Reference no: EM133511373

Chapter 13 case study: Knowledge sharing at Swinton Park Swinton Park is an exclusive luxury hotel of 31 bedrooms located in North Yorkshire eight miles from Ripon. It is set in 200 acres of parklands and gardens, and offers a wide range of facilities to guests. It also has a cookery school run by a celebrity chef. The hotel was opened in 2001 after an extensive restoration and employs about seventy full-time and parttime staff, although this number fluctuates due to seasonal demands. In April 2002 the Hotel was awarded Investors in People and since then has received several sector awards including Yorkshire Life Hotel of the Year 2002, Yorkshire Tourist Board White Rose Awards Best Hotel 2003, Outstanding Customer Service Award in 2006, the White Rose Awards Hotel of the Year in 2009, Family Hotel of the Year in the 2011, and the White Rose Awards Yorkshire Restaurant of the Year in 2012. The Hotel of the Year award in 2009 recognised the hotel's commitment to excellence, both in customer care, accommodation and dining, and also to staff training and marketing. It also has the UK's Investors in People standard (IiP) which was originally launched in 1991 and was designed to help organisations transform business performance through developing employees. The hotel was first awarded the IiP in 2002, less than a year after it had opened. Awards such as The Hotel of the Year award in 2009 have recognised the hotel's commitment to excellence in customer care and staff training. In 2006 the hotel was the first in Europe to achieve the European Institute for the Promotion of Informal Learning (EIPIL) Award. Its approach to training and development has been a blend of formal and informal initiatives. Given the nature of most jobs at the hotel, both induction and on-going training are highly practical. New employees undertake a comprehensive induction followed by an informal staff review after three months. This socialization process is further supported by informal learning activities such as job shadowing which has been highly successful for the transfer of knowledge and skills from experienced individuals to new employees (although there have been some failures indicating that this approach does not suit everyone). Job shadowing is also used when employees are first promoted. The emphasis is on the relatively gradual accumulation of expertise rather than 'throwing people in at the deep end'. Experienced employees have also learnt from new employees who often have knowledge and skills gained from working in other organizations. Ongoing training is predominantly on-the-job for managers and other employees and includes interventions such as job rotation, which enables individuals to broaden their knowledge and skills as well as gain an insight into other aspects of the organization. Selection for this is based on a lottery system (taking names from a hat). Although the frequency of this intervention is affected by trading circumstances, it is clearly a key aspect of the hotel's training and development strategy. A research study that involved a series of staff interviews reveals that employees learn informally through doing their work and resolving problems that they encounter on a daily basis. Employees are encouraged to try out new ideas for improving their jobs and if the idea is successful it will be adopted as a new work routine. The employees who were interviewed spoke positively about the opportunities to learn available to them and seemed to appreciate the interest taken in them by the owners and managers. Employees are keen to acknowledge the help and support they receive from colleagues and it is apparent that this social aspect of work is seen as being very important. Managers stress the importance of teamwork as well as good communications and the sharing of information. Consequently, formal staff committees and meetings are held regularly and employees are able to submit feedback forms to management on any issue. Informal shift meetings tend to be held daily and employees are able to raise any issue they want at these. Support networks between individuals in different departments have also emerged and evolved over time. Management believe in recognizing the efforts of their employees and also in providing them with customer feedback. Monthly work reviews are conducted to recognize any staff achievements and this approach is seen as being highly motivational by many employees. The hotel's owners would like to see a system that recognizes the organizational benefits of informal learning including some form of qualification for individual employee's informal learning. Full-time staff are also formally appraised on an annual basis.

Activities

1. How would you classify Swinton Park's approach to knowledge management on the basis of their approach to employee development?

2. What does this case tell us about the relationship between knowledge management processes and learning?

3. What does this case tell us about the implications of SHRM in an SME?

4. What other observations can you make about this case? Are there any suggestions you might have for this company from a strategic HR perspective?