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Question: Discuss about theHuman Resource Management for American Culture. Answer: Introduction The Royal Thai Hotel is a 5-star hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, which was started by a local consortium of investors almost 15 years ago. The hotel was being managed by a Thai General Manager and was one of the prestigious hotels in Bangkok. The hotel had a workforce of almost 700 employees who were happy in being associated with such a reputed organisation. The employees received a number of welfare benefits, above market rate salary, job security, etc. along with a bonus that was equivalent to their four months salary at the end of every year, irrespective of the performance during the year. Thing at The Royal Thai Hotel started experiencing a great deal of changes once it was bought by a large American hotel chain that wanted to expand its operations in Thailand. After the acquisition, the Thai Manager took an early retirement and an American manager was employed by the new owners to look after the management of the hotel. The new manager bought some major changes in the organisation that did not go well and resulted in a decline in the market reputation of the company. Therefore, this report has been aimed at discussing the symptoms which indicated that some significant problems were prevailing in the company and diagnosing the problems from a human resource management perspective to recommend solutions that would help in dealing with the problem. Symptoms Indicating Workplace Problems Symptoms, in simple words, can be defined as the signals or symbols that indicate the existence of a problem in an individual, department or an entire organisation. The Royal Thai Hotel has been facing a number of issues, which can be clearly identified from the symptoms that are prevailing in the hotel. Some symptoms indicating workplace problems are discussed below: First of all, the stress levels amongst the employees were constantly on the rise. Ever since the new owners from America took over the Royal Thai Hotel and a change in the managerial position was bought, the employees started feeling uncomfortable and couldnt accept the workplace change in a positive way. Their inability to deal with the changes was bringing about a rapid increase in the employee stress levels. Due to an increase in employee stress levels and decreasing employee morale, the employees started losing their confidence and started blaming each other in order to avoid taking responsibilities for any problems or issues. Secondly, the labour turnover rates in the hotel have also started to mount. The strong relationships that the previous management had been able to establish with the workers of the hotel were strained and the employees started to leave the hotel as the management and the employees were no longer supportive of each other. Due to absence of positive working conditions, the employees started feeling dissatisfied with their jobs and the absenteeism rates due to sickness were also increasing in the organisation. Thirdly, the number of guest complaints were also reached an all-time high. In the past, the number of guest complaints had been minimum but after the new manager took over the management of the Royal Thai Hotel, the customer started feeling issues with the hotel services and started raising complaints while some guests also pointed at some employees for not being able to provide them satisfactory services. Further, even the employees had started to make greater number of mistakes as compared to the past. Lastly, another important symptom that pointed at some problems in the organisation was that the senior level managers were experiencing more calls from their juniors for consultation. Some employees started approaching their seniors even for petty issues. As a result, the seniors had to spend most of their time in solving the issues that their juniors had been experiencing. Problems Leading to the Observed Symptoms The problems leading to the observed symptoms are discussed below: Workplace Changes Workplace changes are a major source of organisational conflicts and issues. Improperly managed workplace changes have already resulted in heavy losses for some famous companies in the past and will continue to do so. Workplace changes are bound to take place whenever there are changes in the leadership positions, which also happened in the case of the Royal Thai Hotel (change-management-coach.com, n.d.). After being acquired by an American company, the manager of the Royal Thai Hotel took an early retirement and a new American manager was bought in by the new owner to look after the management of the company. The previous manager had been working with the workforce since the very beginning of the hotel and had a clear understanding about the culture of the organisation. After his retirement Brett Williamsons, the new manager, started looking after the management of the hotel and had a strong believe in empowerment. The new manager started providing empowerment to the hotel staff as soon as he took over. The concept of empowerment did not sit well with them. The employees were informed that the new management had empowered them to deal with minor issues themselves so that they could offer better services to the customers. It was also decided that for minor issues, it was no more required for the front line employees to consult their seniors while for major issues, they had to seek for their seniors advices. The new manager did not follow a planned approach to implement the change in the hotel and the hotel staff was least prepared in accepting the change, even if they did not resist it (Gleeson, 2016). The new manager never clearly differentiated between minor issues and major issues, which lead the employees into a confusion. The employees were never able to make a clear decision in certain cases as they couldnt decide whether the issue in front of them was major or minor (KUIPERS, et al., 2014 ). Cultural Misfit Culture differences are defined as the difference in individual thought processes, values, ethics, religion, cuisines, etc. that govern their social behaviour and conduct. Cultural differences play an important role in the business world, especially when business organisation from one part of the world tries to expand its business operations in a different part of the world. For business organisations that are trying to enter into the global market, it is important to take note of these cultural differences and planning their strategies accordingly so that they can increase their chances of success (Knutson, et al., 2003). The American company that acquired the Royal Thai Hotel failed to realise the importance of cultural differences between Thailand and America and appointed an American manager to look after the operations of the hotel (Bhatt, 2014). A major cultural difference between America and Thailand is that the Thai teachers and managers have a habit of emphasising rule abidance. Thai managers effectively monitor the behaviour of their juniors and the juniors abide by the rules set up by their managers. On the other hand, America is more of a loose society i.e. the American managers tend to motivate their juniors or followers to explore new possibilities by empowering them (Anon., 2013). The new manager of The Royal Thai Hotel failed to understand that there are certain cultural differences between America and Thailand and the concept of empowerment might not sit well amongst the Thai employees as compared to the American employees. Thus, the failure of the new manager and of the new owners in understanding the culture of Thailand also resulted in the above symptoms. Bureaucracy Bureaucracy is an organisational system where most of the important decisions related to the work are taken by the seniors or people at the managerial level positions (businessdictionary, n.d.). In a bureaucratic environment, there is clear hierarchy of authority and the rules are completely inflexible. In the case of The Royal Thai Hotel, the existence of bureaucracy in the workplace was another reasons that was giving rise to the discussed symptoms (Woods, 2012). When the new manager at The Royal Thai Hotel started implementing the concept of empowerment in the workplace, some managers were in support of the decision while some others wanted to resist the decision because they thought that empowering their juniors to take some important decisions will reduce their power or say in the organisation. The fear of their authority being undermined fostered a negative behaviour in the mind of certain employees who did not support the decision and did nothing to make the concept successful. Solutions to Overcome Problems It is important for the hotel owners to realize the problems that the hotel is facing and the consequences that such problems can have on the business. The management can use the following recommendations to improve the workplace condition and in dealing with the problems: First of all, the management needs to understand the important of managing change programs effectively using change management theories, such as Kotters change management theory or Kurt Lewins change management theory. The new management should adopt a planned approach towards change management and should deal with the root causes of resistance to organisational change rather than blaming everything on the workforce (Robert Half Management, 2014). The management can adopt the change management theory proposed by Kurt Lewin and can follow a 3 step change model i.e. unfreeze, change and freeze. Such a strategy will help in minimising the possibilities of organisational resistance to change and ensuring higher employee involvement in the change program (Hayes, 2014). Secondly, the management should understand the importance of aligning the American and Thai culture. There are a significant number of cultural differences between the Thai and the American culture and an American manager with no prior experience with a Thai workforce can prove to be a disaster at managing the human resources, which has already happened in the case of the Royal Thai Hotel. The new hotel management should replace the new manager with a manager who has an understanding of the Thai culture and also has knowledge about the cultural values of Thai workforce (Dholakiya, n.d.). Only a manager with sufficient knowledge about the Thai culture will be able to help the company in rising out of the problems that it is currently facing (Thomas Peterson, 2014). Thirdly, the new owners of the hotel should also arrange for training and development programs that will be aimed at increasing the overall competencies of the employees. If the new manager wants to bring about some changes in the workplace, it is important that the employees are sufficiently trained and developed to cope up with the changing environment. The new manager should have designed and implemented a training program that would have helped the employees in gaining more knowledge about the different kind of issues in hospitality industry and how to classify them as a major and a minor issue (Biech, 2016). If they had been competent enough to distinguish between major and minor issues, it would have been easier for the employees to take decisions themselves rather than consulting their seniors even for minor issues. Further, training and development programs would also have been helpful in building employee confidence and they would have accepted empowerment in a better way (A guinis Kraiger, 2009). Fourthly, the new management also needs to foster a positive work environment in the workplace that is free of bureaucracy and pressure. It is important for the senior level employees to understand the role that concepts like empowerment can play in keeping the employees motivated and optimising their performance levels. The senior level managers should always empower their employees and should motivate them to take their own decisions so that they can feel responsible and can perform better. The new management should also increase socialisation in the workplace because the employees are not demonstrating a team oriented approach towards work. The employees are mostly stressed and due to their failure in performing up to the expectations of the management, they are always blaming each other for the lacking performance. The management needs to foster a team oriented environment in the workplace so that the workforce can collectively contribute towards the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. Providing better work conditions to the employees will ensure that they employees show less absenteeism and will also help the management in strengthening the employee-employer relations (Brunot, n.d.). A positive work environment will also ensure high engagement levels amongst the employees and will also help the company in bringing down the high employee turnover ratios that are prevailing in the hotel staff. Conclusion The Royal Thai Hotel has been one of the top hotels in Thailand since the past 15 years and has been considered as one of the most prestigious hotels. The hotel has been performing quite well in the past but started experiencing a decline in employee performance levels once the hotel was acquired by an American company. The new management of the hotel was unable to manage the human resources of the hotel in an efficient manner due to a number of reasons and the inability of the management to provide a positive work environment to the hotel staff lead to higher customer complaints, higher employee turnover ratios and a fall in the hotel performance levels. To ensure high performance levels and to revive its market reputation, the new hotel management needs to look into the problems prevailing in the hotel and implement some of the above stated recommendations as soon as possible. References Anon., 2013. Thai Culture vs American Culture!. [Online] Available at: https://culturalconflict.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/thai-culture-vs-american-culture/ [Accessed 13 May 2017]. Knutson, T. J., Komolsevin, R., Chatiketu, P. Smith, V. R., 2003. A cross-cultural comparison of Thai and US American rhetorical sensitivity: implications for intercultural communication effectiveness. 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