Introduction
Identification of the Problem
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, the global economy almost collapsed instantaneously. The epidemic struck the hotel sector with an unforeseen problem. For example, Chaturvedi (2021) stated that approximately 270 hotels in India were temporarily closed owing to the COVID-19 wave. Therefore, various trends were adopted to compress the COVID-19 curve, such as community curfews, social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and mobility restrictions, contributing to many hotel companies’ temporary suspensions (Gursoy & Chi, 2020).
In this regard, small-scale hotels such as Brunton Boatyard-cgh Earthi in India were forced to furlong some of their employees to balance the profit and revenues. This move greatly impacted the organization’s modus operandi, as operations could not be effectively conducted. This is because interference from human touch affects the production chain since service is not efficiently delivered by the available staff to its customers (Solnet et al., 2019). Therefore, the main problem entailed difficulties met by the staff of Brunton Boatyard-cgh Earthi in undertaking duties during the pandemic period.
Background of the Problem
When a team member is confirmed to be infected with the virus, the rest of the team must remain home or be quarantined to prevent the disease from spreading. According to Abdou et al. (2022), managing operations in the unavailability of a few or one members was extremely difficult. Thus, the zone relief workers substituted such absentees, another cause for worry. When replacing such personnel, knowledge and skills of the specific job were to be considered.
Diab-Bahman et al. (2020) insinuated that the region’s relief crew was insufficient in several situations since many positive cases were discovered in multiple areas. On occasion, the whole department had to be changed, and recruiting a new team with an appropriate leader to serve the current client base while establishing rapid customer connections was also a significant obstacle (Howe et al., 2021). Immediately after the cessation of public transit, providing transportation to work was equally problematic. In addition, the hotel was opposed to the use of public transportation owing to the danger of exposure.
Even though public transit is now operating efficiently, employees hesitate to utilize it due to the ongoing epidemic. In addition, the hotel reported a rise in client complaints alleging that the required level of service was not met (Kalyan et al. Panigrahi, 2021). Employees were subjected to oppressive workloads and lacked regular training, which was the primary reason for such uncomfortable conditions. Modifications are required to overcome these obstacles and maintain the smooth functioning of the branches. Most of the changes in the organization were related to human resources. Therefore, it is reasonable to do Research in this area.
The Research Project’s Aims and Objectives
The pandemic generated uncertainty for several organizations. While it has been fruitful for some, it has been a period of persistent difficulties for many. Brunton Boatyard-cgh Earthi Hotel is a well-established commercial hotel in India that, due to the prevalent epidemic, had to confront unanticipated external and internal challenges. Thus, the research topic aims to examine the effects of COVID-19 on H.R.
Moreover, for the company’s long-term viability, it is imperative that this Research analyses the remedies to such challenges. On the other hand, the study’s objective is to reveal unmotivated staff in H.R. can lead to customer dissatisfaction. Further, it highlights how employees are the organization’s pillars, and good management of human resources is one of the fundamental tasks of the upper management, which should be prioritized under the current conditions.
Scope and Limitation of the Research
The investigation was done to determine how the current epidemic has changed the routine work behavior of hotel staff. Consequently, the scope of this study and Research is confined to the Brunton Boatyard-cgh Earthi hotel staff since they will only be completing the questionnaire predicated on their encounters.
When gathering data for the study, Fort Kochi is the only area of focus. There are ten outlets in and around Fort Kochi staffed by personnel from various parts of the nation; nonetheless, the bulk comes from the same region. The questionnaire has been issued to 25 workers.
The Research required formal permission from the Regional Manager – of Fort Kochi to conduct the aforementioned poll among his region’s personnel. The nonparticipation of the majority of staff members, who may assist the researcher in getting a more accurate evaluation for this study, could be a limitation or impediment to the study.
Literature Review
This chapter enables the gathering and evaluation of all secondary materials, such as books, credible websites, reports, and journal articles. Therefore, Tasnim et al. (2022) emphasized that the relentless global spread of COVID-19 is, first and foremost, a human catastrophe, harming the hotel industry. In this context, regression analysis is the most effective statistical method for detecting the link between COVID-19 and workers’ behavior. In fact, a study indicated that there have been several pandemics around the globe over many years, but none as terrible as COVID-19 (Gossling et al., 2021).
Therefore, the main idea of the research includes hotels throughout the world experiencing cancellations totaling billions of dollars due to a lack of sufficient operations; hence, they asked for a $150 billion bailout to assist them in remaining in business (Gossling et al., 2021). The COVID-19 epidemic compelled the hospitality sector to postpone or cancel operations; hotels were booked mostly by fervent tourists and convention attendees.
Similarly, another research detailed that most hotels had to change workers’ operations in shifts (Mikołajczyk, 2022). Importantly, it underscored that it caused damage, resulting in the loss of 24.3 million jobs globally (Ozili & Arun, 2020). The implications of COVID-19 make it difficult for many tourist industry participants to continue paying their staff, resulting in a sharp fall in sales and revenues.
Furthermore, several restaurants were closed because of poor sponsorship and the inability to pay employee wages, electricity, and water bills. As a result, the majority of companies reduced their workforce, while some have reduced salaries by 50 percent (Chaturvedi, 2021). With many of the hotels lacking personnel or exceptional work enthusiasm, 2020 industry sales were drastically reduced. For example, hotel revenue per available room declines from 50.6% to 30.0% (Curado et al., 2022).
As for Brunton Boatyard-cgh Earthi hotel, the pandemic made the firm lay off some of its staff. As a result, it increased the workload on the available staff members. Increased work led to burnout, and some employees suffered mental anguish. This lowered the productivity of the hotel as clients suffered massive quality services that made them shift to other hotels with exceptional services that, in return, lowered the organization’s profit output.
Conversely, these massive changes lead to organizational transformation, which refers to the modification or adjustment of an organization’s culture, processes, or targets. Changes in the external environment have an effect on normal business operations, which necessitates an instant response from the organization in the form of internal developments and changes to guarantee unification (Lewis, 2020).
Organizational transformation is necessary for the success and growth of businesses. Managing change is responsible for the successful adoption and implementation of a workplace change. It enables workers to comprehend the shift, commit to it, and perform well throughout it (Petrou et al., 2018). In the absence of appropriate organizational change management, corporation shifts can be challenging and resource-intensive. As a result, employee morale and the propagation of key expertise may struggle.
A lack of competent organizational change may ultimately lead to the collapse of the organization. In this context, leading the change is of the utmost importance, and hence, the Research employs the Human Resource Theory Model to provide rationale and recommendations for overcoming the aforementioned issues.
The theory underpins the essence of motivation in a less inspired workforce. The work of Taha (2020) exacerbates motivation, which entails a means of developing a high quantity of enthusiasm to attain organizational objectives, and this situation is handled by meeting particular individual requirements. Managers within firms or organizations are mostly accountable for ensuring that personnel execute duties properly. To do that, these HRM must ensure that they have a competent team of employees to recruit the finest workforce capable of completing the task (Taha, 2020). Thus, to maximize the efficiency of the workforce, the worker has to be inspired sufficiently.
Notably, one must comprehend human behavior and better grasp how motivation might affect the productivity of the employee (Swanson, 2022). To attain this aim, it is vital to integrate the proper motivating resources with effective leadership and management. Not to neglect the fact that motivation is highly significant in defining the competence of the employee or other elements like the resources available to an employee to execute their work.
The literature review is limited to the hotel and tourist business in order to acquire insight into the entire effect. The Research uses textual analysis of various web articles and a methodical technique to subcategorize the study materials into five themes. The sources were from 2018 to 2023, and the results contribute to the recognition of employee satisfaction, worker motivation, and incentives.
Moreover, online management was the most frequently tested variable, with topics including the impact of COVID-19 on output and the motivation behind robust human resource management. However, an article written by Deloitte Netherlands does not fully expound on the impacts of COVID-19 on an organization’s workforce (Deloitte Netherlands, 2020). Instead, it underpins the general hospitality industry and the government. Therefore, it can be improved by subcategorizing the effects to specific organizations.
Conceptual Framework
The research study’s evaluation contributes to the determination of the conceptual framework, which in turn serves to contribute to the derivation of the independent, dependent, and other variables for the study. In addition to this, the conceptual framework enables the researcher to generate the hypothesis, which will then be examined and validated by the use of statistical methodologies.
Methodology of Research
This section helps in understanding the research technique that will be used to collect, analyze, interpret, and finish the study. According to Snyder (2019), this is the most significant chapter since it provides the reader with details on the methodologies, procedures, and models used by the researcher to conduct the analysis. Hence, the most appropriate research approach must be used to ease the entire process of attaining findings. The aims, research questions, and research hypotheses all contribute to the development of knowledge of the study.
Data collection
The study attempts to use a deductive strategy for data analysis, as it is well-known that the research theory has been extensively established (See Appendix A). However, the Research further intends to use the research topic to determine the relationship between COVID-19 and employees’ operation behavior. The research intends to acquire data for quantitative study via the execution of a survey questionnaire approach.
Furthermore, the study intends to gather data from hotel employees since they are the most appropriate and can respond to the questionnaire using their encounters. The research picks workers operating past normal working hours and requests that they complete and return a questionnaire. They are given 15 minutes, but it will take each worker no more than 6 to 8 minutes to complete the replies and return the sheet. There are a total of 20 questions in the questionnaire, eliminating demographic questions such as name, age, gender, marital status, education, and income.
The survey designed for the study is anticipated to comprise two parts: a demographic component and a segment comprising inquiries about independent and dependent factors. Employee burnout, employee mental health, and worker incentives are the factors included in the Research. Additionally, the dependent factor is the COVID-19 impact on employees. The questionnaire will have four questions for each of the three independent variables and two questions for the dependent variable.
The research intends to use one of the three study topics for the regression assessment. The question would consist of a declaration eliciting participants’ perspectives on the potential influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable. In addition, one of the questions for the dependent factor would include the phrase, “In your opinion, COVID-19 influenced your enthusiasm for working.” All independent variables will utilize the question as their dependent variable.
Population and Sampling
The hotel sector personnel are the finest possible representation of the subject matter analysis. The study has no connection to acquiring the study questionnaire carried out by workers of Brunton Boatyard-cgh Earthi hotel. Thus, the intention is to gather data from the organization’s personnel. Therefore, the selection of data from hotel employees is predicated on their training and experience in the industry (Kalyan et al. Panigrahi, 2021).
The entire number of hotel employees constitutes the population of the survey. The research concludes that it is impossible to survey the whole population, so a sample of 30 hotel employees is employed instead. Convenience sampling, a sort of non-probability sampling, is used since it enables the study to choose the portion of the population that is most accessible. As such, any employee of the company has an equivalent chance of being chosen, allowing for equitable representation of the population.
Data Analysis
In this section, Excel and SPSS will be used to evaluate the data. Excel will be used to enter and punch questionnaire data. After that, the Research intends to utilize SPSS for statistical testing. It is proposed that dependability statistics, descriptive statistics, and regression be employed to properly regulate the influence of employee burnout.
The use of reliability statistics would aid in determining the authenticity and dependability of the replies since it may be claimed that no experiments can be administered until a reliability standard value of 0.7 or higher is attained (Aithal & Aithal, 2020). Afterward, the application of descriptive statistics to the present study would aid in identifying the trends and summaries of the factors and populations.
The questionnaire’s population inquiries are designed and displayed to compile a profile of the participants. Based on Midway (2020), the use of charts and other visual displays would aid in determining the respondent’s history and its significance to the research process. Ultimately, regression analysis may be useful for determining the influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable. The test is regarded as the primary test for establishing the link between the variables of the research.
The results would aid in identifying the aspects that have a substantial influence on determining employees’ abilities to work during COVID-19 pandemic decisions, rendering the organization less productive as the epidemic influenced employees’ motivation and increased workload as a result of a furlong. The analytical findings will serve as the foundation for the research study’s conclusion and suggestions.
Statement of Ethics
The Research is founded on sincerity in all facets of the study, as well as the information presented, the conclusions drawn driven by sheer intentions, the disclosing of methods and procedures, the gathering of primary data, the communication of explanations, and the identification of remedies suggested from the study.
In addition, the research ensures the privacy of the data obtained by the researchers for the proposed project and ensures the openness of the material that is compiled. The study is responsible for protecting the information supplied by Brunton Boatyard-cgh Earthi personnel, and no information will be disclosed externally. The whole team cares for and respects all study participants for helping in whatever manner is necessary to complete the research procedure effectively.
Reference List
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Tasnim, Z. et al. (2022). ‘Tourism sustainability during COVID-19: developing value chain resilience,’ Operations Management Research, pp. 1–17. Web.
Abdou, A.H. et al. (2022). ‘The impact of hospitality work environment on employees’ turnover intentions during COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of work-family conflict,’ Frontiers in Psychology, 13. Web.
Aithal, A. and Aithal, P.S. (2020). ‘Development and validation of survey questionnaire & experimental data: a systematical review-based statistical approach,’ SSRN Electronic Journal. Web.
Chaturvedi, A. (2021). ‘270 branded hotels temporarily shut in India due to second COVID-19 wave,’ The Economic Times. Web.
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