Then we asked Frans how he would tell somebody that he or she will be fired. Frans told us that he tries to get a good conversation with them besides that he always tries to help them afterwards. He had to fire someone three times in his career. He thinks it’s not nice to fire someone especially when it’s about emotional, financial and family problems. He always tries to find a way out and if that doesn’t work he thinks it’s really difficult to fire someone, but you have to think about the business, not the emotions he said. When his staff makes a wrong decision it’s their own choice, not his choice.
We asked him what the most important thing is a manager should do to be a good manager. Frans thinks it is completely different for every manager. It’s important that a manager loves to work with people. He thinks a good manager is a manager who wants more of everything time and time again. Honesty and persistency are very important to Frans. He thinks when a manager makes a decision he has to hold on to it. It’s also important to understand the other side, because if you try to understand them they will try to understand you. He thinks it’s important to give and to take as well in business as in life. If you do something for someone, you can get something back from them, and so on.
In the following report you can find the extended version of above mentioned topics.
Description of the organization
Golden Tulip hospitality in general
Golden tulip is from origin a Dutch hotel chain with more than 900 hotels and 95000 rooms in more than 50 countries. According to golden tulip hotel magazine in 2007 Golden tulip Hospitality group is the eighteenth largest hotel chain in the world. The hotel chain, officially golden tulip hospitality group, is headquartered in Amersfoort and in Lausanne (Switzerland).
Golden Tulip Hospitality is a company that carries several brands; it offers Group services in the segments three, four and five stars. The Tulip Inn brand represents the three-star concept in the limited category of "First Class" service. The four star category falls under the Golden Tulip brand "Superior First Class" service for business and Resort hotels. The recently introduced five-star concept wears the brand 'Royal Tulip. "In the fall of 2006, Golden Tulip introduced" BRANCHE Restaurant, Bar & Lounge'. This is a free standing restaurant chain, which will have establishments in most Golden Tulip Hotels and Tulip Inn hotels operated by Golden Tulip.
Besides the more than 900 private hotels it also has 264 Golden Tulip franchises and 60 hotels operated by Golden Tulip. Golden Tulip was originally a Dutch foundation which six hotels (including Hotel Krasnapolsky) were established in 1962 to promote tourism in the Netherlands.
In 1975, Golden Tulip was commercialized to a subsidiary of the airline KLM. The Golden Tulip Group was acquired by the group Krasnapolsky in 1998. When Krasnapolsky merged with NH Hotels in 2000 it became a part of the Spanish Golden Tulip hotel chain. Two years later, in 2002, Golden Tulip was again repelled by NH Hotels. Golden Tulip became an independent company again, this time under the ownership of a number of investors led by Golden Tulip's CEO Hans Kennedie, now CEO of Golden Tulip Hospitality Group.
In 2008, two newly built hotels in Netherlands were added to the Golden Tulip chain, a hotel in the Amsterdam World Fashion Center and a hotel in Leeuwarden WTC. Besides that, in 2008 an existing hotel on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in the center of Amsterdam was added to the Tulip Inn line. The Golden Tulip hotel chain has requested extension of payment on March 31, 2009.
Golden Tulip Hospitality Group focuses on providing services through franchising, management and leasing of individual hotels as co by collaborations, joint ventures, mergers or acquisitions of existing hotel groups.
Golden Tulip hospitality brands
The text, mentioned above is about the organization golden tulip in general. The following is about the specific hotels of the Golden Tulip chain in which our interviewed manager is currently working at.
Job description of the hotel manager Frans Tonglet
On the left Frans Tonglet the hotel manager
At the Tulip inn hotel Maastricht- Aachen airport he’s a general manager for years now. He has full responsibility for the overall management of the company, including the staff, the , the budget, the company's and all other company resources to make the best use of them and increase the company's profitability. He has to report the chief director of all Golden Tulip residences in Limburg on a weekly base.
He has to make sure every guest leaves satisfied and are willing to come back. He also has to make sure that the overall image of the hotel maintains, because the guests of the hotel range from businesspeople to tourists. Therefore Frans has to adapt to all different kinds of people. He has to cope with different situations and demands. So in his job there’s also a psychological aspect.
When there is a problem in the hotel he is expected to be creative and inventive to come up with effective solutions.
One of his important tasks is to direct his staff. Therefore he has to have leadership qualities and be manager and leader at the same time. Everything has to be clear for the staff and he has the responsibility to do that.
Sometimes that is a hard task because he has to point out the faults people make and maybe even fire them.
Furthermore has to own the skill to be convincing to his staff and hotel guests, otherwise they wouldn’t take him seriously as a manager.
Because there has to be a manager present in the hotel at all times. Who makes sure that everything in the hotel is well running?
Luckily there’s a sub manager who takes over his responsibilities at the hotel, when Frans is absent.
Since the existence of the Golden Tulip hotel Parkstad Zuid-Limburg Frans became an operational manager of this hotel. Together with the managing director and the director in chief he had the responsibility for the overall management. Because the hotel has recently opened its doors a little bit different from his tasks as a general manager at the Tulip inn Maastricht Aachen airport. He has to promote the hotel by target group and manage all matching activities, such as hiring a photographer who makes photos which can be used in communication instruments.
Of course all common activities he has to execute at the Tulip inn hotel are similar to the activities at the Golden tulip hotel. The only difference is the fact that he doesn’t have to take care of the final responsibilities of the hotel.
All in all he has a very busy job and sometimes he wishes he could be at ten places at the same time, because of the large working pressure. He works almost sixteen hours a day. Because there’s a lot of pressure in his profession he has to be very strong minded.
Investigated issue
Conflict management
Conflict management refers to the long-term management of intractable . It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances standing up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Which forms of conflict management will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structure or social geometry of the case.
Conflict management is often considered to be distinct from . In order for actual to occur, there should be an expression of exclusive patterns, and tell why the conflict was expressed the way it was. Conflict is not just about simple inaptness, but is often connected to a previous issue. The latter refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas the former concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. Neither is it considered the same as , which seeks to reframe the positions of the conflict parties. (wikipedia.org)
Interview with Frans Tonglet
Question 1.
Are you an X or a Y manager?
‘’ I’m definitely a Y manager. I always tell my staff that the guests are always right. I try to stimulate them to make sure that they treat the guests in a right way.’’
Question 2.
Can you name a conflict you recently had with hotel guests?
‘’I don’t often make a conflict with a guest, because you have to satisfy the customer at any time, but if they don’t want to pay there’s going to be a conflict. When there’s a conflict about money is very important to handle correctly because you have to get the money for the profit of the company! For example two weeks ago a guest didn’t want to pay,
This guest was an important guest because he comes back to the hotel multiple times. He was an employee of an organization which is one of my biggest clients therefore this guest brings in much money. In this situation I had to make an agreement but if it wasn’t an important client to me he had to pay anyway! A money conflict is a really dangerous thing.’’
Question3.
Did you also have conflicts with your guest that weren’t about money?
‘’Yes. I had some Behavior conflicts with my guests. When they made to much noise or used violence. For this sort of things I have only one solution; take your bags and get out! If the hotel is fully booked there’s no other solution for that because there are enough people left who want to stay at this hotel. I have the same policy for every guest even if they’re corporate guests, business guests or regular guests if it’s about behavior conflicts.
Question 4.
Can you name a conflict you recently had with your staff?
‘’I didn’t have a conflict recently but I can tell you how I manage a conflict with my staff. When you are a manager you have a special way to manage. With new staff it’s difficult for me to get them all on the same line, because they’re used to something else. But when something goes wrong between me and my staff I try to explain it to them one to three times how they should do it, or what they should do, but if they don’t listen and I have to tell it to them for the fourth time there will be a conflict.’’
Question 5.
What are the most conflicts with your staff about?
‘’ Most conflicts with my staff are about the fact that they don’t think about the guests but only about their selves. I think the people who work here for a longer time, they understand me better than the staff in the new hotel. For example, they want to take a day off when the hotel is fully booked, but they don’t understand that I can’t give them a day off because one employee isn’t enough when the hotel is fully booked! Another problem is that the new staff thinks because I’m the manager, I’m the only one who has to come up with all of the solutions. If you want to be a manager try to explain the staff that they earn their money from the guests who come to the hotel. You always have to be 100% committed to the company.
Question .6
If someone has to be fired in the company, how do you tell him/her that he/she is going to be fired?
‘’In Holland you can’t fire someone from one day to another because they have a contract. Even if they have a zero-hour contract they can’t be fired that easily. If I want to fire somebody I have to go to the UWV company first if they allow me to fire somebody then I try to get a good conversation with them. I always try to help them afterwards. I had to fire someone three times in my career. The first one was a 26 year old guy who stole some money from the company. He hacked the computer behind my back and in two years time he got 5000 euro out of it. I didn’t fire him immediately because otherwise I would never see my money back. I made an agreement with his father to pay me back because he didn’t had enough money at that time. It’s not nice to fire someone especially when it’s about emotional things, financial and family problem. I always try to find a way out and if that doesn’t work it’s really difficult to fire someone, but you have to think about the business, not the emotions. When my staff makes a decision it’s their own choice, not my choice, but it’s also the other way around. I also admit when I have made a fault. I try to teach my staff they are responsible for the choices they make.’’
Question 7.
What’s the most important thing a manager should do to be a good manager?
‘’I can’t give you an answer to that, it is completely different to every manager. It’s important to love to work with people. A good manager is a manager who wants more of everything time and time again.’’
Question 8.
Do you think there are things you can improve in being a manager?
‘’I think that’s always the case. For example I reflect a conflict when I am driving back to my house. You have to learn from every decision you make. Like me most people struggle their whole life with one thing because they don’t learn from their experiences. You have to try to solve your problem in your own way. My problem is that I don’t have some kind of structure in my work. I don’t have a daily routine. I think a good manager has his daily routine. I think I work too much for my staff maybe they could also do some tasks I do. I think I have to learn my staff more, because than I could have more spare time. I think I do too much work on my own. A good manager would golf the whole day. I will never be that kind of manager. I find my happiness in this job and I think money doesn’t make people happy. ‘’
Question 9.
Do you think you have to know when to remain silent in a conflict?
Yes, because you know there are going to be problems. Especially when it’s businesswise, when authority is involved. There are moments you have to say: ‘Okay you’re right.’ It’s hard to define what truth exactly is in a conflict. When you respect each other, both can make mistakes and become angry at each other. If you respect somebody you mean it well, you have the right intensions. It’s a problem nowadays that we don’t have respect for each other. This world is to individual. Everything is in the business world is about money and they forget their personnel. The better you are for your staff the more you will earn.
Question 10.
Did you have had a conflict in the past were you did something wrong and someone had the authority of you.
‘’Yes almost every day. I think most manager are arrogant people because they’re stubborn people. What I learnt is that my boss is the boss. If I think that he made a wrong decision I tell him, three times, after the third time I remain silent and think: ‘Okay he is the boss.’
Question 11
Can you describe in three words what the most important characteristics are for a manager to manage a conflict well?
‘’Honesty and persistency are very important. When you make a decision you have to hold on to it. It’s also important to understand the other side, because if you try to understand them they will try to understand you. I think it’s important to give and to take as well in business as in life. If you do something for someone, you can get something back from them, and further on. ‘’
Question 12.
Do you think a great manager is also a great leader?
Yes I do, because when you’re a manager you also have to give orders to your staff. I read a book about different types of a manager. There are four different types of managers like a red manager who is very powerful and he is too fast for his staff and doesn’t watch them. The yellow manager is an inventive manager who’s on the same level as his staff. He climbs a mountain together with his staff, he’s very fast but when he’s on top of the mountain he didn’t quite know what to do yet but therefore he’s an inventive manager. He’s people manager. The green manager is a people manager. He cares about his staff. The blue manager is an analyst. He has structured plan and he always wants to know everything. The best combination to run a company is a mix of all these managers together. I’m the yellow manager. But in the new hotel I also have to be a red manager.’’
Question 13
Do you think you’re management skills are best reflected in this organization?
‘’Yes, because I’m a yellow manager and a yellow manager can be put everywhere.’’
Question 14
Are you the kind of manager who compliments his staff or who point out their faults?
‘’ I think I’m the last one at this time, because I’m very tired, I work too much and therefore I’m in an bad mood lately. But in other times I want to manage the company with fun and humor. Unfortunately I reflect my bad mood on my staff. I want to be in a better mood but work can’t wait so I can’t take more time off to take some rest.
Question 15
Did your staff ever told you that you have to be more structured?
‘’Yes, I admit it. I always say I’m going to do it better but when I make a structured plan it changes every day so I have to be inventive at all times.’’
Question 16
In which hotel you think you’re the best manager?
‘’In the new hotel, because I have to prepare my new staff in. Because I have to work with a new staff it’s a new challenge, new situation so it’s more exciting. I try to improve things I do wrong at the other hotel but I struggle with the same problems again and again as most people do. It’s very hard for me to not make the same mistakes. Management is challenge every day, it doesn’t get boring at any time.’’
Question 17
Do you think your inventiveness is also strength of you as a manager?
‘’Yes but I have to have a blue manager beside me. It’s a good combination in a company to have blue and a yellow manager working together. I have a blue manager besides me and that works in a good way.’’
English Language Skills
Gina Lempers
During this minor I have already learned a lot about all to aspects of writing, reading and speaking in English. I have improved these language skills compared to the level in my English language skills before starting this minor.
The writing, speaking and comprehensive classes during this minor are very instructive and the interactive part of these lessons I like the most. Because of the interactive part of these classes I’m learning these skills in a very intensive way. I also noticed that my participation in these classes is increasing compared to my major classes, due to the interactive aspect.
The management skills workshops are also very interactive, and instructive. Because of the use of professional terms and management jargon I will gain profit for my future profession. In addition the role-plays which we practiced in class, in which you play the role of a manager, for example an X or Y manager in a particular situation which we practiced in class is a great way to exercise my English language writing, reading and speaking skills in a more professional way.
I want to succeed as a PR-manager in the future. In this profession professional language skills are required. I have to speak in management jargon to make a professional impression, to be convincing and to be taken seriously by my co-workers or employees. In this profession I ‘am expected to make lots of reports, and other paperwork so my English writing and reading skills will come in handy at these activities. In these writing activities I have to use the correct sentences, grammar, tenses and vocabulary. In this job it’s also demanded to make and do presentations for your co-workers or a client. To make and compose a presentation I have to use my writing and comprehensive skills. To do a presentation I have to use my speaking skills.
I think I also want to work abroad in the future, therefore my speaking skills will come in handy. I have to speak a lot in English of course when I have to work together with people who speak in another language. I also want to learn to speak the language from the foreign country I work in. Before I can speak in a foreign language I have to speak English in my profession with my co-workers and client because English is the most international language these days especially in the business world.
I want to be a PR-manager for a fashion brand or company. Fashion is focused very internationally. Most fashion brands are brands from foreign designers like Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, etc. In that case my English language skills will be reflected. Because of the fact that English is the most international spoken language people will understand each other better if they speak in a similar language. Especially businesswise it’s important to understand each other, to make the right decisions by understanding each other.
English language skills
Thaila Laudy
The minor English helped me already very much to improve my English language skill.
I practiced a lot with writing, speaking and other important skills. I think the minor is the best choice that I could make, because this matches with my future job.
In my future work I would like to use my English skills because I think that this is necessary if I work in an international company or abroad. My dream is to work in a company which has establishments all over the world.
I hope I can work as a communication expert at many places like America, Australia, Asia, and maybe even live and work there permanently at one time. I would like to lead and manage the communication department of one establishment or more.
English is the most important language in the whole world I think, because this is the only language by which you know that people from all over the world will understand you.
I think in this job I will use my English skills almost all the time, because the company want to work in is international I have to write articles and reports and other communication instruments in English. I will also meet a lot of people with whom I can only communicate in English so if I want them to take me seriously I have to know how to use the English language. If I can’t use English right I will lose a lot of possible clients and customers.
I also have to communicate in English with the communication departments of each establishment, with my staff en colleagues who work in other countries .
To succeed in this hard and difficult management world I have to know how to be a good manager. Otherwise no-one will hire you.
I learned these important skills in the workshop management skills. I think it is very good to use role-plays in the lessons because than you can really practice with possible situations in which you can end up. I also learnt important words and concepts which I have to know when I become a manager.
I think I am a Y manager. I am someone who thinks that people and communication is one of the important things in the job of a manager, but because I am so committed to people, I find it hard to tell someone that I did something wrong or that they have to change something in their behavior. There for I have to practice more with bringing difficult messages and , because this is a very important task for a manage.
My main goal is to improve my speaking and writing skills more and more, so eventually I can participate in the international business world and function for 100%.
Evaluation of the presentation
Gina Lempers
My fellow student Thaila and I had to present our final professional product in front of our classmates of this workshop. We chose conflict management as an issue for our final professional product. During out presentation Thaila introduced us to our classmates. She also told them about the job description of our interviewed manager and the hotel where he´s a manager at.
I told our classmates about the interview with the interviewed manager. I summarized the interview with the manager and told them the most important and remarkable aspects of the interview.
Before we started presenting our product we suddenly realized we forgot to make a PowerPoint to support our presentation. We realized it when we saw that our classmates did have a PowerPoint to support their presentations. That was a struggle for us during the presentation. We realized that a PowerPoint is really supportive for a presentation just to visualize what you´re telling people to create a particular feeling with it. But we put all images needed to visualize our professional product in our report. So despite the missing of the PowerPoint we hope the images in our report will still support our product.
During the presentation of our final professional product I realized that I was talking very fast. I have to pay attention to this in the future because that´s one of the aspects of presenting I lack the most. I also made some mistakes in the grammar and tenses I used. Although I made some mistakes in the grammar and tenses I used and besides the fact I talked to fast. Our teacher also referred to these aspects. Besides this we also got some positive feedback. Our teacher enjoyed our presentation and our pronunciation was good. Although it was a little bit too bad not having a PowerPoint to support our presentation. We´re going to pay attention to this in the future. I think this went wrong because we didn´t know that the presentation would count for 30 % in the assessment. We were shocked by hearing this. We hope it´s not true because we didn´t have any knowledge of this. We weren´t notified of this. All in all I think the presentation went well and we both have learned from our mistakes and we will pay attention to this in the future.
Evaluation of the presentation
Thaila laudy
The presentation took place on Wednesday 07-04-02010.
I think it went pretty well. I was a little bit nervous in the beginning but after the first few sentences I began to calm down. We presented the whole report, so everybody knew what we investigated and what we learned from this assignment.
The stupid thing was that we totally forgot to make a PowerPoint. I think this was a little minus point in the presentation, but everything else went okay. You can find the missing images of the presentation in the report. The comments were also good. There was not much negative feedback. The teacher thought my pronunciation was sufficient and that I used good and difficult words.
I myself think that I have to practice more with impulsive speaking, because I learned the presentation many times and I knew what I had to say. I think that if I have to talk to someone in the daily life, I would find it much harder to use these difficult words.
We both thought that the presentation had to be just a summary of the report we had written, so we could tell the other students something more about the investigated issue. That was what our teacher had told us tough. To our great surprise a classmate told us that the presentation counted for 30% in the assessment, and the report also for 30%. Unfortunately that was not what the teacher had told us. We couldn’t do anything about it because we already presented our report the day before.
We putted a lot of effort in this report, so we hope the classmate was wrong and that the report weights heavier in the assessment than the presentation. But despite this we both thought the presentation went pretty well.
Literature list
- http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/Conflict.html
