Student suggestions might center on the notion of managing teams rather than managing individuals in cultures such as in the BVI. For example, expatriate managers in the Caribbean might want to consider providing team incentives to whole departments based on their performance rather than providing individual rewards. This avoids singling out individual employees, which is uncomfortable for members of a collective culture. In addition, this might make employees more apt to engage in more aggressive and assertive behaviors if they know that their co-workers are doing the same and that they will all be rewarded as a group.
To address uncertainty avoidance issues in the BVI, managers might want to conduct more extensive training with local staff. Such training would help locals understand the full range of services that can be provided to a guest rather than the bare minimum. Given the characteristics of the BVI culture, with any of these tactics it will be extremely important to get employees with more seniority to buy in. These employees are the informal leaders in the organization and will set the standards for less senior members of the staff.
Students may suggest better understanding of the BVI culture could be achieved by WIYC expatriate managers if
■ the Chicago office were moved to Virgin Gorda,
■ Johnson was required to live at the resort, and
■ Fitch is also required to work from the resort.
Although there are problems associated with having these people and activities based in the United States, on further examination, there is a reasonable explanation for why Kimball has chosen this configuration of activities and personnel. Kimball is a wealthy individual who has invested in a resort in the Caribbean. His decision to remain in the United States is to stay closer to his market and because he never intended to reside in the Caribbean full-time. The resort must be looked at as an investment. The reason for Johnson working from Miami is due to two things. First, he wanted his children to receive a better education than was available in the BVI. Second, by not living at the resort full-time he opened a position for another full-time expatriate manager. The reason that Fitch works from Connecticut is primarily based on the fact that it places him in the largest market of potential guests.
Despite the reasons for these people and activities being based in the U.S., there are significant implications for the resort. In collectivist cultures such as the BVI, it is important to establish relationships with local employees. Kimball, Johnson, and Fitch have found it difficult to establish these relationships because they are not at the resort full-time. As a result, local employees can often grow to resent working for managers that don’t appear to be concerned with getting to know them and are instead seen as individuals who are seeking personal rewards by taking from their culture.
3. Who are the most effective expatriate managers at the resort? What are the key characteristics that make them more effective?
Mawhinney and Singiser seem to be the most successful. Mawhinney is seen as a manager who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty and who provides the clear directions that employees in this culture seem to want. Singiser has been at the resort for 12 years and this provides evidence to the locals that she is committed to the resort and to them. She has not separated her personal life from work and has developed strong relationships with her employees. These attributes are consistent with the cultural norms of the BVI and why she is respected to such a large degree.
4. Who are the least effective managers at the resort? Why do you think they are struggling in doing a good job of people management?
Steve Lucas, the Food and Beverage Director, seems to exhibit behaviors that would be ineffective regardless of the cultural context. It would be difficult to find a culture that would be accepting of reprimanding a senior employee in front of other staff members.
Dave Pickering, although not designated as a leader, seems to be exhibiting behaviors that would be effective for an informal leader in many Western cultures. Specifically, Pickering seems to be trying to lead through setting a positive example. Unfortunately, his efforts do not seem to work in this cultural context—an outcome that you should press the class to explain. One possible explanation has to do with the collectivist nature of the local culture. Standing out, or leading by example, is seen as behavior that is deviating from group norms and is therefore looked down upon.
The resort’s practice of allowing managers like Fitch and Johnson to be at the resort only a limited amount of time could well cause managerial problems regardless of any cultural differences present. Managing from a distance can often make employees feel as though the business is not a priority with off-site managers. In such situations, employees often behave “appropriately” when the manager is around and then revert to “inappropriate” or “normal” behavior when the manager leaves. Class members are likely to propose, perhaps correctly, that the resort’s managers should reside on the island and be on-site on an almost daily basis.
Although the situation could not be avoided, it is unfortunate that Lucas had such little time to adjust to the local culture and prepare for the coming week. Lucas has also separated himself from the group by not socializing with them during his free time. Expatriate managers often find comfort in speaking with other expatriates but this significantly reduces the chance of understanding the local culture. Interacting during free time can reduce the barriers between people and thus might provide the opportunity for Lucas to develop an understanding of the locals’ behaviors.
One related question you may wish to raise concerns whether Lucas’s behavior is due to a lack of cultural understanding or simply represents poor people management skills regardless of cultural issues. The situation in the case makes it difficult to separate out the impact of cultural differences either on Lucas or on his staff. Lucas might have approached the situation differently if working in the United States, but we are not sure of his past management style and experience.
5. What governmental constraints do hotels and resorts operating in the Caribbean face? Do these differ in any way from constraints that managers might face in the United States?
The government limits the number of expatriate managers that an organization can hire, limits the power that organizations have to fire workers or lay them off during slow seasons, and organizations are increasingly pressured to promote local BVI employees into management positions. Without the local government regulations and policies, solutions to the case might be quite easy. WIYCR management could simply hire expatriate staff members who are more qualified, reduce staff levels during the slow season, and fire employees who were not meeting expectations. However, WIYCR, like other organizations operating outside of their home country, must learn to manage within the prevailing constraints.
WIYCR could be more proactive in dealing with the limitations on the use of expatriate managers by training and developing local nationals for management positions. Such managers should have a strong understanding of the local culture and would not have to overcome the liability of being viewed as outsiders by other local employees. In the Caribbean, many resorts have sent their promising junior staff to hospitality management training programs in Bermuda and the Bahamas. Another alternative pursued is allowing and encouraging expatriate managers to teach hospitality management in local community colleges. This further develops and increases the size of the local national management pool for the future.
6. What short-term recommendations might Patrick Dowd make to Johnson to create immediate improvements at West Indies Yacht Club Resort? What longer-term recommendations are needed to improve the resort’s ability to meet the needs and expectations of its guests?
Dowd should probably divide his recommendations into actions that can be taken immediately and actions that need to be taken over the longer term. Because guests will be arriving very shortly, the short-term recommendations are limited. Dowd could begin by making the following recommendations:
Short-term
■ Johnson’s first course of action should be to make the local employees aware of the increasing level of complaints at the resort. Because many of the employees are illiterate, Johnson cannot rely on sending out or posting a memo. As such, Johnson might want to meet with each of the departments individually to discuss the issue. In addition, because of the collectivist nature of the BVI culture, it will be important to involve local employees with greater tenure in the organization in the discussions. This could be accomplished by first discussing the issue with department heads in private and asking how they would suggest that Johnson approach the issue with other staff members. The important part here is to assure that it doesn’t come across as the outsider expatriates coming down on the local employees. Everyone, including the expatriate managers, at the resort is responsible in some manner for the proliferation of these complaints.
■ Have Mawhinney work with Harrigan to devise some type of group bonus system and implement it within the next few weeks. Tie payment of the bonus to such performance measures as reductions in guest complaints, results of guest satisfaction surveys at checkout, guest expenditures at the resort, and so on—here is a good time to press the class for specific performance measures on which to base bonus payments. You can also poll the class for questions to include on the guest satisfaction survey—obvious areas include room cleanliness and décor, satisfaction with check-in and check-out procedures, satisfaction with food quality and food service, and views concerning attitudes and courtesy of resort employees. All guests could be asked to fill out a card at checkout; cards could be put in all rooms. We think the resort needs to institute a guest feedback program quickly to better understand and document the specifics of guest complaints.
■ The results of the guest feedback program should be shared with all employees on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, so that employees can see how well they are doing.
Long-term
■ Johnson should initiate a more comprehensive set of human resource practices regarding the recruiting, selection, and retention of expatriate managers. The case of Steve Lucas provides an excellent example. Lucas was hired based on his success as a restaurant manager in the United States. This is a pitfall that easily fallen into—assuming that a successful manager in the USA will be a successful manager overseas. The resort should consider additional characteristics of candidates such as: does the candidate have previous international experience? Has the candidate had any cross-cultural training? And how adaptable and flexible does the candidate appear to be? The resort should then consider the transition into the BVI culture. Lucas was thrown into operations at the busiest time of the year with little time to adjust to his new work environment.
■ The resort should begin to actively seek candidates for managerial positions that reside in BVI and/or that have international management experience. If the candidate does not have previous international experience, as was the case with Lucas, the resort might want to find a cross-cultural training program for the expatriate to attend before arriving at the property. For his existing expatriate management staff, Johnson might disseminate the information provided by Dowd regarding the cultural differences that exist between the expatriates and local employees to his management team so that they can gain a better understanding of why there is tension at the resort. These cultural profiles could be used as the basis for a cross-cultural training seminar for the resort’s existing expatriate managers. It is important that expatriates understand that how the locals behave at work is a reflection of their culture and does not represent attempts by the locals to undermine the management’s goals. Thus the focus must be on learning about these differences. Lastly, the resort could consider developing a formal mentoring program that would align new expatriate managers with managers such as Singiser and Mawhinney who have already proved their effectiveness.
■ Have Singiser document on a daily basis the problems associated with overbooking—both from an external (guests) and internal (staff) customer perspective. Once the rush period is over, send the documentation to Headquarters and ask Joe Kimball to discuss the issue via a conference call.
Epilogue
Jim Johnson’s contract was not renewed in 1996 and Kent Mawhinney left the resort at about the same time. Mawhinney took a position as the General Manager of Caneel Bay, another Rockefeller Resort managed by Rosewood Hotels and Resorts. Joe Kimball passed away in the late 1990s. In response to these changes at the resort, the Kimball family decided to make Kristin Singiser the new General Manager. Steve Lucas lasted only a few more months in his position and then returned to the United States. Enrik Harrigan left the resort in 1997 and returned home to Dominica. Harrigan now runs his own water sports center for a local Dominica hotel. The resort also welcomed back Bill Jones, the Canadian who had been very successful in managing the water sports center in the past. Jones took the position of Waterfront Director. Under the new management team the resort has been very successful, increasing both room rates and occupancy levels.