FORE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

WORK-FAMILY ISSUE IN HOSPITALITY SECTOR

SUBMITTED TO-: Dr. Sumeet Kaur

BY: KARAN LUTHRA 201064 MILAN DHINGRA 201076 NIKHIL DHAWAN 201087 PARIDHI AGARWAL 201102 PRIYANKA SHUKLA 201109

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Literature Review 2. Summary Of Gaps 3. Research Methodology Exploratory research Qualitative and quantitative research Fixed and flexible design 4. Course of Action Data Collection Data Analysis Result Interpretation Recommendations 5. Data Analysis 6. Results 7. Recommendations 8. Appendix Questionnaire for Managers Questionnaire for Spouses 9. References

Literature Review
Hospitality sector is growing at a very fast rate in India. The sector is growing at a rate of approximately 8%. This sector can be classified into hotel industry, travel and tourism, restaurants, pubs, clubs and bars, contract catering, and aviation. Other than that, opportunities also exist in universities, sporting venues, exhibition centers and smaller events management companies. [Ref 2] Hospitality is emerging as one the biggest industries when it comes to employment. Today, the term hospitality' has gone beyond the borders of the hotel industry and has seeped into almost every sector of business. Over the last few years, the industry has undergone a complete makeover and has become a crucial part of functioning of any company. If one looks closely at sectors such as entertainment, education and retail industries, hospitality plays a major role in supporting these sectors. At present, in India, there are about 90,000 hotel rooms and given to the new hotels coming up, these numbers are bound to increase. Owing to the boom in the industry here, many people are looking at India for jobs. An interesting trend that we noticed in the past few years is that a lot of foreign students come to India to intern because of the innumerable opportunities and diverse cultures across the country. [Ref 1] This sector is very demanding when it comes to the competencies of the workforce. Skilled chefs and managers are not easy to find, and once found it is important to retain them. Managers require huge range of competencies such as, people management, viable skills, business insights, analytic skills and resource development in order to get success in this sector. In addition to that, employees are also required to be well versed in Business Etiquettes, Courtesy, and Business Communication. One of the challenges this sector is facing these days is the shortage of skilled employees along with the challenge of attrition rate. [Ref 2] An organization is as good as its people, and nobody can deny the fact that manpower is the greatest asset of a company. Moreover high attrition rates incur major costs to the company including recruiting expenses, training expenses, unemployment insurance and guest service of a quality less than one has been striving for. [Ref 10] Retention of the workforce through training and development in the hotel industry in India is a problem and attrition levels are too high. One of the reasons for this is unattractive wage packages. Though there is boom in the service sector, most of the hotel management graduates are joining other sectors like retail and aviation. Some of the services required in the tourism and hotel industries are highly personalized, and no amount of automation can substitute for personal service providers. India is focusing more on white collar jobs than blue collar jobs. The shortage of blue collar employees will pose various threats to the industry. [Ref 7] The hospitality industry, in general demands long working hours for workers. There wages are fixed but working hours are not. Research has shown that working too many hours is related to a host of negative outcomes, including increased job stress, work stress, fatigue, turn-over, mental health consequences (including anxiety and depression), and marital tension, as well as decreased job satisfaction and life satisfaction.

There may be a misfit between the desired hours and actual hours worked. This can occur either when excessive work hours or insufficient work hours are scheduled. Either way, the employee experiences stress. Excessive work hours can strain an employees work-life balance, insufficient work hours may present a financial burden. [Ref 3] A research study [Ref 4] of employees working in the hospitality sector shows that work-family conflict and organizational support can explain a substantial amount of variance among highly educated employees regarding their intention to leave an organization. This study also found that for men work-family conflict could be explained by lack of organizational support, while for women work-family conflict could be explained both by dissatisfaction with workplace flexibility and lack of organizational support. In addition, with regard to women, the study has shown that organizational support has a moderating effect on the relation between workplace flexibility and work family conflict. The retention of highly educated employees is becoming one of the major challenges of the hospitality industry. The research [Ref 4] suggests that from a certain age, more women leave the hospitality industry than men. Hence, the retention of highly educated employees and in particular highly educated women as they form a substantial part of the workforce seems to be a major challenge for the hospitality industry. The process of leaving the hospitality industry can be seen in two aspects. The first aspect is why highly educated employees leave organizations in the hospitality industry. The second aspect is why highly educated employees decide to work in another industry once they leave the hospitality industry. Although jobs in the hospitality industry require feminine behaviour, male-coded value systems such as overtime, visibility and occupational achievement are apparent in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry is characterized by long working days, working long hours, low job security, a high need for coordination with others and shift work at irregular hours. One way of investigating the reasons why employees especially women - leave the hospitality industry is to view the problem from the perspective of occupational stress. Occupational stress is the transactional process in which stressors, events or properties of events encountered by individuals cause strain among individuals which will lead to outcomes at both an individual and organizational level. The most common causes for strain are role conflict and ambiguity, work overload, underutilization of skills, lack of participation and resource inadequacy. Another specific aspect of occupational stress is work-family conflict. Work-family conflict occurs in two directions: family can interfere with work and work can interfere with family. Inter role conflict will lead to poor work-family balance, which may cause work-family conflict. [Ref 4] According to the National Institutes of Health, "People who feel more in control at their jobs tend to feel less stressed out. While executives and senior leaders have more control of their work, they manage people who feel like they have less control, which makes them stressed out. During the time of recession or when the organization is not performing well, employees in general feel more anxious and stressed. They're worried about lay-offs, wage freezes, and reduction in benefits. Hospitality industry may also suffer highs and lows which may affect the employees in some or the other way. If the industry suffers a low, hospitality leaders have to manage their own stress and concern about lower sales numbers, while being conscious of not passing their stress onto

their employees. At the same time they also have to find creative ways to take care of their guests, and patrons who are stressed out and are hoping to be able to relax when they stay in hotels, eat in restaurants and travel on cruises. [Ref 5] Work-family conflict (WFC) refers to the degree to which the demands of one role makes it difficult to fill the demands of the other. It is a serious human resource issue. WFC is on the rise in the hospitality industry due to several reasons. Majorly due to work schedules in the hospitality sector, they are countercyclical to the work schedules of most other industries i.e. the busiest shifts that includes working on weekends and holidays. The jobs in the industry are stress filled and employees carry this into their home lives. WFC leads to spawn decreased employee performance, job dissatisfaction, lateness, absenteeism, and high turnover. [Ref 6] WFC can actually be subdivided into three categories: [Ref 6] Time Based Conflict- The demands of work and family compete for a finite amount of an individual's time. Thus conflict surfaces if these roles cannot be fulfilled due to time constraints Strain Based Conflict- It occurs when strain generated in one role intrudes into and impedes successful participation in another role. Eg-Strain at work can interfere with family life. Behaviour Based Conflict- Conflict can exist when specific behaviours mandated by one role are incompatible with the behavioural norms of another role. For example, a line-level restaurant or hotel manager might be expected to demonstrate aggressive and logical behaviour at work, but family members likely need emotion and affection. Hotel industry bears a lot of consequences due to high Attrition Rates. Some of these are listed below : [Ref 2]

The Cost of Turnover: The cost of employee turnover adds hundreds of thousands of money to a company's expenses. While it is difficult to fully calculate the cost of turnover (including hiring costs, training costs and productivity loss), industry experts often quote 25% of the average employee salary as a conservative estimate. Loss of Company Knowledge: When an employee leaves, he takes with him valuable knowledge about the company, customers, current projects and past history (sometimes to competitors). Often much time and money has been spent on the employee in expectation of a future return. When the employee leaves, the investment is not realized. Interruption of Customer Service: Customers and clients do business with a company in part because of the people. Relationships are developed that encourage continued sponsorship of the business. When an employee leaves, the relationships that employee built for the company are severed, which could lead to potential customer loss. Turnover leads to more Turnovers: When an employee terminates, the effect is felt throughout the organization. Co-workers are often required to pick up the slack. The unspoken negativity often intensifies for the remaining staff. Goodwill of the company: The goodwill of a company is maintained when the attrition rates are low. Higher retention rates motivate potential employees to join the organization. Regaining Efficiency: If an employee resigns, then good amount of time is lost in hiring a new employee and then training him/her and this goes to the loss of the company directly 5

which many a times goes unnoticed. And even after this you cannot assure us of the same efficiency from the new employee. High turnover rates have an enormous effect on the industrys bottom line. This is a critical concern, especially within the context of a shrinking skilled labour force. Current models of turnover increasingly include non-work factors, such as, conflict between work and family, as possible shocks that may influence employees decisions to remain with or leave an organization. Job stress and burnout are frequently cited as antecedents of work and family stress, which together influence employee intentions to leave an organization and have implications for health care costs. The job stress and/or burnout and work and family conflict as two major sources of stress. The exploration of literature regarding retention yielded several dimension of work by researchers. According to Walker and Miler retention is a term given to keeping employees jumping from ship. Retention is relative concept so it must be studied along with quitting process. Traditionally factors propping up turnover are job satisfaction), organizational commitment or psychological contract, career expectations, work life balance, lack of training and peer and supervisor relationship cultural context, rewards, seasonality of business, and nature of jobs (i.e. part time, casual, or seasonal). Control over these factors can save this Labour intensive hospitality industry from bearing high cost of turnover. Labour Turnover is not only a significant tangible dollar cost but also intangible cost, with loss of skills, inefficiency and replacement cost. In addition to this retention and turnover is strongly related to good will and repute of organization as potential employer. In a country like India human resource is often considered as cost instead of asset. Staff must be treated as human with feelings, aspirations, and self-esteem, their dignity may not be invaded and they must not be considered as cost or burden instead of asset. This serious problem of turnover is underestimated many a times. Increased turnover results in: increased cost, stress, disenchantment with industry, loss of business and productivity, and wastage of trained and experienced employees found. Under the influence of global business culture now employer do understand the cost of loosing employee even in a country where high level of unemployment prevails and they (employers) are using different tactics like decentralization and attractive rewards to overcome employee turnover. Theory of organizational equilibrium; describing two important factors one is job satisfaction and other is availability of opportunities in market. Employees with higher satisfaction and lack of alternatives are less mobile. Employee retention is also influenced by psychological, behavioral, and demographic factors. [Ref 9] Implementing retention in hotels requires active role of HR department to develop career progression programs, and knowledge retention strategies, commitment from management in order to instill employees for behavioural shift, and cultural improvements through motivation and appreciations. This will leads to enhanced service quality, customer satisfaction, retention of knowledge and enrich cultural values, organizational productivity in terms of profits and performance. [Ref 9] Employee turnover figure in the hospitality industry is a whopping 50%, enough to make employers lose sleep over the tangible and intangible costs of employee turnover. Turnover has an immediate effect, particularly in customer service-dependent areas of the business. A vacant position means more work for the remaining employees, without making a compromise on the customer service front. This would imply that hospitality companies with low turnover rates report higher customer satisfaction and higher profits. [Ref 10]

An article [Ref 10] suggests that the following basic steps if implemented by the employer can help in improving the Turnover Ratio : Respect It is important for the employers to honor cultures, languages, traditions, and age of their employees. Transparent policies and procedures After induction, employees need to be educated about the policies and working procedures of the organization. Keeping them transparent, fair and consistent will help employees see you in good light. Recognition of performance More than a round of applause or a pat on the back, compensation in terms of bonuses, rewards, peer recognition etc. is necessary as a recognition strategy. Innovative performance based perks such as an insurance cover and time off are good ones too. Training programs Make development initiatives and training programs a part of the job. Repeated training is a good way to ingrain particular concepts into employees' minds. Such initiatives help employees hone their skills at the same time allowing you to use them as per your requirement. Employees are also glad at the prospect of career development through continuous training. Discuss career paths Career development is on everybody's mind. Offer advice and help on your employees' career development, highlighting how this job will cater to that need. Let employees know that you are interested in investing time and money in them provided they stick to their job. This will help you both achieve mutual goals. Make yourself approachable Making employees feel comfortable enough to share their problems with the management always comes in handy. Managers, who take weekly rounds of departments finding out the way employees function and whether anybody has a grievance, make them appear friendly and approachable. Analyze Find out the reasons for the turnover rates at your hotel. This can be effectively done through exit interviews of the employees planning to leave. Train your HR department in doing these and derive an inference from the answers to such questions. This will give you an insight into the needs of the employees and allow you to sort out any problem areas. Conduct employee surveys Give out questionnaires to be filled in by the working people to gauge what they think about working with the hotel. They will bring up issues that need immediate attention. Be prepared to address them so that things don't go out of hand. Make working fun Form social groups within the organization, wherein your staff can mingle. Arrange outings, or make a newsletter that carries information about and for the employees that is important to them. Find out if any of the staff members is volunteering for a socially responsible group. If yes, plan a donation for it, or at least make a recognition of his contribution to society by patting him on the back. 7

Evidence from the organizational stress literature suggests there are five major categories of sources of job stress there is stress associated with the job itself, including work overload, the hours of working, decision-making latitude, and the physical work environment. Second, role-based stress includes role conflict, role ambiguity, and job responsibility. Third, there is stress associated with the changing nature of interpersonal relationships, including those with managers, supervisors, subordinates, and coworkers. Fourth, career stress refers to the lack of opportunity for career development and promotion, as well as job insecurity. Finally, there are stressors associated with the workfamily interface, including conflicts of loyalty, spillover of demands from one domain to the other, and life events. [Ref 8] A review of the literature reveals that work and family issues, which are increasingly popular topics in contemporary organizational research, have received little attention in hospitality and tourism journals. Despite the paucity of research, many characteristics of jobs in the hospitality industry have long been associated with workfamily conflict and stress concerns in other literatures (e.g., long hours scheduled at nonstandard times, on-call hours, emphasis on face time and geographic mobility as a prerequisite for career advancement). Moreover, there is evidence that these work characteristics are potential work stressors associated with turnover intentions. Furthermore, work characteristics are often antecedents to workfamily conflict. [Ref 8] There is a need to illuminate work and family issues affecting managers in the hotel industry. For the purpose we need to reach the people who are directly involved in the hotel industry (maybe managers currently employed in the industry, the spouses of those current managers, and students who were about to enter the industry). The connections among work characteristics, work stress, and the work family interface needs to be explored within the industry known for high turnover while studying the various work characteristics, work withdrawal, and work and family issues.

Summary Of Gaps
Hospitality Industry in India is growing at a rapid pace of 8% and has immense potential for growth in future. It is not just limited to the hotel industry but has a wide scope which includes travel and tourism, restaurants, pubs, clubs and bars, contract catering, and aviation. [Ref 2] Hospitality Industry also offers a plethora of employment opportunities. The industry has been evolving constantly and it now supports other sectors like entertainment, education and retail. As the industry is growing, it has also been seen in the past few year that many foreign students come to India to intern because of the innumerable opportunities and diverse cultures across the country. [Ref 1&2] This sector is very demanding when it comes to competencies of workforce and hence it is important to retain the trained and skilled workforce with the desired competencies. The industry however, suffers a shortage of quality employees and alarmingly high Attrition Rates. [Ref 2] High attrition rates incur major costs to the company including recruiting expenses, training expenses, unemployment insurance and guest service of a quality less than one has been striving for. [Ref 10] One of the reasons of high Attrition rates may be unattractive wage packages. [Ref 7] The hospitality industry, in general demands long working hours for workers. There may be a misfit between the desired hours and actual hours worked. This can occur either when excessive work hours (strain on Work-Life Balance) or insufficient work hours are scheduled (Financial Burden). Either way, the employee experiences stress. [Ref 3] Work-family conflict and organizational support can explain a substantial amount of variance among highly educated employees regarding their intention to leave an organization. [Ref 4] For men workfamily conflict could be explained by lack of organizational support, while for women work-family conflict could be explained both by dissatisfaction with workplace flexibility and lack of organizational support. In addition, with regard to women, the study has shown that organizational support has a moderating effect on the relation between workplace flexibility and work family conflict. [Ref 4] The reasons attributed to why employees especially women - leave the hospitality industry is occupational stress. The probable causes maybe role conflict and ambiguity, work overload, underutilization of skills, lack of participation and resource inadequacy. Another aspect may be the Work-family conflict which occurs in two directions: family can interfere with work and work can interfere with family. [Ref 4] Employees even tend to get stressed when an organization or industry is not performing well or during economic recession when they worry about lay-offs, wage freezes, and reduction in benefits. [Ref 5] Work Family conflict (time based, strain based or behaviour based) leads to decreased employee performance, job dissatisfaction, lateness, absenteeism, and high turnover. [Ref 6] The various losses the industry suffers due to a high Attrition rate include cost of turnover, loss of company knowledge, Interruption of Customer Service, Goodwill of the company and Regaining Efficiency. [Ref 6] 9

There are five major categories of sources of job stress there is stress associated with the job itself, including work overload, the hours of working, decision-making latitude, and the physical work environment. Second, role-based stress includes role conflict, role ambiguity, and job responsibility. Third, there is stress associated with the changing nature of interpersonal relationships, including those with managers, supervisors, subordinates, and coworkers. Fourth, career stress refers to the lack of opportunity for career development and promotion, as well as job insecurity. Finally, there are stressors associated with the workfamily interface, including conflicts of loyalty, spillover of demands from one domain to the other, and life events. [Ref 8]

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Research Methodology
Work and Family issues are today a major cause of attrition for the hospitality industry and it is highly required that we find probable causes for the same. The primary goal of this research study is to better understand the workfamily interface in the hotel industry by examining multiple perspectives: hotel managers their spouses industry entrants.

Exploratory Research
Exploratory research is a type of research conducted for a problem that has not been clearly defined. It helps determine the best research design, data collection method and selection of subjects. It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme caution. Given its fundamental nature, exploratory research often concludes that a perceived problem does not actually exist. Exploratory research often relies on secondary research such as reviewing available literature and/or data, or qualitative approaches such as informal discussions and more formal approaches through indepth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies. As we have the symptoms and need to find the cause for the same, we would use exploratory research technique. The research would be used to analyze working conditions to understand the probable causes for employees work and family issues and provide us with relevant information to analyze the situation. The research would be based on secondary data collection techniques that would include questionnaires and telephonic, online and personal interviews (both one-on-one and group) with employees and their spouses from the hospitality sector. Some of the sample questions to be asked during the process are What characteristics do hotel managers identify as the most prevalent stressors? What work characteristics do hotel managers spouses identify as major stressors for the family? 11

 What expectations do entrants to the hospitality industry have about work and family? The questions are designed to cover the perspectives of Hotel managers, fresh entrants and spouses, so as to develop an exhaustive report on the probable causes of the same. Specifically, we conducted semi-structured and one- on- one interview with hotel managers and their spouses on telephones, online and personal, regarding how work in the hotel industry affects their lives off the job. Both these groups were given questionnaires as well, consisting both the qualitative and quantitative research questions. In addition, we gather information from hospitality college seniors through informal group interviews about their expectations regarding work and family issues.

Qualitative and Quantitative Coding and Analyses

In our survey we used both the methods, qualitative and quantitative, to have the insight knowledge about the topic. Qualitative research has its roots in social science and is more concerned in understanding why people behave as they do: their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, fears, etc. qualitative research have open ended questions which are usually taken up during interviews and group discussions. This research cannot be restricted by the options given to a certain question. Thus we use qualitative collection of data to have a direction to our approach and the kind of stress managers were facing. Quantitative research is concerned with counting and measuring things, producing in particular estimates of averages and differences between groups. The quantitative collection of data gave us the numbers to support our survey and to authenticate our research. The one-on-one interviews held with the hotel managers and their spouses contained open ended questions and thus followed by the qualitative research. Because students may be less realistic in their expectations therefore, we believed that more structured one-on-one interviews were not appropriate and thus we had group interviews with them. Thus all these were followed by the qualitative research which was analysed by the software SPSS 2.0. It was believed that a qualitative research approach is appropriate for this study, as it can help to develop better understanding of a relatively new subject and to provide greater insight into reasons underlying various behaviours, practices, attitudes and decision-making processes, and provide greater depth of knowledge on a given subject. In addition to semi-structured qualitative data from each source (managers, spouses, and students), we collected quantitative data regarding work characteristics and the situation of stress through questionnaires given to hotel managers and their spouses. Quantitative data for hotel managers and partners would be collected using several scales which will measure the occupational stress, job demand, family obligations etc. Some sample questions mentioned in the questionnaire are: Do they have to leave their family responsibilities due to the work pressure? Do they spend less time with their family because of the odd shifts? Such questions are answered in numbers from 1-5 ( 1-strongly agree; 5 strongly disagree). Analysis and various statistical tests will be done on the above obtained data. These questionnaires were analysed through Z test, t test and chi square. 12

Flexible or Fixed Design

Research design can be divided into fixed and flexible research designs. In fixed designs the design of the study is fixed before the main stage of data collection takes place. As we have three different target groups, we cannot use same measure in interviewing them and thus should have contingency approach to it. Flexible designs allow for more freedom during the data collection. Thus we used the flexible design for our project because our research focused on three different target groups (hotel managers, spouses and the industry entrants) who have different views and perspectives. Thus a fixed method was difficult to adopt for such targets. To have more realistic and true picture, different methods were used to interview them and thus analyse them.

Course of Action

Data collection
The study focuses on three major target groups to have an insight to our research. These three target groups were approached and interviewed in different ways. All together we interviewed 50 people through various measures like personal, telephonic and online one-on-one and group interviews and questionnaire. Both the qualitative and quantitative method of data collection was used. Hotel Managers We interviewed three hotel managers personally with one woman among them and got the questionnaire filled by 15 managers with 4 women in them. Work and life issues typically look very different from the perspectives of men and women because both domains of life are so inextricably woven with gendered expectations and norms. Spouses of hotel managers We interviewed four spouses of hotel managers with one male among them. The spouses were generally housewives with the male spouse handling a business of his own. Questionnaires were given to them as well to two more people. Industry Entrants Approximately 25 college seniors majoring in hospitality management participated in the current study. All of the students had employment experience in the hospitality industry, either through internships or through more traditional work experiences that are required as part of the degree program. Most of the students planned to become managers in either hotels or restaurants following graduation. We used different approach to this because with the managers and their spouses, personal interview was necessary to have a detailed discussion on our research. Moreover they are the essence of our research and are necessary to get a direction to follow. These people gave us the 13

parameters to work on like the type of stress they are facing which was authenticated by others through questionnaires given to them. Different questionnaires were designed for the managers and their spouses. Thus through questionnaires we were able to have the number supporting our survey.

Data Analysis
After sufficient data was collected through both qualitative and quantitative techniques, different approach was undertaken to analyse this data. The qualitative data was compiled and the answers supported by the maximum number of people were given a direction. These answers were analysed and thus the results were interpreted. Qualitative data was collected by all the three groups. Quantitative data was collected only from the managers and their spouses on the parameters defined by the people interviewed. Then this data was analysed using various tests like Z test, t test and thus the result was interpreted.

Result Interpretation
The result generated from the above mentioned techniques was evalued and complied. Initially we just had the symptoms to our problem but now we have availed the causes behind these symptoms. We applied various tests on the quantitative data and compiled the results of qualitative data to come to a final conclusion or the root cause behind such symptoms such as absenteeism and high turnover rates. We also looked into various outcomes that were the result of the root cause. For our simplicity, we analysed the outcomes at three different levels: Organizational Level Individual Level Family Level

Recommendations
As we have the causes behind our problem, we as managers gave some measures to overcome these problems and made some recommendations that we thought would be beneficial in reducing the work-family conflict and thus the turnover rate prevailing in hospitality sector.

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Data Analysis
During the interview with the hotel managers certain questions were raised. The answers to such questions are as follows: Research Question: What Work Characteristics Do Hotel Managers and their spouses Identify as the Most Prevalent Stressors? Working hours Based on our analysis of the qualitative interviews, work hours emerged as the top work characteristics that hotel managers perceived as the most prevalent stressors. Below is the data of the 25 people (managers and spouses) interviewed personally and through questionnaires reporting some negative aspect of the working hours required by their jobs along with some issues related to shifts and the breaks provided. They also focused on the time they have to spend on weekends or working overtime that leads to increase in their stress.

15

25 20 15 10 5 0 long working hours odd shifts work on weekends working overtime

On an average the working hours of hotel managers vary from 12-16 hours per day thus they are hardly left with some time to be spent with family. Most reported that they are so tired after their work that they are unable to participate in the family responsibilities. Sometimes the married couples are given night shifts and there are stringent rules relating to the change in the shifts offered to them. In the questionnaire, when asked the number of hours managers devote working in the office, it ranges from 10 hours to 16 hours per day. We used the t test to check whether the average working hours is 12 or not.

One-Sample T: working hours

Test of mu = 12 vs not = 12 Variable working hours N 15 Mean 12.200 StDev 1.474 SE Mean 0.380 95% CI (11.384, 13.016) T 0.53 P 0.607

As p> alpha (.05), thus we accept the null hypothesis that the average hours managers work is 12.

And when t test was done to check the number of they devote to their family, we checked it saying the average number of hours is 12.

One-Sample T: time spent with family

Test of mu = 12 vs not = 12

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Variable time spent with family Variable time spent with family

N 15

Mean 7.333

StDev 1.113

SE Mean 0.287

95% CI (6.717, 7.950)

T -16.24

P 0.000

As p<alpha (.05), thus we reject the null hypothesis. Moreover high negative t value shows that the number of hours are well below 12.

Thus for the average hours managers spend working and the hours they spend with family, there was a huge difference in both these aspects. The time spend with family is of the time spend working thus leads to huge work-family conflicts.

time spent working time spent with family

Emotional control Other factor that leads to stress among the hotel managers is the emotional stress that they face relating to their work. Below is the data of the 25 people supporting this factor. Emotional stress includes fair amount not being paid for their work, conflict with the boss, raises are few, have to skip meals because of the work pressure and the deadlines set are difficult to meet. It is reported that this emotional stress often outbursts at the family member and thus leads to conflict in the family.

25 20 15 10 5 0 no fair amount few raises conflict with boss difficult deadlines

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Research Question: What was the expectation of the hotel managers and their spouses at the time of their joining in the hotel industry? This question raised some smile on the faces of the interviewees. We asked them to rate their expectations on the scale of 5 where 1 means they can perfectly balance their work-family issues and 5 means they cannot. Both the managers and spouses graded their expectations and thus the result was: Anova: Single Factor SUMMARY Groups Column 1 Column 2

Count 15 15

Sum Average Variance 40 2.666667 0.809524 52 3.466667 0.695238

ANOVA Source of Variation Between Groups Within Groups Total

SS 4.8 21.06667 25.86667

df

MS F P-value F crit 1 4.8 6.379747 0.017481 4.195972 28 0.752381 29

As p<alpha (.05), thus we reject the null hypothesis that there was no difference in their expectations. We noticed that the spouses were sure that they will have problems relating to their partners not able balance their professional life with work though the managers were sure about it.

Outcome
The outcome of such working conditions id divided into three levels to define it perfectly at all levels. At the organisational level Such stringent practices would lead to high absenteeism and turnover rates. While interviewing managers, it was realized that many have already made up their mind of leaving the organization. To a great surprise out of 25 people, there was no one who worked in the same organization for more than 7 years. The average years of working with the same organization was just 3 showing the high turnover rate in this sector. Other behavioural effect of such practices is the lack of organizational commitment and the low performance and thus productivity. Absenteeism

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 Turnover rates Organizational commitment performance

At Individual level Such working environment is a threat to individuals personality as it leads to severe mental and physical health issues. Such stringent working hours leads to great mental torture and thus can lead to serious health injuries. The job satisfaction in the hospitality sector is too low and often coerces the employees towards alcohol abuse and other such practices. Mental and physical health Job satisfaction Alcohol abuse

At Family level Such working conditions not only affect the individual but his entire family. There are many family issues that are raised due to such working environment as the individual is enable to devote time to his family or sometimes outbursts stress on the family members. The marital and child relations often spoil due to lack of time. The major harm that such conditions provide is in the upbringing of the children in the family as they are not able to receive their entitled love and care. Moreover not able to handle the family responsibilities leads to great dissatisfaction among the managers. Marital relation Relationship with children Upbringing of children Family opportunities and satisfaction

During our research we found a significant pattern in the age of the manager and the level of stress he was facing at that time when asked him to scale it from 1-5 (1 being the least and 5 the maximum). This gave us the indication to perform chi-square so as to see the relationship between their age and the level of stress they are facing.

Chi-Square Test: age, stress

Expected counts are printed below observed counts

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Chi-Square contributions are printed below expected counts 1 age 45 48.03 0.058 30 31.40 0.063 stress 2 3.97 0.706 4 2.60 0.756 Total 47 2 50 43.41 0.081 35 36.94 0.102 2 3.59 0.981 5 3.06 1.234 52

34

40

30 30.48 0.007

3 2.52 0.090

33

30 31.40 0.063

4 2.60 0.756

34

45 44.33 0.010

3 3.67 0.122 5 2.68 2.020

48

50 48.03 0.081

2 3.97 0.981 5 3.06 1.234

52

30 32.32 0.167

35

10

35 36.94 0.102

40

11

30 30.48 0.007

3 2.52 0.090

33

12

30 31.40 0.063

4 2.60 0.756

34

13

45 43.41 0.058

2 3.59 0.706 1 3.90 2.155 48 51

47

14

45 44.33 0.010

3 3.67 0.122

48

15

50 47.10 0.178 580

Total

628

Chi-Sq = 13.761, DF = 14, P-Value = 0.468 As p> alpha (.05), hence we accept the null hypothesis that the stress level is dependent on the age of the manager. It was noticed that the managers in the age group of 20-40 was facing high levels of stress compared to other age group as they are faced with huge work load and comparatively less experience to handle it.

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Research Question: What Expectations Do Entrants Have About Work and Family? The other research question focuses on the work and family expectations of entrants to the industry. Entrants indicated awareness of work expectations of the industry. Specifically, participants mentioned long hours, holiday work, and being on call. Entrants also were concerned regarding the toll the industry might take on their future health. Entrants seemed aware of the long and unpredictable hours and understood that this situation potentially creates a problem for family. In response to these demands, several entrants reported that they would wait until later in life to have children.

20 15 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 5

expectation of stress

Research Question: What Work Factors Do Hotel Managers and their spouses identify as Positive and Instrumental in Shaping the Extent to Which the Hotel Is Perceived as Family Supportive? Factors such as the general manager, coworker support and friendship networks, and opportunities for flexibility were most often discussed. When discussing work and family challenges, managers mentioned the role played by the general manager in shaping the family supportiveness of the hotel. In addition to the influence the general manager has on the hotel environment, approximately 70% of hotel managers described the influence of their coworkers in creating a positive workplace climate. Several managers reported that their closest friends are people with whom they work, or whom they met through their employment in the hotel industry. The hotel environment was frequently described as like a family, and many interviewees described a large overlap between coworker and friendship networks.

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results
The qualitative responses from hotel managers, spouses, and entrants regarding the research questions showed that all three groups cited time demands and availability requirements as the most prevalent workplace stressors. In particular, working long and unpredictable hours and being on call or receiving calls from the hotel during non-work hours was consistently named as a great source of stress. In addition, hotel managers underscored the emotional demands of working in a service industry. Managers and spouses largely agreed on this point, and entrants were well aware of these expectations. The length and unpredictability of hours contributed to physical and mental exhaustion, marital disruptions, and less positive familial interactions. There was widespread concern among spouses about the physical toll of work on their partner. Entrants also voiced concerns about burnout and long-term physical health problems. It is observed that Work-family conflict is positively related to absenteeism and turnover, and negatively associated with job performance. It is also negatively related to organizational commitment, and mental and physical health, and positively related to alcohol use. It also harms the marital quality and relationships with children. Family size and the presence of young children strengthen the negative aspect of the conflict being discussed.

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Recommendations

In terms of work support, managers and spouses cited the general manager or immediate supervisor as a powerful supportive influence. The cooperation of the immediate boss can act as a powerful tool in reducing the level of stress. Managers also cited co-worker support, friendship networks, and flexibility in scheduling as helpful in reducing stress. Strategic corporate programs that provide opportunities for managers to control long and unpredictable hours by taking advantage of contemporary knowledge management technologies may benefit managers and, indirectly, organizations (e.g., health care expenses) by addressing stress and related health problems. Moreover, to the extent that manager stress is reduced, the climate of the workplace may improve, with positive trickledown effects for hourly employees. Background characteristics (eg, being older), personality factors (eg, positive affectivity), and an internal locus of control will act as resources to buffer the potentially stressful effects of organizational context on work-family conflict and related outcomes, thus should be kept in mind while recruiting employees. Female hotel employees will be more likely than their male counterparts to turn down relocations and night shifts and less likely to engage in over time. 23

Appendix Questionnaire( for managers)

Name: Age: Gender: Name of the Organisation: Relationship Status: Designation: Number of years worked in this organization: Number of family members: children ______ 1. On an average, how many hours do you work daily? 11 24

other ______

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

12 13 Other ( please specify _____) On an average, how many hours do you spend with your family? 7 9 12 Other (please specify ____) Do you work on weekends? Yes No Sometimes Do you work overtime? Yes No sometimes At what shift do you work? Day shift Night shift Break shift Scale your expectation of maintain work life balance at the time of joining from 1-5 (1- not at all; 5- perfect balance)? ____ Given below is the scale ranging from 1-5. Please attach a number to each question asked depending on your suitability to the situation. 1- Strongly agree 2- agree 3- neutral 4- disagree 5- strongly disagree a. I have to miss family responsibilities due to the amount of time I spend on work. b. When I get back from work, I am too tired to participate in family activities. c. My work stress usually outbursts on my family. d. I think I am being paid a fair amount for the work I do. e. Raises are too few and far enough. f. I frequently bring work home at night. g. I feel there are too many deadlines in work that are difficult to meet. h. I often have to skip meals due to pressure of work.

Questionnaire( for spouses)

Name: Spouse Name: Spouse Age: Gender: Name of the Organisation of the spouse: Designation of Spouse: Do you work?: Monthly income of spouse: Number of family members: children ______

other ______

8. On an average, how many hours does your spouse work daily? 11 12 25

9.

10.

11.

12.

13. 14.

13 Other ( please specify _____) On an average, how many hours does your spouse spend with family? 7 9 12 Other (please specify ____) Does your spouse works on weekends? Yes No Sometimes Does your spouse work overtime? Yes No sometimes At what shift does your spouse work? Day shift Night shift Break shift Scale your expectation of your spouse maintaining work life balance at the time of joining from 1-5 (1- not at all; 5- perfect balance)? ____ Given below is the scale ranging from 1-5. Please attach a number to each question asked depending on your suitability to the situation. 1- Strongly agree 2- agree 3- neutral 4- disagree 5- strongly disagree

Your spouse has to miss family responsibilities due to the amount of time he/she spend on work. When your spouse gets back from work, he/she is too tired to participate in family activities. Due to stress at home, your spouse is often preoccupied with family matters at work. Your spouses work stress usually outbursts on you or your family. Your spouse is paid a fair amount for the work he/she does. Raises are too few and far enough. Your spouse frequently brings work home at night. Your spouse often has to skip meals due to pressure of work.

REFERENCES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

http://www.thehindu.com/education/article617419.ece http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC1193/fc1193.html http://www.hotelmule.com/management/html/33/33-420.html http://thr.sagepub.com/content/10/4/269.full.pdf+html http://www.ideamarketers.com/?articleid=747596 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15332840802269643

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7. http://www.scribd.com/naziya123/d/3949610-hospitality-services-in-india 8. http://www.personal.psu.edu/jwo3/Hotel%20WorkFamily%20Issues%20Article%20for%20o'n
eill.pdf

9. www.eurojournals.com/EJEFAS_29_01.pdf 10. http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Reducing-employee-Turnover-In-Hospitality/600

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