The Impact Of Knowledge Sharing On Hotel Industry Effectiveness In UK
The Impact Of Knowledge Sharing On Hotel Industry Effectiveness In UK
Table of contents page
1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Research Problem
4. Research questions
5. Research Methodology
6. Research Aims and objectives
7. Research Outcomes
8. References
1. Abstract
Hotel industry in UK has been slow in adopting knowledge management and knowledge sharing due to lack of gearing between researches and hotel industry, as well as the nature and environment of hotel industry makes it more difficult to implement, initiate and coordinate. This research aims to identify the gap of knowledge management and knowledge sharing in UK hotel industry and also provide both insights and potential solution to fill this gap.
Knowledge is a powerful resource to help public and private firms to develop their productivity. UK hotel industry is a large and unique industry segment of market. According to HYPERLINK “http://www.bha.org.uk/” t “_blank” British Hospitality Association 2011 report the numbers of UK hotels are 45, 800 and UK hotel industry annual turnover approximately is £40bn. Utilizing knowledge management systems to manage customer information and staff knowledge to support the full range of knowledge needs in the hospitality process has become an important issue for hotelier. Hence, the objective of this research is to a deep research and investigation into recent researches in knowledge management and sharing knowledge in tourism industry, UK hotel industry, entertainment and leisure industry to understanding of the knowledge management concept amongst UK hotel industry, determine enablers and barriers to implement a knowledge management programme and to determine whether knowledge is seen as a source for competitive advantage.
This research begins with a critical discussion of current literature about knowledge sharing and UK hotel industry, and how they may be connected with competitive advantage of hotels with investigate in depth recent years sound research papers in knowledge management and sharing knowledge in tourism industry and UK hotel industry after that choose amongst of them, then capture the major concept, major points and major outcome in each of these recourses. Once those major elements collected it will try to identify and show the relationships between them and critically evaluate them.
2. Introduction
Importance of knowledge management in enterprises:
Effective knowledge management could noticeably reduce the costs, makes the situation better and easier to extend enterprises, will help to increase the value and profitability of organizations, develop the products, improve services, makes leaning faster and provide potential to increase initiatives in private and public businesses (Brian . Janz, Pattarawan Prasarnphanich 2003).
The role of knowledge management in competitive advantage of enterprises is not deniable, therefore knowledge management act as a strategic authorization for most organizations ( HYPERLINK “http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?ct=all&st1=Sang+M.+Lee&fd1=aut&PHPSESSID=9lcr8qd9flacilv7n18bvet1q7” o “Author search for Sang M. Lee.” Sang 2002).
In a world that is facing economic recession the main question is that what kind of economy is going to help societies to grow out of recession, what is the main characteristic of this new economy? How can it merge the enterprises in to one solid structure?
The current global recession indicates that the Knowledge Economy (use of HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge” o “Knowledge” knowledge HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management” o “Knowledge management” management to produce HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic” o “Economic” economic benefits as well as job creation) is the main key of future economy (Eurac, Bolzano, Bozen 2009).
As one of the main reason of employing knowledge management is increasing the profitably of enterprises therefore more and more organizations will be reforming themselves with the trading their knowledge to add even higher value, mostly on the World Wide Web ( HYPERLINK “http://jtr.sagepub.com/search?author1=J.+R.+Brent+Ritchie&sortspec=date&submit=Submit” Brent Ritchie 2010).
Even some progressive advance organizations already started to develop and apply the knowledge they have about their industry, customers, partners and stakeholders, as they consider it as their major strategic asset, and look at it at the most important element in the value chain(Jessop 2009).
Importance of Knowledge sharing in enterprises:
Approach of knowledge sharing as an idea is very smart and it delivers so many prospects for businesses that should not be ignored. It is a mechanism that converts knowledge into business value. An effective knowledge sharing plan expects to assist projects and could support modernization and innovation and also help in considering markets and customers needs (Small, Sage 2006).
It also helps organisations to expand their product and services along with growth of their vision and strategies (Small, Sage 2006).
Importance of UK hotel industry:
Official report of BHA (British Hospitality Association) says “hospitality industry (defined as hotels, restaurants and related services, catering and event management) to the UK economy has shown the industry to be the UK’S fifth largest employer it directly employing over 2.4 million people”. This report highlighted the economic importance of the hospitality industry to the UK economy (British Hospitality Association official website).
“It draws attention to the industry’s job generating potential which the government cannot disregard. The hospitality economy is one of the country’s key industries with enormous growth forecasts in jobs (British Hospitality Association official website)”.
UK’s hospitality industry turnover is around £90bn and is worth £46bn to the UK economy in GVA (wage and profits), contributing an estimated £34bn in gross tax revenues.
On average, 4.2 per cent of total investment in the UK economy is made by the hospitality economy, helping to maintain 61,000 jobs, with 39,000 of these jobs in construction and related activities (British Hospitality Association official website).
3. Research Problem
Research by administrators of HYPERLINK “http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-36059-pricewaterhousecoopers-llp.do” o “More on PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP…” PricewaterhouseCoopers on June 2009 shows compare to survey on June 2008 that UKs hotel bankruptcies raised 120% during that year (Tobin 2009).
Research by administrators HYPERLINK “http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/related-36059-pricewaterhousecoopers-llp.do” o “More on PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP…” PricewaterhouseCoopers also showed that 90 hotels have already failed in the first half of year 2009, compared with 36 in the first six months of year 2009, a rise of 150 %( Tobin 2009).
Recession and the hotel sector:
Travelodge consider that the main change that will happen over the approaching years as a consequence of the recession will see the budget sector and the top end five star hotels becoming furthermost in the UK. The mid range hotels will be under the most pressure, as they neither provide the comfort that people want, nor the low cost accommodation that people will require to match their controlled optional spending( Dines 2008).
Despite of important rule of knowledge management because of characteristic attitude of hotel stuff and how to convert the culture from believing that “knowledge is power” to believing that “knowledge sharing is power” and psychological fear of IT and especially lack of a simple, easy to understand and implement powerful tools to put in the practice of knowledge management in hotels, there is not a effective knowledge management system in UK hotel industry.
Hotel industry is a very important segment of economy in UK. After the recession UK hotel industry affected badly then the main aim of this research is to explore and demonstrate impact, necessity and effectiveness of knowledge management system to improve hotels productivity in UK and also propose a framework to implant and apply this system as well as this framework would consider nature and component of UK hotel industry.
4. Research questions
There are a few research questions have emerged after an initial review of related literature:
What is the comprehensive framework of knowledge sharing that could be used in hotel management?
Do hotels need special agreements to practically develop their knowledge sharing?
Is the same approach and techniques of knowledge sharing applies for small and individual hotels compare to large and franchise group hotels?
What are the factors and barriers involved in hotel industry area that affect the knowledge sharing in UK hotels?
How can integration of regional and national hotels promote the domestic market along with developing of knowledge sharing?
5. Research Methodology
An important part of such a project is the type of research methodology. According to demand of hypothesis of this research the research methodology would be case study research methodology. It gets detailed in-depth information about a single-case happening concerning an individual, organisation or animal in a humane manner (HYPERLINK “http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Peter+Swanborn%22″Swanborn 2010).
Advantages of Case study Research methodology: As a method of research the case study’s main advantage is its HYPERLINK “http://www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/glossary/gloss_e.htm” l “ecologicalvalidity” ecological validity. It is true to life. It develops analytic and problem solving skills and allows for exploration of solutions for complex issues also allows researcher to apply new knowledge and skills (Zainal 2007).
Disadvantages of Case study Research methodology: An inability to generalise results, difficulties regards HYPERLINK “http://www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/glossary/gloss_r.htm” l “replication” replication and confirmation of earlier results, and the subjectivity and HYPERLINK “http://www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/glossary/gloss_r.htm” l “reliability” reliability of information got by self report. HYPERLINK “http://www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/glossary/gloss_i.htm” l “interviewerbias” Interviewer bias and HYPERLINK “http://www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/glossary/gloss_o.htm” l “observerbias” observer bias further disadvantages its usefulness as a scientifically credible method of research. It may not see relevance to own situation and perhaps insufficient information can lead to inappropriate results possibly not appropriate for elementary level and with a researcher observing the specimen closely, the specimen is likely to change their behaviour (Zainal 2007).
Qualitative research: This research topic will have the basis of a critical review of literature available in the respective field to give an insight into the research done and developed theories. This includes the examination of the bandwidth of KM literature from the basis of the standard books to the new references and with including papers and resources available on the internet.
6. Research Aims and objectives
The main aim of this research is to explore and demonstrate impact, necessity and effectiveness of knowledge management system to improve hotels productivity in UK and also propose a framework to implant and apply this system as well as this framework would consider nature and component of UK hotel industry.
This research examine both short and long impact s of knowledge sharing on hotel industry effectiveness in UK and underlying an initiative to address that representing knowledge is difficult and time consuming.
First, this research will investigate and analyse main restricted accesses to sharing and reuse the knowledge in hotel industry in UK, present vision and a vision of a future in which these barriers might be dealt better. We then will involve on the vision by describing a framework for how knowledge bases and knowledge based systems could be structured and developed in hotel industry.
This research will identify, investigate and analyse fundamental reason for existing lack of an appropriate knowledge management between employees of hotels in UK hotel industry as the possible basis for these accusations:
Hotels’ employees think of each other’s activities as the production of processes rather than engagement in processes.
Hotel industry may not be aware of or may not accept the lack of appropriate of knowledge sharing between employees of hotels
Hotels rarely differentiate between provide the customers’ needs and potential customers’ values.
Moreover, another purpose of this research is to identify other researches trends and direction of knowledge management in hospitality and tourism in UK, and analyse the potential contributions those researches. The research objectives are as follows:
Carry out analysis of the recent related literatures and researches. Identify and demonstrate the gap of knowledge sharing between hotel employees in UK and Compare the new findings with current knowledge management status of hotels in UK.
Hotel employees sometimes do not share knowledge with each others because they feared their colleagues would be promoted faster (Yang and Wan 2004).
Demonstrate the negative consequences of lack of effective knowledge sharing between hotel employees to productivity and profitability of hotels and Identify what sort of encouragement and motivation could have less negative impact on knowledge sharing therefore this research try to recommend a performance reward method to balance motivating employees and attractive knowledge sharing to fill this gap.
Identify the impact of effective knowledge sharing between hotel employees to productivity and profitability of hotels. This research tries to reveal the benefits of employees share their knowledge with their colleagues, especially with their new colleagues in UK hotel industry.
Suggest a knowledge management system to help and improve knowledge sharing between hotel employees in UK alongside considering nature, components and barriers of hotel industry in UK.
Design a frame work to help implant and apply above system as well as this framework would consider nature, component s and barriers of UK hotel industry.
7. Research Outcomes
According to above objective, these outcomes are expected to be achieved at the end of the project
A description of knowledge sharing process of hotels in the UK
Analysing current problems of knowledge management in UK hotels
Design a comprehensive knowledge management framework for hotel industry according to UK tourism demands.
Produce a guide line to explore impact and necessity of knowledge management system, framework or plan to improve hotels productivity and effectiveness in UK and also suggest the optimum way to implant and apply this system, framework or plan alongside considering nature and component of UK hotel industry.
8. References
Brent Ritchie J. R. (2010). Impacts of the World Recession and Economic Crisis on Tourism: North America. Journal of Travel Research
Brian D. Janz, Pattarawan Prasarnphanich 2003.
Understanding the Antecedents of Effective Knowledge Management: The Importance of a Knowledge Centred Culture. Decision Sciences. 32 (2), 351-384.
British Hospitality Association official website
Date of last visit 13 March 2012
HYPERLINK “http://www.bha.org.uk/2010/10/12/hospitality-industry-is-uks-fifth-largest-employer-2/” http://www.bha.org.uk/2010/10/12/hospitality-industry-is-uks-fifth-largest-employer-2/
Dines (2008). Nick .The Effect of the Recession on the Hotel Sector. Tourisem Insights.
Eurac, Bolzano, Bozen . (2009). the effects of the financial and economic crisis on tourism activities . WFO. 1 (1), 4-14.
Jessop 2009. David. HYPERLINK “http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2009/01/090123_jessop_caribbean_tourism.shtml” Mitigating the effects on tourism of recession. BBC Caribbean.com.
HYPERLINK “http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?ct=all&st1=Sang+M.+Lee&fd1=aut&PHPSESSID=9lcr8qd9flacilv7n18bvet1q7” o “Author search for Sang M. Lee.” Sang M. Lee 2002 .An enterprise wide knowledge management system infrastructure, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 102 Iss: 1, pp.17 – 25
Small Cynthia T, Sage Andrew P (2006). Knowledge management and knowledge sharing: A review . ISO Press.
Swanborn (2010). Peter .Case Study Research. London: SAGE. 12-35.
Tobin (2009). Lucy. Hotel bankruptcies soaring on recession, study says. London Evening Standard 27July.
Yang and Wan (2004). The effect of knowledge management resource inputs on organizational effectiveness in the restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology. 1 (2), 174-189.
Zainal (2007). Zaidah. Case study as a research method. Jurnal Kemanusiaan bil.
