Human Resource Management

Caselet 2

Preeti was promoted three months ago from reservations supervisor to front-desk manager for Regency Hotel, an independent, 330-room hostelry. She enjoys her new management responsibilities and is pleased that the occupancy rate averaged 94 percent last month, way above the industry average. But at times she feels stressed by the confusion of managing all front-end operations of the hotel, from reservations and cashiering to the bell desk and concierge. She feels most at home handling the reservation function, a task she always enjoyed as a trainee because she likes to help people. About once a week the staff in the reservation function overbooks rooms, usually because of incomplete scans of conference sales files. Customers with reservations w,0110 arrive late are upset when they have to be referred 1, nearby hotels. Whenever overbooking occurs, Ms. eti takes over direct control of the reservations operation herself, often personally handling reservations for two or three days until order seems to return.

But sometimes while Ms. Preeti is off focusing on the reservations task, other problems arise. On five days last month, clerks at the reception desk checked in every “walk-in” who appeared without reservations. They assumed there would be ample no-shows among those holding reservations. On one occasion, Regency ended up oversold by 24 rooms. Mr. Alex, the hotel general manager, is concerned about Ms. Preeti’s development into her new management position. He knows Ms. Preeti is proud of the high occupancy levels (which mean greater profits) and doesn’t want to destroy that pride. However, he sees her as more interested in individual staff tasks (such as making reservations) than in the complexities of managing, training, and motivating her staff. He has talked with Ms. Preeti about balancing her activities as a manager. Alex emphasized that she needs to make sure her staff knows the systems and guidelines and be firm with employees who continue to check in guests when the hotel obviously will be overbooked. He plans to meet with her in a three-month performance review to see if he can shift her motivational expectations about the job.

Question:

1. Do Ms. Preeti’s problems seem to be the result of her lack of motivational immaturity or of her lack of motivational attention to her people?