Management Leadership Across Cultures Leadership Business Essays

In this Tourism and Hospitality module the topic given to me is Management & Leadership Across cultures. In today’s increasingly competitive business environment the international nature of hospitality and tourism industry requires those managers who are fully aware of many different problems relating to leadership. They really need the knowledge and skills important to lead and motivate workforce across many different cultural backgrounds, and respond to the needs and expectations of culturally diverse guests. This issue is one of the great important and very relevant to effective management of organization in a critical understanding oh the range of issues associated with management and leadership across culture.

This report covers the learning outcomes 1,2 and 3- weighting 100%.

Learning outcome and main aim of this study is to evaluate the (1) critically evaluate theories of leadership & Motivation. (2) Critically evaluates theories relating to managing cultural diversity. (3) Compare and contrast the styles of leadership and appropriate motivation techniques across different cultures. Using the right methodology and research work this report will cover the issues raised by the research queries.

1 Introduction

With the passage of time the globalization and internationalization growing at faster pace, only few successful organizations can now survive without understanding the need to work across cultures. Even if businesses or organizations are not working outside the country or with foreign persons, it would be a challenge to identify better opportunities single cultural workforce.

With the help of cross-cultural business surroundings comes a need for people to be aware of how culture influences the organization. It is disappointing, as many quickly discover, the rest of the world does not do things “like we do”. Cultural diversity really affects the every field of organization, and no one can overlook the cultural differences.

The cause of event is the leadership challenge is very hard to achieve. the Leaders of new era should have the ability to managing people of different cultures; the leaders must have the ability to listen every one and should understand the actual meaning of diversified cultural coworkers. This is the main and the core challenge which a leader faces; when people perceive the world, communicate and view their leaders in different ways, the leader’s ears may be ringing with misunderstood messages.

1.1 The Leader

The superior leader gets things done with very little motion. He imparts instruction not through many words but through a few deeds. He keeps informed about everything but interferes hardly at all. He is a catalyst, and though things would not get done well if he weren’t’t there, when they succeed he takes no credit. And because he takes no credit, credit never leaves him.” – Lao Tse, Tao Te Ching

1″Great Man” Theories:

Great Man theories assume that the capacity for leadership is inherent – that great leaders are born not made.

2. Trait Theories:

Trait theories often identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders.

3. Behavioral Theories:

Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not born. Rooted in behaviorism, this leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders not on mental qualities or internal states.

3. Contingency or Situational Theories:

Contingency theories of leadership focus on particular variables related to the environment that might determine which particular style of leadership is best suited for the situation.

4. Participative Theories:

Participative leadership theories suggest that the ideal leadership style is one that takes the input of others into account.

Theories of Motivation

1.Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory”:

One of the most widely mentioned theories of motivation is the hierarchy of needs theory put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow saw human needs in the form of a hierarchy, ascending from the lowest to the highest, and he concluded that when one set of needs is satisfied, this kind of need ceases to be a motivator.

As per his theory this needs are :

(i) Physiological needs :

(ii) Security or Safety needs :

(iii) Social needs :

(iv) Esteem needs :

(v) Need for self-actualization :

2- “Theory X and Theory Y” of Douglas McGregor :

McGregor states that people inside the organization can be managed in two ways. The first is basically negative, which falls under the category X and the other is basically positive, which falls under the category Y.

3-Mayo Theory of Motivation

Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949) believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better motivated by having their social needs met whilst at work.

4-Herzberg Theory of Motivation

Frederick Herzberg (1923-) had close links with Maslow and believed in a two-factor theory of motivation. He argued that there were certain factors that a business could introduce that would directly motivate employees to work harder (Motivators). However there were also factors that would de-motivate an employee if not present but would not in themselves actually motivate employees to work harder (Hygienefactors)

Critically Analysis of leadership Theories

1-Trait Theory:

The Trait Approach came from the “Great Man” theory as a way of identifying the key characteristics

of successful leaders. It was believed that through this approach critical leadership traits could be

isolated and that people with such traits could then be recruited, selected, and installed into leadership positions. This approach was common in the military and is still used as a set of criteria to select candidates for commissions. The problem with the trait approach lies in the fact that almost as many traits as studies undertaken were identified. After several years of such research, it became apparent that no consistent traits could be identified. Although some traits were found in a considerable number of studies, the results were generally inconclusive. Some leaders might have possessed certain traits but the absence of them did not necessarily mean that the person was not a leader.

2-The Behavioral Theory

The results of the trait studies were in concluded. Traits, amongst other things, were hard to measure.

How, for example, do we measure traits such as honesty, integrity, loyalty, or diligence, while in this theory of leadership its very clear that the behavior of the leader is very important, its doesn’t matter how intelligent he is or how educated the leader is. its the game of behavior and game of personality. This style of leadership, we can see mostly in south Asian countries or third world countries. And in my view this kind of leadership is based on idealism.

3-The Contingency Theory

The behavioral theories can help the managers for developing specific leadership behaviors they give them little guidance as to what constitutes effective leadership in different scenarios. Indeed, I feel that no one leadership style is right for every manager under all circumstances. Instead, contingency-situational theories were developed to indicate that the style to be used is contingent upon such factors as the situation, the people, the task, the organization, and other environmental variables.

4- Participative Theories

Participative theory may helps more to the managers rather than other above theories. The positive thing about participative style of leadership is distribute the power among the team members. That’s means the leader transfer and share the power among all the team members. This will help to make better decisions, because every team member will participate in the decision making process. In this case every team member has the importance and that thing motivate and enhance their confidence level. On the other hand if the leader transfer the power to that member who I not capable of doing assigned work than that thing can impact negatively.

Critically Analysis of Motivation Theories

Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory

Maslow’s theory is not easy to test because of the nature of the subject involved, the difficulty with defining the plan or intention and only cover partly, for example between love and esteem, or physical and safety needs.

Deprivation: The person who is not available in all of the basic needs containing as part of the whole being considered physiological, safety, love, and esteem would likely feel a powerful desire for food above all else. In the Maslow as a witness explain the example of a persisting for a long time or constantly recurring hungry person for whom no other interests exist beyond food: “he dreams food, he remembers food, he thinks about food, he emotes only about food, he conscious of only food and he wants only food”.

Maslow suggested that people who experienced extreme emotional and/or physical the damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in a society early in life may be permanently destroyed in terms of the social, esteem, and fulfillment of one’s talents and potentialities needs. Individuals develop coping mechanisms in the face of ongoing stressors: in the context of chronic deprivation of basic needs, the person may break the connection from the higher needs, since they may seem causes despair out of reach. Adults who were process of moving up the hierarchy of needs as the lower needs become satisfied criticized theories that rest on especially significant details of human behavior under remarkable conditions, Care taken to avoid danger or mistakes against unknown situation from human behavior in emergencies to human behavior in more typical situations. Maslow stated a fact or belief confidently and forcefully that those who attempt to measure the goals of humankind based on not involving anyone “behavior during extreme physiological deprivation is used to emphasize being blind to many things .it is important to observe human behavior under more normal circumstances in order to develop a generally applicable theory that is not distorted by reaching a high environments. Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of human needs make an effort to achieve an account for the experience of the persisting for a long time or constantly recurring hungry and the chronically satisfied within the same model, but the model’s structure does not allow enough flexibility to account for the extremes of satisfaction and the damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in a society as well as the normal experiences of the general population.

“Theory X and Theory Y” of Douglas McGregor

This lasting legacy of McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise and his Theory X and Y is that it shows how far management thinking has come. Objecting to the dominance of Theory X in the workplace of the time, McGregor noted that ‘if there is a single assumption that pervades conventional organization theory, it is that authority is the central, indispensable means of managerial control.’ McGregor then put forward an available as another possibility or choice the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other. Theory Y was based on the opposite set of assumptions, namely that people need not only to work but want to work. Under Theory Y, the worker finds that mental and physical effort at work are as natural as it is not working or occupied; that belonging to control and threats are not the single means of control in a company; that the average human learns not only to accept but to attempt to find responsibility; and that most of us have a fully occupying the available area to display a high degree of forming new ideas, and original in sorting out problems.

It is true that neither of McGregor’s two polar opposites are achievable in any organization. Even the most swollen and distended or congested corporate giant has human spirit remain hidden within it, while the most off-beam creative firms require an organization a set of ideas. McGregor recognized this fact and was busy by the terms of a will a hybrid of organizational human try hard to achieve some thing, theory Z, when he died.

Mayo Theory of Motivation

Mayo theory of motivation has described that treating with people as human is important. The manager Should give them self respect and importance, this is an effective tool for the people who work in an organization. But the negative aspect of this theory is that mayo has forgotten about the basic needs and one of them is money. Only the self respect is not enough other things also matters. In my opinion the mayo theory of motivation is competitively less effective that other theories of motivation.

Herzberg Theory of Motivation

Herzberg has discussed two factor here in my view Hygiene factors avoid job dissatisfaction, for example the company polices really matters. Are they helpful to the workers, how the administration is working, what leadership style they have? If both company policy and administration is worker friendly than it really helpful to the workers and motivates them, there few other factors which have the importance is supervision, interpersonal relationship, working conditions, salary, status and security. these are the factors if they are shown preferably in the company policies that can really motivate the employees.

While in Motivation Factor – work condition related to the satisfaction of the need for psychological growth, job enrichment and leads to superior performance & effort

Motivation-Hygiene Combinations

(Motivation = M, Hygiene = H)

Managing Cultural Diversity

Organizations around the world has been recognizing the cultural diversity within organization is not a contradict aspect, rather can assist an organizational pursue for glory. However it is not an easy task to manage employees with different cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless there are so many policy guidelines that can make a piece of work simplified. On a wide perspective, cultural diversity can be manage through communicating (creating awareness among all employees about diverse values of peers through communication), cultivating (facilitating acknowledgement, support and encouragement of any employee’ success by all other workers), and capitalizing (linking diversity to every business touch on and strategy such as succession planning, restructuring, employee motivation, performance management and review, and pay back systems) strategies

Analysis of Cultural Diversity in UK

Top British companies are focusing on the staff with culturally diverse backgrounds as a

prospective asset in performance teams. The culturally diverse teams can actually perform better as well as more sense of creativity than teams made up of people with same backgrounds. The many studies showed by psychologists is that the prime creativity of such teams is usually achieved at some expense to performance, while performance from homogeneous teams is usually at the cost of creativity.

The survey of 65 companies, from the top 200 British companies, and their attitudes to cultural

diversity revealed some regarded as likely to happen results. For example, companies which have a “management of diversity” policy are not importantly those which have noticeably increased the comparative measurements of their workforce with diverse backgrounds. Their top management is have power and influence over as much by white males (86 per cent) as companies with no diversity policy (87 per cent). But companies with active diversity policies are more likely to have brought in flexible work arrangements help with Chiltern, paternity leave and career breaks. They put a high priority on

managing diversity along with other business tasks like Investors in People, business

efficiencies and total quality management. And these companies are more engaged in campaigns that advance the induce of minorities. Reasons advanced by companies which do not have a circumstantial policy included: financial (not enough resources); managers not recognizing the importance of diversity as a business issue; some companies seeing no need to focus on being a “fair and evenhanded employer”, or, in one company, specifically avoiding following ” especially one that is short-lived “.

Benefits of Cultural Diversity

For producing desired results multi-cultural managed companies have cost effective competitive advantage.

It helps in boosting minority friendly reputation among progressive employees.

Diverse cultural corporations help to get the best customers which have a variety of people.

Diverse group of employees are seems to be more creative and efficient in problem solving as compared to similar group.

Ability to manage cultural diversity increases adaptability and flexibility of an organization to environmental changes.

Culture and Leadership

Since World War II, globalization has been advancing throughout the world. Globalization is the increased interdependence (economic, social, technical, and political) between nations. People are becoming more interconnected. There is more international trade, cultural exchange, and use of worldwide telecommunication systems. In the last 10 years, our schools, organizations, and communities have become far more global than in the past. Increased globalization has created many challenges, including the need to design effective multinational organizations, to identify and select appropriate leaders for these entities, and to manage organizations with culturally diverse employees.

Globalization has created a need to understand how cultural differences affect leadership performance. Globalization has also created the need for leaders to become competent in cross-cultural awareness and practice.

Differences in Middle Eastern and Western Management

Management dimensions

Middle Eastern Management

Western Management

Leadership

Highly authoritarian tone, not flexible instructions, too many management directives

Less emphasis on leader’s personality, considerable weight on leader’s style and performance

Organizational structure

Highly Bureaucratic over centralized, with power and authority at the top, uncertain relationship, unclear and unpredictable organization environment.

Less bureaucratic, more delegation of authority, Relatively decentralized structure.

Performance evaluation and control

Informal control mechanisms, routine checks on performance. lack uncertain performance evaluation system

Fairly advanced control systems on cost reduction and organizational effectiveness

Personnel Policies

Heavy reliance on personal contacts and getting individual form the “right social origin” to fill major positions

Sound personal management policies. Can

debates’ qualification are usually the basis for selection decisions.

Styles of leadership and appropriate motivation techniques across different cultures

Leadership style influence level of motivation. However, throughout a lifetime, man’s motivation is influenced by changing ambitions and/or leadership style he works under or socializes with. Command-and-control leadership drains off ambition while worker responsibility increases ambition.

Styles of leadership Vs motivation techniques

Leadership Style

Motivation Type

Motivation is Based on:

Personality Type

Efficiency

Limited supervision

Worker with decision making responsibility

Self motivated

Creativity

Leader of ideas or people.

Independent

Achiever

Thrives on change

High

Team motivated

Mixed styles

Goal motivated

Opportunity

Personality type and efficiency depends on leader’s skill and/or the work environment he’s created.

Reward motivated

Materialism

Recognition motivated

Social status

High level of supervision

Command-and-control

Peer motivated

To be like others

Status quo

Dependency

Resist change

Low

Authority motivated

Follows policy

Threat, fear motivated

Reacts to force

Self-motivated or visionaries will not admit authority controlled environments. They will find a way to escape if trapped.

In a team-motivated environment, dependency types will become inspired and strive to be acceptable with independent thinking coworkers.

Associates influence the level of individual motivation.

Criteria

According to my research and evolution relating to the theories about Leadership, Motivation and cultural diversity is very optimistic. The above said theories are research based and really beneficial for the hotel and tourism industry. Now I will explain what are the things which will help the hotel and tourism industry to grow and flourish.

Employees must know the primary aim of the organization.

Remove those obstacles which stop employees performing to best effect.

Motivate the staff by financial rewards, status, praise and acknowledgment, competition, job security, public recognition, fear, perfectionism, results.

Use the participative style of leadership and empowered the employees.

Avoid those things which can demotivate the team. Like company has made redundancies, imposed a recruitment freeze or lost a number of key people this will have an effect on motivation.

Conduct the survey to check, who is most motivated and why? What lessons can an employee learn from patches of high and low motivation in the company?

It’s important that company goals and employee goals should be aliened or not. You may find employees are highly motivated but about the “wrong” priorities.

It’s important to realize the employees that they feel safe, loyal, valued and taken care of. Ask them what would improve their loyalty and commitment.

Involve employees in company development.

It’s important for the company to match their internal image with its external one. Like Your Company may present itself to the world as the forward thinking technology ‘family hotel chain. Your employees would have been influenced, and their expectations set, to this image when they joined your company.

By adding coaching tools and motivation principles to their capabilities we should find the job of leading those around us, and/or helping others to do the same, more of a joyful and rewarding activity. Instead of spending all their time and energy pushing and cajoling (in the belief that your people’s motivation must come from you) you will be able to focus on leading your team, and enabling them to achieve their full potential – themselves.

About Hyatt

Hyatt is a global hospitality company with widely recognized, industry leading brands and a tradition of innovation developed over their more than fifty-year history. Hyatt mission is to provide authentic hospitality by making a difference in the lives of the people they touch every day. Hyatt focus on this mission in pursuit of their goal of becoming the most preferred brand in each segment that they serve for their associates, guests, and owners. Hyatt support their mission and goal by adhering to a set of core values that characterizes their culture.

Hyatt manage, franchise, own and develop Hyatt branded hotels, resorts and residential and vacation ownership properties around the world. As of March 31, 2010, the company’s worldwide portfolio consisted of 434 properties.

Hyatt History

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts opened its first property, a small motor hotel at the Los Angeles International Airport, in 1957 and its portfolio quickly grew to include several other modest hotels along the West Coast and in Chicago over the next ten years. In 1967, Hyatt opened its first major John Portman designed hotel, Hyatt Regency Atlanta , in Georgia, which featured a space-age design with a dramatic, 21-story atrium lobby. The revolutionary architecture spawned scores of atrium lobbies around the world, effectively changing the course of the lodging industry and reshaping the Hyatt brand as an innovative and significant global hospitality leader .

By 1969, 13 Hyatt hotels were in operation throughout the United States. That same year, the company launched Hyatt Regency Hong Kong , establishing Hyatt International Corporation . Over the next ten years, the company’s portfolio of hotels began to expand and diversify rapidly, and in 1980 the company introduced the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands, and also solidified its entry into the luxury resort market with the opening of Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa in Hawaii.

Hyatt Regency London -The Churchill

Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill provides a wide range of services guaranteed to satisfy the needs of the most discerning guests. The fully equipped Business Centre provides business

Motivational Tools Used by Hyatt

Employee motivation is given a very special consideration at Hyatt. The top level management of the hotel believe on the theory of Z(Japanese school of thought)In Hyatt the employee’s salaries are not as much high so it is because of the motivation which keep the employees enthusiastic and dedicated to their jobs as they are working with their family members. For keep motivating their employees some managers also work with the employees like as they do. We reached in laundry department; the laundry manager was working as like lowest or middle level employees. Related manager Really take much care of every employee’s family matters and try to help them, because they know that the employee who have problems can’t work effectively. In Hyatt they usually give the promotion from within organization relating to the employee’s previous performance. Promotions are confer on the performance basis. This performance base motivates employees to work hard and achieve the goals, which are very objective and are conscious of achievable by most of the employees.

Managers play an important role in motivating employees as they give them the in time feedback about their daily official work. They also help them for solving different problems, which can be job related or professional life problems. Working environment and challenging targets are a major factor in employee motivation at Hyatt. The hotel has reward system which includes monetary awards such as,

Employee of the Month award

Employee of the Year Award

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

At Hyatt on the job training is given the utmost importance Hyatt have a performance evaluation system. They evaluate employee’s jobs, personalities and performance. Job are evaluated by their immediate managers and counter signed by the senior management. They also identify lacking after discussion with the relevant employee. On the basis of evaluation they identify the areas where the employees are lacking behind and they suggest recommendation for training. They use a performance appraisal form and use a different dimensions for evaluate performance. As they are the market leader so we need to have skilled and well trained staff. Their every waiter or room server knows the a bit Asian languages because their most of the guest are from foreigners. They believe in cross culture.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Benefits:

They have a regular analysis system and a performance appraisal method. For this they have committees who meet once in a month to discuss the performance of all the employees.

They have performance appraisal method which we conduct 2 times annually for the new employee and annually for the old one and give them increment and benefits.

¨ Bonuses

¨ Annual Increments

Rules and Regulation Policies

Pays:

Payday is last day of every month.

Overtime is double the hourly rate of pay

WORK SCHEDULE

9 work hours in one shift

One day off during the week

BRTESKS AND MEAL PERIODS

1 meal and 2 tea breaks in one shift

30 min for lunch/dinner.

15 min for each tea/breakfast

Meals in staff cafeteria only.

LEAVE

Casual(Maximum 3)

Sick(Medical certificate for 3 or more)

Earned(Minimum 7)

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEY

Hyatt Hotel conducts an Employee Satisfaction survey on annual basis. The Survey targets permanent employees of Hyatt with a view to determine their current satisfaction level on various categories.

This survey mainly focuses on the following objectives:

To measure, learn and improve the organization performance

To ensure that the employees are moving in the right direction in order to fit in the future

To listen and build upon the feedback from all employees

To ensure that we are creating a successful working environment in which innovation can thrive

Commitment of the top management to follow up on the employee satisfaction level

This year the survey result is more than 80% satisfaction level. Hyatt conducted this survey with the help of a private firm. The top management of Hyatt feels that it is important that they keep the employees motivated and take initiatives to increase their satisfaction level

Leadership at Hyatt

LEADERSHIP STYLE

The Hyatt general manager of the company is at the topmost position in the organizational hierarchy; Even though he is not directly involved in its operations he is responsible for taking major company decisions regarding the policy and Operations. Departmental managers are responsible for leading and controlling their subordinates. These leaders focus on their respective fields.

Increasing their employee’s efficiency

Empowerment

Resolving Conflict

Providing facilities

Managers motivate minimum-wage employees

Directing them to right way

Motivation

At Hyatt encouraging the employees to give new ideas so as to increase the customer satisfaction. In Hyatt there is a high degree of delegation and participation so they believe that the leadership style used in all the departments of Hyatt is democratic. Subordinates are given a fair treatment and are dealt in a very good manner so as to give them a feeling that you are not only an employee but also a member of the family.

The managers at Hyatt are very supportive as they treat subordinates as equals, and have a highly open communication system. They are participative since they encourage the involvement of the employees in decision-making and make use of group discussions. However, some monetary and non-monetary rewards are used to create a high involvement from the employees especially at the lower level.

THESE ARE SOME THINGS WHICH CAN BE DONE TO MAKE YOU FLY HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smile

Treat all guests a VIPs

Guest is a priority(No matter how busy you are)

Call guest by mane.

Guest is always right.

Maintain cleanliness,

Grooming and posture should be presentable.

THINGS WHICH CAN GET US IN TROUBLE.

Smoke, eat drink, chew gum, whistle, hum or sing in the lobby or any public area.

Stand in groups and casual conversation with your co-workers.

Shout or talk in public areas.

Allow personal friends to visit you at the hotel.

Spit in any area.

Say anything negative about the hotel.

Enter other departments, public areas, or guest floors unless requited.

Hyatt Cultural Diversity Plan

THE DIVERSE KITCHENS OF HYATT PROVIDE LESSONS EVERY DAY

I personally met with the Senior executive chef at Hyatt has spent 23 years in the kitchens of Hyatt, he has learned many lessons about diversity- how it can improve productivity, how it can make the workplace more interesting and enjoyable, and how it can improve service to our customers. He was fortunate to begin his career in the diverse environment, at Hyatt Regency London. London is a true melting pot , where , Japanese, Chinese and Filipino residents are reared to respect and enjoy the differences each bring to Hawaii’s culture. The staff at the hotel reflected the diverse population, so each day offered valuable lessons in embracing diversity. Working in the kitchen presented particular challenges. Not only did they prepare themed banquet menus highlighting a variety of cuisines, they also fed our employees in the cafeteria. This tested our ability to cater to the varying tastes of our staff, signifying our appreciation of the diversity

Suggestions and recommendations to Hyatt hotel

In my point of view Hyatt should have its own book of manual in which authorities and functions regarding to designation will be clearly defined. This would result in democratic type of management and avoid rebaptism.

Organizational policies shall be clearly defined and planned which result in efficient management and progress over the night.

Balanced rates for rooms and food items shall be charged, keeping in focus the other competitors in local hotel industry like

Best Luxury Hotel London

Marriott Hotel London

Hilton Hotels London

Lower workers are being influenced by the higher management for better results.

The Hyatt organization doesn’t maintain and encourages performance excellence in form of monetary terms. There is a formal performance appraisal form for all employees, and this is tied to a reward system. It is my view that there are severe problems with the performance appraisal form in that it is very subjective in nature. Because of the subjectivity the system can lead to gross errors, and since this is linked to reward system, the error is not only perpetuated but exaggerated. They have now a computer information system which very efficient but they need to spread through all the departments.

The layout of some offices should be improved.

The travel guides should be appointed for visitors especially for foreigners.