Case Study: Loch View
The Loch View Hotel and Spa is a prestigious and intimate 4 star luxury hotel located in the outskirts of Aberdeen. This beautiful historic country house hotel has breath-taking views of the loch and surrounding countryside with beautiful gardens and grounds which guests can enjoy. Whilst still retaining many of its original features, the hotel furnishings blend traditional and contemporary styles in a range of bedrooms and suites. The hotel has been designed as a restful, elegant refuge for both the business executive and leisure traveller.
A Luxury Spa and beauty facilities enhance the relaxing and luxurious experience with a selection of massages, aroma therapy, facials and body treatments. The spa facilities include a gym and fitness room, packed with state of the art equipment.
Loch View has operated successfully for many years, boosted by its prime location and strong management team headed by the General Manager, Filipio Messe. There are specialists in Sales and Marketing, Finance and Management Accounting, Human Resource Management, Food and Beverage and Facilities Management. These are the departments within the complex and are all led by Departmental Managers. Due to increasing competition in the hospitality industry, it is clear that whilst Loch View has faced stiff competition from other luxury hotels, it has built on its success and is undergoing an expansion programme as it continues to strive for excellence. Loch View has continued to enjoy a year on year record of profitability built on the customer focused experience it provides.
The last few years have been both intense and eventful as the hotel began its expansion programme in 2010 whilst continuing to maintain its luxury surroundings. It has reached major milestones in its growth in terms of its building expansion programme. The Loch View Hotel continually reviews management practices and strategies for future success to retain its strong position in the luxury market whilst still providing a competitive pricing strategy.
Filipio took over the role of General Manager in 2010 and takes pride in running a ‘tight ship’. His leadership style is fairly autocratic. He firmly believes that strong management and leadership is the key to the previous and continued success of the operation. The department heads he has recruited over the last few years comprise; Aileen in Sales and Marketing, Kenneth in Finance, Jenny for HR, Bill in Food and Beverage and Louis for Facilities Management. The department heads have been very supportive of Filipio for the reason that the Hotel and Spa has continued to meet the many challenges it has faced. However, over the past year Jenny and Louis have begun to have doubts about continued appropriateness of Filipio’s leadership style and believe the time has come for a more ‘inclusive style’. Filipio has become aware of Jenny and Louis’ concerns and have left them in no uncertainty that he will not stand for any dissent within his management team. He has intimated to both of them personally that if they are not happy they should look for alternative employment. In addition, Filipio has told Jenny and Louis not to discuss their concerns with the other department managers. Jenny, in particular, is very unhappy about the whole situation as she is strongly committed to the Hotel and Spa, enjoys her job and is determined to continue her protestations. Furthermore, she believes that Aileen is beginning the share her concerns over Filipio’s leadership.
Since 2014 the continued low oil prices in the Energy sector have impacted dramatically on the North-east of Scotland’s economy. Hotel occupancy in and around Aberdeen has fallen by approximately one third prompting a review of strategy and practice at Loch View. The management team have identified a range of cost reducing and efficiency enhancing practices which they believe will help the Loch View Hotel to maintain its competitive advantage in this challenging economic climate. These include outsourcing the following services and functions:
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Housekeeping (cleaning and Laundry)
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Hotel bookings
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Spa management and operation
You have been employed as an external Organisational Development (OD) Consultant to advise, diagnose and deliver OD solutions to support the management of change at Loch View.
Your Task
The Loch View Management team have asked you to produce a report in which you outline your proposals on a range of OD interventions which support the management of these organisational changes, together with any other issues, or potential issues you identify.
Your report should consider the following;
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The key phases of the OD cycle
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The types of OD interventions available to you, particularly those targeted at Leadership
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How your proposed interventions will be evaluated
Report Format
Your report should be 4,000 words +/- 10% in length and should include an executive summary which will be out with the word count. Reports out with this word count will incur a reduction mark for ‘structure and presentation’. Please ensure that you allocate space as appropriate to address the issues adequately. You are expected to draw on an appropriate and wide range of theories and models to underpin and support your arguments.
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