Crispin Reynolds AR50121

8/8/2019 Crispin Reynolds AR50121

1/5

Introduction

My introduction is made up of two parts. The first part identifies my four work file

sections selected for this assignment.

1. The Managers Role (5.1 to 5.19)2. Leadership (6.1 to 6.27)

3. What motivates people? (7.1 to 729)

4. Working in groups (8.1 to 8.34)

The second part of the introduction is my work as director of Engineering for

Intercontinental Hotels. As I sit here and contemplate the assignment before me I feel

a sense of eureka. I have been working in the hotel industry for over 13 years now and

often wondered why it is people or teams behave the way they do, and since the

reading of this module I think that most of my questions have been answered.

The Hotel industry is fascinating in that we have so many interdependent departments

within this organisation all working towards a common goal- guest service and

satisfaction. Intercontinental being an international company is very multinational,with different cultures and opinions, different management and leadership styles that

can become challenging to any senior manager regardless of country. Specifically I

am South African and I work in Cairo.

The hotels House Rules vary in every city and country also depending on the leader

and this makes management not only interesting but challenging.

The following review of the four work file sections serve as a framework for me to

reflect on my work.

The Managers Role

To examine my role as director of engineering, I find Watson, Handy and Mintzberg

comments most relevant to my daily work. To begin, I cannot help but agree with

Watson that a manager is an assistant to his people(Thomas J Watson 1874-1956).

For me I am an assistant to many co-managers and workers at the hotel; my success is

built on being a colleague working with others to achieve a common end; not being a

boss.

There are days when I have to agree with Handys statement (On Being a Manager,

pg 320), a managers role can be so broad that it becomes meaningless This is a

feeling that I have many times a week because my many specialized co-workers

become argumentative over technical matters. I am relieved after reading Handys

works and discovered that I was certainly not at fault and that this feeling ofuncertainty is common amongst managers.

As I read Mintzbergs and Handys characteristics of a managers role, it is evident to

me that there is no set pattern to what the manager should be doing. Since my work is

multidimensional, yes there is no set pattern of what I do. Situational managerial

skills help me to be successful. According to Handy managers are leaders,

administrators and fixers; this describes me at the hotel. To be successful in

management, a manager must have the ability to know when to lead; apply his time to

various administration duties; and use knowledge and skill to deal with various

technical issues.


2/5

Kotter (1982) states that a manager has little direct control over people on a

construction site. I agree that it might be difficult to follow every discipline and I have

found the same to be true in the hotel industry on larger projects. Projects vary in size

and nature and when the finishing takes place where absolute efficiency and

professionalism is paramount closer supervision is required. This again changes the

roles of the manager from macro to micro supervision, where details are followed tothe end to ensure a high quality product.

Leadership

Leadership today is influence, not authority..Kenneth Blanchard

Adair (1988) Leadership is about a sense of direction.

From these two statements one would think that the difference between management

and leadership was pretty clear. Personally I have found the direction of any

organisation is generally determined by the leader and the way in which we reach the

destination is through managers. This would imply that there are two different

functions, and that one can not function without the other. According to Zelznicks

theory this would be true. Kotter (1990) has had a similar approach to the question of

leadership vs management. However I have always felt that based on the

circumstances and the project one might find that we fulfil both requirements at any

one time.

Of the three style theories discussed, Tannebaum/Schmidt, Blake & Adam McCanse

and Hersey & Blanchard, there was no right nor wrong, or stronger opinion. However

I am sure that all have valid information and can be used to identify what type of stylewould best suite a leader. Studying the Tannebaum/Schmidt model, I quickly realised

where I had gone wrong over the last 12 months. My nature is very autocratic as it is

easier to tell someone what to do than explain why we want them to do it first. This is

an area that I have been working on over the years and with experience comes

knowledge, and I have learnt that people need to be given the space to discuss their

ideas, and feelings on different subjects. Based on the model of leadership I would say

my style has changed from that of a Tells style to that of an Involves style. This

will also vary on each situation as sometimes there is a need to be more direct with

my sub-ordinates and even my co-workers.

I am fortunate that the team that I work with and rely on generally remains the same,unless I am working on a larger project that will involves the use of contractors. This

does allow me to build relationships with each of the team. As with any emerging

team, relationship building develops better working conditions and people understand

each other more allowing for better team spirit.

The article on Leading by Leveraging Culture has brought about some interesting

information that I am going to use in my department. After working my way through

the entire article I suddenly began to realise the importance of not only Organisational

Culture but also the importance of Departmental Culture. Referring back to the leader

giving direction, this is a perfect example of where my resources can be spent. In an

environment where The builders mentality exists (no offence to builders), it would


3/5

be interesting to see what impact changing the departments culture to that of

excellence, would do to the organisation?

What Motivates People

I dont remember when last I thought about how much time I spend at work, or theweekends we put in or the increase in the size of the projects and with that the

increase in responsibilities. I have always just seen it as part of the job.

Maslows theory of hierarchy needs was pretty simple to understand and made a lot of

sense. People get into a role and look at what they need from a job to satisfy them

mental and physically. First thing is people want to like where they work (happy at

work) and want to feel secure (might have a family to care for and wants to know that

this role will provide for that). The sequence makes sense. And I see this daily in our

operation. You watch new starters, subdued and taking everything in, but see that

same person in a few months time, confident and speaking out. Not only do they feel

comfortable in the job (low level needs such as Social and Security have been met)they feel confident and can focus on their work (high level needs)

Adams Equity Theory explanation of how people evaluate the way they are being

treated by those around them was pretty accurate and I often hear this from my sub

ordinates. His five ways that people reduce the stress in their lives has given me some

clarification on staff behaviour. The old adage of if you pay peanuts you get monkeys

or blatant laziness is not always true. People will react positively or negatively to their

individual requirements or needs.

Vrooms Expectancy theory of what I put in worth what I get out, makes sense.

People come to work, are willing to put the effort in, they come with skill levels (thatcan also be developed further), they have a proper understanding of what is expected

from them, they are given the correct tools to complete their work, and they perform.

They get paid, they feel they have done well, they are kept busy and are not bored

with their jobs therefore you have a happy employee. This just shows you that busy

people are happy people and busy people get things done. I think it has also a lot to do

with the attitude of the individual and what they want out of there jobs. It comes back

to satisfying personal needs.

Motivation of sub-ordinates has been one of my focuses as the Director of

Engineering. Daily repetitive tasks given to the same individual day in and day out

will become mundane and surely affect the output of that individual. I am a firmbeliever of the job rotation and job enlargement view. Provided the individual is

mature enough to take on the additional responsibility I will gladly put them into a

new role and help them to succeed. As members are promoted to other hotels or

moved to other areas to work in, new positions will open up and need to be filled, this

also allows me to bring new staff into the hotel and start the training process again.

Fortunately people have different needs so not everybody wants to be promoted or

needs additional responsibilities, so I can still work with core team members on

getting into that performing position.


4/5

Working in Groups

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Staying together is

success. Ford (1863-1947)No matter where in the world you work, if you are going to work in any organisation,

you will find yourself working in groups or teams. Henry Ford experienced first hand.

And having just relocated to a country where the culture is unlike any in the world I

have found this to be particularly stressful.

Tuckman and Jensens Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning model

has left me with a lot of hope. Once all the formalities are over people will inevitably

start the storming process. And the sooner that process is addressed, the quicker the

team can move on to norming. One comment I do have and that is in the storming

process, issues will be raised and disagreements will be dealt with. In order for a team

to really move forward in this stage all the tensions and causes of tensions need to be

completely addressed. If not there will always be something troublesome in thebackground preventing progress later on.

The case study of Guy Roberts has left me really thinking about several things. I have

seen first hand the pressures of group pressures, and when you are not the favourite

son in the group. Being able to identify what is important and what is not worth

arguing about is maybe the key to success in this situation. Focus on important issues.

This was always a tricky situation, if something had to go wrong; one could be on the

end of a very unfortunate disciplinary.

I was excited to see a section on Group Conflict. Not that I enjoy conflict but because

there is so much of it around these days. Pressures of work loads, deadlines anddemanding guests certainly add to this area. The diagram showing the 5 modes of

conflict handling was also very interesting. On the extremes you had a manager with

full power or on the other side a team that had the full power. An area that has been

familiar to me where the team is actually so adamant that they are correct (although

the facts show a different result) that it has been near impossible to negotiate with

them. At that point and identified in the notes as withdrawing from the conflict until a

viable solution has been found. This has given both parties a chance to reflect on the

situation and possibly come up with a compromise.

For me a sign of a mature team and I quote from the keyfacts (8-30): The role of

group members is to identify when conflict is building and to find appropriate ways to

deal with it. Here we have a group of people that understand that the success of the

organisation is far bigger than personal differences and are willing to work on

solutions.

Conclusion

I have tried to keep my understanding as brief as possible. I have gone through the

course work supplied along with the additional resources. The information has been

extremely helpful to identify areas that I could be working better on, or in some cases

completely change my strategy. The information I have focused on is from Handy andthe Work File.


5/5

Documents

Crispin Reynolds AR50121