Hospitality Industry and Opportunities - Research Paper Example

Assignment 2 “Literature Review” Introduction Hospitality industry provides best career opportunities which are challenging as well as rewarding. Hotels, restaurants and resorts which serve the customers fall in this industry. Staff turnover is considerably high in this industry when compared to other industries. 4-5 star hotels generally experience a high staff turnover. It is important for the management to understand why there is relative increase in staff turnover in the hospitality industry particularly in 4-5star hotels. Lodging industry has relatively high staff turnover being labor intensive. Issues related to HR, are an important consideration in any hotel, which are generally placed under the staff supervision of a human resource department (Barrows & Powers, 2009). Hospitality industry faces challenges in recruiting, developing and maintaining a skilled and proficient staff. There is a need for the organizations and managers to focus on these challenges to have well managed, motivated employees to reduce the staff turnover rates each year in this industry. Best product offerings to the demanding customer with reduction in turnover rates must be the criteria of the hospitality management. Many factors contribute to the employee’s leaving of an organization in this industry. These factors include the extent of employee satisfaction in payments, pressure at the workplace, self-achievement, economic situation, organizational decisions, and organizational culture. A strong negative relationship exists between the organizational commitment and the employee turnover rate which implies the employees with low commitment are seen to be moving away from the organization. Besides this, career advancements, promotions at work place have a positive relationship with employees and organization where the employees show higher commitment and this exhibits reduced attrition rate. Some of the other factors causing employee turnover are practice of hiring, lack of competitive compensation system, managerial style and lack of recognition. Employees also leave jobs because of personal reasons, lack of incentives and opportunities (Demir, Colakuglu & Guzel, 2007, p. 477). Literature review Working Pressure: Many researchers found that the main reasons for employee turnovers in hospitality industry are change of interest, low compensation, less career advancement, better chances of opportunities in other segments, issues with management and their policies, more duration of work and incompatible family or social life. Another reason for high employee attrition rate in hospitality industry is the work stress at place of work. As a result employees always try to leave more stress work and join places where the stress is less (Panwar, Dalal & Kaushik, 2012, p.82). Organizational stability: It is one of the reasons of employee turnover. Employees are more concerned with organizational stability. In fact many employees leave the organization when the stability and progress of the organization is not up to the mark. A predictable work environment of the organization plays important role in the employee turnover. The conditions in which the organizations are not stable and profitable, the employees decide to move to more stable and profitable organizations in industry. Communication between management and employees has an impact on employee attrition as employees always want to be informed. It is a good strategy if the employees are well informed regarding any decision that management makes. Less employee turnover rates are seen in organizations which involve their employees in decision making process (Ongori, 2007, p. 50). Organizational environment: Employee turnover is distinguished as functional and dysfunctional. When high performing and substandard employees move out of the organization this is called as functional turnover. There are some situations where employees are not preferred to retain as the organization shifts or moves to a new place or new geographic location. The voluntary turnover of employees is also considered as functional turnover. The separation of employees which organization wants to retain is called as Dysfunctional turnover. Whether it is functional or dysfunctional turnover, there is potential loss of losing high performance and standard employees in the organization (Jang, 2009, p. 10). Employee satisfaction: The causes of employee turnover can be many in type, exemplified by pay and conditions, lack of job satisfaction, lack of commitment, lack of training and career development, work related stress and the plain inevitability of high turnover due to the transient nature of many hospitality workers. There has been substantial quantity of study on the reasons and impacts of the high level turnover where the emphasis was laid on advantages and disadvantages of turnover to a particular industry (Boella & Goss-Turner, 2005, p. 177). Customer Service: Hospitality industry faces many challenges. One of the most common challenges faced by the employees is dealing with customers and serving them efficiently. Both employees and managers try to satisfy their customers by making them happy with their services. Managers must make efforts to understand their customers in totality. When the customers are bad-mannered and spoil the image of the employees working in that organization, managers should support their employees in tough times. Vagueness creates lot of stress on the employee. As a service provider, employees have to present an appropriate emotional response irrespective of the circumstance (Kuria & Alice, 2012). Providing efficient customer services to the guest with a smile on their face all the time may be difficult and demanding. This leads an employee to leave the organization. Data Collection Quantitative data collection method: In this method of data collection, data which is measurable, and has narrowed framework for the answers can be obtained to study about the increase in staff turnover in the hospitality management. This research focuses on the turnover rates in 4-5 Star-rated hotels. Quantitative methods that are used to extract data are interviews, and questionnaires. Interviews: In this method of quantitative data collection, researcher asks the interviewee typical set of questions which are already framed. Interviews are structured in quantitative method. Structured interviews include face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews and computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). Face-to-face interviews are conducted for the managers and the leaders to establish rapport with them and gain cooperation in the research. Complete response is gained through these interviews attaining appropriate and unambiguous data. Telephone interviews and computer assisted personal interviews are inexpensive targeting large group of participants and entering data directly into the computer is time saving. Telephone interviews are best applicable when there is a time constraint. It is used in circumstances where researchers cannot have face-to-face interview, in event of shift change of the employee or unavailability of the participant recruited in the study. Questionnaires: Other quantitative method used to extract data in the primary research is structured or close end questionnaires. This approach is chosen for the reason that participants do not conceal any controversial information, as they are presumed to be anonymous. Questionnaires cover most of the topics required in the research and are easily answerable saving time and money. Qualitative data collection method: This method is adopted in the research with a perspective of attainment of detailed information from the participants of the study. Open end questionnaire and observation qualitative data techniques will be used in the research. Open end questionnaire gives the participants an opportunity to express their views. Broader aspect of the concept can be covered extracting more details in the research. Researchers observe the participants and draw conclusions without being noticed by them. Another method used in qualitative research is focus groups. Group of people are asked to give their opinions relating to the customer services they render, employment satisfaction, organizational culture, etc. Focus groups are more effective to know the strengths of specific discussion. Opposition of the opinions or criticizing results in either modifying the discussion or condemning it. Therefore, every possible aspect can be covered through the use of focus groups in the research study. Ethical Considerations Qualitative research conducted will reviewed by the authentic committee for ethics. All the participants in the study are informed in detail about the purpose of the study and their role in participating. Before the voluntary participation of the subjects, a written consent from them is taken. Names and other sensitive information about the participants recruited in the study are kept anonymous and the research data will not be used for any other purpose other than the study. Each and every participant’s views are respected without causing any harm to them. Delicate circumstances which have sensitive information that happen during the study period are reported in the study. Participants are not forced to join the intervention group, if they are not willing to participate. References Barrow, C. W. & Powers, T. (2009). Introduction to the hospitality industry (7th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Boella, M. & Goss-Turner, S. (2005). Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry: An introductory guide. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Ltd. Demir, C., Colakoglu, U. & Guzel, B. (2007). Relation between employee turnover and the location of hotels: The case of Kusadasi and Izmir in Turkey. Journal of Yasar University, 2(5), 477-487. Retrieved from http://journal.yasar.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/no5_vol2_04_demir_colakoglu_guzel.pdf Jang, J. B. S. (2008). The impact of career motivation and polychronicity on job satisfaction and turnover intention among hotel industry employees (Thesis prepared for the Degree of Master of Science, University of North Texas, United States). Retrieved from ProQuest LLC (UMI 463561). Kuria, S. & Alice, O. (2012). Assessment of Causes of Labour Turnover in Three and Five Star-Rated Hotels in Kenya. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(15), 311-317. Ongori, H. (2007). A review of the literature on employee turnover. African Journal of Business Management, June 2007, 049-054. Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM/pdf/pdf2007/jun/ongori.pdf Panwar, S., Dalal, J. S. & Kaushik, A. Kr. (2012). High staff turnover in hotel industry, due to low remunerations and extended working hours!!! VRSD International Journal of Business & Management Research, 2 (3), 81-89. 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