Solutions to problems existing throughout the operation of the Grand Deluxe
Hotel
I. Introduction
The multigenerational workforce is always a challenge for the manager as understanding it and handling the
problems effectively contributes massively to the organization (Salopek, 2006). This paper aims to look
further into the differences between 4 Generations currently working in the Grand Deluxe Hotel as well as
address problems existing within the hotel and provide insights to tackles the problems. Many problems are
created during the operation of the hotel due to the differences between the generations. It started to appear
more visually through communications, characters, work ethics and it results in lower performance, a decrease
in effective communication in the hotel. The diversity of the generations is growing within the company and
the understandings between generations are ultimately important as it is one of the pivotal factors that lead to
the growth of the hotel. This paper will address the problems, deliver some new solutions and their
possibilities to apply to the issues.
II. Hotel briefing
The Grand Deluxe Hotel is founded in 2018 in Vietnam by Danny Greyson a British who has lived in
Vietnam for over 10 years. The hotel provides a great experience for visitors to Hanoi. It has been recognized
as one of the well-known hotels for foreign tourists. Due to the success of the first Grand Deluxe Hotel, more
and more offices and hotels are built across Vietnam. The hotel has been operating for 4 years and it has
created a beautiful image for the foreign tourist. In recent few months, there have been many complaints about
the employee performance and communication. An HR director was sent to figure out the situations and
provide solutions to the issues.
III. Problems and their causes
1. Problem (1)
In the few recent months, there are many customers complained about the employee performance the flow of
the work is slower and it has created a negative effect on the hotel monthly avenue. The leader has failed to
solve the conflicts with the employees and without consulting the HR director, started to misuse his
management role to talk directly to the employees aggressively about the problems and punish them without
clearly understanding the situation occurring within the hotel. The diversity of the generations of employees
working in the hotel has caused miscommunication between them and lowered the team performance which
lead to waves of unsatisfied employees.
2. Causes (2)
The main cause of the problem is the misuse of management of the leader leading to the dissatisfaction of the
employees and creating conflicts between them, making the work environment toxic. As the flow of the work
in the hotel is fast, the communication of the employees is weaker because of the diversity of generations
working within the hotel and it started to start many conflicts between the employee. Each generation has a
different way of responding to different leadership types. The leader in this case is born in generation X. Due
to the rapid changes and great diversity at the time, Xers are more individualistic than collectivist. It leads to
the main characters of them that are independent, thoughtful, and sometimes doubtful (Smola & Sutton,
2002). Rather than spending all the time at work, they tend to have a balance on their time at work and their
private life (Bennett, Pitt, & Price, 2012).
The situation happened when the leader suddenly spent lots of time on his private life. It resulted in the lower
work performance of the leader. The IT department has released a new booking app to speed up the booking
time for the customers with many new features. Due to the little time that the leader had in the hotel, he
decided to leave the app to the employees to figure out how to use it and instruct it to the customers. Usually,
Xers often seek to do a great job and achieve their individual goal at the same time (Johnson & Johnson,
2010) so the leader has misused his power to increase the working time of the employees and put pressure on
their shoulders to do all the work. He (Xers) would value someone's worth by the amount of work and
pressure they can handle (Smola & Sutton, 2002). Moreover, Generation X in the workplace can be described
as a very competitive leader (Kupperschmidt, 2000). Due to that character, the leader also wanted to secure
the number of Although the action of the leader has influenced the employees to work harder under pressure
yet it was not suitable for all of the employees as their generations are different.
IV. The diversity of the generations of employees
1. Baby boomers
Baby boomers were born from 1946 to 1964 and most of them were working as managers and senior company
runners. They have characteristics that are very different from the others (Harber, J. G.,2011). They are known
to work hard and are very motivated. They are also very self-aware and are likely to ask for feedback and
changes about their work.
2. Generation X
Xers were born between 1965 and 1980. Xers have more opportunities to be exposed to the diversity of
culture. As they are born later, they have chances to access better education. It resulted in a high number of
Xers going to college (Kane, 2010). Xers also are exposed to the development of technology so they can use
work on computers, phones,…They are not focusing on their work with one employer and they would prefer a
balance between work and personal goals.
3. Generation Y
Generation Y which is commonly called Millenials were born between 1980 and 2000. They live in a time of
the fast development of technology. They would rather communicate through email, text than have face-toface conversations. Millennials choose to have lower pay with fewer working hours as they want a life and
work balance. They like to work in teams and are better at working together. They are known to be diligent
and would like to have a different opinion on their work from others (Kane, 2010).
4. Generation Z
Born between 2000 and the present. Generation Z employees are bad at listening and lack of soft-skills. They
would like to communicate through the internet, social network, emails, texts,… As they are not good at
conversation, they tend to not have a face-to-face conversation
V. 8 Stage of decision-making model
1. Identification of the problem
Due to the diversity of generations of employees working for the hotel, communication has been a great
obstacle to the team's performance of employees. Due to the misuse of the manager role, the leader has
accidentally created more work pressure which has decreased the work performance of the employees due to
the miscommunication between the employees with different generations.
Problem and causes are resued from part (1) and (2)
2. Identifying decision criteria
- Misuse of power of management team
- Miscommunication
- Work pressure
3. Weighting the criteria
Criterion
Weighting
Miscomunication
10
Misuse of power
8
Work pressure
6
4. Developing alternatives
- Generational diversity trainning
- Mentorship
5. Analysis of alternatives
Alternatives
Generation diversity
trainning
Mentorship
Miscommunication
10
10
Misuse of power
8
Work pressure
7
6
8
Analyzing Alternatives: Broader issues
*Legality
- Both alternatives are not against the law. It is showing its effectiveness in training the employees to fix
miscommunication between generations.
*Ethicalness
The alternatives are ethical and under no circumstances will they harm stakeholders.
* Economic Feasibility
Due to the analyses of the two alternatives, the mentorship is costed more thane generational diversity
training. However, both alternatives are reliable and the organization can afford and sustain them.
*Practical
The organization can use both alternatives. However, as mentioned above, mentorship may need a bigger
financial fund from the organization.
6. Selecting the best alternatives
1. Apply generational diversity training model based on the communication type of the employee's
generation.
The management team needs to be informed about the situation of the hotel as the team performance is low
due to the misuse of team leader management's role. Anderson stated in his research that "the modern
workplace is something akin to the one-room schoolhouse of old, with all ages lumped together and working
side by side" (Anderson, 2009, p. 62)
Understanding the multigenerational traits is not enough for the workforce to achieve short and long-term
goals. The management team is required to look up generational diversity training methods to fix the situation.
A good management team is the one who knows specifically about the strengths and weaknesses, work ethics,
motivation of each generation of employees working for the company (Messmer, 2006). Generational
diversity training focus on the communication of the employees as the communication type of each generation
is different from others.
2. Apply Mentorship
Mentoring can be one of many suitable solutions to solve the communication problems in the multigeneration
workforce. It is considered to be effective to deal with the generation gap in communication. Mentors can pair
with each departure to provide practical guidance and support to the employees (Yamamura & Stedham,
2007).
Even though mentorship can be a non-profit-driven technique. It is required financial support from the
organization to pull it off.
7. Implementing the Decision
After considering all the alternatives, the organization has decided to use the generational training model to
approach the situation as it is researched to be more effective and costs less than mentorship.
8. Evaluating the Decision
The situation is getting better after the organization has come through the decision to apply the generational
training model to tackle the problem. The outcome of the decision is foreseen and it is getting on track with
the steps that the management team has used. There are some drawbacks which are some of the employees are
not able to keep up with the rest due to a large number of employees are being trained.
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