Influence of Strategic Orientation on Performance of Publicly Owned Hotel Enterprises in Kenya (Published)
Firm’s strategic orientation enables a firm to develop optimal performance and sustain competitiveness in the market. Publicly owned hotels have however been faced with many challenges which affects their performance. These challenges included change in technology, competitive environment, social-cultural and economic challenges. The main objective of the study was to establish the influence of strategic orientation on performance of public owned hotel enterprises in Kenya. The study was guided by three theories namely; Resource-based view, Goal-setting theory and Dynamic Capabilities View. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used. The targeted institutions for the study were all the 9 existing public owned hotel enterprises in Kenya. Stratified sampling technique was used to select the sample. A total of 54 respondents formed the sample size. The study adopted the use of a questionnaire for middle level managers and an interview schedule for the general managers as the main research instruments. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Both correlation and multiple linear regression analysis was carried out. The study established that resource orientation positively and significantly influences performance of public owned hotel enterprises in Kenya; entrepreneurial orientation positively and significantly influences performance of public owned hotel enterprises in Kenya; market orientation positively and significantly influences performance of public owned hotel enterprises in Kenya and that technological orientation positively and significantly influences performance of public owned hotel enterprises in Kenya. The multiple regression findings further showed that all measures of strategic orientation combined (resource orientation, technology orientation, market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation) influences performance of public owned hotel enterprises. This study recommends that the public owned hotel enterprises should widely adopt information technology (IT) to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and most importantly to improve service quality and customer experience. Public owned hotel enterprises should collect information about their current and potential guests’ desires continuously. The study also recommends that public owned hotels should be keen to generate innovations that are then converted into better performance.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Market Orientation, Performance, resource orientation, strategic orientation
Assessing the Impact of Safety Practices of Employees on Performance in the Production Unit of Some Selected Hotels in Takoradi, Ghana (Published)
It has become necessary for safety standards to be maintained and sustained in organizations so that frequent incidents or accidents are curtailed, breakdown of equipment are minimized and the life of employees and the life span of equipment are prolonged. This research work sought to explore employee’s safety practices on performance in the production unit of some selected hotels in Takoradi aimed at achieving these objectives – Identify safety practices and policies in the production unit of hotels and determine the extent of compliance of the safety practices. The study examined 164 respondents using a proportionate stratified sampling to select respondents from the hotels while the hotels were sampled purposively. The results revealed that all the employees of the selected hotels had existing organizational policies ensuring safety at the workplace but some did not comply which could be quite dangerous to their safety and so some disciplinary measures were meted out to employees who did not comply with the safety measures laid down which ranged from written warning letters given to the employees (70%) with 10% having a month suspension without pay. However, those employees who demonstrated a higher degree of safety were either given outstanding employee plaques or their salaries and allowances were increased – 39% and 25% respectively.
Keywords: Hotels, Performance, Production unit, Safety Practices
BUSINESS ETHICS AND THE PERFORMANCE OF SERVICE FIRMS IN CALABAR, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA (Published)
This study investigates relevance of code of ethics on guiding the performance of service industry and examined also their compliance level on the established code of ethics. The study adopts descriptive research design while data were collated from 176 respondents cutting across selected Banks and GSM firms in Calabar, Cross River State. Our hypotheses were tested using Chi-square (X2) and all were supported by extant literatures. Results show that effective performance of service industry was dependent on code of ethics [X2cal = 18.082 > t 0.05 = 7.815] and that the compliance level of established code of ethics for service industry was high [X2cal = 13.801 > t 0.05 = 7.815]. Our findings therefore suggested that there should be specific procedures to always identify and deal with the issues of ethical misconduct; and it is important for organizations to increase punitive measures to violators of ethical codes.
Keywords: Business Ethics, Code of Ethics, Performance, Productivity