Essay on Marriott Hotel Chains
- Describe the nature of the organization, its size, and any specific human resource challenges it faces.
Marriott International, Inc. is a worldwide chain of hotels and related lodging facilities. It was founded by J. Willard Marriott and now the head of the company is J.W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr., the son of the founder. Marriott International is a company that successfully operates on a global basis. It has “more than 3,700 properties in over 73 countries and territories around the world” (Marriott International, Inc.). The company focuses on “innovation and action fuel”. However, the company continues to grow and tries to retain the level of their service in all the subsidiary companies.
As an international organization which has certain business strategy and organizational principles and values, Marriott International faces specific human resource challenges. One of such challenges is managing diversity concerning not only people, but social systems, legislation sphere and remuneration. Another issue relates to managing effective communication and interaction within the company. Effective resource managing ob worldwide basis becomes one of the major concerns for the organization. To attract, retain and develop highly qualified staff to manage international operations becomes one of the main problems of the international company. The organization tends to maintain uniformity and follow practices of fairness-employment and compensation. These challenges make the organization to be quite consistent in the area of human resource management. One of the key aspects of successful international human resource management remains developing “global” leaders. Effective global leadership solves the problem of global control of the company. The head and shareholders may be sure in the effective functioning of the whole organization in case of having reliable “global” leaders. Establishing and adopting corporate culture of high- performance global and creating high-performing teams able to act and cooperate efficiently on a global basis. Talent management should play as essential role in human resource management strategy. Recruitment, training, motivation, compensation and retention are the main challenges of the company.
- Describe the major legal concerns of the organization and recommend how those concerns
should be addressed.
Hogan (2012) emphasizes the most important issues related to the legal area which hotel managers face today. A hotel may face potential legal consequences in case of hotel administration negligence towards maintaining its premises. Barth (2006) that to manage the problem hotel managers should read the contracts thoroughly, keep copies of the documents, note the calendar time deadlines for performance, control the performance of third parties involved, the information concerning the contract should be shared with the staff who need to know the details of the agreement and the consequences of the contract breach. International contracts should be treated with even more accuracy. The contract should be clear to both parties, risk issues should be discussed and included into the document, local law issues should be managed, in case of any disputes or disagreements of the parties the mechanism of resolving such issues should be discussed in the contract, the contract should state which law governs the transaction.
Another legal concern of the hotel may be liked to complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act which may include such issues as “minimum pay, overtime pay, equal pay, child labor” (Hogan, 2012). Managers should pay attention to labor legislation and control the hotel labor policy in conformity with current labor law documents and acts. One of the issues related to the area is discrimination against employees. Managers should reassure that their own actions or hotel policy do not impact the employees of a protected class.
Hogan (2012) pays attention to the problem of guests’ services denial which may be interpreted as legal discrimination. It may cause serious consequences as interpreted as discrimination it will not only affect company’s reputation but will have legal outcomes as well. Managers should organize and control staff work to prevent such problems as these cases are easier to be prevented than their consequences to be dealt with. Other problems related to proper receiving guest may be connected with food issues, security concerns and guest privacy. Guest privacy and security should be guaranteed and the administration and managers should take care about these issues. First of all, there should be truth in the menu about the dishes and the hotel managers should control the quality of served food. In case of health complains of a guest, the hotel manager should document everything starting from the name of the guest finishing with the name of the clinician and all the related details (Barth, 2006).
Tax obligations, insurance issues and necessary business licenses are other major concerns of the hotels (Hogan. 2012). The best way to solve tax issues is to consult the accountants as multinational corporate groups face special tax challenges and have to find the best way out considering the location of each business unit. Insurance issues and business licenses should be controlled by mangers or regular basis.
- Determine how the organization should address current (or anticipated) human resource issues concerning expanding into international markets.
The problem of international staff recruitment and selection should be addressed on a log-term strategy basis. The required global managers competencies should be reconsidered and new and innovative recruitment methods should be used (D’Annunzio-Green, 2004). It may be relevant for the organization to establish access centers in various regions to identify the best talents using both external and internal sources.
The problem of international managers’ high performance is quite complex and requires a varied strategy. “Cross-border harmonization of management development policy to raise the profile and internal supply of future managers and more investment in localization policies” may be suggested here (D’Annunzio-Green, 2004, 4). Another response to the problem may be clearer marketing and providing opportunities of international development to the staff. Managers should be aware of new organizational needs in the international context and they should initiate organizational training.
The area of employees’ communication and effective interaction takes an important place in the whole set of organization challenges in the area of human resources. The problem of the staff diversity should be addressed in this relation. It is necessary to ensure that the communication process within the organization is organized the way to deal with the staff diversity. Managers need to be sure that their messages and orders reach all the staff and are clear to them. Team working and empowerment development strategies should be successfully implemented in the international business context.
“Global” leadership development as a challenge of the company requires a wise and long-term strategy. The best practice is developing “global” leaders within the company, while attracting “global” leaders from outside the organization may be less effective. In case organization recruit, trains and develops “global” leaders from their early stage of working for the company it can guarantee better outcomes for the future. They began their career in the company, step by step they learn more and more about the company and its business strategy and values. When they develop and grow they are able to work as effective leaders as they know everything about the organization and have global experience in working for this particular company. Even if the company involves leaders with much experience of working for other companies they have to learn the company business from the very beginning.
- Make recommendations concerning how the organization can leverage its human resources to come out on top in a highly competitive environment.
To ensure that the company will have effective and wise staff attracting and recruiting strategy the company may apply to organizations that have decades of experience in this area. They are able to operate on a global basis. In such a way many multinational corporations leverage their human resources to have a competitive advantage. Marriott International, Inc. may manage their H.R. talent with the help of international databases to match any assignment. One of the ways to leverage human resources of the organization may be adopting the policy of global H.R. program and attract more international managers and headquarters instead of giving the priority to national ones. Companies who tend to recruit more international candidates show better competitiveness in the international market than those who rely on national managers and headquarters. They may also follow the example of other successful international organizations which give the priority to their human resources and H.R. is represented on their board’s executive committee. They have the organization within the company which concentrates on in-house talent developing and training future leaders which will be able to work in all international markets. The company should reconsider their business strategy and identify the steps and activities which are essential for their success in the international market. Then they should specify the positions that responsible for performing these activities. They will be a certain per cent of managers of the company. Technical, functional and soft skills which are necessary for these activities should be defined as well. Marriott Hotel Chains will require business teams to work with the managers and ensure that they possess all the necessary skills and resources to fulfill their tasks. Training and developing will be the responsibility of the business team. The company may need to establish their own database of talents to know who and where is to be involved in case of a need. Managers’ flexibility and mobility is a wise strategy to achieve success in the international market. Thus, Marriott Hotel Chains should rely on their managers’ mobility pyramid. They should have a team of managers who are bale and are willing to relocate for business needs. Leadership capital should be identified and developed gradually on a regular basis. The company executives should be involved into the process of covering the gaps of staff skills and knowledge. Those gaps should be identified and the strategy of staff training should be developed. Recruitment should be done on a regular basis. When joining a new local market the organization should stress the recruitment showing candidates how high they can climb their career ladder in the company. Both graduates and experienced employees should be engaged as both experience and new ideas are necessary to retain competitiveness in the international market. And, of course, posts advertising should be done on a global level, not just on national level.
