Refer to the case study Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC) - Managing Diversity on a
ID: 420623 • Letter: R
Question
Refer to the case study Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC) - Managing Diversity on a Floating City in the Content section in MyLO, Module 1. Identify and discuss the unique aspects of competitively managing people in the RCC situation. You may refer to Competitors in this industry to further explain your answer.
This case will be used for application in other modules throughout this unit; you will 'build -up' your answer.
Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC) is the world’s second-largest cruise line with 40,000 people employed on 38 ships sailing to five continents. A further six ships are under construction. RCC offers a range of land-tour vacations including Alaska, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe and South America and aims to set the standard for cruise line entertainment and guest activities. A typical ship is RCC’s revitalised Voyager of the Seas® where guests are promised to experience first-at-sea innovations that make their cruise unlike any other holiday.
RCC’s vision statement is as follows:
Our Vision
Our vision is to empower and enable our
Employees
to deliver the best holiday experience to our
Guests,
thereby generating superior returns to our
Stakeholders
and enhancing the well-being of our
Communities.
Consider the challenge for employees of living and working on-board the revitalised Voyager of the Seas® ship. Each employee is accountable and responsible for providing guests a holiday experience unlike any other holiday. When deciding to work on a cruise ship many staff imagine working with hundreds of crew members from around the world, crew parties, free activities in every port and an exciting working/living/social environment. The organisational structure of the ship has key reporting lines such as Hotel Manager, Chief Engineer, Staff Captain (2nd in command), Human Resources Officer and an Environmental Officer. The Captain leads a weekly meeting and is included in key issues as they occur.
Managing one of the largest luxury cruise ships in the world requires outstanding motivation and leadership skills to retain a multi-industry, international crew. The crew must have an unwavering focus on pampering guests who are intent on having the ultimate cruise holiday as promised. The first priority is the safety and security of passengers, crew and the ship.
It is a complex task to motivate or ‘energise’ a crew in an environment which resembles a city at sea. There are ‘front of house’ and ‘back of house’ staff. Engineers are required to safely transport thousands of people across kilometres of open seas. The ship has a large desalination plant and electricity generators requiring skilled operators. House-keeping is a complex mix of managing staff, equipment and consumables. There are thousands of metres of deck with hospitality staff devoted to serving food and beverages. Crew are responsible for an impressive variety of guest activities. Crew are culturally and linguistically diverse and from various industries, trades and professions.
You might be thinking that the life at sea would be glamorous and exciting providing, intrinsic motivation. While the crew must aim to give passengers an exciting, even glamorous experience, the life of a crew member is far from glamorous. The engine room is hot and noisy. Ordinary house-keeping, kitchen and restaurant tasks pose a challenge when the vessel moves constantly. Unlike a conventional workplace, staff on a cruise ship do not leave on Friday evening and return on Monday. They are always ‘at work’ even if they are off duty. The excitement and glamour of sailing to different and exotic destinations can fade after you have been there several times.
The crew’s motivation – or lack of it – manifests itself through their output, absenteeism, effort, loyalty and turnover. Some staff demonstrate a burning desire to achieve, accept increased responsibility and consistently deliver superior guest service, but others remain passive.
Managers in unique situations such as those on cruise ships can draw ideas from Ricardo Semler of Semco - a company best known for its radical form of industrial democracy and corporate re-engineering. Semler successfully created an ‘unusual workplace’ in the 1990s with an unconventional management style and people waiting to be employed. Semco manufactures a variety of products, including pumps that can empty an oil-tanker in a night, dishwashers, cooling units, mixers that blend everything from rocket fuel to bubble gum and biscuit factories. However it is not what Semco produces that has management experts waiting months to tour the plants it is how the people of Semco do their jobs. Semler believes that managers need to concentrate on building organisations that make people look forward to coming to work on Monday. Semco creates an environment in which decisions previously made by managers are made by employees, where shopfloor employees sometimes set their own productivity targets and monitor the results. They help redesign the products they make and work on the marketing strategy. Their managers can run their units with extraordinary freedom, determining business strategy without interference from above. They have even set their own salaries with no strings. Everyone will know what they are since all financial information is openly discussed.
Required: With Semler’s approach in mind (explained in the case), identify and discuss the unique aspects of competitively managing people in the RCC situation. You may refer to Competitors in this industry to further explain your answer.
Note: RCC Case adapted from a submission by James A, to McGraw-Hill Education for textbook inclusion (work in progress).
Explanation / Answer
As stated in the case study, Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC) is the world’s second-largest cruise line with many employees working for it and many stakeholders having interest in its business.
The company has vision to take the interest of its employees, guests, communities, stakeholders along with its growth.
To competitively manage people in Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC) situation the organization has to be people friendly and oriented that is to provide for good strategy in place whereby the people who are responsible for operation of the business gets all benefits as they think are reasonable and good to them with the freedom to work with sense of responsibility. The responsibility to complete their designated task with quality and time bound manner will depend on the underlying rules or policy of the organizations that has to be framed.
With such a large organization like Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC), it can not be advised or suggested that the employee or people working for them should be given free hand in decision making and doing their work with their own style as it would become operationally very difficult to handle and control the situation and management.
There has to be centralization of work system management and there has to be a risk mitigation team that should be in a place to prevent or reduce any risk that can take place with the action or omission of the employee related to his work at the organization.
The company can certainly provide for the all the perks, compensation to employees in their various roles and create a friendly workable place with the sense of responsibility of each people at their levels.