The current context marked by globalization and the increasing recognition of interrelations has imposed new rules of conduct: the prosperity of nations is based on competitiveness on international markets, and that of enterprises, on the integration in the worldwide value chains (Maria, I., Madalina, T., Catalina, B., & Diana, I., 2007).
Climbing up the ladders as one of the most competitive industry to work in nowadays, tourism is a sector in which the structure of supply is extremely volatile and the solid and consistent part is the demand.
Regarding the hotel organisation, specifically The Ritz Carlton Millennia Singapore, we explore how different individuals can lead outside their authority. Being confident and speaking from a place of strength will go a long way in convincing others to follow you, whether you have direct authority over them.
In every organisation, program or setting, we often hear things like “Our director only gives lip service to diversity”, “I have responsibilities but no real power”, or even “I have great ideas but they don’t devote the funding”.
Not all leaders who have authority make the right decisions and in fact, those with great ideas might not even be the leader. This comes to a point where different individuals should lead without a leadership role. In every workplace, there is bound to be seniority, a hierarchy. People tend to avoid contributing or initiating during times when not given a leadership role, some to the extent of just doing what is told.
The hotel faces high turnover rates and most of the associates leave the company as they are usually unhappy working there. However, they may not have the courage to speak up about their unhappiness to their manager because they may feel that they do not hold any authorities and they might feel inferior when trying to talk to someone of a higher authority.
By exploring such study, it would allow associates to understand what some of the dos and don’ts are when they would want to speak up to someone with a higher authority. Additionally, bringing out the confidence in each associate and allow them to initiate and speak up to someone of a higher authority.
By doing so, they would help to increase the communication between frontline employees as well as the management and it would allow the associate to feel more inclusive within the company, narrowing the gap between the associates and the management. This would allow each associate to have a sense of belonging as they would feel that they are being part of the changes within the hotel.
Furthermore, making the associated feels more comfortable would then potentially increase the satisfactory level of the associates in the hotel. With greater work satisfaction, there would be higher chance that the employee will not quit their job easily. Thus, lowering the turnover rate in hotels.
Through this project, potential solutions will be explored to tackle the interpersonal communication problem. The solution will address the issue on how to get can an associate get their point across to an authority without appearing too rude or trying to steal the limelight. To create an easier visibility to an associate of the solution, an educational video would be created.
In the content of the video, it would include the problem statement as well as a list of Do & Don’t on how to approach this interpersonal communication problem. Some example of Do’s would include things like “being specific and concise” or “watch your body language”. While some Don’ts like “Do not beat around the bush”, “Do not get overly emotional”. By creation video, it should educate an associate who faces this problem.
Proposed Research Methods
To further understand the communication problem, primary and secondary research will be conducted to comprehend the problem better.
For primary research, an interview will be conducted at The Ritz Carlton Millennia Singapore. The objective of this research aims to collect opinions from Ritz Carlton staff to understand the problem better. Through the interview, the different point of view as an associate as well as a management’s point of view could be gathered. An interview will be conducted with a young front desk officer who just graduated and an experience manager on duty who has the authority in the Front desk operations.
The interviewees are as proposed:
Mr. Gangatheran Kunjiraman, Manager on Duty at the Ritz Carlton Millennia Singapore. Mr. Gangatheran has been in The Ritz-Carlton for over 20 years and was promoted to the Manager on Duty since January 2010.
Ms. Felicia Ho, Front desk officer at The Ritz Carlton Millennia Singapore. Ms. Felicia is a young polytechnic graduate who just joins the company last year.
Getting someone with vast experience would understand the situation in a different scenario. On the contrary, interviewing someone in the millennial generation would be able to provide another different view in terms of generation of ideas.
Whereas for the secondary research, the focus on the research would be in a hotel context on how an associate should portray themselves when they are about to approach and speak to their management. Journal articles, research articles, and educational websites will be explored as well amid the secondary research.
The key benefit of this topic is to encourage and allow people to voice out their opinion or suggestion in their workplace even when they do not have authority or leadership position. Not all leaders give brilliant ideas and good ideas might come from someone who is not a leader. Thus, it is important for people to speak out without having fear of judgment and criticism.
In a healthy organization, everyone is free to speak out their suggestions or giving individual feedback to their employer or leader. By doing so, employees would feel satisfied to be in the organization as they experienced a sense of belonging. Hence, both employee and employer would share the same goals and strive towards it.
With employee involvement in the hotel changes or development, employees tend to feel job satisfaction in the organization. Therefore, greater job satisfaction would lead to lower employee turnover rate which greatly benefits the hotel.
A good employer should listen to employees’ advice and employees should not be afraid to speak out if they have a better idea or solution. Having an agreement would prevent any dissatisfaction thus, enhance the relationship. In conclusion, every staff in the hotel is equally crucial to ensure hotel standard and meeting its mission and vision.
