Case Study
Based in central London the European Club was founded in 1900.
The club is a non-profit making charity whose good works for the last 100+ years include offering
scholarships for gifted children from poorer countries the opportunities to study in the UK. The
Charity is governed by a Board of Trustees who also form part of the Board of Directors. The
CEO sits on the Board of Directors whilst the General Manager and Club Secretary report into
the CEO.
The vision and mission statement is represented as “High quality hospitality at affordable
prices.” A statement of values has been an agenda item for almost a year but has not been actioned.
Revenue for the charity is derived from the operation of the central London ClubHouse (situated in a
fashionable street in Mayfair London W1) containing a very ‘dated’ and largely unused waiter service
cocktail bar called The Fox and Hound, a 50 seat restaurant called The Dining Rooms, 4 function
rooms (no in-built meeting room equipment) and 50 bedrooms which it hires to club members for a
highly subsidised amount of just £75 per night. Many of these rooms have not been refurbished in
quite a while.
The building itself has a certain faded grandeur but is in need of some much needed planned and
reactive renovation and maintenance to furniture, fixtures and fittings. Some of the systems in
the ClubHouse, including reservations and front office, are still on Excel spreadsheet functions.
A manual process is used for creating reservations for the bedrooms, restaurant and bar and function
rooms. There is however an online payment system used but there are three separate systems, one for
each department. Wifi is available throughout the ClubHouse.
Many of the staff have been there for many years and the way things operate have not changed for a
long time. Whilst familiar and comfortable with the current ways of doing things, the staff often
complain about the amount of time it takes and the inefficiency of the systems in place. There is a
very defined hierarchy and staffing structure in the departments. The organisational chart below details the restaurant, bar and event management departments.
Staff are not encouraged to make decisions without reference to the Head of Department nor are they
encouraged to put forward new ideas for enhancing or improving practice. Any changes to practice
are often from the top down and staff opinions are rarely sought. Morale, as measured by a small
yearly staff survey, appears low, and many of the younger staff leave after just a couple of months
citing lack of opportunities and poor training as a cause. The survey also shows that staff are not happy
with their manager and feel that they do not get praised or rewarded when they do a good job.
The previous CEO had been with the charity for some 30 years and very much left the management
of the club to the General Manager, who also retires later this year. The new CEO of the
charity believes that there is a lot more that might be achieved, and good works undertaken, if the
operation itself makes more money to invest into the charitable works, and she firmly believes
that the organisation is underperforming and is inefficient. Membership of the club has been falling
steadily over the past five years and now stands some 50% of its original membership. A recent
member survey shows significant complaints about the conditions of the facilities, especially the
restaurant and bar which the members use to entertain as well as the drop-in customer service as well
as the general lack of organisation.
The CEO has approached you and wants to employ your HR consultancy services to address the strategic HR issues around a modernisation plan for the restaurant and bar facilities of the club.
The modernisation and renovation programme will include the following:
1 The refurbishment of The Fox and Hound Bar, the Dining Room and the function rooms
2. Training and development of all staff on the new processes connected to the Bar,
Dining Room and function rooms.
The refurbishment has been given to an architectural firm that will employ its contactors and manage
all the building work. They have promised to work to the project deadlines. Naturally, this will mean
the members of the club paying more for the services; however, this will bring the charges in line
with similar institutions and facilities.
The CEOs biggest concern is how to undertake this project with the minimum of disruption to both
members and staff. It is not an option to shut the club down completely during the project. Business
as usual, as much as possible, must be maintained.
Task 1 of 3 – Presentation and Briefing Report
Instructions:
The CEO has asked you to prepare a 15-minute presentation and accompanying briefing report for the
Board of Directors “selling” your consultancy services. You still need to pitch for the contract as the
two other board members will be involved in the decision.
Prepare a presentation with speaker notes and a briefing report in which you should:
. Explain the importance of Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) and how you
could add value to the ClubHouse. You should discuss how strategic HRM could be
linked with other departments.
. Explain the Strategic Human Resource services you could provide to the ClubHouse
and their purposes.
. Analyse the factors that the ClubHouse should consider before embarking on the
renovation and restructure.
+ Determine some preliminary HR requirements for the organisation considering the new contract.
Delivery and Submission:
s 1x Presentation file (including references) with speaker notes (S00 words)
. 1x Briefing Report (500 words) excluding TOC, diagrams, references and appendices
Task 2 of 3— HR Plan and Memo
Instructions:
You have been successful in securing the contract, and you have a lot to do. The management
priority is to have a HR plan and policy in place as soon as possible.
You have decided to create the outline for a HR plan, and include a memo about HR policy.
You therefore need to prepare:
a An outline of a Human Resource plan.
. A memo concerning the importance of HR policy – the memo should provide
examples of regulatory, legal and ethical concerns that should be covered within the policy
ie living wage vs minimum wage, maternity cover, Equality Act 2010, termination of
employment etc.) which would be important to the ClubHouse.
Delivery and Submission:
. 1x HR plan (1000 words) excluding TOC, diagrams, references and appendices
. 1x HR memo (500 words)
Task 3 of 3— Report
Instructions:
Having done all of the preliminary work for the ClubHouse, you should now write a report
in which you should:
. Examine the impact of different management and leadership theories on organisational
strategy and structure.
s Describe the impact of organisational strategies, structures and culture on the management
Determine the effectiveness of the current ClubHouse HRM, and critically discuss the link
between leadership & management and HRM.
Present an analysis of how the existing culture and structure of the ClubHouse might
impact on the success of the ClubHouse project and the motivation of the staff.
Explain how you would develop, monitor and evaluate a leadership strategy that supports
the development or revision of the ClubHouse organisational mission, vision, values and
objectives.
Delivery and Submission:
1x Report (2000 words) excluding TOC, diagrams, references and appendices
Referencing:
Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
Evidence to be submitted:
Presentation file with speaker notes — 500 words
Briefing Report — 500 words
HR Plan — 1000 words.
HR Memo — 500 words
Report — 2000 words
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