BY FELIX L. H. MURILLO
Glion Online MBA
Abstract This paper identifies contemporary themes in the Hospitality Industry and why these are emerging or currently pursued. The themes selected are themes directly related with the expansion of hospitality businesses and in particular as they have an effect in the upcoming growth of Four Seasons Hotels. Although Four Seasons already pursues these contemporary themes, the current expansion situation speeds up the process and makes them critical.
The contemporary themes chosen have in common the term “distance”, whether this is chronological (generational differences) developmental (multidirectional career paths) or geographical (distributed teams). A more particular attention is placed on distributed teams vs. collocated teams within Four Seasons.
Introduction: Reasons to Undertake the Study
Four Seasons is entering a new era of accelerated growth, still remaining fully committed to its business model. In the current economical environment, the interest rates in North America and Europe are at an all time low. There are also many positive macro trends – including growth in world travel and trade, demand for luxury goods, and emerging market consumer demand –. These circumstances are coming together and pushing luxury business development in general and for Four Seasons in particular. In this environment the study of contemporary themes that will help support growth becomes critical to the success in the long term. The specific themes found to be relevant to this growing success are: Generational differences in work values, multidirectional career paths and collaboration in distributed teams (a further emphasis is made on this last theme).
Chronological distance: Generational differences
A group of individuals that were born in the same defined period of years have been exposed to similar societal and historical
References: Arthur, M. B., Claman, P. H., DeFillippi, R. J., & Adams, J. (1995). Intelligent enterprise, intelligent careers. The Academy of Management Executive, 9(4), 7–22. Askun, D., Ela Unler, O., & Olcay Bige, A. (2010). Understanding Managerial Work Values in Turkey. Journal of Business Ethics. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0185-y Baruch, Y DeFillippi, R. J., & Arthur, M. B. (1994). The boundaryless career: a competencybased perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15(4), 307–324. ProQuest document ID 228918914 Ditmann, M Four Seasons Hotels Announces CEO Transition. (2013, February 5). Business Wire. New York, NY, USA. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1284116887?accountid=45049 Gherissi Labben, T., & Mungall, A Groschl, S. (2011). Diversity management strategies of global hotel groups A corporate web site based exploration. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 23(2), 224–240. doi:10.1108/09596111111119347. Emerald Grosse, C Heinrich, E. (2007). FOUR SEASONS HOTELS INC. (TSX: FSH. Rogers Publishing Limited. EBSCO HOST Academic Search Premier Database Jarvenpaa, S Morris, S. (2008). How to get real results from virtual teams: Recognize that people, task and technology are different but equal. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 16(4), 33–35. doi:10.1108/09670730810878493 Ozgur, S., Devrim, U., & Smola, A Po-Ju Chen, & Youngsoo Choi. (2008). Generational differences in work values: a study of hospitality management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Emerald Article, 20(6), 595–615. Schneider, J. (2008). Lifestyle Hotel Trends Around the World. ProQuest -- Building Design and Construction, 48(13), 1. Siino, R. M. (2007, June). Emotional engagement on geographically distributed teams: Exploring interaction challenges in mediated versus face to face meetings. Stamford University. ProQuest. Solnet, D., & Kralj, A. (2011). Generational Differences in Work Attitudes: Evidence from the Hospitality Industry. FIU Review, 29(2). Tolbize, A. (2008). Generational differences in the workplace. Research and Training Center on Community Living, University of Minesota. Townsend, A. M., Hendrickson, A. R., & DeMarie, S. M. (2002). Meeting the Virtual Work Imperative. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM, 45(I). Zemke, R.. (2001). Here comes the millennials, 38(7), 44–49. ProQuest document ID 203405788 Completed: March 16, 2013 [ 2 ]. DeFillippi and Arthur (1994) [ 3 ] [ 4 ]. The incremental expenditure requred to transfer units at the time of hand-off (Von Hippel, 1998)