Problem:
Based on what you have learned about employee support services in France, examine your organization (Brunt Hotels) and describe how adequate a job they are doing. Describe services that they may be providing that are above and beyond what other organizations are providing and also describe services that you have learned about that you would like to see them add.
Many firms help their expatriates find and pay for housing, find jobs for the accompanying spouse, recommend good schools for children, provide assistance for the family home left behind until the family returns and many other services. Compare and contrast your own organization to the services that are provided that you have learned about in France. While it is possible that much can be learned from studying other countries and other companies, still, the grass is not always greener and we sometimes learn that by studying what others have and realizing that we have much more.
• Brunt Hotels PLC is a national chain of hotels in the UK
• There are currently 60 hotels throughout the UK, including 20 in London
• The organization’s revenue was over £220 million ($440million) last year
• They currently have over 7000 employees
• They have recently acquired a small chain of hotels located in France from the Bradley Group.
• Half of the new hotels in France will be retained and will be re-branded as part of Brunt Hotels PLC. The other half of the hotels will be sold.
• The organization has decided that they want to implement an ethnocentric approach whereby they send some of their existing managers (based in the UK) over to France to lead the change-over of the new hotels and then to manage them when they re-open.
• The organization has never owned any overseas hotels before so has engaged your services as external consultants to advise them on all of the key decisions.
• A large number of their existing managers have said that they would like the chance to work abroad
• None of their existing managers can speak French
• They will allow 4 weeks in which the re-branding of the hotels should take place and then the new hotels must be ready to open
• They expect to have to recruit a large number of staff to the new French hotels because over 70% of the employees have left to join new organizations
• They will require their managers to be flexible and move between different countries if any problems arise