Rental car industry is a multibillion industry which needs proper management for it to bear good returns. Unlike other service industries, the car rental service is highly consolidated which gives new players into the business a cost disadvantage incurred from the high input cost and low economies of scale at the same time.

This industry has become more competitive and a big chunk of the competition comes from two main sources within the market chain, these are leisure and corporate segments. The major players in the market have established networks of collaboration and deals with majority of the leisure segments and corporate leaving only a smaller percentage for other smaller car rental companies. But that does not rule out the possibility of competition among the major players (Jim Suhr, 2004).

Developing of a proper working culture is a step towards revival of the car rental company. The company should strive towards training of their workers on how customers should be handled in order to achieve the satisfaction they deserve. The workers should also have a culture of team work, which will help them to cover any loop holes of service delivery thus maximizing their efforts towards having excellent services to the customers (Singh, 2002).

In addition the company must ensure customer satisfaction through, putting the customers first. For instance, whenever a customer calls for an assistance in case of mechanical failure, the company should have a standby technicians around the clock, who will be able to respond in such scenarios, and in some cases, they may even exchange for the customer another car which is in good shape so that he/she can complete whatever he/she was in need of the car for, then on returning it they would have assessed the problem and determined whether it was the driver’s fault or not.

The company can also improve on the quality of their service through provision of clean, well maintained vehicles, through provision of different types of cars that suits the renter’s need and expenditure for example most companies have their cars categorized into economy compact, intermediate, premium and luxury to suit the different need of the customer. The company must create a culture of being sensitive to the different culture around the world. With the knowledge of their likes and preferences these cultures have, the car rent management can be able to customers their vehicles according to the needs of those customers who are highly sensitive about their cultures. There should not be a sex-biased culture; this is because some clients may be easily convinced to try some of the travel packages offered by the company if some of the services offered are with different genders. For example a female client may request of feel safe if driven around by a female driver, hence this will boost their clientele base (Singh, 2002).

Another important aspect of working culture is, having a specialization culture within the company, whereby everybody will be experienced in the field assigned therefore promoting quality services. The workers should have strong communication skills which will enable them to portray to the customer the company’s policies and their seriousness towards offering quality services. All these cultures which enhance a positive growth to the company can be instituted by the managerial team to suit the needs of the customers (Monge, 1992).

The company can also compete favorably through coming up with motivational theories tailor made to suit both the workers and customers. Workers can be motivated to become more productive and offer more quality service by coming up with payment schemes through the incentive theory of motivation. These payment schemes can be the likes of pay for performance, reward based on an achievement or even skill/knowledge based reward. The company can come up with a payment option which will allow the workers to be given a bonus whenever the company improves its market share hence profits (Latham, 2011). The sales team can be given bonuses or even promotion which comes with a pay rise for every new contract signed with a company. This will improve the company’s market share hence increase in profits. The company may also reward the workers for their skills/knowledge; this will improve the overall quality of work done by the workers. Because whenever a worker is rewarded for gaining a certain knowledge which will be of use in his/her line of work, this system of motivation will make them more loyal to their jobs and more so skilled to perform complex tasks such as coming up with an advertisement which will have a positive influence of the customers.

Also through the Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs, the management can use this theory to promote the workers loyalty and motivate them towards better work. Through this the company may decide to give them housing, food during their working hours and job security. The company should also put in use the arousal theory of motivation to make their working condition vibrant for all workers. This can be done by engaging the workers in retreats and funfair which will boost their relationship within themselves and with the clients. Goal setting is also an important motivation strategy where the workers will be given goals to be achieved will make them self-motivated toward attaining the goal (Latham, 2011).

The leadership style in use will also influence the productivity of this company. The leader should be visionary in that, he/she should not stop leading the company into prosperity because the company is one of the largest in Europe. He/she should strive towards setting new achievable goals every now and then. The workers should be given the freedom to bring forth their innovation and ideas so as to reduce risks, losses and maximize profits. The leader can also embrace the coaching style of leadership where, he/she helps individual workers to link their goals to those of the company (Pless, 2007). For example if the worker’s goal is to grow professionally, the leader should make it realistic for the worker by giving him achievable goals hence participating in the overall goals of the company.

The leader can also be a pace setter, he or she can work in line with the motivational theories such as the incentive theory so as to enable the worker increase their productivity to the height set by him (Pless, 2007). The company can also have a leader who uses the transformational style of leadership. In the car rental industry, the leader should always inspire his/her workers constantly through a shared vision with them. He/she should strive at adding new value to the company and these ideas and visions are passed on to the workers.

References

JIM SUHR. 2004. Rental car foes war on each other's turf : The Enquirer [Online]. The Associate Press. Available: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/11/biz_rentalcars111.html [Accessed 1st March, 2012]. LATHAM, G. P. 2011. Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice, SAGE Publications.
MONGE, P. R., COZZENS, M. D. & CONTRACTOR, N. S. 1992. Communication and Motivational Predictors of the Dynamics of Organizational Innovation. Organization Science, 3, 250-274.
PLESS, N. M. 2007. Understanding Responsible Leadership: Role Identity and Motivational Drivers. Journal of Business Ethics, 74, 437-456.
SINGH, K. 2002. An Exposition to Work Culture: Relationship with Organisation Culture. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 37, 386-403.