NAME: REENA SINGH

SID: RH20106

CENTRE: GURGAON

PROJECT – Organizational Change & Development

Organizational Effectiveness Case: Change Design in Human
Resources - the ITC Corporate Guest House
ITC Limited is an Indian Conglomerate, having turnover of 450 Billion INR, as reported in 2020
Fiscal Year. It has a rich mix of myriad FMCG Portfolio in addition to its Tobacco and Hotels
Business. The Organization’s Corporate Governance and its strategy can be seen from the
various level of Management at 3 interlinked levels.

Board of Directors - Maintaining Strategic Supervision. This Board consists of total 14 Directors
including the Chairman. Out of the 14 Board Directors, 10 are Independent Directors from
various expertise fields.

Corporate Management Committee - consists of 10 Internal Senior Managements responsible

for Strategic Management.

Executive Management – Consists of Divisional Business Heads responsible for the respective
Divisional Business and Units.

The Company has Corporate Guest House at almost all the Metro cities for ease of Travelling
and staying of the Board Members including the Chairman. One such prime Guest House hub is
in the Capital New Delhi. I am proud to be a part of the Chairman’s office and hence also
familiar with the internal Workings and system of the Guest House facilities. In 2019, when the
new Chairman of ITC was appointed, I was assigned the responsibility of running administration
of the Guest House as its Administrative Charge, as various reports of Complaints had been
reported from all levels i.e. – Functional Heads, Team Members, Staff associated with the Guest
House, financial implications etc.

To give a clear picture of the Organizational structure for the Guest house, below is the Design
Component:

1. Service In charge – Overall Supervisor looking after kitchen services, Serving the Guests etc –
Consists of 2 Staff for serving the guests, and 1 cook = Total 3 People.
2. Housekeeping In Charge - Maintain rooms, the entire building cleanliness activity. – Consists of
3 On roll staff who tend to Visitors and 3 contractual Workers used for overall any kind of
miscellaneous work = Total 6 people
3. 1 On roll staff for supervising all Technical Machinery like running of Central A/C, electricity &
Water tanks connections etc.

The Overall Supervising as regards to Budget, Any purchasing of assets, finance was oversee by
the Hotels Division GM based at the same location, since it was decided by Corporate HR
division that this being a service / internal customer centric facility, the hotel GM had the
expertise of taking care of the guest house running.

So, in a nutshell, the Organizational Group looked like below:

Team Functioning - Since this being an Inter Team personnel set up, the functioning requires
interpersonal skills which were clearly lacking in almost the entire working group of 10 People.
While I was deputed as the Guest House Incharge, the various complaints and issues to be
tackled were listed by me as below:

1. Quality of Service to the Guests staying.

2. No coordination amongst any team members.
3. Groups existed taking sides of either Service or Housekeeping incharges.
4. Complaints hurled on one another with respect to working and behaviours metted out to the
staff by the respective in charge.
5. Financial issues like day to day expenditure, budget limits etc faced by the GM as well as
Supervisor at Guest House.
6. GM Hotel – he was not able to tackle as he reported that the staff seemed to be using their own
judgements in day to day workings and not adhering to the Company rules and policy.
7. Maintenance od property was not up to mark as the housekeeping cited that they were not
getting the required equipment’s to maintain the building.
8. Another issue to note was the receiving of “Tips” from the guests. The housekeeping and lower
staff alleged that the service supervisor was keeping all the “Tips” rather than distributing the
same evenly amongst all.
 9. The level of employee satisfaction was nil as the staff also felt totally side-lined by the Hotel
division in terms of inclusion regarding to employee engagement, annual appraisals, increments,
facilities meted out to the regular hotel units’ staff.
10. Lastly the Medical Health of the Cook was delicate (had heart conditions) but he was not ready
to give up his position for want of not wanting to settle in any other unit for fear of being
treated as “Outcast”.
11. Overall Performance productivity of the Guest House had detouriated.

SURVEY
I was at this point made the Guest House In charge to resolve the issues and also bring quality
performance as well as productivity of the staff for an overall enhanced satisfied experience to
the guests staying as well as sort all employee issues.
Upon my taking the responsibility, I first toured the entire Building to observe the layout - The
building comprised of Basement, Ground plus 3 floors. The basement consisted of the
Conference Hall, and an additional hall which was used as a spare storage room for any kind of
disbanded products. The ground floor consisted of Office, in one wing and on opposite wing
had the Living room, Dining Area and Kitchen. The First Floor was primarily the stay rooms
assigned to the Head of Organization- The Chairman and his family. The 2 nd Floor had staying
rooms meant for the guests. The 3rd Floor had the staff rooms and also Gym.

INTERVIEWS
I then started with interviews as well as informal discussion to see the exact core of problem or
complaints each staff had.
Service Supervisor - He had less to speak and according to him everything was fine and the
only constant issue he was facing was that “Expenses reimbursed” from the GM Hotel was not
received on time and hence the justification for delay in any of the work being carried out in
terms of cleaning equipment. He had issues with the Housekeeping staff but refused to divulge
any details and retaliated time and again that the housekeeping staff did not work as expected.
According to him he had been serving in this capacity since last 20 years and hence he knew
more than anyone else on how to run the Gest house efficiently. However when asked to
elaborate he failed to give any specific reason or example. His only major concern was that why
suddenly I had been designated to check and inquire ( job insecurity ? ) with all the staff ? when
as clearly informed by him the issues lay elsewhere –with the GM and not at the guest house.
Cook and the Other Service Staff - They had a constant list of complaints against the
housekeeping staff as to no listening to them, not getting their annual increments and not
getting any promotions despite spending 20 years in their work profile. When inquired about
the Cook’s health – it was clear he was in a denial mode and refused to admit that he had any
health issues, these things he reported were a conspiracy to throw him out from his affluent
profile!
Housekeeping Supervisor - He had no complaints against anyone or anything and as per him
everything was running smoothly. (This put me under immediate suspicion of him)
Junior staff and the Contract staff – It was clear they had too many issues! They complained
about the treatment meted out to them by the Service supervisor, the quality of food provided
to them by the cook was totally not up to mark and although they cleaned the entire premises
and did all odd jobs as instructed by both the supervisors, none of the supervisors were
satisfied by them!

Technician – He was the only staff who was not willing to take any sides and was honest to
admit about the internal staff politics plaging the guest house and also told about the concerns
faced by the staff in terms of overworked ( as they stayed there 24X7) and underpaid.
One major complaint from the junior staff was the issue of” Overtime” allowance paid to both
supervisors, but not paid to any other staff, which left them feeling discriminated. The other
issue was that the supervisors never incurred or bought any material required for either the
cleaning of Guest house (housekeeping items like floor cleaner, mops etc) and other expenses
like any part required for any electrical faults (tube lights, any small part requiring
replacement). He insisted that all these expenses to be directly taken up with Hotel GM and he
was not part of any expenditure occurring except buying kitchen related items like vegetables,
pantry items etc.
Hotel GM – Lastly I met the Hotel GM to understand his working issues faced. It was clear case
of non-coordination between Guest House Supervisors and GM. He insisted that he had tried to
call them to his office many times to discuss the issues, but the supervisors always cited that
they had guests and hence could not leave the guest house to meet him. Also, he was worried
about the unnecessary extra financial expenditure faced in terms of excess “Overtime “and
conveyances paid to the supervisors as they were unnecessarily being too caught up in the
work but without taking any onus of responsibility. He also highlighted the issue of “Inflated”
bills pertaining to buying of vegetables, food items and showed his inability to control the same
despite warnings being issued to the staff.
It is also noteworthy to mention here that the GM was bit reluctant to reinforce the rules and
regulations adherence strictly at the guest house as the image being sent out was that all “High
profile” guests stayed there (including Chairman) and hence not to hamper in any way any kind
of working process or question any issues which might “hamper “their staying and hence in
turn indirectly the control over guest house staff was vague.
Another complaint was the maintenance of Guest House Building by GM, Hotels was not being
done properly in terms of budget allocation, overall equipment’s and furniture purchase which
he had to with the permission from the Corporate HR Manager.
Corporate HR Manager – He had issues mainly revolving around budget, financial expenditure
and also after hearsay reports about unsatisfied staff at guest house had requested me to take
up the charge and get down to efficiently running of the place and to resolve the issued once
and for all. His limitation he cited was that Head office being based in Kolkata , he was unable to
keep a track of employee activities or performance on ground level.

OBSERVATIONS

It was clear that a Human Resource intervention method and streamlining was required to
maintain the sanctity of this senior place and also Performance improvement as well as
productivity output plan was required. The major issue was the inter personal team work and
coordination which was in shambles. A total Reengineering of the workplace was required in
terms of staff, finance and quality service implementation. I had to make sure that being an
internal OD myself, I was not biased towards any policy or staff so as have all data recorded
systemically, for the planned change output. Here key component was to work on interpersonal
relations, group functioning dynamics and team building intervention success and performance.

PROCESS APPROACH

Confrontation Group Meeting - After the individual Interviews and planning of way forward, a
group meeting of the entire team was called and each team member was asked whether they
were aware of their respective responsibilities / roles. This core and basic discussion was
necessary to bring understanding to identify and indirectly solve the interpersonal issues. The
junior team members were upbeat about their responsibilities and showed enthusiasm on
exhibiting forth their performance results up till now. The Service and the Housekeeping
Supervisor were shown way forward by clearly mentioning their roles and also making them
aware that the result of their respective performance was a result of their team work which
included their inputs / contribution to their team as well. The goals and clear areas were
demarcated as regards to the service and housekeeping and the supervisors were asked to give
a weekly report as regards the requirements of materials by them and also a regular weekly
report of their jobs done. The service supervisor was to maintain a feedback log from the guests
pertaining to the service provided by him. The housekeeping supervisor was to also maintain
the check list for the maintenance done periodically for the rooms as well as exterior building.
Both supervisors were made accountable for the feedback from Guests, whether positive or
negative feedback and if negative they themselves had to analyse what went wrong and try to
find way forward for the same.

Addressing the Issue - The Cook was made accountable of kitchen responsibility along with
keeping the guests demand requirements on priority. Along with the cooking he was also to
maintain the hygiene factor related to Food and pantry.

The Junior staff was aligned with their respective supervisor’s goals and responsibilities and
they were encouraged to have open communication at preliminary stage with their supervisors
for any challenge they faced at job. The second point of escalation was myself, so they felt a
mentor relationship being developed.

The Technician already had his roles defined, but he was given the added responsibility of
overseeing the Execution part by the entire team members. This was done so that neither team
member felt any biased decision had been taken. He was also given the finance handling for the
relevant expenses so that all the relevant teams had the appropriate funds as and when
required. He was trained to maintain a budget for the expenses incurred so as not to exceed
the budget limits set for the guest house. The “inflated bills” issue was also considered and a
proper vendor was fixed for supplying all the necessary essential items at the guest house,
thereby reducing the wastage as well controlling the budget. The bills had to be submitted on a
weekly basis after taking my signature on them. The issue of expenses was also indirectly sorted
as with due timely submission of all bills, the finance was able to keep a tab on the allocated
expenses as well as compensate the expenses required at guest on priority basis.

Training was arranged after consultation with the Hotel GM for the team members to update
their respective skills so that the Guest House also would result in a professional customer
centric stay establishment. It was arranged for the Housekeeping team was sent to the Hotel
for acquiring skill sets which would enhance their output. The Cook was sent to the Specialty
Restaurant kitchen, so that he could also learn the latest food presentation skills as well as
learn new recipes which helped in bridging the home stay kind gap the guests felt. The service
Team was also assigned temporary duty in restaurant so that they mastered the art of servicing
guest’s presentation, and doing their service job discreetly.

Resolving Intergroup Conflict Resolve

A time was set (away from working hours) for the two core teams to meet informally along with
the OD Consultant. (In this scenario – myself). The purpose and objectives of such meeting was
defined to them so that a better mutual relationship was established. The two groups were
asked to list “what qualities their groups have”, and “how do we think the other group sees us
or describes us”? in an honest way and straight to the point. This made them aware of how the
teams were treating one another. For Eg – the Service Supervisor expected the Housekeeping
team to be at his beck and call for the kitchen cleaning whereas the Housekeeping supervisor
expected to do the cleaning only at intervals. They had on an open discussion and arrived at a
mutually benefitting schedule which made the work completed in a timely and organized way.
The HR Manager was also called for the meeting so that there was an employee –manager
connect with regards to their professional development. The HR Manager was also asked to
chalk out a career plan for some of the senior staff, who could be trained in a professionally
specialized way so that it would incentivize them to look forward to professional progression.

The Two groups after thoroughly understanding their roles were now put on the path of self-
performance with me acting as their observer. This was done only after their misconceptions
were totally cleared. The supervisors were instructed to act as more of a mentor / guide to the
team members and guide them properly in their duties rather than just yelling and exhibiting
behavioral issues.

The issue of “Overtime” was also dealt with. It was now given to the employees on basis of
performance output on a monthly basis on the feedback and basis of best results of an
employee rather than as a perk for few. This brought about a healthy competition between the
employees and they took it as a motivation factor reward for being eligible for the same.

Following up
As outlined above, the team met weekly for almost a month to discuss the agenda set and also
what improvements had been made. I asked them to list out the points which they could
significantly realize as improved. Some main pointers emerged as below:
 1. Emergence of a more organized way of working.
2. Duties and roles clearly defined.
3. Interpersonal behaviour improved.
4. Skill sets developed after relevant training.
5. Motivation amongst junior team members to perform.

6. Future Leadership skill sets developed by Supervisors on basis of feedback.

7. Yearly Financial Budget adhered to.
8. Core Vision and Values of what the Organization stands for –realised.
9. Teamwork and communication skill sets developed.
10. Positive feedback from the guests received.
11. Increased speed change and improved relation with stakeholders as well.
12. Positive influences felt from the Mentors to the Mentees.
13. Best Practices also developed after acquiring and observing various skill sets at the
Headquarters.

Two conclusions were particularly important – firstly of “getting the whole system in the room”
and secondly the team’s process had important influences on the outcomes. The more
“intense” the debate and discussions of different perspectives were held in the interpersonal
teas meeting the more robust, comprehensive, aggressive outcomes were developed in terms
of team work and problem solving skills.

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