Research Project: Hospitality Sector Response to Covid-19 Crisis

This research project investigates the crisis management practices employed by the UK's hospitality sector, specifically focusing on the Whitebread Group, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study aims to understand the concept of crisis management within the hospitality sector during the pandemic, analyze Whitebread Group's response, and evaluate the specific crisis management practices they adopted. It uses a positivism research philosophy and a deductive approach, employing a survey strategy with quantitative research choice. Data is collected through both primary (questionnaires) and secondary methods (books, journals, articles) from a sample of 30 Whitebread Group employees selected through probability sampling. The research also addresses ethical considerations and includes a Gantt chart for project planning, ultimately highlighting the importance of crisis management for organizations facing uncertain situations.

PHigher National in Hospitality Management
Unit 18 Research Project
RESEARCH PROPOSAL FORM
STUDENT DETAILS
Section One : Research Title, Aim and Objectives
Research Title: The hospitality sector response to Covid-19 and crisis management
practices
Research Aim(What do you wish to find out or achieve?) :
The aim of this project is to investigate the importance of crisis management practices during Covid-
19 within hospitality sector of the UK. A study on Whitebread Group
Research Objectives (How do you want to achieve this aim. At least three/four objectives).
To achieve this aim, the following objectives have been proposed.
 To understand the concept of crisis management and Covid-19 within hospitality sector
 To analyse the response of Whitebread Group to Covid-19
 To evaluate the crisis management practices adopted by Whitebread Group during covid-19
Research Questions (convert each objective above into a research question)
 Explain the concept of crisis management and Covid-19 within hospitality sector?
 What was the response of Whitebread Group to Covid-19?
 What are the crisis management practices adopted by Whitebread Group during covid-19?
Section Two: Research Rationale and Scope
Rationale/Justification for the Topic: this should briefly cover the following three areas.
The main reason of conducting the current investigation is to showcase the importance of crisis
management in an organisation so that they can easily overcome uncertain and difficult situation.
This report holds great importance because an organisation conducts its activities in many risky and
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unforeseen conditions. Here, crisis management plays quite significant role so that businesses can
continue with their operations and maintain their profit level even in uncertain situations. The topic
crisis management has my interest because I always want to learn how an organisation deals with
risky situations and crisis. There are two objectives which will be attained by me through this report:
personal and professional. In respect of professional perspective, I will learn about the personalities
of different people where they work with great patience in the tough situation. This will be learnt by
me and understand the significance of patience. On the other hand, in respect of professional
perspective, I will get to learn about the several crisis management practices so that they can be
adopted by me in my professional career.
The gap identified in the section of literature review is that the available secondary sources provide
more theoretical piece of information in respect of numerical data. This decreases the relevancy of
literature review because it does not include apt statistical facts and figures.
This study has multiple benefits which include:
 It shows the importance of crisis management for an organisation to deal with uncertain
situations.
 It assembles primary and secondary information which can be used by other researchers,
companies, students etc. about the crisis management.
 It carries out raw numerical information about the significance and requirement of crisis
management for a business.
Research Scope: this should briefly cover the following.
i. State the geographical area and name of organisation the research will focus on. Give
reason.
The existing investigation selects United Kingdom for carrying out information and the
selected company for the research is Whitebread Group. The major reason of choosing this
organisation is that it comes under hospitality sector and get affected by COVID-19.
ii. State the units of study (i.e. the target groups that the study will focus on)
Employees will be the target group because they can give great information about the topic.
iii. List the theories and/or themes that will be involved in the study.
Proactive and reactive crisis management model will be used in the study.
Section three : Preliminary Literature Review
The Literature Review, at this stage of the research process, does not have to be critical literature
review but each reviewed source should cover the following
What is the concept of crisis management and Covid-19 within hospitality sector
According to Lachlan and et. al., (2016), crisis management is a procedure by which company deals
with unexpected and disruptive event that creates a negative impact on the business and its
stakeholders. Company focuses on developing crisis management team so that they can feel the
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early signs of crisis and warn the employees against necessary precautions which must be taken in
order to deal with crisis. One of the biggest crisis which influence the profitability and growth of
business in COVID 19. The pandemic has created a great impact on the performance of business due
to which they faced severe loss. COVID 19 has confronted hospitality industry with uncertain and
unpredicted challenges due to stay at home orders, lockdowns, social distancing and mobility
restrictions.
What was the response of whitebread group to Covid-19 ?
As per the viewpoint of Nowonty and Piquero (2020), COVID 19 has badly hit the hospitality
industry due to which most of the restaurants and hotel face severe loss and also closing their
business. In the tough time of COVID 19, whitebread group took decisive and rapid action to protect
their team, business and guest. During the lockdown, the brand kept their 39 hotels open in order to
provide accommodation for NHS staff and other front line key employees (Watson, Finn and
Wadhwa, 2017). Despite of the loss, hotel continues to pay their suppliers on timely basis and also
they placed their employees on temporary furlough with government support package. The brand
has also developed various strategies in order to deal with the negative situation of COVID 19. They
focus on providing safety equipments such as PPE kit, gloves and mask to their guest and employees
for preventing spread of disease.
What are the crisis management practices adopted by whitebread group during covid-19?
As per the opinion of St Pierre, Hofinger and Simon (2016), there are various crisis management
practices which are adopted by hospitality industry during COVID 19 situation are health and safety
of guest, maintaining financial sustainability and developing operational protocols. Hotel is focusing
on health and safety of their employees and customers so that they can prevent people from spread
of disease and also creative positive environment within workplace. Organisation is developing
strong operational protocols and strategic plans in order to survive extreme crisis. In the tough time
of pandemic, it is important for whitebread group to analyse the strength and weakness of each
market segment and assess their resiliency to crisis so that if one or two segments are
underperforming, whitebread group can still rely on others.
Section Four: Overview of Research Methodology:
Discuss in short your research methods, philosophical approaches, research design e.g
qualitative/quantitative/mixed, research sample and sampling techniques.
Research Philosophy: Research philosophy is the methodology that gives two main forms that are:
positivism and interpretivism philosophy. Investigator will choose positivism philosophy with the
motive of analysing numerical piece of information in a systematic way (Snyder, 2019). The main
advantage of this philosophy is that it majorly focuses on the evaluation of only numerable
information.
Research Approach: It is the methodology that provides two important types that are: inductive and
deductive approach. Researcher will select deductive approach because it facilitates in the analysis
of numerable data in the short span of time. The main benefit of deductive approach is that it
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accommodates in the assemble statistical information with appropriate beliefs and principles.
Research Strategy: There are different kinds of research strategies that include: grounded theory,
action research, survey, archival research, case study, interview etc. Investigator will choose survey
strategy because it assists in the procedure of assembling numerical and no-theoretical information.
The main benefit of survey strategy is that it is less expensive and less time-consuming.
Research Choice: The research methodology gives research choice so that apt kind of information
can be assembled and objectives can be simply attained. The choice is of two main forms that
include: quantitative and qualitative research choice (Mohajan, 2018). Researcher will depend upon
quantitative research choice because it facilitates in collecting statistical data in a systematic way so
that objectives and aim can be attained.
Data Collection: Data collection is of two important kinds that are: primary and secondary method.
Investigator will choose both the methods of data collection with the purpose of collection raw and
second-hand information. Primary method will be used by investigator so that raw information can
be assembled and identified gap found in the literature review can also be filled (Newman and
Gough, 2020). Questionnaire will be used by investigator for gathering numerical raw information
about the importance of crisis management during COVID-19. On the other hand, researcher will
choose secondary method for collecting used information and carrying out views of different authors
about the same topic. The secondary sources that will be used by researcher are: books, journals,
newspapers, articles, publications etc.
Sampling: Sampling is the method that offers two methods which are: probability and non-
probability sampling (Cr, 2020). Investigator will select probability sampling so that large number of
participants can be selected and every one can easily get equal opportunity to answer the questions.
30 employees will be chosen by researcher from the selected organisation i.e. Whitebread Group.
Random sampling method will also be followed which clearly depicts there is no need of particular
criteria before selecting a respondent.
Ethical Aspect of Study
See Ethics Form below
SECTION FIVE: BREAKDOWN OF ACTIVITIES AND TIMESCALE
Include a Gantt Chart to reflect your research planning.
Gantt chart will be considered by researcher so that appropriate activities can be broken down with
proper time interval.
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List of References : References used so far (using Harvard referencing style)
Lachlan, K. A and et. al., 2016. Social media and crisis management: CERC, search strategies, and
Twitter content. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, pp.647-652.
Nowonty, K. M. and Piquero, A. R., 2020. The global impact of the pandemic on institutional and
community corrections: Assessing short-term crisis management and long-term change strategies.
Victims & offenders, 15(7-8), pp.839-847.
St Pierre, M., Hofinger, G. and Simon, R., 2016. Crisis management in acute care settings: human
factors and team psychology in a high-stakes environment. Springer International Publishing AG.
Watson, H., Finn, R. L. and Wadhwa, K., 2017. Organizational and societal impacts of big data in
crisis management. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 25(1), pp.15-22.
Snyder, H., 2019. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and
guidelines. Journal of business research, 104, pp.333-339.
Mohajan, H.K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, 7(1), pp.23-48.
Newman, M. and Gough, D., 2020. Systematic reviews in educational research: Methodology,
perspectives and application. Systematic reviews in educational research, pp.3-22.
Cr, K., 2020. Research methodology methods and techniques.
Student Declaration
I confirm that the proposed Research Project is not work that has been or will be submitted for
another qualification or by another student and is appropriate:
Student Name and Signature: Date:
Comments and Agreement from Tutor
Comments:
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I confirm that the project is not work that has been or will be submitted for another qualification and
is appropriate:
Agreed: (Name) (Date)Research ethics approval form
All students conducting research activity that involves human participants or the
use of data, collected from human participants, may be required to gain ethical
approval before commencing their research. Please answer all relevant questions
and note that your form may be returned if incomplete.
For further support and guidance please see your Unit Tutor.
Before completing this form, we advise that you discuss your proposed research fully with your
Unit Tutor. Please complete this form in good time before your research project is due to
commence.
Student Details
Student Name Student ID
Section Two: Project summary
Please select all research methods that you plan to use as part of your
project:
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Section One: Basic details
Project Title: The aim of this project is to investigate the importance of crisis management
practices during Covid-19 within hospitality sector of the UK. A study on Whitebread
Group

Interviews
Questionnaires
Observations
Use of Personal Records
Data Analysis
Action Research
Focus Groups
Other (please specify)
Section Three: Participants
Will your research involve human participants? Yes
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply
Ages 12-16 Adults:
How will participants be recruited (identified and approached)?
With the help of probability sampling.
Describe the process you will use to inform participants about what you are
doing:
With the help of e-mail method.
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No
Young people aged 17-18:

How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it
be made clear to participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at
any time?
Consent will be taken through consent form and will be in written form.
Studies involving questionnaires: Will participants be given the option of omitting
questions they do not wish to answer?
Yes
Yes:
If No, please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues
arising from this:
Studies involving observation: Confirm whether participants will be asked for their
informed consent to be approved.
Yes:
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation? (e.g. give them a brief
explanation of the study)
Yes:
Will participants be given information about the findings of your study? (This could be
a summary of your findings generally)
Yes:
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No:
No:
No:
No:

Section Four: Data storage and security
Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with
the Data Protection Act (1998)
Yes:
Who will have access to the data and personal information?
Only researcher.
During the research
Where will the data be stored?
In USB
Will mobile devices, such as USB storage and laptops, be used?
Yes:
If yes, please provide further details:
After the research
Where will the data be stored?
Laptop
How long will the data and records be kept, and in what format?
For 6 months in pdf format.
Will the data be kept for use by other researchers?
Yes:
If yes, please provide further details:
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No:
No:
No:

Section Five: Ethical issues
Are there any particular features of your proposed work which may raise ethical
concerns? If so, please outline how you will deal with these:
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may
arise as a result of your research. Please consider/address all issues that may
apply. Ethical concerns may include, but are not limited to the following:
• informed consent
• potentially vulnerable participants
• sensitive topics
• risks to participants and/or researchers
• confidentiality/anonymity
• disclosures/limits to confidentiality
• data storage and security, both during and after the research (including
transfer, sharing, encryption, protection)
• reporting
• dissemination and use of your findings.
Section Six: Declaration
I have read, understood, and will abide by the [Nelson College London ]
Research Ethics Policy:
Yes:
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my tutor:
Yes:
I confirm that, to the best of my knowledge, the above information is correct and that this is a full
description of the ethical issues that may arise in the course of my/our research.
Student Name(s) Date
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No:
No:

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