MGT 424 Module 3 Leader Behavior Example

Spotless Rooms and an Empty Break Room: Task and Relations Behavior in a Hotel Housekeeping Supervisor

Student Name

Business Administration Program, Aspen University

MGT 424: Leadership

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Spotless Rooms and an Empty Break Room: Task and Relations Behavior in a Hotel Housekeeping Supervisor

The Riverwalk Plaza Hotel, a composite 220-room hotel in San Antonio, Texas, employs 34 room attendants who clean about 180 rooms on a typical day. Eight months ago, a new housekeeping supervisor arrived from a larger hotel in the same company. She introduced a 40-point room checklist, inspected every attendant's rooms daily and posted scores. Guest cleanliness ratings rose, and the hotel's internal inspection scores climbed from 86 to 95. But turnover among attendants rose to an annual rate of 70%, against 45% the year before, and exit interviews mention feeling watched and unappreciated. The general manager asked for an analysis of the supervisor's leadership behavior.

Two Classic Behaviors

Research at Ohio State in the mid-twentieth century reduced leader behavior to two broad kinds. Initiating structure covers a leader's work in defining roles, setting standards and organizing tasks. Consideration covers respect, warmth and concern for followers' welfare. Judge et al. (2004) revisited these two after decades of neglect, pooling about 160 correlations for each behavior. Consideration showed the stronger overall relationship with leadership outcomes, especially follower satisfaction with the leader, follower motivation and ratings of leader effectiveness. Initiating structure related somewhat more closely to the leader's job performance and to group or organizational performance. The authors concluded that both behaviors deserved renewed attention because each predicts different results.

The Grid

Blake and Mouton (1964) placed leadership styles on a grid with concern for production on one axis and concern for people on the other, each scored from 1 to 9. A 9,1 style focuses on output with little attention to people, a 1,9 style focuses on people at the expense of output, and a 9,9 style, which they favored, joins high standards with high regard for people through commitment and teamwork. The grid's value lies less in its scores than in naming two concerns a leader can hold together.

A Fuller Taxonomy

Yukl et al. (2002) argued that two categories omit an important kind of behavior. Their hierarchical taxonomy has three meta-categories. Task behaviors include short-term planning, clarifying roles and objectives and monitoring operations. Relations behaviors include supporting, recognizing, developing, consulting and empowering. Change behaviors include monitoring the environment, proposing innovative strategies, encouraging new thinking and taking risks for change.

What She Actually Did

Over ten working days, an HR specialist observed the supervisor during the morning assignment meeting and three walks through the floors each day, recording each distinct behavior.

Reading the Pattern

On Blake and Mouton's grid, the supervisor sits near 9,2: very high concern for production, little expressed concern for people. Judge and colleagues' findings explain the results. Strong initiating structure clarified standards, and quality rose. Weak consideration left attendants feeling distrusted, and satisfaction and retention fell. The pattern is costly: replacing an attendant costs the hotel about $3,500 in hiring and training, so the added turnover costs about $30,000 a year, and new attendants clean rooms more slowly for their first two months.

Why the Pattern Formed

Her previous hotel measured supervisors on inspection scores alone, and she was promoted for raising them. She also arrived as an outsider, and checklists gave her a way to establish standards quickly without relying on relationships she did not yet have.

Recommended Behaviors

The plan keeps the structure that raised quality and adds relations behaviors. She will hold a ten-minute huddle each Monday to share hotel news, guest comments and a recognition for good work, and will thank at least three attendants by name each day for something specific. Inspections will shift from every room daily to a random sample of four rooms per attendant per week, with feedback delivered privately rather than posted. She will consult attendants on two decisions this quarter, cart setup and the assignment of difficult checkout rooms, which some attendants say always fall to the same people. And she will ask newer attendants each Friday what made their week harder.

What the Attendants Said

Group conversations with twelve attendants, held without the supervisor present, filled in the numbers. Several said the checklist itself was fair and had made expectations clearer than before. Their complaint was the posting of scores, which embarrassed people in front of coworkers, and the sense that the supervisor noticed only mistakes. Two long-serving attendants said they had stayed through three supervisors and were thinking of leaving for the first time. Others said difficult checkout rooms, with extra beds or pets, always went to the newest attendants, who then scored worst. Attendants' own words matched what Judge and colleagues' findings predict: structure was accepted, while the absence of consideration drove people away.

Keeping Change Behavior Alive

Yukl and colleagues' third category deserves a place in the plan. The two change behaviors observed, including the supervisor's idea for a new cart layout, came from her alone. Asking attendants for ideas, such as how to handle rooms with pets or how to shorten the time spent restocking carts, would combine consultation with change and give attendants a stake in improvements.

Practicing New Behaviors

Behaviors that do not come naturally need practice. The general manager will meet her every two weeks to review her recognition log and discuss what she observed. The HR specialist will repeat the observation after three months.

Costs and Expected Gains

The changes cost little in money. The Monday huddle uses ten minutes already spent on assignments, and sampling rooms instead of inspecting all of them frees about an hour of the supervisor's day for coaching. If turnover returned to last year's 45%, the hotel would save roughly $30,000 a year in hiring and training.

Measures

Success will be measured by turnover, inspection scores, guest cleanliness ratings and a short attendant survey on whether they feel respected and informed.

Conclusion

The supervisor's checklists showed the value of initiating structure, raising quality quickly. Her near-absence of consideration shows its cost, in line with Judge, Piccolo and Ilies's finding that consideration drives follower satisfaction. Blake and Mouton's grid and Yukl and colleagues' taxonomy point to behaviors she can add without lowering standards: support, recognition and consultation.

References

Blake, R. R., & Mouton, J. S. (1964). The managerial grid. Gulf Publishing.

Judge, T. A., Piccolo, R. F., & Ilies, R. (2004). The forgotten ones? The validity of consideration and initiating structure in leadership research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1), 36-51. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.36

Yukl, G., Gordon, A., & Taber, T. (2002). A hierarchical taxonomy of leadership behavior: Integrating a half century of behavior research. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 9(1), 15-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190200900102