Write a 2000-word report for the Board of Directors of St Christopher’s Hotels that applies the theory from your Business Communication module to the case study in order to analyse the communication of a project team that organises special arrangements

Write a 2000-word report for the Board of Directors of St Christopher’s Hotels that applies the theory from your Business Communication module to the case study in order to analyse the communication of a project team that organises special arrangements for Elderly and Disabled guests and make recommendations to the Board

Case Study

Part 1: Your Role in St. Christopher’s St.

Christopher’s Hotels are an industry leader in the field of hospitality. They believe the primary reason for their success is their policy of diverse recruitment of expert staff who come from many different cultures. The Board of Directors know from experience that managing a team with a mix of different cultures can present challenges that companies without diversity might not face. You work in the head office of St Christopher’s. Your role is to monitor the communication of different teams and report back. You have been assigned to investigate the communication of a project team that organises special arrangements for Elderly and Disabled guests. There is no question that they members of the team are highly trained experts and respect each other. Their feedback from clients has been consistently positive, and the Board of Directors is impressed with their work and results. However, like most groups made up of diverse staff, there are some issues among the group that have recently led to tensions and frustrations. These issues recently resulted in a communication breakdown that almost led to the team missing an important deadline.

Case Study

Part 2: A summary of the testimonials gathered from the project team

Carmen (Operations staff) It’s difficult because our work involves a complex situation. There is no room for mistakes with the elderly and the hotel. As a result, everyone must follow the decisions of the operations staff precisely. There can be no questioning of it. There is no opportunity to listen to guests’ special requirements. If they have needs that we can’t meet, they should go elsewhere. It`s clear that each member of staff knows how to do their job, but I’m having issues with people following operational procedure.

Elliot (guest relations) Carmen puts me in a very difficult position. I know that she has a difficult job, and I respect that she takes notes every time we have a conversation. But I feel that the needs of guests and service users have to be considered if we want to remain profitable for the next 5 to 10 years. Our guests have very individual health and mobility requirements. These should be taken into consideration when operations decisions are made.

Samuel (Duty Nurse) The hotel staff should stop and think about how hospitals work. Hotels don’t normally have lots of sick and infirm guests. But our clients have a lot of problems. I’ve worked for years in hospitals. The staff would benefit from listening to my experience. They should also listen to and respect the elderly guests more. But the hotel is more interested in making sure everything happens on time. They don’t understand that the schedule isn’t as important as prioritising the immediate needs of the service users. Sometimes, the schedule needs to change. Sometimes, I think that Su doesn’t care about the guests as all. Don’t get me wrong, Su is very skilled in some areas. Her reports, emails and handovers are all very well written. It’s always clear exactly what points she is making and there is never anything unnecessary.

Su (Career) I don’t see a problem. Carmen is very clear about the rules of the hotel, and Samuel is always very clear about the medical requirements, and John always makes sure that he understands exactly what people are saying to him. Service users need strict rules and routine, and it’s best for them if that routine doesn’t change. It’s worked well in the past, so it will continue to work well. But, I do wish that everyone would stop being so rude and arguing about it. You can put your opinions in a more subtle way. You don’t have to be in people’s faces all the time the way that Elliot and Carmen are.

John (facilities) I’m not sure, but it seems to me that people are arguing because they aren’t clear on things. If we all sat around a table and discussed decisions before they were made, then it would be okay. Carmen shouldn’t just make decisions on her own. And, like, Su never asks questions to be sure she understands instructions, so, she always makes mistakes. And Elliot has made up his mind before we even start talking. We should try to limit the number of rules that we’re forced to follow. And someone needs to tell Carmen that her reports and emails don’t make any sense. She just writes out all the information in her head, and doesn’t realise that it needs to be organised clearly and logically into paragraphs for people to understand. She has long paragraphs that describe things that everyone already knows and she never seems to make any clear points. She’s just a typical Spanish writer.