Mr. Benton started work in 1975 from the lowest position as Houseman. For 27 years he has been exposed to only two departments in the hotel – housekeeping and front office departments. This indicates that he has not been exposed to challenging tasks and therefore, has not developed the appropriate skills required in a supervisory role. Although he projects himself as someone who wants to achieve in reality he has not achieved what he hopes to become. This may be attributed to the fact that he is not confident due to his background and therefore, is just working for the sake of working.
Likewise, he lacks the supervisory skills and the willingness to lead others is relatively low. He tends to be soft in dealing with his staff and does not want to portray himself as a too demanding supervisor. He may be too lenient at times when strict leadership is required especially when he has to work late at night.
Nevertheless, when it comes to his workstyle, he shows keen interest in working with details — an ability which strongly supports him at present as a telephone operator. The doer and follower type, he would prefer to follow clearly written rules than that of verbal instructions. He likes to maintain neatness and order in his files to avoid administrative errors. Despite this, however, he still encountered mis-coordination with front office department on handling guests’ telephone bills.
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Mr. Benton apparently has no strong ability in creative thinking. During the interview he failed to mention meaningful examples about his creativity accomplishment. He tends to just follow routine procedures in doing his jobs.
As a telephone operator, Mr. Benton has to deal with guests or outside parties very frequently. In other words, he regards himself as a front liner who – to some extent — projects the image of Sun Hotel. Unfortunately, from an observable viewpoint, Mr. Benton does not possess the type of voice or intonation and communication skill which is likely to project a “professional or high-class” image. We suggest to take this into consideration since a pleasant and charming voice is one of the major pre-requisites for this position.
D. PERSONALITY
Mr. Benton appears as a person who likes to interact and is willing to deeply be involved in various conversations with others. He also tends to be loyal and can create long lasting relationships with others whom he trusts. While this makes him a truly sociable person, this would also indicate that he is likely to play favorites and can be subjective.
He is able to maintain his emotion under control and is able to endure routine and repetitive tasks. His communication skill, however, seems to be marginal as he repeatedly fails to express his opinion articulately. His pronunciation is also poor making his voice a bit difficult to understand.
E. STRENGTHS AND AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
STRENGTHS
• Has high attention to detail
• Has an ability to endure routine and repetitive tasks
• Has relatively fast work pace
AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
• Does not display initiative
• Poor supervisory control may create an image of a soft and weak leader.
• Marginal quality of voice, intonation and communication
F. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION
Mr. Benton joined Sun Hotel in 1975 as a houseman and then he became room boy for more than ten years. He was transferred to front office department and became a telephone operator and in 2000 he was promoted to be an operator supervisor.
Mr. Benton projects himself as a person who aspires to produce good results in his workplace. Basically, he does not have the confidence to lead others and actually prefers to just follow the rules or instruction from others. If he is given the role of a leader, he gives autonomy to his staff and avoids strict control to monitor their performance. He also tends to be reluctant to make decisions. If forced to decide something, he will seek for guidance or check with the established procedures. As a result his decision making process is relatively slow. He tends to be passive and does not display initiative to improve his team performance.
His main drawback, however, lies in his marginal quality in voice, similarly, his English ability is also mediocre. These facts may give the hotel an unprofessional image. Naturally for such position, voice should be clear and articulate and English ability should be excellent, since these two are major pre-requisites and vital to a telephone operator’s job.
Based on overall findings, it is apparent that Mr. Benton is not the right person at the right place. Likewise, he has reached his peak performance and has no room for any further improvements – therefore, Mr. Benton is recommended to be enrolled in the Early Retirement Package Program.