Organisational Conflicts

There are three key factors involved in the success of any organisation. You will want to achieve the best in all three but they are so interlinked that conflicts can arise:

1 Productivity

Productivity is the optimum use of all resources (including human resources) to create results. Companies need to be productive to survive. Individuals need to be productive in order to function well in their job, retain self-esteem and contribute to the team effort.

In order to create positive results it is vital to:

• define the goals;
• define the tasks to reach the goals;
• determine when and by whom the tasks should be done;
• apply resources, time and energy to these tasks.

2 Relationships

Relationships both within the organisation and with the outside world are about company culture, communication and how people are treated. The business is likely to be more successful if employees enjoy their work, have a good work/life balance and really believe that they work for a caring organisation. People who feel good about themselves and others are likely to be motivated to do their best under the most difficult circumstances.

3 Quality

Customers have an expectation of quality, which you may or may not consider reasonable. It is vital to define the quality you expect and then measure how close you are to achieving it. The goal is to close the gap with the help of your team.

Links Between Productivity, Relationships And Quality

You need to keep looking for new ways to increase your productivity, improve relationships and develop quality. But these areas are so interlinked that actions in one area can cause a negative change elsewhere:

• You cannot expect receptionists to deliver high quality service (quality) to guests if communication between departments is poor and they don’t feel valued (relationships).
• Attempts to cut costs (productivity) may lead to lower standards of service (quality) and therefore have an impact on how customers feel (relationships).

Sharing The Workload

As I mentioned before, the typical owner of a hotel has an extremely wide range of responsibilities. You cannot possibly perform all the tasks yourself so you have to divide them up somehow. You have to delegate responsibility. This is a major commitment on your part, in terms of both time and effort. Sometimes it is tempting to say to yourself, ‘It’s quicker to do it myself rather than spend time explaining it to someone else.’ This may be true in the short term but it does not solve the long-term task problem and it definitely disempowers your team member (more about this later on).

Delegation does not relieve you of ultimate responsibility. What it does is give authority to a staff member to carry out the designated tasks using whatever tools are necessary and to an agreed timescale. Hopefully they will feel that they can use their initiative to achieve what has been agreed.

On a day-to-day basis you do not need to make all the decisions. How often are you asked what you consider to be a stupid question? It is far better to push the decision-making down the organisation to its most appropriate level.

Some major advantages of delegation are:

• decisions are made at the right level;
• your time is released to do more productive tasks;
• staff skills are used appropriately and developed;
• operations continue when the owner is absent;
• the workload is more fairly distributed.

 

However, to make delegation work you must trust, recognise, and make rules.

Trust

You need to work on the assumption that everyone will respond positively to the opportunity to take responsibility. You will never know how they can perform unless you give them the chance. You cannot be half-hearted about it. Believe in your team and most of the time they will live up to, and probably exceed, your expectations. You might also learn different ways of doing things.

Recognise

Recognition is vital to effective delegation. Not only recognise when staff have performed a task but also look for other opportunities, such as if they do something really helpful. Don’t forget to pass on recognition you get personally for tasks that were actually carried out by members of your team.

Make Rules

For delegation to work staff need to know:

• What is to be done.
• How much authority they have.
• Why the task is to be done.
• How the task should be done.
• When the task should be completed.
• What the priority is.
• Likely problems.
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