Impact of digital disruption and digital transformation on hospitality and leisure managers

Introduction

Digital disruptions and the associated digital transformation and digital business imperatives result in disruptions of managerial work.¹²³ That is, they require managers to perform new or enhanced functions/roles and, subsequently, to have new or enhanced digital transformation and digital business—related competencies.⁴ Managers with these new or enhanced competencies are able to accelerate the digital transformation, digital business, and adaptability/agility capabilities of their organizations. Managers lacking the new or enhanced competencies are at best limited in the value they can create for their organizations and, at worst, they are risky to the long-term survival and competitiveness of their organizations. To cultivate the new or enhanced digital transformation and digital business—related competencies, managers must first understand what these competencies are, their necessity, and their fit and interrelationship with established managerial functions/roles and competencies. In this chapter, we discuss established managerial functions/roles, and how digital technology advancements disrupt them. We then identify the new or enhanced digital transformation and digital business—related competency areas and discuss their fit and interrelationship with established managerial functions/ roles. Finally, we discuss the benefits of cultivating these competencies, and the risks of not doing so, for both managers’ careers and the fates of their organizations. Our aim is to provide a conceptual framework or lens for hospitality and leisure managers to understand the required new or enhanced roles and competencies, the importance of these roles and competencies to their organizations, and the value of the competencies for supercharging all other managerial functions, roles, and competencies. The subsequent chapters build on this framework with a dedicated chapter on each key digital transformation and digital business capability, hospitality and leisure managers’ roles in the creation and optimization of that capability, and the corresponding competencies by hospitality and leisure managers to effectively perform those roles.

Evolution of management functions, roles, and competencies

Resilience of Fayol’s management functions

Practitioners and researchers within and outside of the hospitality and leisure industry have long been interested in the job functions or roles of managers, the corresponding competencies required to cany out those functions and roles, and how both functions/ roles and competencies evolve in response to the different management challenges facing organizations.⁵-^6,7-⁸ Although there have been debates about their meaningfulness and completeness, the management functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, leading, and controlling are still widely accepted.⁹ These are based on adaptations and extensions of French management theorist Henri Fayol’s ideas from as far back as 1916 (these functions and their interrelationships are shown in Figure 6.1).¹" The planning function involves deciding what needs to happen and how to make it happen (e.g. what objectives/steps/activities to carry out, in what order, by whom, when, with what resources).¹¹ It includes activities such as setting objectives, forecasting, budgeting, scheduling, and forming policies and procedures.¹² The organizing function involves allocating human and other resources, assigning work, and granting authority.¹³ It includes activities such as establishing/configuring organization structures, delegating work, and building relationships.¹⁴ It also includes staffing activities such as recruiting, training, and developing employees. The coordinating function involves aligning the actions and efforts of people

Figure 6.1 Managerial functions as commonly conceptualized today evolved from Fayol’s research introduced in 1916

Impact of digital disruption on hospitality and leisure managers 53 contributing to the plan across functional, department, and hierarchical groups.¹’' The leading function involves communicating, motivating, guiding, encouraging, influencing, coaching, and mentoring¹⁶ activities. The controlling function involves activities such as continuously monitoring performance to plan, identifying deviations, and taking corrective actions.¹⁷¹⁸

Mintzberg’s ten managerial roles

Contending that the functions discussed in the previous section didn't really make it clear what day-to-day roles and activities managers undertook, renowned management thinker Henry Mintzberg offered a different view of the job of manager. He proposed that managers are people vested with formal authority over a team or unit. That formal authority enables managers to have status, particular relationships, and access to particular information.¹⁹ As a result, this formal authority gives rise to ten roles of managers. Mintzberg organized these ten roles into three categories: interpersonal, informational, and decision roles (see Figure 6.2).²⁰ In the interpersonal roles category, the manager fulfills figurehead, leader, and liaison roles.²¹ Being a figurehead involves representational activities such as performing ceremonial or symbolic duties, signing legal documents, and greeting dignitaries. Being a leader involves traditional leadership activities like hiring, developing, and influencing and directing staff and other stakeholders.²² Being a liaison involves facilitating and maintaining information links across formal and informal organization structures and within and outside the organization. In the informational roles category, the manager fulfills monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson roles.²’ Being a monitor involves constantly scanning the internal and external environment for information about risks and opportunities facing the team. For example, external monitoring may involve reviewing relevant information platforms for political, economic, social, technological, ethical, and legal opportunities and threats that may face the team. Internal monitoring may involve formal and informal interactions such as catch-ups with people up the hierarchy, across functions and business units, and in other subgroups. In carrying out monitoring activities, the manager may come across information about opportunities for and threats to the team and its efforts. Being a disseminator involves sharing information between team and organization members (e.g. via emails, reports, memos, meetings).²⁴ Being a spokesperson involves speaking on behalf of individual team members and of the team as a whole (e.g. speaking up for team members unable to do so by themselves, or speaking for the team up the hierarchy, across functions, and outside the organization).²’ In the decisional roles category, the manager fulfills entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator roles.²⁶ Being an entrepreneur involves constantly seeking out new ideas and approaches to improve the team’s effectiveness and to adapt it to changing internal and external conditions.^2. Being a disturbance handler involves responding to disruptions, crises, and pressures (e.g. a key employee abruptly quits, a financial crisis or pandemic occurs, a key customer goes out of business).²⁸ As a resource allocator, the manager decides how to allocate time, financial, talent, attention, and other resources.²⁹ As a negotiator, the manager represents the team in negotiations (e.g. with senior managers, other departments, unions, other team members).'" Managerial functions and roles discussed have also included innovation (which can be included in Mintzberg’s entrepreneur role or in the leadership role), decision making (which can be included in the planning or leading functions), communicating (which can be included in the leading functions or in Mintzberg’s informational roles category), and others.

Figure 6.2 Mintzberg’s ten roles of managers³¹

Role of managerial competencies in fulfilling managerial functions and roles

Along with identifying key management functions and roles, researchers and practitioners have also explored key competencies or the knowledge/skills/abilities required to effectively perform those functions and roles. To this end, they have identified management competencies such as performance management (e.g. conducting performance planning/ facilitation/evaluation; setting employee goals; providing effective employee feedback; ensuring employee efforts and behaviors are aligned with organization requirements); effective communication (e.g. effective communication methods and approaches for face-to-face, virtual, written, and other modes); effective leadership (e.g. authentic, situational, inspirational, and other leadership styles and approaches); effective coaching skills; effective delegation; effective motivation; emotional intelligence; cross-cultural leadership; understanding how the different parts of an organization work together to create

Impact of digital disruption on hospitality and leisure managers 55 value and being able to collaborate with those functions (e.g. working competencies in managerial finance and accounting, marketing, HR, operations, corporate communications, procurement); influencing and negotiation skills; project management skills; strategic thinking/strategic planning/strategic leadership competencies; critical thinking skills; business analysis and problem-solving skills; team-working skills; and ethical/ environmental/social responsibility consciousness/promotion or compliance. Many of these competencies/skills are now essential components of tertiary general management programs around the world.