Mr. Daniel’s career history dates back in 1979 working his way up from a security guard to his current position as Chief Security. Considering the nature of his job, Mr. Daniel’s work profile is that of a policy conformist who strictly adheres to company rules and regulations. He is highly dependent on company policies but still feels the need for guidance and advice. He regards work as an important and serious obligation. For this, he informed us that he was awarded the Best Guard of the Month in 1987.
Mr. Daniel revealed that he is short of manpower as his staff was reduced from 136 to 67. At present, part of his task is the overall guidance and training of the hotel and apartment’s security crew. He reports directly to the Resident Manager and sometimes to the General Manager especially when it comes to heavy incidents, which he cannot make a decision. Daily, he reports as early as 7:30 am and retires at 8:00 pm. He balances his time 50% patrolling and 50% doing administrative tasks.
His style in leading is to tell and reprimand whenever necessary. He narrated a situation when he fired two guards last year, one was a case of a stolen motorbike and the other was when one of his staff repeatedly used his name to gain permission to borrow money. Other than these two incidents, he claims that the most common problem he faced is tardiness.
One big challenge he encountered in his years in the security force was when he protected the hotel from the riots in 1998. It was a display of organizational commitment because he stayed in the hotel for one week, putting company’s interest first rather than his family. The result was successful because the hotel was protected and no demonstrators entered the hotel premise, which was thought of as one of Soeharto’s hotel. When probed, however, Mr. Daniel revealed that the expatriate GM and the rest of his crew were all united and strongly supported one another at that time.
Another challenge he finds is the lack of basic security training and not meeting physical requirements (height and weight) of the newly transferred personnel from other department hired as security guards. He revealed that he was forced by management to absorb the terminated staff. As far as his job is concerned, Mr. Daniel uses his diplomacy when guests complain. Since he believes that customer is king, he avoids any conflict with them and refers back to hotel policy to handle the situation.
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A. PERSONALITY
Mr. Daniel uses his diplomacy and tact at work. While his profile shows that he is an open and expressive person, during the interview, he came across as a quiet and calm type tending towards social introversion. When answering questions, he replied by giving theories and the right statements rather than giving us actual examples of his past experiences. He did not quite know his own personal strengths and weaknesses, too. He appears to be the type who is waiting for the year 2007 to come for the time when he retires. He tends to avoid confrontations to maintain a harmonious environment and can interact with groups and individuals fairly well.
B. STRENGTHS AND AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
STRENGTHS
• A policy conformist
• Diplomatic in approach
• Fast to make decisions within his authority
• Displays the hard worker type and dedication to the job
AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
• May be too dependent to policies and spoon-fed instructions from the boss instead of being resourceful and creative when it comes to critical situations
• Familiarity on the job seemed to soften his leadership skills despite his high need to control his security crew, may allow some leniency.
• Lacks the inner drive to achieve any further, may be on the verge of retiring.
C. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION
Mr. Daniel has spent 22 years of his working life in Hotel and Apartment in the Security Department. Undoubtedly, he knows his work by the book and by the heart. He regards work as something important and appreciates the years spent at Sahid. He began his career as security guard and earned the recognition as Best Employee of the Month award in 1987.
Mr. Daniel is a simple worker, the doer type who seems to be contented with his current status. His major strength is his lengthy years of security experience, which he is happy to share with his staff. Other than that, he regards himself as an average normal worker who follows rules and focuses on customer’s needs. He gains satisfaction when he gets recognition both from the guests and his superiors. He finds himself weak in administrative matters and in English. He also appears to be too dependent towards company policies and from his boss. This leaves him no opportunity to develop or create original ideas. Likewise, his leadership skill seems to be fading and may favor familiar faces making him subjective rather than objective.
Based on the overall findings, Mr. Daniel needs to polish his managerial skills to be more effective on the job and to be able to command respect and authority as the Chief. While he has the appropriate skills required in a security function, it is apparent that his energy level may be decreasing and his style of leadership is weak for a 670-room and apartment towers complex. Furthermore, it seems that he is on the verge of retiring stage thus may just be working for the sake of working. We recommend him to be considered for the early retirement program.