Human Resource Management Issues At Four Seasons Hotel - Essay.

1. Evaluation of consultant’s recommendation in the light of relevant HR theory and practice. Diagnosis of the organisational/ human resource problems/challenges in the case study organisation. 

• Aspire to being critical. Do not outline any theories in an explicit fashion. Simply apply them to the context of the case.
• Show ability to critically evaluate concepts and ideas and to undertake additional reading

2. Use of Theory/ Literature/ Sources 

• You should use relevant theories to complete your analysis. Please avoid listing any descriptive content. Report must contain structured critical evaluation

3. Provision of  realistic solutions/ recommendations . Recommendations should take account of your update on the Four Seasons Hotels in 2017. 

• Your case analysis and recommendations should be well written, strongly argued and should display both critical analysis and ability to link theory and practice. Avoid being descriptive, overly subjective and present arguments poorly.

4. Overall presentation, structure, writing clarity, referencing and use of secondary research sources  

• Correct referencing in Harvard style; all sources quoted are included in the reference list
• Report format required. Use of a proper executive summary, annotated contents & appendices.
• Spell-checked and proof-read of work. Clarity to the reader. Writing clarity and flow

Four Seasons Hotel and Its Business Strategy

The purpose of the study is to identify analyse human resource management problem faced by organisations in the current business environment. Four season hotel and resort is one of the leading hotel operators in UK. This hotel company has 105 hotels in 43 countries. The hotel opened its first hotel in Canada and thereafter improved its journey based on the reliability and efficiency of employee and transformed into an international hotel service provider. As a business level strategy, Four Season emphasised in creativity and innovation of products and services. Enhancement of leadership has been given priority throughout. The golden rule of the company is setting behaviour of employees and managers in such as way that standard value can be cultivated in the organisation. Managing organisation behaviour has been key factors for the achieving competitive advantage for the company (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). Management of this company gives immense priority to the cultural diversity in the organisation. They behave with employees in different countries following their own culture.

Core value of the company is giving value to the choice of customers with different preferences. Customers and employees are major stakeholders of the company. The employee development programme in this company is divided into seven parts such as recruitment, selection, orientation, training, performance management, rewards system, talent development and promotion (Jiang et al. 2012). This report highlights the key issues faced by Four Seasons Hotel in managing human resource and the possible ways to improve the issues. This paper applies relevant theories to evaluate the problem faced by Four Season in human resource department and its impact on the performance of the company.

The success story of Four Seasons hotel is built on the reliability, efficiency and the high valued organisational culture. The company follows a golden rule at every process of human resource management. Over the years the company has given value to employee wellbeing and employee satisfaction. Therefore, HR policies have been designed to fulfil the objectives. Management believes that staffs are important assets for the company. Therefore, Four Seasons has adopted several employee benefit scheme. Although human resource management policy of the company is rich, there is still some gap in the desired and actual management of human resource (Leonidou et al. 2013).

During 2010, the company was positioned at 58^th position among the top 100 companies to work for. However, there are some critic, who believes that Four season relies heavily on the foreign employees rather than local employees. Therefore, core value of the company to manage diversify workforce is not observed in the company practically (Karatepe and Demir 2014). It has been complained that the mainly white skinned employees are recruited in the company.  This biasness in recruitment policy applied by this company contradicts the value of human resource management. There is another complain regarding reward based system in Four Seasons. In order investigate the problems, details analysis of the human resource management process of Four Seasons is discussed below.

Human Resource Management at Four Seasons Hotel

There is cultural difference between United States and France. In the US, an employer can fired out employee after an acquisition is made if there is mismatch between the cultures of the employees. In France, existing employees cannot be fired out. The future of the employee is secured in France once he or she is recruited. While making an acquisition in overseas, the company wants to reduce headcount. One reason is reduction in cost and other is bringing efficiency only through recruiting efficient staffs. However, Four Season has faced problem regarding renovation of the organisation at the corporate and business level as it has to face resistance from government labour rule. Therefore, a conflict of interest between employees and managers was evident. As per consultants from the management teams, the company needs to follow diversity and singularity culture in the organisation. Diversity and integrity culture in an international hotel makes the customer to feel home country like environment.  

Mainly functional conflicts appeared in this company. Due to acquisition of a company in overseas, Four Seasons has to operate in the target country considering their culture in business. According to management principle, this company needs to give voluntary leave to some employees who are less competent in performing dynamic environment. Instead, they want to recruit new employees, with new knowledge (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016). But Labour law of France does permit this policy and hence, Four Seasons has to retain those employees in business. Therefore, the behaviour of top management with those low skilled employees may not be positive, which in turn negatively affect the company performance.

Church (2012) stated that functional conflict appears when one party believes that another party has negative impact on the performance of the fist party. However, Wallensteen (2015) argued that functional conflict has positive impact on the quality of decision-making, change in organisational environment, and stimulates creativity. Saundry et al. (2014) mentioned that conflict inevitable after acquisition is taken place. Unitary view suggests that employees are blamed for confliction and management thus relies on control and authority to mitigate the conflicts. Kiitam, McLay and Pilli (2016) argued that pluralist view suggests management to accept the change and decision of union to avoid conflicts. Hofstede model advocates for collectivists culture. Argument between manager and employees may be constructive so that employees can give solutions to resolve the issues.

The human resource management department recruit staffs after critical evaluation of the ability of the candidates and their values. Recruiter mainly observes the efficacy and attitude of the candidates. There are four rounds in the candidate selection process. The last interview is occurred with the general manager, who judges the emotional intelligence of the candidate. The employees are judged to observe their ability to work in the diversified work environment. Although the selection process is very commendable, the employment process of Four Season is still rigid. Four seasons tend to recruit only fresher and young employees. Employees of other hotels or hospitality company do not get chance of recruitment (fourseasons.com 2017). Main reason of the policy may be that they want to build their own value and to develop them among employees. They do not want to bring values or want to mix values with that of other companies. Hence, they devote lengthy time and greater resources for talent development. The consultant group has advised to recruit only competent person, who has adaptability in nature.

Key Issues in Four Seasons' Human Resource Management

According to Noltemeyer et al. (2012), distributive justice theory on recruitment is based on three rules such as equity, equality and needs. As per equity rules, the hiring decision needs to depend on the past success, experiences and qualification. As per 2016 Annual report of the company, a common code of conduct has been implemented for all employees, managers and the directors to bring equity in the company in terms of corporate governance (fourseasons.com 2017). Equality motivates the company to provide equal chance of recruitment and receiving outcome irrespective of gender or cultural bias. Moreover, needs directs company to give special treatment to the sub groups such as disabled candidates. Recruitment of fresh candidate policy does not go properly with the line of the distributive justice theory. An experienced candidate is more valuable compared to fresh candidate in terms of productivity. According to the management team, depth knowledge on the candidates is given priority, which contradicts the recruitment policy of the company. Four Seasons try to recruit open candidates, who have not yet recruited elsewhere. Four Seasons takes this policy as challenge as they arrange training for every new employee. Hence, training process of staffs increases operational cost of the company, which affects the annual revenue of the company (Bharwani and Butt 2012). In the competitive business environment, this is not an effective business policy. Saundry and Wibberley (2014) opined that cost leadership can bring competitive advantage over the rival firm.

Every employee is given training in this company. Four Seasons company invests a huge amount in recruitment, and training and employee recognition policy. The policy of Four Season is to recruit fewer trainees or open employee, who would be trained by the organisation itself so that employee can associated their values with that of organisation. This policy has effect on the recruitment policy of the company (Afful-Broni and Tah 2015). Training in this organisation is transformed into learning and development of the employees. Training sessions are arranged for both management and non management staffs. Trainings are designed to develop profession leadership skills of the newly recruited staffs. This company run a specific training programme specially designed for the young graduates of several hotel schools. The manager in Training programme arranged by this company to help staffs to adopt the golden rule of the company so that they can successfully implemented this rule in the job process.

Aswathappa (2013) mentioned that as per Ulrich model, change agent is a strategic role of human resource department of a company. Training session is required in an organisation to enhance skills and competencies of an employee so that marginal productivity can increase with given resources. According to Ulrich model, HR manager needs to update the job description with the changing production criteria and innovation in the organisation. Investment in the training and development helps employees to transform their job role.  The recruitment policy differs from the Ulrich model. They do not incorporate the change model in the training and development process.

Impact of Four Seasons' Human Resource Management on Company Performance

Management of Four Season has launched employee of the month and employee of the year recognition programme. However, this policy is controversial. Nickson (2013) said that as value and culture are different in different countries, they reward and recognition policy needs to be matched with the local culture. However, employees from different cultures need recognition in important position of decision making of the company. This company has faced some problem in human resource management in France. France is an important place to preserve dignity of the person, who is being reviewed. Therefore, attitude, behaviour and leadership skill of the company should be improved. As stated by Pegg, Patterson and Gariddo (2012), there should not be any favouritism in the company.  

Reward and recognition are related to the motivations, which are linked with the performance of the employees. Reward and recognition enhance with improved performance. As per the case study and the nature of employee motivation policy of Four Seasons, it has been observed that the Company follows Maslow’s Theory of Human motivation (1954). Self-actualisation, self or social esteem, safety and security of employees are characteristics of this method of motivation (Saaty and Vargas 2012).

Figure 1: Maslow hierarchy model

(Source: Cao et al. 2013)

As mentioned by Noltemeyer et al. (2012), Maslow’ hierarchy states to achieve the highest stage of motivation is self-actualisation, when employees can govern their emotional intelligence in work place themselves. They would be motivated by themselves with the any tangible rewards. Self-satisfaction in the job place is the important internal reward for staffs to drive them in the path of career development as well as for greater contribution in the growth of the organisation. Four Season hotel has been following this strategy. The human resource team has formulated employee of the month and employee of the year policy. Annual recognition is unpopular in France in comparison to US. However, this plan to implement annual evaluation along with the monthly evaluation is effective for the company. Employee may become enthusiastic to reach the target in order to obtain the reward and recognition for the development of their career. However, there is still some barrier in employee motivation due to cultural difference across countries.

Four Seasons faces some policy risks while started operating in France. Due to difference in labour rules, the company has to follow the government rules in the recruitment and labour maintaining process. Tax burden in France is high, therefore, human resource management cost is greater in France compared to US. On the other hand, workweek in France is only 35 hour. Therefore, Four Seasons is bound to reduce working hour for employees. As a consequence, this company has to recruit more employees to run the operation process smoothly. Overhead cost of operation in France is thus increasing for Four Seasons affecting the financial report.

Conclusion

Union in France is more powerful compared to US. Political party union acts to affect the relationship between employees and management. Organisational conflicts often reduce the profitability and the performance of the organisation. Union members generally push the minimum wage rate high and putting pressure on employee payroll. Non payment of required salary every month can hamper employee and employer relationship.

According to the management consultant team, Four Seasons generally follows charismatic leadership style as per the advice of the consultant group. They want to bring out the ability and efficiency among the staffs. They believe in talent development rather than talent management. However, the effect of participatory leadership is also seen there (Northouse et al. 2012). They want candidates who are eager to learn. They believe in work together. Collaborative work in this company increases effectiveness of the performance and enhances customer satisfaction. Four Seasons is less interest to recruit experienced employees of other companies belonging to the similar industry. However, this policy is not always effective for the company. They want to train every new employee, while changing organisational structure. Old and experienced employees are assets for the company as they have both skill and knowledge.  Management respects the employees however, in their way, not the way employees want.

The management in this hotel emphasises on the empowerment of employees in order to increase job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is very important for customer satisfaction. Improvement in the decision making skill through training helps to resolve customer problem easily. Employees can feel themselves more responsible and associate themselves with work culture. Critics argued that, Four Seasons employs candidate, who can adjust themselves with dynamic work culture. However, they put less emphasis in recruiting employees from local region. This policy is not a part of good performance for corporate social responsibilities (Renwick, Redman and Maguire 2013)

Leadership in organisation plays important role in resolving conflicts. As discussed in the above section, charismatic and participatory leadership is followed in Four Seasons, as employees are motivated to work collaboratively with a common goal to be achieved. As opined by Redpath et al. (2013), a strong leader with great emotional intelligence can understand the disruptive attitude of an employee. The leader either can take initiative to motivate employees individually or can arrange a team session.

Conclusion: 

This report focuses on the human resource problem experienced by Four Season hotels and resort in France. Core value of this company is ensuring customer and employee satisfaction. Hence, organisation policy along with human resource management policy is designed in the way to fulfil the goal. The company relies more on talent development rather than human resource management. Management try to maintain diversified culture in the organisation. However, there are controversies regarding HRM policies practiced in this company. This company faces some problem in HRM while doing business in France. The labour policy, government taxation policy and unionism are different in this country compared to other country. Therefore, human resource management costs are higher in this company to operate in France. Based on the identified problem, some recommendations have been made to improve HR policies and organisational culture.

An option for the company, which may even be cheaper and less time consuming than talent management, would be the use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In simple terms CSR is the involvement towards the economy, environment and social sustainability of the public with the assistance of various stakeholders. The purpose of identifying CSR as an option is because of cost effectiveness, media attractiveness, direct influence, no change in the organizational structure, motivation of employees, effect on stakeholders, etc. The use of CSR may not be as effective as talent management in terms of long term but by doing so all the various stakeholders could be satisfied.

In order to mitigate the conflict in the organisation, strategies needs to be taken based on the level on interest of two groups, competition for resources among firms, change in internal and external environment, leadership style and interest of the shareholders. Any organisational conflicts need to be dealt with some extent of discipline. Effective communication is essential to mitigate the conflicts. As organisational culture of Four Seasons is rich, they can take arrange a conference or meeting to communicate with the employees who have cultural problem. As pr study of Laurent (’86), 275 conflicts can be eliminated at the managerial set up. The management of Four Season needs to change from participatory to transformational leadership style.

In the globalisation environment, the recruitment policy of the company is somewhat rigid. Recruitment of only fresh candidate is not effective decision for the company. This policy increases financial burden in business operation. A skilled and experienced employee is more powerful and productive compared to an unskilled and new employee. The policy of not recruiting employees coming from other large hotel company is not effective as well. Employees from other organisation come with both skill and experience. They can come with different innovative ideas that are cultured in the competitor firm. This strategy at the business level may provide competitive advantage as Four Seasons can come to know the internal strategy of the rival firm. This is a process of valuing employee. Therefore, it is recommended to Four Season to revise their recruitment policy in order to improve functionality and productivity of the company.

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