Factors Influencing Effective Communication in Singapore Tourism Industry - Research Proposal Example

SELECTED TOPIC: FACTORS INFLUENCING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN SINGAPORE TOURISM INDUSTRY.

Section 1: Introduction & Objective

1.1 Introduction

Firms across the world have been trying to find new ways to achieve growth and competitiveness. Creating growth within the firm is challenging, and internal communication is essential in the business world today. According to Corey Moserey, internal communication involves promoting effective communications and facilitating a dialog within the organization. Communication is considered one of the most important skills used in every industry and, in particular, in the tourism and hospitality industry, which is tremendously growing not only in Singapore but throughout the world.

Singapore government has attracted considerable importance to the tourism development and industry as unlimited resources. According to the 2017 Travel and Tourism Report, Singapore attracted 17.4 million international tourists; more than three times Singapore's total population. Tourism is one of the major industries and contributors to the Singapore economy, and the government has established the Singapore Tourism Board to lead and promote the industry. Ineffective communication has a direct and indirect impact on individual employees and the overall industry at large. Several studies have shown relations of communication and employee job satisfaction, but little studies have been done to show the impact of factors influencing effective communication in the tourism industry. In this study, we will be exploring the factors that influence communication in the Singapore tourism industry.

1.2 Objectives

Given the complex nature of the study, we will be taking more of a qualitative approach to understanding what employees identify as critical factors. Future research with more resources and time can consider delving into the quantitative aspect of the study to yield more concrete trends from specific interventions. The role of communication in an organization is to build and nourish employees' relations and establish trust in providing reliable and timely information. According to Elving, effective communication should have three primary objectives (Elving, 2005).

• The information communicated to employees should be understood and accepted concerning intent, content, merit, and the relevance of the message. As such, the employees should understand each other and be able to communicate with tourists.
• Goals to be achieved concerning directing, informing, motivating, or gaining an audience among the employees and clients. The research will try to evaluate the initiatives started by the company to achieve those goals.
• The result of improved communication is to achieve improvement in terms of product quality, performance, sales, and satisfaction.

This study's principal objective is to examine factors that influence effective communication in the Singapore hospitality and tourism industry. The fundamental goal can be broken down further into secondary purposes based on the different variables that we would be testing for, namely; training, positional difference, and cultural diversity. These will be studied in a qualitative focus study with a selected sample, exploring different departments, and identifying their critical views on matters that affect the effectiveness of communication within the organization. In point form, According to Powell, the key objectives the research should cover are:

• Examine the effectiveness of communication in a multi-cultural workforce in the tourism industry. Relaying of information can be hindered in a multi-cultural workplace such as the one found in the Singapore Tourism industry, due to cultural differences, values, education, beliefs and religion, and behaviors and attitudes. Singapore is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country consisting of Malay, Chinese Indian, and Eurasian descent, sharing different religions like Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Islam. According to MacLeod, given the increasing diversity of employees that the tourism industry receives nowadays, the effectiveness of communication between employees has become a crucial part of building a successful and efficient business (MacLeod, 2009). The research will examine attention given to cultural aspects to promote efficient management in the Singapore tourism industry. Effective communication should be investigated in managing the diverse cultural workforce as it affects the overall performance of the organization.
• Evaluate the relationship between employees and managers in the tourism industry. Numerous studies have shown that positional differences in the workplace can affect employee/manager relations. In contrast to Macleod's research, which focuses on cultural diversity, Park focuses on the positional factor as an influencer of effective communication. Lack of proper interaction between the managers and employees limits the employee’s ability to perform and negatively affects the organization's overall outcome. The research will show how employees/managers' relationships and influence effective communication in the tourism industry.
• Evaluate initiatives taken on training the staff on ways to improve effective communication in the tourism industry. Staff training and monitoring progress on the handling of complaints, front desk services, harmonization between employees and departments are vital in a company. The research will examine the priority given in staff training in the amount of time spent and how it influences communication in the organization.

The problems identified through the data analysis will be examined and analyzed. The results would allow for the most efficient development of effective communication techniques within the company.

1.1 Significance of the study

Although extensive research has been carried on in the tourism and hospitality industry concerning broad functional areas, including customer loyalty, job performance, organizational innovativeness, brand image, productivity, and social entrepreneurship, the study on effective communication is relatively incomplete. There are factors negatively affecting effective communication in the Singapore tourism industry, undermining the achievements of organizational goals. In this research, we will study communication issues affecting employees' input, corporate culture, and initiatives taken by organizations to promote effective communication in the Singapore tourism industry. The study will analyze poor factors on cultural diversity, positional differences, and lack of staff training that can negatively influence effective communication in the tourism industry and the solution to these problems. An organization would use the research on ways to develop effective communication techniques within the tourism industry.

Section 2: Dependent Variables and Independent Variables and Literature Reviews

IVsDV

Source: Self-Created by Student

Section 3: Literature Reviews

Several papers are documenting two factors influencing communication in an organization that can affect a project either in a good or a wrong way, which are; a clear communication plan and availability of technology. The research will focus on cultural diversity, positional differences, and training hours as other factors influencing effective communication in the tourism industry.

MacLeod focused on cultural diversity as an influence on effective communication, while Cickovska emphasized the importance of learning multiple languages for tourism students (Cickovska, 2012). Beardsley's study stressed the importance of acquiring communication skills through teaching, unlike Park's theory, which focuses on the organizational structure as a source factor influencing communication in the tourism industry, as follows (Park, 2002).

• Chain of command and policy implementation affects communication policy.
• Human relations with integration between employees and management encourage participation and promote input in the tourism industry.
• The organizational structure leads to a clear and concise communication plan and relay.
• Proper system use helps in the availability of communication; this is where the correct channels are used and the follow-up of the chain of command.
• Through effective communication in the team's management, the information remains effective.

In the study that we will be undertaking, based on the study's objectives, we can identify the dependent variables and the independent variables that we will be considering.

• The dependent variable is the metric that we will study as a part of the research and the metric outcome measured. The study will be linked to the effectiveness and productivity of work. Hence a good gauge of the communication effectiveness can be linked to two key metrics in the form of job satisfaction as well as job productivity (Pfister et al., 2009). These two measures would help us make a gauge on how good communication is within the company. The relevance between the standards is based on the methodology that we will adopt. Different factors will be introduced to different groups of employees to assess the impact of the said intervention on these two measures, which can offer an approximation of where productivity and happiness are increased.

The independent variables that we have identified in the introduction are as follows.

• Training Hours. Training in an organization is to facilitate learning concerning a job. Investing in training is of the essence of the organizational long term success. Training programs build relevant skills in financial management, strategic management, marketing, and business development areas. No doubt, the number of group training in terms of communication and teamwork can affect the overall efficiency and effectiveness of communication. However, the actual impact of such training begs the question (Schultz & Lavenda, 2005). In this research, we will explore this as one of the possible independent variables that affect communication effectiveness. The training that will be considered is communication-based training or teamwork training.
• Positional Difference. Another area that affects communication in an organization is the hierarchy: senior officials often not integrating well with those in lower ranks. Existing studies show that the presence of a more significant difference in terms of the authority can result in a reduction in communication effectiveness (Smith, 2008). Hence, this is one of the independent variables that we will be exploring. According to Park's study, lack of effective communication from senior managers, all the way to the lowest rank would lead to a lack of clear guidelines among the employees and this would lead to a challenge to meet the set goals.
• Cultural Diversity. According to Luijters, Cultural diversity occurs when a company employs people of different backgrounds regardless of religion, race, or culture (Luijters, 2008). Historically, Singapore has a tradition of accepting and promoting different cultures in the workplace. Cultural diversity should be valued as an organization’s philosophy and must be integrated into the company's practices for it to be effective. Lack of encouraging cultural diversity in the workplace would lead to miscommunication among the employees as their mind-set differ in terms of culture and opinions. Singapore is a multi-cultural country comprising of Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and people of different cultures.

In this study, we are going to show that cultural diversity influences effective communication in the Singapore tourism industry. As workplaces are integrated, cross-cultural understanding is vital for everyone in the organization, including managers, executives, business readers, and employees. There is a need to be knowledgeable of factors that make communication across different cultures to fail or succeed. These factors include ethnic, racial, cultural, roles, identities, individual personalities, social class, age, and gender roles (Luijters, 2008).

Several research papers seem to agree ethnic diversity in the tourism industry affects effective communication in the organization and affects GDP per capita growth. In 2014 Bacsi’s research reveals positive results of cultural diversity as there are competitiveness and innovations in the tourism industry. Similar analyses have proved a positive effect on a variety of tourism competitiveness and economic freedom. Other studies, like DiRienzo's research, suggest that ethnic and linguistic differences negatively influence tourism competitiveness.

Section 4: Research Methodology

4.1 Research Methods

The research will use both primary and secondary data collection methods. Due to the nature of the study being heavily tied to actual industrial applications, we will seek to conduct a meta-analysis of the existing survey and an in-depth review of the survey (Jensen, 2013). The measurement will be in the form of qualitative data that will form a basis for possible relation formulation.

4.2 Research Strategy

Different research methods can be used in primary data collection. According to Creswell, there are three research methods which include: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, Qualitative methods usually uses open-ended questions in order to avoid predetermined answers. Mixed design is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods (Creswell, 2014). Qualitative methods are conducted in the form of ethnography, case studies, or narrative theory, whereas quantitative is applied in surveys and experiments. Qualitative designs avoid predetermined answers by using open-ended questions. The mixed-method is a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods (Creswell, 2014)

In this study, an online survey and sending of online questionnaires to respondents through emails will be used. The reason for this method to be used is the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic; it's also a reliable and time-effective method. Moreover, the response rate in an online survey is high as compared to traditional studies. According to Elliott, online reviews are popular in data collection as they have a higher response rate than paper surveys.

4.3 Data collection

To conduct the study, we will randomly select employees working in different organizations in the Singapore tourism industry to undertake a focus group study to work with us. A series of questions will be posed to them concerning the effectiveness of communication within their current work environment (Jensen, 2013). Following which, they will be asked to rank the various factor in terms of how significant they feel the elements are in ensuring or affecting the level and effectiveness of communication within the organization.

Based on the results that are obtained, the responses will be analyzed, and keywords will be determined from the conversation as a highlight of importance for the matter. The results will then be compared to existing literature that is conducted on the topic so that we can make a comparison of the results that we have obtained against these international studies.

4.4Data Sampling and Population of Study

The study will use purposive sampling to evaluate communication effectiveness for a group of 100 people in various age groups working in the Singapore tourism industry, who will be selected randomly. The sampling method is preferred since the chosen elements will not in any way relate to each other, thus giving an equal chance that the study population is not selective. The qualitative methodology will be used to generate statistical data, which is also quantified and focused on data measurements (Jensen, 2013). The study will involve both primary and secondary data with the primary data collected through the administration of questionnaires that will be distributed among the selected sample. Secondary sources of data will be obtained through academic journals, news articles, and textbooks about communication effectiveness (Jensen, 2013). The survey will be distributed among tourism industries that employ a large workforce, foreign or domestic, which will provide the intended type of participants.

Data will be collected through telephone interviews, emails, and online questionnaires sent to the respondents due to the nature of complications arising from the Covid-19 epidemic. An online survey's importance is to answer the impact of communication in the organization and its effect on the tourism industry in Singapore. The respondents will be asked to fill personal data on age, sex, ethnicity, religion, and the period they have worked in the tourism industry. Personal data will capture the cultural diversity of the employees in the tourism industry. Then the questions on initiatives taken by an organization to promote cultural diversity will be analyzed in relation to the respondents’ personal data captured. The questions on the relationship between employees and their managers will try to identify any communication challenges or any improvements that can be introduced that would promote effective communication. Finally, the questions on the average number of hours taken to train the staff and the frequency of the training will identify the effects of staff training on communication in the organization.

4.5 Statistical analysis

Primary data that will be obtained will be summarized and then tabulated and analyzed through graphs and frequency tables (Jensen, 2013). The questionnaires will determine the level of communication efficiency in the organization. The data obtained is subject to observation, intellectual and comparative methods of analysis.

4.6 Ethical Considerations

Possible ethical considerations for the study are the privacy of the participants as well as their responses. Hence, to protect the respondents' anonymity, the study will be conducted through blinded research where the participant's identity will be hidden and not revealed. The participants' responses will also be redacted to remove any possible markers that could cause them to be identifiable to readers. The results will help to alleviate the potential ethical considerations that can hinder the participants from revealing their real thoughts with regards to the effectiveness of communication within the environment. Participants will have to be protected in that aspect.

Section 5: Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, cultural diversity is an essential factor that influences effective communication in the tourism industry and should be analyzed and proper recommendations provided to solve the problem. Positional differences between the employees and the managers can lead to poor communication in an organization if managers use their position to undermine junior employees. Finally, staff training in the organization should be analyzed and provide solutions to promote effective communication in the industry. The results will allow to develop effective communication techniques within the organization.

Section 6: Schedule

Month

Dissertation Activity

March

Undertake research design as well as approval of the study by relevant bodies.

April- May

Contacting and coordinating for primary research to be conducted at relevant organizations. Collection of data through conducting of study/survey/measurements

Early June

Consolidation of data and conducting data analysis and report writing

Late June

Proofreading and completion of a report

This study's principal objective is to examine factors that influence effective communication in the Singapore hospitality and tourism industry. The fundamental goal can be broken down further into secondary purposes based on the different variables that we would be testing for, namely; training, positional difference, and cultural diversity. These will be studied in a qualitative focus study with a selected sample, exploring different departments, and identifying their critical views on matters that affect the effectiveness of communication within the organization. In point form, According to Powell, the key objectives the research should cover are:

• Examine the effectiveness of communication in a multi-cultural workforce in the tourism industry. Relaying of information can be hindered in a multi-cultural workplace such as the one found in the Singapore Tourism industry, due to cultural differences, values, education, beliefs and religion, and behaviors and attitudes. Singapore is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country consisting of Malay, Chinese Indian, and Eurasian descent, sharing different religions like Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Islam. According to MacLeod, given the increasing diversity of employees that the tourism industry receives nowadays, the effectiveness of communication between employees has become a crucial part of building a successful and efficient business (MacLeod, 2009). The research will examine attention given to cultural aspects to promote efficient management in the Singapore tourism industry. Effective communication should be investigated in managing the diverse cultural workforce as it affects the overall performance of the organization.
• Evaluate the relationship between employees and managers in the tourism industry. Numerous studies have shown that positional differences in the workplace can affect employee/manager relations. In contrast to Macleod's research, which focuses on cultural diversity, Park focuses on the positional factor as an influencer of effective communication. Lack of proper interaction between the managers and employees limits the employee’s ability to perform and negatively affects the organization's overall outcome. The research will show how employees/managers' relationships and influence effective communication in the tourism industry.
• Evaluate initiatives taken on training the staff on ways to improve effective communication in the tourism industry. Staff training and monitoring progress on the handling of complaints, front desk services, harmonization between employees and departments are vital in a company. The research will examine the priority given in staff training in the amount of time spent and how it influences communication in the organization.

The problems identified through the data analysis will be examined and analyzed. The results would allow for the most efficient development of effective communication techniques within the company.

1.1 Significance of the study

Although extensive research has been carried on in the tourism and hospitality industry concerning broad functional areas, including customer loyalty, job performance, organizational innovativeness, brand image, productivity, and social entrepreneurship, the study on effective communication is relatively incomplete. There are factors negatively affecting effective communication in the Singapore tourism industry, undermining the achievements of organizational goals. In this research, we will study communication issues affecting employees' input, corporate culture, and initiatives taken by organizations to promote effective communication in the Singapore tourism industry. Read More