Risks of laissez-faire management style 自由放任管理方式的风险
Despite the role that my manager’s laissez-faire leadership style played in helping me develop my decision-making skills and as a responsible mind-set, I think this kind of management approach has a number of weaknesses that undermines its effectiveness in a large organisations, and particularly at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers. In reference to Skogstad et al. (2007), the lack of action and initiative on the side of the management has a detrimental effect on the subordinates. In this case, whereas studies on the destructive management styles focus more on the emotional and physical abuse from the management, there is also a need to note that passive management styles also have a negative impact on subordinates. From my internship experience at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers I realised that whereas laissez-faire gave me an opportunity to develop self-initiative when approaching tasks, there were risks of me making decisions that could have far reaching consequences on the operations of this hotel. For example, whereas my manager trained me on the importance of communication with customers, he did not persistently follow-up to know how I was interacting with customers. This means that the hotel could have lost one or more customers because the management failed to understand how its staffs were engaging its customers. Furthermore, I noticed that I struggled with deciding what was right and what was wrong when making some decisions since I did not have proper guidelines to help me easily make the right choice. Speaking from this perspective, I think laissez-faire management style is not appropriate in a hotel environment due to the fact that a mistake because of an employee’s decision could have costly impact on the hotel in question.
尽管我的经理放任领导风格在帮助我发展我的决策技能和作为一个负责任的心态方面发挥了作用，我认为这种管理方法有许多弱点，削弱了它在一个大型组织中的有效性，尤其是在香港喜来登塔。参考Skogstad等人（2007年），管理层缺乏行动和主动性对下属有不利影响。在这种情况下，尽管对破坏性管理风格的研究更多地关注管理层的情绪和身体虐待，但也需要注意的是，被动管理风格也会对下属产生负面影响。从我在香港喜来登酒店的实习经历中，我意识到，放任让我有机会在接近任务时培养自己的主动性，我有可能做出对酒店的经营有深远影响的决定。例如，虽然我的经理在与客户沟通的重要性方面对我进行了培训，但他没有持续跟进，以了解我是如何与客户互动的。这意味着酒店可能会失去一个或多个客户，因为管理层无法理解其员工是如何吸引客户的。此外，我注意到，我在做一些决定时很难判断什么是对的，什么是错的，因为我没有适当的指导方针来帮助我轻松地做出正确的选择。从这个角度讲，我认为自由放任的管理方式在酒店环境中是不合适的，因为员工的决策可能会给酒店带来代价高昂的影响。
Laissez-faire and feedback 自由放任与反馈
In addition to this, there is a need to observe that feedback plays a critical role in enhancing the learning experience of employees as well as in strengthening their performance levels. Despite its importance, one of the things I noted regarding my internship at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers is the fact that I received minimum feedback from my manager. Furthermore, much of the feedback I received was solicited feedback whereby I had to ask my manager whether I was performing as per the required standards of this hotel. Importantly, I think the laissez-faire management style minimises the interaction between the management and employees, thus hindering the ability of managers to gauge the performance levels of their employees and as such, provide them with constructive feedback that could help them improve their performance levels. In reference to Kumra, Simpson and Burke (2014), the inability of laissez-faire management style to offer constructive feedback to employees is based on the aspect that due to its approach, it is unable to establish relationship between the management and employees, thus making it difficult for employers to rate their employees. In my case, I had little connection to my manager, which made it difficult for use to interact often, thus giving him a chance to monitors my performance levels and as such, give feedback that could help me improve. Furthermore, Mauch (2009) reiterates that due to laissez-faire management style’s inability to offer direction, most employees lack direction and focus under this management styles and as such, they are less motivated and as such, underperform in their roles. For example, I noticed while working as an intern at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers that some of this hotel’s employees lacked the motivation and self-drive to work and as such, they only performed the basic tasks, and had no desire to seek to achieve high performance levels. Some of these employees thought that the management had no clue about managing firms in a hotel industry.
除此之外，需要注意的是，反馈在增强员工的学习体验以及提高他们的绩效水平方面起着至关重要的作用。尽管它很重要，但我在香港喜来登和塔楼实习的事情之一是我收到了我经理的更低反馈。此外，我收到的大部分反馈都是征求反馈意见，因此我不得不询问我的经理我是否按照该酒店要求的标准执行。重要的是，我认为自由放任的管理风格更大限度地减少了管理层和员工之间的互动，从而妨碍了管理者衡量员工绩效水平的能力，并因此向他们提供建设性反馈，帮助他们提高绩效水平。参考Kumra、Simpson和Burke（2014），自由放任管理风格无法向员工提供建设性反馈的原因在于，由于其方法，无法在管理层和员工之间建立关系，因此雇主难以对其员工进行评级。在我的情况下，我与我的经理几乎没有联系，这使得我很难经常与他互动，从而使他有机会监控我的绩效水平，并因此提供有助于我提高的反馈。此外，Mauch（2009）重申，由于自由放任的管理风格无法提供方向，大多数员工在这种管理风格下缺乏方向和专注力，因此，他们的积极性较低，因此表现不佳。例如，我在香港喜来登的一家实习生工作时注意到，有些酒店的员工缺乏工作动力和自我驱动力，因此，他们只履行基本任务，不想追求高绩效水平。其中一些员工认为管理层对管理酒店行业的公司一无所知。
Leadership style at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers 香港喜来登的领导风格
Despite the fact that leadership and management are two aspects in businesses and organisations that are often interchanged because of the perception that they are synonymous, there is a need to observe that there is a significant difference between the two. In reference to Mullins and Dossor (2013), whereas management focuses on organising people to work towards achieving a certain goal, leadership involves influencing employees in a certain way with the aim of achieving particular objectives. Therefore, Mullins and Dossor (2013) affirm that whereas management relies on hierarchical authority to organise people, leadership is founded on influencing relationship. In line with this, there is a need to observe that the main form of leadership styles that were evident at Sheraton Hong Kong & Tower include servant and democratic leadership styles.
尽管在企业和组织中，领导力和管理是两个经常互换的方面，因为人们认为它们是同义词，但需要注意的是，两者之间存在显著差异。参考Mullins和Dossor（2013），管理层侧重于组织员工努力实现特定目标，而领导力则涉及以特定方式影响员工以实现特定目标。因此，Mullins和Dossor（2013）确认，尽管管理层依靠层级权力来组织人员，但领导力是建立在影响关系的基础上的。与此相一致，需要观察的是，在香港喜来登的塔和塔的领导风格的主要形式包括仆人和民主领导风格。
Servant leadership 仆人式领导
One of the issues that I noted while working at Sheraton Hong Kong & Towers was the fact that this hotel’s leadership was composed of people who were willing to listen to different people they came in contact with irrespective of whether they were employees or customers. Furthermore, they were committed to the growth of their employees, and they focused on persuading them rather than forcing them to implement certain changes in the operations of the hotels. For example, while working at this hotel as an intern, I noticed that it was in the process of upgrading its services to meet the standards of Marriott International hotel conglomerate. Whereas I expected the leadership to dictate what employees were supposed to do when implementing such changes, this was not the case. On the contrary, the hotel leadership showed empathy towards employees, and rather than dismiss their concerns, they carefully listened to them as well as acted on these grievances without victimising any employees. I realised that this hotel relies on servant leadership to lead its employees as well as serve its customers.
我在香港喜来登酒店工作时注意到的一个问题是，这家酒店的领导层是由愿意倾听不同的人接触的人组成的，而不管他们是雇员还是顾客。此外，他们致力于员工的成长，并专注于说服他们，而不是强迫他们在酒店运营中实施某些变革。例如，当我在这家酒店实习时，我注意到它正在升级服务，以达到万豪国际酒店集团的标准。虽然我希望领导层在实施这些变革时规定员工应该做什么，但事实并非如此。相反，酒店领导层对员工表现出同情心，他们并没有消除员工的担忧，而是认真倾听员工的抱怨，并在不伤害任何员工的情况下采取行动。我意识到，这家酒店依靠仆人的领导才能来领导员工和服务客户。