Introduction

My introduction is made up of two parts. The first part identifies my four work file
sections selected for this assignment.
1. The Manager’s 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 hotel’s ‘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 Manager’s 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 Handy’s statement (On Being a Manager,
pg 320), a manager’s 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 Handy’s
works and discovered that I was certainly not at fault and that this feeling of
uncertainty is common amongst managers.

As I read Mintzberg’s and Handy’s characteristics of a manager’s 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.
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 to
the 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 Zelznick’s
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 style
would 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
be interesting to see what impact changing the departments culture to that of
excellence, would do to the organisation?

What Motivates People

I don’t remember when last I thought about how much time I spend at work, or the
weekends 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.
Maslow’s 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)

Adam’s 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.

Vroom’s 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 (that
can 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 firm
believer 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.
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 Jensen’s 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 the
background 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 and
demanding 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 and
the Work File.