Navigating Human Dynamics: Challenges and Solutions in the Hotel and Hospitality Industry

The hotel and hospitality industry is among the oldest and still relevant sectors in the current environment. The sector is cross-cultural and serves everyone across the world depending on the consumer’s taste and preferences. Most people use the hotel and hospitality industry when traveling, engaging in leisure activities, or only when they are hungry and need something to eat. Even so, as much as this industry was majorly meant to give its clients enjoyment and satisfaction, there have been incidences that have led to conflicts between the client and service provider, or among the service providers themselves. The hospitality industry is a sector that is majorly based on using human labor and operates throughout, which is 24 hours in 7 days (365 days in a year). The main clients are sometimes regular eaters or in some cases, hotel guests. The hotel business is environments where the number of staff members is very high and have interdependently related to the guests at hand, and also among the employees themselves (Rubin, White, Lee, & Basile, 2016). For example, a waiter will depend on the chef to get the ordered food so that they can be paid and also tipped, while at the same time, the chef majorly depends on the waiter to distribute the food cooked. Therefore, hotel workers and managers have a considerable challenge of upholding this delicate balance of satisfying both the needs of the guest and their employees and demands without making any party feel alienated or neglected. Resolving and finding permanent solutions to various conflicts that arise daily in a hotel setup is among the most likely responsibility of any hotelier (Ivanova, Ivanov, & Magnini, 2016). If a hotelier can prevent situations that might lead to possible conflicts or are capable of fining binding solutions to the existing disputes, then they would be successful and the business that they are serving would gain a better reputation and will be perceived as moral. In a hotel environment, human factors and interactions could be the basis of conflicts.

In any workplace, employees, employers, and the clients ought to interact in harmony as a team to attain organizational objectives. Typically, teamwork is perceived as one of the most efficient tools in achieving any goal in a business set up or activation. In making the objectives of an organization, these teams are inevitably likely to experience some form of conflict, and in most cases, there is always a need for close cooperation among these teams to resolve the existing disputes. Giving a single definition of conflict will not be substantial and would restrict this study in exploring the dynamics of conflict in a hotel environment. Naturally, violence is a situational occurrence that is likely to take place in any institution, which is exposed to various attitudes, skills, experiences, and ideologies, and since the hotel industry employs and serves people from different backgrounds, conflict is inevitable. There are multiple ways of handling conflicts in any organization, which involves deploying the right leadership strategies, ensuring employee satisfaction, observing gender roles and establishing the right and appropriate means of communication. Thomas (1992) categorized these definitions into various categories, which are emotional, behavioral, antecedent conditions and attitudes/perceptions

Cortina, Magley, Williams, & Langhout (2001) defined conflict as a process that is as a result of negative interactions and disagreements between social groups. The author argued that, in most cases, diverse viewpoints, expectations, and needs are the root cause of any conflict. In short, conflicts will always exist as long as people have different interests, beliefs, value and needs. It is also not possible to expect a business environment without conflicts since the business can never be run without people, and these people have different orientations, interests and perspectives. People working in the hotel industry are likely to face liabilities, criticisms, complains and sentiments of displeasure in a typical business day; all these are recipes of conflict. On the positive side of it, it is only through conflicts that organizations can establish a positive effect on making the needed decision and the use of power. Contrary, Connerley & Pedersen (2005) defined conflict as a social structure or an emotional framework that could lead to unwanted outcomes, especially when making decisions. Among people working together, Thomas (1992) states that conflict arises after one employee has sensed that another employee has prevented them. All these are theoretical explanations as to what can cause violence in any workplace including the hotel environment; however, practically, there could be other factors that are likely to cause conflict in the workplace, which has not been discussed in the paper. Yet, what is more, important is not knowing the causes of violence, but having a clear and precise framework of solving conflicts, since as long as humanity exists, conflict is there to stay.

Purpose of the Study

The study will specifically revolve around the conflicts experienced between the rural hotel personnel and the guests. It involves analyzing the various facets that affect conflict management and how both hotel personnel and guests can handle conflicts in case it happens. If a conflict between hotel personnel and a client is left unsolved, it could lead to more negative outcomes such as the client avoiding the hotel, the inability of the guest and the hotel personnel to work together, verbal assaults and probable dissatisfaction among the parties involved. Thus, any problem that arises from a conflict ought to be scrutinized and solved amicably in a way that would satisfy the needs of both parties. Effective conflict management is helpful and affirmative as compared to poor conflict resolutions, which leads to more harm. Diplomatic tools such as negotiations, mediation and arbitration could be viable tools of conflict management that would ensure that a solution is reached. Besides, conflicts could be a result of various forms of organizational management, which could result in unavoidable clashes between both the individual working in a hotel and the guest. The rationale of these analyses is to establish the facets of conflicts and conflict resolution approaches between the hotel personnel and the hotel guest. It will involve examining the effects of conflict management in guest-hotel personal relationship, based on different factors of conflict. Besides, from this study, it will show that triggers of conflict in a hotel set up and effects of conflict management in the same. The fact that the hotel industry is service-oriented, conflicts are bound to occur considering the level of expectation some clients come with, hence how these conflicts are resolved to satisfy both the interests of the service provider and the client, is not only crucial to the two parties directly involved. Instead, it is also essential to the institution concerned. In this regard, the research question and objective that will guide this study will be centered around the following principles.

What are the facets affecting conflict management between the hotel personnel and guest in the hotel industry?

Who are the parties/units that ought to be involved in managing such conflicts?

What are the detrimental factors of these conflicts?

The Significance of the Study

There are various significances of this study; first is that it will help the reader to comprehend how conflicts can happen in teamwork and its impact on the performance of the organization. Secondly, it will help the reader to understand how conflicts can take place in a hotel set up, especially between hotel personnel and a client, and how such conflicts can be managed. Lastly, it offers a valuable piece of information to future researchers in understanding various aspects of conflicts in the working environment. From this study, hotel owners and practitioners will understand the root cause of disputes between hotel employees and their respective clients. It would also be an essential piece of information to rural hotel managers, especially those who are supervising a large and diverse group of workers and subsequent clients. The study aims at unveiling the possible dynamics of conflicts in the hotel industry and their possible solutions.

Literature review

The definition of Conflict

As much as it emerges from different environments, conflict can be defined as a challenging encounter by a person or a group in the process of deciding on a possibility and the distraction while making a decision, which renders the devices as consequences. Besides, as much as conflict arises for individual differences, it can also originate from other external issues like not having a clear picture of one’s job description, unclear organization structures, and higher expectations in a role than the actual service that can be delivered. When examined in terms of the process involved, the following situations can lead to conflict;

The existence of incompatible or divergent interest between people or groups

The prior judgment of opposition by the parties in involved (in this case is the hotel personnel and the guests)

Actions that are taken by the parties involved with a motive of obstructing the other party’s work

The Process of Conflict

As per the arguments of the process theory, conflict transpires when a person feels that they are forced and notices obstruction from the other, and begins to fight against it. According to this theory, conflict is either perceived or felt. Perceived conflict is defined as the group or personal awareness of the element that leads to the rise of conflicts. In this case, members will be conscious of the conflict, although they cannot justify or explain the reasons for such. In some cases, their conflict could exist based on various acuities. As the opposition is foreseen or thought, tension is likely to arise between the employee and the client.

On the other hand, felt conflict is perceived conflict that is shared by both the parties involved and, in this case, different opinions are shared, and later the real battle is felt. In most cases, obstruction of duties, conflicting interests, opinions and preferences are observed in tandem with this kind of conflict. Most importantly, it is appropriate for the principals to be conscious of the existence of a dispute.

The management of Conflicts

The phase conflict management is a broad term, as compared to conflict resolution. In short, conflict resolution is an expression of the process of resolving a conflict, while conflict management involves the operation of resolving conflict and steering the process of destructive conflict to a purposeful outcome. Conflict management can be perceived as a process that includes the diagnosis of different stages of the conflict, establishing the intensity of the conflict, coming up with a relevant method of intervention by assessing the intensity of the conflict in respect to its impacts in monitoring the outcomes (Lalitha, Narayana, & Vaishnav, 2017). The achievement of any group in conflict management is revealed in its administrative structure that facilitates constructive collaboration among the groups.

In such establishments, the majority of personnel comprise of persons who are sufficiently knowledgeable, skilled and ready to admit diverse values of judgment. People display an open, authentic and brave attitude to find an explanation for the conflict under conviction between the stakeholders in an association. There are prominent ways of finding a constructive resolution rather than continuing with the dispute. In most cases, binding judgments are always creative.

Finding from Previous Studies

According to a study conducted by Vokić & Sontor (2009), customer dissatisfaction was rated as the leading cause of conflict between hotel guests and hotel workers. The author stated that customer dissatisfaction was a result of the assessment of different transactions or consumption experience. Customer satisfaction with the service offered by hotel personnel is often affected by the Prior expertise and expectations of the Client on the quality of services described by the hotel. In cases where the dimensions of service quality have already been stipulated according to the company standardization policies, events that impact on customer satisfaction majorly rely on the expectations of the consumer. In cases where the Expectations vary the customer satisfaction level will be different, if the hotel unit is capable of providing similar services to every client, then it means that customer satisfaction with the assistance of the company will not have the same value to every client because of the different expectation among hotel guests.

As discussed above, customer expectations could be comprehended if hotel managers and personnel had a clear understanding of the factors that influence it. According to the arguments of Purohit & Simmers (2006), there are three facets of consumer expectations which are the internal factors like the needs of an individual, experience of the client and the level of involvement in the service delivery; external factors such as competitive options, social perception, and social reputation through word of mouth. The last element involves the services rendered by the unit such as the promotions offered, the price of services and how the hotel personnel communicates with the client which father influences the customer's expectations. Noypayak & Speece (1998) stated that if the service offered performs up to specific standards that were anticipated for predicted by the client, then the satisfaction level will be okay. In cases where the service provided meets the expectations and anticipation of the client, then the service is deemed to have given them satisfaction. Therefore, if the services offered by any hotel could be improved to meet the demands and expectations of every client, then conflicts among the hotel guest and personnel could be minimized to lower levels.

A study by McKenna (1995) revealed that client satisfaction depends on two significant factors which are the expectations of the customer and the quality of the services perceived by the same clients. The same statement was also supported by Noonan (2008) who stated that customer satisfaction was majorly determined by how clients view the services they received in comparison to the services that they expected before engaging with the business unit. Hence customer satisfaction is mainly a comparison between the perceived qualities of customer expectations and they immediately offered services. If they understood the quality of services rendered to customers is under their expectation then the customer is likely to feel unsatisfied and hence lead to a high probability of conflicts between the hotel personnel and the customer (Min, 2018). If the services offered are perceived to be according to the client's expectation then the client will be satisfied, it is even better if the quality seen by the client is exceeded because this will lead to client gratification and satisfaction which minimizes the chances of violent or conflictual relationship between the hotel personnel and the hotel guest.

In respect to this understanding, Satisfaction is our function of quality assessment by the client. Munduate, Ganaza, Peiro, & Euwema (1999) added that if a service delivered by the hotel personnel fails to meet the expectations of the guest, then the client is likely to be dissatisfied which could result in conflict your relationship if the service is rendered Areas per the client's expectation then the guest is expected to be satisfied which minimizes the chances of violence or conflict within a hotel premises, especially between the hotel personal name and guest. Rose, Ramalu, Uli, & Kumar (2010) also concluded in his study that customers’ expectations were influenced by different internal and external factors, or the quality of the service offered. In this case, the class was assessed through the service provided and the personnel image. According to the researchers, these variables would determine the extent of customer satisfaction. The most crucial facet in determining the client was the examination of the service given.

Problem Definition and Conceptual Framework

Various scholars have developed various structures of conflict management. Most of these structures integrate two dimensions that is founded on the valences for satisfying various concerns for self and the needs of the other party. However, most of these frameworks do not directly consider the dynamics of conflict in a service-based industry like in a hotel which is overrun by a common phrase of “a customer is always right.” Therefore, in case of a conflict between hotel personnel and a guest, in most cases, the customer will always have their way out, and the staff will be blamed for the whole fiasco. Therefore, this study will use the framework developed by Thomas (1979) as shown in the figure below, since it will help to address the concerns of both parties. At the start on the top left of the figure, the confrontation approach when dealing with a conflict instills more significance to the needs of a premium participant, which in the case of a hotel is always the client, and at the same time, limits the goals of the other party. Jung Choi, H., & Tae Kim, Y. (2012) argued that the confrontational approach is forceful, while described it as dominating. In respect to the relationship and the context of this study, this approach is perceived to be confrontational, which suggests that hotel personnel who apply the principles of this framework ought to remain steadfast and not necessarily adversarial with their clients. On the other end of figure 1, the accommodation approach to conflict management tends to satisfy the concerns of the other party while at the same time not considering the position of the person in question. Other researchers such as Bustamante, Nelson, & Onwuegbuzie (2009) have also perceived this approach as a ‘smoothing over’ framework and obliging in nature. In the middle of the figure, the ‘compromise’ approach attempts to achieve a moderate, but incomplete satisfaction of parties’ concerns, surrendering something, while at the same time preserving the other. The same conflict management approach has also been referred as ‘sharing.’ Lastly, when the compromising strategy foregoes the search for optimality for every party, another method saw to as collaborations, which entails coming up with an integrative, win-win solution that can satisfy the needs and solve the concerns of both parties through broadening the level of joint outcomes.

Research Question

The following research questions will guide this study;

1. What are some of the causes of hotel personnel and guest conflicts in rural areas?

2. Are there possible mitigation frameworks that can be used to resolve hotel personnel-guest conflicts in a hotel set up?

3. What are some of the long-term strategies that can be implemented by hotels in rural areas to reduce cases of hotel personnel-guest conflict cases?

Research Methodology

Design of the Study

In most cases, case studies involve examining the occurrence from a life-life viewpoint. It describes a project where researchers partake in an in-depth assessment of an individual, a group of people or an event in examining the causes of the fundamental principles. Case studies are typical study designs for social science studies that utilize descriptive and explanatory analysis of a particular group. Various cases, reviews will be used in this study due to the objectives of the study, which is to explore and explain the phenomena regarding conflict management in rural hotels. The use of case studies will enable the researcher to establish a closer interaction with the study respondents in the targeted areas, which is essential when using observation to collect additional data on the study topic. Besides, the researcher will explore the use of phenomenology approach of inquiry during the process of data collection. The case study research design is relevant to this study because it purposes to collect the opinions and perspectives of the respondents concerning the study topic.

Study instrument

The researcher will use questionnaires to collect information from respondents; this mainly because surveys can be self-filled without the supervision of the researcher. Therefore, the researcher can efficiently distribute the questionnaires electronically and get feedback through the same channel. Such a process will help in saving resources such as time and money. However, for this case, the researcher will use one-one interviews, for the sake of getting an in-depth information from the respondents, through prompting and priming them for answers. The survey to be used will consist of three main sections. The first section will aim at collecting the personal information of the respondent such as the age, geographical location, gender, level of education and occupation. For the sake of privacy and anonymity, the questionnaire will not ask for the respondent’s names. The section is vital in terms of assessing the correlation of various demographic variables on the impact of conflict resolution. The second section will examine multiple questions related to the independent variable, while the last part will ask questions that are linked to the primary dependent variable. In both the two components (b and c), rating questions will be used to get feedback from the respondents. These rating questions are majorly utilized to get statistical measurements on the impact of conflict handling in a hotel set up. The queries will need every respondent to rate their response by ticking on an appropriate number that would range from 1-5 that represent thoughts such as ‘strongly agree,’ ‘Agree,’ ‘Neutral,’ ‘Disagree,’ and ‘Strong Disagree.’ This type of rating measurement is referred to as the Likert Scale.

Sampling

The study will use a purposeful sampling technique to get the needed sample population for this research. This sampling procedure is standard when dealing with social participants since it allows the researcher to get the most qualified and competent respondents for data collection. In this study, the researcher would focus on finding the right respondents who have adequate knowledge in this area, can assist in answering various study questions. Using purposeful sampling will help the researcher to select only a small percentage of the population that will be used to represent the broader population. Eventually, the project will target about 6-7 hotels from different geographical regions. In these units the survey will be administered to the managers and the employees.

Data Collection Procedure

This qualitative study is conducted with the focus of getting participant opinions on project risks in water kiosk management. Therefore, the procedures of data collection will involve the use of structured and semi-structured interviews with participants (Trochim, 2006). The project will explore the use of interviews as primary data collection methods due to its ability to get first-hand information. Before starting the meetings, the research assistants will locate a setting where they will conduct these interviews, seek participant consent, and invite them to the discussion.

The researchers and their assistants will conduct these interviews by holding sessions with participants at their required time and setting. They will then engage them in discussing the issue and answering the pre-arranged questions on the research topic. The structured interviews will be done in a one-on-one format where an interviewer sits with a respondent in a room. During data collection, water kiosk operators, owners, and representatives of a community water organization will be placed in a room after agreeing to participate in the interviews. They will then be engaged in a meeting with a research assistant who will have a document with interview questions on the issue of community water projects.

Ethical Challenges

Since the study will be using primary data, there is a need for utilizing various research ethics when handling the respondents. The first moral issue that involves this study would be seeking the consent of respondents before engaging in the data collection process. Therefore, the investigator will only collect data from the respondents who have consented and are willing to take part in the study. It implies that the respondents will have independently determine whether they will participate in this survey or not. Seeking informed consent is an essential factor when determining if an individual will participate in a study or not. Informed consent will assure the researcher of getting accurate data from the field. The overriding assumption is always that voluntary participation in the study will lead to specific data contrary to a coerced one. Therefore, in this study, the investigator will require the respondents to sign consent forms to those who are willing to participate in this study to avoid any confusion. Besides, it is mandated by law that any respondent that engages in any investigation should do so at will and with the dispensation of informed consent. Therefore, signing consent forms will be a confirmation of the legal requirements.

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