Background

 

In today’s development industry of hotel it has become very important for management of Chinese hotels to focus on formulating strategies in order to gain competitive advantage. There is a famous saying in China ‘huazhong you hua’ which states that ‘there is more than what is said’. The difficulties and nuances of hospitality industry are applicable to this saying, which are result of different social, economic and political aspects arising in time of change. China has opened its doors for international tourism in 1978 and this industry has growth to great extent in China. The history regarding use of health and safety management practices in hotels is not a pretty. In most of the organizations, the employers did not give much importance to health and safety of employees and it was not included in human resource management practices of hotels. The main goal of hotels in China in some years back was only to increase the profits of company and employees were not given that much importance (Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013). In today’s globalized competitive business world, it has become important for organizations to give value to managing health and safety of employees. It has also become legally important for all kinds of organizations to take care of health and safety of employees working in that organization. As employees are highly involved in operations of hotel industry, so it is more important for management of hotels to focus on health and safety of employees (Makin and Winder, 2009).

The health and safety at workplace is a new advancement during revolution in industry and different issues have been pointed out by some researchers regarding health and safety of employees at hotels. In the end of 20^th century, the expectations related to job by employees have been changed to great extent (Grant et al, 2007). The management of organizations have understood the importance of human resource for success of organization. So, they have to search for those ways through which they can effectively manage the health and safety of employees. In previous some years, the managers of organizations were not well aware about the benefits of health and safety of employees at workplace. There was not too much equipment available by employees in order to use them while doing work (Renee Baptiste, 2008).

Among the total workforce of world, there are only 10-15% of them have various opportunities of managing their safety. Due to the consistency of health hazards at companies, the employees have deprivation of health and safety services. (Egan et al, 2007) According to number of studies done on this issue, it has been found that the health and safety issues result in high turnover rate of employees. While working in organizations, the employees have to face different health and safety hazards. In hotels, the most important asset is employees working in that organization, because their effectiveness and efficiency can help employees in increasing their welfare and well-being. So, it is very important for management of hotels to do necessary measures in order to enhance well-being and welfare of employees. With the help of health and safety management practices, the employees feel that their organization gives value to their welfare and due to their performance level is enhanced (Benach and Muntaner, 2007). In accordance with findings of The International Labour Organizations, about 2.2 million die during their working hours each year just because of fact that organizations have not concentrated and invested on health and safety management practices. The employee health is very important to enhance their well-being. The performance of employees is enhanced due to implementation of health and safety management practices in organization. Due to deaths of employees the country is losing 4% GDP per year as found by Wright et al (2013). So, it is significant for hotels to formulate effective strategies to manage health and safety of employees. It can be found from the analysis of previous researches that most of the researches are done on analysing the impact of health and safety management practices on employee performance or satisfaction. This study will be done for analyzing the impact of health and safety management practices of hotels on employees’ welfare and well-being. This research will analyze the usefulness of health and safety management practices.

 

Aim

• The aim of this research is to identify the significance of employee well-being and welfare for performance employees and for a high productive workforce.

Objective

The research will be done to achieve following objectives;

• To evaluate the impact of health and safety management on employee welfare and wellbeing in hotel industry.

 

 

 

• To analyze the synthesized of health and safety management practices on employee welfare and well-being in Millennium Hotel Shanghai.
• To make recommendation for health and safety management improvement in the hotel industry.
• Approximate number of participants in the study in 20-30.

 

Scope of Study

 

• . The research will be carried out on organizations of China and participants of study will be employees, as health and safety management practices are relevant to human resource management, so data will be collected from employees.
• The research will focus on Millennium hotel Shanghai
• As, employees are considered to be most important in hotel industry, because they are basis of increasing or decreasing customers’ satisfaction and loyalty level, So, this study will focus on employees in hotel industry.
•  In order to increase generalizability of research, large sized organization will be chosen for study.

 

Research Methodology Proposed

 

Research Method

In order to conduct this study, quantitative research method will be used. While using this method, the researcher will make use of numerical data. This kind of method is useful to get numerical information related to research topic (Pride et al, 2008). Quantitative research method is mostly used by researchers of economics and finance. However, the researchers of social sciences also use this research approach. The main aspect of this method is quantification of events and items. In order to adopt this method, the researcher has to quantify variables used in study. The outcomes of this research method are reliable and it also has high generalizability. Through quantitative research method, the biasness of researcher can also be removed. However, the information collected through this approach is limited.

 

Questionnaires

Under quantitative research method, questionnaires will be used to collect data. The questionnaire will be formed with having items related to variables identified in research. The proper scale of measurement will be selected through proper care. The scale of measurement will be used as a basis of accuracy in test scores. In this study, the researcher will use five point likert scales. The scale was formed for seeking the responses of respondents related to all items used in questionnaire. The range of this questionnaire is from 1 to 5 where 1 stands for ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 5 is used for ‘Strongly Agree’. In questionnaire, the items related to demographic information of respondents will also be added.

Case study analysis

The case study analysis method will also be used for adopting quantitative research method. The case study of Millennium Hotel Shanghai will be analyzed in order to study the impact of health and safety management practices on employee welfare and well-being. This method of conducting research will help in getting responses of employees through questionnaires. The quantitative case study approach will help in ensuring credibility and reliability of research.

The data related to health and safety management practices in hotel industry will be gathered from employees working in hotel. The population for present study will be hotel industry of China and sample will be selected from employees of one hotel.

 

Data Analysis

After collection of data, the analysis of data will be done through descriptive analysis. The researcher will also run regression and correlation tests for analyzing the impact between dependent and independent variables.

 

 

 

Literature Review

 

According to Hasle and Limborg (2006) occupational health is being defined as “the maintenance and promotion of the highest form of the social, mental and physical well-being of workers in almost every level; the prevention amongst different workers of various departures which were the result of the working situation; the workers’ protection in terms of employment from risks which resulted from factors that are dangerous for health, the maintenance and placing of worker in an environment which is suitable for both psychological and physiological capabilities; and to brief the job adaption in terms of compatibility of work to man and man to his specific job. Safety as described by Robson et al (2007) in his own point of view as “a control on the identified hazards in order to get a maximum risk level. In accordance with Zeng et al (2008) health and safety is known as universal factor that should be taken into account particularly in medium and small companies as it has transformed into one of the major issues for the employers in the entire world. Hohnen and Hasle (2011) preceded the explanation that employees’ health and safety in small and medium organizations has been ignored for a very long time in Africa and because of this, there are enhancing number of accidents which occur almost daily in small and medium organizations. Basically, there is not enough support of management in small and medium organizations as mostly the people focus on the increment of the profits instead of making some improvements in the working situations therefore the outcomes are poor employees’ health and safety (Christian et al, 2009). Along with this, organizations do not tend to develop the systems of risk management therefore it cause an increment in the number of accidents.

 Some of the small business owners do not have much experience related to the current machinery and technology which is being made in the developed countries therefore the immediate result is not using them efficiently which cause accidents. Research being done on the occupational health practice in SADC countries concluded that “workers come to know about the advance physical, psychological and chemical hazards that rise mainly from the types of work organization and industrial processes” (Quinlan and Bohle, 2009). In accordance with Torp and Moen (2006) there are different costs in order to be borne both in provision of safe environment of working and prevention of accidents along with the accident cost, for instance cost being taken for the replacement of damaged parts and tools. Work helps a lot in providing financial support this is the reason that why most of the people spend plenty of their time at work while at the very same time, most of the worker come across different health hazards which are psychological, chemical and physical both the workplace environment and work nature influence the health of the employee (Montero et al, 2009).

Job satisfaction, job performance and high productivity are the major results of the efforts and healthier workplaces which are being developed in order to make better Occupational Health and Safety with a very increased output of the organization and performance by different state agencies, employers and trade unions. The advancement in the technology at workplaces has caused improvement in the outputs of the firms in most of the developed organizations but on the other side it has also a major influence on the employee health and safety at workplace because of the danger linked with the advanced technology. Health and safety has a very major role in the workplace and it is termed as the workforce right to work at a place which is healthy and safe, workplace which is legal, the employees who work at such secure and health workplace tend to be psychologically strong and their physical strength assists them in the improvement of their job performance and efficiency as stated by Christian et al (2009).).

Health and safety are termed as most significant in workplace for psychological and moral reasons. Employees do have the right to work in the environment which is safe and legal. A strong safe and healthy environment leads a very positive influence on the psychological contract. To have employees with a peaceful and safe psychological mind assists in the efficient organizations’ performances. This influences the quality of product and efficiency of employees. A safe workplace causes a reduction in the accidents, makes improvement in the relations of employees and supports the commitment of employees to the quality of work. The major factor for the economic and social development is the healthy employee. They make a lot of contribution in the financial states of the organizations (Faragher et al, 2005). As workers play their part as the backbones of any organization, indiscriminate and massive employment of different groups, women and children became the order. It has been seen that a number of employees were unskilled and inexperienced on different types of tasks that were included in the occupation. Employees then transform into significant risk group. Unsafe and poor conditions of working, invention of new tools, introduction of advanced industries, application of new instruments for the production of mass and some other process caused very serious problems for the employees. As a result of this, different dangers were being faced by the employees and by the families of the employees. They became exposed to different occupational diseases and many accidents which were caused by diseases such as malaria, worm infestation, malnutrition and many others (Kennedy et al, 2010).

 

 

 

References

 

Benach, J. and Muntaner, C., 2007. Precarious employment and health: developing a research agenda. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61(4), pp.276-277

 

Boella, M. and Goss-Turner, S., 2013. Human resource management in the hospitality industry: A guide to best practice. Routledge.

 

Christian, M.S., Bradley, J.C., Wallace, J.C. and Burke, M.J., 2009. Workplace safety: a meta-analysis of the roles of person and situation factors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), p.1103.

 

Egan, M., Bambra, C., Thomas, S., Petticrew, M., Whitehead, M. and Thomson, H., 2007. The psychosocial and health effects of workplace reorganisation. 1. A systematic review of organisational-level interventions that aim to increase employee control. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 61(11), pp.945-954.

 

Faragher, E.B., Cass, M. and Cooper, C.L., 2005. The relationship between job satisfaction and health: a meta-analysis. Occupational and environmental medicine, 62(2), pp.105-112.

 

Grant, A.M., Christianson, M.K. and Price, R.H., 2007. Happiness, health, or relationships? Managerial practices and employee well-being tradeoffs. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(3), pp.51-63.

 

Hasle, P. and Limborg, H.J., 2006. A review of the literature on preventive occupational health and safety activities in small enterprises. Industrial health, 44(1), pp.6-12.

 

Hohnen, P. and Hasle, P., 2011. Making work environment auditable–A ‘critical case’study of certified occupational health and safety management systems in Denmark. Safety Science, 49(7), pp.1022-1029.

 

Kennedy, C.A., Amick III, B.C., Dennerlein, J.T., Brewer, S., Catli, S., Williams, R., Serra, C., Gerr, F., Irvin, E., Mahood, Q. and Franzblau, A., 2010. Systematic review of the role of occupational health and safety interventions in the prevention of upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms, signs, disorders, injuries, claims and lost time. Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 20(2), pp.127-162.

 

Makin, A.M. and Winder, C., 2008. A new conceptual framework to improve the application of occupational health and safety management systems.Safety Science, 46(6), pp.935-948.

 

Montero, M.J., Araque, R.A. and Rey, J.M., 2009. Occupational health and safety in the framework of corporate social responsibility. Safety Science,47(10), pp.1440-1445.

 

PRIDE, W.M., HUGHES, R.J., and KAPOOR, J.R., 2008. A Guide to Business. 9th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

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Quinlan, M. and Bohle, P., 2009. Overstretched and unreciprocated commitment: reviewing research on the occupational health and safety effects of downsizing and job insecurity. International Journal of Health Services, 39(1), pp.1-44.

 

Renee Baptiste, N., 2008. Tightening the link between employee wellbeing at work and performance: A new dimension for HRM. Management Decision,46(2), pp.284-309.

 

Robson, L.S., Clarke, J.A., Cullen, K., Bielecky, A., Severin, C., Bigelow, P.L., Irvin, E., Culyer, A. and Mahood, Q., 2007. The effectiveness of occupational health and safety management system interventions: a systematic review. Safety Science, 45(3), pp.329-353.

 

Torp, S. and Moen, B.E., 2006. The effects of occupational health and safety management on work environment and health: A prospective study.Applied ergonomics, 37(6), pp.775-783.

 

Wright, K.P., Bogan, R.K. and Wyatt, J.K., 2013. Shift work and the assessment and management of shift work disorder (SWD). Sleep medicine reviews, 17(1), pp.41-54.

 

Zeng, S.X., Tam, V.W. and Tam, C.M., 2008. Towards occupational health and safety systems in the construction industry of China. Safety science,46(8), pp.1155-1168.