Report on the Investigation of West Indies Yacht Club Resort (WIYCR)
I) Investigation Summary
In British Virgin Islands (BVI), there are mainly five upscale hotels and WIYCR is one of them which is famous for its boat collection as well as its top of the line sailing instruction programs. The resort staff is composed of expatriate managers and local employees. This results in cultural communication problems and arises issues on cross-cultural management for the managers. After the investigation, there are mainly four problems including the high level of expatriate turnover, the remarkable rising of the number of guest complaints, the tension between the expatriate and local staff, and finally the lack of motivation of the locals in their work. All the problems above are not caused by the lack of technical or professional staff, however, they can be explained by cultural differences within the organization, and the strict regulations imposed by the local government. The followings are the brief causes of those problems.
1. High turnover rate of expatriate: expatriate managers are frustrated with the performance and practices of local employees. And they do not have enough international experience and cross-cultural communication and sensitivity training.
2. Rising number of complaints: overbooking the resort due to the communication problem between head office and the resort, and as a result the resort is understaffed and offering a low quality of service to the customer.
3. Tension between expatriate and the locals: mainly due to the cultural differences between them. Also the labour laws of BVI increase job protection to them, it is difficult to lay off an unqualified staff.< ...