Essay Instructions: Essay case study.
Write a formal report that will discuss the merits of two applicants, Grace and Ronan, for the position of restaurant manager for a hotel. The outcome report will be a recommendation about who should be offered the position, assume you are the recruitment consultant writing the report to the senior management team.
The report should include the following headings:
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Findings
- Analysis
- Recommendation.
The information that needed to include under each of these headings is:
- Executive summary
This part is just a normal summary.
- Introduction
In this section must:
Identify the purpose of the report
Provide a background to the hotel, including a brief description of the existing workplace culture.
Describe the circumstance leading up to the job vacancy.
- Finding
This section will have two sub-headings. They are:
Leadership theories appropriate for the position of the restaurant manager.
Before write this section you must read through the requirements for the job (see the case study).
Choose two theories to describe why and how these two theories are suitable and useful in helping to choose the right applicant for the position.
Point out any limitations or weaknesses these theories have in assisting to choose the right applicant.
Motivational theories:
- Maslow’s theory
- Herzberg theory
Choose one of these theories and describe why and how this theory is suitable and useful in helping to choose the right applicant. (Focus on why and how these theories are useful for choosing the right applicant for the job, especially with regard to the workplace culture. You also need to point out any weakness the theories may have in helping to choose the right applicant.
- Analysis
In this section you should explain which applicant fits the job requirements most closely. This will require an analysis of their leadership and motivational styles and an evaluation of their strengths and weakness. Your analysis should enable the reader to clearly see which applicant is more appropriate for the job.
This section will have three subheadings, they are:
1. Applicant’s leadership style.
In this section you will provide evidence from the scenario and discuss how it shows how each applicant’s leadership style is appropriate or inappropriate for the staff at Red Sea.
2. Applicant’s motivational technique.
In this section you will provide evidence from the scenario and discuss how it shows how each applicant’s motivational techniques is appropriate or inappropriate for the staff at Red Sea.
3. Applicants team work capability.
In this section you will provide evidence from the scenario and discuss how it shows how each applicant’s teamwork capability is appropriate or inappropriate for the staff at the Red Sea. (note: In this analysis section, make sure you use the leadership and motivation theories to show how appropriate or inappropriate the applicants are for the job. In the other words, do they have the right approach in the way they will lead and motivate staff? Will their relationship/motivation style fit into the organisational culture of the Red Sea restaurant? Will these leadership/motivational styles help or hinder staff in their efforts to perform at their best levels? You must use the 2 leadership theories too analyse the motivational technique of each applicant).
- Recommendations
In this section, you will need to make a firm statement clearly identifying whether Grace or Ronan should be given the position.
Case Study
The AOI hotel has advertised for the position of restaurant manager for their Red Sea Restaurant. There are two applicants, Grace and Ronan.
To success of the Red Sea has largely been the result of the ingoing commitment and dedication of the front-of house staff.
To ensure this success, the senior management’s strategy was to employ qualified people to fill management positions. These qualified managers had to show that they had excellent leadership and motivational skills that were necessary to develop and maintain high performing work teams.
The culture of the workplace is as follows:
Staff in the Red Sea have been well trained, are highly autonomous, show good initiative in solving customer complaints and are often delegated extra responsibilities due to their reliability and trustworthiness. They also show effective teamwork where they assist one another to complete tasks. There is open and honest communication between them.
Apart from the usual operational duties of a Restaurant Manager, the successful applicant for the position would especially responsible for:
- Liasing with senior managerial staff on staffing issues
- Providing mentoring and coaching support for team leaders
- Assisting in team building with customer service staff
- Solving problems in order to ensure a high level of customer service
- Recruitment of staff
- Developing training programs and schedules for staff
- Instigating staff reward programs
- Developing career pathways
The Applicants.
You are the recruitment consultant and you have narrowed it down to the following two people, Grace Hannaford and Ronan Atkins.
1 applicant – Grace Hannaford
Grace is in her 20’s and her CV includes the following:
When she was in her mid to late teens, her first just was a McDonald’s trainee and then a supervisor for the same chain. While she held the supervisory position she and her team achieved the highest sales in the state for 2 year in succession. Her team was reported to be highly cohesive and worked well together to achieve sales targets. She had developed shared goals, established clear roles for each staff, treated mistakes as opportunities to learn and regularly gave feedback.
From there to her early 20’s, she worked at the Sea Grill café as a team leader where she was responsible for training front- of house staff in effective customer communications and sales techniques. She also used principles of developing teamwork to maintain a harmonious work force where it was obvious that staff were motivated and able to focus on delivering good customer service. She also arranged the staff incentive “salesperson of the month” because she believed it was important to give recognition to staff for effective job performance. She also encouraged the managers to institute a system of delegation of senior duties to staff in order to develop and encourage those wishing to seek promotion and who were seen to be very capable in their work.
She is presently an assistant restaurant manager at the Stockade Tavern.
Apart from the usual managerial responsibilities of rostering, stock control, budget analysis and assisting the restaurant manager as required, she has been particularly active in developing staff, with regards to upgrading their technical and customer service skills, in order to improve their chances of promotion and increase their value to the Tavern.
Some of the staff have responded to this initiative from Grace and have been appreciative that she had responded to their need for career development. Her focus on the team was shown by her efforts to make social times together and encouraging them to appreciate their successes together, particularly when working wedding functions where customer feedback was always excellent.
When asked about leadership, motivation and teamwork issues, Grace replied:
Leadership.
“ I believe people do want to work and give their best effort as long as the right work conditions are provided. If i can get them committed to their job by showing effective leadership, they will show responsible behaviour in the way they do their jobs.
I try to strike a balance between focussing on getting the work done and supporting the staff so that they can get the work done. Sometime it’s difficult to get the right balance but it’s always on my mind to keep on doing this.
I enjoy delegating to staff that are capable of accepting it as i believe they will embrace the responsibilities placed on them and show that they can rise to the challenge.
I like involving staff when decision have to be made on operational issues such as rostering, improving service techniques, processes and training, methods of handling customer complaints, staff reward programs and incentives.
I also believe that in some instances, a leader is required to make a quick decision without consultation with staff. I’ve done this on occasions when i was the only person who had the expertise to make the final decision.
I try to be flexible in the amount of control i have over staff and what i will or will not allow them to do by them selves. It all depends on their experience and attitude to the work that has to be done. I’m still learning how to do this as well…sometimes it works well and other times, it’s not so effective…I’m still learning how to do this effectively”.
Motivation
“ There is nothing more gratifying and motivating for me than to help establish a harmonious team where everyone successfully works together to achieve the goal or target. Employees are the most important part of the business and from my point of view, to ensure a well- motivated workforce, a manager should provide:
- Recognition for job performance
- Training for skills enhancement
- A pleasant work environment
- Opportunities for staff to socialise after work
- Opportunities for advancement, where possible.
These should be definitely done in addition to the usual work amenities such as pay, uniforms and breaks.”
Team Work
“ Building an effective team takes a lot of work. A group of staff goes through a struggle when they’re adjusting to each other. I have to make sure they get through this with a minimum of disruption to the business.
We communicate a lot to make sure there is as little misunderstanding as possible when we are setting out the rules for team behaviour and the individual roles of the team members.
Finally, i try to get the team to set our team goals together rather than me just telling them what they are. I hope that doing it that way, they will be more likely to commit to the goals”.
2 Applicant- Ronan Atkins
Ronan is in his early 30’s and his CV includes the following:
In his early teens, he helped his parents to run their family-owned motel up in the middle north country of south Australia. He worked in all areas of the motel, including reception, kitchen, food and drinks service, housekeeping and general cleaning. During this time he worked at the base level under constant direction from his parents who were the driving force behind the business. He worked well the other employees but had no opportunity to act in a supervisory capacity.
In his late teens to early 20’s, he successfully completed his Advanced Diploma in Hospitality Management. He moved away from hospitality service provision for a while but kept in touch with industry by becoming involved in Security and Crowd Control and obtained employment with a popular nightclub in Adelaide. In this role, he was given the role of senior crowd controller and his responsibilities included training and managing other crowd control staff, which he did in a very authoritarian manner. He behaved this way because he believed that was the only way to show his staff that he ws the boss and that his order were final. His staff usually performed their work well but it was noticeable to the management of the nightclub that there was a high turnover of crows control staff.
In his mid 20’s to the present time, he obtained work as a waiter at the brewery restaurant and was later given the job of team leader by the restaurant manager. He got this position because he had a firm and ‘no-nonsense’ approach to work. He was very focused on completing tasks and often said to his staff that his top priority was always to ‘get the job done’.
He also made it clear to his staff that he expected hard work from them and would be not be impressed by anyone who was not ’pulling their weight’.
It was clear that Ronan was ambitious and was striving to impress the senior management of the café. Consequently, he was mainly concerned about his own promotional prospects and did not show much interest in up skilling his staff or in their career development.
When asked about leadership, motivation and teamwork issues, Ronan replied:
Leadership
“ I believe staff need to be monitored at all times. If i can get them to be aware that they are being watched, they will perform in their job.
Getting the work done is always the main focus. There is just no time for this emphasis on getting opinions from staff and listening to their ideas before making decisions. I make it clear that i will always take full responsibility to research all information and than make the final decision on any issues to do with work. I think i’m protecting the staff by doing this because if anything goes wrong, then i can take full responsibility. Of course, if things go well then i will get the credit for it but think i should deserve that anyway as i di all the hard work by myself.
I don’t really like delegating my work to staff, as i’m not sure if they can be trusted to do the work. After all, they’re busy enough with their own work. That’s why i don’t involve them for ideas on operational issues, such as rostering and customer service issues.
I have tried to be flexible in the amount of control i have over staff but my experience has been that its much more time efficient to have all the control in my hands. All the time taken for discussions on issues means that jobs are not being done! After all, time is money isn’t it? I use this ‘total control’ approach regardless of how long staff have worked here, so that everyone is treated equally. That’s good, isn’t it?’’
Motivation
“ Well, i certainly believe that staff need to be motivated to do their best work. That’s why i have weekly talks with them to remind them of the many benefits that this restaurant provides such as getting paid award rates, uniforms, car parking, proper breaks and fair rostering. I pay particular attention to make sure all staff gets enough shifts. I think that’s probably the most important motivator for them as it gives them sufficient funds to pay their bills. Apart from that, i don’t think they require much more to keep their motivation levels up”.
Team Work
“ Like all things, any team needs a strong head to guide and give them direction. My team of staff know that i’m the leader and that my goals are their goals, therefore, we do have a shared vision. I have team meeting where i give individual staff positive and negative feedback on their performance. I’m never happy about mistakes in customer service and i believe it is appropriate to highlight these in team meetings and make sure the staff member concerned is identified and make fully responsible from them. That way it never happens again!
Some may say that i’m a bit blunt in the way i criticize but believe ‘honestly is the best policy’! That way the job gets done and that is the most important priority for me and the management of this place, that is to get the job done.
I like staff to see me for support rather than rely on other staff members as they may get poor advice from others. I don’t approve of staff spending too much time talking to each other as it wastes time and they may also engage in negative chat that lowers their motivation for work.
Usually, when new people join the team, i give them a quick one-hour induction and then expect them to fit into the team. They usually have at least one year’s experience in the industry, so i don’t see any reason why there should be any issues with fitting into the team.
