Research on Employee Turnover in the New Zealand Hospitality Industry

This essay examines the New Zealand hospitality sector, specifically focusing on employee turnover. It integrates the methodologies and findings of four research articles to identify key issues contributing to high turnover rates. The essay begins with an annotated bibliography of the four articles, which explore topics such as workplace problems, exit interviews, barriers to employing older workers, and occupational stress. The essay then analyzes the research paradigms used in these articles, comparing and contrasting the use of quantitative and qualitative research methods. It highlights how the articles utilize questionnaires, interviews, and data analysis to understand the causes of employee turnover, including factors like poor training, dissatisfaction, and occupational stress. The essay underscores the importance of these findings for the New Zealand hospitality industry, emphasizing the need for strategies to reduce turnover and improve employee retention. The essay concludes by synthesizing the key insights from the articles, demonstrating how integrating different research approaches provides a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by the sector.

Running head: A STUDY ON THE NEW ZEALAND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
A STUDY ON THE NEW ZEALAND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Part 1: Annotated Bibliography
Article 1:
Poulston, J. (2008). Hospitality workplace problems and poor training: a close
relationship. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 20(4), 412-
427.
Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine the common problems in the hospitality
industry in order to identify the relationship among the central issue and them.
Research Paradigm: The research paradigm for the paper uses quantitative methods, which
include the data collection methods from various hospitality students and employees in some
organizations belonging to the hospitality industry. The methods further include the analysis of
collected data, questionnaire design, pilot and main studies, profile of respondents and analysis.
Findings: The authors of the article used the methodology that comprises of questionnaire
design, pilot and main studies, profile of respondents and analysis. The result of the analysis
shows that the most of the respondents are inexperienced and the eligible staffs are hired with
low wages. The result presents few tables that show a comparative analysis of the problems. In
addition, it is found from the research that there are several workplace problems regarding the
turnover such as under staffing, unfair dismissal.
Contribution: The result of the research paper shows the predominance of employee turnover in
the hospitality industry. The main reason for the employee turnover identified by the authors of
the research paper to the poor training, which make the employees fail in their job and leads to
the turnover. The research paper is a fine example and guide for the scholars researching on the

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topic as well as to the management of the New Zealand hospitality industry to reduce the cause
of the turnover.
Ethical Consideration: The ethical consideration for the research paper is highly followed. The
questionnaires were made with the questions that are answerable. The methods of the research
also followed the ethics in term of questioning the employees and collecting the data. The ethical
considerations for the article can also be linked with the behaviors of the researchers and the
harmlessness of the people by the research.
Article 2:
Williams, D., Harris, C., & Parker, J. (2008). I love you-goodbye: Exit interviews and turnover
in the New Zealand hotel industry. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations
(Online), 33(3), 70.
Purpose: The purpose of the report is to examine the turnover in New Zealand hotel industry
through exit interview. The research paper also focuses on the effectiveness of the exit interview
process in the organization chosen for the research.
Research Paradigm: Both the quantitative and qualitative methodology has been used in this
research paper. The exit interviews are conducted in the some hotels and the data was gathered
from 2001 to 2005. The authors chose two brands under which the there are some hotels where
the interviews were conducted.
Findings: The findings are divided into two segments as per the brands of the hotels (Brand X
and Brand Y). The findings from the research are presented in the tables that provide the reasons

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and data for the staff turnover in the hospitality industry. Moreover, the finding also recommends
the need for modifying the exit interview process for more effective result.
Contribution: From the findings, it is evident that there is dissatisfaction in the hotels of brand
Y employees regarding the management, pay, hours and others. While the brand X employees
show other reasons for the turnover. Considering the same focal point of the employee turnover,
the impact of the exit interviews are to be taken into account. This is because the exit interview is
one of the effective and easy ways for the management to understand and reduce the cost and
reason for the employee turnover. Hence, the article impacts on the wider literatures as well as
on the future researcher in a positive way.
Ethical Consideration: The ethical consideration for the research paper presents the process of
the interviewing the staffs of the hotels about the turnover reasons. The efficacy of the exit
interview also follows the ethics in terms of conducting them properly and adding values to the
research.
Article 3:
Poulston, J., & Jenkins, A. (2016). Barriers to the employment of older hotel workers in New
Zealand. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 15(1), 45-68.
Purpose: The research paper aims to identify the barriers in the New Zealand hospitality
industry in employing the older staffs in the same by the management for reducing the employee
turnover.
Research Paradigm: The research methodology used in the research is the quantitative methods
that include the data collection from the mangers of some of the hotels by using questionnaire.

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The research also used the qualitative method by using semi-structured interviews of the older
workers and hotel employees.
Findings: The findings from the report imply the some trends in the chosen hotels and some
data from the surveys of the research. The result shows the discriminatory practice of the
management on the workers inters of the age. From both the managers and the workers it is
found that the discrimination is one of the prevalent issue of the turnover. The findings are
presented in the table that shows the relevant data of the research outcome regarding the factors
of the employee turnover in the chosen hotels.
Contribution: The contribution of the article on the wider literature suggests the inside practice
of the hospitality industry of New Zealand. The policies and the practice of the hospitality
industry is found to be unethical towards the employees. Several relevant questions are emerged
from the research findings that create confusion and conflicts in the mind of the readers of the
research paper.
Ethical contribution: Considering the ethical values of the report, it is found that the authors
followed the different and general ethics in choosing the hotels for the research. The hotels
chosen which are accessible for the survey. No private hotels or lodges were chosen for the
research. In addition, as the research paper name suggest the study on the older workers, the
authors also made sure that the interviews of are strictly conducted on the people over 50 years
old.
Article 4:
Lo, K., & Lamm, F. (2005). Occupational stress in the hospitality industry-an employment
relations perspective. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 30(1), 23.

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Purpose: the aim of this research paper is to focus on the prevalence of the occupational stress in
the hospitality industry of New Zealand and the management of stress by the employees.
Research Paradigm: The methodology used by the authors in the paper is qualitative and
comparative. The researchers took the number of interviews in the chosen two hotels. The
participants of the interviews were the executive managers, departmental managers, supervisors
and other staffs. The interviews were also conducted in to the key stakeholders of the hotels.
Findings: The research findings exhibit the data in terms of the organizational profiles. The
result of the difference of the data is presented in the table format in the article, which presents a
comparative analysis of the research purpose. It is evident from the research that the
occupational stress on the employees is the integral part of the job and the employees are to cope
with the same.
Contribution: The research paper presents the data for the hospitality industry inters of the
professional stress on the staffs. The research methodology of the paper will help other
researcher to understand the process of the research and the ethical value of the same. However,
it cannot impact greatly on the wider literature as the research is limited into the two hotels
which presents very short amount of data in terms of the limited context. The wider literature
require broader context for the research.
Ethical Consideration: The ethical considerate of the article is comparatively low than the other
articles discussed above. The ethics for the research are not properly follows as the research
followed the qualitative method basically on the managerial level, which cannot wholly present
the authentic data for the research.

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Part 2: The Essay
The purpose of the essay is to relate the above four article in terms of integrating the
methodologies of the article for identifying the issue of employee turnover in the New Zealand
hospitality industry (Kysilka & Csaba, 2013). The four articles take different methodology for
examining the persistence of high turnover due to low wages in the hospitality industry.
However, the primary contexts of the four articles are not same, but the purpose of the research
is almost same.
The methodology for the research is defined by the researcher of the paper. It is found
from the above section of annotated bibliography that two out of four research papers have used
the qualitative method of research. One out of the four papers has used the both quantitative
method. However, the methods of the research are initially presupposed by the researcher as per
the purpose and context of the report. The qualitative method of research entails the process of
interviewing the respondents included in the researched (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015).
Whereas, the quantitative methods are the process of surveying in research context by using
questionnaire and survey forms (Creswell, 2013). The qualitative research report presents a basic
and general idea that the research is seeking (Yang, Wan & Fu, 2012). In other hand, the
research that uses the quantitative research method is filled with numeric data of the research
findings.
Coming to the point of comparing as well as integrating the research paradigm of the four
articles stated above, the most of the research have used the questionnaire format for collecting
data and comparing those data for the analysis. For example, the first article uses the self-
completed questionnaire for collecting data on the characteristics of the chosen workplace and

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the respondents working there and on the selected problems (Poulston, 2008). The process of
using the questionnaires in examining the hospitality workplace problems enabled respondents to
take part in the survey anonymously (Jehanzeb, Rasheed & Rasheed, 2013). The third article
examining the barriers of the hospitality industry to the employment process and the cause of
turnover in the existing employment process follows the quantitative method. This particular
method is used identifying the data on the HR policies and the views of the older employees for
understanding the turnover cause and the obligation in the management in employing the older
staffs (Poulston, & Jenkins, 2016).
Again, the qualitative method is another research paradigm that is widely use by the
researchers and scholars for identifying the general cause or idea about something. In the second
research paper the qualitative methodology is used by the authors. However, the second research
paper focuses mainly on the methodology and the effectiveness of the chosen methodology in
reducing the employee turnover cost in the hospitality industry in New Zealand (Guilding,
Lamminmaki & McManus, 2014). The qualitative methodology further uses the process of exit
interview to the employees of the hotels under the Brand X and Brand Y. Exit interviews is a
formal discussion between the organization and the employees departing from the same
(Williamsm, Harris & Parker, 2008). This helps the organization to understand the its drawbacks
and in mangling the employees or providing facilities to the employees and any other causes that
cause the employees to leave the organization. Similarly, the research method for this particular
paper uses the exit interview process for anticipating the problems existing in the workplace so
that the human recourse management team can accordingly take steps to eliminate the same
(Boella & Goss-Turner, 2013).

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In other hand, the fourth article also uses the qualitative methodology for the comparative
analysis of the research findings on the occupational stress on the hotel workers (Lo & Lamm,
2005). However, the context of the research not as broad as the second research article, which
helped the researcher to undergo a thorough interview process for the conducting the research.
The researchers followed the qualitative methods for interviewing the hotel staffs of the two
hotels from the managerial level to the key stakeholders (Hwang et al., 2014). It is noteworthy
that the researcher did not take the advantage of the qualitative research methodology for
examining the reasons for the occupational stress, which lead to the turnover of the employees
(Charu, 2012). However, the interviews were more than forty minutes with the managers and the
supervisors of the hotels. It is also notable for this research paper that the initially the interview
data were structured in the coding and transcription format according to the questions and the
schedule of the interview. In addition, to differentiate the recurring data the categorization
process was also followed by the researcher.
A deep and thorough study on the research methodology of the four articles shows the
methods used by the authors examining the required and desired purpose of the research are
generally same. For the qualitative methods in the second and fourth articles, follow somehow
little different process for interview. The second one used the exit interview method, which
limited the context for the data collection, as the existing employees were not the part of the
interviews. Whereas, the researchers of the fourth article took the interviews of in every levels,
which broaden the data collection process of the research. However, the overall context of the
research was limited as because the chosen hospitality organizations for the research were only
two.

9A STUDY ON THE NEW ZEALAND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
For the quantitative method of the research as followed by the first and the third article
follows the same pattern of questionnaire for the survey. Both the research are based on the
broader context and focused on numerous causes (AlBattat & Som, 2013). Hence interviewing
employee in all the hospitality organization is not possible for the researcher, which made them
use the questionnaire for the research. The first article focusing on the high turnover of the
employees in the hospitality sector designed the questionnaire in such a way that enables the
employees to express the proper cause for the turnover. However, the employees also answered
with confusing phrase. In other hand, the third article distributed self-completed questionnaire to
the manger level staffs for their research. Undoubted, this shortened their research context.
However, the third article used the qualitative method apart from approaching the mangers with
quantitative method.
Research Question:
What are the impacts of low wages on the hospitality industry of New Zealand in influencing the
yearly high turnover?
How the high turnover of the employees in the New Zealand hospitality sector is affecting the
business of the organizations in the same industry?
What are the reasons for providing low wages to the general staffs of the hospitality
organizations?
How the high turnover of the employees can be reduced by recommending management
strategies to the hospitality organizations?

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Discussion:
These research questions are emerged from the above assessment report on the hospitality
industry of New Zealand regarding the high turnover of the employees due to the low wages.
The research questions need to be examined using the pragmatic method of research. Using this
specific method will help the researcher to access all he research methods in the methodology of
research (www.alzheimer-europe.org, 2017). Only using the quantitative or qualitative methods
of research will limit the context of the research as well as the data findings of the same.
Considering the quantitative method, the research findings help the researcher by providing only
the numerical or general data. Again, from the qualitative research method the researcher are
provided with the most common reason or idea for the research objectives. It is apparent from
the above section that both of the methodology cannot help the researcher achieving the research
objectives entirely. Hence, the pragmatic methodology is best suited for examining the research
questions (Glasgow, 2013).
Considering the importance of the questions, it must be noted that the above articles have
the common issue of the employee turnover. However, the theme of the articles is different, but
the basic approach is the same that examines the entire context of employee turnover. Thus, it is
important to consider these questions for examining the employee turnover issue.

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Reference:
AlBattat, A. R. S., & Som, A. P. M. (2013). Employee dissatisfaction and turnover crises in the
Malaysian hospitality industry. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(5),
62.
Alzheimer Europe - Research - Understanding dementia research - Types of research - The four
main approaches. (2017). Alzheimer-europe.org. Retrieved 15 September 2017, from
http://www.alzheimer-europe.org/Research/Understanding-dementia-research/Types-of-
research/The-four-main-approaches
Boella, M., & Goss-Turner, S. (2013). Human resource management in the hospitality industry:
A guide to best practice. Routledge.
Charu, M. (2012). Occupational Stress and its impact on QWL with specific reference to Hotel
Industry. Advances in Management.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. Sage publications.
Glasgow, R. E. (2013). What does it mean to be pragmatic? Pragmatic methods, measures, and
models to facilitate research translation. Health Education & Behavior, 40(3), 257-265.
Guilding, C., Lamminmaki, D., & McManus, L. (2014). Staff turnover costs: In search of
accountability. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, 231-243.

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Hwang, J., Lee, J. J., Park, S., Chang, H., & Kim, S. S. (2014). The impact of occupational stress
on employee's turnover intention in the luxury hotel segment. International Journal of
Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 15(1), 60-77.
Jehanzeb, K., Rasheed, A., & Rasheed, M. F. (2013). Organizational commitment and turnover
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Kysilka, D., & Csaba, N. (2013). Employee turnover in the hospitality industry. Anale. Seria
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