Research Project: Crisis Management in UK Hospitality During Covid-19

This research project investigates the significance of crisis management within the UK hospitality industry amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on Hilton as a case study. It aims to understand the concept of crisis management, identify its importance within Hilton during the pandemic, and discuss the theories and methods employed. The research employs a positivism philosophy and a deductive approach, utilizing a survey strategy and quantitative methods for data collection. Both primary data, gathered through questionnaires, and secondary data, obtained from books, journal articles, and online sources, are used. The study also addresses the ethical aspects of the research, ensuring responsible data collection and analysis. This project provides insights into how hospitality businesses can navigate crises and highlights the strategies and models they can use to overcome challenging situations. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

PHigher National in Hospitality Management
Unit 18 Research Project
RESEARCH PROPOSAL FORM
STUDENT DETAILS
Section One : Research Title, Aim and Objectives
Research Title:
To identify the importance of crisis management in hospitality industry within UK at the time of
global pandemic Covid 19.
Research Aim
To identify the importance of crisis management in hospitality industry within UK at the time of
global pandemic Covid 19: “A study on Hilton”
Research Objectives
 To understand the concept of Crisis management within UK hospitality industry during
Covid 19.
 To identify the importance of Crisis management in Hilton in the time of Covid 19.
 To discuss the theories and method employed in crisis management within Hilton at the time
of pandemic Covid 19
Research Questions
 What is the concept of Crisis management within UK hospitality industry during Covid 19?
 What is the importance of Crisis management in Hilton in the time of Covid 19?
 What are the theories and method employed in crisis management within Hilton at the time
of Covid 19?
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Section Two: Research Rationale and Scope
Rationale/Justification for the Topic:
The major reason for executing the current research is to acquire basic understanding about crisis
management and its importance during Covid 19 in hospitality industry. The present investigation
has great interest in me because it will help significantly to achieve two objectives that are personal
and professional. In prospect to the personal the existing research will develop by understanding
related to the approaches and strategies used by researcher to complete the research in accurate
manner. This will also aids in enhancing my certain skills that are problem solving skills, decision
making skills, communication skills and many more. On the other hand. With respect to professional
objective it will develop my professional career in hospitality industry in sound manner. This
research would assist in knowing various jobs that are available in the field on crisis management.
The present investigation will leads in managing the future of business by highlight the theories and
method that organisation can use in time of any crisis. Thus the present research is quite valuable
because it will successfully attain my dual aim.
Research Scope:
The hotel which is selected for current research topic is Hilton; it is a global multinational chain of
American hospitality company. The company was founded in the year 19191 by Conrad Nicholson
Hilton. It’s headquarter is located in McLean, Virginia, U.S. and recently there are 584 hotel and
resorts are operating with the name of Hilton worldwide. The present research highlights the
importance of crisis management in hospitality industry during Covid 19. The study will also leads
researcher to understand how they can manage their business during Crisis and what theories and
model they can use to overcome for the situation.
Section three : Preliminary Literature Review
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What is the concept of Crisis management within UK hospitality industry during Covid 19?
According to the view of Thirumaran and et. al (2021), crisis management is the concept which is
used to predict any uncertainty that might affect the company. Crisis management is used to remove
the uncertainty in order to run business in successful manner. The fundamental impact of any crisis
in business is on their image, reputation and the ability to function. Crisis management helps the
company to supervise any disaster and then take measure so that they can safeguard their
profitability position. During the time of Covid 119 crisis management helps the hospitality industry
by telling the measure they can use to overlap the impacts faced by them.
What is the importance of Crisis management in Hilton in the time of Covid 19?
According to the view of Liu and et. al (2020), crisis management in hospitality industry play a very
important role during Covid 19. There are various reasons of crisis management and it importance to
Hilton at the time of pandemic. The foremost importance is that it helps the organisation to
effectively market their service to the client during pandemic so that they can satisfy their customer.
Second advantage is that it helps Hilton to mitigate the risk by taking measure so that they can
protect their business for the being collapse during Covid 19.
What are the theories and method employed in crisis management within Hilton at the time of Covid
19?
As per the view of Li and et. al (2021), different theories and method were employed by Hilton hotel
during the time of Covid 19 crisis. Fist method they use is providing training to their workforce so
that they can work in effective way during pandemic. Various skills is being trained to then so that
they can safeguard customer as well as employee from the effect of Covid 19. Another measure
adopted by Hilton is effective planning so that they can response to the future impact of Covid 9.
Another method that organisation uses is taking proactive Strategy to engage with media so that they
can build healthy relationship and communicate their thought to customer.
Section Four: Overview of Research Methodology:
Research methodology plays a vital role in research because it helps in attaining aims and objective
in appropriate and scientific manner. This section also helps the researchers to obtain answer for the
two vital questions that are how data will be analysed and how it will be gathered. Research
methodology is a process which helps the investigator to identify analyses and interpret data in
according to the chosen topic (Thomas, 2021). To obtain data and analyse information various
philosophies and approaches are used in the research. There are various sub elements of research
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methodology which are been discussed below:
Research philosophy: There are two types of principles which can be used by researcher to analyse
and gather data as per their requirement, these are positivism and interpretivism. In existing research
positivism philosophy will be used by the researcher to obtain the data. Advantage to use this
philosophy is that data will be gathered in objective way in a more generalized form. It will also give
valuable freedom to the researcher to gather quantitative data.
Research approach: Research approach is divided into two types that are deductive and inductive
approach. In present investigation examiner will be using deductive approach to test theories based
on quantitative data. The reason behind choosing this approach is it will helps in defining the casual
relationship between the two variables in numerical way (Iovino and Tsitsianis, 2020).
Research strategy: To obtain data from the respondents different types of research strategies are
available some of them are survey, systematic literature review, case study, action research,
experimental research, Focus Group and many more. As per the current topic on crisis management
on hospitality industry investigator will be selecting survey strategy to gather mass data from wider
population. The data will be gathered in less time as well as the cost which will be spend on
gathering information will be less as compared to other research strategy.
Research choice: Research choice is divided into two parts that are quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative method gathers and analyse numerical data whereas qualitative method obtain non
numerical information. In present research study quantitative method will be chosen because as per
the topic numerical information will assist in obtaining the validity and reliability of the
Information. Another advantage to choose this method is it will take less time to collect and
measure data (Fidahic and et. al, 2020).
Time Horizon: Cross section and longitudinal are the two time framework which can be used by
investigator to know the exact point of time to collect and analyse the data. According to the current
topic researcher will be using cross sectional time horizon. The reason behind choosing this is will
take less time to obtain data as well as research can be completed in shorter duration. The
other advantage of this is data will be gathered according to the prevailing scenario of the world.
Data collection: This is that layer of research methodology which is very important as it helps in
collecting data from various sources. The two sources available to the investigator to obtain the data
are primary and secondary. In current research both primary and secondary data collection method
will be used. The reason behind choosing the primary data is it will collect first hand information
directly from the respondent. The research instrument which will be used to to obtain primary data
is questionnaire. On the other hand secondary source will be used to write down literature review.
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Secondary source will provide second hand information which will be help in answering the
research question. The sources of secondary data will be books journal articles newspaper online
sites and many more (Staron, 2020).
Sampling: Sampling is a process which is used to take out sample from the large population.
Probability and non probability are the two sampling techniques to select the participant. In current
investigation probability sampling will be used. The reason behind choosing probability sampling is
that each and every participant gets chance to be selected. Further in Probability sampling, random
sampling method will be used so that equal and fair participants can be taken out. The sample size
will be 20 employees from Hilton (Ross and Call-Cummings, 2020).
Ethical Aspect of Study
See Ethics Form below
SECTION FIVE: BREAKDOWN OF ACTIVITIES AND TIMESCALE
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List of References :
Thirumaran, K., and et. al, 2021. COVID-19 in Singapore and New Zealand: Newspaper portrayal,
crisis management. Tourism Management Perspectives. 38. p.100812.
Liu, M.T., and et. al, 2021. Taking a break is for accomplishing a longer journey: hospitality
industry in Macao under the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management.
Li, B., and et. al., 2021. A dynamic model of crisis management from a stakeholder perspective: the
case of COVID-19 in China. Tourism Review.
Thomas, C.G., 2021. Research methodology and scientific writing. Thrissur: Springer.
Iovino, F. and Tsitsianis, N., 2020. The methodology of the research. In Changes in European
Energy Markets. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Fidahic, M., and et. al, 2020. Research methodology and characteristics of journal articles with
original data, preprint articles and registered clinical trial protocols about COVID-19. BMC
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medical research methodology. 20(1). pp.1-9.
Staron, M., 2020. Action Research as Research Methodology in Software Engineering. In Action
Research in Software Engineering (pp. 15-36). Springer, Cham.
Ross, K. and Call-Cummings, M., 2020. Reflections on failure: teaching research
methodology. International Journal of Research & Method in Education. 43(5). pp.498-
511.
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:
I confirm that the project is not work that has been or will be submitted for another qualification and
is appropriate:
Agreed: (Name) (Date)
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Research Ethics approval form
All students conducting research activity that involves human participants or the use of data collected
form human participants are 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 respective 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.
Section 1: Basic details:
Project title: To identify the importance of crisis management practices in hospitality
industry Within UK during the time of Covid 19.
Student name:
Student ID number:
Programme:
College Name:
Intended research start date: 15/03/2022
Intended research end date: 07/07/2022
Section 2 Project summary
Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:
i- Interviews Yes
ii- Questionnaires Yes
iii- Observations Yes
iv- Use of personal records Yes No
v- Data Analysis Yes
vi- Action Research Yes No
vii- Focus Groups No
viii- Others (Please specify) : n/a
Section 3: Participants
Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants?
Yes
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
Ages 12-16: No Young people aged: 17-18 No Adults: Yes
How will participants be recruited (identified an approached)?
The research respondents will be recruited through random sampling method as a type of
probability approach.
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:
The participants of research will be send with the informed consent form and questionnaire on
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email.
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?
Using Email.
Studies involving questionnaires: will participants be given the option of omitting questions that do
not wish to answer?
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 observed.
Yes
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief explanation of the
study)?
Yes
Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?(This could be a brief
summary of your findings in general)
Yes
Section 4: 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?
Researcher/Supervisor
During the research:
Researcher/Supervisor
Where will the data be stored?
USB and Laptop
Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used
Yes
If Yes, please provide further details:
After the research: Safely dispose of the data
Where will the data be stored?:
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USB/Laptop
How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?
Approx Six months
Will data be kept for use by other researchers? No
Section 5 : 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: N/A
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise because of your
research. Please consider/address all issues that may apply. Ethical concerns may include, but are
not limited to the following :
i. Informed consent.
ii. Potentially vulnerable participants. n/a
iii. Sensitive topics n/a
iv. Risk to participants and /or researchers: n/a
v. Confidentiality/anonymity:
vi. Disclosures/ limits to confidentiality:
vii. Data storage and security, both during and after the research (including transfer, sharing,
encryption, protection).
viii. Reporting: Yes
ix. Dissemination and use of your findings:
Section 6: Declaration
I have read, understood and will abide by the institution’s Research and Ethics Policy: Yes
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit Tutor:
Yes
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:
The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the ethical issues that may
arise in the course of my research
Name: Date:
Please submit your completed form to your tutor and also attach to the Research Proposal
when submitting to Turnitin.
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Unit 18 Research Project Proposal–
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