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Introduction
Ethics is important for the wellbeing of an organization. It determines the effectiveness of an organization and its operations. in the hospitality industry, ethical practices help to avoid issues such as racial conflicts, cultural differences, gender troubles and dishonesty among others.
Ethics in the hospitality industries is evolving. Changing values and cultural diversity indicates that perception will likely to occur where things does not argue well. It’s the role of the organization and employees to live and communicate organizational ethics and lead by providing leadership in their management.
One of the rationale of this study was to determine the link between common work ethics. Hospitality industry has a wide permissible beliefs and behavior, hence, Hall (1992) points out that the management and the employees should strive to have a global understanding of what is right and wrong.
Literature Review
Stacy (2001) defines ethics in business as a guide in the way a business conduct itself. Acting in a moral way entails distinguishing between “wrong” and “wrong” and coming up with the “right” choice. Though Donaldson (2000) explains it is not easy to fix a good definition of a good ethical practice, an organization should aim at being competitive and treat its employees justly.
Besides, it should minimize harn to the eco-system and devise ways of co-existing with the communities in which it works. Ethics and morals are intertwined. They supplement one another in the workplace. Moral and ethical standards guides the organization as well as improves employees interaction among themselves and with the customers. Several researches have been conducted on the aspect of ethics in the hospitality industry.
The human resource direction has actually recorded several ethical issues in the hospitality industry. They have mentioned a range of problems which include employees being disrespectful to each other, racial conflicts, cultural differences, gender troubles, dishonesty and issues that majorly deal with the differences emanating from the different sexual orientations of the different players in the industry, among others.
This research majorly looked into the common organizational work ethics in relation to employee job satisfaction and performance.
This research therefore aims at looking into the issue of ethics in American hospitality industry.
The research therefore aims to:
- Demonstrate if there is a link between common work ethics and employee satisfaction
- Prove if common work ethics have got a bearing on employee performance.
Common Work Ethics
Collins (2001) points out that the managerial theorists affirm that an organization’s most revered component is its employees. Therefore, organizations have aimed at devising several ways in an attempt to care for them.
For instance, organizations have strived to understand how employees feel, think in relation to the organization’s culture. Striving to understand employees has made some organizations understand the behaviors of employees to determine the ethical implication of the same (Collins, 2001)
Ostroff’s (1993) explains that at the center of the organization is ethics. Ethics has been an important factor in most organizations because it help to establish the degree to which the organization relates with its employees and vice versa. Ostroff’s (1993) point out that an organization management must lead by example in encouraging ethical behaviors in the organization.
According to Ostroff’s (1993), organizations top management are the role models of the organization, thus, they should be at the forefront in setting an ethical tone in the organization.
Ostroff’s (1993) illustrates that ethical leadership encompasses personal competencies and these competencies help to promote ethics among employees; thereby fixing a connection between employee performance and the organization according to Wimmer and Dominick (2006).
However, the limitation of literature has been an impediment in understanding the relationship linking the organization behavior and managers leading by example in terms of ethics (Barsch and Lisewski, 2008, p. 44). Whitney (1990) pointed out that employees in the hotel industry require a higher level of ethical awareness compared to other organizations.
Besides, they need to have a stronger conscience to evaluate ethical problems in relation to the organization’s principles. Hotel industry consists of many employees diversities compared to other industries. It is made up of diverse employees with from different backgrounds,race, religion and educational background Kelley and Dorsch (1991).
Hall (1992) points out that the hospitality industry embraces a wide range of ethically permitted behavior and beliefs which makes it maintain its image an integrity. Therefore, he suggested that employees in the hospitality industry need to have a worldly understanding of what is right and wrong (Hall, 1992).
Kelley and Dorsch (1991) explain that though little research has been conducted to show the link between the organization’s ethical environment and organizational commitment, other studies have shown that indeed the connection exists.
Kelley and Dorsch (1991) argued that a positive relationship exists between the organization’s ethical climate and employees’ commitment to the specific rules tied to that organization. Similarly, Ostroff’s (1993) showed that an active relationship between climate facet and the organization’s commitment. Additionally, Hunt et al (1989) affirmed that organization’s ethical tenets are important forecasters of organizational commitment.
Further, Hunt et al (1989) in their study involving 1,246 marketing professionals discovered that ethical conduct was compensated and unethical conduct was castigated in the organization they were working for.
Also, gender plays an important role in hospitality industry (Kelley and Dorsch, 1991). It helps determine how an organization related to employees. Gender has occupied a leading role in many studies centered on business ethics yielding differed results (Barsch and Lisewski, 2008). Some research has indicated that there is a big difference in ethical viewpoints between sexes.
For instance, Alabaum and Peterson (2006) pointed out that men were less favorable than females. Other research conducted demonstrated that females are more ethically sensitive than male this was according to Arlow (1991).
Similarly, in a study carried out by Chonko (1995) on marketing management staff, they noted that female marketers alleged ethical problems in their duties than male marketers. Moreover, they also observed that female employees are more dedicated to an organization than male when their favored ethical environment and their definite ethical work climate equal (Luthar et al., 1997).
In another study carried out by Kelley and Dorsch (1991), it was noted that women and men divergent views of how ethical behavior contributed to a positive business result. In addition, their study revealed that an employee being visible to integrative ethical education projected an optimistic approach on how the present ethical climate is and how it ought to be (Luthar et al., 1997).
D’Aquila et al (2004) discovered that female employees had a strong believe than male that ethical benchmark leverages an organization’s competitive position.
On the other hand, men alluded that ethical standards fades an organization’s competitive position. In his study among Turkish students, Akatan et al. (2008) found out that female students had a higher mean score that male in terms acting legally and ethically than exclusively economically.
But it is crucial to note that the organization’s moral standing is usually determined to a major extent by individuals. These could include the top management or the actual owners of the business.
Due to their position, they do come up with certain policies that trickle down to the whole organization, thereby, creating the picture of how that organization runs, thereby, creating the picture of how that organization stands out morally. This brings to the fore the importance of the influential individual in the organization.
If the individual in the organization has a high moral standing, this can impact the organization positively and, if the reverse is true, then the organization tends to have low moral standing. This means that the influential individual should not be one who tells the employees to everything they can as long as profit, work and customer satisfaction are achieved. This is quite a dangerous path to go.
Job satisfaction in the hotel industry
Job satisfaction is a term used to assess an employee’s attitude and emotions towards his/her job and the how steadfast he/she is toward an assigned duty.
According to Wolf (1970), the job satisfaction definition has been stressed based on three major perspectives, that is, generality, the extent to which satisfaction and variance between an individual and returns and the required returns are realized and lastly, job satisfaction is defined based on criterion framework.
By embracing generality, Agho et al (1992) point out that job satisfaction labels the emotional reactions to one’s job as the most, that is, a job that guarantees one’s happiness, productivity and success.
The definition based on criterion framework alludes that job satisfaction is where an individual’s independent elucidation and perceptionis based on neutral qualities of the organizationsthat would be subjective by a person’s criterion framework. In some cases, Smith et al (1975) point out that job satisfaction can emanate after an individual interprets the job qualities based on the criterion framework.
Therefore, the influence that an employee receive from a given task can be mirrored to several other aspects such as making a comparison between a good and a bad job, personal competency and past experiences among others (Smith et al., 1975).
In the hotel industry, Cranny et al. (1992, p. 1) allude that literature has pointed out job satisfaction in several ways over the years. Wolf (1970) shares his views by illustrating that the amalgamation of environmental and psychological situations that make an individual to be satisfied with his/her work as one process in which job satisfaction has been determined.
On the same point, other research has pointed out that job satisfaction is a way of pursuing fulfillment through questioning whether the job meets their employee’s psychological and physical needs or not, as pointed out by Cranny et al (1992, p. 1).
Barsch and Lisewski (2008, p. 84) point out that job satisfaction may also be internally derived from mediated rewards such as opportunities enhancing growth, the job itself or success. Also, it can be derived externally by means of intrinsic rewards such as customers or organization policies, promotion opportunities, pay increase and support among others as stated by Walker et al. (1977).
Though these aspects have been vital in assessing job satisfaction; Walker et al (1977) point out that they have proved a challenge to researchers in determining the extent of measuring and calculating job satisfaction. Furthermore, these aspects have contributed to misinterpretation of results or coming formulating wrong judgment according to Walker et al (1977).
Barsky and Nash (2004) cite that many authors have strived to determine the elements that contribute to job satisfaction in the hotel industry. According to Aksu and Aktas (2005), in their study,employee satisfaction on the job was influenced by a strong confidence in their organizations and their emotions.
Similarly, a study carried out by on Turkish managers in first class hotels by Aksu and Aktas (2005) revealed that despite low salaries and long working hours, they were satisfied with their jobs. This was because they liked the job itself and had authority tied to their positions and to them, managing a first class facility in itself was a prestige as indicated Aksu and Aktas (2005).
Scott and Taylor’s (1985) point out that in the hotel industry, job satisfaction is closelylinked to the organization’s success. This is manifested in aspects such as higher innovation,reduced turnover and employee productivity. Scott and Taylor’s (1985) point out that the amalgamation of these components also relates to the organization’s improved general performance.
More specifically, Savery and Luks (2001) show that job satisfaction is tied to augmented organization’s performance as evaluated by improved employee productivity. Moreover, motivation also contributes to job satisfaction. However, as Sledge et al (2008) indicate, there has been little study carried out to establish the relationship between job satisfaction and motivation and the effect of culture in the workplace.
Barsky and Nash (2004) in their study, found out that job satisfaction has a positive impact on the employee’s intention to stick with the organization. Moreover, Sledge et al (2008) suggested that employees with high levels of job satisfaction are more productive and tend to stick with the same organization for longer time.
However, Choi (2006) explains that there is a strong negative link that prevails on the level of employee turnover and job satisfaction when individual optimism is in play. In his study focusing on Korean hotel employees, Chiang et al (2005) noted that there was a strong negative link between the intention of a turnover and job satisfaction.
On the same note, Chiang et al (2005) study confirmed that high rate of absenteeism emanated from low job satisfaction which in turn correlated with higher levels of deliberate employee turnover. Furthermore, in their study, Scott and Taylor’s (1985) showed that a negative link between absenteeism and job satisfaction especially the rate of absence exists.
They underlined that satisfied employees demonstrated lower levels of absenteeism than less satisfied employees. In another study carried out to determine job satisfaction on Taiwanese hotel employees, Hwang and Chi (2005) discovered that handling employees as customers of the organization was positively connected to organizational performance.
Similarly, in Florida’s four star hotels, Sizoo et al (2005) learnt that employees with higher rate of intercultural feeling showed higher rates of social satisfaction and jobsatisfaction. These studies showthat culture plays a key role in influencing employee’s perception on job satisfaction.
Yang (2008) cites that culture may play a role in promoting positive commitment, reducing employee’s intention to leave, influences the outcome of the organization and leads to low rates of turnovers.
Lynn (2010) has greatly looked at ethics in the hospitality industry. In this report, which involved a survey on 26 establishments, reflected that there was a relationship between leadership of the managers and the job satisfaction by the employees such that if managers were ethical, there was a marked satisfaction by the employees; hence, a decrease in the turnover.
In another study conducted on, about 788 Korean food service staff in hospitality establishments run and managed through contract to determine whether worker -organization fit would reduce subsequent turnover, it was found that the most reliable fit emerged when the values of the employees did match the company values (Lee and Way, 2010).
It was finally found that the turnover greatly reduced when the values of the employees were in line with those of the organization. When employees are inducted with ethics, they tend to advance the establishment’s image and even reduce the frequency to switch job.
In yet another survey by the same study in which about fifty employees in a casino were surveyed, it was established that distributive justice (that is a case where equal pay, workload, incentives etc.) leads directly to a marked rise in ethical behavior of the employee reduced turnover (Jung et a., 2010).
Further, it was found that frontline employees, who projected ethical behavior to their customers, ended up having a high level of job satisfaction. This means that the employees were able to explain to the customers why certain rules were applied and generally.In such cases, perceptions of unfairness were clearly minimized and this made the employees greatly satisfied.
However, in some related research the study above, one sees that satisfaction of employees has some relation with the nationality. This finding thus serves to be crucial in that this information will help this paper to probably consider the nationality mix of those to be interviewed in relation to the effect on the responses to the questionnaire.
The link between morale and the attendant ethical strategy of the establishment does come to the fore here. Again, this has got much to do with how productive the employees’ job satisfaction and the attendant commitment to the organization. If the employee is not committed to the organization, it loses in both productivity and image.
Ethical issues are varied and come with different expectations. For instance, employee satisfaction differs, some employees are motivated by intrinsic rewards whereas others by external rewards. Hence, a wide range of organizations have implemented far reaching measures to do with empowering their employees to promote job satisfaction among their employees.
This has entailed harnessing and nurturing the best there is in the market and urging the workers to try and implement. Empowering workers have required that they are able to make informed decisions. Marriot has been the champion of implementing this program of empowering its employees. But many players have not been able to implement this program.
The employees are well trained, mentored and authorized to make decisions and these impacts greatly on job satisfaction. With this program, barriers that do hinder employee satisfaction are minimized, hence the employees go out of their way to meet and even exceed customers’ expectations.
In a scholarly erudition entitled Job Satisfaction Among Information Technology Professionals, Ghazzawi (2008), it was found that professionals in the information technology found their jobs more satisfying if the organizations exhibited practical commitment to social responsibility and well-structured ethical standards.
It can thus be concluded that organizations that are ethical stood a higher chance of retaining their staff and hence more profitable in contrast to the organizations which do not consider social responsibility (Holjevac, 2008).
The above study is useful to this research in that on the top of adding to the body of knowledge to this research, it shows the relationship of employee satisfaction and ethics in relation to the American hospitality industry. The researcher is going to find out ethical foundations in relation general success as of the hotels (McGehee, 2009).
Common Organizational Ethics and Employee performance
There exists a link between common work ethics and employee performance in the hotel industry. Most organizations take ethics as just any set of regulation. Incorporating common work ethics is in an organization is fundamental in sustaining projected growth and eventual optimal performance of that organization. This may apply to both to private and even public organizations.
Though a lot of literature linking ethics and performance in the hospitality industry is scarce, it is possible to note that there are obvious inter-linkages that show that with proper ethical climate implemented in the hospitality industry, the number of guests will be definitely on the rise.
Of great concern is the fact that absence of work ethics in any organization eats away into its core profitability as most clients will end up shunning the services that are offered by such an establishment.
Whenever there is a strongshared work ethic in anorganization, this is actually projecting a strong message that the establishment holds onto strong values andpride. This therefore shows that the organization deeply believes in the activities it carries out in the market place.
Work ethics, it is acknowledged, does place a responsibility and commitment on whatever any organization sets out to do.
The essence of ethical behavior is shared across cultures of the world. Whenever there are set ethos, it is expected that the employers and the customers will tend to be more receptive to the ideals of that particular organization (Lee & Way, (2010).
This interplay further reflects that a committed worker is more likely to be productive than the one who is not committed. It has further been shown that when an employee is committed, then performance goes up.
It is important for the organization to foster common ethics to get the best of the workforce. In a survey carried in the U.S., it was found that about a third of the public of the public interviewed believed that the top executives were honest. In fact the executives themselves, in the same survey, acknowledged that their companies’ public statements concerning ethics did conflict a great deal with the internal reality.
The existence of such a scenario points to the fact that such organizations do not have a culture of common organizational ethics.Therefore, employee performance suffers. In another research carried out it was found out that the staff is quite sensitive to unethical behavior touching on their welfare.
This has got to do with the matters concerning staff administration. Issues such as wanton favoritism in staff recruitment, remuneration, promotion, allocation of duties etc, do have a lasting negative effect on staff performance. To enhance staff performance, the survey finds out, the organization should always strive to put in place a clear company policy.
This policy should show clearly stated.This survey singled out the issue of allocation of duties and compensation as some of the sticking issues that hamper employee performance.
It thus suggests that the need for the hotel administration to try as much as possible to be transparent in allocation of duties and any other issues that may affect the employee performance. Finally, in cases where such measures are not clear-cut, then there is a very high perception of unethical working environment and this may adversely affect employee performance.
Critical Review
From the literature review, an organization is important in supporting employee’s ethical growth. In supporting employees, organizations goes an extra mile in understanding their employees in tandem with the organization’s culture. This aspect has been significant in understanding employees behaviors (Collins, 2001).
Ethics needs the support of top management in the organization. The top management should cultivate the culture of leading by example as supported by Ostroff’s (1993).
On the same note ethical leadership entails having personal proficiencies which are important in nurturing relationship between employee performance and the organization. Despite the overhelming literature on ethics and employee performance, there is little literature focusing on ethics and organization performance in the hotel industry.
An employee job satisfaction maybe internal or external. Barsch and Lisewski (2008) shows that employees can be motivated to work ethically by being rewarded financially or through promotions at the workplace. However, no findings have been attested to subsintiate this claim.
Research Hypothesis
By embracing the foregoing deliberation, this research aims at examining the following hypotheses:
H1: The greater the awareness of hotel employees’ ethical climate, the greater their job satisfaction.
H2: The greater the hotel employees’ perception on ethical climate, the greater their performance level.
Methodology
This chapter essentially presents the research methodology that was employed to look into the relationship that exists between the following variables: common organizational work ethics, employee satisfaction and employee performance. The conceptual model used in this study is discussed. Further, the research design, pilot study and the survey design employed are equally introduced and discussed in this chapter.
This chapter also introduces some comments that relate to the final survey in this study. Finally, data collection, as well as data analysis procedures, is equally explained in this chapter. It is expected that this research will be conducted between the moments of May to June 2013. It will concentrate on the hotels in the USA namely Ritz Carton, Four Season’s Group of Hotels, Millennium Hotels and W. Hotels.
Conceptual Model
Fig. 1
The above conceptual model adopted is a slight modification of that used in Schwepker’s (2001) study. It proposes that if the ethical climate is positively perceived, then that perception will definitely have a direct bearing on the employees’ job satisfaction and performance. This is important because relationship developed will mirror the significance of the locus of business ethics in the hospitality industry.
Further such awareness will help the employers in the hospitality industry to be encouraged to include the relevant business ethics in their establishments. They will also help them always endeavor to foster a positive ethical climate in the workplace and further enable them to effectively manage their diverse nature of their workforce.
This model further reveals that if there is a good reputable ethical climate, cultural and ethnic background and job satisfaction, the human resources departments stand to benefit a lot as this will help in stemming out some of the problems that human resources departments do face, on top of setting a path for an ethical and more responsible way in which things are done.
The survey will not consider age of the respondents as there was another study in which interns were asked if they considered certain behavior to be ethical. This study was carried out in 39 countries. The female employees, it was found, tended to find certain questionable behavior to be more questionable than others.
It was further found that the American interns certain behavior to be more unethical as compared to their Asian counterparts. Thus, cultural differences did not cause many profound differences.
In this study too, it was found that American interns did consider violations by the organization to be more unethical than what the European and Asian counterparts considered unethical. The age of the participant interns did not bring about any differences
Research Design
It should be noted that several studies that have ever been conducted on the issues of ethics in the hospitality industry have always used survey method as a tool for data collection. Most of the studies touched on issues that ranged from organizational commitment, employee job satisfaction or even turnover intention in relation to ethical climate.
According to Gall and Borg (2007), “A survey is a method of data collection using questionnaires or interviews to collect data from a sample that has been selected to represent a population to which the findings of the data analysis can be generalized”, McGehee (2009) finds survey research to be the best method that can be used for data collection that involves populations that are too large to be observed directly.
It should, however, be noted that all research methods do have their equal measure of strengths and weaknesses. This situation, therefore, applies to the survey method that this study is going to use. These strengths and weakness should never be overlooked.
Wimmer and Dominick (2006) have gone to a greater extent in providing important information towards the advantages that the survey method can bring to a particular study. According to them, surveys are appropriate in that they have the ability to delve into the problems present in realistic settings rather than those that are done in controlled atmospheres such as laboratory settings or rooms undertaking artificial conditions.
The other advantage of the survey method is to do with the cost. It has been established that survey method is less costly bearing in mind the quantity of information that the method is able to gather. Its cost is further directly linked to the kind of survey that will be employed.
For example, one may decide to use postal mail, e-mail, telephone line, personal direct interview and even decide to administer it to a group through group administration. Thus, when using a survey quite a large quantity of information can be gathered with comparatively relative ease from varied groups of people (Wimmer and Dominick, 2006).
On choosing the survey method, the researchers do enjoy the flexibility to look at a number of elements or variables. This also gives them the free choice to implement varied statistical procedures in their analysis of the data. Further, Wimmer and Dominick (2006) view that survey method is free from geographical boundary confinement as the survey method can be conducted almost anywhere.
To add to it, there already exist data that are available from many primary or even secondary sources such as archives, documents in government repositories, media etc, that can be used to help the survey research.
However, this method does have its share of disadvantages and it is important that these disadvantages are taken into consideration. The major trouble with the survey method is the inability of the independent variable to be manipulated as is possible in the case of those involved in controlled environments such as laboratories.
It should also be remembered that in the survey method there is a high likelihood of the words used in the questionnaire not passing the bias test.
Any inappropriate word choice or even replacement made within a particular questionnaire will have an almost direct consequence of making the results emanating from that research to be biased. In addition, there is further the risk of wrong respondents answering the questionnaire.
For example some respondents may not have time to fill the questionnaire and decide to delegate that duty of filling them to the other person or member of staff. Further, there is the temptation of the researcher including in the questionnaire members who do not fit or match the sample criteria.
Lastly, Wimmer and Dominick (2006) do find out that some forms of the surveys like telephone surveys, could prove quite difficult to conduct due to people blocking their calls, state regulations and many other barriers. For example, in the USA, some states do prohibit placing phone calls at the homes of people without their express permission.
It is recommended that a good pilot test of the survey be carried out in periods prior to implementing the actual study (Gall, Gall and Borg 2007).
It is noted that the pilot study should, on top of picking respondents from the population in which the actual respondents will be drawn, also provide some section on which criticisms and recommendations from the respondents can be aired as some of these recommendations may help the researcher to improve implementation of the actual study.
Gall et al. (2007) do suggest that respondents could be asked to rephrase the question or, rather, write in their own words what each question meant to them. Should any discrepancy arise, then the question should be put to a thorough revision and re-tested to ensure intended interpretation is achieved.
Instrument
The study employed three forms of instruments divided into business, ethics and employee satisfaction. The guidelines for the creation of these sections were based on Schwepker’s (2001) research. However some adjustments were deliberately made so as to match the requisite needs of this study. First, the wording emanating from Schwepker’s (2001) questions was changed.
The reason for doing this was to actually make it easier for all the employees in the said hotels to read and understand irrespective of their position or even the section in which they work. For instance, one of the questions in Schwepker’s (2001) study stated: “My opportunities for advancement are limited”. In this study, this question was reframed thus, “my opportunities for being promoted in this hotel are not good”.
Moreover, this research changed several words as appropriate. For example, in places where Schwepker (2001) used the word “customers,” it was changed in this study to “guests.”
Similarly, the word “organization” was replaced by the word “hotel” while the words “regional sales manager” were replaced with “management.” Further, in all the response categories was placed a five-point Likert Scale ranging from (1) strongly agree to the last item (5) strongly disagree.
In measuring business ethics, the study employed the ethical climate scale used by Schwepker (2001) to carry out research. In his study, the measure was actually based on an easier work done by Qualls and Puto (1989). This consisted seven-point Likert scale statements that had been used before to measure whether codes of ethics were present and enforced.
It further delved into the specific corporate regulations on ethics as well as how top managers responded to required related ethics. He averaged his responses such that whenever there was a higher score, this was indicative of the salesperson’s feeling that there was a more ethical climate. In it Schwepker (2000) reflected that climate of ethics did have a reliability of about.89.
The seven statements were relied upon more than others since they very well reflected that the enforcement of the set codes of ethics and other corporate rules that governed ethical behavior were adhered to. To further qualify this scale, it was found that it could be effectively used across many cultures. Due to such strong proof, this current study adopted the same questions save for a few changes with regard to the wording.
For instance the word “my company” got replaced with “this hotel” as “top management” got replaced with “management” in this study. Another change that occurred was the deletion of one question. This is because the seventh question did appear to be address the same issue as question six to read: “the hotel management promptly reprimands employees who involve themselves in unethical behavior”.
The job satisfaction scale also had the same questions as those found in Schwepker’s (2001), which had a reliability of.90 just like with the questions. Thus, for example, instead of “The company has an unfair policy” in this current the question became “this hotel has an unfair policy,” among other changes as will be seen.
The Pilot study
To avoid last minute discrepancies, a pilot study was conducted at a local hotel solely with the responsibility of testing the reliability and validity of the research as well as other challenges and discrepancies. The researcher, therefore, had to contact the establishment’s human resources manager and provided him with a document showing the purpose of the study and several copies of the surveys in English and even Spanish.
After being granted the permission, about 22 surveys were presented to the hotel staff. A ‘thank you’ was given to members to thank them for having agreed to answer the questionnaire. It took them about 12 minutes to complete the questionnaire (Barsh 2008). Finally, 15 questionnaires were found to be usable.
The respondents in this pilot survey did not find any trouble with the questions and the whole procedure as a whole. This was an indicator that the survey was ready for the final execution and data collection.
Study population
The population for this research meant any member of staff who works in the hotel industry. The sample population was 110, sample size 70 and response rate was 58 percent. The sample included included supervisors, front office personnel, food and beverage staff as well as housekeepers. Managers and supervisors were, however, excluded.
Data collection procedure
This study was based on hotels of different levels ranging from luxury establishments to those which are midscale. This study did focus on finding out the perceptions of the employees towards the ethical behavior of the hotels. A request to the managers was made in the form of a letter so that they could grant permission for this survey to be carried out.
As soon as the permission was granted, the researcher visited the said hotels and gave the employees the questionnaire during a meeting that had been pre-arranged by the human resource managers.
An in-person survey was preferred as sending mail could lock out many respondents who did not have access to the internet. Also, most of the printed copies were back translated into Spanish to make sure Spanish- speaking employees were not left out.
Faced with the challenge of distance, especially for the Millennium Hotels, the researcher mailed the questionnaires to the managers who, in turn, administered them to the employees. After being filled, the managers collected them and mailed them back to the researcher. The managers were under strict instruction that the anonymity of the respondents was paramount.
However, as the research progressed, it became apparent that some employees did not complete the questionnaires. Some were unwilling to respond to certain items. All in all, the number of questionnaires returned were found to be sufficient for this survey.
Data Analysis Procedure
The research employed the use of SPSS software for the analysis of the data collected for the research. Moreover, the reliability and the validity of the outcomes were evaluated. It was found that scales which had a coefficient alpha above 0.70 presented satisfactory reliability. Validity was tested by confirming each scale through factor analysis.
Face value was equally tested. According to Wimmer and Dominick (2006), Face validity is only achieved when the measurement device is examined to see whether on the face of it measures what it is supposed to measure. Though this method has an element of subjectivity, the researcher gave the measurement to other experts to assess whether it was valid and their response was in the affirmative.
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