Case Study – The Imperial Hotel, London

Assessment Case Study – The Imperial Hotel, London

 

Introduction to Management

 

Assessment Template for Students

Academic year and term:	Year 1, Term 2
Module title:	Introduction to Management  (Level 4)
Learning outcomes assessed within this piece of work as agreed at the programme level meeting	Knowledge outcome – On completion of this module you will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the processes, procedures and practices for effective management in organisations.   Intellectual /transferrable skill outcome – Students who successfully complete this module will be developing your competence in using a range of basic analytical and managerial techniques and processes including objective setting, monitoring and evaluation as well as interpersonal skills of successful managers.
Business Readiness outcomes assessed within this piece of work as agreed at the programme level meeting	Students will be developing an understanding of and using techniques to solve business problems with awareness of commercial acumen as well as developing your ability to write reports and have confidence in team working.
1)Type of assessment: (one summative assessment per module)		One summative assessment which is an individual report on a case study – The Imperial Hotel. The report will be 2,000 words in total. ·         A 2,000 words individual report will address one specific problem topic within the case (e.g. a human resource management challenge, an ethical problem, a performance and productivity issue, etc). ·       Formative (unassessed) – In week 5 – Complete and submit to your seminar tutor the Imperial Hotel Case Study Planning Sheet(see Appendix 1 below).

 

 

Summative Assessment: Instructions to students

Assessment Case Study – The Imperial Hotel, London

 

The assessment is based on a business and management case study which requires a team-based approach to identifying and problem-solving a range of business and management challenges within the case. Throughout the term you will undertake research and analysiswhich will inform your individual report. Within the individual report you will include a summary and key justifications for the resolution of one of the problems in the case.

 

The report will be an individual 2,000 words reportwhich will address the six specific ‘problem’ identified in the case (e.g. a human resource management challenge, an ethical problem, a performance and productivity issue, etc).

 

Students will be expected to apply management theory to practice throughout the report.

 

Case Study – The Imperial Hotel, London

The Imperial Hotel is a London 500 bedroom hotel, which is owned and managed part of a well-known international branded chain of hotels in the 4 star market – Star Hotels which operates 25 hotels in the UK. The Imperial Hotel, located in the heart of London’s West End, caters for mainly international business and tourists guests who have high expectation in terms of service standards.

The facilities at the hotel include the following:

• 500 bedrooms, all with en-suite facilities.
• Conference facilities for 1,000 people
• Leisure centre with swimming pool
• 3 Bars and 4 restaurants
• 12 conference rooms

Staff

• 6 Heads of Departments: Food and Beverage; Housekeeping; Guest Services & Concierge; Front of House & Reception; and Human Resources & training.
• 450 staff in total (300 full-time and part-time)
• Outside contractors (for specialist cleaning; laundry services; management of the leisure centre;)

A new General Manager, Peter Farnsworth, has recently taken over the management of the whole hotel. He is an experienced manager having worked in several of the other Star city centre hotels outside London.  The previous General Manager, who had just retired, had been experiencing a range of problems in managing the hotel, namely that: there was a very high turnover of staff in all the departments running around 80% a year mainly due to poor staff morale;  the hotel was graded the lowest in the whole Star chain in terms of overall guest satisfaction running at a rate of 65% in the company’s benchmark grading system; the overall sales in the hotel are improving, and although the hotel occupancy (the ratio of rooms sold against the total number of rooms available) was running at 90% for the year, the actual average room rate (ARR) achieved, currently running at £95 per room per night was relatively low compared to the local competition. This poor performance is having a direct negative effect on the costs of the hotel and the hotel’s overall profitability.

The Imperial is an old hotel having been in operation for nearly 100 years. The hotel was last fully refurbished some 8 years ago but is now in need of some restoration and redecoration. There is a programme of staged refurbishment in place which means each floor of the hotel is being closed for building work to be undertaken. The consequence of this is that, at any one time for the next two years, 60 rooms will be out of action. This is putting the hotel under budgetary pressure due to the ongoing building costs as well as the loss of income from the 60 rooms out of action at any one time.

 

Planned Strategy for Resolving the Problems in the Hotel

Peter Farnsworth is under no illusion as to the challenges ahead and has decided to plan a strategy for resolving the operational, management and business-related problems in the hotel. The first part of the plan is to identify the top six problems for the hotel for the coming year. He identifies the problems as follows and Peter has put forward some initial suggestions for resolving each of the problems:

• Problem 1: Poor guest satisfaction
• Problem 2: High staff turnover with 80% of the staff leaving within the year
• Problem 3: A negative work culture amongst the staff with high levels of sick leave and poor attendance
• Problem 4: Ineffective leadership and management by previous Heads of Department and supervisory staff including poor monitoring and control procedures
• Problem 5: Front of house staff (Reception, Conference & Banqueting, and Restaurant & Bars )– poor team working and inefficient use of IT systems including the reservation and property management systems
• Problem 6: Back of house staff (Housekeeping, Kitchen, Maintenance) – poor operating and control procedures in place with stock being regularly pilfered and evidence of staff not meeting basic Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) resulting in unusually high operating costs

 

 

 

The Problems in Detail

 

Problem 5: Front of house staff (Reception, Conference & Banqueting, and Restaurant & Bars) – poor team working and inefficient use of IT systems including the reservation and property management systems

 

The front of house staff, particularly in the Reception have a pivotal customer-facing role in offering service and support to guests. The Reception needs to be open 24 hours a day and is the first point-of-call for guests as well key staff in all Departments to have up-to-date information and data on guest arrivals and departures, specific guest needs and guest billing data. The Reception staff at the Imperial Hotel work three, 8 hour shifts working in teams. Each team has a supervisor and they have a particularly challenging function of managing Reception teams as well as in passing on important guest information and data on to the next shift. The hotel uses a Micros Fidelio reservation and Property Management System (PMS) which provides up-to-date information on real-time and prospective guests and their reservations. The other departments including the kitchen, restaurants and conferencing are dependent on Reception for guest numbers and data.

 

Some of the key Reception staff have been in conflict with the other Departments after numerous complaints about wrong and inaccurate information being provided. Housekeeping have been given wrong or out-of-date data on room availability, and whether a guest is staying on in the hotel. Reception have also failed to inform Housekeeping about early and late arrivals and subsequently rooms have not been cleaned in time with guests having to wait for long periods to get their room keys. The conference and banqueting staff have complained that they have not been provided with proper data on numbers of guests coming in for meetings and conferences. This, combined with complaints from guests that Reception staff are often abrupt or even rude in dealing with even the most basic request has caused a lot of animosity within the Reception staff and other staff throughout the hotel. The Reception Department has become somewhat dysfunctional and there are examples of Reception shift teams arguing with in the incoming teams about not providing proper handover information.

 

A new Head of Department of Front Office and Reception, working closing with the General Manager, is aware of the conflict issues within the department as well as with the other departments within the hotel and intends to undertake a stand to manage the conflict quickly and efficiently. The Reception teams’ dynamics are not good, and there is a blame culture with staff not working constructively and there is a clash of some strong personalities within the Department. He is going to review: the way the teams are structured; the individual performance of staff in terms of performance and productivity; the rewards and benefit being offered for good performance; and training and development needs. He also intends to develop and co-ordinate a team-based approach to managing the staff. The poor data issues can be dealt with through improved use of the IT systems (PMS) although the animosity within and between working teams will be more difficult to resolve

 

Initial suggestions by Peter Farnsworth to resolve the problem:

• Training into IT systems
• Cross-team building exercises
• Review of team bonus schemes

Tasks

 

As an independent consultant, you have been asked by Peter Farnsworth to take responsibility for analysing the problem, commenting on Peter Farnsworth’s initial suggestions and putting forward a joint set of resolutions for the listed problems. You are therefore to put forward and prioritise proposals for the resolution of the problem. The expectation is that within 12 months there should be dramatic improvement and change in performance in all six areas.  You have asked to write a 2,000 word report addressing your single problem topicto attempt to resolve that problem in the hotel.

 

 

 

Staff Incentive Schemes

There are currently  a number of incentive schemes to encourage staff to meet excellent standards of work, and to improve productivity. These include: Employee of the Month (for the whole hotel – £200) and employee of the month for each department (£50); staff (including agency staff) consistently meeting individual and performance targets in three consecutive months within the department (£200 vouchers towards staying in any one of Star Hotels); department, end-of-year parties (funded by the hotel); college fees being paid (NVQ levels 2-4).

 

End of case

 

 

 

 

Marking criteria:

 

Individual report element: 2,000 words (100% weighting for the module)

 

• A review of management theory to one specific problem in the case

with appropriate use of essential texts and academic reading                                                             30%

• An analysis of one specific problem within the case demonstrating

an understanding of the processes and procedures for effective management                          40%

• A summary and justification of key proposals for the resolution of the problem in the

organisation                                                                                                                                                               20%

• Report presentation, format etc                                 10%

 

 

Suggested report format:

• Title Page
• Introduction – Explain the background to your individual problem in the context of the case (250 words approx).
• Analysis of the individual problem –Summarise and interpret the data from your secondary research into published literature and management theory. Describe and present your results for effective management of the problem. A summary and justification of key proposals for the resolution of the problem in the organisation (1500 words approx.)
• Conclusion – This should be a brief summary of findings of the analysis of the individual problem. (250 words)
• Bibliography

 

Support and feedback on assessment

 

• Assessment briefing – in week 1with tutor in the seminar.
• Formative feedback – You will be provided with regular feedback on your work. In week 4you will be provided with guidance and full assessment briefing from your tutor on your planning of the analysis of your specific problem within the case. In week 7you will be given specific feedback from your tutor on your Imperial Hotel Planning Sheet (submitted in week 5). In week you will receive verbal feedback in the seminar on your planning for the draft report, and in week 10 general verbal feedback will be provided by your tutor at the end of the seminar on the progress of your final report.

 

• Additional information on Moodle – examples and exemplars of successful and unsuccessful assessments and reportswill be provided as a guide to students as well as a list of Frequently Asked Question (FAQs) to support your progress towards completing your assessments.

 

• Referencing– You MUST use the Harvard System. The Harvard system is very easy to use once you become familiar with it.

 

Assignment submissions –The Business School requires a digital version of all assignment submissions.  These must be submitted via Turnitin on the module’s Moodle site.  They must be submitted as a Word file (not as a pdf) and must not include scanned in text or text boxes.  They must be submitted by 2pm on

Students submit reports through Turnitin.For further general details on coursework preparation refer to the online information via StudentZonehttp://studentzone.roehampton.ac.uk/howtostudy/index.html.

Mitigating circumstances –The University Mitigating Circumstances Policy can be found on the University website – Mitigating Circumstances Policy

• Marking and feedback process(for Year 1 modules) – Between you handing in your final report and then receiving your feedback and marks within 20 days, there are a number of quality assurance processes that we go through to ensure that you receive marks which reflects their work. A brief summary is provided below:
  • Step One – The module and marking team meet to agree standards, expectations and how feedback will be provided.
  • Step Two – A subject expert will mark your work using the criteria provided in the assessment brief above.
  • Step Three – A moderation meeting takes place where all members of the teaching and marking team will review the marking of others to confirm whether they agree with the mark and the feedback that has been provided.
  • Step Four – Your mark and feedback is processed by the Office and made available to you.

 

Appendix 1

 

Week 4 Seminar – Imperial Hotel Case Study Planning Sheet

The Imperial Hotel Assignment – Formative Exercise

Please complete this form to discuss in the week 4 seminar with your team. Please hand in the completed form on week 5 seminar to your seminar tutor. Your seminar tutor will review your submission and hand it back to you in the Week 5/6 seminar.

• The purpose of this planning exercise is for you to begin to understand the complexity of the problem in relation to the other problems in the hotel. It will also offer a foundation for your ongoing weekly reflections for your final analysis of the management problem for the final report.

Student Name/No:

Group/Seminar Tutor:

Date of submission:

Problem No: Please state which one of the 6 problems you are addressing

·         What do you consider the core reasons forthis specific problem at the hotel? Briefly comment (around 50-100 words)

·         Briefly identify how your specific problem may be linked to any other of the 5 remaining problems identified in the hotel case(Confer with your team members who investigating the other listed problems) Briefly comment (around 50-100 words)

·         How useful do you consider the suggested actions are proposed by Peter Farnsworth to resolve your specific problem? Briefly comment (around 50-100 words)

·         Consider two alternative ways that this specific problem could be resolved which have not as yet been considered. Briefly comment (around 50-100 words)

Please hand in the completed form at the end of the week 4 seminar to your seminar tutor

Appendix 2 Assessment Rubric – Introduction to Management BUS020C414S

 

Report 2,000 words	100 Exemplary	85 Excellent	75 Very good	65 Good	55 Competent	45 Weak	35 Marginal Fail	20 Fail
A review of management theory to one specific problem in the case with appropriate use of essential texts and academic reading 30% weighting	Exceptional ability to examine complex issues in a way that potentially challenges existing theories. The quality of the examination demonstrates a potential to add value and novelty to the concepts studied.	Excellent application of management theories, supported by excellent interpretation skills of the topic and effective and review and analysis of the existing theories.	Clear ability of identifying the most relevant theories, and reasonable application of basic concepts to the problem, with predominance of analysis over description. Only minor gaps.	Displays and understanding of the problem but requires more systematic, critical analysis of the topic supported by a theoretical discussion.	Some application of basic management concepts and theories to the question involving an analytical approach, limited by description.	Very limited use of basic concepts and management theories in relation to the problem and work is largely descriptive..	Irrelevant and superficial application of any management theory and  concepts to the examination of the problem.	Little or no analysis of management theory, even at a superficial level.
An analysis of one specific problem within the case demonstrating an understanding of the processes and procedures for effective management 40% weighting	Student has gone beyond what is expected to analyse the problem. Exceptional understanding of the subject area, with unique and additional contribution to existing knowledge.	Excellent understanding of the subject area with very good analysis of the problem. Form grasp of knowledge. Demonstrates evidence of assessing sources beyond minimum.	Reflects understanding of the problem in question through the analysis. Relevant knowledge is presented accurately with only minor gaps.	Clear demonstration of knowledge but some gaps or lack of focus in the analysis.	Analysis demonstrated at a fairly basic level. Some attempt to demonstrate an understanding of processes and procedures for effective management.	Analysis demonstrated at a very basic level. Information briefly summarised and incomplete in parts. Limited understanding of effective management.	Very little attempt or effort to coherently analyse the problem in relation to effective management. Clear confusion of knowledge with obvious errors. Lack of understanding.	No real work done. The majority of information included is irrelevant to the problem in question
A summary and justification of key proposals for the resolution of the problem in the organisation20% weighting	An excellent summary with an outstanding, coherent justification for the proposals.	A very well considered and convincing justification for the proposals to the resolution of the problems.	The summary offers a reasonably convincing justification for the proposals.	A competent justification for the key proposals for the resolution of the problem.	The summary offers an adequate justification for the proposals but lack rigour	The summary and justification of the key proposals are at a very basic level and offer only limited coherence in the context.	The summary of proposals makes little sense in the context of the problem and would clearly fail to resolve the problem.	Summary offers little or no coherent justification for the proposals.
Clarity, structure, grammar, correct referencing 10% weighting	An outstanding report which would be considered excellent in a business context. The structure and use of language and report writing skills are exceptional. Faultless use of the Harvard system.	An extremely good, coherent report demonstrating a very convincing set of writing skills in terms of use of language and in the structuring of the report. Excellent use of the Harvard system.	A good report, clearly written and well communicated in terms of language and use of grammar. Sources and citations are well presented using the Harvard system.	A competent report demonstrating adequate report writing skills. Reasonably coherent use of language and grammar. Appropriate use of Harvard referencing.	Adequate report writing skills in evidence. Some minor errors in spelling, the use of appropriate language as well as in the application of the Harvard referencing system.	Weak report writing skills and poor structuring of the report. Some spelling errors and poor use of language. Some errors evident in the use of the Harvard referencing.	Very poor structure for the report which only partially meets the guidance on report structure. Numerous spelling and grammatical errors. Numerous errors in the use of Harvard referencing system.	No attempt to structure a coherent report in line with the guidance. No or limited referencing of sources with inappropriate use of the Harvard system. Extremely poor writing skills in evidence making the report largely incoherent.