Research on Marriott International Inc.

Introduction

In any organizational context, leadership positions are critical. This is so because of the need to manage employees’ differences properly and to maximize their potentials. Thus, in this process, excellent managers are those that appreciate well the talents of each of the employees hired in their firm and place them in their right roles. Individual differences in employees are collated to be very important in terms of how work is performed and employee turnover. An employee is said to be defined according to his/her personality, capabilities and style of working. Moreover, how he/she thinks, leads and his/her job satisfaction. Thus, also people chose jobs in which they will be happier about and which they will be highly successful. Such jobs are articulated to model one’s behaviour to suit the effectiveness required when placed to work in different job situations which also includes working with various people. On this basis, organizational behaviour which is defined as the concept that makes employees to acquire the desired behaviours that make them become more effective and hence more productive in any organizational setting, is found to fill this gap in an organizational context. These behaviours are found not only helpful for subordinate employees but also for those in management (Philips & Gully, 2011: 4, 76). The main goal of this paper is to develop an enriched educative research paper that would assist the management team of Marriott International Inc. that is headed by Arne M. Sorenson as the CEO to become more effective in managing its large pool of employees. To enable this, the paper explores more about organizational behaviour and theories that are applicable to this study. The paper ends with a conclusion that sums up the findings of the study.

Research on Marriott International Inc.

Background Study

            Marriot International Inc. is a hotel and lodging facilities’ operator worldwide. It has a total of 107,184 US Employees and about 130, 000 employees worldwide (Fortune.com 2014).As at the February of this year, it had registered 4,706 openings. About 6,163 new jobs have been created within the last one year. 50% of its managers started as associates on hourly basis. The highest number of salaried employees includes the hourly housekeepers and the event managers. The organization has 54.19% employees being the women. Some of the extra services it offers includes: onsite childcare and onsite fitness to its customers. The organization offers job sharing as well as compressed weeks of work. The salaried employees receive an average of 118 hours per year, whereas the hourly employees receive an average training of 89 hours per year.             With a large number of employees and thus a large management headed by Arne M. Sorenson as the CEO, the organization experiences several problems that affects their service delivery and slows development progress. Such may be the set culture. The organization has set cultures like use of social media to post staff photographs to bring out the face of the organization. Apart from the negative effects brought about by the established culture, the research shall also focus some other problems such as the employee’s dissatisfaction brought about by the job design, lack of teamwork or poor leadership in the organization as well as the low or lack of feedback after the services (Fortune.com. Best companies, 2014; Shankman, n.d).

Theories of Organizational Behaviour

The developments of organizational behaviour studies are discussed in relation to the rapid changes that are realized in the business environment that demand fields like management studies be improved (Chris & Hui-wen, 2012: 310). It is clarified that as the organizations strive to adapt to the needed changes, the better for them to adapt to changes which are always clear. Essentially, organizations strive to remain successful in the market place and become the leading competitor in their particular industry. Moreover, human resources have been collated to be those which can produce a unique source of a competitive advantage. Hence, managers endeavour strive to secure a position in which their organization gains and sustains its competitive advantage by reducing resistance to this sustainability. That is to maximize the potentials of the employees and reducing their turnover rates (Sebastian, 2011: 555).

Robert & Allen (2007) also add by arguing that decisions made by business leaders today are influenced by the efforts of maximizing the value of all stakeholders. Who in this case include: the workers, the customers, and the top company’s executives. This is said to be the main goal of the business leaders today and such an initiative responds to the unethical business practices like mistreating employees and devaluing them, and corporate scandals, among others. This ideology is also relevant in the sense that the performance of managers today is evaluated according to increasing stakeholder value and profits made (349-350). John (2004) informs that organizations fail to maximize their potentials due to lack of clarity on the kind of changes they adopt to or strategies they have in place that match the needs realized in the business environment (1473). Such a challenge is conveyed to be one facing Sorenson and her management team of Marriott International Inc. That is, the management is found to be unable to manage the huge size of its workforce around the world and this in turn has de-motivated the employees and the overall organizational performance has gone down. Hence, the value of all the company’s stakeholders has been decreased.

Ronald (1994) in his discussion discusses about the issue of low productivity that correlates with an involvement of many people and is said to be a leadership structure that whose organization behaviour is not the desirable one. He argues that, commitment and attitude is lacking in the leadership behaviour that would bring about quality and eventually attract high productivity (43).

Different Types of Theories of Organizational Behaviors

Leadership behaviours are associated with theories that enable one to be an effective leader and some of these theories are listed to include: transformational leadership theory that acts as a source of inspiration to others and which motivates and increases employees’ performances, scientific management theory which is said to examine how jobs can be done in a more efficient manner. That is, to review the objectives of the organization, setting standards of performance and matching the job specialities of each employee with job needs. After, determining time required to perform the job and training needs. This theory is found to match with the need for managers to adequately understand the talents of each of the employee of the firm otherwise; this theory would not be as effective. This makes one easily comprehend the implications of the other term used for this type of theory which is the Taylorism theory (Organizational Behavior Chapter 2, n.d: 20).  

Another theory mentioned is the classical organizational theory that is said to combine scientific management, administrative and bureaucratic theories. Classical organizational theory is found to focus on leadership practices and is said to be in four sections and they are: (a) searching for ways of completing tasks assigned, (b) matching the job requirements with the employee with the best talent necessary to execute it, (c) paying close supervision of employees while motivating them using rewards and punishments, and (d) adopting planning and control tools of management in the organization. It is acknowledged that the end product of a combination of these four sections is an improved efficiency and effectiveness (Pomsuwan, 2007: 4-8).

Contingency organizational behaviour theory is also another one that deals with conflicts which is hard to avoid in an organizational context. Conflicts are not beneficial to any form of business operations and hence, managers are found to strive to avoid it. According to this theory, conflicts can be managed when smaller managerial controls are instituted at the supervisory levels and this happens to reduce the micromanagement tasks demanded from the top business executives (Pomsuwan, 2007: 4-8)..

A Review on the Different Types of Theories of Organizational Behaviors

As seen in the previous section, theories of organizational behaviour are found to represent various concepts and which include: developing a suitable business structure like the Taylorism theory, which also includes the concept of employees’ training and development among others. It is informed that firms can employ one theory or change to another so long as the change increases the efficiency of the business operations (Greenberg, 2013).

Systems organizational behaviour theory is another one that is said to view a company as an individual and whose pieces are interrelated to form a larger business operation. In that, changes taking place in one department is also felt in all other departments. This approach is used to define the study of organizational behaviour and applications of knowledge gained of how employees work as individuals or as groups in a given organizations. A system approach is articulated to interpret the relationship between employees and the organization as a complete person, a whole group of people, a complete social system, and a whole organization whose main goal is to create better relationships with others in order to realize individual objectives, social objectives and organizational objectives. Which in this case, are represented by the stakeholder value ideology (Organizational Behavior Chapter 2, n.d; Greenberg, 2013).

Applications of Knowledge Gained from Organizational Behavior Theories

From the present developments, it has been appreciated that organizational behaviours are primary based on interpersonal skills that are employed to meet all the stakeholders’ values. Thus, leaders today and especially Sorenson and her management team of Marriott International Inc need to develop a people skill in order to become effective in their leadership jobs. Applications of one or two of the theories of organizational behaviour enables the management to increase employee productivity, reduce turnover intentions, absenteeism, and other deviant organizational behaviours while on the other hand attracting workplace citizenship through job satisfaction. Thus, leaders need to work as a coach and as a supportive one in attempts to effectively and efficiently utilizing the company’s intellectual capital. This intellectual capital is one that is articulated to comprise of employees’ dedication, knowledge and expertise of an organization. Thus, making the most out of such resources enables the firm to meet its set objectives. The management of Marriot International Inc. lacks a well defined organizational goal of the company, organizational structures and means to motivate and reward employees according to the job performance and also lack of supervision and controls. Having a deficiency in this makes this management team deviate from the main roles which includes making sound decisions, social roles and being informational. That is, through effective communication processes, a manager is able to provide the right feedback required to execute a task. This is said to be enabled by the acquisition and sharing of information gathered. The decision roles of the management are collated to be in regards to how a manager uses the knowledge gathered to make sound decisions. And such decisions are those that include matching the talents of each employee with job positions that they can perform best, managing conflicts and others. From this development, it is clear that interpersonal skills are important for managers to enable them transfer knowledge gathered and putting it into action for the purposes of increasing values of all stakeholders. That is as seen, efficient and effective communication skills, conflict resolution and persuasive abilities (Organizational Behavior Chapter 2, n.d: 18-20).

Conclusion

The main goal of this paper was to develop an educative research paper that would help Sorenson the CEO of Marriot International Inc. and her management team to become more effective in managing its large pool of employees. From the background study, it is clearly conveyed that this management team works at a distance from its global employees. That is employees are not closely connected with their top leaders. From the study, it has been seen that when this connection is loose, workers become de-motivated and start developing other behaviours that are deviant from the organization. This has been found to be as a result of the management being unable to appreciate the capacities of their employees and hence failing to maximize their potentials in the organization, which has been appreciated as a foundational structure for enabling a firm gain and sustain a competitive advantage. Organizational behaviour has been defined as a tool that can help both the organization and the employees realize their individual objectives which in this case is defined by the stakeholder value. When organizational goals are comfortably met, also, personal objectives are also met and this is a motivational factor for employees. Another lesson learned is that business environments are changing and organizations need to change while embracing clear changes. Theories of organizational behaviour have provided this avenue where one theory can be employed by the management and then another can be considered in this process of change. This is based on the fact that a competitive advantage needs to be maintained and its unique source is the human resources. Thus, organizational behaviour is based on improving interpersonal skills and this paper only focused on leadership behaviours in this context. Such a consideration would effectively and efficiently improve the performance of the employees of Marriot International Inc. and hence increase the productivity of the firm. Increased firm’s productivity is also a measure of how effective the leadership structure is of an organization is.

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