Abstract

The present research will be about the training and development in hospitality industry. Though, few empirical studies has been conducted, it is not explored yet how training and development influences the employees performance in the hospitality industry. This research will examine this that to what extent training and development could influence the employees’ performance in hospitality industry. It will be based on a case study research method where Hilton Hotel is selected. Interviews with the managers and questionnaire for employees will be used for data collection.

1.Introduction

In this globalised world, the focus has shifted from manufacturing industries to the service industries. This is the era where importance of service sector in all economies is significantly increasing. In the service sector, one of the most developing industry is hospitality industry which is growing in a significant manner. In this industry, the role of training and development is considered much more important as compared to other industries. The main focus of hospitality industry is always on serving people through lodging, food and a combination of other services (Solnet, Kralj and Baum, 2015). Though, it is important for all jobs and professions to get involved in the training and development practices, this is crucial for success of many of the hospitality industry. This is the reason that many organisations in this industry are investing heavily on training and development of their employees. The training budget of hospitality organisations is higher than other organisations. They invest significantly on training of their employees; however, there exists lack of conclusive findings with empirical support that how training and development practices of employees are associated with the performance and productivity of employees (Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013). As said by Wang (2013), it is obvious that training has many advantages; however, it is yet to explore that to what extent training and development activities in hospitality industry are influencing the employees’ performance. It is yet not explored do it has more costs than its benefits or vice versa. There is a need to explore this research issue that whether or not significant investment on training and development, which is normal in many hospitality organisations, is proving worthwhile for the hospitality organisations. Therefore, the central focus of this research is on training and development in hospitality industry of U.K.

According to Law et al., (2013), every organisation including hospitality firms only has one objective and it is to improve the performance of the employees. Therefore, there are various performance management systems which are implemented in organisations for addressing and redressing the concerns of organisations regarding the performance of employees.  There exists widespread agreement that performance of employees is one of the significant determinant of the organisational performance. Therefore, it becomes more important to improve the performance of employees, if an organisation intends to improve the performance of organisation. However, as said by Falola, Osibanjo and Ojo (2014), there exists inconclusive and mixed findings about what are the determinants of employees’ performance. Broadly speaking, human resource management system is known to be one determinant of employees’ performance, but as it is quite broad; organisations remain confused that which of the human resource management practice is worthy to pursue for improving the employees performance. Clarke and Higgs (2016) has mentioned that training and development is one of the most core human resource management practices and as it is already known that hospitality organisations are doing significant investment in training; therefore, this practice is selected for further analysis. It is yet to be known that how this investment is proving helpful for the hospitality organisations. Considering this, this research has selected this research topic for further analysis.

Bell et al., (2017) has recommended that in last few years there are many studies which are conducted on this research issue of training and development, but there exists no agreement that whether this is beneficial or not, in terms of employee performance. There exists criticism that training and development does not bring improvements in the employees’ performance and it only brings extra cost for the organisations. Tahir et al., (2014) said that now there is a need for evidence from different sectors who are recognised for investing heavily in training and development. As hospitality industry is also investing in training and development in a significant manner; it becomes more significant to explore that how this will have impact on performance of employees working in this sector.

This research will be based on the case study research methods where one hotel i.e. Hilton Hotel will be selected as analysis. This research will be based on combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. It is proposed that survey research strategy will be selected and the primary data will be obtained through questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire will be examined using the statistical package for social sciences where various statistical tests will be run. The interview will be analysed on the basis of thematic analysis. The purpose of combining quantitative and qualitative methods in case study based research is to do the in-depth analysis and gain both subjective and objective view regarding the role of training and development in employees’ performance.

This research will make contribution in the existing literature and theory about training and development. Through the results of this research, the existing gap about the role of training and development in employees’ performance will be minimised. Moreover, the managers from hospitality industry will be considering the research results of this study for devising their strategy for training and development and allocating their budgets for training and development. So, in short, this research will have both academic and practical contribution.

2.Literature Review

2.1.Training and development

According to Ford (2014), training and development basically refers to the acquisition of interpretation, practices, strategies and know-how. The major imperative of human resource management is training and development, because of the reason that it makes improvement in the performance at organisational, collegial and individual levels. It is the process to increase the capacity of an individual to take some action. Companies have now become more specific about organisational learning. It results into the development of organisations. On contrary to this, organisational learning deals with the efficient practices to respond, interpret and process to both external and internal information of some explicit nature. In accordance with Noe et al., (2014), the idea of organisational learning is basic idea involved in the hitherto concept. Learning advocacies are of much significance and they do have less empirical information related learning procedures.

Organisational learning that use training and development being one of the responses; refers to the use of practices, techniques, know-how and interpretation.  The translation of intangibles can be done as the resource of organisation by people that use, infer and acquire such for some achievement related to training and development (Armstrong, 2006). Training and development are particularly such experiences that are planned and such programs make employees to learn that how to do future and current jobs in more effective way. Sims (2002) has lead more stress over the fact that training targets the current job however development makes the employees enough able to perform jobs in future. Generally, the major target of training and development is to make contribution in the overall objective of an organisation.

As said by Sung and Choi (2014), closing the gaps involved in skills is a crucial area of human resource development for companies. The companies are required to make continuous penetration in the market. It needs that the professionals of human resource management should initiate cultivating the workforce through the time period of recruitment. This is not an easy task; some of the particular works do need customising different skills. It is also a fact that all of the hired employees do not get social skills through some basic skills. In order to fill up the gaps related to skills and for fulfilling the deficiency of skills, professionals of HR should develop some of the programs that can then be used for addressing the issues (Sims, 2006).

Therefore the training and development is important for the survival and existence of modern companies. Organisations are making more of the investments on employees and internal consumers in order to take benefit of the human capital management. The most significant factor is the sense of ownership. It requires the professionals of HR to develop some of the techniques that can ensure experience, skills and knowledge to get settled in the workforce. Activities of learning result into increment of skills and development and it also result into career development and empowerment. This is learning for lifetime which provides guidance to companies specifically department of human resource to make some investment with members of organisations. It assists the members of organisations in developing their competencies (Phillips and Phillips, 2016).

2.2.Importance of training and development

In accordance with Cole (2002), it has been stated that training is basically an activity of learning that leads to the better use of skills and knowledge with the objective of task or occupation. The major objective of training is the task or job for instance, the requirement of having safety and efficiency in the work of some specific equipment or machine. For the development of needed abilities, skills and knowledge of employees, for better performance at jobs, there is a need of some effective programs of training. Such programs influence the commitment and motivation of employees (Meyer and Smith, 2000). Employees can break or develop the profitability and reputation of an organisation. They are responsible for different practices that do influence the satisfaction of customers, event and product quality (Elnaga, and Imran, 2013).

In accordance with Berge et al. (2002) training is systematic and planned alteration of behaviour which is done with the help of programs and learning activities. It results into the achievement of abilities, competencies, skills and knowledge by participants for carrying out the work in most effective way. A training program is basically an effort done by employers for providing different chances to the employee in order to get job-linked knowledge, attitude and skills (Rehman et al., 2013). This implies that if a company wishes to succeed in acquiring the perspective of training programs, implementation and design should be systematic and planned, and it should tailor towards the increment of productivity and performance.

Most of the companies have interpreted the significance of training for the development. With the progress of new technology, some particular skills and jobs become more redundant. There has been more stress over the requirement for trained and skilled workforce. Most of the jobs have got replaced with the machines. The jobs that have been replaced were of semi-skilled and unskilled nature. This led more stress over the requirement for skills and higher education for the ones who wish to get employment in the nearby future (Elnaga and Imran, 2013). In accordance with Blain (2009) research depicts that 44% employees get technical skills related to the job in Europe, 33% get skills training related to information technology, 18% employees have got training related to sales in the previous year. However, 25% have got development skills training, 15% employees have undertaken leadership skills development training and 21% have taken management skills training (Blain, 2009).

2.3.Metacognitive Theories

This section sheds light on the relevant theoretical underpinnings. Tajfel (1972) has given the introduction of social identity in order to theorise that how people do the conceptualisation of oneself in contexts of intergroup. It has been defined that how a system of categorisation defines and develops the place of a particular person in some society. Social identity has been defined as the knowledge of an individual that the person belongs to some particular group having some value and emotional importance in the group. Same like this, Hogg and Terry (2000) have defined different factors that affect the working of individuals. Theory of social identity can be called as a unifying theory of organisational behaviour as how and what individuals think being the member of some group does affect the subsequent attitudes and behaviour in a system. The social identities in companies act as major drivers of performance. The ways in which individuals think influence the results of interventions of learning. That is why; social identity is the major driver or input of performance and learning in companies. Since, individuals perform the work of companies in the form of group (Lin and Hsu, 2017). On the basis of this theory, it can be argued that training and development activities are associated with the employees’ performance. This will be further explored in this research.

2.4.Training and development and employees performance

According to the perspective of employee, the major objective of learning is to get knowledge and skills for doing the job. It implies getting advance career and promotion. In support of changes in career, development and training also cater for professional and personal growth of employees. The definition of learning can be done as knowledge acquired through self-directed research, or experience. It can also be defined as the art of getting ideas, attitudes, competencies, skills and knowledge used and retained; or behavioural change through experience (Maycunich, 2000). Wong and Lee (2017) stated that development and training has less to do with acquiring information. It is basically a procedure that increases capacity. Learning is related to the development of capacity for creating that has not been created yet.

Therefore; as said by Saridakis, Lai and Cooper (2017) training and development is effective not only for companies but also for the employees. On contrary to this, development and training results into the improvement of profits. It tends to develop more positive behaviour towards orientation of profit. It makes improvement in the skills and job knowledge at all organisational levels. Learning makes improvement in the morale of workforce and assists the employees in identifying the objectives of an organisation. According to Kraiger (2017), training and development is beneficial as it helps the employees in making effective decisions and help them in solving problems. Training and development assists in achieving and motivating self-confidence and self-development. It assists an employee to handle conflict, frustration, tension, and stress. It results into the enhancement of recognition and job and let the employees to more towards the achievement of objective while making improvement in the interaction and communication skills.

2.5.Research gap

Though, few empirical studies has been conducted about training and employees performance, but Bell et al., (2017), Wong and Lee (2017) and Sundstrom et al., (2016) has told that such studies are not conducted in service sector. To be more specific, hospitality organisations are unexplored in terms of the impact of training and development on employees’ performance. Therefore, the focus of this research will be on this unexplored research issue that how training and development in influencing the employees’ performance. This will work on minimising the gap which is contextual as there is no specific study conducted up till now which has considered the role of training and development in employees’ performance in hospitality organisations. The following hypotheses will be tested:

Hypothesis: Training and development has a significant positive impact on employees’ performance in hospitality industry.

3.Research questions

This research specifically focuses on Hilton Hotels which is a global brand of full service hotels and resorts. As of 2017, it has 570 hotels and resorts which are operating in 85 countries which are owned, managed and franchised to independent operators by Hilton. It targets both business and leisure travelers and more of its chains are in major city centers near convention centers, airports and vacation destinations (Hilton World Wide, n.d). As per recent report, Wiki-Invest (2017), the financial performance of these hotels are becoming poor and directors and managers has mentioned that one of the reasons of its declining performance is the employees related behavior and attitude which is resulting in poor employees’ performance. Similarly, Hilton World Wide, (n.d) has also mentioned that training budget of Hilton hotel is more than other hospitality organisations. Therefore, it has become imperative to examine is there any relationship between employees performance and training and development or not. Therefore, the following research questions are developed for this research study.

• What do previous studies state about the role of training and development in employees’ performance?
• To what extent training and development is a determinant of employee’s performance at Hilton Hotel?
• What is the perspective of senior managers of Hilton Hotel regarding the impact of training and development on employees’ performance?

4.Research methods

4.1.Research design

As told by Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2013), there are various research design which could be adopted by any research study. The present research has adopted the inferential research methods where cause and effect relationship among training and development and employees performance will be explored. The other alternatives for research design were descriptive and exploratory research designs and they were not appropriate for this research study as it was not possible to complete this study using descriptive or exploratory research design. This research aims to test the hypothesis about training and development and employees’ performance, therefore, this research design is most suitable, as hypothesis cannot be tested through any other research method.

4.2.Research methods

There are two alternatives which could be used separately or in combination for completing a research and these are named quantitative and qualitative methods. The present research is based on the case study research and it is decided to use the combination of both methods. The rationale for using mixed methods is that the desired level of depth could be provided with the combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods (Bogdan and Biklen, 1997). Strauss and Corbin (1990) said that when mixed methods are used the strengths of both methods could be exploited while the weaknesses could be minimised. For instance, quantitative research methods are unable to provide information about context and settings of the study and this is something which can actually be provided with the help of qualitative methods. Similarly, as said by Hsieh and Shannon (2005), qualitative methods alone are considered bias and its findings could not be generalised and this is not the case for quantitative methods. Hence, by using the mixed methods, this research will exploit advantages of both while weaknesses of both methods will be offset. Moreover, mixed methods provide comprehensive understanding of the research issue; hence, the comprehensive understanding which is actually needed for the case study of Hilton will be provided with this method.

4.3.Interview guide and questionnaire

In this research data will be collected with the help of interview and questionnaire. The interview guide will be developed on the basis of themes which will emerge from the literature review. The questionnaire will be adopted from previous research studies. The main variables are training and development and employees’ performance, so scales for these variables will be used. The questionnaire will have likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

4.4.Sampling

The sample of this research will be managers and employees of Hilton Hotel. From managers, top level managers will be selected using the purposive sampling technique. Those managers will be selected who has the experience and knowledge about the research issue which is under investigation. The questionnaire will be administered on employees of Hilton Hotel who will be selected using the convenience sampling technique. Those employees will be selected who are easily accessible to the researcher. The sample size for interviews will be 6 while sample size for questionnaires will be 80-100 employees.  Matthews and Ross (2014) said that this sample size is appropriate and considered fair for such studies.  To access these employees and managers will not be an issue, as researcher will use the authorized letter from university to prove that this is an academic research project and it will not be used for any commercial purposes.

4.5.Data analysis

The data analysis will be used on the basis of two methods. The data obtained through interview will be analysed using the thematic analysis technique where patterns will be identified from the data. The data collected through questionnaire will be analysed using the statistical analysis technique where SPSS will be used for analysis.

5.Research ethics

In this research, all ethical concerns will be given utmost importance. The participants of this research will be selected on the basis of their free will and consent. No one will be forced to take part in this study without having their consent. A consent form will be gotten signed from them. Likewise, the collected data will be kept safe in every possible manner and it will not be shared with any third party. The privacy and confidentiality will be taken care. All participants will be told that they could withdraw from this research whenever they want. There will not be any physical or psychological harmful effects on anyone. In short, all ethical standards will be considered.

6.Timeline

1st month

2nd month

3rd month

4th month

5th month

6th month

7th month

8th month

9th month

10th month

11th month

12th month

Introduction

Literature review

Devise methodology

Develop interview guide

Develop questionnaire

Collect data

Analyse data

Present findings

Discussion

Conclusion

Final editing and proofreading

 

 

References

Bell, B.S., Tannenbaum, S.I., Ford, J.K., Noe, R.A. and Kraiger, K., 2017. 100 years of training and development research: What we know and where we should go.

Berge, Z., Verneil, M.D., Berge, N., Davis, L. and Smith, D., 2002. The Increasing Scope of Training and Development Competency. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 9.

Berg, B.L., Lune, H. and Lune, H., 2004. Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (Vol. 5). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Blain, J., 2009. Current Learning Trends in Europe and the United States, [Online], Available at:

https://cdns3.trainingindustry.com/media
/2505191/cegoscurrent%20learning%20trends
%20in%20europe%20and%20us [Accessed on: 8^th May, 2017]

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

Bogdan, R. and Biklen, S.K., 1997. Qualitative research for education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Clarke, N. and Higgs, M., 2016. How strategic focus relates to the delivery of leadership training and development. Human Resource Management, 55(4), pp.541-565.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K., 2013. Research methods in education. Routledge.

Cole, G.A., 2002. Personnel and Human Resource Management. 5th Edition, York Publishers, Continuum London.

Elnaga, A. and Imran, A., 2013. The Effect of Training on Employee Performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(2), pp.137.

Falola, H.O., Osibanjo, A.O. and Ojo, S.I., 2014. Effectiveness Of Training And Development On Employees'performance And Organisation Competitiveness In The Nigerian Banking Industry. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 7(1), p.161

Ford, J.K., 2014. Improving training effectiveness in work organisations. Psychology Press.

Hogg, M.A. and Terry, D.J., 2000. Social Identity and Self-Categorization Processes in Organisational Contexts. Academy of Management Review, 25, 121-140.

Hilton World Wide, n.d. About us, [Online], Available at; http://www.hiltonworldwide.com/ [Accessed on: 6^th April, 2017]

Hsieh, H.F. and Shannon, S.E., 2005. Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative health research, 15(9), pp.1277-1288.

Kraiger, K., 2017. Designing Effective Training for Older Workers. In The Palgrave Handbook of Age Diversity and Work (pp. 639-667). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Law, R., Leung, D., Au, N. and Lee, H.A., 2013. Progress and development of information technology in the hospitality industry: Evidence from Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(1), pp.10-24.

Lin, S.R. and Hsu, C.C., 2017. A STUDY OF IMPACT ON-JOB TRAINING ON JOB PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEES IN CATERING INDUSTRY. International Journal of Organisational Innovation (Online), 9(3), p.125A.

Matthews, B., and Ross, L., 2014. Research methods. New Jersey: Pearson Higher Ed.

Meyer, P.J. and Smith, A.C., 2000. HRM Practices and Organisational Commitment: Test of a Mediation Model. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 17(1), pp. 319-331.

Noe, R.A., Wilk, S.L., Mullen, E.J. and Wanek, J.E., 2014. Employee Development: Issues in Construct Definition and Investigation ofAntecedents. Improving Training Effectiveness in WorkOrganisations, ed. JK Ford, SWJ Kozlowski, K. Kraiger, E. Salas, and MS Teachout (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997), pp.153-189.

Phillips, J.J. and Phillips, P.P., 2016. Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. Routledge.

Rahman, A.A., Ng, I.S., Sambassivan, M. and Wong, F., 2013. Training and Organisational Effectiveness: Moderating Role of Knowledge Management Process. European Journal of Training and Development, 37, 472-488.

Saridakis, G., Lai, Y. and Cooper, C.L., 2017. Exploring the relationship between HRM and firm performance: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Human Resource Management Review, 27(1), pp.87-96.

Solnet, D., Kralj, A. and Baum, T., 2015. 360 degrees of pressure: The changing role of the HR professional in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 39(2), pp.271-292.

Strauss, A. and Corbin, J., 1990. Basics of qualitative research (Vol. 15). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Sundstrom, E.D., Lounsbury, J.W., Gibson, L.W. and Huang, J.L., 2015. Personality traits and career satisfaction in training and development occupations: Toward a distinctive T&D personality profile. Human Resource Development Quarterly.

Sung, S.Y. and Choi, J.N., 2014. Do organisations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organisations. Journal of organisational behavior, 35(3), pp.393-412.

Tahir, N., Yousafzai, I.K., Jan, S. and Hashim, M., 2014. The Impact of Training and Development on Employees Performance and Productivity A case study of United Bank Limited Peshawar City, KPK, Pakistan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(4), p.86.

Tajfel, H., 1972. Social Categorization. English Manuscript of “La catégorisation sociale”. In: Moscovici, S., Ed., Introduction à la Psychologie Sociale, Vol. 1, Larousse, Paris, 272-302.

Wang, Y.F., 2013. Constructing career competency model of hospitality industry employees for career success. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(7), pp.994-1016.

Wong, S.C. and Lee, P.C., 2017. Roles of the Hotel Training Professionals—Perspectives of Industry Practitioners. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, pp.1-23.

Wiki-Invest, 2017. Hilton Hotels, [Online], Available at; http://www.wikinvest.com/wiki/Hilton_Hotels [Accessed on; 5^th April, 2017]