Report on West Indies Yacht Club Resort

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Recommendation Report for West Indies Yacht Club Resort – Cultural Conflicts

The financial health of the West Indies Yacht Club Resort is progressively worsening. The local employees from the British Virgin Islands and their expatriate managers from the United States are meeting in a clash of cultures. This results in four key problems, which are all correlated and which have the synergistic potential to bankrupt the resort. These are – tension between locals and expatriates, low employee motivation, high expatriate turnover, and increasing guest complaints.

To target these problems, the General Manager, Jim Johnson, has requested a set of causes and recommendations compiled by an objective outside party. Weeks of careful observation and analysis have generated this report. Each recommendation made here has the sole purpose of restoring harmony amongst the staff and drastically increasing the resort’s profits.

Problems

The root of all the problems and the first one needing attention is tension between locals and expats. Locals dislike the expats’ working styles and seek to distance themselves from expats. Expats are frustrated that they are unable to implement their plans. One expat even proposed firing everyone and bringing down American staff. The reason for this is the application of unsuitable leadership styles. Besides being mismatched and ineffective, this is counter-productive as it brings dejection to both parties.

Second is the low motivation level of the locals. The extent of this sees locals unwilling to take initiative even in tasks such as serving in unassigned areas. This lack of drive, which is resulting in more customer complaints and which can be a financially crippling factor, can be simply explained. The locals have a low individualism characteristic, meaning they act more in the interest of a group than of themselves. Hence they are not inclined to work for individual rewards....