system and, as a result, the empowerment strategy turned out to be a failure. The relationships between the employees aggravated due to misunderstanding and inability to adjust to changes.
Problems in the case study
Within the Regency Grand Hotel, the employees view the adoption of change in the administrative framework as a more risky venture compared to the present state of affairs. With such discernment, it is not easy to motivate employees to accept the change in administrative practices that they do not know the result. Another core reason why empowerment strategy introduction at the Regency Grand Hotel was not effective lies in inability of employees to deviate from the firmly established autocratic leadership.
Because the management system is based on the system of rewards and punishments, the employees are reluctant to present new ideas and concepts for improving the hotel performance and productivity. Therefore, management changeover within the hotel creates tension and imposes pressures on subordinates, which hinders the effectiveness of the change implementation process.
For instance, the removal of bureaucratic rules and the allocation of increased decision-making authority to the front-line staff were not accepted because the personnel were not able to make decisions without approval of higher authorities. In this respect, ability of employees to face challenges and introduce ideas in risky situation is the basic conditions for enhancing the competitive edge and profitability of an organization (Haines, 2004).
Failure to introduce the practice of empowerment is explained by inability of employees to distinguish between minor and major decisions. More importantly, lack of responsibility and fear of being punished discourage employees’ initiative to introduce creativity and innovation.
Employees within an organization are always threatened by the idea of organizational change, because have an effect on the way they accomplish their daily routines within the organization. In addition, new management strategies were not accompanied by effective communicational concepts and, as a result, the employees found no agreement while interacting with each other in search for the right decision.
In order to implement change effectively within the organization, change motivation is required. It mainly involves outlining drawbacks and potential benefits to the organization. This can be carried out through use of effective communication interaction to make the employees importance of effective cooperation and decision making. Additionally, gradual changes are imperative for building a solid communicational and conceptual basis within the organization.
Gradual changes provide a platform for effective adaptability to the new organizational culture. The shifts can be implemented through the introduction of sophisticated psychological approaches including training programs for employees to adapt to new behavioral patterns and management strategies. In this respect, the manager should make the employees understand that they are parts of the organization and, therefore, they should take responsibilities for their actions and decisions.
Reference List
Haines, S., 2004. ABCs of strategic management : an executive briefing and plan-to plan day on strategic management in the 21st century. New York: Cengage Learning.
Robbins, S. and Coulter, M., 2007. Management. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.