Leadership in a Globalised World
The Asian Institute of Hospitality Management in Academic Association with Les Roches is a truly global centre of higher education. We bring Swiss-style education to the heart of Asia for students from around the world. In today’s globalised world, an international outlook prepares students for the challenges of tomorrow—in the hospitality and travel business as well as in industries beyond. Never before has the world been so interconnected, and at no time have trends, technologies and knowledge changed so rapidly.
Through our Bachelor of Business Administration in Global Hospitality Management as well as our executive education courses and a diversity of initiatives, we prepare students and professionals to succeed wherever their careers take them. One of these initiatives is AIHM’s Global Essay Competition, a contest open not just to our own students but to students in every country in the world. Our 2022 competition attracted essays from young minds in countries from Myanmar to Thailand to Tanzania to Nigeria, to name just a few. I had the honour of chairing the competition committee, reading essay entries and discussing top entrants’ ideas with them over Microsoft Teams. Our 2022 topic: what makes an effective leader.
About AIHM’s Global Essay Competition
Tailoring the competition to a range of ages, we offered both a Junior Category (for students up to age 15) and a Senior Category (for students age 16 to 22). Junior Category students were asked to “describe the qualities of an effective leader” in an essay of 500 words, while Senior Category students were tasked with writing a 700-word essay that would “explain how a manager can effectively lead and implement change.” The top three essays won e-gift cards of USD 300, USD 500 and USD 1,000 from Minor Hotels.
As judges, we looked for independent thought, a depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. The most successful senior students explored relevant theory through their own research and learning and coupled this theoretical exploration with practical examples. You can see these qualities demonstrated in our second-place winner’s essay shared here in full. Peerachaya Samruayruen from Thailand drew upon theorists in leadership, organisational change and social behaviour from around the world and applied this theory to the example of a hotel manager navigating the challenges of implementing a sophisticated new restaurant reservations system to improve operational efficiency and guest satisfaction. Glimpse her take on the topic below.
Peerachaya Samruayruen on:
How Managers Can Effectively Lead and Implement Change
The economic, environmental, social and technological changes of the past decade have placed greater demands on organisations to be proactive, responsive and responsible. Managing change is probably the single most important issue today for all organisations. Leaders and managers need to establish a clear direction providing a compelling case for change, by involving employees in the discussion and establishing the organisations capabilities to carry out change. Oakland & Tanner (2007, p3) state “vision for change must be embraced throughout all levels of the organisation.” Leaders influence, inspire and motivate groups of people to accomplish a common goal and therefore successfully accept and actively take part in the implementation of change programmes. (Northouse, 2018).
To do so, managers must consider their leadership style and how to appropriately use it. Individuals develop one or a combination of the three leadership styles: Autocratic leadership, a task-oriented leader that controls the decisions and prioritises speed; Democratic leadership, a leader that encourages decisions to be made by employees; and Laissez-faire leadership, a hands-off management style that gives employees complete freedom to work (Val and Kemp, 2012). Depending on the work, environment and circumstance, the leadership style a manager uses should change accordingly, as leaders will adapt their style to meet the solution (Northouse).
When implementing change, Democratic leadership is recommended as it enhances employee participation. Just as important is the power that leaders and employees possess. Power is the potential to influence others’ beliefs, actions and attitude (Goncalves, 2013). According to French and Raven (1959), there are five bases of power: Legitimate, Reward, Coercive, Expert and Referent. When put to use, power is a remarkable tool for leading and involving employees. Managers can utilise their own power and that of the employees carefully to effectively lead change. With power from both leader and employees, a Guiding Coalition of strong Change Agents with power and leadership can be formed to lessen the resistance of change (Kotter,1996).
Change in the workplace can be new strategic directions, markets, products and operating systems leading to different responsibilities and working conditions. This directly affects people’s safety needs as per Maslow (Saiyadain, 2003), as change can make people feel uncomfortable and insecure. Change, however, is inevitable and necessary and the organisation, management and team members need to identify problems and implement adjustments. It is essential for a manager to communicate and involve employees with change and manage employees’ expectations by using the Change Equation by Beckhard and Harris (as cited in Cudanov, Tornjanski and Jasko, 2019); change contains Dissatisfaction, Vision and First Steps, and managers must also be aware of the Resistance to Change. Dissatisfaction represents the employees’ discontent with not seeing the need for change. As an example, ‘Hotel A’ does not have a sophisticated restaurant reservation system, leading to communication errors and dissatisfaction guests. Vision is the desired future that managers strive for. The Vision needs to be attainable, alluring and understandable for employees to desire it as well. For example, the manager wants to install a new programme that can make reservations. First Steps are the process towards the intended vision. Managers should include employees in the change process and explain the need for change and form the Guiding Coalition of people that will support and champion.
Managers must then plan out the first steps to make a successful change. For instance, the manager explains the problem and the need for change and involves employees in finding the solution, listening to and where possible implementing them. This will make the employees invested and motivated as their voices are heard and their opinions are valued in the organisation.
The main barrier to an organisational change is identified as Resistance to Change. This can be from high satisfaction with the status quo. For example, some employees might prefer to use a different programme or disregard the use of it for restaurant reservations altogether. It is important to note that a high dissatisfaction in the status quo can lead to lessening resistance to change. Managers must be aware of all components to successfully implement organisational change.
Managers are significantly influential individuals regarding leading and implementing change. To effectively lead, one must realise their own social power over employees and suitable leadership styles to meet the needs of the employees. To implement change, managers must understand the Change Equation and how it affects employees.
Reference List
Cudanov, M., Tornjanski, V. and Jasko, O. (2019, March). Change equation effectiveness: empirical evidence from South-East Europe. ResearchGate. Retrieved September 13, 2022 from http://dx.doi.org/10.15240/tul/001/2019-1-007
French, J. and Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. Univeristy of Michigan, Institute for Social Research.
Goncalves, M. (2013, April). Leadership Styles: The Power to Influence Others. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science4 (4). Retrieved September 14, 2022 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292748803_Leadership_Styles_The_Power_to_Influence_Others
Northouse, P.G. (2018, March). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (8th Ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
P.G. (2018, March). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (8th Ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Potter, J.P. (1996). Leading Change. Harvard University Review Press.
Saiyadain, M.S. (2003). Organisational Behaviour. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited.
Val, C. and Kemp, J. (2012). Leadership Styles. Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education Volume 24 Issue 3. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://www.coeo.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Digital_Pathways/Pathways_24_3.pdf
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