The Luxury Hotel Group – Case Study

Abstract

This task was carried out to develop a change management strategy for Luxury Hotels Group. In order to make the change process effective, a detailed change management project plan was developed. The plan covered the required resources, objectives, methodology, and key activities of the change process. Furthermore, a detailed communication education plan was developed which reflected how the employees would be addressed, what communication channels would be used, and what would be the strategy to measure the effectiveness of the plan.

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Introduction

This exercise is an attempt to develop a change management strategy for Luxury Hotels Group and to implement it successfully. During the process, all the possible areas related to change management are covered.

1. Change Management Strategy

A change management program focuses on the adjustments to the changes which occur at work place. A good change management strategy includes effective communication channels, detailed discussion on the change management process and involvement of all stakeholders (Gustin, 2007). In the business world, the word ‘change’ does not only mean improving products or services but it also involves managing the organization effectively during the changing phase. Change should be targeted towards improvement in the existing system and it should be an ongoing process (Blokdijk, 2008). In the first phase, Luxury Hotel Group identified the change requirements in their strategic objective and operational strategies. A change management strategy is required in order to implement the intended change. This strategy should cover all the related aspects of the proposed changes. Change management strategy can be effectively employed with the help of a strong change management project plan.

• Change Management Project Plan

A change management project plan states and guides all the required steps that are essential for carrying out the change process.

• Required Resources

In order to implement change, it is essential to determine the required resources for the change process. Resources can be in the form of staff, time and money (Government Office for the South West, 2007). Change management project plan has to factor in the required resources. The plan for required resources should match with the budget of the company (Blokdijk, 2008). Higher management would be required to invest considerable amount of time to revise the strategic objectives of Luxury Hotels Group. In the context of resources required for bringing in operational change, the Group will have to make investment in designing training programs for employees and for this purpose, it may have to hire a training specialist. Moreover, the training program will have to be designed in accordance to the required employee skills for the future jobs they have to take at the Luxury Hotel Group.

• Objective of the Change Program

The objectives of the change program should be clearly stated. The reason of developing a change program is to implement the identified and approved change requirements. Changes in strategic objective will bring clarity in the Group’s vision which will guide its top management to develop long-term goals and strategies which are well aligned with the Group’s vision. The objective of new operational strategy is to equip the employees with the required skills set to enable them to take more responsibility in higher job positions.

• Methodology

Implementing a change is a complex process and it requires a robust plan for implementation. There is a methodology proposed by Kotter (1995) in (Cameron & Green, 2012) highlighting the importance of maintaining strong communication with all employees within the organization throughout the change process. Kotter’s 8-step model includes:

• Creating urgency

Initially, it is important to create a sense of urgency by discussing prevailing competitive landscape and highlighting the future scenarios (Cameron & Green, 2012). In Luxury Hotels Group, higher management would be responsible to communicate the need for change to frontline managers and will provide them the direction to create a sense of urgency.

• Forming a team

In the second step, formation of a powerful group of people will take place who can work with harmony. This will allow the change process to take place successfully (Cameron & Green, 2012). Members from different departments would be selected to form a team. These members would devise a robust change management process and will share the responsibility to implement it in the concerned departments of the Group.

• Creating a vision

The third step would be creating a vision which will complement the strategies so as to provide guidance during the change process (Cameron & Green, 2012). Luxury Hotels Group should work on developing a new vision and long-term goals and alter the strategic objectives of the Group accordingly.

• Communicating the vision

New vision and accompanying strategies should be communicated more often. Furthermore, use of different communication channels will enable employees to understand the intent of change (Cameron & Green, 2012). Luxury Hotels Group would strengthen its communication system in order to effectively convey the intended changes to the workforce.

• Empowering others to act on the vision

This step involves empowering others by removing systems or structures during the change process that are non-productive (Cameron & Green, 2012). Once change process is communicated to the workforce clearly, front line managers would act as change agents by solving problems which employees would face during experiencing the change.

• Planning for and creating short-term wins

Identification of short-term improvements and planning for rewarding employees on the basis of their involvement would make the change process more efficient (Cameron & Green, 2012). Luxury Hotels Group will identify the expected initial improvements and communicate the performance expected from employees to them.

• Consolidating improvements and bringing still more change

Rewarding employees on the basis of their involvement in the change process encourages them. Introduction of new people, projects and resources, time by time, energizes the change process (Cameron & Green, 2012). Luxury Hotels Group can benefit from its diverse workforce by rotating people from one location to another. This would increase the communication among employees from different locations and it would enhance the understanding of employees about the change process.

• Institutionalizing the new approach

In the last step, it is important to make sure that all employees understand the need for change and their new roles and responsibilities in the new environment (Cameron & Green, 2012). Luxury Hotels Group will convert the efforts for change process into real success when every employee will understand the need for change and their roles during and after the change process.

• Timetable of Key Activities

After analyzing each activity and attached factors like who will take part in each activity, which activity requires higher priority, how it will be perform and how long it will take to complete the activity, an activity schedule will be developed (Schwalbe, 2010). The following table lists all the key activities of the change process:

Sequence of Activity	Name of Activity	Activity performed by
1	Amendments in strategic objective	Higher Management staff
2	Formation of a team	Higher Management staff
3	Develop budget and control measures	Team of change management process
4	Communication of intended change	Team of change process and Frontline managers
5	Identify short-term improvements due to change	Team of change process and Frontline Managers
6	Measure employee performance with new roles and responsibilities	Frontline Managers
7	Analyze the effectiveness of change process plan	Team of change process

 

• Mitigation Strategies for Identified Risks

Risk mitigation strategies are of two types; reactive and proactive. Reactive risk mitigation follows an accident or unplanned event and proactive risk mitigation strategies are developed before implementation of a major change process. In the proactive risk mitigation strategies, a team of change management process will identify all potential risks and specifically focus on ‘what can go wrong?’ With the help of risk-assessment process, evaluation of identified risks will take place. After that team of change process prioritizes these risks, then development process of risk mitigation strategies will initiate (Stolzer, Halford, & Goglia, 2012).

• Approval for Change Program

After completion of change management project plan, the document would be forwarded to the higher management for the approval. The document will contain the request for allocation of the required resources to carry out the change program, effectively. All the frontline managers in the loop will be requested to ensure their full support to the team of change management process. The document will also seek definition of the reporting protocols regarding change implementation process. Clear reporting protocols and weekly progress reports would make the change program efficient and reduce the level of misunderstanding.

 

2. Implement Change Management Strategy

People who are involved in developing, designing and implementing the change management strategy play a vital role in success or failure of the entire process. Therefore, individuals who will be involved in the process should be carefully selected as they have to take the responsibility of implementing change management strategy (Sofroniou, 2004).

• Consultation with Representative group

The adopted methodology attaches high priority for effective communication channels.  The team overseeing the implementation of the change process would decide different ways of effective communication between staff who would be involved in the change implementation process and those who will be affected by the change. The exercise of communication is the most important aspect of the implementation strategy (Sofroniou, 2004). Formal and informal discussions will be encouraged among employees to provide them a platform for expressing their views about change.

• Communication Education Plan

The importance of communication is very high when bringing a change. A communication education plan would state the objective of the intended change. The perceived benefits from the change and their effects on employees’ productivity would be clearly mentioned. The plan will include all the stakeholders of this change process. The routine communication would be directed towards employees and front line managers and would involve receiving their updates about the status of the process. The communication education plan would cover who to inform, when to inform and how to inform if something went unexpectedly wrong.

Every employee embraces change in a different manner. According to Roger (1962) in (Chambers, 2007), people adopt innovation according to the various stage. There are ‘innovators’ who are the first ones to welcome change. Then there are ‘early adopters’ who are more like opinion leaders. ‘Early majority’ accepts change a while before the change gets acceptance from average member of a system. People in ‘late majority’ are those who adopt change after the average member of a system accepted the change. The people who adopt the change in the last are known as ‘laggards’.

The constant feedback from all employees and their acceptance for the proposed behavior about the change process would help measure the impact of communication education plan. It will also be make clear that their resistance and negative behavior would result in a loss for the organization.

• Sample of Materials used in Communication Education Plan

Staff Flyers – Flyers can be used as a tool to address the staff and to convey the message in a very concise manner. They can be distributed on employees’ desk as well as can be kept at the place where staff gathers for formal and informal discussions.

Training Materials – Employees would be trained about how to cope up with the uncertainties. Training materials would teach them the benefits of their adaptability at work place and will include that change is not a one-time event, it is an ongoing process.

• Activity of Role Play

A meeting was arranged with all the stakeholders to communicate the developed change management strategy and required resources to implement it. Members from higher management, frontline managers and all the members from my team of change process were present. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the change management project plan with the stakeholders. Feedback from the participants was very encouraging. They appreciated the work of the team and discussed each activity in detail.

• Barriers during Implementing Intervention

The meeting involved all the stakeholders and it was difficult to decide on a time which would fit in everyone’s schedule. There were many participants, therefore time slot were given to each topic of discussion in advance.

• Strategies to Embed Change

Implementation of a strategy requires great deal of flexibility.  When employees experience change they learn from it, therefore change process is educative in itself. Educative strategy asserts that change is a process which effects to the entire organization. Change is the name of harnessed skills, relationships, values and attitudes that modify the organization (Pugh, 2007).

• Regular Evaluation and Modification of Change Management Project Plan

Regular evaluation would be conducted through measuring the progress of change progress against the change management project plan. It is possible that by the time, employees gain better understanding of the change and its implications and they may suggest better ideas, therefore, the response of employees would be welcomed and it would be made sure that they do not hesitate to communicate their ideas.

Conclusion

Change is inevitable and organizations should welcome it. Luxury Hotels Group has identified change requirements, sought required approval and developed a strong change management strategy which would guide all the stakeholders during the change process. Implementing change is also a critical task and Luxury Hotels Group intends to put all efforts to implement the change successfully. This change will have a positive impact on the employees’ behavior towards work and will earn the Group a new life in hospitality industry.

Bibliography

Blokdijk, G. (2008). Change Management 100 Success Secrets: The Complete Guide to Process, Tools, Software and Training in Organizational Change Management. Lulu.com.

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2012). Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change (3 ed.). Kogan Page Publishers.

Chambers, R. (Ed.). (2007). How to Succeed as a Leader (Illustrated ed.). Radcliffe Publishing.

Government Office for the South West. (2007). Managing Change. Ampersnad Design Ltd.

Gustin, J. F. (2007). Safety Management: A Guide for Facility Managers (2 ed.). The Fairmont Press, Inc.

Schwalbe, K. (2010). Information Technology Project Management (6 ed.). Cengage Learning.

Sofroniou, A. (2004). Change Management In I.T. (Illustrated ed.). Lulu.com.

Stolzer, A. J., Halford, C. D., & Goglia, J. J. (2012). Implementing Safety Management Systems in Aviation (Illustrated ed.). (A. J. Stolzer, & C. D. Halford, Eds.) Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.