West Indies yacht club resort

Résumé du document

Since the beginning of globalization and the development of subsidiaries all over the World, the expatriate has become an element of security to protect the interests of the company abroad. However the expatriates are now facing several problems of adaptation with the external environment and the local people they live with. These problems produce a vicious cycle which can destroy the reputation, and finance of a company in the local environment. This case study highlights the difficulties faced by American expatriates in a Luxury Resort in the Caribbean islands. According to Hofstede, cultural differences can have a huge impact on the performance of a worker, especially in a relatively small environment. The Management of the company needs to formulate a program to train their expatriates, and set up a strict organization to reduce management problems and increase the commitment of its employees.

Extraits

[...] The Caribbean islands are a special region on the world with a long history and with its own culture, Culture is the cause of several behaviour of the local people as quality of service, acceptance of tourists, dealing with expatriates, work for foreign companies, hospitality level, productivity level, Red tape, state control, social assistance policies The culture of Caribbean influences the behaviour of the workforce. Paul Barron (2002) has published several survey about the education and the hospitality sector. In Education and Talent management: implication for Hospitality industry, he underlines the difficulties of the hospitality industry to attract and retain the best performer. David Solnet (2005) has published an article names Introducing employee social identification to customer satisfaction research, a hotel industry survey. [...]

[...] These dimensions were studied although several countries around the world. USA and Jamaica represent the best the two cultures in the case study. The result of the Hofstede about those countries was the following: Findings This section is going to present the details of the problems that the resort is coping with. The section is divided in three parts, according the number of issues, expatriates' turnover local staff issue and feedback program (III). I. The expatriates have a high turnover, due to two main reasons: The term of the contract of the expatriates, the duration of the contract is three years, without possibility to apply once again to the contract. [...]

[...] The system doesn't influence positively the staff to work hard and to work properly. The promotion system seems to do not work; only some locals had applied to have more responsibilities due to the “title system” implemented to reward the best employees. III. Guest feedback program has not been implemented for some reasons: The assessment of the employee doesn't seem to be the norm in Caribbean islands as show the system of pay for the local staff, without performance review. [...]

[...] To reduce the differences a communication program has to be set up in the resort. The lack of communication is the main factor of disagreement between the two group, the two group have to do effort to understand each other. The expatriates have to trust and set up a positive environment to work and to improve communication between local staff and expatriates. The management practices have to be more flexible and less dominator against the local staff, that could lead to increase the cooperation and the commitment of each group. [...]

[...] The wages should be indexed on the staff performance. The management should organize a partnership between expatriate and local associations to understand the customs and habit of the local people. The management should also set up a communication seminar or set up activities where staff and expatriates should exchange experiences, points of view, and spend time together. Those recommendations, increase duration of the contract, increase the level of selection of the expatriates, communication seminar, partnership, new system of wage indexed on performance and reward of effort, incitation to delegate, cooperate, have trust relationship and to be flexible on management, should be implemented step by step to avoid resistance and some of these recommendations could be setting up immediately as selection, contract and seminars. [...]