LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT FOR SERVICE INDUSTRIES

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT FOR SERVICE INDUSTRIES

INTRODUCTION

Leadership and management play a significant role in the service industry. They are responsible for the accomplishment of the organizational goals by employing effective leadership and management skills within the organization (Thorpe, 2016). The leaders re concerned with the offering desired motivation and encouraging the team member to successfully perform the task within the specified timeline whereas managers are concerned with assigning and monitoring of the associated roles and responsibilities according to the skills set and talent of the individual employees.

The report is based on the transformation of service sector business through sustainable initiatives and practices. The role of leaders and mangers as well as various leadership styles and management styles implemented in service sector industry are discussed. The classical management theories and the internal as well as external factors that influenced the management styles and structures in the service industry are elaborated.

Four Seasons hotels limited is a multinational group of hotel headquartered in Toronto, Canada. It was founded in the year 1961 by Isadore Sharp. The company operates more than 100 hotels and resorts and have a presence in 47 countries across the globe. The employee base of four-season is more over than 45,000 individuals (Fourseasons, 2020).

Figure 1: COMPANY LOGO

(Source: Fourseasons, 2020)

LO1

P1 ASSESSMENT OF VARIOUS CLASSICAL MANAGEMENT THEORIES AND APPLICATION IN FOUR SEASONS

CLASSICAL THEORY OF MANAGEMENT

The classical theory of management progressed in the 19^th century. It was established when problems started arising in the industrial revolution. The theory involves the creation of multiple levels of workers in order to enhance productivity. It is a style of management in which that highlights the organizational hierarchy, dedicated roles and leadership roles for improved efficiency at the workplace (Kitana, 2016). This theory concentrates on providing income incentives and utilizes the opportunity for wage increment to inspire employees.

There are there classical management theories of management. They are as follows

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT THEORY

The scientific management theories concentrate on streak supervision, the theory strives to figure out the best possible way to carry out the task. It was proposed by FW Taylor to promote normalization and specialization by suggesting that the workplace tasks can be broken down into smaller task (Ferdous, 2016).

The managers at Four Seasons assign the dedicated job to the workers that are specialized in carrying out the task effectively. Train them accordingly as well as supervising them to ensure the task completed effectively.

BUREAUCRATIC MANAGEMENT THEORY

The bureaucratic management theory was established by max weber concentrated on the restructuring of the organization to ensure productivity and economic effectiveness (Ferdous, 2016). This is an effective management theory to bring the organizational power structure into focus.

The managers at Four Seasons takes into consideration the various hierarchies in order to represent an organized conclusion while delivering the services to the clients.

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT THEORY

The administrative management theory was given by Henri Fayol and is considered as the most prominent management theory in modern management. Fayol had developed 14 principles of administration that must be adopted by the managers in the organization in order to achieve the desired objectives of the company (Kitana, 2016). The managers at Four Seasons has adopted the administrative management theory in order to streamline the topmost priorities of the company.

P2 ROLE OF LEADERS AND DISTINCT LEADERSHIP STYLES AT FOUR SEASONS

ROLE OF LEADERS

Leaders are the one who are responsible for the accomplishment of the objectives of the company and plans strategies to utilize their expertise and innovative skills in order to deal with the employees and the team members of the organization. The leaders are objective oriented and work to ensure that the objectives rea accomplished at any cost without disturbing the quality of the service being offered to the clients (Jiang et al. 2019). The role of leaders at the Four Seasons hotel and resorts are as follows

Significance of leaders

The role of the leaders plays a significant importance in the hotel industry that is the leaders are responsible to manage the managers and guide them at the workplace. The leaders assess the work and provide allocation at each stage and the leaders are answerable to the board of members to fulfil the objective of the company (Starvrinoudis and Chrysanthopoulou, 2017).

Face of company

The leaders act as a role model to the employees that is by offering emotional and mental support to the employees and resolving the conflicts between the team members, etc. Creates a good image of the leaders. The leaders are responsible for the hosting of the seminar, workshops and induction and orientation ceremonies of the new employees (Starvrinoudis and Chrysanthopoulou, 2017).

Act as a guide, philosopher and friend

The leaders at Four Seasons employ their cultural traits in order to enhance the productivity of employees. They are to be a friend to employees for sharing the personal burdens as well as the moment of happiness, as a philosopher to encourage and inspire the employee and as a guide to assist the right direction to the employees (Jiang et al. 2019).

LEADERSHIP STYLES AT FOUR SEASONS

Four Seasons implements various leadership styles in order to regulate the smooth working operation within the workplace. They are as follows

DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE

This leadership style enables the leaders as well as the employees to participate in the decision-making process and feel privileged and appreciated to be part of the company (Radwan, 2020).

BUREAUCRATIC LEADERSHIP

This leadership style bounds the leaders within the specified limits of rules and regulation within the company and must be strictly followed by all the employees as well.

AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE

In the autocratic leadership style, the leaders have full power to implement all the decision without the involvement of any employees or team members (Radwan, 2020).

P3 REVIEWING THE MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP STYLES AT FOUR SEASONS

The management and leadership implemented at the Four Seasons are democratic leadership style In order to earn respect and loyalty from the employees towards the leaders and the organization as well as the contingency management style is employees to manage the business operation within the workplace (Huertas et al. 2019).

DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE

This leadership style is commonly termed as a participative leadership style. This style enables the employees to be a part of the decision-making process within the company. The major aim of Four Seasons is to work in a united manner where the team members are treated unbiased of the workplace and feels privileged to be a part of the four-season hotels and resorts (Radwan, 2020). This leadership style enhances the employee motivation which results in the improved performance and efficiency of the employees and team members working at Four Seasons.

CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT STYLE

The management style is implemented by the managers of four season in order to maintain an effective relationship with the employees. The application of contingency management theory at Four Seasons entails the manager to stay focused and avoid being rely on the rules, policies and tradition of the company (Karam, 2018). Implementation of this theory improvers productivity and employee morale and develop a positive environment in the workplace.

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P4 ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ASPECTS INFLUENCING STYLES AND STRUCTURES OF FOUR SEASONS

The various internal aspects that influence the leadership styles and structure of the Four Seasons hotel and resorts are as follows

INTERNAL ANALYSIS: SWOT ANALYSIS OF FOUR SEASONS

STRENGTH	WEAKNESS
Standardize performance Operating management and principles of the Four Season is excellent Distinguish edges it means the hotel chain is globally spread The operations of the hotel is concerned for their guests as well as staff and people also.	The rates are comparatively high from the competitors. The rooms are limited as per its presence in the market.
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Four Seasons have advantage of getting the good places at minimum ranges Hotel has the opportunity to buy out the place for expanding as compare to its competitors. There is a huge scope for Four Seasons to take gain competitive advantage by expanding through merger.	The shift in the trends of hotel trends. The suppliers union will affect the growth of the Four Seasons Customers are concerned about the pricing.

(Li, 2020)

STAKEHOLDERS

There are primarily two sorts of stakeholders that are external stakeholders and internal stakeholders. They are as follows

Internal stakeholders

Internal stakeholders involve the employees, management and the owners of the company (Graham, 2020).

STAFF

The staff or employee are the major assets of the company. Four Seasons is an immensely popular brand in the hotel industry that enables the employees, to feel privileged working for such a big giant hospitality firm (Graham, 2020). The employees take care of the various services being offered to the customers and the expectation of the customers as well as offering premium services to the customers at the arrival as well as departures. The employees also consider communicating with customers post completion of the period at the hotel that is for feedback and surveys.

External stakeholders

External stakeholders involve the suppliers, local people, customers, government and the broader community.

CUSTOMERS

Four Seasons is among one of the popular hospitality firm in the hotel industry with along with 117 properties in more over than 47 countries (Fourseasons, 2020). The customer plays an important role in the hotel business.

SUPPLIERS

The suppliers act as a provider in the hotel industry that is without the help of suppliers the business operation can be smoothly organized and free flow. the key element for maintaining a strong relationship with suppliers are timely payments by the management and timely delivery by the suppliers as well as communication and operational procedures that take place.

EXTERNAL FACTORS INFLUENCING THE FOUR SEASONS

The external factors can be evaluated by performing the PESTEL analysis on the Four Seasons. the PESTEL factors are as follows

POLITICAL FACTORS

The political aspects influencing the four-season are its operations within the diverse countries. Every country has different political stabilities and instabilities as well as norms and regulations which makes it difficult to follows the same structure strictly and results in the negatively impacting the operation of the Four Seasons (Yusop, 2018).

The global pandemic Covid-19 has a great impact on the operation of the hotel industry as the customers are affected as well as the service and thus results in a loss in the revenues for the Four Seasons

ECONOMIC FACTORS

The economic aspects that impacts the business operation of the Four Seasons are the inflation rate, labour market conditions, exchange rates and economic conditions of the country and paying taxes. Considering the economic condition of the Four Seasons it has acquired the brand loyalty and employee satisfaction that makes the working operation effective and make the company economically unwavering (Perera, 2017).

SOCIAL FACTORS

The social aspects influencing the Four Seasons are the lifestyles, education level and habits and population (Yusop, 2018). Four Seasons offers various activities to enhance the customer experience and ensures to satisfy the desires and expectation of the customers that are different concerning to lodging and customer experience

TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS

Technology has a great impact on hotel industry that is the rising of rivals offering low budget-friendly rooms and stays to the customers such as Airbnb, it also enables the customers to rent out a private villa at various exotic tourist places (Yusop, 2018).

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

The environmental aspects that impacts the Four Seasons are increasing consumption of energy, water and other resources for leisure purpose.

LEGAL FACTORS

The legal aspects that impact Four Seasons are employee protection act, consumer protection act and intellectual property act. The management of Four Seasons takes precautionary measures if found any discrimination and harassment activities within the workplace (Perera, 2017).

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P5 EVALUATION OF PRESENT MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP ‘HARD’ AND ‘SOFT’ SKILLS OFFERING EVIDENCE FROM FOUR SEASONS

The present management and leadership skills play a significant role in the hotel industry. The manager and leaders at Four Seasons concentrate on improving the skills in order to aim of having essential skills to achieve the business objective in a more efficient manner (Escriq et al. 2018).

The business operations are equipped with timely fluctuation that is the work load at the peak season the work load on the employees as well as the managers work load increases this requires the leaders to implement hard and soft skills at the workplace. At Four Seasons, to maintain an equilibrium state within the business operations the manager hard skills and leaders soft skills are major factor are assimilated. Hard skills are rigid in nature and result in the improving of the strength and certainty.

Both the soft as well as the hard skills are important to implement in the service industry in order to serve the best to the customers and satisfaction is a major concern. The leaders very well know their employee and make them work accordingly (Aslami, 2020).

The organization such as four-season leadership and soft skills are least developed. Therefore, the managers are needed to give more attention to improvise the soft skills at a larger extent and hard skills equally because at the end the major objective of the company is to offer satisfaction to the end customer (Aslami, 2020).

P6 FUTURE MANAGEMENT NAD LEADERSHIP SKILLS ESSENTIAL FOR FOUR SEASON AND WAY TO ACHIEVE IT.

The future of hospitality firms is fast-paced, high-end technology, and enormously competent. The major concern is the globalization, it is changing the way of the thinking of the customers in the service sector and requires the leaders to understand and implement new skills that are essential for the smooth operation and enhancing the efficiency of the organization (Prasad, 2020).

The leadership and management skills essential for four-season to be implemented to enhance the customer experience are as follows

HIGH-TECH MANAGEMENT SKILLS

The sudden impact of AI and machine learning in the service sector has increased the operational efficiency within the workplace. The managers are required to continuously improve the skills and new technologies in order to cope up with the emerging issues (Gold and Anderson, 2017). Four Seasons must upgrade the technologies in order to be in the list of the top hotel chain in the industry.

DIVERSE TEAM MAANGEMENT

The symmetrical teams are ideal but it is not constantly offers authenticity. So, the manager and leaders will have to nurture an environment of engaging the teamwork and positive dispute. The managers are required to question traditional techniques so as to efficiently implement modern business practices. These leads the teams to prepare an innovative idea and result in better outcomes.

TRANSPARENCY

The modern digital world is creating transparency within the business operation that is more effective ways of communication and performing business activities. The managers and leaders at Four Seasons need to consider the transparency and communication levels within the workplace. In the modern world, the managers are most concerned with safeguarding the confidential information and data of the company, because the digital leaks are increasing day by day and it results in loss of business. The diverse teams working for a company requires the managers they can rely and it also enables the customer loyalty with the company (Gold and Anderson, 2017).

OUT-CENTRIC LEADERSHIP

The managers at Four Seasons in the near future are going to be more cooperative and lesser hierarchal. The managers are needed to recognize the employees. The major innovation will be the 'top-down' structure ti the ‘alongside’ structure within the workplace and it will be the most significant innovation of the future management and leadership (Bhawani and Talib, 2017).

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EQ)

In the near future, emotional intelligence is expected to become the most projecting aspect of the business ethics. The manager with higher emotional intelligence inclines to show better responsiveness towards the customer or clients and appreciate the mentalities of the competitive brand in an effective manner. These skills will assist the manager in creating a better working environment for the employees and other workers as well as assisting in the development of a better culture within the organization (Bhawani and Talib, 2017).

SOFT SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Soft skills play a significant role in the character traits of the manager to establish and assess it in future hires. These skills are communication, positive behaviour and feedback implementation, as well as time management skills, ate most essential. The evolving technological tools and techniques will assist the future managers in evaluating the soft skills and enhance the learning outcomes in a more digitalized world (Zeng et al. 2017).

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P7 COMPARISON AND CONTRAST THE DISTINCT CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND LEADERSHIP IN IMPLEMENTING CHANGE.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Change management can be termed as a linear process concentrating on a single objective. The change management within the four-season can be seen as an alternating development, with a separate starting and conclusion, addressing major issues, such as streamlining and implementation of new strategies (Barrow and Toney, 2017).

CHANGE LEADERSHIP

Change leadership is a practical approach that is responsible to act as an opportunity for the growth and development of the company. This leadership is a people-centric approach in which the consideration of the impact on the employees and the community. The true leaders work diligently to create a trust factor among the employees. In this way, whenever changes take place in the leadership styles these strong interrelations of the employees with the leaders assist in adopting the changes even when the situations are unreliable (Dumas and Beinecke, 2018).

At Four Seasons, the change leadership as well as the change management plays a significant role and are divergent to one other and rarely contrast. The major aspects that bothy the styles contrast are the dedication level, loyalty and committee=ment towards the business. The objective of both the styles is common that is to accomplish the goals of the organization and offering best in class services to satisfy the desires and expectation of the clients. They concentrate on creating market value, reliability and improvising the global ranking of the company and the fulfilment of the goals and objectives of the company are the prime aspects (Ling et al. 2018).

The change management and the change leadership are opposite of their behaviour that is they can never be meet while implementing the changes but delivers the same objectives and goals set by the organization (Burnes et al. 2018).

If the comparison and contrasting takes place between Marriott and Four Seasons based on the change management and leadership both have indulge their name in the Global Top 1000 Brands, both have care the social sentiments and are performing great at social media channels. But, as far as the product quality concerns it is better than the Marriott, pricing and customer services is also better than Marriott. The staff and people are satisfied working in Four Season, the overall culture of four seasons is better than Marriott, the sustainability criteria is also more with this hotel rather than Marriott (Su and Reynolds, 2019) .

COMPARISON OF CHANGE LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

CHANGE LEADERSHIP	CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Create an vison for the future of the companay	Focus on the problem solving
These changes are fklexible in naturre	These changes are rigid in nature
Hierarchy is not examined while implementation of changes	Hierarchy is analysed while implementation of changers offering open-door policy
Keeps the vision genuine and adaptable	Concentrate on short term goals rather on the vision.

(Source: Al-Ali et al. 2017)

CONCLUSION

From the above report, it can be concluded that the premium class services being offered by the four-season hotels and resorts are the outcomes of the dedication, strong interrelationships among the employees and the managers as well as leaders. This report covers all the essential aspects regarding the managers and leaders within a service sector industry. The leadership and management are different styles adopted by the management of the company in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of the company. The involvement of the hard and soft skills within the service sector influence the employees to feel privileged to be a part of the four-season group.

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