Organisation culture, values and beliefs: a personal reflection.

This essay will be focused on the leadership aspect in the hospitality industry, there will be discussed four
related aspects which are: the leadership itself; the mission and values and its importance to the
leadership; there will be presented the internal analysis; and how does the change in the business affect
the leadership. Each discussion part will start the from the theoretical point of view of each subject, then
the personal perception will be given about the placement company. Summing up there will be discussed
is the theoretical framework coincide with the chosen hospitality operation.
During my placement year I was working as a food & beverage intern at Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa
located in North Wiltshire not far from the city of Bath. I was mostly located in the Brasserie, the modern,
stylish restaurant in the spa building offering casual cuisine to the guests from the hotel as well as to nonhotel residents. (Lucknam Park Hotel 2016a). My placement also involved me working over in the other
restaurant The Park, which is an elegant fine-dining restaurant based in the main building of the hotel
17th century mansion. (Lucknam Park Hotel 2016b) Throughout my industrial placement I have
experienced communication with all the departments of the hotel, but only two of them will be
highlighted in the essay which are food & beverage team (which is its turn could be divided into two
subdivisions the Brasserie staff and the Park staff) and kitchen team as most of the professional
communication occurred with them.
To avoid the challenge of the evaluation of leadership in Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa in this essay there
are going to be discussed the key aspects of this concept: appropriate leadership theories and leadership
styles related to the leaders in the placement organisation.
In the beginning, it is necessary to clarify what is exactly meant by the leadership: in the literature this
term tends to be used to refer to the process of influencing an organisation or group of people (followers)
within the organisation in its efforts towards achieving an aim or goal. (Johnson et al, 2014). In my
placement organisation I had a chance to observe activity of different people in close to me departments
and some of my colleagues did suit to the definition stated above, but for the discussion in the essay the
brasserie manager is chosen as he was my direct manager. Due to the specific organisational behaviour in
the food & beverage department, managers were also taking the role of the leaders of each subdivision: as
stated by Adair, 2008 to achieve ideal organisational structure the management is seeking for the
leadership. According to Zehndorfer 2013, there are ten modern dominant theories related to the study of
the leadership and to explain managers regard to the leadership I have chosen transformational theory of
leadership. Described by Bass (1985 cited by Zehndorfer 2013) the leadership model consists of four
Is separate behaviours: idealised influence, inspirational motivation, individual consideration and
intellectual stimulation. The first behaviour is simply described as charisma, which is a special power
that some people have naturally, that makes them able to influence other people and attract their attention
and admiration (Cambridge Dictionaries 2016). Inspirational motivation the second part of the model
is the power that direct the followers go extra mile on tasks performance through the inspiration and

motivation. Third behaviour is about the individual consideration, meaning that leader finds a personal
approach to each of the followers, also means that leader adapts leadership style to the needs of the
follower (Zehndorfer 2013). The final element of the transformational leadership is intellectual
stimulation, which described as how the leader encourages the followers to expand their knowledge on
the professional subject.
Transformational leadership is closely intersecting with emotional intelligence; it has been discussed that
emotional intelligence brings a positive influence to transformational leadership. Emotional Intelligence
is defined by Salovey and Mayer, 1990 as ability to monitor ones own and others feelings and emotions
to discriminate among them to use this information to guide ones thinking and actions. It is contributing
to the better leadership results, and forestall the charisma of a leader, which being a key behaviour in
transformational leadership (Zehndorfer 2013).
All four key aspects of transformational intelligence with emotional intelligence influence are matched in
the brasserie manager, which describes him as a leader within the restaurant team. He is a young,
charismatic hospitality professional, he had an ability to come to understanding not only with different
types of customers, but with his own team in the restaurant and people working in other departments. The
team and personally myself were motivated through verbal communication as well as with different
competitions in the restaurant based on upselling of different products and services, with desirable prizes
such as champagne or gift vouchers to use in the hotel. The team was ready to work later and longer when
needed through the managers personal example and additional days off if too many hours were worked.
Different members of the team had different needs for comfortable work process, one of my colleagues
was not able to follow strict uniform requirements, so she was allowed to adapt her uniform for her needs
after higher management permit with the help of our manager. I was using a bicycle to get to work from
my house and when my bicycle broke down the manager fixed it during his break as his hobby was
mountain cycling and he had all the tools in his car. Concerning the last element of the four I leadership
theory, our manager had spent a lot of time giving us training on different aspects of the menus in the
restaurant. During the quite periods at the hotel we were able to taste all the wines offered in the wine list,
we had had short lectures about how the wine and spirits are made. My colleagues and I also visited the
cheese and meat farm as well as local brewery and have seen how the actual products used in the
restaurant are made. That is why the whole team was highly trained and very confident with all the
products and services offered in the hotel.
To get closer to the team and make the team closer as well our manager used to organise small parties for
the team so we could spend more time together in informal ambiance, we went to the pubs and restaurants
together after work and had monthly event where we had drinks and pizza all together.
Through this way of leadership our manager was perfectly following the mission of the Lucknam Park
Hotel & Spa which is expressed as Lucknam Parks highly motivated and skilled team are passionate
about quality standards and service excellence and consistently aim to exceed customer expectations with
1

continuous improvements. Mission statement defines what is the organisation and its reason for
existence (Enz and Harrison 2009). Lynch (2013) also identified five key elements of the mission
statement, which are: business nature examination; view from the customer position; presentation of
primary values and beliefs; potential sustainable competitive advantage and conclude with main reasons
of selected approach. The mission statement of the Lucknam Park hotel and Spa would appear to follow
most of the elements of the mission statement, however it fails to acknowledge the nature of the business
which is the area of the hospitality business a luxury country house hotel. According to the rest of the
elements, the customer perspective is described through exceeding customer expectations, the basic
value of the hotel is highly motivated and skilled team; quality standards and service excellence
representing competitive advantage and overall goal of the hotel is about the customer again: exceed
customer expectations with continuous improvements
Creating a mission statement of the company helps to establish companys philosophy and objectives as
well is to guide a direction and values the company is following. (Mullins 2013). Despite that the mission
statement is clearly defined the values are not that obvious, to outline the core values of the Lucknam
Park Hotel & Spa there is a need to look at the values or essence of the Relais & Chteaux group. They
are shared in between all the hotels of this group across the world as well as the hotel I have been on
placement too. First out of five value of the hotel is the soul of the innkeeper each member of staff
working in the hotel bring their own personal touch to the place. The taste of the land presenting the
local tastes and flavours of the cuisine presented at the hotel. The next value is the celebration of the
scenes the well-being facilities are highly developed in the hotel with spa, swimming pool and the
gym. However, each hotel is unique, they are all similar in exceptional service provided to the guests
which, is explained as the passport of the friendship. And lastly there is an awakening to the art of
living, where each journey is the way to discover the world and the goal of the hoteliers is to introduce
guests to these pleasures. (Relais & Chteaux 2015)
Taken together, the mission statement says what the company is planning to achieve at the moment, what
is desired to reach is presented in the vision statement, and the core values are the goals that the company
sets to become a company it aims to be. (Anon 2012)
The basis of the strategy development resulting in mission statement, vision and values definitions comes
from the situational analysis, which is usually refers to the internal analysis of the strengths,
opportunities, weaknesses and threats or SWOT analysis (Enz and Harrison 2009). Andrews also provides
with the significance of the relation between companys aim and future strategic potential and use the
SWOT analysis as a starting point (Lynch 2013). SWOT analysis is listing environmental factors of the
organisation divided into internal factors the strengths and weaknesses and external factors the
opportunities and threats. (Pickton and Wright 1989)

The strengths of the Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa are well-trained and versatile staff in the hotel ready to
help in the different departments if needed; modern and equipped spa and well-being facilities; exclusive
dining experience in two restaurants in the reason of the award-winning head chef; magnificent hotel
location because of the surrounding area.
However, there have been several weaknesses such as high staff turnover, for example recently more than
half of the front of house team in the brasserie left; due to the financial crisis and Brexit the rise of pricing
in the hotel which is unpleasing for customers.
To improve the customer experiences in the hotel some services and facilities could be developed: only
basic childrens facilities are offered in the hotel; through the refurbishment to initiate hotel renovation to
improve technical equipment as most of the communication between the departments occurs verbally.
Among threats in the Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa there could be mentioned the competitive pressure
increasing because of nearest location of the popular touristic destination as Bath; political disturbances
and economic slowdown are included as well as slow industry recover.
Overall the internal analysis gives a brief idea of the company direction and provides the outline and
brings together the major issues for the future strategic planning in the company. (Pickton and Wright
1989)
The strategic planning within the organisation sometimes requires changes in the business, which consent
to the theory of strategic change. It was defined by Lynch (2013) as proactive management of change in
organisations to achieve clearly identified strategic objectives. Four main causes of strategic change have
been listed by Titch (Lynch 2013) which are: environmental, including economic situation, competition
and governmental changes; business relationships which mostly mean new partnerships; technology
changes in the working process and people with new staff, especially when the change of the leader
occurs.
There has been developed several approaches of managing the change, but there will be discussed the
unfreezing and freezing attitudes three step method described by Lewin (1950 cited by Lynch 2013) as it
is the most suitable way to the following example from the placement year. The first step is unfreezing
current attitudes, where present methods of work are not acceptable; the need for change comes from a
person or a group of people involved in the working process. The second step is moving to a new level,
when the alternatives for a not working scheme are sought, time of changes in the organisation patterns.
The last stage is refreezing attitudes on a new level, this step happens after the suitable solution was
found and organisation went back to the stable level. This approach is used from the point of view where
people in the organisation are not involved in the change process and are treated as objects of
manipulation (Lynch 2013).

During my placement year significant change happened in the organisational structure in the restaurant I
was working in. The manager, who was described in the beginning of this essay gave up on improving
relationships of the Brasserie with other departments, especially with another restaurant in the hotel and
decided to leave the hotel after a year and a half of successful management. The assistant manager
expected to get his position because of him leaving, but didnt get a promotion without any reason, so
after working for four years in this restaurant she decided to leave as well. The current supervisor in his
turn got promoted to the assistant manager, and instead of supervisor position there were created a
position of a senior waiter, which was held by two people. At the same time, I left, two more people
finished their contracts, so from the team of ten people in front of house, including senior members of
staff the team was reduced to a number of five. The managers position is vacant and held open till the
January, as the company is waiting for the end of busy time. So the first step of the Lewins approach
happened at the moment of leaving both higher managers of the restaurant, the second step is happening
at the moment, where the changes in the structure were made and the company is still looking for
alternatives to the current situation, while the last stage is havent started yet.
Four aspects of the leadership in the hospitality industry have been discussed in this essay, which are the
leadership theory, the explanation of mission statement, vision and values of the company, the internal
analysis of the company presented as a SWOT analysis and the strategic change management. All aspects
described in the essay has been reflected in the Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, the company where I have
spent my placement year.

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