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This case study aims to yield the following learning outcomes: understand the key performance indicators of successful human resource management (HRM) in the hospitality and tourism sector, especially during pandemics; identify the various concepts and strategies of HRM and recruitment over a short period; conceptualize the types of HRM practices such as safety and health, recruitment and promotion and rewards when facing pandemic conditions as well as the handling of hotel staff in strained times; evaluate the crisis management solutions used by human resources to lower the employee turnover rate; and develop a crisis management plan from a human resource standpoint in a pandemic situation.

A five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bab Al Qasr Hotel & Residence (BAQHotel) opened in October 2016. In April 2020, the hotel began accepting patients with COVID-19 in conjunction with the Abu Dhabi’s Healthcare Company (SEHA), as a support to the UAE Government, through Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi (DCTAD), to meet the local needs and sustain business during these unforeseen circumstances, which heavily impacted the whole World. Samer Majari, the Human Resource Director of BAQ hotel was responsible for recruiting and supervising delegates, while ensuring the comfort of hotel staff, arranging for their transportation, catering, safety and well-being. To combat the high staff turnover, including COVID-19-positive staff, Majari reviewed the existing staff model; divided the staff into two groups for providing services to both sides of the hotel; arranged for separate accommodations, food and transportation; and retained the existing resources and recruited new workers. This study aims to provide management solutions that concern hiring of staff from the existing UAE market and highlights ways of creating a lower staff turnover rate through incentives and compensations, while also managing staff by motivating them and also safeguarding them against COVID-19.

This case study intends to provide a context for creative solutions to human resource challenges facing organizations during a pandemic. It also involves swift responses to crises faced by HR managers and the immediate solutions required. Therefore, this case study can be used in undergraduate level courses for students pursuing a bachelor’s or a master’s degree in HRM, hospitality management, crisis management or international business studies. Moreover, this case study can be used for corporate training and to help hospitality industry staff, mid-level human resource managers and organizational development practitioners to better understand crisis management in their hotels.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management

The interviews were conducted with the respondents (the founder and Manager of De Cyber Hotel). Other data were obtained through the websites of the relevant businesses.

Siti Alia and her friends established De Cyber Hotel in January 2019. It was incorporated as a Malaysian private limited company in Cyberjaya, Selangor. Siti Alia was appointed as the hotel manager and was responsible for managing the hotel’s day-to-day operations and financial matters. Being a new budget hotel, competing with other established hotels was quite difficult. De Cyber Hotel used brochures and word-of-mouth for its promotion activities and mainly depended on walk-in guests. Siti Alia knew she had to take immediate action to ensure the hotel’s survival and could no longer rely on walk-in guests. Hence, to increase the occupancy and revenue rate, on 27 March 2019, De Cyber Hotel management decided to accept an offer from ABC Digital Booking to implement a digital booking mechanism and form a partnership for at least a year. ABC Digital Booking provided an online system to enable the listing and booking of budget accommodations and partnered with hotels to provide similar guest experiences across countries. After working and collaborating for 10 months with ABC Digital Booking, Siti Alia had to decide whether De Cyber Hotel should continue its alliance with ABC Digital Booking. Hence, she had to think thoroughly and consider the advantages and disadvantages, as well as the impact of her decision on the business.

Undergraduate Integrated Case Studies, Seminar in Management, Risk Management and Corporate Governance, Management Accounting, Financial Accounting, Strategic Management. Postgraduate Organizational Behaviour, Management Accounting and Controls, Strategic Management Accounting, Marketing Management, Hospitality Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship Development.

In the increasingly competitive leisure food market, Lyfen has become a well-known leisure food brand in Shanghai after long-term independent operation. Insisting on chain retail specializing in various kinds of leisure food, Lyfen captures the consumption habits of consumers, timely launches new products in line with consumers' preferences, and leads the consumption trend. Its main competitors include other leading enterprises in China's leisure food chain industry, such as Three Squirrels, BESTORE and Baiweilin. The company's products are mainly divided into nine categories, totaling more than 900 special products. Some products under Lyfen's name have established good reputation in East China. Regarding business model, Lyfen has devoted its full energy to the construction of brand and channel, and created a unique asset-light model, which mainly involves sourcing and sales two chains.

Retailing, services marketing, marketing strategy.

Undergraduate Business and Management, MBA, MA Marketing/International Business.

Giordano is one of Asia's most successful retailers, with operations in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. With a strong emphasis on customer service and value-for-money, Giordano was able to differentiate itself from its competitors. The question is: how can Giordano maintain its competitive advantage in the future? Amid increasingly stronger competitors and changing industry conditions, Giordano had to critically evaluate its sources of competitive advantage and key success factors, and perhaps consider repositioning itself in current and new markets.

This case is suited for a retailing or services marketing/management course. It demonstrates the power of a tight integration of marketing, operations, and human resource management to deliver value-for-money. Specifically, it can be used for the following teaching objectives: from a marketing perspective, this case can be used to demonstrate the successful integration of a strategy based on service orientation, value-for-money positioning, and aggressive advertising and promotions; and from a management perspective, the case can be used to highlight how the marketing strategy is being delivered through a clear focus on service staff (selection, training, and motivation) and operations (logistics, IT, and communications), combined with an organizational culture that encourages staff to try new things (and accept errors as a consequence).

Teaching notes.

This case extends existing social enterprise theory about how an organization balances its mixed goals: financial, social and conservation. Both growing demand and management transition bought about the challenging issue of sustainability.

The authors have applied the case for undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

The central protagonist is Mr Samson, a local authority who has to make a decision on whether he should approve or reject the budget with aims to take over the Surabaya Zoo. This is about debate whether conservation social-enterprise should involve human intervention or follow the natural path.

This case introduces some concepts and implementations about social enterprise and public policy. For the undergraduate program, the case is designed to introduce the concept of social enterprise and public policy. For the postgraduate program, the students are encouraged to enhance their analysis through conducting feasibility studies including financial sustainability and ethical analysis.

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Human resource management

This case is suitable for use for advanced-level undergraduate students (e.g. in their third or fourth year of study) and graduate-level students enrolled in human resource management, industrial relations, organizational behavior and legal courses (e.g. business law and ethics, employment law). It can be used also in training courses and sexual harassment workshops for employees, particularly those with supervisory responsibilities or who are involved in personnel, training, or industrial relations activities. The case has been class tested with MBA students enrolled in a course on organizational behavior.

In March 2014, William Wong, the CEO of Zejaya Corporation faced a dilemma. He had just been told some disturbing news about Larry Pang, his executive director, which may or may not have legal implications for the company in relation to sexual harassment. Two of his managers had confided in him that Linda Tan, one of his managers who had recently resigned, had asked them to tell him about Pang's repeated attempts to court her in the past several months. He was undecided on how he should handle the problem.

This case was developed for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case provides students the opportunity to learn about the potential ethical and legal issues surrounding workplace romance and sexual harassment at work.

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This case study is best suited for courses in career management, stress management, work–life management or science of well-being in organization behavior (OB) or human resources management (HRM). This case study is targeted at the MBA or executive development programs. The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: to analyze the challenges in balancing Suraj Kumar’s (the protagonist) work–life balance situation and identifying the main causes of such a conflict. What are some strategies that could be used to address these issues? To develop a plan to balance work responsibilities with family and personal life. What specific actions could he take to achieve this balance? To design a training program for employees that addresses work–life balance issues. What topics would you cover in the training, and what methods would you use to deliver the content? To create a proposal for a flexible work arrangement program that an organization could offer to its employees. What would be the benefits of this program, and how would it be implemented and managed? To develop a business case for why an organization should prioritize work–life balance for its employees. What are the potential benefits of doing so, and how can the organization measure the impact of its efforts?

This case study discusses conflicts due to competitive priorities that people face in balancing the pressures, roles and responsibilities between their professional life (careers) and their personal life, and the trade-offs that they make across these multiple aspects of their lives. This case study revolves around Suraj Kumar, a successful consultant, who was offered a promotion as the executive director for the social sector. This promotion would require extensive travel and time away from his family. Kumar was struggling to balance his work responsibilities with his family life and his involvement with the Smile and Shine Foundation, which supports the education of children from economically weaker sections of society. He was reflecting on his past and present and trying to figure out how to prioritize his commitments while also achieving his personal and professional goals.

This research has shown that a case discussion and role-play can be effective for a less experienced audience. Instructors can provide multiple perspectives to stimulate reflection and debate. For executive MBA or executive development programs, a self-reflection exercise is recommended. Participants in these programs may have personal experience dealing with or may know others who have dealt with work–life balance issues, making self-reflection a valuable tool.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

For 28 years Alaska, like the vast majority of the nation, has struggled with growing prison populations and shrinking budgets. In 1995, the Alaska Department of Corrections, faced with sanctions unless they ameliorated their crowded prison conditions, looked to the popular practice of contracting out its correctional operations by sending 650 prisoners to a private out-of-state prison. But, as the costs of prisoner litigation and transportation mounted, the state began to consider building its own private prison, a decision which many state lawmakers and business entrepreneurs argued would allow the state to stretch scarce dollars by providing cheaper and better quality prisons, return millions of dollars to the state economy, and create permanent jobs. In this decision case, students are required to put themselves in the role of the Alaska Legislature to determine whether they should permit the building and operation of a private prison in one of Alaska's remote communities. The students must analyze and juggle the complex and often competing set of objectives, values, and political tensions intrinsic to all privatization decisions.

This case can be used in marketing management as well as consumer behaviour courses.

This case is suitable to use in advanced undergraduate levels, MBA and MSc in marketing courses that cover topics related to market segmentation and marketing mix strategies.

This case highlights the dilemma of an entrepreneur and a manager of a restaurant who were to take a decision about the sustainability of their restaurant business. Balqis Restaurant was owned by Danny who was a retiree from Telekom Malaysia. He wanted to open a restaurant business after he came back from his long holiday trip. He conducted market research to find a suitable place to open his Arabic restaurant. He assigned Waleed Masood Abdullah as the manager of Balqis Restaurant. Finally, in June 2010, he opened his long awaited restaurant at Gombak, Kuala Lumpur. The restaurant was known as Qasar before the name was changed to Balqis in 2015 because of copyright issues related to Saba’ restaurant at Cyberjaya. The restaurant was well managed under Danny’s supervision for 4 years and successfully won customers’ hearts and loyalty before he decided to give full responsibility to Waleed in March 2014. Danny trusted Waleed because he taught and trained him. However, under Waleed’s management, Balqis started to lose its customers. Waleed also started to branch out the restaurant to different places in different states; one in Ipoh, and the other in Perak. He invested much money on renovation for all three branches, but one of the restaurants closed down in September 2014. This is because of the fact that they could no longer bear the cost of operations for the restaurant. However, he failed to learn from the mistake; they set up another restaurant, which was in Kuantan, in the same month. The sales were not that encouraging but it did show gradual improvement; yet, they once again sold it to another Arab businessman. Waleed realized his failure in managing the restaurant business in August 2015. He again opted to open another new branch which was questioned by Danny. He was in a rush to open it by the end of December 2015 to ensure that the additional profits from the current restaurants could cover the variables costs if the new restaurants were launched. Based on that, the owner had to make a decision about whether a new branch should be opened or whether they should just retain their restaurant in Gombak.

The learning objectives of using this case are as follows. 1. Knowledge enhancement: to help students in understanding the problems faced by a restaurant in expanding its market; to make students aware that a properly blended marketing mix is the key to business success and to broaden students’ views and understanding in targeting the proper market segment in formulating an effective marketing strategy. 2. Skills building: to be able to identify the best marketing strategic decisions to manage the restaurant business for its survival and to develop students’ ability to analyse the existing situation to come up with a viable and effective solution. 3. Attitudinal: to help the students to have intellectual openness in accepting different ways of finding solutions for a particular problem and to assist students in making the right move at the right time.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management, Bringing Technology to Market, International Growth Strategy from Emerging Markets, Russia, B2B Marketing.

MBA and executive education programs, technology management programs and electives.

The case investigates the 20-years growth story of ABBYY, one of the most successful Russian technological companies in a global market. It covers the company’s roots, development of unique technology, evolution of products, market development and globalization and discusses a strategic threat from Google Translate to the company’s sustainable position and its business model.

The expected learning outcome is to discuss the key issues associated with establishing, growing and globalizing technology-driven business in an emerging market: bringing technology to market, defining customer value proposition, entering overseas markets from Russia, building partnerships, developing organizational structure to fit growth, financing rapid growth and solving “Innovator’s Dilemma”.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.