NOT FOR CIRCULATION
NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY
THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
HKU Business School
Master of Global Management
2021-2022 Examination
PMGM7018 Career Management
Final Exam
Prof. Thomas Ng
October 11, 2021 (Monday)
9:45am – 12:45pm
Duration: 180 minutes
Only approved calculators as announced by the Examinations Secretary can be used in this examination.
It is candidates’ responsibility to ensure that their calculator operates satisfactorily, and candidates must
record the name and type of the calculator used on the front page of the examination script.
INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS
1.
This is an open-book examination. You can refer to the course materials during the exam, but
you MUST NOT use the internet once you have downloaded the file to your device.
2.
The staff will run a plagiarism/similarity electronic check on your submitted file. Evidence of
plagiarism or other forms of dishonest acts will immediately lead to a failure grade, and the
case will be sent to the University for disciplinary actions.
3.
Type your name and student ID in the space provided on the next page.
4.
There is only ONE question. Please type your answers in this file.
5.
Font type – Times New Roman; font size – 12; single-spaced.
6.
Please name the file using your student ID, and submit it before the deadline.
1
Student ID:
3035886025
The Question:
Upon reading the case, write an essay about Craig Smith’s career. Specifically, you should apply the
knowledge you have learned from this course to thoroughly dissect and understand Craig’s career, such
as his career plans, career decisions, career paths, and career outcomes, among other career topics that
you think appropriate and important. The core goal of the essay is to let readers clearly understand how
Craig’s career has unfolded in the way it did, and why Craig has become successful. A good answer
should seamlessly integrate academic concepts/notions/principles to explain the observed phenomena.
There are no word limits, but you should minimize direct copying of the case content. You should begin
your essay with the following opening paragraph and start writing in the second paragraph.
The Answer:
To say that Craig Smith has a successful career is an understatement. His career illustrates many
career issues and important lessons that are in line with what I have learned from the Career
Management course (PMGM7018). Below, I analyze Craig Smith’s career in greater detail.
(Begin here)
Let’s start with how he enter the company. At first, he wanted to talk with HR teams about whether to
take a master degree, and it was an informal conversation, but became a formal interview and he
eventually got an offer, and he picked the role of assistant housekeeping manager. It’s not surprising for
me that he could got this offer. From his education background, family background and work experience,
we can see he is a person with clear goal. The interest to hospitality industry was driven by a summer
internship in his uncle’s hotel. Due to the family factor, he traveled a lot and can speak a lot languages,
which is a perfect candidate to this industry. I think the interview process and the result verifies that he
is supplementary, subjective and objective fit for this job.
Move on to the career stage of Craig Smith, he is now at the disengagement stage. Form the career
timeline, we can see he entered the company immediately after graduated from the university and
devoted his whole life to this career. There is no hesitation and worries about changing career in his life,
so I think his exploration stage started earlier and finished earlier than the normal people. During his
disengagement period, he delivered the experience of how to manage the company and employees, and
what makes him success to the next generation.
Next, let’s talk about whether Craig Smith fit this career and his personality.
Definitely, he is person-job fit, he hold an MBA from the Rotman business school and has multiple
executive business degrees, therefore, he meets the job requirement.
What’s more, he is person-organization fit and person-group fit. From the case, Craig Smith was very
caring and treated his subordinates and colleagues very well, he can stand in the employees’ perspective.
He helped them rebuild colleagues home after Tsunami crisis and let them engage in the decision
2
making process, asked them their goal for 2005. The outcome was, he led the hotel to make a profit after
the Tsunami crisis and the team won the hotel of the year award.
He showed how a good manager should act and his leadership style matches the company’s culture
( authentic leaders and people-first culture). That’s why he gain the support, love and trust from his
subordinates and colleagues even in his disengagement stage.
For person-occupation fit, he showed his social and enterprising personality at the early stage of his
career life. He is very helpful, which I have mentioned before, and he is very good at managing and
leading. At the start of his career, he was responsible for checking the quality of cleaning team, and he
started with random spot check, and it resulted the cleaning staff will work hard for the checked room,
but other rooms were under the standard. He quickly adjusted the checking method, and passed the
accountability and responsibility to team leaders and empowered them, which had a positive feedback
and he continued his leadership style throughout his whole career life.
By summarizing all the events happened in his career life, he was conscientiousness type of personality.
He is helpful, careful to his colleagues. He is planful and persevering, since he know what steps he need
to take for future career growth, he gave up vertical promotion instead of horizontal moves because he
knew he can learn more in this way and it built stronger foundation in managing the company. He is
achievement-oriented, he wanted to be a manager, he took the job of housekeeping manager which was
avoided by many employees because he knew it was the quickest way to learn how to lead and manage.
Overall, the career outcome of Craig Smith is very success, and has achieved the career plateau. Under
his operational area, Marriott has more than 2300 hotels in more than 140 countries and more than 10
thousands of employees. He helped the company overcome many crisis and pandemic.
His career life matches the Galatea effect, when people have higher expectation on themselves, they will
work harder to achieve that. This is what Craig Smith did and eventually he was a good leader and was
beloved by his employees and shareholders.
3