The Regency Grand Hotel Case Study

Case: Additional case 8—The Regency Grand Hotel (Textbook additional cases, CA-11)

Name: Rutva Mithani

Student Number: 500741739

Course: MHR405

Section Number: 031

Date: 5th November 2016

Q1) Use one motivation theory to (a) examine the motivational problems in Regency Grand Hotel and (b) make recommendations for improvement

1. One of the motivational theories that can be used to examine the motivational problems in the grand regency hotel is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It has five stages, namely – physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization. One can say that the workers physiological, safety and belongingness needs are met, however, their esteem needs may not be fulfilled. Esteem needs include recognition, high status, and responsibilities. The employees’ motivation may have dropped due to the fact that the recognition and status of the hotel had fallen since new management had taken over. This caused motivational problems in employees such as absenteeism and a high turnover rate amongst employees. Furthermore, customer complaints increased, employee’s self-confidence diminished, employees stress levels rose, and employees were no longer united.
2. Firstly, the manager must define what major and minor roles are. This way the employees know exactly when they need to consult him and when they can make decisions on their own. Also he needs to create a guide to communicate standards, rules and expectations. Secondly, he needs to understand the culture and realize that employees in that region respond differently to empowerment and they like being told what to do. Moreover, he must provide his employees with an opportunity to voice concerns.

Q2)Use one theory or model from Chapter 2 to (a) examine the performance problems in Regency Grand Hotel and (b) make recommendations for improvement

1. The MARS model can be used to examine the performance problems in the Regency Grand Hotel. MARS stands for Motivation, Ability, Role Perceptions and Situational Factors. Firstly, motivation is a problem as the employees used to be motivated by the fact that they received above market salaries, bonuses, benefits and most importantly, they were motivated by association with the prestige of the hotel. Secondly, ability, employees were not used to, nor trained about empowerment and thus were unable to differentiate between major and minor tasks and they weren’t trained to deal with these issues independently. Thirdly, role perceptions, empowerment was only discussed with the managers and the front line employees did not understand the expectations and changes in their roles. Lastly, situational factors, they included power distance and uncertainty avoidance.
2. Hold meeting with the entire staff and get everyone involved in the decision making process. Train and educate the employees about empowerment. Differentiate between major and minor tasks and urge employees to bring up any concerns at weekly meetings. Should none of these tactics work, then, improve employee motivation by doing certain things the old way.

Q3) Identify (a) the sources of power and (b) the influence tactics used by John Becker and other employees, using facts given in the case to support your points of view.