PART 1-Background Information on the Organization

Brunt Hotels, PLC, owns more than 60 hotels throughout the United Kingdom. They recently acquired a small hotel chain headquartered in France. Brunt’s chief executive decided that half of the new hotels in France would be retained and re-branded as part of the Brunt Hotels Group; the other half will be sold. This will support Brunt’s strategic objective of growing the organization slowly to make sure that new ventures are well supported and opened on time and on budget.

Brunt’s hotels are considered budget accommodations; they are functional, clean, and reasonably priced.

Most guests stay for one to three nights and are a combination of business and leisure travelers. The hotels are typically situated in downtown locations that are easily accessible by mass transit. Tourists are attracted to these hotels in popular visitor destinations, where the many local attractions mean that they will not be spending much time in their hotel rooms.

The organization has decided to use an ethnocentric approach and send some of their existing UK-based managers to France to lead the changeover of the new hotels and then manage them after they re-open. If this new overseas venture is successful, Brunt may decide to acquire other small hotel groups in other European countries.

The organization would like to own 150 hotels in the next five years. Their 10 year plan is to own 300 hotels across Europe. This is an ambitious target, so it is important that the organization finds an effective formula to operate successfully in other countries.

The organization has never owned any hotels outside the UK before and has hired a team of independent management consultants (you) to advise them on how to proceed.

They provided the consultants the following information during their initial meeting:

• A majority of their existing managers said they would like a chance to work abroad.
• None of their existing managers speak French fluently.
• They will allow four weeks to rebrand the hotels. The new hotels must be ready to open after that time.
• They expect to recruit a large number of staff for the new French hotels, because more than 70 percent of the employees from the acquired organization left.
• They will require their managers to be flexible and move between countries if any problems arise.

Based on the information above, what do you think the key priorities should be in regard to starting an International HRM plan?

In addition, the hotel management asked the consultant (you) if they should look only at internal candidates who are parent country nationals (PCNs) or recruit host country nationals (HCNs). Offer your decision to hotel management.

Present the advantages of the approach you allocated to the class. 

PART 2-

Brunt management decided that because this is their first venture into a country outside the UK, they want to use PCNs to set up the new hotels, and that only internal candidates should be considered. They think that this is important so they can incorporate the organization’s values. However, they believe that once the hotels are up and running, HCNs could be hired. The management vacancies must be filled as soon as possible.

In their company literature, the organization states that their core values are to

• Provide excellent levels of customer service to all guests.
• Provide a clean and comfortable environment for guests and staff.
• Recruit and retain excellent staff.
• Support and develop staff so they can reach their full potential.
• Continuously strive to improve all aspects of the business.
• Ensure that all hotel buildings, fixtures, and fittings are well-maintained in a proactive manner.

It is important that the management consultants for this project take these core values into account when making their recommendations.

Write a recruitment advertisement for the new positions which can be sent to existing managers

Your advertisement should include, at a minimum, the following information:

• Where you will post the advertisement to gain attention of existing managers.
• Main responsibilities of the new job.
• The KSAs required for the position.
• Details on how to apply for the position.