Proposed Solutions, Recommendations and Action Plans
International Business Problems
- Problem 1: Pressure to comply with international regulations rather than the internal mechanism that create value and enhance safety.
- Adopt strategic management practices that focus on enhancing the internal business environment,
- Constitute a special management taskforce to deal with the external business environment.
- Set a management team to initiate internal programme for managing for sustainable practices.
- Enact a policy to ensure that biodegradable materials or recyclable materials are used are mainly used in the ships and come up with measures to deal with non-biodegradable wastes.
- Problem 1: Increased competition.
- Use of technology to enhance the safety of guests; come up with an application in which each passenger can voice health and safety concern by an alert system.
- Invest in promotional services
- Have an elaborate corporate social responsibility programme to promote the image of the company as a caring and safer cruise ship.
Recommendation
- RCL should invest in research and development of the technological application that will enhance efficiency in the company.
- It should also empower the top management in order to be motivated in creating a culture that promotes safety and environmental sustainability.
- The internal design of the ships should put into consideration factors that enhance the health, security and environmental status.
Action plan
- RCL’s top management is to initiate restructuring programme of the organisation by the creation of fully fledged departments to deal with health, security and environment matters.
- To come up with a management strategy that creates synergy in all key departments and ensures free flow of information; the system to be automated in order to enhance general performance of the organisation.
Strategy Management Problem
- Failure to identify internal management issues that derail performance
- To outsource external consultancy services that will help in building management system that upholds safety, health and environmental management.
- To strive towards elimination of work duplication that contributes to ineffective role play.
- Initiate a policy that will lead to re-evaluation of the employees and to understand their strength and weakness.
- Assigning duties based on capabilities of individuals; the employees should be able to leverage on each other in the implementation of the company’s policies.
Recommendation
- RCL should enact policies that entice the employees to work towards achieving the overall company’s goal of safety, health and sustainable environmental practices.
- The company should build teams which have clear goals to accomplish; the goals should resonate with the health, security and environmental needs.
- The teams to be divided into three functional groups i.e. health team, security team, environment management team and a management team to oversee the operations of the other teams.
Action plan
- To set up a human resource department with the right personnel to develop the working teams and take care of individual needs of the employees.
- To invest in team building activities in order to create cohesive teams which understand their mandates and that of the company.
Marketing Management Problem
- . Inability to identify the organisational niche in the target market
- To take advantage of the current market position in order to create a niche characterised by safety standards, health and sustainable environmental practices.
- The management to design a new business model that focuses on service delivery in the cruise ship industry.
Recommendations
- It is advisable that RCL should use the SWOT analysis strategy to understand and exploit the opportunities in the market.
- Adopt strategies that enhance value for the services provided to the customers.
- To use safety and health initiatives as elements of gaining competitive edge.
- RCL should invest more in technologies and practices that are friendly to the environment in order make it a pace setter in the industry in relation to the environmental management practices.
- To quantify the strong points of the company and use the as the basis for overcoming the inherent challenges that relate to environment, health and safety management.
Action plan
- To design a corporate social responsibility program that is aimed at preserving the waterways; to remain socially responsive to societal concerns.
- To adopt management procedures that create value for RCL and at the same time remain socially responsive.
- The management of RCL to initiate health care and safety programmes to take care of the guests during the cruise period.
- Make use of modern technology t ensure that all departments are interlinked so that coordinated response can be easily executed in case of an issue. The coordinated response will provide a unique customer care process that superior to that of competitors.
- Focusing on the current performance and failure to prepare for the future
- To study the market and forecast possible future happening based on reliable data.
- To invest in strategies which make the company flexible to respond to changes in market trends.
Recommendations
- To develop a business model that addresses the environmental, safety and health challenges the business is currently facing.
- The business model to be easily adjustable to changes in operations of the cruise ship business.
Action Plan
To create scenarios based on internal and external forces and design possible response strategies.
Solutions to Human Resource Management Challenges
- Lack of clear policy on how to implement the strategic decisions that are supposed to enhance the safety and security of the guests due to poor planning.
- To amend the human resource policies and adopt practices which promote employee satisfaction.
- To train its staff on the value of the guests and measures to create value for them thorough an organisational culture that emphasizes on the wellbeing of the customers.
Recommendations
- It is advisable to design HR enhancement program that is in line with the overall goals of the company.
- Implement an organisational structure which enhances systematic process of solving problems by bringing on onboard all employees, i.e. transformational leadership model in which employees actively participate in company’s decision making process.
- To invest in a reward system that is supposed to motivate employees who display good performance in security, safety and environment initiatives.
Action Plan
- To create a human resource work system that recognizes the capabilities of the employees and awards them points based on their performance in selected fields and the execution of the company’s strategies.
- The system should include the aspects of empowering the human resource through a training programme that prepares them for the work requirements and service to the guests.
- Implement a leadership style that enhances a work environment of creativity and innovation.
- Management practices that do not take into consideration the individual capabilities of the human resource based on their qualifications and diversity
- To have a work environment that cherishes the diversity of the workforce and their areas of competence.
- The human resource department to coordinate with other departments in order to capture the unique talents and a support them in enhancing the performance of the company.
Recommendations
- The management of RCL to engage external human resource management consultants to review the current status of the workforce and carry out an objective appraisal for each employee.
- To create a work program based on recommendations
- To ensure that the capabilities of all employees and their role in creating value for the company are taken into consideration.
Solutions to Organisational Behaviour Issues
- Poor coordination of the various management roles
- Streamline role-play in the organisation in order to avoid possible blame games.
- The staffs of the organisation to adopt the desired organisational culture that accentuates the wellbeing of the guests.
- The management to increase investment in research and development in areas of managing health, safety and environmental sustainability.
Recommendations
- To invest in team building strategies to create a culture of care in the entire company.
- Sensitise the employees on the goals of the company; the security and safety measures goals and lobby them to participate in the implementation of the goals.
Action Plan
- RCL to invest in the development of a preceptorship programme for all employees.
- The programme is to include activities that enhance the company’s corporate culture of excellence in all fields of operations.
- The programme to include the components of teaching and retraining the employees to enhance their skills and knowledge that relate to the company’s mission, goals and visions.
- To have a system in the organisation that puts emphasis on all employees to adopt a work behaviour that resonates with the key requirements?
Implications for the Various Stakeholders
The solutions presented in the following paper are aimed at enhancing organisational performance by initiating simple strategies and strengthening the already laid down strategies. The solutions are supposed to result in positive change to all the stakeholders.
Guests
The solutions directly affect the guests. For instance, the safety and security measures are supposed to enhance the wellbeing of the passengers. Therefore, the customers will be satisfied with the excellent services; hence, the company will achieve repeat customers and referrals.
Management Team
The solutions are mainly based on setting systems instead of solving problems as single isolated happenings. Therefore, the management team will be tasked with implementation. The systems will also make it easy for the managers to execute their roles. For instance, if all employees adopt the desired organisational culture, the managers will be guaranteed that the safety, security and environmental practices are in line with the company’s policy at all times. The requirements place responsibility on the management of the ships to ensure that they are designed with sufficient security and safety requirements. For example, the ships are supposed to have backup power systems to ensure that they can return to port in case of any incident such as fire.
Shareholders
The shareholders are supposed to support the management in the implementation of the various action plans. The shareholders will need to invest more resources to the various proposed initiatives. This will result in streamlined operations and increase in market share and hence more returns for the shareholders.
Society
Society is a stakeholder that will greatly benefit from improved environmental practices. Even though the practices may not have a direct impact on them, it has long term implications. Besides, the proposed corporate social responsibility programme will lead to a better environment for all.
Resource Availability and Constraints
In order to achieve the set proposals, RCL will need to commit more financial resources to the various initiatives. The financial resources should be from the company’s revenues and potential injection of share capital by shareholders. Currently, the financial performance of RCL is good and the company is in a position to reinvest some of its revenue in order to enhance productivity. In the process of implementing the proposals, the constraints the company is likely to encounter include lack of some competencies to implement some of the tasks and time factor. The current team may be overwhelmed. However, the company can outsource the best skills.
Limitations
The solutions provided are feasible for RCL; in fact, the company has already started implementing some of the initiatives. Therefore, the current remedies are supposed to supplement the efforts that have already been put in place. However, the company is likely to experience limitations in terms of unprepared employees, and complex work environment. Another limitation will relate to insufficient budgetary allocations. Furthermore, lack of a clear plan for executions of the initiatives may result in modification of deliverables to suit the allocated budget. This may lead to some crucial activities not being implemented as planned.