2 Hotels group set for major management shake-up The Empire Hotels group is to change its organisational structure. The group has been criticised in the media for poor performance in recent years. Senior managers are blamed. They have been slow to respond to changing needs for hotel accommodation and the growth of the business conference industry. Rising consumer incomes have made consumers more demanding about the services they expect. The standard of accommodation and facilities in many Empire Hotels is not rated highly on social media. They have outdated conference facilities and need new IT and video equipment to keep up to industry standards. -Some employees have left for other hotel groups that offer more responsibility to hotel supervisors and departmental managers. Excel Hotels, for example, gives its hotel managers much longer training than the Empire group. It also gives them a lot more freedom when they have qualified. One Excel manager was quoted as saying, 'We are given so much authority early on in our careers and we report directly to senior management, who give immediate feedback. ' Excel hotels also have an excellent reputation for local food dishes and decorations that reflect local culture and traditions. Some Empire employees report that complaints from top managers or requests for new resources from hotels take three weeks before they are acted upon) This is because of the large number of middle managers who are asked to give their views. At last, Empire seems to be responding to this criticism. It has appointed several new design, marketing and catering consultants to advise their own departments. A level of hierarchy has been removed. The changes are causing some friction among the existing established line managers, Analyse the problems that Empire Hotels seem to be experiencing due to a long chain of command. Evaluate the impact on the performance of Empire Hotels of adopting extensive delegation. [12] Analyse the differences between the roles of the newly appointed staff managers at Empire Hotels and those of the existing line managers. Evaluate whether the performance of the Empire Hotels group could be improved by adopting a more flexible organisational structure. 16