question archive Structuring the Unstructured Startup Adventure Tours is out to disrupt the travel industry

Structuring the Unstructured Startup Adventure Tours is out to disrupt the travel industry

Subject:BusinessPrice:5.87 Bought7

Structuring the Unstructured Startup

Adventure Tours is out to disrupt the travel industry. It offers "authentic" small group adventures around cultural immersion, ecology tourism, spiritual wellness, and international volunteerism. For a premium price (almost double industry standards) you get a guide, pre-planned travel package, and 3 to 12 weeks of unconventional tourism. Excursions are available for families, inter-generational, and age-related groups.

Bookings have doubled year-over-year for the past 3 years and the strain is starting to show. The advisory committees in Adventure Tour's 23 regional offices are proposing local excursion packages too quickly. The quality is amazing but amenity contracts, licensing, and regulatory approvals are often incomplete. Even though local employees network regularly around the globe, some committee members still lack an understanding of their target markets in North America.

Human Resources has reinvented itself several times now. The Director has had to manage a large group of paid staff, interns, honoraria, retirees, and volunteers—all from head office in Toronto. HR managers in the regional offices are complying with local labour laws but the public is raising ethical concerns about the practices of other countries. This creates a public relations issue for customers on the excursions. In addition, there is a shortage of expedition leaders holding up the sale of excursion packages.

Expedition leaders are the backbone of the organization. They come from all ages and walks of life. The only thing they have in common is their knowledge of the local, culture, customs, and geography. To date, paper qualifications have been a poor predictor of competency. So when an excursion works, the organization is reluctant to demand proper accounting and reporting. KSAs are highly specialized and job analysis has shown no consistency from country to country.

The Director of Service has brought you in to develop new accountability and oversight mechanisms for the Human Resources department. The company has a culture of nurturing global citizenship through responsible and sustainable travel. This has led to unconventional practices such as recording business processes using personal reflection, consensus-based decision making, and problem solving through "mastermind" sessions that don't stay focused.

You are responsible for recommending a set common practices and consistent standards that can apply across the whole organization. Your need to respect the current culture and business climate while providing practical boundaries that make the process manageable. Your biggest challenges will be dealing with the regional offices remotely and proposing organizational changes in a fish bowl.

 

 

  1. What knowledge, skills, abilities, (KSAs) should team members have to participate on this committee?
  2. What functions, departments, or levels of the organization need to be represented?
  3. What are the roles, responsibilities, and time commitments required of each team member?
  4. What knowledge and training should be provided about the business problem being solved?
  5. How will the team hold each other accountable for their work?

 

pur-new-sol

Purchase A New Answer

Custom new solution created by our subject matter experts

GET A QUOTE

Answer Preview

Answer:

Some of the important aspects that the KSA committee should have include knowledge, skills and the ability to adapt effectively to change. The team will hold each other accountable for their work by practicing specialization of labor in different units of the business. The knowledge and training to be provided for the problem to be solved include the importance of having a diverse culture in the company for purpose of attaining global markets.

Step-by-step explanation

1. To participate on this committee the KSA's that the members should have include 
The knowledge of the importance of diversity in the company and accommodating personalities of different cultures.
The skills each member should portray are the drive to work independently in the absence of superior management because of the regional division's management practices.
The ability to adapt to change without scrubbing off the previous practices and value the member comprehended.
 

2. The level of organization that need to be represented in this committee includes
The human resource in all the 23 regions of the firm inclusive of some crucial international resource managers,
The finance department of the various divisions of the company.
The office of the general manager of the company and the human and the chairman's office as well.
 

3. The roles and time commitments required of each member of the committee include,
The responsibility to attend all the meetings on a timely basis as identified in the notification of the meeting.
The full participation of the member in programs that promote global networking for profit generation
The participation of each member in the integration of the diverse work culture of the company around the globe.
 

4. The knowledge and training to be provided for the problem to be solved include the importance of having a diverse culture in the company for purpose of attaining global markets.
Also, there should be training on the right skills to integrate differences in the various subsidiaries of the company and alignment of their mission statements to a common direction for attaining a common goal.
 

5. The team will hold each other accountable for their work by practicing specialization of labor in different units of the business. This will ensure that the members are assigned a task that they are conversant with and in case the results is desirable or undesirable it will be easily attributed to the member responsible for the unit.