Business Research Method Research Proposal on Employee Performance

This research proposal explores the impact of employee performance on customer service satisfaction within the hospitality industry. It begins with an introduction to the research problem, highlighting how employee skills and performance affect customer satisfaction. A brief commentary on key literature follows, discussing the importance of employee needs and development. The proposal outlines the research methodologies, including a semi-systematic literature review, research design, sampling techniques, and research instruments. The research problem focuses on how a lack of employee skills can affect customer service and satisfaction. The research objectives and questions are clearly defined, and the research design, including sampling techniques and instruments, is detailed. The proposal also includes a discussion on the relevance and communication of the research findings, along with conclusions and a bibliography. The study also includes a review of research methodologies in the literature, with an application of a journal discussing employee emotional competence and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Business Research Method Research Proposal
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction to the research problem................................................................................3
2. Brief commentary of key literature....................................................................................4
3. Research methodologies.......................................................................................................6
Application and deployment to contribute to the research..............................................7
Research problem.................................................................................................................9
Research objectives..............................................................................................................9
Research questions.............................................................................................................10
Research design..................................................................................................................10
Sampling technique............................................................................................................11
2.1 Instruments of the research.............................................................................................12
2.2 Conclusions.......................................................................................................................14
2.3 Bibliography.....................................................................................................................15
3.1 Relevance and convenience.............................................................................................19
3.2 Communication of research............................................................................................19

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Business research method: Impact of employee performance on customer service
satisfaction in the hospitality industry
1. Introduction to the research problem
The research is conducted to focus on the problem about how lack of employee skills
and performance can affect the delivery of customers’ services and leave them unsatisfied as
a whole. This can be a major research problem that has been focused on so as to ensure
dealing with the problem and allow the organisations within the hospitality industry to
develop the performances of employees. The journal, being descriptive can also help in
conducting the research in details and ensure acqusitions of research findings properly too.
Delcourt et al. (2013) stated that with the fulfilment of needs and preferences of the
employees can help in keeping them satisfied and more committed towards the delivery of
hospitality services, which shall further enhance the level of satisfaction among the clients
and ensure higher revenue generation for the organisation. This will be largely beneficial for
them to deliver the right quality hospitality services to the clients and raise their level of
satisfaction to increase sales and profit level largely too (Karatepe 2013). Also, to be noted
that with the reduction of this kind of problem, the companies within the concerned industry
should provide necessary benefits to the employees, look for developing their skills,
knowledge while even arrange training and developmental sessions based on collective
feedbacks. This would help in understanding the concerns of the employees and then address
their needs properly, which could not only make the employees feel engaged and more
committed, but would also make them fully commit towards delivery of hotels services to the
guests and ensure that their needs and preferences are met properly (Chiang, Birtch and Cai
2014). With the higher level of customer satisfaction, there would be more scopes for
attaining higher level of profit and also the customers would avail the services of the hotel
repeatedly and in a consistent manner too.

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Research hypothesis
H0: The employee performance does not significantly impact the customer service delivery
and satisfaction in the hospitality industry
H1: The performance of employees impacts the level of satisfaction among the customers
based on the services delivered within the hospitality industry
2. Brief commentary of key literature
According to Karatepe et al. (2013), the addressing of employee needs has been a
crucial factor for delivering the right quality hospitality service to the clients. It has also been
found that with the organisations focusing more on the development of skills and
performances of employees, they have become more competent and skilled to understand
what the customers, i.e., guests staying the hotel need and how their needs could be met
properly (Karatepe et al. 2013). The employees, if their needs are taken care of by the
organisation, would feel interested to serve the clients whole heartedly and even commit
themselves fully towards the achievement of satisfaction among the customers. It has also
directly impacted the financial condition through higher sales and greater revenue generated
by the company, thereby, presenting a positive brand image and reputation too among the
clients largely (Tsui et al. 2013).
As stated by Dusek et al. (2014), the organisations within the hospitality industry have
also tried to focus on the skills and performance development of the employees, which has
been possible with the help of rewarding them, praising them for their performances and also
by arranging training and development sessions to improve their skills, knowledge and
expertise. Considering the hospitality industry, caring for the clients and keeping them
satisfied are major aspects for better financial performance as well as for allowing the hotels
to attract new as well as retain existing customers in large numbers (Dusek et al. 2014). The

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performances of employees have been influenced through training and development along
with better management of communication and management styles that are crucial for
keeping them motivated and encouraged as a whole. The management of negative thoughts
and behaviours have also affect their performances, which indirectly resulted in poor
customers’ services delivery within the hospitality industry. Thus, it has become essential for
the hotels to match up with the skills management of the staffs and foster the development of
a productive working environment, where the employees have the potential to provide their
ideas, opinions and feedbacks to improve the process of decision making too (Karatepe et al.
2013). It has raised their potential to act properly and also remain focused on their goals by
remaining engaged and align with the organisational policies and principles to develop good
and effective relationships with the customers who avail the hospitality services in Singapore.
Also stated by Grigoroudis, Tsitsiridi and Zopounidis (2013), the performances of
employees are improved once their needs are being taken care of by the organisation
properly. The organisations within the hospitality industry must make sure to take care of the
needs of employees by addressing their demands while at the same time, provide them with

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benefits and rewards along with growth scopes and opportunities, which could improve their
potential and desired level of motivation. The managers must be responsible for managing the
employees properly and even allow them to share their views, ideas and opinions, which
should facilitate the decision making process as well as make them feel as valued assets of
the organisation (Grigoroudis, Tsitsiridi and Zopounidis 2013). The employees should feel
more motivated and encouraged to perform to their potential to manage adaptability by
delivering prompt services to the guests of the hotel, maintain ease of access and allow the
guest to share their feedbacks and opinions regarding any issues experienced by them while
staying at the hotel. Thus, the staffs of the hotels would be able to perform their tasks in a
responsible manner while even maintain reliability, responsiveness, empathy, tangibility and
ensure assurance of good quality services delivered to them as a whole (Delcourt et al. 2013).
With the great quality services delivered to the customers, the customer satisfaction level
would increase with the improvement in employee performance and skills, thereby, ensure
better customer orientation, positive perceptions among them regarding the brand and
establish positive brand image too, which should influence them to avail the services of the
hospitality organisation more often in the future too. (Pantouvakis and Bouranta 2013)
3. Review of Research methodologies in the literature
Journal 1: Delcourt, C., Gremler, D.D., Van Riel, A.C. and Van Birgelen, M., 2013.
Effects of perceived employee emotional competence on customer satisfaction and
loyalty. Journal of Service Management.
Application of the journal
From the statement of Delcourt et al. (2013), the emotional competence and skills of
the employees has been based on how well they have perceived it, which has been possible
with the help of necessary training and development sessions arranged for the employees of

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the organisation within the hospitality industry. By applying this research methodology in the
literature, have managed to remain selective on the various evidences to develop the research
as well as ensure checking its validity and reliability in the due course.
I agree that the systematic method to the literature review could help in selecting the
right article for inclusion in the review and also synthesize the collection of various studies,
information and evidences that should inform policies and practices notably. Though, it might
not be suitable for the synthesis of a broader research topic, because of the conceptualisation
of data and information differently, the semi-systematic method in review has been
considered as more effective for mapping theoretical approaches and identify the gaps in
literature too. The services are bound to change with the way the consumers have interacted
with the employees and it has further been characterised by intimacy, emotional behaviours,
furthermore, driven by content rich information and emotions shared between the employees
and customers. Within the hospitality industry, the services are dependent upon the emotions
and behaviours of customers while on the other hand, the employees have been
acknowledged and informed about what kinds of needs and preferences have the potential to
meet their demands. The clients have often looked at the observable cues including the
behaviours of employees towards them and how well they have fulfilled their needs and
requirements, but the employees emphasized more on building relationships with the clients
and understand their emotional needs to ensure customer satisfaction largely. Thus, he semi-
systematic review has helped in synthesising the data and information, thereby, ensured
proper analysis of findings to create scopes for the research to contribute to the theory and
overall research perfectly.
Methods deployed to contribute to the theory and research

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From the application of the research methodology in the journal, it has been found
that the conducting of literature review as part of the research methodology has helped in
creating a foundation to the knowledge and for the advancement, which also facilitated the
development of theories and frameworks required to address the questions of the research
much more conveniently. It has provided an overview of the research, as represented in the
article proposed by Delcourt et al. (2013), which further helped in the synthesis of findings
along with uncovering the areas where more research would be needed in the later part of the
research.
I do have a strong feeling that the semi-systematic review could help in
conceptualisation of the topics and research data in a different way by the different groups of
researchers within a diverse discipline that might have hindered the management of a
successful systematic review process. This kind of method in the review of literature has the
potential to review the article related to the research subject as well as check for the progress
of the research over time, finally, understand the research traditions and have implications
through synthesis of findings It has also benefited the researcher to find out the complex
areas and gain in-depth research so as to maintain transparency and check whether the
arguments made for the judgments have been appropriate or not from the perspective of the
methodology of the research in the literature.
Considering the research to be secondary for a significant portion, the assessment of
these secondary sources of data and information, i.e., the journals have been used here to
determine how perceived emotional competence among the employees achieved through
benefits provide to them and their needs taken care of, could help them to increase their
commitment level and raise customer satisfaction. Based on the journal proposed by Delcourt
et al. (2013) the analysis of findings from the literature demonstrated how the effectiveness of
services provided by the employees have raised level of customer satisfaction and increased

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turnover within the hospitality industry too. The research is secondary and provided in textual
format, which also makes it consider the literature as the basis of structuralism theory. The
structuralism theory, used here in the context, has been effective for challenging the beliefs
that the work based on the review and methodology in literature have been reflected through
presentation of a real world situation and such has been the case within the hospitality
industry too. The research methods in literature have represented reality and also exposed the
fact behind what humans do, think, perceive and feel. It has been related to the perceptions of
employees, which tend to be positive with their needs fulfilled by the organisation, which in
turn, made them more committed towards fulfilment of clients’ needs. It made them act
accordingly for making the clients feel that they have been cared and positive feelings have
been perceived by them, which increased their satisfaction level too.
Gaps in methods and literature
Though from the journal, it has been understood that though the emotional
competence of employees has helped in building good relationships with the clients to create
trust and loyalty towards the organisation, there have been few gaps as well. The gaps were
found in the areas where there were no mentionable facts about how the emotional
competence and skills of the employees have been improved, rather focus had been on the
impact of emotional competence of employees on the customer satisfaction. The gap in
literature seemed to wave new scopes and opportunities to conduct further analysis and
synthesise more findings so as to resolve the gap found in the literature.
Pros and cons of the research
The pros include the collection of wide range of sources to collect essential data and
information, increased transparency, which highlighted the cross disciplinary themes and
application of synthesis to increase the scope of findings possible. The cons include the

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limitation of creativity, restricted accessibility to certain sources, huge amount of authentic
data an information might be required, which might not be possible always due to lack of
accessibility to the journals found here.
Limitations
Few of the limitations could be the cost and time constraints. Though significant
amount of time has been provided, with some additional time and financial resources the
research would have been done in more details and to draw positive findings all around.
Fowler Jr (2013) also argued over the fact that though the research data and information were
collected properly, still the sources were not always authentic, which have hindered the
research findings sometimes.
Journal 2: Hur, W.M., Moon, T.W. and Jung, Y.S., 2015. Customer response to
employee emotional labor: the structural relationship between emotional labor, job
satisfaction, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Services Marketing.
Application of the journal
The application of the research methodology in the literature represents how the
journal has been used in this research for contributing to the theory and literature and ensure
successful findings of the research too. Considering the need to provide information in an
assertive manner, it is to be noted that the research methodology in the study has allowed me
to study the literature concepts and refer to some major theories that contribute to the analysis
of the literature. The methods of the research have ben fruitful for representing facts and
information about the journal presented in the literature review section in a detailed manner
and gain knowledge about the research subject in a more prominent manner.
According to Hur, Moon and Jung (2015) there has been relationship between
emotional labour, job satisfaction and client satisfaction, which proved the fact that with the

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employees’ needs, being taken care of, they have been more dedicated towards fulfilment of
needs of clients within the hospitality industry. The integrative method has been applied in
the literature to conduct the semi-structure approach and thus helped in the assessment,
critique and synthesis of various information and knowledge to create new theoretical
frameworks and acquire information from new perspective too. With the application of the
journal with the integrative method conducts an overview of the entire knowledge base and
managed expansion of the theoretical foundation.
Methods deployed to contribute to the theory and research
The application of journal has also been supported with the method integrated in the
literature to collect both primary and secondary data, thereby, combine all the relevant data
and information from different perspectives and based on research traditions. The integrative
method has been deployed not only to combine the insights and perspectives of the research
topic, but also to expand the theoretical foundation and knowledge base. The primary data
has been collected with the help of interviewing the managers of the organisations, who
provided their responses regarding the relationship between employee satisfaction, emotional
labour and customer satisfaction within the hospitality industry, that are found to be relevant
to the journal “Customer response to employee emotional labour the structural relationship
between emotional labour, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Services
Marketing.” by Hur, Moon and Jung (2015). The personal experiences have been obtained
based on the natural setting, which helped in looking into the research as a whole and not in
portions (Hennink, Hutter and Bailey 2020). The qualitative research methods have provided
better flexibility to the research and even enabled changes in procedures experienced
patterns, as found in the research data and information.

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The quantitative data, also known as the statistical or numerical data and information
are based on the experiments and surveys conducted to gather the measurable data. Thus, the
results have been generalised to the large population group and so both experimental design
and non-experimental designs were followed (Coolican 2017). The information and data
about the variables have been collected from the participants considered as samples from a
population group, which represented the poll behaviours and allowed the researcher to
conduct marketing research (Bernard and Bernard 2013). Thus, the method deployed here
support the creative data collection and analysis of findings, which not only contributed to the
research, but also created a source of psychoanalysis theory. The psychoanalysis theory in
literature not only helped in acquiring a view of reality, but also has represented a
phenomenological study about the characters here, including the employees and the clients
create a reality view. Considering the journal’s representation of the emotional labour, client
satisfaction and job satisfaction, there has been an emotional connection, which shed light on
how the behaviours of theirs were managed and positive emotions had been established.
Gaps in methods and literature
The gaps found here were that though there had been a relationship between
emotional labour, job satisfaction and client satisfaction, still the major focus of the research
topic has been missed here. There were not much information about how the job satisfaction
among employees impacted the delivery of better customers’ services to raise the satisfaction
level among the clients, though the linkage between the three variables provided
conceptualisation about how the emotional labour and job satisfaction could be the cause of
emotional satisfaction among the guests. The ways of creating job satisfaction such as
training and rewards provided to them were not illustrated properly. The behaviours of
human beings and the level of perception that might be formed within a character, i.e., the