Importance Of The Management In A Hospitality Organization Management Essay

The purpose of this assignment is to identify the importance of the management in a hospitality organization. This assignment will compare and contrast the best and worst manager from Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa. Next, there will be discussion on the key activities and managerial roles of all levels of manager in the Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa. Other than that, analyses of what managers do in the organization as well as the challenges and problems faced by the managers and the solution used to overcome the matter.

2.0 The best manager

A good manager must have a good management skills, leadership, communication skills, positive attitude and behavior. During our team’s internship training in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, among all the managers in the departments, the best manager that our team has encountered is the Front Office Manager. The Front office manager has showed his friendly attitude to the entire trainee for example the front office manager kindly to teach us how to escort guest when the guest check in to their room during the peak season. The front office manager also explain the entire step and about the hotel and room facilities in details when escorting guest. Besides that, the managers have good leadership skills in assisting the staffs on how to handle the guest and run the operation for example the front office manager usually are sit at the back office to do their works but the front office manager in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang is different, the front office manager will come into front desk and check in the guest personally during the peak season. Furthermore, when something happen during the operation, the front office will handle the problem immediately rather than scolding the staff. Next, the manager has good communication skills with each staffs in the organization for example although the front office manager is straight during the daily operation but privately the front office manager will care for the entire trainee. The front office managers will share the experiences and information that he had encountered during his working hours in the organization in order for the staffs to have a mind set on what will happen throughout our internship.

2.1 The worst manager

A manager should be friendly, willing to teach others and lead the organization well. However the Food and Beverage Outlet Manager in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa does not apply to the criteria. The outlet manager does not divide task well to employees and makes the operations become tougher since the employees was assign to do wrong task.

The outlet manager should know well about the employees’ strength and assign to the correct position. If not, the employees cannot done the task assigned on time and won’t be so efficiently for example during the peak period, the restaurant usually full house and will be super busy and maybe mistakes will happened. The Food and Beverage Outlet Manager didn’t understand the situation and just keep on scolding the employees and not faster solve the problems. Furthermore, the outlet manager irresponsible after the operation end for example the outlet manager in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa always disappear after the operation. This not only makes the employees feel sad and disappointed. Besides that, every time when there’s wedding or buffet event, sure lot’s of leftover foods. According to the hotel rules and regulations, as a worker of the hotel must not take food out from the hotel. However, the Food and Beverage Outlet Manager didn’t follow the rules set by the top management and take the leftover foods back home. Managers should be a role model and follow all the hotel’s rules. Although it is waste but a rule is rules, everyone must follow and obey it.

2.1 Way to become a successful manager

To become a successful manager, different managers have different personality, approach and style from others. According to [Peter, 2009] suggested six traits that a successful manager should have in common for example desire to serve others; strong works ethics; be able to integrate and can be trusted; willing to learn; have positive vision and good in communication. Manager should have the desire to do whatever to help the employee to be success in their job. Besides that, managers are roles models of successful behavior and should have a basic understanding the work ethics to produce positive result for the organization. Moreover, managers are employees willing to follow and good relationships are always built on integrity and trust. Furthermore, managers are involved in continuously lifetime learning and willing to learn from mistake. Other than that, managers should have the positive vision to set on their mind in order to motivate them to become a better manager in the future. In addition, good in communication with the employee are the important skill in order for them to work well together in handling a task [Peter, 2009].

General Manager

Resident Manager

Director of Sales

Fire, Life Safety Manager

Chief Engineer

Director of Sales & Marketing

Reservation Manager

Assistant Chief Engineer

Director of Communication

Director of Event Management

Assistant F&B Manager

Director of Food & Beverage

Human Recourses Manager

Executive Sous Chef

Executive Chef

Director of Human Recourses

Training Manager

Front Office Manager

Assistant Financial Controller

Executive Housekeeper

Spa Manager

Director of Purchasing

Financial Controller

Recreation Manager

Information Technology Manager

Director of Security

Figure 2: Organization Chart of Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, Penang.

Level of Management

Managers do not work in the same level. Managers are classified in a hierarchy of authority, perform different task and operate at different position called level of management. Level of management classified into three categories: Administrative/ Top level management; Executive/ Middle level of management; Frontline/ Lower level of management. In the organization, the level of management in every level resembles a pyramid (figure 2) [Gaurav, 2011].

Top

C.E.O

Middle

H.O.D

Lower

WORKERS

Figure1: Level of Management [Gaurav, 2011]

Top level managers consist of Board of Director (BOD), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Resident Manager, Directors and others. The Board of Director is representative of the shareholders. Board of Director is selected by the shareholder of the company while the Chief Executive Officer is selected by the board of director of an organization. Chief Executive Office also called General Manager (GM), and President. Top level managers are responsible to determine the objectives, policies, plans of the organization and set goal for the organization and direct the company to achieve. Besides that, the top managers mostly work of thinking, planning and deciding. Furthermore, top level managers are the top and final authority of an organization. The failure or success of the organization largely depends on their efficiency and decision making [Gaurav, 2011] for example; the top level manager in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa is General Manager. According to [Mintzberg, 1973], decisional role more involve in top level manager because they are more involves in decision making such as General Manager is make the final decision and set the goal in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa. Top level manager should initiating change and adapting to the environment, takes corrective action, allocate all the regarding resource and represent department during negotiation of union contracts, sales, purchases and budgets [Mintzberg, 1973].

Middle level manager are those in the level below top levels managers. Middle level managers are Department Head (HOD) [Gaurav, 2011]. This level of managers are reported to the top level managers and serves as a head of the major department or their specialize unit. The middle manager is selected by the top level manager and directly report to the Chief Executive Officer and has limited authority and responsibility [Gaurav, 2011] for example the middle level managers in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa are F&B manager, Executive Housekeeper and others. Professor Mintzberg [Mintzberg, 1973]said that, middle level manager should have the balance roles between information and interpersonal role. Middle level manager majority make plan for their department in order to achieve the goal set by the top level manager and seeking and analyze all the relevant information with the top leval managers [Gaurav, 2011]. Besides that, middle managers also have responsible to transmits information from outside organization to inside or from inside organization to outsider [Mintzberg, 1973]. Middle level managers have to communicate with the top level manager by offering feedback or suggestion because they are more involve in day to day operation. Furthermore, middle level manager also have to maintain a good relationship with the lower manager [Mintzberg, 1973].

Lower level manager knows as a frontline manager consists of assistance manager, team leader, leader, and supervisor. Frontline manager is responsible to assign the task or job to their employee and develop morale. Frontline manager are more concentrate in directing and controlling. Frontline manager are link between the workers and middle level manager. Besides that, frontline manager has the limited authority but responsibility to getting the work done from the workers. In addition, frontline manager are the one who make daily, weekly, monthly plans for the operation and directly report to the middle level manager [Gaurav, 2011] example, the lower level managers in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa are executive sous chef, assistance F&B manager and others. Moreover, frontline managers are more involve in interpersonal role. As a frontline manager responsible to perform ceremonial duties as a representative of the organization; hire, train and motivate employee and maintaining and developing webs of contacts outside the organization [Mintzberg, 1973] for example, supervisor works in Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang resort and Spa need to maintain a good relationship with their manager and develop a good relationship with their customers.

3.0 Functions of management

In any hospitality organization, whether it is a big or small, old or new organization, there are four major functions of management. The definition function of management is, it is a set of main operations that determine the role of managers in a working surrounding. Management is the procedure of working with people and other organizational resources in order to achieve the goal that has been set in the organization itself [Bateman, 2011].

The four major functions of management include planning, organizing, leading and controlling [Mirescu & Dragomir, 2008]. The first major function of management is planning which implicates the method of setting objective, developing tactics and actions to be performed to attain the goals. Planning is the foundation among other range of management that is constructed. The activities of planning includes examining the current status, foreseeing the future, decides on the objectives, select the types of strategies to be used and determine the resources that are needed to attain the target of the organization. Without a plan, the management will never succeed in whatever they are targeting to achieve [ANGERER, 2011]. In Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, the manager plan different kind of events in the resort in order to increase the sales of the resort. The events that is organized includes of Masquerade party, fund raising events and many more.

The second major function of management is organizing. The management must organize all the types of resources such as human, financial, physical, informational and other resources that are needed to attain the target that has been set by the management. The activities of organizing are convincing people to be attached with the organization, explaining the particulars of the job duty and classifying the workers into different categories depending on their similarities of tasks. Other than that, the management also in charge of arranging and distributing the resources as well as convincing the workers to put in effort in their task in order to achieve the maximum success that has been aimed by the management [ANGERER, 2011]. The manager of Food and Beverage Department allocate the tasks for each employee during preparation, serving the guest and also cleaning up after the event has ended. The manager will inform all staffs on what we should do in order to avoid problems from happening during the operation of serving the guests.

Next, the third major function of management is leading. This function helps the management in oversee and manage the behavior and attitude of the workers. The management is able to provide help and support for the workers by directing them in the correct pathway in order to attain the company’s target. The management is also responsible to encourage the interest of the workers in becoming a better person in order to be beneficial to the company to help in achieving the objectives that are planned. The manager must lead the workers in every direction for example motivating the workers as well as improving communication between each other either individually or in groups [ANGERER, 2011]. The manager in-charge of the specific department will supervise on the staff’s performance and also lead them when they have done any mistakes. The managers will teach all the staffs on the proper skills needed as well as giving knowledge about the particular department.

Lastly, the fourth major function of management is controlling. The controlling process is a continuous process that must be accomplish by the management. Controlling takes place after the planning has been carried out and the duty has been allocated. The controlling procedure enables the management to avoid unwanted problems to occur as well as to ensure that the objectives and goals of the company are met [ANGERER, 2011]. The department managers have to do monthly stock checking and prepare a report on the stocks. This is to ensure that they are able to control the department by providing enough stocks that is needed for them to carry out an operation as well. All managers must control the cost of the particular department and manage costing within the budget that has been set by the management.

4.0 The challenges and problems faced by managers and how they overcome it.

One of the major challenge and problem is communication between manager and employees. Through communication things just can be done perfectly and can reduce chances of making mistakes, but not every manager willing to communicate with their employees. Every time mistakes happened, the manager will just keep on scolding or punish but not to find out the reason why mistakes happened. The manager should investigate the problems first then just helping solve the problem. This will improve the relationship between each other and next time got anything happened employees will find manager to help and solve it, this will reduce losses.

Budget control also a very challenging problem faced by manager. Every time the manager purchase anything must think wisely and not waste any money of the company. The manager must not over the budget and if possible lesser than predicted budget and make company earn more sales. The manager need to find trustable supplier that can sent the stock on time and effective on work. If not the daily operation of organization will be affected.

Now everything is about technology, managers should know well about it and practice it to the hotel. The manager needs to think and find the best technology that can use in the hotel and make works more efficient. Since everything is computerized, managers must have some basic knowledge about computer and know to use resources at internet like making free advertising at website and reduce the marketing budget.

Besides that, management skills are a big challenge to the manager who is fresh graduate. This is because management skills usually gain by working experience. If the manager working longer at the hotel, the experience will be more and easier in manage things.

The manager should overcome all these problems by always listen to others opinions and accept good or bad opinions. People that can listen to others will improve their strength and change their bad habits. Every time when hotel sent them to training, the manager should pay more attention to it. The manager also can buy some books about how to maintain good relationship with employees and ways to improve teamwork with each others.

5.0 Conclusion

Through this assignment, our team learnt that as a good manager, he or she should responsible, hardworking and be a role model to all the employees. While the worst manager should change their bad habits and learn from good manager. Our team also fined out that there are three levels of manager, top-level manager, middle-level manager and frontline manager. Planning, organizing, leading and controlling are the four main functions of manager. Besides that, our team also learnt that the difficulties of a manager and the challenges faced by them.