Reference no: EM13217801
Questions:
1.Create a behavioural description of Isabelle and Michael, comparing and contrasting their profiles. Are they suited to their roles at Sunshine Resort? Why or why not? (Remember the principle of ACE - argument, concept, and example.)
2.With particular reference to the relevant motivational theories and the section on learning and job satisfaction, and with reference to the behavioural description of Isabelle in the above question, analyse the working conditions at Sunshine Resort. If you were an external consultant providing advice to Sunshine Resort senior management, what would you recommend they do to improve Isabelle's job satisfaction and motivation?
Sunshine Resort is a luxury six star resort on the Far North Coast of Queensland that caters for wealthy holiday makers and international corporate high flyers. The resort used to have an unsurpassed reputation for excellence in hospitality with its famous day spa, three restaurants, 18 hole golf course, and state of the art function centre. More recently however, Sunshine Resort has been plagued by a number of customer complaints, and has problems retaining staff. The staff complain of boredom, and feel that their performance is not recognized by senior staff or by the clientele.
Isabelle recently joined Sunshine Resort on their graduate development program after completing her Bachelor of Tourism and Hospitality Management degree from Griffith University. The purpose of the graduate program is to groom university graduates as future resort managers, and beyond that as potential senior managers in the hotel's international chain. Since joining the graduate program six months ago, Isabelle has been stuck in the front office, overseeing reservations for the Hotel, and has not really had the opportunity to broaden her skills or experience in other aspects of the business, such as sales, Marketing, HR, or other areas of the resort. Isabelle's main duties have included handling reservation inquiries and bookings, and checking in guests to the Hotel. Isabelle has indicated to friends that she has no job satisfaction or motivation. She believes that her current role is not challenging enough for someone with a degree qualification.
The following observations have been noted about Isabelle and her Manager, Michael, and the working conditions at Sunshine Resort.
1.Isabelle is considered to be a very social and outgoing individual. She often is responsible for organizing staff social functions. She is known for her spontaneity and love for undertaking new challenges. She tends to make quick decisions that are based on gut instinct, rather than facts, which can get her into trouble at times. Isabelle is also known for being somewhat disorganized.
2.Isabelle is known for her good listening skills and ability to empathise with others. She believes she is well suited to customer service work as she is always concerned about others and ensuring harmony among her work colleagues. Isabelle prefers to learn by doing hands on tasks, rather than by observing others do the work. She enjoys working with others to solve tasks, especially since she tends to rely on their analysis more than her own when solving problems.
3.Given Isabelle is relatively young and not long out of university, her main goals in life are to have a high paying and exciting job. She does hope that she could combine her love for travel and meeting new people with a challenging career that has a lot of promotional potential. One of the reasons why Isabelle joined Sunshine Resort was due to the prospect of an accelerated career after completing the graduate program. Isabelle was told that she had a range of career paths available to her in the hotel industry. The working conditions of Isabelle's job include: a starting salary of $62,000 (considered average for a recent graduate); mobile phone; flexible hours; and the bonus of working in one of Australia's premier resorts on the Gold Coast. Isabelle particularly values these rewards and loves to brag about them to her friends, who only seemed to work long hours in boring high rise accounting firms. Recently however, Isabelle has begun to doubt the benefit of her seemingly "dream job". In contrast to what she was told and expected, the flexible hours have turned out to translate into working night shift at times, over weekends, and often on public holidays, such as New Year's Eve. Such working hours are negatively impacting her social life. Furthermore, rather than travelling around the world to other Sunshine Resort resorts, or even working in other aspects of the Gold Coast resort, Isabelle spends nearly all of her time behind a desk in the reception area of the Hotel.
4.Isabelle was also attracted to the Sunshine Resort job as she was told during the selection process that the Resort often paid large cash bonuses to staff if the resort performed well financially in terms of consistently high occupancy rates in the Hotel, holding a number of high profile golfing tournaments each year, and attracting large functions to the conference centre regularly. After joining the resort however, Isabelle has found out that the cash bonuses are only paid to senior management, and not shared among other members of staff, in particular, staff like Isabelle who were the real face of the resort and responsible for dealing with clients/guests on a regular basis. Like other staff, Isabelle believes that this system of rewarding bonuses is very inequitable, and thus represented another reason for her growing dissatisfaction and lack of motivation.
5.Since joining the resort six months ago, Isabelle has not had any performance reviews, or even any informal feedback sessions with her direct manager. This has left Isabelle unsure of how she is performing, and uncertain of her future direction in the resort. Isabelle had been promised that the resort paid a great deal of attention to its graduates, and managers were meant to meet regularly with them to review past performance and discuss future goals and direction. Isabelle is generally a confident individual who believes in her own abilities, and is willing to take responsibility when things go wrong. She knows she is responsible for her own future success and works hard to achieve those goals; however the lack of feedback is starting to affect her confidence. The only contact Isabelle seems to have with her Manager (Michael) involves her being told what to do with regard to her job, how it should be done, in what time frame, and other such strict instructions which leave no room for Isabelle to think for herself. This is another aspect of the job that Isabelle finds particularly frustrating.
6.Isabelle's Manager (Michael) does not demonstrate very good people skills. His communications with staff are mainly on a negative basis. For example, he has become known for his fiery temper. Whenever Michael comes out of his office wearing his jacket and holding his clipboard, staff know that this means Michael has got his "angry boss" persona on. Such a display is generally associated with Michael yelling at staff and accusing them of poor performance. He usually threatens staff that if they do not improve their performance he will fire them. Isabelle, like other staff, now know to avoid Michael if they see him come out of his office in such a manner. Isabelle wishes that Michael would learn to be more positive in his dealings with staff, and praise them when they perform well. Michael does not believe in telling staff when they do a good job, as he believes "well people should just perform well all the time, and why should I praise them for that when it is just their job anyway". Michael views Isabelle as just another typical university student who does not care about work or doing a good job, and is only interested in collecting a pay cheque (just like Michael did when he left university).
7.Isabelle is a person who strongly values honesty and integrity; however she feels Michael does not display this which is causing further stress and dissatisfaction for Isabelle. Michael believes it is alright to deliberately include extra charges on some guest's bills, particularly when they are being paid for by corporate accounts. Michael figures that such large corporate organisations would never notice the small discrepancies, but the amounts help improve the overall figures for the Hotel. Michael becomes angry at Isabelle when she fails to overcharge customers like him.
8.Michael is the type of person who would prefer to work in his office with the door closed and likes to minimize his contact with staff. He shows little regard for the feelings or concerns of his staff. In contrast to Isabelle, Michael dislikes any change and prefers to have a stable and organized workplace. He enjoys being manager because it gives him power and control. With the decrease in Sunshine Resort's performance, Michael has started to receive a lot more pressure from senior management to improve staff performance and cut costs. This is one of the reasons why Michael has started to overcharge corporate guests. When questioned about his performance by senior management, Michael typically blames it on others, despite a history of staff complaints about him and a series of poor performance reviews. For a manager, Michael shows little faith or belief in his own abilities.