1. Aims of the Dissertation:
Because of the global demand by customers for excellent services in the hospitality industry business operators need to quickly recruit employees who then receive limited preparation and training. This often results in poor job performance, employee dissatisfaction and high staff turnover. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the remote causes and outcomes of staff turnover that is endemic and a contentious issue in the hospitality industry. In this research, the author will attempt to address the operational challenges facing the hospitality business by identifying some causes in addition to those given above and proffering solutions where necessary aimed at improving the retention of key employees.
Organizational productivity rate and profitability nosedived below expectations because of high employee turnover. This lead to high increases in the cost of training and career development of employees who migrate from one organization to another in search of better incentives and job satisfaction. Hotel (X) was chosen as the basis for a case study because it was established some few years to supplement the availability of hotel accommodations and the hospitality business within the Lagos area of Nigeria. Though remotely located, it was tastefully furnished to meet the required standard as a reputable outfit. However, to the dismay of the investors, the high staff turnover lead to increased staffing costs, including advertising costs for new recruits. There are other consequences to high staff turnover as well. One of these might be termed emotional dissonance. This has arisen between the employers and the employees due to previous poor leadership and management discrepancies. This hospitality industry (X Hotels Ltd) is located in Lagos Metropolitan Area of Nigeria. X Hotel Ltd. is a private business that was registered for operation by the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria in 2007, but started operation in 2010.
In view of the cost of recruiting new employees and the increase of staff turnover, it has been decided to investigate the issue of staff retention and turnover. In order to address these research aims, the following research questions will be addressed:
Understanding the underlying issues leading to high staff turnover.
Investigate the extent to which motivation and lack of incentives might be factors leading to high staff turnover.
Investigate the extent to which other factors such as customer satisfaction and loyalty might contribute to high staff turnover.
Investigate any link between high turnover and low retention strategies
Research the impact of management and leadership on the organization to understand the effect of this upon staff turnover.
2. Methodology:
Research methodology is defined as a way to systematically solve the research problem (Kothari, 2004). It is also an approach a researcher uses to investigate a subject (White, 2000, p.20), providing the basis to examine an approach adopted by a researcher and the reason why it cannot be use. Qualitative and Quantitative are two types of research methodologies. Vila et al. (2012) described Qualitative techniques as being appropriate to explore ideas, theories or constructs which haven't been defined as yet, while quantitative techniques measure the degree to which those ideas are applied or not. The research methodology to be applied will investigate the characters of the employees by using both in-depth interviews and questionnaires. The interviews will serve to determine what the employees concerns are and the questionnaires will determine how many employees share the same concerns. This will ascertain why they choose to think or carry out some actions. In this research, a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative will be used to enable the researcher to understand the complexity of the research with respect to the environment.
Mixed Method of Qualitative and Quantitative (Triangulation)
Collection of Data
Primary Data Sources
This will involve a collection through survey by using questionnaires and structured interviews. For fast and convenience approach, online questionnaires will be sent to the respondents by email. A five- point Likert type scale questionnaire will allow the respondents enough options for open-ended questions related to their feelings on working conditions. This length questionnaire will also serve to establish shared issues in order to establish a quantitative base line. This research will also take into account the customers who meet face to face with these hotel employees Some of these customers will be interviewed to determine the extent of any polarity with the employees that may be linked to the reason why the employees decide to leave or stay.
Secondary Data Sources
Information from the Nigeria Tourism Board, journals, newspapers and other related agencies will form part of the secondary data that will blend with the primary source in formulating the overall analysis. The University of Liverpool Library will provide access to most of the literature reviews that the researcher will use in the course of the dissertation.
Population & Sample
The population used will be employees & managers of the selected hotels and the institution (X). Efforts will be made to interview both existing staff and some of those who have now left the company using telephone and emails approaches. Adequate representation of respondents will be made to justify a true reflection of the finding (non-random sampling). The number of staff including managers of the hotels to be used in the research is about 200. The research samples will cover some hotels (1-5 stars) in Lagos and Abuja (Old &New Capital cities).
Pilot Testing
A small number (5-10) of participants will be used to carry out this test to ascertain its acceptability and make adjustments or modifications were necessary.
Analysis &Results
The data and results collected will be analyzed using tables and charts for simple illustrations and comparison with existing secondary data and related researches. The researcher will look at the relevance of using coding to label some answers from the questionnaire. To determine workers effectiveness, job satisfaction, commitment and turnover (Agba & Ushie, 2010), the researcher will use Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Frederick Herberg- Hygiene Theory and Rensis Likert theory for explanations.
3. Feasibility:
The researcher has received consent to review and use some vital documents that will assist him in the course of this research. Managers and employee of hotels and restaurants have been approached are willing to provide feedbacks for most of the interviews and questionnaires at the appropriate time. The author's relationship with some of the hotel proprietors within the city and the country will act as a good source to receive information on their operations. Though it will require the researcher to travel to other states of the country, adequate provision has been provided for the logistics that will be involved, in other to complete all the necessary work within the time frame.
4. How Your Work Fits Existing Published Work:
Prior research indicated that the success or failure of an organization is dependent on the ability of the management or leadership to recognize as well as convey to the workforce their importance to the organization. It is imperative therefore, to investigate if there are additional issues beyond adequate motivation and retention strategies that might assist in employee retention. Once all the issues are determined, a course of action can be planned to address all the issues, reduce staff turnover and encourage skilled and proficient employees to be retain in an organization. In the article by Mobley et al. (1979), it stated that age, tenure, overall satisfaction, job content, intentions to remain on the job, and commitment were all factors that can have a negative effect upon staff turnover (i.e. the higher the variable, the lower the turnover).
Further expanding on the understanding of turnover, Chen et al. (2010) examined the need for job /employee satisfaction, as a prerequisite for reducing absence and employee turnover. One of the reasons for high staff turnover was low salaries, which contributed to primary reasons why managers of hospitality businesses leave the industry (Pavesic & Brymar, 1990 cited in Chen et al.,2010), This dissertation will focus on all factors to establish if there are additional underlying issues causing high turnover in the organization
Although there may be, and probably are, issues other than motivation, motivation comes up repeatedly as an issue in past studies of staff performance. Therefore, motivation must be considered as a potential factor for the high staff turnover in this case. In yet another article relating to motivation by Aworemi et al. (2011), illustrated a co-relationship between motivation and staff turnover and postulated that employees are likely to stay in an organization that understands what motivates them and enshrine it as part of the reward system. It also examined the importance of job security, personal loyalty to employees, interesting work, good working conditions, good wages, promotions and growth in the organization, and full appreciation of work done, as factors that will all contribute to increase motivation of employees and influence their decision to remain in the organization. In relation to the dissertation, the effectiveness of reward approach will be examined for its importance on retention and staff turnover.
Affirming this relationship between motivation and staff turnover, Agba &Ushie (2010) posited that there exists a relationship between labor turnover and motivational incentives. The study collaborated that as a result of employee deprival of their physiological needs, employees' behavior towards effectiveness and retention are negatively impacted. The paper highlighted the importance of promotion, job security, salary increases and career development as factors that influence employee decision to quit or remain in an organization. By considering factors that affect employees' commitments through the use of Frederick Herberg-Hygeine theory, Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Rensis Likert theory (Agba & Ushie 2010), the author can draw similarities to this in-depth analysis of how this theory relates to some of the research questions.
The importance of career development in influencing employees is supported by Brown, (2004 cited in Honyenuga & Adzoyi, 2012). One important aspect this dissertation intends to investigate draws a similarity on how it affects the behavior of an employee. The paper examined effective ways of using retention strategies such as offering fair compensation, communicating well with the employees and measuring employee satisfactions. Taking into consideration of the dissertation, the study will identify lapses (if any) in the retention program or introduce appraisal method where there is need.
In the paper "model of the Causes of Management Turnover in Hotels", Stalcup & Pearson (2001) postulated on the increase of workers voluntary turnover and its cost implications to the hotel industry. The paper drew a similarity that career and financial development were cited as one of the reasons why employees leave an organization. It also highlighted the importance of “triangulation” to ascertain the true reflections of participant views that are subjective in nature, an issue that is relevant to the case study (X) due to the limitations on the number of participants for the research. The use of questionnaires and structured interviews to assert the views of employees and managers of other competitors will enable comparison and acceptability of the research result in view.
Poor supervision and employee's lack of authority (Hinkin & Tracey, cited in Alonso & O'Neill, 2009) in employees job function are other factors that may lead to employees leaving their jobs. The article further addressed low profit margin, competition and failure by operators to recognize the importance of investing in employees (Enz, cited in Alonso & O'Neil, 2009) as some of the challenges of small hospitality industries. It also demonstrated that irrespective of the size of the industry, retaining employees has a direct effect on quality of service provided. While stressing the affect of poor training (Hinkin & Tracey cited in Alonso &O'Neil, 2009), Poulston (2008) recommends that organizations should invest in training of its employees as this reduces workplace problems and high employee turnover. Further development on training according to Torrington et al. (2008, p.205) indicates that training of employees makes them less likely to leave an organization. In this research, the attitudes of the employee will be address since poorly trained staff can alter the loyalty of the customers who patronize the organization. When customers do not get the good service they expect, it becomes bad news that can discredit the hotel. Academic sources indicate that pride in the establishment may be a factor in employee satisfaction. Because the dissertation task is first one of enquiry, followed by analysis, this factor needs adequate research.
5. Why You Are Doing This Topic:
One of the reasons for this dissertation is to investigate the reason for high staff turnover, especially in a hospitality business. In view of the huge capital invested in the hotel (X), it has unsuccessful after taking into consideration that the incentives and salary of the staff competes favorably with some of the best within the locality. The training introduced for the staff has not yielded the expected result. The author believes that the outcome or feedback from this research will correct some of the anomalies and set the organization in the right track with a better approach to retain its employees and develop a template for a cordial employer/employee relationship. It will also provide an investment source for interested investors on employee behavior, leadership qualities, motivation, culture and other factors that affect the employee’s mindset in a working environment. Academically, modules learned and knowledge acquired will be used to develop some part of this dissertation especially in the area of Human Resource Management.
References:
Agba, A. M. & Ushie, E. (2010) Motivational Incentives and Staff Turnover In TheHospitality Industry in Cross River State, Nigeria, Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 10(8), pp.18-28, [Online].Available from:http://globaljournals.org/GJMBR_Volume10/3-Motivational-Incentives-And-Staff-Turnover-In-The.pdf (Accessed: 28 March 2012).
Alonso, A.D &O’Neill, M.A. (2009) Staffing issues among small hospitality business: A college town case, International Journal Of Hospital Management, 28(4), pp.573-378 [Online]. Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0278431909000383? (Accessed: 24 March 2012).Aworemi, J. R., Abdul-Azeez, I. A. & Durowoju, S. T. (2011) “An Empirical Study of the Motivational Factors of Employees in Nigeria” International Journal of Economics and Finance, 3 (5), pp. 227-33 [Online]. Available from:http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/ehost/detail?vid=12&hid=2&sid=1f22aee8-1a1c-4177-b2ae-32356b60e77f@sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=ecn&AN=1272731(Accessed: 21 March 2012).
Chen, Y.C., Ching K.,Wang ,W. C.& Hwa, H.(2010) “Structural Investigation of the Relationship between Working Satisfaction and Employee Turnover”, The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, 6(1) [Online]. Available from: http://www.hraljournal.com/Page/5 Chen, Ying-Chang.pdf(Accessed: 8 March 2012).
Jick, T. D. (1979) “Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action” Administrative Science Quarterly; 24(4), pp. 602-611[Online]. Available from: http://ehis.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.liv.ac.uk/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=847bb89b-b1a6-49c2-82b5-8e5357038c64@sessionmgr111&vid=3&hid=115 (Accessed: 5 April 2012).
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Honyenuga, B.Q & Adzoyi, P.N (2012) “The influence of retention strategies on labor turnover in the hospitality industry in Ghana”, International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 2 (3) [Online]. Available from: http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/images/stories/pdf/2012/March/ZIJMR/3_ZEN_VOL2_ISSUE3_MARCH12.pdf (Accessed: 9 April 2012).
Kothari, C.R. (2004) “Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques” [Online]. Available from: http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy1.liv.ac.uk/lib/liverpool/docDetail.action (Accessed: 4 April 2012).
Mobley W. H., Griffeth R. W., Hand, H. H. & Meglino, B. M. (1979) “Review and conceptual analysis of the employee turnover process”, Psychological Bulletin, 86 (3), pp.493-522.[Online]. Available from:http://www.mintrac.com.au/files/newsletter/research turnover and retention .pdf(Accessed: 6 March 2012).
Poulston, J. (2008) “Hospitality workplace problems and poor training: a close relationship?”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 20 (4), pp.412 - 427, [Online]. Available from:http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1728366&show=abstract (Accessed: 21 March 2012).
Stalcup, L.D & Pearson, T.A.(2001) “Model of the Causes of Management Turnover in Hotels”, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 25 (17), [Online.] Available from: http://jht.sagepub.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/content/25/1/17.full.pdf html (Accessed: 27 March 2012).
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Tracy, J.B. & Hinkin, T.R.(1994) “Transformational leaders in the hospitality industry”
Vila, M., Rovira, X., Costa,G.&Santoma,R.(2012) “Combining research techniques to improve quality service in hospitality”, Quality &Quantity, 46(3), pp.795-812[Online]. Availablefrom:http://www.springerlink.com.libproxy1.liv.ac.uk/content/c6450665888584h1/fulltext.pdf(Accessed: 11 March 2012).
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