Background 出身背景
Between July 3, 2017 and January 3, 2018, I had an opportunity to work as a concierge intern at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers, a subsidiary of the premium hotel brand, Marriot International. The hotel, which is located along Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong, has 782 guest rooms and a various amenities such as spa, pool and fitness center. Importantly, Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers operate under Marriot International, a hotel conglomerate that has different hotel brands across the globe. Speaking from this perspective, there is a need to observe that this hotel strives to deliver five-star quality of hotel services to its customers, both from the local Hong Kong market as well as from international markets. Importantly, the hotel has both permanent and seasonal workers. In this case, during the low season, the hotel only operates with its permanent workers while during peak seasons, it usually hires seasonal workers for between four and six months. The successful deliver of its services as a hotel is highly dependent in the way these employees are led and managed. Importantly, to ensure consistent quality of its services, the hotel leadership usually conducts training for both its permanent and seasonal workers on a regular basis to ensure that its service quality does not fall below the expected standards. Thus, the management and leadership of this hotel play an instrumental role in managing its employees, thus guaranteeing their high performance levels throughout the year.
在2017年7月3日至2018年1月3日之间，我有机会在香港喜来登酒店的礼宾部工作，这是优质酒店品牌马里奥国际的子公司。酒店位于香港维多利亚港，拥有782间客房和各种设施，如水疗中心、游泳池和健身中心。重要的是，喜来登香港塔在全球酒店品牌不同的酒店集团Maunt International下运营。从这个角度来看，有必要观察，这家酒店力求向客户提供五星级酒店服务质量，无论是来自香港本土市场还是来自国际市场。重要的是，酒店既有固定工人也有季节性工人。在这种情况下，在淡季，酒店仅与固定员工一起运营，而在旺季，酒店通常雇佣四到六个月的季节性员工。酒店服务的成功提供在很大程度上取决于这些员工的领导和管理方式。重要的是，为了确保其服务质量的一致性，酒店领导层通常定期对其固定员工和季节性员工进行培训，以确保其服务质量不低于预期标准。因此，该酒店的管理层和领导层在管理员工方面发挥着重要作用，从而保证员工全年的高绩效水平。
Management style at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers
香港喜来登酒店管理风格
My internship at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers created an opportunity for me to understand different management styles that are employed in businesses and organisations. One of the moments that helped me understand the type of managements that has been adopted in this hotel, and particularly by my immediate manager, Maness Tse, was during the training on the first week of reporting to work as an intern. Notably, whereas the manager was involved in training me on how to serve customers better, I noticed that he did not dictate how each person was supposed to interact with customers. For instance, when training me on communication, he outlined the basic minimum requirements as far as communicating with customers is concerned and I was encouraged to develop a communication approach that I was comfortable with, as long as it did not negatively affect my delivery of service to customers. For instance, whereas I was afraid to make mistakes and as such, avoided interacting with customers, my manager did not at any point reprimand me for this. On the contrary, he informed me that I just needed to develop a strategy of breaking the ice and creating an environment that supports free interaction with customers.
我在香港喜来登酒店的实习为我提供了一个机会，让我了解在企业和组织中使用的不同管理风格。有一个时刻帮助我了解了这家酒店所采用的管理方式，特别是我的直属经理谢曼尼斯（Maness Tse）所采用的管理方式，那就是在实习周的培训期间。值得注意的是，尽管经理参与了如何更好地为客户服务的培训，但我注意到他并没有规定每个人应该如何与客户互动。例如，在对我进行沟通培训时，他概述了与客户沟通的基本更低要求，并鼓励我制定一种我熟悉的沟通方法，只要这种方法不会对我向客户提供的服务产生负面影响。例如，尽管我害怕犯错，因此避免与客户互动，但我的经理在任何时候都没有为此责备我。相反，他告诉我，我只需要制定一个打破僵局的战略，创造一个支持与客户自由互动的环境。
Laissez-faire: positive impact on decision-making
自由放任：对决策的积极影响
One of the things I noticed during my internship is the fact that Maness Tse has adopted a Laissez-faire style of leadership. In reference to Chaudhry and Javed (2012), the Laissez-faire leadership style involves giving the employees the autonomy to make critical decisions in the business or organisation without any interference from the management. In this case, the leader plays little or no role at all in influencing the decisions that employees make at the workplace. Importantly, the proponents of this leadership style argue that the laissez-faire management style helps empower the employees because of the active participation in making decisions that influence different operations of the business or organisations in question. For example, while working as an intern at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers hotel, I felt the manager valued my skills and expertise, which motivated me to enhance my performance levels. In this case, whereas I initially thought that as an intern, I would not be given the opportunity to make key decisions, this turned out not to be the case. On the contrary, due to the fact that my immediate managers employed a laissez-faire management style, I was forced to make key decisions in some of the operations of the hotel, which enhanced my development of a responsible and decision-making mind-set.
我在实习期间注意到的一件事是，谢永龄采取了自由放任的领导方式。参考Chaudhry和Javed（2012），自由放任的领导风格涉及给予员工在业务或组织中做出关键决策的自主权，而不受管理层的任何干预。在这种情况下，在影响员工在工作场所做出的决策方面几乎没有或根本没有发挥作用。重要的是，这种领导风格的支持者认为，自由放任的管理风格有助于赋予员工权力，因为员工积极参与决策，从而影响相关企业或组织的不同运营。例如，当我在香港喜来登和大厦酒店当实习生的时候，我觉得经理很重视我的技能和专业知识，这促使我提高我的工作水平。在这种情况下，虽然我最初认为作为一名实习生，我没有机会做出关键决定，但事实并非如此。相反，由于我的直属经理采用自由放任的管理风格，我被迫在酒店的一些运营中做出关键决策，这加强了我对负责任和决策思维的培养。