Research Design Proposal: Reducing Employee Turnover at Crowne Plaza

This research design proposal investigates the issue of employee turnover at Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE, within the context of the hospitality industry. The proposal begins with a background analysis of the industry, the company, and the identified problem of employee turnover, highlighting its significance and rationale. It poses research questions to explore the causes and potential solutions, setting objectives to understand and analyze factors influencing turnover. The methodology section outlines the use of positivism philosophy, a deductive approach, and a mixed research strategy employing interviews and surveys. The research instruments include questionnaires, and the sampling plan involves both probability and non-probability techniques. Data analysis will be conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The proposal also addresses ethical considerations, validity, and reliability, along with a Gantt chart detailing the time schedule. The expected outcomes include identifying primary causes of turnover and proposing recommendations. The research aims to provide insights into the reasons behind employee turnover and propose strategies to mitigate the issue, ultimately benefiting the hotel's service quality and financial condition.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Assessment Component 2: Research Design Proposal....................................................................2
Research title...................................................................................................................................2
1. Background to the Research proposal.....................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the industry or the company..........................................................................3
1.2 Problem or issue identified and the boundaries of the research............................................4
1.3 Significance and rationale of the research.............................................................................4
1.4 Research questions.................................................................................................................5
1.4.1 Main research question...................................................................................................5
1.4.2 Specific research questions.............................................................................................5
1.5 Research objectives and conceptual framework....................................................................5
1.5.1 Research objectives........................................................................................................5
1.5.2 What to be measured and how........................................................................................6
2. Research methodology.................................................................................................................7
2.1 Description of the research design.........................................................................................7
2.1.1 Deductive or Inductive...................................................................................................7
2.2 Research strategy...................................................................................................................8
2.3 Research instruments.............................................................................................................8
2.4 Sampling plan........................................................................................................................9

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3. Research Proposal– Research Design and Data Analysis.......................................................9
3.1 Analysis of data...................................................................................................................10
3.2 Analysis tool........................................................................................................................11
3.3 Ethics, validity and reliability..............................................................................................11
3.4 Gantt chart...........................................................................................................................12
3.4.1 Time schedule...............................................................................................................12
3.4.2 The Gantt chart.............................................................................................................14
3.5 Expected Research outcomes..................................................................................................14
3.5.1 Expected primary outcome and other significant outcomes.............................................14
3.5.2 Research barriers and limitation.......................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................19
Appendix 1.....................................................................................................................................20

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Assessment Component 2: Research Design Proposal
Research title
The title of the research is “Reduce employee turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in
Abu Dhabi, UAE.”
1. Background to the Research proposal
1.1 Background of the industry or the company
Hospitality sector is one of the emerging industry sectors globally with contributing
largely towards the economy of the country. Recently, the craze and demand of the hospitality
sector have increased as the demand of travelling for varied purposes have risen comparatively.
In order to combat with the increased tourist influx, the number of hotels in the hospitality sector
has also risen that have resulted in market saturation and intense competition within the sector.
As known, UAE is one of the most visited Middle East countries for the tourists and it has
topped the table in 2017 with 35% of the year’s pipepline comprised of luxury projects most
concentrated in Dubai, 14% in Saudi Arabia and 20% in Kuwait (ArabianBusiness.com 2019).
The hotels are having unfeasible and impractical expectations from the employees that are
resulting in unhealthy working environment for them. Additionally, the employees in the hotels
in UAE are also feeling that they are not paid according to the standard of the industry thereby,
leading to turnover issues (Brown, Thomas and Bosselman 2015).
Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE is located just minutes away from the
airport with gorgeous sandy beach, huge water part and a massive golf course and the hotel is

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located at the center of the scenic beauty. The hotel is a 4 star rated hotel in Abu Dhabi with
wide range of services offered by them to the customers. In order to provide such wide range of
services to the customers appropriately and satisfactorily, the employees are pushed beyond their
limits that have resulted in increased rate of turnover (Crowne-plaza-abu-dhabi-yas-
island.abudhabi-hotels-ae.com 2019).
1.2 Problem or issue identified and the boundaries of the research
Employee turnover has been identified as a grave concern for Crowne Plaza Yas Island in
Abu Dhabi, UAE that is affecting the service and the financial condition of the renowned hotel
significantly. According to Shuck et al. (2014), employee turnover is an inappropriate situation
for the business organizations for any sector and industry. Employee turnover have their own set
challenges and disadvantages that questions the ability of the company to give their best to the
customers and compete with the competitors. As a result of employee turnover, the business
organizations lose highly experienced and skilled employees that are a major loss and are
difficult to replace. Replacing the loss imposes additional financial costing and takes
considerable amount of time.
Employee turnover for Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE is a major issue
because the hotel is losing their experienced, skilled and qualified employees whose absence is
threatening and questioning the ability of the hotel. As the workforce is getting limited, the
existing ones are pressurized and have unfeasible and impractical expectation to fulfill that is
beyond their capability. As a result, the rate of employee turnover has become a major issue that
needs to be reduced for the benefit of the hotel (Hom et al. 2017).

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1.3 Significance and rationale of the research
Undertaking the research is significant and rationalized because this will offer provision
for the researcher to identify the primary grounds that have given rise to the issue of employee
turnover issues in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Identifying the issues of
employee turnover in the research will help in noting the basis that has given rise to the issue of
employee turnover in the hotel (Collini, Guidroz and Perez 2015). As a result, the cause and
effect relationship of employee turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE can be
studied. After identifying the main reasons of employee turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in
Abu Dhabi, UAE, the research will help in finding specific and realistic approaches that can be
used for minimizing and overcoming the issue of employee turnover and mitigating it in due
time (Katsikea, Theodosiou and Morgan 2015).
1.4 Research questions
1.4.1 Main research question
The main question of the research is:
 What are the methods for reducing the rate of employee turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas
Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE?
1.4.2 Specific research questions
The specific questions are:
 What do you mean by employee turnover?
 What are the factors influencing employee turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu
Dhabi, UAE?

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 What are the loopholes in the part of the management of Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu
Dhabi, UAE that have led to the emergence of the issue?
 What are the suitable recommendations for overcoming the employee turnover issue in
Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE?
1.5 Research objectives and conceptual framework
1.5.1 Research objectives
The objectives of the research are:
 To understand the concept of employee turnover
 To critically analyze the factors influencing employee turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas
Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE
 To investigate the loopholes in the part of the management of Crowne Plaza Yas Island in
Abu Dhabi, UAE that have led to the emergence of the issue
 To provide suitable recommendations for for overcoming the employee turnover issue in
Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE

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Employee turnover
Paying less than industry standards
Unfeasible expectations
Lack of recognition and growth opportunities
Lack of job satisfaction
1.5.2 What to be measured and how
Figure 1: Theoretical framework
(Source: Created by the Author)
2. Research methodology
2.1 Description of the research design
For the research “Reduce Employee Turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi,
UAE” positivism philosophy will be the most appropriate. Explaining positivism philosophy is
difficult because it needs to be in succinct and precise manner due to the wide dissimilarities
between settings due to which positivism is applied by the researchers. However, using
positivism philosophy will be appropriate for this current research because this will allow the use
of knowledge that highlights appropriate facts about the issues that have given rise to the issue of
employee turnover in the hotel. Additionally, using positivism philosophy will promote the use

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of quantifiable observations in terms of employee turnover that will lead to statistical analysis
thereby, supporting the data generated with numerical evidence. Moreover, using positivism
philosophy will be appropriate because the researcher will be able to explain the situations that
have lead to increased turnover issues in the hotel and predict methods or techniques for
minimizing the rate of employee turnover significantly (Kumar 2019).
2.1.1 Deductive or Inductive
The two approaches those are used while conducting research that include are inductive
and deductive. The idea of inductive approach underlies the idea of formulating new concepts
and theories according to the observations those have already been formed whereas for deductive
approach, existing theories and concepts are used for making suitable observation (Mackey and
Gass 2015). For the research “Reduce Employee Turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu
Dhabi, UAE” deductive approach will be used. Applying deductive approach will be the most
suitable because previously existing pieces of literature, theories and concepts can be referred for
making observations about employee turnover in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Using already existing information will offer provision for the researcher to gain subsequent
knowledge about the issues that can lead to employee turnover thereby, referring it to the current
situation of Crowne Plaza hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE. As a result, information specific to the topic
is used instead of using general information and finding solutions for reducing employee
turnover in the hotel (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015).
2.2 Research strategy
The strategies those are used for research studies are survey, interview, experimental,
case studied, action research and archival. For this research “Reduce Employee Turnover in
Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE” both interview and survey research strategy will

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be used. Using both these research strategies will help in colleting responses from large
population as well as by communicating with respondents personally. Surveying the employees
will help in identifying the issues that is forcing them to leave the organizations and the
improvement that they want at their workplace. Additionally, interviewing the middle
management employees will help to reach the origin of the issue and find ways of resolving the
employee turnover issue significantly (Flick 2015).
2.3 Research instruments
The different kinds of research instruments are observation, questionnaire, discussion and
focus group. Selecting the appropriate research instrument is necessary because this offers
provision in gathering relevant and specific information specific to the research current topic
(Bresler and Stake 2017). For this research “Reduce Employee Turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas
Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE” questionnaire research instrument will be used. Using questionnaire
research instrument will be suitable because the views and perspectives of the respondents, in
this case the employees can be known from different aspects followed by analyzing them either
quantitatively or qualitatively (Alvesson and Skoldberg 2017).
2.4 Sampling plan
Probability and non-probability sampling techniques are the two sampling techniques that
will have to be selected according to the other methods selected. For this research “Reduce
Employee Turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE” both probability and non-
probability sampling technique will be used. Probability sampling technique wil be usefuk
because this will allow equal chances for all the employees of the hotel to share their opinions
and views and the researcher will select 70 responses randomly and take their views into
consideration for reducing the rate of employee turnover. Additionally, non-probability sampling

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technique will allow the researcher to select the middle management employees for interviewing
personally by judging their suitability with the topic and find appropriate methods for reducing
employee turnover in the hotel (Ledford and Gast 2018).
3. Research Proposal– Research Design and Data Analysis
The two types of data analysis techniques are qualitative and quantitative analysis
techniques. Both the analysis techniques are used for data collected using either primary or
secondary data collection processes. According to Bauer (2014), the definition of primary data
collection process is the technique of collecting data for the first time regarding the research
topic selected. On the other hand, primary data is the process where the researcher needs to
gather information because no one else have complied and published information related to it
previously. Thus, primary data collection process comprises of fresh, recent and updated
information in respect to the research topic. Primary data collection process is preferred due to
various advantages it has to offer towards the research.
As mentioned by Choy (2014), primary data collection process allows collecting data
using varied ways such as interviews, telephone surveys, online surveys and focus groups.
Additionally, primary data collection process allows collecting data across borders and nations
thereby; collecting information those are highly specific and relevant. However, as argued by
Jamshed (2014), as the data is collected for the first time, this data collection process is effort,
time and money consuming. Constraints such as fake responses, inability to understand questions
and irrelevant questions questions the credibility of primary data collection process. As the topic
of the research is “Reduce Employee Turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE”
using primary data collection process will be the most appropriate because this will allow the
researcher to collect information from the employees of the hotel itself and have better

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understanding about the issues and the emergence of the issues followed by developing specific
and relevant strategies for reducing employee turnover issues.
3.1 Analysis of data
The two techniques of analyzing primary data are qualitative and quantitative data
analysis techniques. According to Fletcher (2017), quantitative data analysis technique is defined
as the process of converting qualitative measurements to quantitative outcomes. In this case, the
qualitative measurements indicate the opinions and views of the respondents into numbers and
analyze accordingly. For the research topic “Reduce Employee Turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas
Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE” quantitative data analysis technique will be appropriate because this
will help in transforming the opinions and perspectives of the employees into numbers that will
help in determining the most effective strategy. The data will be analyzed quantitatively using 5
point Likert scale questionnaire that will help in analyzing the opinions over the range of five
options. Once the responses of the employees are collected, the frequencies of the variables and
differences between the variables will be calculated. As a result, suitable evidence can be found
regarding the methods of reducing the rate of employee turnover in the Crowne Plaza hotel to
support or argue the set objectives and questions of the research. For analyzing the quantitative
data, software such as MS-Excel and SPSS can be used (Smith 2015).
On the other hand, for the research “Reduce Employee Turnover in Crowne Plaza Yas
Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE”, interview method can also be used. For this research, the researcher
can interview the middle management employees for developing a better understanding about the
employee turnover issues and specific methods that can be used for mitigating the identified
problems. The middle management employees can be interviewed personally and recoded so that
while interpreting the opinions nothing is missed out (Walliman 2017). The personal interview