West Indies Yacht Club Resort: When Cultures Collide

West Indies Yacht Club Resort: When Cultures Collide

Project

Cross-Cultural Management and Communication

Outlines

1°) Introduction

2°) Symptoms

3°) Problems

4°) Solutions

5°) Evaluation of alternatives

6°) The best solution

1°) Introduction

The West Indies Yacht club resort had been created by Joe Kimball who used to come into the north sound of Virgin Gorda and felt in love with this natural beauty.

Kimball worked hard so his business could grow as fast as this resort’s reputation.

Jim Johnson, the 48 years old expatriate general manager originally from U.S was now facing many challenges: first, the resort hired and then failed to retain three expatriate water front directors and three expatriate food and beverage directors. Second, Johnson estimated an important increase of guest complaints. Finally, there appeared to be an increasing level of tension between expatriate and local staff members. That is why Jim Johnson had to make a move so he called Patrick Dowd.

Patrick Dowd was 30 years old and was a very successful director, he had spent 10 years as a management consultant for small to medium sized hotels in the Caribbean, Trade Wind Ventures, and a world-renowned sailing school. Through his experience; Dowd gained in depth knowledge of the resort, Dowd’s reputation call and knowledge of the resort prompted Jim Johnson’s call to see if Dowd would be interested in working as a participate observer at the resort in order to determine the underlying reasons behind his three major concerns.

Then, we are going to talk about the symptoms that created challenges for this resort.

2°) Symptoms

The first symptom was when Jim Johnson asked Patrick Dowd to work as a participant observer at the resort to determine the underlying reasons behind his three major concerns. We know that from this call, problems had occurred in the West Indies Yacht Club resort.

Then, the second symptom would be that there are just a few upscale hotels in the British Virgin Islands and this can create tensions because of the high competitions. Therefore, they all have to differentiate themselves from one to another.

Finally, the main symptom that will create the most problems would be the labor market laws and regulations.

All hotels operating in the BVIs faced a number of challenges beyond the strict regulations on development.

First, organizations were granted only a limited number of work permits to attract more experienced service employees from foreign countries. Expatriate work permits were granted on the basis of the total number of employees working at a resort and the availability of locals who possessed these skills requisite for the position.

Second, organizations were not permitted to lay off staff during slow seasons.

Third, policies restricting the conditions under which an employee could be fired severally limited an organization’s ability to retain only the best workers.

Finally, organizations were under extreme pressure to promote BVI locals into management positions whenever possible. As noted earlier, before hiring an expatriate manager a resort had to advertise the position for at least a month. As a result of these restrictions and policies, managers often found themselves overstaffed with underqualified workers.

Now we are going to see the problems that have occurred after those symptoms.

3°) Problems

High Expatriate Turnover

Increasing Guest Complaints

Decreasing Level of Service

Increasing Level of tension between Expatriates and Local Staffs

Lack of Staff Motivation

Differences in cultures according to Hofstede

Fuji (similar to the British Virgin Islands)

PD