Discuss about the Leadership Theory, Style and Ethics for Individualized Consideration.
An effective leadership and management of workforce is the primary responsibility of an organization. An organization can only get success in the long run if it does not satisfy its employees in maximum possible ways. The report describes the leadership techniques and styles followed by Mark J. DeCocinis, general manager of The Portman Ritz Carlton Shanghai, China, a well-known brand in the hospitality industry.
In the given case study, Mark J. DeCocinis the general manager of the hotel used two most effective theories that resulted in the positive results in terms of motivated employees and satisfied customers. Firstly he led the employees by applying transformational leadership which states that a leader is required to work with his team to identify the need of change and then guides for such change by inspiring and motivating the employees. By following this style of leadership, DeCocinis got success in enhancing motivation and morale and performance of employees by the different mechanisms. He provided an environment to employees where they can work with their self-respect. He also identified the weaknesses of employees and did not react in a negative manner. Instead of this, he introduced an environment where employees could mend their wrong habits. This act encouraged the employees to perform the job responsibilities in the best possible way (Davis, Campbell, Hildon, Hobbs, & Michie, 2015).
As each employee of the hotel had some specific strengths and weaknesses. For example, some employees were motivated by changing the arrangement of dining area whereas some were feeling motivated by the introduction of performance-based rewards. DeCocinis used individualized consideration element of transformational leadership to identify these different needs of the employees. He recognized these needs by observation and eavesdropping that were used at hotel to motivate each employee individually (Leadership, 2016).
This element involves the ability of a leader to motivate, inspire confidence and develop a sense of dedication to work among team members. This was exactly followed by DeCocinis by communicating his expectations to the employees about their performance and responsibilities. He also made free the employees to leave the job in case of any dissatisfaction. But he also communicated that if an employee was willing to work with the organization then he did not need to change his professional attitude overnight. Along with this, he also mentioned that in case of any difficulties, the management was there to help the employees. The first target of the management was to satisfy the employees in terms of wages, working environment and job responsibilities (Odukah, 2016).
This is also an important element of transformational leadership which indicates that employees should be influenced in a positive manner so that they may not feel overburdened. DeCocinis used this element very smartly by influencing the employees to support in the change management. He convinced the employees positively by stating that changes are not possible overnight. He gave sufficient time to make changes in the old habits also he did not penalize the inexperienced employees for providing over compensation to the customers. It also motivated the employees up to the great extent to work with such a kind of encouraging facilities.
Appointment of managers from veteran Ritz Carlton foreign was one of the most fruitful decisions of DeCocinis. Since the hotel was poorly managed at the time of merging. All employees were trained according to the culture and trend of China. The Ritz Carlton hotel had its own standards and values that were beyond the imagination of the employees of Portman. To manage the new and existing employees of the Portman according to the standards of Ritz Carlton, it was necessary to appoint the managers to form the veteran Ritz Carlton form other countries (Looi, Marusarz, & Baumruk, 2017).
The managers were well known about the trend of Ritz Carlton, therefore they were able to train the existing Chinese employees in a well-structured way. Along with this DeCocinis did not need to spend money on the training and development of such managers as they were already trained and had the experience to work as per Ritz Carlton working process.
One of the considerable disadvantages that were faced by the employees was the differences in culture and management styles of the managers appointed form foreign countries. They had to face communication problems as many of the employees were not able to speak English. Also, the employees were facing the problem because the leadership style of foreign managers was different in comparison to the management of Portman.
The new managers behaved with young workers in a good manner and also said to develop their habits that could also help in providing better services to the customer. The manager helped the young employees by giving proper time for developing their unprofessional habits. The management also gave the right to the young and inexperienced workers to settle the disputes up to $2000 without any need of approval to management. This was a major decision that developed a sense of trust among employees. But this could also be considered as an unfavorable step as workers could also use this right in an unethical manner. Thus, this step could also impact in a negative manner on the gross sales of the hotel (Theories, 2016).
The management considered three major elements by considering the following advantages of such elements:
Firstly the management created an environment where the employees might feel that the organization was also concerned about their respect and beliefs. For this purpose, the first step took by the management was really appreciable that was opening a new dining room for employees along with civilized and respectable surroundings that could force an employee to feel proud on his/her organization. Thus, the management firstly developed an environment that could satisfy employees in all areas (Lee & Raschke, 2016).
This was the second element that was used by the management to lead the change management in a positive manner. The management explained to the employees that how the Chinese workers were uncivilized and unprofessional while performing their duties. The employees were informed that developing professionalism in their habits, it would be easy to serve customers in an appropriate manner. They were also given adequate time for developing the manners related o professionalism (Theorizing and Practicing Organizational Culture and Diversity A Case Study, 2013).
For an effective change management, DeCocinis considered that only one person could not judge the ability of an applicant to perform the job responsibilities. Therefore, he used to conduct the final round of hiring by himself where he used to judge the soft skills of the applicant instead of technical knowledge. Along with this, he also started organizing annual survey related to employee satisfaction. This helped in identifying the reasons because of which employees were dissatisfied with their job. It helped in developing a positive change management (Junior, Porto, Pacifico, & Salgado, 2015).
The organization needs to be very concerned about the management of employees on the basis of gender, diversity, and culture. This can impact the overall performance of the employees as well as of the organization. It may also result in an increase in the attrition rate of employees if they feel that their values, culture, and ideas are not considered by the management of the company. Therefore, the mismanagement of above-mentioned factors can lead to increase in dissatisfaction level of employees and customers. On the other hand, a leader and management who is concerned about managing the above aspects are always preferred by the employees as given in case study (Brito & Oliveira, 2013).
A commitment related to providing employment on the basis of gender equality, diversity and adopting cultural differences is one of the main promises made by almost all the organizations. Changing workforce construction and the introduction of new organizational forms increases the number of diversified employees in the workforce and this affects the leadership style of the leader of an organization. In given case study, DeCocinis provided employment to the workers and employees of China along with the employees of other nations who were already working in the other outlets of the hotel in different countries. This gave the birth of diversified workforce with diversity in cultures, values, and beliefs. It was definitely not easy to manage a workforce which is totally diversifies workforce even many of the workers did not know English as they were only well known to the Chinese language. This created communication gap among employees. For decrease the level of miscommunication due to the language problem, DeCocinis started to organize a yearly training program containing 100 hours. The main thing that was creating a difference among employees was the perception of employees of Ritz Carlton that they had about Chinese culture and unprofessional behavior of Chinese workers. This affected the leadership style of DeCocinis as he could not deny the fact as well as he could also not emphasis on Chinese workers to change their habits and behavior immediately (Burke & Barron, 2014).
The change in the corporate culture of an organization can become either result in motivating or demotivating the employees. If corporate change and change is management is followed effectively by considering the appropriate style of leadership, then it can surely motivate employees to perform better. In given case study, the change in the culture and management of the hotel was carried out very effectively by giving respect to the values and beliefs and existing employees as well as considering the new changes in such a manner that may not affect the ethical values of any employee (Dobre, 2013).
When there is a change in corporate culture and management the most challenging task of the managers of new corporate culture is to satisfy the existing employees from the old culture. In case of Ritz Carlton, old employees did not aware of the standards to the new management and its customer services. Therefore it was a difficult task of the management to satisfy existing employees with their policies without any dissatisfaction. The management worked well on this aspect and resulted in increasing satisfaction level of employee up to 96% which was 26% higher than satisfaction level of previous management (Muscalu, 2014).
The loyalty of company can be measured through the increase and decrease in satisfaction level of customers and employees. Company loyalty of Ritz Carlton can be seen through the facilities provided to employees and workers at the time of change in management. Similarly, the company also used to provide annually rewards to employees on the basis of their performance. Customer satisfaction level also increased up to 96 % which shows that the company was loyal to its guest as well as its employees also.
Multi-ethnicity is related to the different ethics that are followed by different people at any organization or workplace. This is different form multi-culture as cultures are based on the values and beliefs whereas ethnicity is based on the ethics followed by individuals. In the case study, multi-ethnicity can be seen by considering the opinions of foreign employees about Chinese workers. This can also be analyzed on the basis of the migration trend of employees only for a minimum hike in wages. It shows that their ethics allowed them to leave their existing and trusted company at the time when it needs the most because of change in management and culture.
The three main leadership styles can be analyzed as follows
This leadership is related to the centralization of the leader. In this style, the leader or boss holds all the responsibilities and authorities related to the decisions. The opinions of the employees are not considered by the leader while making decisions. The leader takes decision and communicate the same to the employees and expect immediate implementation. This type of leadership is not liked by most of the individuals because of less flexibility.
This is opposite to the autocratic leadership style as employees are involved in making decisions and final decisions are taken on the basis of opinions of employees. The final responsibility holds with the leader but he can delegate his/her authority to the employees related to that particular project. This is one of the most preferable leadership styles as it is characterized by fairness, flexibility, courage, creativity, employee satisfaction, and competence.
This type of leadership is followed by the leader managing an organization with employees from different cultures and beliefs. In this style of leadership. All job responsibilities are organized and regulations are formed on the basis of various cultures and religions. This is normally used by organizations and companies working at international level.
The new management used the democratic style of leadership to effectively manage the workforce. DeCocinis used to conduct a monthly meeting with the managers of the departments and used to discuss the performance of employees as well as the problems faced by them. The information shared during this discussion was used in deciding the rewards and recognition of employees during annual employee’s meeting. Thus, it is clear that DeCocinis used to consider the opinion of his team members but took the decision as per his own understanding. It also improved employee satisfaction level up to 96% in 2001 which was 70% at the time of acquiring the business (Osabiya, 2015).
It was proved a time-consuming process for the management as it was not easy to implement a number of ideas provided by managers of different departments. Also, this could be the also the reason for migrating of some experienced employees as only 300 experienced employees stayed with the company till 2001.
Ethical Leadership is a leadership that is followed by respect for ethical beliefs and values, right and dignity of others. In given case study, the new management applied ethical leadership to ensure that the dignity and respect of the employees may not get affected in any manner.
DeCocinis developed an environment of trust in the workplace that led to development of trust among managers and employees. The sense of being trusted by the managers also used to prohibit the employees to perform any unethical work. This also helped in increasing the customer experience as workers were dedicated by having an understanding that their managers trust them and any unethical act can lead to break that trust (Manzoor, 2012).o
This trait of ethical leadership was followed by the new management to create an environment where workers and employees could respect each other and could not perform any such act which might have resulted in feeling disrespected to anyone. This step helped a lot the hotel in increasing the positive customer experience and employee satisfaction because employees started to trust each other as well as they were able to respect the needs and expectations of customers in the same way. This impacted on their performance in a positive manner (Meng & Boyd, 2017).
A leader must possess below mentioned three ethical behaviors to manage a team in an effective manner:
For adopting the ethical behavior, a leader must be honest and loyal. Honesty is important to be an effective and unethical leader. Honest leaders are always respected by their team members and followers. A leader should always present the real and true fact irrespective of its harmfulness and criticality.
An ethical leader is required to consider the purpose of his team along with his own purpose at the time of making strategies for achieving the objectives. He is required to work on the basis of the interest of the community.
An ethical leader is required to have the sense of giving respect to his followers and also his superiors. If the leader of a group respects his team members then he automatically gets the same in revert (Malik, Javed, & Hassan, 2017).
To maintain good relations with stakeholders, the management is required to involve both internal as well as external stakeholders at the time of making any important decision that can impact the profitability of the business. This is important to make them realize that their concern is also important for experiencing the better results. In case of any wrong decision, the management also gets free from the fact that stakeholders were not informed about the same (Yamsul, Surachman, Salim, & Armanu, 2013).
The stakeholders require regular and consistent service and communication. But they are also intended to keep this communication targeted and personalized. This need should be analyzed by following the process of prioritization and informing them only relevant information timely. The management should escape by providing unnecessary and irrelevant information to the stakeholders (Furlich, 2016).
Conclusion
On the basis of above report, it can be concluded that Mark J. DeCocinis managed and led the change in management very effectively and adopted all such styles and theories of leadership which resulted in a positive manner. It can also be concluded that results of change management cannot be predicted as it depends upon the type and nature of the workforce.
References
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