Description
David Bart, the Plaza Inn’s present general manager, received a letter from Jean Durnas. Durnas is the president of Relais and Chateaux, a prestigious French hotel association in which the Plaza Inn is a member. The letter stated that the present services by the Inn are no longer within the standards set by Relais and Chateaux. Due to the Plaza Inn’s decreasing standards, Relais and Chateaux gave a six-month ultimatum to the Inn. If Plaza Inn’s performance does not meet the standards of the hotel association within six months, Relais and Chateaux will be forced to withhold the Plaza Inn’s membership. The problem that Bart faces now is what actions should he do in order to improve the Plaza Inn’s performance and how will they be implemented.
The Plaza Inn flourished when Antoine Fluri was its general manager from its establishment up to 1989. Fluri was one of the owners of the Plaza Inn. The Inn was even voted as one of the “Ten Best New Inns” by Travel Magazine. Despite the success of the Inn, Fluri sold his shares. Plaza Inn then hired Marc and Nicole Duval as replacement for Fluri’s position. During the Duval’s management, Plaza Inn’s sales and standards deteriorated due to their lack of knowledge and abuse of power. The Duvals were soon replaced by David Bart in December 1989 who was known for his solid hotel management background.
Due to decreasing sales and poor performance of the hotel, David Bart urgently decided to cut costs which resulted to firing some of the employees. Thus, the remaining workers must do more jobs than they usually do. The front desk only has one personnel all the time, and since the position of the PBX operator was eliminated, the front desk receptionist must accommodate guests and answer incoming calls at the same time.
One of the receptionist even said, “It’s extremely difficult to make a room sale when I constantly have to ask the customer on hold because I have to pick up the other five lines that are ringing. What is more important: making a $130 room reservation for two nights or taking a message from one of the managers?” David Bart then realized that the front office manager must be reinstated, therefore hiring Ms. Claire Ruiz who has worked in the hotel as a receptionist. Claire performed well in her position and the Inn regained its success.
But then Claire left and Laura Dunbar became the new front office manager. Hiring and retaining the front desk staff were among Laura’s biggest challenges. Since the front desk is understaffed, Laura had to work more than three shifts on the front desk. Laura insisted that the PBX operator position should be restored because the front desk staff is having a hard time to accommodate guests and answer several phone calls at the same time. One of the customers even said that “The front desk receptionists were responsible for doing everything with the exception of bartending and bussing tables in the restaurant.” In addition to this, the Manager on Duty (MOD) program, in which all department managers take turns in being at the Inn on call and in charge Friday and Saturday nights, had been cancelled by Bart.
By mid fall, Bart recognized that the MOD program and the PBX position should be reinstated. Nevertheless, Bart thought that Laura had lessened her role from an office manager to that of a front desk receptionist. Bart questioned if the Front Desk problems were a result of Laura’s introverted personality or whether from her deficiency in management know-how. Bart thought that Laura was incapable of expressing her needs to him and to the other managers. The front desk problem grew concern to David Bart. Evidently, it was an important position in the operation of the Plaza Inn.
Diagnosis
The main problem on the Plaza Inn management rooted from the front desk being shorthanded or short-staffed. Not having enough personnel to handle a critical job such as accommodating guests and answering reservation calls was the primary reason of having low sales and poor guests accommodation. As a general manager, I think the first thing one should do is to notice this thing. A good hotel manager should know that the first thing that a customer will notice in a hotel is its front desk. If the front desk staff does not carry out well on their job, the customer may feel that the rest of the hotel personnel also do their job terribly. Just like the old saying goes, “First impression lasts.”
Another reason on the poor performance of the front desk is, just like David Bart thought, Laura Dunbar’s interpersonal communication problem. She cannot properly express her needs to the general manager and to the other managers. Just like in one of the monthly management meeting, I assume Laura did not suitably told the F&B director her suggestion that the restaurant should assume the responsibility of supervising their own reservations and inquiries to make the front desk more available and improve their services. As a result to poor deliberation of ideas, the F&B director ignored what Laura suggested.
As stated earlier, the Plaza Inn is understaffed. Due to this, the employees of the hotel must do jobs that they should not be doing, like a manager parking a customer’s car because all of the valets are not available. There is also not a proper reward system, or there is not reward system at all. Instead, some of the members of the staff must work on their “day-off”.
Another one is that David Bart, the general manager, does not motivate his staff enough. A good employee will do his job good just to maintain his job, what else if you offer him a reward if he could perform better.
Prescription
If possible, the hotel should hire again enough employees to perform well. That is the first solution. But since money seems to be a problem in this case, the best action the general manager can do is to motivate his staff. He must encourage his personnel to work together harmoniously and do their best. One way is to hold team building activities. Such action could result to telling grievances to each other. Thus, all of the staff can work harmoniously and maybe result to better guest accommodation.
There should also be a series of leadership seminars to the hotel’s managers. If a leader works well, his subordinates will also do their job better. A good leader will serve as a role model to his followers. Also, a seminar may help Laura address her interpersonal communication problems. As a result, she can easily express her ideas, suggestions, and maybe her grievances to anyone in the staff.
Action
A leadership seminar should be held in every third month, or quarterly. The seminar will involve all of the managers of each department. Since every manager is present on that seminar, a designated employee on a particular department will take the manager position temporarily.
To motivate his staff, David Bart should install a reward system on the operation of Plaza Inn. If an employee performed well or received a positive feedback from a customer, give him an incentive. Another one is that each employee should have proper day-offs. Every one in this world deserves a rest once in a while.
The hotel should also hire enough personnel. Since the current staff is not enough, no proper day-offs will be given. The top priority should be the front desk staff and the PBX position. If a good first impression is made, a satisfied customer will come back and stay again to the hotel.
The Plight Of Native Americans
Native Americans have certainly suffered since the arrival of European Americans and other immigrants. There were many differences between Europeans and Native Americans, as both cultures were foreign to each other. Native Americans were the first people to inhabit what is now called America. Prior to Europeans discovering the new continent in 1492, Native Americans had lived on the continent for thousands of years. Some scientists believe that Native American ancestors, roughly 10,000 years ago, made their way across a land bridge that spanned the Bering Sea which connected northeastern Asia to North America, while some scientists believe that they originated in the Americas, based on modern Native American oral stories handed down throughout generations. Native Americans believed in Earth, not only utilizing its natural resources but also by looking at it spiritually, and they excelled at using natural resources and adapting to its harsh environments. The industrial Europeans came to America with an industrial power and purpose which nearly wiped the natural Natives from existence.
Tribes
Many Native tribes developed all over America over a period of thousands of years. Native Americans were some of the first people to use wood and build houses, canoes and tools. In the Southwest, they grew corn and built multilevel apartment style dwellings from adobe. In the Arctic, they were able to adapt to the harsh environments. Across “Pre New World America” settled hundreds of tribes that were very different from each other. They each had distinctive social and political systems, clothing styles, shelters, foods, arts, languages, education and spiritual beliefs. Even with all these differences, they still all have a common goal of strong ties with the land. Since the 1500s, these natural ties of Natives to their homeland were continually disrupted by the influence and supremacy of the European colonists and other immigrants.
Spirituality
One main difference between Europeans and Native Americans was that Native Americans were spiritual about Earth and European Americans were believers in Christianity. In fact, when Europeans arrived in America, they tried to retrain Indians to believe in Christianity. The following passage gives an honest view about a Native American perception about European religious practices, “Brother! You say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why do not all agree, as you can all read the book? Brother! We do not understand these things. We are told that your religion was given to your forefathers, and has been handed down from father to son. We also have a religion which was giving to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us there children. We worship that way. It teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive, to love each other, and to be united. We never quarrel about religion…” (Native American Testimony, 58). Native Americans worshiped the Great Spirit which had four commandments, respect Mother Earth, respect the Great Spirit, respect our fellow man and woman, and respect individual freedom.
Dominance
It is written that Christopher Columbus discovered America, but it can be said that America was stolen. Part of American history was certainly violent, a people being forced to forget their culture and past and learn new ways of whites, because they had different customs. Native Americans were viewed by Europeans as savages, enslaved and forced by abuse or death to conform. It is a dark chapter of the past. White Europeans from England to the Netherlands began to change Native America in the early 1500s, a culture of explorers and settlers looking to make better lives for themselves. Explorers looking for gold and silver began to impose their beliefs onto Native Americans, such as Christianity during the 1500s and early 1600s. Whites were firmly rooted in Christianity at that time, and a part of the religion is to get others to believe. Europeans had better technology such as metal tools, the gun and the plow made hunting and harvesting easier. Given the time period, all of this was new and astonishing. Natives were used to a primitive form of hunting, using handmade tools, never using a gun where they could kill food quickly from long distances. Whites introduced Native Americans to the horse, a new form of transportation and tool. They also introduced alcohol to Native Americans and encouraged the behavior of Native American substance abuse, “You sell it to our young men and give it to them, many times, they get very drunk with it and this is the very cause that they oftentimes commit those crimes that is offensive to you and us and all through the effect of that drink. It is also very bad for our people, for it rots their guts and causes our men to get very sick and many of our people have lately died by the effects of that strong drink” (Native American Testimony, 41). Whites also brought with them strange diseases. It has been said that more native people died due to foreign diseases than were lost in wars fighting for their homelands. The “New World” was started primarily for the European accumulation of land, food, and dominance.
Treaties
Treaties were a way for Whites to formally take over Indian Territory. From 1778 to 1871, the U.S. government tried to resolve their relationship with various tribes. Hundreds of treaties were formed for Native American tribes and were all different since each tribe was different. Native Americans would be citizens of their tribe, living within the boundaries of the U.S. which were executed by the President and executive branch and ratified by the U.S. Senate. Native Americans would give up rights to live on massive amounts of land and hunt in exchange for goods, cash, and knowing that there would be no further demands on them. Some Native Americans still live on reserves, as they still have several scattered around the county in today’s modern world. In Jefferson’s confidential letter to Congress in 1803, he explains plans for the expansion of European American territory and the encouragement of Native Americans to move away from hunting and gathering and towards agriculture and domestic stock,
“The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the U.S. have for a considerable time been growing more & more uneasy at the constant diminution of the territory they occupy, altho’ effected by their own voluntary sales… In order peaceably to counteract this policy of theirs, and to provide an extension of territory which the rapid increase of our numbers will call for, two measures are deemed expedient. First, to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to the raising stock, to agriculture and domestic manufacture, and thereby prove to themselves that less land and labor will maintain them in this, better than in their former mode of living. The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life will then become useless, and they will see advantage in exchanging them for the means of improving their farms, and of increasing their domestic comforts. Secondly to multiply trading houses among them ; place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort then the profession of extensive, but uncultivated wilds, experience ; reflection will develop to them the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare ; we want, for what we can spare and they want” (Thomas Jefferson Confidential Letter to Congress, 1803).
Orders such as these demonstrate that the Native were viewed as the least deserving and the most oppressed. European desires were of highest priority in the newly formed American government.
Current Issues
There are still problems with the domination of mainstream society over Native American interests. Between the years 1948 and 1957, Indians lost over 3 million acres of land. The remaining reservations were slums and Indians were forced to adapt to cities. Outraged at their situation, Native Americans didn’t turn to actual war, instead protesting, “In 1960, nearly 500 Native Indians representing more than sixty-five tribes converged on the University of Chicago campus in response to an invitation for Indian ideas extended by the Kennedy Administration. The younger generation’s energy and priorities rang throughout the symposium’s “Declaration of Indian Purpose,” which demanded Indian involvement at all levels of government policy-making” (Native American Testimony, 357). Although there is a modern push to implement programs in an attempt to resolve the injustices of the past, there is still much more which needs to be done in order to address the historical oppression of Natives.
Works Cited
Encarta. Native Americans of North America. 1993-2009. 8 June 2009 ;http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570777/native_americans_of_north_america.html;.
Great Dreams. 9 December 2009. 8 June 2009 ;http://www.greatdreams.com/native.htm;.
Nabokov, Peter. Native American Testimony. Penguin Books, 1999.
Nebraska Studies. Native American Citizenship, A long History of Treaties. 12 June 2009 ;http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/stories/0701_0141.html;.
PBS Online. American Experience. 1999-2003. 8 June 2009 ;http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tcrr/sfeature/sf_interview.html#c;.
;
The Poem “Comete” Nby Les Murray
The poem, “Comete”, by Les Murray, is a whimsical piece filled with words that wander through the reader’s imagination until they eventually culminate in a staggering image of a confident woman, walking down the street, her hair blowing behind her. However, the poem is almost too confident, and there are several hints that the poem may not be as optimistic or celebratory as it seems.
For example, the very first word of the poem’s only stanza is “uphill.” Uphill instantly creates a struggle in the mind of the reader, and this struggle is further depicted with word choices like, “oiled”, “fracture”, and “sheathed” all stand out above the other, seemingly glossy words. Then, directly after the poem’s only indentation, Murray speaks of “abstracted attempts” the hair had on the woman’s face. By using that particular phrase, Murray creates a “broken mirror” image of the face, suggesting the hint of a reflection. Perhaps what is seen on the outside is a near disguise.
Murray also thoroughly delivers the image of the comet tail trailing in blissful agony. The woman’s hair, the comet tail, is practically the main focus in the poem. This focus is possibly what gives the reader the notion of a blaze following the woman, and a blaze usually comes from determination, which only follows a struggle of sorts.
Nevertheless, Murray has created a beautiful piece with “Comete.” Though his rhyme disappears as the poem continues, his imagery is what keeps the reader’s attention, only to leave the reader wondering what is going on with the woman. What is she walking towards? Where is she coming from? These are the questions the reader is left with. However, because the poem is so solid and beautiful, it is like viewing a comet in the sky. There is much to be admired, and a lot of questions about how it is created and why they fall from the sky, however, most viewers do not necessarily want answers. They are content, simply, with questions.