While a nimble and small, FC afforded the opportunity to with large clients on cutting-edge projects. Blake entered the company and immediately gets assigned to his first account right after a brief company’s introduction and two weeks orientation. Working as a junior consultant, Blake was in charge of giving proposals in hotel maintenance managements and solving services problems of a boutique hotel client. The client was called “Royal hotel”, located in NYC offering luxury services for executive clientele visiting Manhattan on business.
After identified hotel’s problem, Blake gave a bunch of high-tech solutions which included a Rapid Response module, quality control system, preventative maintenance module, and the Reporting Module. However, Blake was unexpectedly withdrawn from his first task prior to the upcoming roll-out and implementation and was called back again just a couple weeks later because of the poor performance of new information system running. Blake’s boss GM hotel was extremely unsatisfied with that. Main reasons for the failure—people factors Inexperienced Blake and Employees’ attitudes
The information system is the combination of software, hardware, data, people, and procedures. In a broad sense, the information system is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) that an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes. Briefly stating, information system is the integration of humans and machines, thereby, using resources to produce specific products and/or services for customers (Kroenk, D M. 2008. Experiencing, MIS.
Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ) Obviously, Blake was so young with zero work experience, and meanwhile, he was told to work along with whole project. Blake is not aware but his oversights of people’s involvements and factors had impacted the entire system. He never asks whether employees are willing or reluctant to follow the new rules. As stated in the case:” the IT director mentioned that the installation and training session had been smooth sailing. Employees had been very eager to learn about the new system but seemed to lose that interest rapidly afterward. In the meantime, the director of housekeeping and director of maintenance simply note that employees found the old manual system to work much better for their needs. Thereupon, people already get used to old manual and want stay still without trying new stuffs. The general manager of Royal hotel In the case, The GM of royal hotel was initially described as a no-nonsense, old school hotelier. But what actually the solutions Blake proposed was all like “New school” stuffs, which relies on electronic access and phone interface reporting, digital information tracking rather than hierarchal information reporting for high efficiency.
Whereas, it looks like the GM did not really care what kind of solutions will be employed, but he did care about what the results are and whether they have met his expectations. But, overall, the cultural conflicts which could appear not to have been addressed. The staff adjustment When Blake was transferred off, Jack Scarso was put into the project afterward. Jack Scarso was in the same college with Blake, they had a couple of teamwork experiences, but Blake held low esteem on him. Jack was told to take over a “half-baked design” from Blake. The staff change was proved as a terrible decision particularly when project still in processing.
Jack knows little of what Blake have done and what supposed to be done next. He is not even competent enough to fill that position compared with Blake. The information system can’t run well if the people inside it do not interact and support technology properly. Thereupon, Jack eventually screwed up and the FC boss can retrieve nothing but call Blake back. Solutions Employee aspect The solution to problems by employees should be addressed by troubleshooting their attitudes or thoughts. In the meantime, Blake has to go through the problem again and figure out what current situation is.
For instance, Blake can have an individual meeting with each employee, to fully understand why they prefer an old information system rather than new one. Did they have stereotypes on new IS and reluctant to use thereby? Or they just felt the new IS was not the same good as the old one. Listening suggestions from employee patiently, collecting their thoughts and integrating them in final solution. For other method, Blake can take a survey among hotel employees and get known why things happened for certain reasons, and then making decisions accordingly.
The survey question may include like: Why did employee lose interest interests rapidly afterward and stop using it? What kind of new IS could be more acceptable among employees? Did the reports accessible to HQ? Or Communication failure happened due to technical difficulties on devices? Via the meeting or survey process, Blake can rectify mistakes while carrying out a bunch of solution plans and design modifications on new IS Also, cash reward can help as well, The Hotel GM or Blake can launch a rewards scheme that employee who did their best in fastest and most accurate problem reporting can be awarded with bonus pay every day or every week.
Thus, I believe the new IS will be welcomed among hotel’s staff quite soon. GM’s side Blake has to persuade GM that the failure wasn’t because the new IS was flawed, but employee did not have a willingness to use. And meanwhile, Blake may promise GM that new IS will be re-used after a while. Staff adjustment Blake should tell everything detailedly to jack before his leave. Or, jack should ask Blake before he takes everything over. The insufficient preparation before staff changing is one of the big reasons caused the failure.
Now, what Blake ought to do is by going over the project process with Jack again, find out what is going wrong and how it can be fixed. The main mistakes The main mistakes come from Blake and his Boss in FC. At the very first beginning, Blake believed everything could go quite comfortably as he expected. But, he was proved wrong due to the oversights of human factors in IS. Obviously, one of the main mistakes is attributed to his inexperience and underestimates to potential problems. Alternative analysis Beside Blake himself, personally, I believed Blake’s boss should be responsible for the major mistakes of whole things.
The FC boss was that kind of person who offer little support and mountains of expectations and seems to take little or no responsibilities to the whole IS project. He rushes into anything without a careful planning. For example: First, the boss immediately assigned Blake to engage the first job along without any practical training. Second, the boss withdrew Blake from current project to a new project unexpectedly. In the end, the boss gets angry with Blake on the first project because the GM in royal hotel was unsatisfied with the outcome.
Throughout the case, FC boss always looks that greedy who wants to gain everything without paying. Conclusion Overall, the case of “Troubleshooting Information Systems at the Royal Hotel” mainly reveals an importance of people’s involvement in IS. Specifically, it covers how people interact with technology (hotel employees and M-Tech’s Espresso product) and how people interact with people (Blake, FC boss, Jack, Royal hotel GM and the rest of hotel staff). The information system is running like a chain that every factor should get involved and must work well, if not, the whole system will fall apart.
