Subject Title | Strategic Management in Tourism and Hospitality |
Subject Code | HOS801 |
Assessment Title | Assessment Two – Individual Report |
Assessment instructions | Each individual student will write a 1,500 word report on one critical strategic management issue for an organisation of their choice in the Tourism and Hospitality industry. Students are encouraged to engage with a Tourism and Hospitality business identified in the course or draw upon their own industry experience to uncover a key strategic management issue for a business in the Tourism and Hospitality industry. Some key areas of strategic management in the Tourism and Hospitality industry that may be of interest could include the following; competition, resources, competitive advantage, business level strategy, corporate level strategy, organisation structure and controls, globalisation, entrepreneurship, leadership and sustainability. This assessment seeks to develop the critical thinking skills and abilities of students through the identification |
of a relevant strategic management problem for a Tourism and Hospitality business and the development of a viable strategic solution for that problem. Important Instructions This Assessment is individual and contributes 30% to the final mark for the course. The word count limit is 1,500 words (plus or minus 10%), excluding Appendices, References and Quotations. Times New Roman 12 point font and 1.5 line spacing. APA referencing as per 2018 ICMS Style Guide. Header to contain student names and identifier numbers only. Footer to contain page number only. Plagiarism Declaration attached as first page inside the cover page. Last page of the Originality Report attached as second page inside the cover page. Refer to and comply with, all the relevant requirements for a Business Report as listed in the ICMS Style Guide and note particularly the penalties that apply to non-compliance with the word count limit and late submission. |
HOS801: Strategic Management in Tourism and Hospitality
Lack of sustainable policies to reduce Environmental impact in Marriott Hotels Australia
Executive Summary
Lack of sustainable policies in the organisational structure of Marriott Hotel Australia will have a negative impact on the environment. Business administration must need to integrate with the hotel’s environmental policies with other financial and operational policies. This report considers the environmental policies of Marriott hotel as a part of the tourism and hospitality industry and discusses its key recurring problems in maintaining its policies. Sustainability through the policies can be achieved by making proper utilisation of the hotel’s key resources. It is recommended for the hotel to introduce Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its environmental policy. The hotel is also required to commit towards the corporate stewardship such that it could help it to reduce down the negative impact on its environment.
Introduction
Lack of sustainable practises is a strategic issue which is a critical challenge or fundamental policy question affecting an organisation’s mission, resources, mandates, stakeholders, values, management, process, structure, service, product level mix and environment as well. It is utmost important to identify the strategic issues in organisational periscope, which is one of the most difficult tasks in the planning process. Hospitality and tourism industry is facing several strategic management issues in daily life, and among all one of the key basic issues was selected for analysis. The managers of this industry are forced to juggle several tasks in daily life at any given time. This report analyses key strategic management issue known as lack of sustainable policies to reduce Environmental impact in Marriott Hotels Australia. Certain sustainable practices in the hotel industry are considered as universal for the lodging industry. The key recommendations derived from analysis of these issues were expected to resolve it and provides insight for the future strategic management of the organisation.
About Marriott Hotel Australia
Hospitality and tourism industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world that is characterised by technological continued advancements (Wells, Rismanchi & Aye, 2018). The mentioned advancements have helped to create wonders to improve organisational customers experience and efficiency. However, it has also brought some of the major issues in the hospitality industry, which has affected the way the services are operated. The existing issues create bottlenecks for impeding the expected growth. Marriott Hotel Australia has a parent hotel, Marriott International which is a brand leader offering most powerful portfolio in the tourism and hospitality industry. The hotel chain is having 30 brands and 7000 above properties across 131 countries and territories (Marriott, 2019a). This hotel gives people a way to experience, expand and connect the world. Marriott Hotel Australia has; produced its sustainability and social impact report every year. This is intended to help stakeholders to learn more about the hotel rules and corporate social responsibilities. All the reports produced by the hotel are available publicly to the readers about its natural resource utilisation. However, the policies aligning the profit and environmental sustainability became the key issues of discussion.
Analysis of sustainable policies
In the year of 2017, Marriott Hotel Australia has utilised new standards of Global Reporting Initiatives which represents the best current global practices for reporting a range of social, economic and environmental impacts (Marriott, 2019b). However, aligning the hotel’s generated profit with environmental sustainability policies are quite dissatisfactory. Being a global giant, it is utmost important to find solutions for integrating better environmental sustainability in day to day operations. There are four such key barriers exist in the environmental policies of Marriott international and overcoming, which the hotel will achieve sustainability and reduce environmental impact. Weiss & Straub (2018) have stated that the implementation of corporate environmental sustainability strategies became standard practice in modern days. There are only 51 companies in Australia which are mandated to report under NGERS (National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme) to showcase their environmental responsibilities (CPA Australia, 2019). At present, 68% of the Australian companies are investing billions of dollars in order to reach the targets of renewable energy procurements (The World Law Group, 2019) (refer to Appendix 1). Almost AUD 25 million has been invested in renewable generation in the year 2018 within the country (Letts, 2019). Though the Marriott Hotel Australia has achieved encouraging progress, global environmental challenges have created more pressure on the strategies of corporate environmental sustainability. Jones, Hillier& Comfort (2016) have stated that many of the global business have not integrated the environmental sustainable policies and procedures for long term decision making. As from the analysis of Marriott international sustainability policy, it can be stated that the existing practices and followed policies are not enough to protect the natural resources in which the current businesses and society depends on (Andeobu, Hettihewa& Wright, 2015). The sustainable policies and practices designed by the Marriott international were not properly aligned with the profit generated by the hotel.
Barriers in sustainable functions of the hotel
There are four such barriers which are identified as a part of the lack of sustainable policies to reduce the environmental impact in the Marriott international hotel.
Strategies to reduce down the gaps
In order to overcome the above barriers, the hotel needs to introduce sustainable development policies and procedures while linking the environmental, social and economic objectives of societies in a balanced way (Friess et al. 2016). The sustainable development policies must need to meet the environmental needs of the present with its manufactured products and services. Sustainable common green practices included are of linen reuse programs and water-conserving fixtures. In order to execute environmental sustainability in the hotel’s policies and procedures, it is important to participate in sustainability programs with the key stakeholders. However, the hotel also needs to focus on consideration of cost override and convenience, along with the presence of green operation. From the report of sustainability, it has; been observed that the link between improved customer satisfaction and environmentally sustainable programs are very weak in compared to the other standard drivers of hotels like room, food, beverage qualities and facilities. Herzallah, Mohamed& El-Aal (2018), has stated that the standard drivers and sustainable programs are expected to maintain as a regular feature for the business. The Marriott international needs to give continuous effort in controlling the cost through the above mentioned sustainable practices while limiting the consumption of energy and water. Resource usage of hotels is still considerable though the conservation efforts were given for many years.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that understanding of the management issues will give hospitality managers and hoteliers a clear edge over the competition. It is important for the Marriott international hotel to align and integrate with the finance and corporate environmental responsibilities. Marriott international was well known for its environmental sustainability efforts. This firm’s carbon reduction and energy sustainability goal was proved to be more elusive. The sustainability efforts of the hotels are essential for saving resources and energy. From the whole analysis, it can be concluded that the key element of any programs mentioned in the policies must need to relate with the guest's participation and reaction. Lack of sustainable policies to reduce environmental impact has created serious issues in the hotel’s culture.
Recommendations
It is highly recommended for Marriott Hotel Australia to take further steps to reduce environmental impact on their service, supply chain and products.