Hotels: Detailed Business Case, Project Plan, and Schedule

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The following report will detail the proposed structural changes for the New Yang Sing Hotel, which consists of talented engineers from multiple nations and provides high quality construction projects to clients throughout the world. A review of the organizational structure of this company revealed that there are significant issues with leadership and organizational culture, and thus this report will recommend that the New Yang Sing Hotel company transition from its current structure to one that is more in line with the principles of transformational leadership.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

One of the primary problems with the "old" Yang Sing Hotel is that the executive management did not seem to plan for the inevitable problem that potential customers would simply wait for "deals" on visits to the hotel, and just waited for specials that would offer them 50 per cent off on their stays, which ultimately meant that the Yang Sing Hotel actually lost money on paying customers who might well have paid more, had they been forced to. In the end, however, it is unclear if the Yang Sing Hotel would have even attracted such customers had they refused to work with these Internet deals, and simply asked customers to pay the asking price for these specials.

However, if the New Sang Ying Hotel ensures that it does not capitulate to the demands of Expedia, hotels.com, and other travel companies, it cannot have any hope of operating profitably, just as in the case of its predecessor, the Old Sang Ying Hotel. Indeed. the major problem with the old company seemed to be that it was all too willing to capitulate to the demands of third party outsourcing companies, and so many of the problems seemed to lie in the leadership situation of the company.

According to You-ting and Guang-shu (2008), "Outbound tourism is an important component of China's tourism industry. In recent years, China's outbound tourism has attained tremendous development arousing the widespread social concern, and the study on outbound tourism market has become one of the most important fields in tourism research. Based on the connotation of outbound tourism, the paper sums up the researches of domestic outbound tourism market from its causes of rapid development, market characteristics, problems existing in the development and developing trend since 2000. And it points out that there're some disadvantages in current domestic outbound tourism market including research contents, research region and research methods, which will provide references for the development of the research on China's outbound tourism."

BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION ISSUES

Given the older structural issues that are present at the New Yang Sing Hotel, it is clear that there is a major concern about fire safety. The effects of fire on each structure type can vary considerably, and it is a direct result of the different types of materials that are used to construct the buildings. The effects of fire on Type 1 structures are often quite minimal, as they are designed specifically to be fire resistant, are constructed of non-combustible materials, and often have sophisticated fire prevention systems. On the other hand, the effects of fire on Type 2 structures is highly contingent on the type of material that was used to construct the building. As such, a Type 2 structure is prone to being either highly resistant to fire, or it may combust almost immediately. Type 3 buildings are often highly combustible, and the firefighters who are dispatched to a blaze at such a building should be extremely cautious to ensure that they create enough ventilation, and that they remain along ledgers and walls, as these structures are often highly prone to immediate collapse.

As for Type 4 structures, heavy timber is often resistant to immediate combustion. However, as the majority of these buildings were designed and constructed in the early twentieth century, it may well be the case that the building has not been maintained by the owner, or it may have a termite infestation. If either of these situations are the case with the Type 4 structure, the heavy timber building may well be subject to immediate combustion and collapse, and the firefighters should be exceptionally careful. In Type 5 structures, one of the main dangers in a fire is that of flashover, and the fire company should always ensure that they maintain adequate ventilation in the building.

In any fire, regardless of the type of structure, the possibility of building collapse is always imminent, and firefighters should take every precaution to ensure that they and their fellow firefighters are not injured by such a collapse. The main strategy for ensuring safety during such fires is the establishment of "collapse zones" around the building., the creation of collapse zones around a building that is on fire is paramount to ensuring the safety of all fire company members, as well as any other individuals who happen to be in close proximity of the blaze (Glover, 2002).

In addition to creating collapse zones around the perimeter of a building that is on fire, it is crucial for all of the firefighters at the scene to maintain awareness of what is occurring with the structure, and what is taking place on the ground. A fire company can take every safety measure possible, but if they do not maintain awareness of what is occurring on the ground, these measures will be useless.

HOTEL MANAGEMENT ISSUES

The issue of management and leadership styles is a problem that is as old as for-profit organizations themselves. When managing a large group of people who are required to complete tasks on a daily basis, meet deadlines, and execute these tasks to a high standard of quality, the task of leadership in and of itself can be quite daunting. Furthermore, as it is necessary for businesses to aspire to a low level of employee turnover, it is necessary to adopt and implement a style of leadership that will not alienate employees, and cause them to begin looking for another job elsewhere (Barnett & McCormack, 2008). Further, in recent decades, the task of organizational leadership has become more complex. Increasingly, employees throughout the globe want to work at an organization that provides them with a positive work experience and a sense of belonging, rather than simply earning a paycheck and benefits.

The problem, in this instance, is the optimal leadership style that New Yang Sing should adopt if they plan to remain successful, and especially if they continue to grow at the rate that they have been experiencing in the last two years. At present, the major issue of New Yang Sing is that the executive leadership needs to impose more structure on the work environment. While the initial employees may have been extremely enthusiastic about working at a new engineering venture, the reality is that the majority of employees that they begin to hire from this point forward will not be close, personal friends of members of executive leadership, and it will be necessary to provide them with incentives beyond the intrinsic rewards that are inherent in helping a friend build a successful business. Moreover, the members of executive leadership at New Yang Sing have reported that they are beginning to feel that some of their employees are taking advantage of the casual, laid back work atmosphere that is currently in place at New Yang Sing, and sometimes take days off at a stretch without providing a good reason for their absence, or performing work that is sub-par. Clearly, the New Yang Sing Company needs to implement a style of leadership that is more structured, yet allows employees to maintain a high level of autonomy, and feel that their creative input is valued by executive leadership.

As the issue of finding a suitable leadership and management style for the New Sang Ying Hotel Company, this is a problem that is largely theoretical, and so a large portion of the methodology used to conduct this study will take the form of a literature review. At the present time, there is an abundance of both scholarly and professional literature regarding the various forms of leadership styles, and it will be necessary to review a large portion of this literature, and provide a summary report to executive leadership, so that they can make an informed decision about the leadership style that they personally believe is the one that is best suited for New Sang Ying Hotel.

Additionally, as this consultation is designed to help an actual (albeit only for the purposes of this paper) company, the executive leadership at New Sang Ying Hotel will require information that deals with the application of these leadership theories in a "real world" business setting. Fortunately, there is also an abundance of literature regarding the leadership and management styles that have been implemented at similar (although much larger, and high tech sector) companies such as Google, Inc., Dell, Inc., and Facebook (Alange & Steiber, 2013). Thus, the second methodology that this study will utilize is the use of individual "case studies" of each of these companies, and the effectiveness of the leadership styles that they have implemented. For the most part, large companies such as New Sang Ying Hotel utilize a transformational paradigm of leadership and management, which is uniquely suited to the construction and engineering (Peterson, Galvin, and Lange, 2012). When implementing management styles at an engineering company such as New Sang Ying Hotel, one of the most important considerations to take into account is that the employees at these companies tend to be highly educated, and prefer to work for a company that values their individual contributions.

The problem that this study is intended to answer is the discovery of the leadership and management style that is best suited for the New Sang Ying Hotel. In the early days of the company, the executive leadership at New Sang Ying Hotel did not see much reason to develop a structured management and leadership plan, as they were not yet sure whether the business would succeed or fail. However, New Sang Ying Hotel has enjoyed exponential growth in the last four years, and the investors are beginning to demand that executive leadership formulate a more structured leadership strategy for the growing company.

The major findings of this study are that a transformational style of leadership would be the best selection for the executive management at New Sang Ying Hotel as they create their own management plan for their company. In the high tech sector, employees tend to be highly educated, independent, and expect a certain amount of autonomy in their jobs. Further, high tech employees are in high demand in the labour market, and it is important to keep them happy if the organization wishes to retain its top talent (Peterson, Galvin, and Lange 2012). Given that the members of executive management have already established a very casual, laid back work atmosphere at New Sang Ying Hotel, the transition to a transformational style of leadership should not pose a major challenge for the company. From my own review of the company, it is already clear that the members of executive leadership at New Sang Ying Hotel already go out of their way to make their employees feel as though they are valued by the company, and the transition should only require the imposition of a slight increase in structure.

Overall, New Sang Ying Hotel has been an exceptionally successful company, but it is now time for the organization to restructure. New Sang Ying Hotel produces construction projects has currently has over 10,000 employees. At this time, the majority of the current employees are construction and engineering specialists, and they work under the direction of members of executive leadership. New Sang Ying Hotel started as a very small company that consisted only of the two founders, as well as three technical designers, and the work atmosphere was extremely casual, as a result. In the early days of the company, members of executive management were unsure as to how successful the business would become, and so they never devised a structured plan for organizational leadership, as they never truly looked beyond a one year horizon for growth. As with all new ventures, New Sang Ying Hotel represented a major risk for both the founders and the "ground-floor" employees, and the owners of the company never envisioned that the company would grow to be as successful as it has proven to be, and so they never developed a formal plan for organizational leadership. However, if the New Sang Ying Hotel company makes an organizational design change to one that is more in line with the transformational methods of leadership, they will soon find that productivity will increase, and that they will have a higher rate of employee retention. In the competitive engineering and construction industry, it is essential for companies to be able to attract and retain the highest level of talent possible for their organization. Indeed, every new employee hired represents a major investment in terms of money, labour, and effort. Additionally, the leaders at the New Sang Ying Hotel Company should also consider many of the strategies that have been forwarded by the principles of Organizational Development.

The purpose of this study is to determine the most optimal leadership and management style that New Yang Sing can implement in order to best suit its current needs. The New Yang Sing Company requires a style of leadership and management that will impose more structure and discipline over their growing workforce, yet simultaneously enable employees to feel that their individual contributions are valued by the company, and that the New Yang Sing company perceives them to be complete human beings, and not simply "cogs" in their corporate machine. As such, this study will examine the methodologies of both old and new styles of management and leadership in order to devise a feasible leadership plan for the executive leadership at New Yang Sing. One thing that the executive management should keep in mind, however, as the company grows is that one style of leadership may be appropriate for one department or division, while another style may be better suited for another. Ultimately, the purpose of this study will be to fully examine both old and new approaches to leadership and management, in order to provide the members of executive management with the widest range of choices.

The final recommendation of this report is that New Yang Sing implement a style of leadership and management that adheres to the transformational framework of leadership. In the case of the current atmosphere of the company, this will entail the development of more structured team meetings, in which the input of all employees is actively solicited. Further, it is recommended that New Yang Sing develop more team development activities, in order to crate an organizational culture of camaraderie and teamwork, and also to encourage employees to develop a sense of belonging to a team.

As for potential alternative recommendations for New Yang Sing, these might have entailed the implementation of a "transactional" style of management at the company. While this more structured, "top-down" style of management would be ideal to deal with such issues as excessive absenteeism and a general lack of discipline that the company is currently experiencing, this style of management and leadership would not be appropriate for an engineering company such as New Yang Sing. However, if the company expands to the point that they have entire departments devoted to functions such as Customer Service or Administrative Support, the transactional approach to management should be strongly considered for these specific contexts.

With regards to the implementation of a transformational style of leadership at New Yang Sing, this should enable members of executive leadership to impose a moderate amount of structure on their current employees, without alienating them to the point at which they begin to consider looking for employment elsewhere. If and when the New Yang Sing Company begins to expand in the future, the selective use of transactional styles of management should allow them to impose the necessary levels of discipline in departments that have a supportive function in the organization.

When considering the cultural elements of organizational redesign, especially if one is trying to restructure a company so that it will be more hospitable to the needs of working people, it is vital to address the issues of the organizational culture. Before addressing the problems of organizational culture, it is first important to define the exact nature of organizational culture. According to Watkins (2013), "Culture is consistent, observable patterns of behaviour in organizations. Aristotle said, 'We are what we repeatedly do.' This view elevates repeated behaviour or habits as the core of culture and deemphasizes what people feel, think or believe. It also focuses our attention on the forces that shape behaviour in organizations, and so highlights an important question: are all those forces (including structure, processes, and incentives) 'culture' or is culture simply the behavioural outputs?" Given this definition, it is clear that one of the major aspects of any organizational redesign must involve an overhaul of its organizational culture.

With regards to the social aspect of these arguments, it is also possible that there are many who would argue that issues of social justice have no place in a business setting, or in an organization whose role is not related to social activism or reform. However, given the current emphasis on the importance of adhering to an ethos of corporate social responsibility, it is becoming clear that it is crucial for all global organizations to maintain adherence to such principles (Rantakari, 2013). In considering the manner in which most organizations are currently designed, and the career paths that they offer to their employees, it is clear that they evolved in an age during which men were expected to be the primary employees; however, this social dynamic has changed dramatically since the 1950's and 1960's, and organizations must restructure in order to keep pace with the rapidly changing social realities in the global setting.

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