The role of people training and development in delivering service quality in UK based Thai restaurants

Oxford Brookes of Hospitality Management

Oxford Brookes University

THE ROLE OF PEOPLE TRAINING AND

DEVELOPMENT IN DELIVERING SERVICE

QUALITY IN UK BASED THAI RESTAURANTS

Trang Ngo Thi Quynh

Academic Year 2014- 2015

This dissertation is submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s

Degree in International Hotel and Tourism Management

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DECLARATION

This dissertation is the result of my own independent work. Where material other than

my own work has been used it is appropriately attributed and reference in the text.

I agree that this dissertation may be made available for reference and photocopying at

the discretion of the Head of School, who will only give permission for such reproduction

to the text which s/he considers fair and reasonable.

Trang Ngo Thi Quynh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation is a result of my Master journey at Oxford School of Hospitality

Management. I would like to send thanks to all lecturers and professors who are part of

the School, for the passion and contribution for teaching and supporting students in their

academic and professional experiences.

I would like to thank Dr. Judie Gannon for all her help and guidance throughout my

project.

A significant “thank you” to owners and managers in eight Thai restaurants I interviewed

for their supports during the time I did my research.

Last, but not least, I spend my sincere thank for my family and my friends for their

support throughout all these years of studies.

Thank you very much.

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ABSTRACT

Literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of people training and development in

delivering service quality in UK based Thai restaurants. The study focuses on small and

medium sized Thai restaurants in the UK, particularly in London, Oxford and Bath city.

These restaurants are independent, family- run business and brand Thai restaurants.

Design/ method/ approach

Based on a choice of phenomenon philosophy, the researcher conducted a small- scale

qualitative research with one observation and twelve interviews of owners and managers

in a sample of eight Thai restaurants. As applying a purposive sample technique, the

research carried out the study in chosen small and medium size Thai restaurants, both

run by families and brands in three cities such as London, Oxford and Bath. In terms of

interview, the researcher chose semi-structure interviews to explore the views of Thai

owners and management team on the impact of people training and development in the

delivery of service quality. These chosen interviewees hold positions such as operation,

business, training managers, assistant managers in chosen Thai restaurants. One non￾participating observation was taken place at one specific restaurant site in Oxford to

observe how service was delivered by staffs.

Findings

This study will add to the existing knowledge by addressing the impact of people training

and development on deciding which dimension of service quality (technical or functional

level)

Research limitations

The study used qualitative research, semi-interviews, observation which leads to a

limitation of generalization and data validity.

Practical implications

Implications from the study could assist Thai restaurants, both run by families and

brands to benefit from how to conduct training method and content to influence staff

performance and customer perception of service quality

Originality/ value

This paper is the first study to explore the role of training and development in the

delivery of service quality in selection of Thai restaurants in the UK

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Keywords: Service quality, Ethnic restaurant, human resource development, people

training and development

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Table of Contents

Table 1: A summary of restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in full-service

restaurants

Table 2: Research design summary

Table 3: Constructing question content following the research objectives

Table 4: Time schedule interview

Table 5: Data order and display

Table 6: Cluster of data collection

Table 7: A summary of data cluster collected from interview and observation

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Table of figures:

Figure 1: A conceptual framework of the thesis

Figure 2: Model illustrating alternative philosophical approaches to research (Shepard et

al., 1993).

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale ………………………………………………………………….……………….11

2. The context of the study ………………………………………………………………..12

3. The significance of the study…………………………………….…..…………..…… 14

4. Aim and objective……………………………………………………………….………. 15

5. Scope ……………………………………………………………………..………………..15

6. The overall structure of the thesis ……………………………………………………15

7. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….…….17

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….…..18

2.1. Service……………………………………………..……………………………….……. 19

2.3. Service quality………………………………………………………………………….. 20

2.4. Customer satisfaction ……………………………………………………………….…21

2.5. Restaurant attributes to customer experiences………………………………….. 21

2.6. Restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in ethnic

restaurants……………………………………………………………………………………. 25

2.7. Delivery service quality through people …………………………………………..26

2.8. Human resource management approach ………………………………………..…27

2.8. Human resource management in service industry…………………………….… 31

9. Human resource management in SMEs in service industry Relationship

between human resource management and the delivery of service quality

…………………………………………………………………………………………..29

2.10 Training …………………………………………………………………………………..30

2.11. Training approach …………………………………………………………………..…33

2.12. Practice of training in SMEs …………………………………………………….….. 35

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2.13. Conceptual framework …………………………………………………………..……34

2.14. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..35

CHAPET 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….……..37

3.2. Research philosophy ……………………………………………………………….….37

3.3. Research approach and strategy……………………………………..………………39

3.3.1 Research approach ……………………………………………………………………39

3. 3.2 Research strategy……………………………………………………………………. 40

3.4. Research design…………………………………………………………………………40

3.5 Research sample…………………………………….………………………………….. 41

3.6. Data collection technique………………………………………………………………45

3.6.1 Observation……………………………………………………………………………. 45

3.6.2 In- depth interview………………………………………………………………….… 47

3.7 Analysis of data ………………………………………………………………………….50

3.8 Ethnics consideration …………………………………………………..………………55

3.9. Limitation of the research methodology…………………………………………… 55

3.10. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….…….. 55

Chapter 4: FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….… 56

4.2 Findings from interview …………………………….…………………………….….…57

4.3 Findings from observations ……………………………………………………………68

4.4 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..…69

Chapter 5: Discussion

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5.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………… 71

5.2 . Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants

…………………………………………………………………………………………..………..71

5.3. Cluster 2: The role of staff interaction in customer experience …………….….74

5.4. Cluster 3: Practice of training and development ……………………………….…77

5.5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………. 79

Chapter 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

6.1 Introduction……………………………………………….……………………………… 81

6.2 Accomplishing the aim of the thesis……………………………….………..………. 81

6.3. The unique of the study ……………………………………………………..…………82

6.4 Recommendations for further research …………………….……………………….83

6.5 Limitation …………………………………….……………………………..……………..83

6.6. Conclusion ………………………………….……………….……………..…………….84

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Observation guide

Appendix 2: Observation note

Appendix 3: invitation to join the interview

Appendix 4: Interviewee Engagement Participant Information Sheet

Appendix 5: A consent form

Appendix 6: Interview guide

Appendix 7: Interview transcript

Appendix 8: Example of data coding

Appendix 9: Basic design of case studies undertaken in the research

Appendix 10: Demographic data about Interviewees

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1. Rationale

Every success of an individual organization depends on its human resource. It is

absolutely appropriate in the restaurant sector (Tepeci, 2001) where there is a high level

of customer-staff contact (Kotler et al., 1998). Many researchers (Hartline and Ferrell,

1996; Kelley and Hoffman, 1997; Parasuraman et al., 1985) have emphasized the

importance of service employees in creating and providing good service quality. As such,

positively perceived service quality is a reflection of how effectively service employees

perform and communicate with customers to meet their expectations (Hays and Hill,

2000; Sheng and Lin, 2004). Staff interactions with customers could be seen from

concern and civility (Windsted, 2000) or demonstration of listening and understanding by

employees (Chandon, Leo and Philippe, 1997). As a result, employee skills play a key

role in ensuring service quality (Farrel et al., 2001; Nick et al., 2005). In a sense, well￾trained staffs with certain knowledge can help to offer good service quality (Rees,

1995).

In the hospitality industry, service skills have been of great interest (Chand, 2010). This

industry has become one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, nevertheless, there

are certain challenges in matching employee skills with the industry requirements

(Baum, 2006; Thomas et al., 2000). Seen from a report of The Hospitality Training

Foundation (2000), the hospitality all over Great Britain is in need of 7,736 vacancies in

July, 1999 which accounts for nearly 5 per cent of the industry demand (Prattten, 2003).

Staffs in hotels and restaurants, for instance, are short of knowledge and experiences in

certain operative level occupations, especially relating to customer service (Dewhurst et

al., 2007). One main reason for that shortage is due to a quality of human resource

(Pratten, 2003). Particularly in restaurants, most of full-time and part-time staffs are

students or young people. Reasons for their choice of joining hospitality job are in need

of money for tuition fee or looking a temporary job while studying or travelling (Lucas,

1995). They are seen an only available labour source that restauranteurs can easily

approach (Lucas and Ralson, 1997). Most of them do have experience in restaurants

and consider working in restaurants as a “transient” job in their career path (Kelliher and

Perrett, 2000).

Yet, nowadays, waiters and waitresses are requested to deliver a high level of skill and

knowledge in serving customers (Pratten, 2003). In such a competitive hospitality

industry, every service organization needs to focus on service quality for its competitive

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