Unit 5: Leadership and Management for Service Industries Assignment

Introduction

In the service industry, leadership and management plays a pivotal role to offer the exceptional customer service to their guests. An effective leader or manager set the values, vision and expectations for the whole organisation and empowers workers to prioritise the satisfaction of the customers. Nowadays, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an important tool for the service industry businesses to carry out the operations smoothly and thereby contributes in meeting the objectives of the company. Leaders and managers are also utilising AI for reducing the operational costs and to complete the complex tasks. In this regard, Premier Inn, operates under the service industry, has been selected for this report which provides luxurious accommodation and facilities to the guests. Premier Inn is a UK-based one of the leading hotel chains that operates across the UK and other countries worldwide. The report will explain about the structure, culture and role of leader within the hotel unit. Further, it will shed light on the possible risks and advantages of the AI in relation to the management styles.

Activity One

Organisational culture, structure and role of leader in Premier Inn

Premier Inn, UK’s largest hotel chain, was established in 1987 and it’s headquartered in Dunstable, England, UK (Premier Inn, 2025). According to Handy’s model of culture, the hotel has a people culture which empowers the employees to make own decisions and complete tasks. The culture of the hotel is flexible and optimistic that encourages employees to perform best. Accordingly, managers offer enough opportunities to the employees to grow and reach their potential. The hotel is always operating a way which respects the diverse demands of the customers and contributes to the environment protection. Premier Inn has hierarchical organisational structure. A general manager supervises all activities of hotel. People are ranked on the basis of their level of authority.

Leader is highly responsible person who regularly working to meet the organisational goals. A leader plays different roles such as;

• Develop vision: Leader of Premier Inn creates a vision and clearly defines what staff members are going to do. Leader motivates the employees to perform activities and contributes in the achievement of business vision.
• Decision-maker: Leader is a great decision-maker and they make decision by focusing on each aspect (Malik et al, 2024). Further, leaders notify their decisions to the workers so that they can aware about the upcoming changes etc. Proper decision-making approach facilitate the hotel to improve productivity and efficiency of business.
• Execute strategy: Leader highly focuses on making the strong as well as relevant strategies and apply them in a right manner. They execute the short and long term strategies and allocate the tasks to the employees. They monitor execution of strategies and solve issues if they find any.

Various classical management theories and their application

There are several classical management theories that help the organisations to operate their business effectively. There are two major management theories which elucidated below:

Scientific management theory: The management theory developed by the Fredrick Taylor evaluates the workflows and determines one of the best methods to do job. The main goal of this theory is to enhance the economic efficiency, particularly labour productivity (Birnbaum and Somers, 2023).

Concerned theory can be applied in the service industry to enhance the performance and productivity. For instance: A hotel can examine the workflows of staff members by utilising the theory. The hotel can utilise this theory to streamline the process and find out the bottlenecks. By finding one an excellent way, the organisation can complete the tasks and projects to achieve the positive outcomes.

Behavioural management theory: The theory pays attention on the human aspects of the work. It centres on the managing productivity through knowing the factors of employee motivation such as; needs, values, expectations etc. (Anglin et al, 2022). It advocates the utilisation of psychological methods to encourage the workers.

Behavioural theory can be utilised by the service companies like hotel to identify the both intrinsic and extrinsic factors that motivate the employees. The factors can be utilised by the organisation to encourage their employees when they have workload or perform the complex tasks. The motivators can be used by managers to enhance the job satisfaction and performance of the employees in the workplace.

Management and leadership styles in Premier Inn

There are detail explanations of leadership and management styles with its application on the Premier Inn.

• Democratic leadership: This is also known as participative leadership style which values the inputs provided by the other people. Decision-making is shared between staff members and democratic leaders consider each input valuable (Hilton, Arkorful and Martins, 2021). It prioritises open communication and empowers the workers in relation to developing goals and evaluates their performance.
• Transformational leadership: On the basis of this, leaders drive creativity & innovation and accomplish long-term objectives (Greimel, Kanbach and Chelaru, 2023). A leader who adopts transformational leadership approach motivates workers to go beyond the needed expectations to work in the direction of shared vision.
• Autocratic leadership: It refers to the leadership approach where a leader has full control on decision-making. This kind of leaders do not take input from the staff members. Autocratic leaders make decision only on their perspectives and verdict and enforce strict rules and regulations.

The leaders of the Premier Inn have adopted the democratic leadership style. The leaders determine that which method will work best for employees. They ensure that each staff member understand how to express their ideas and opinions and how to listen to opinions of other team members. Leaders encourage open discussion at the workplace and motivate employees to ask any doubts and questions regarding the work. By getting enough motivation, employees perform the best duties and provide great experience to the guests (Ystaas et al, 2023). Apart from this style, Premier Inn also embraced the transformational leadership when they make any kind of changes at workplace or in the business process. Leaders as well as managers encourage the staff members to adopt change quickly and support organisational upcoming change. By applying transformational leadership, managers of each department reduce the conflicts between employees through listening them attentively.

Analysis of management and leadership styles related to structure and culture

The structure of the organisation mainly determines on the basis of particular needs of the hotel. As Premier Inn is large organisation they followed hierarchical structure. Democratic leaders of hotel focus on subordinates and employees who work at lower level. Leaders put their full efforts to maintain the people or person culture of the hotel. A democratic leadership motivates the staff members to act independently and carry out their tasks. They make sure that no single employee lost the opportunity to involve in decision-making process. Further, transformational leader make a work environment in a way that empower employees to make personal goals. Leaders respond to diverse needs of the employee and make room for them to develop.

Link of current leadership and management style with theories

From evaluating the above classical management theories, Premier Inn has adopted and implemented the behavioural management theory. This is because it pays attention on motivation factors that help to inspire employees to do their work. Behavioural theory helps the Premier Inn to carry out complex tasks and achieve the set vision of the organisation. Moreover, the theory facilitates the hotel to perform in uncertain conditions and meet the customer expectations by fulfilling their demands. However, hierarchy structure sometimes slow down the decision-making process that influences the business operations.

Activity Two

Internal and external factors that affect management styles

There are several internal and external factors which have significant impact on both management style as well as leadership. This can be assessed by applying the models such as SWOT and PESTLE in the following way:

SWOT analysis

• Strengths: Strong presence at global market and prominent brand image contributes in the high organization’s profitability. Premier Inn highly focuses on the innovation which in turn recognized as one of the main strength of the hotel. It helps the hotel to use artificial intelligence technology in more effective way.
• Weaknesses: Increasing use of artificial intelligence within the industry puts pressure on the hotel to invest in AI. However, due to the lack of employee knowledge they can face problem while integration of AI (SiteMinder, 2024).
• Opportunities: Firm has opportunity to enhance market share, sales and profitability by entering into the new market. Further, there is a huge opportunity for the hotel to leverage the benefits of AI such as; automation, minimise human errors and advance data analysis.
• Threats: Changes in the laws and legislation also poses significant threat in front of the firm. Due to the growing use of artificial intelligence and increase competitive, Premier Inn can face the data privacy issues and high level of competition.

PESTEL analysis

• Political: The strict rules imposed by the UK government and political stability can impact the current strategies of hotel. Premier Inn may face the issues to operate the business operations. 
• Economic: Due to the high supplier and operational cost, the hotel may think twice before investing in technologies and performing other business operations. Moreover, once they will implement technology, they need more money for the maintenance.
• Social: By using the advanced technology, the hotel can provide good experience to the customers and meet their changing needs (The Strategy Story, 2025). Artificial intelligence would help Premier inn by allowing them to offer personalised services.
• Technological: Hotel can leverage the emerging technologies to get insights into customer’s demand and modify services accordingly.
• Environmental: Because of growing impact of businesses on environment government makes changes in environmental policies which need to be followed by hotel.
• Legal: Premier Inn follows the licensing requirements and other rules like consumer protection, health and safety etc.

Impact of internal and external factors on management styles and structure

From internal and external analysis, it has been found that some factors are beneficial for the hotel. Whereas, there are several factors that must be considered by the management while making strategies to make changes. Premier Inn has capability to make technology related changes in the sector and achieve success. However, some internal factors like insufficient knowledge about emerging technologies can impact management strategies (Wu, Wang and Ling, 2021). Conversely, innovation, competition and changing demands of the customers are external factors that can create problems for the business. To perform business activities, it is most important for the leaders and managers to adopt approaches accordingly so that they can reduce weaknesses and leverage opportunities. The hotel needs to review its structure and make necessary changes to make the informed decisions. Premier Inn must alter their services which help in meeting the changing demands of the customers. The management can make strategies to save the money so that they can invest in the AI technology to enhance the business effectiveness. If the leaders and managers do not focuses on the weaknesses and threats then it can prevent the hotel from achieving business goals.

How management styles can impact and change by factors

Internal and external facts can have major impact of democratic style which used by Premier Inn’s leaders. The leaders have to adjust their leadership style and strategies according to the factors; otherwise they may face problems in performing the duties. Nevertheless, democratic leaders can motivate their employees to learn and improve their skills & knowledge. It would help in integrating and using the technology effectively. Leaders also undertake transformational leadership but it may get impacted by political, economic, legal and environmental pressure. Thus, leaders are required to consider the different factors while making strategies for the business.

Activity Three

Hard and soft skills of current management and leadership in hotel

A person who works in the service industry must possess a valuable set of soft and hard skills. Employees have to carry out multiple tasks and needs to perform in uncertain situations. Therefore, if they have combination of hard and soft skills then they can easily carry out tasks and contribute to achieve organisational goals. In the context of Premier Inn, manager or leader must have the following skill set such as:

Hard skills

• Marketing skills: This skill is important to promote the services and hotel in market. By having marketing skills, leaders become capable enough to increase the sales and profit margins of business.
• Team work: Premier Inn is the large hotel unit and it performs complex tasks for building & sustaining competitive edge (Hahang, Bayraktar and Jiménez, 2022). Teamwork skill would be useful in the execution of large and complex by dividing tasks among the team members.
• Critical thinking: If manager and leader possess critical thinking ability then it facilitates identification of the alternative solutions. It can also help leaders to make informed decisions.
• Digital literacy: In this modern and technical world, each employee including leader and manager should have digital literacy. They must have knowledge about the artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics etc.

Soft skills

• Emotional intelligence: The skill helps leader to control own feelings and thoughts. By having emotional intelligence, leaders become able to understand the feelings of others.
• Self-awareness: It is crucial skill to make sure proper management of employees who recognized as the hotel’s assets and dedicated towards the accomplishment of goals.
• Communication: Communication is one of the major skills that enable the leaders and managers to confidently communicate with the employees, clients, investors and customers (Rabiul et al, 2023).
• Adaptability: In this fast-paced world, the leaders should have ability to adapt the industry and market changes. They can response to the challenges in a positive way.

Future management and leadership skills needed by service

Business environment is constantly changing and it is crucial for the Premier Inn’s leaders to improve themselves and whole management to stand out and improve their position in future. There are several skills which will be required for leaders for operating business in future.

• Active listening skills: In future, service industry will see many changes which can affect the work attitudes of the people. In this situation, leaders will have to listen to their team member’s issues and challenges (Chala and Bouranta, 2021). By this, leader would become able to understand the diverse perspectives and thereby can take appropriate measures for the performance enhancement.
• Analytical thinking: In the upcoming years, analytical skill will become crucial in the service industry. It will help in improving the decision-making through encouraging wide-ranging approach to problem-solving. With the help of this skill, a leader will be able to assess all situations as well as factors more effectively and thereby find the hidden gaps.
• Creative thinking: In future, the preferences and demands of the customers will be changed because of developing technologies. To cater the new needs and demands of the people, a leader and manager will require creative thinking ability (Asefer and Abidin, 2021). By achieving creative thinking, the hotel unit can offer more creative and innovative services which in turn contribute in meeting the customers’ expectations.
• Resilience and adaptability: It will be beneficial for the leaders who work in service sector to develop the resilience and adaptability. Resilience will be the key to success in the future and by utilising this skill the service industry can face the economic crisis in better way in the future. Adaptability will facilitate the leader to handle any kind of change effectively and reduce the risks which will eventually help the organisations to accomplish the goals.

Skills can be acquired by the leaders and managers by participating in training. The hotel can organise offline or online training for the managers. By joining training programmes, managers can develop the skills. This will help them to work in complex and competitive business environment. The managers can also join skill development course at own level so that they can improve their efficiency by developing the new skills and performing better at the workplace.

Evaluation of current and future management and leadership skills

From analysis, it can be said that at present communication, digital literacy, marketing, critical thinking etc. are crucial skills that helps in carry out daily activities effectually. Managers must have marketing skills to make loyal customer base and this skill will equally valuable in the future as well. In future, leaders should have advance level of hard and soft skills to stand out in the more competitive business world. Analytical skills are must for the leaders to quickly get insights about the changing customer needs. Soft skills like emotional intelligence, self-awareness are required now but active listening also recognized as a crucial skill in terms of future to understand employee’s concerns and different thinking.

Development of leadership skills in response to change

An organisation can achieve success when they make changes if its leaders develop leadership skills. In this continuous changing business environment, leaders and managers require to change their approaches and learn new skills to efficiently lead team and business. Leaders are now expected to have advanced technological skills for making the business more effective that grab the customer’s attention. Leaders should be equipped with capability to handle and interact with diverse team. In the continuous change environment, leaders should focus on marketing skills to promote own business to increase reach.

Comparison and contrast change management system of different service sector organisations

Each organisation that operates under the service industry has different management system. There is comparison and contrast between different organisations in the following way:

Premier Inn	Marriott	Hilton
Leaders motivate their employees to increase the interest of employees in their job and do tough tasks.	Leaders offer incentives and rewards to staff members to boost their motivation (Marriott International, 2025).	Managers organise training to improve skills and improve motivation of employees.
Leaders utilise democratic and transformation leadership style at the workplace (Premier Inn, 2025).	Laissez-faire leadership style is utilised by Marriott’s leaders.	Strategic leadership approach is used by leaders in the Hilton hotel.
Premier Inn management highly pays attention on sustainability and moral values to contribute to environmental and society welfare what help to capture attention of more customers.	After pandemic, managers started to focus more on technology and luxury services to offer seamless experiences to customers	Hilton changed its management system and integrates digital guest services to make work smoother and to attract more customers and increase sales (Hilton, 2025).
Premier Inn has used the Lewin’s change model to introduce and apply the change in an effective way.	Kotter’s model of managing change is utilised by the Marriott when they want to implement any work related change in the hotel.	When Hilton introduces change in the workplace, they utilises the ADKAR model which provide many benefits in change process.

Impact of change management on leadership skills and styles

Change management needs a transformational leader so that they motivate workers to do hard work and support the change. In some cases, participative leadership approach may be more suitable. It is most crucial for the leaders to modify the approach to fit the different situation and make sure that the organisational change is successful. Leaders have to focus on motivation skills so that they can encourage employees to provide support when they announce any changes in the workplace. Effective leader who equipped with different skills like communication, critical thinking, digital skills etc. can lead change effectively. Lewin’s model considerably impact the leadership style by offering structured framework to leaders to apply change. Whereas; by using Kotter’s model, the leaders of Marriott change their style and focus more on motivation of the employees. ADKAR model which is used by the Hilton considerably influences the leadership skills. By using the change management process, Hilton’s leaders concentrate more on increasing awareness among people so that they provide their support to change. 

Conclusion

Based on the above report, it is concluded that service industry regularly working to meet the customer expectations. Leaders and managers helps the companies that operate under the service industry like hotel to provide outstanding services to the customers. It has identified that Premier Inn has an excellent structure and culture and leaders adopted the democratic and transformational leadership style. But, sometimes the hierarchy structure of the hotel impact decision-making. Further, use of AI in hospitality industry would be beneficial for hotel at the same time it could increases issues of data breaches etc. There are several internal and external factors that could impact the management approaches and structure. As per report, it has figured out that a leader should have several hard and soft skills so that they work in complex circumstances. It involves communication, leadership, emotional intelligence, leadership and many more. It has discussed about some future skills such as; analytical skills, creative thinking etc.

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References

Books and Journals

Anglin, A.H., Kincaid, P.A., Short, J.C. and Allen, D.G., 2022. Role theory perspectives: Past, present, and future applications of role theories in management research. Journal of Management, 48(6), pp.1469-1502.

Asefer, A. and Abidin, Z., 2021. Soft skills and graduates’ employability in the 21st century from employers’ perspectives: A review of literature. International Journal of Infrastructure Research and Management, 9(2), pp.44-59.

Birnbaum, D. and Somers, M., 2023. Past as prologue: Taylorism, the new scientific management and managing human capital. International journal of organizational analysis, 31(6), pp.2610-2622.

Chala, F.M. and Bouranta, N., 2021. Soft skills enhance employee contextual performance: The case of the maritime industry. KnE Social Sciences, pp.126-138.

Greimel, N.S., Kanbach, D.K. and Chelaru, M., 2023. Virtual teams and transformational leadership: An integrative literature review and avenues for further research. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 8(2), p.100351.

Hahang, E., Bayraktar, S. and Jiménez, A., 2022. Early evidence of leadership skills and strategies in managing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the hospitality industry. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 29(3), pp.493-515.

Hilton, S.K., Arkorful, H. and Martins, A., 2021. Democratic leadership and organizational performance: the moderating effect of contingent reward. Management Research Review, 44(7), pp.1042-1058.

Malik, M., Raziq, M.M., Sarwar, N. and Tariq, A., 2024. Digital leadership, business model innovation and organizational change: role of leader in steering digital transformation. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Rabiul, M.K., Shamsudin, F.M., Yean, T.F. and Patwary, A.K., 2023. Linking leadership styles to communication competency and work engagement: evidence from the hotel industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 6(2), pp.425-446.

Wu, X., Wang, J. and Ling, Q., 2021. Managing internal service quality in hotels: Determinants and implications. Tourism Management, 86, p.104329.

Ystaas, L.M.K., Nikitara, M., Ghobrial, S., Latzourakis, E., Polychronis, G. and Constantinou, C.S., 2023. The impact of transformational leadership in the nursing work environment and patients’ outcomes: a systematic review. Nursing Reports, 13(3), pp.1271-1290.

Online

Hilton, 2025. No One Manages Hilton Like Hilton. [Online] Available through < https://www.hilton.com/en/corporate/management-services/ >

Marriott International, 2025. Managed by Marriott. [Online] Available through < https://www.hotel-development.marriott.com/how-we-work-together/managed-by-marriott >

Premier Inn, 2025. Building Success from Within: Our Commitment to Internal Growth and Development. [Online] Available through < https://mena.premierinn.com/en/news/building-success-from-within-our-commitment-to-internal-growth-and-development/ >

Premier Inn, 2025. The history of Premier Inn. [Online] Available through < https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/why/history-of-premier-inn.html#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20Premier%20Inn,across%20the%20UK%20and%20beyond >

SiteMinder, 2024. Hotel SWOT analysis: Examples and template. [Online] Available through < https://www.siteminder.com/r/hotel-swot-analysis/ >

The Strategy Story, 2025. Premier Inn Hotel PESTEL Analysis. [Online] Available through < https://thestrategystory.com/blog/premier-inn-hotel-pestel-analysis/ >