PHD-Department of Hospitality Management

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https://repository.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/784

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Browsing PHD-Department of Hospitality Management by Subject "Kenya"

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    Determinants of Active Transportation among 10 – 12 Year Old School Children in Nairobi City County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2020-08) Onyango, Sylvester William Hayker
    Active Transportation (AT) contributes significantly to the health and wellbeing among children and youth. This benefit can in turn be carried over to adulthood. AT is an important factor in increasing levels of physical activity (PA) in children. The objectives of this study were to; assess AT to school and other destinations, determine barriers of AT to school and other destinations, examine the effects of socio-economic status on AT, determine difference in pedometer step count data and analyse difference in pedometer Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) rates data for 10 – 12 year old children in high socio-economic status (HSES), mid socio-economic status (MSES) and low socio-economic status (LSES) regions in Nairobi City County. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used to determine the participation in AT and resultant PA rates. Stratified random sampling was used to get 1,200 school children (boys and girls) aged 10 – 12 year old. Of the number sampled, 877 returned complete parental conscent forms and duly filled questionnaires, attaining a response rate of 78.2%. Data on PA and MVPA was collected using PiezoRx® pedometer sets while data on AT, demographic characteristics, parents and children’s views collected through questionnaires. Chi-square test was used to compare the children’s responses on AT as well as rates of PA. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Test was used to ascertain difference in PA and MVPA across regions in Nairobi City County. A p-value of ≤0.05 was considered significant in the testing of hypotheses. Majority of the children 629 (71.7%) walked to and from school while 1 (0.1%) rode a bicycle to and from school. More children in LSES used AT to and from school and other destinations than the children from MSES and HSES. AT to and from school showed strong statistical association significance across the three regions of Nairobi City County. Safety affected AT choice more for children in LSES 214 (24.4%) than MSES 357 (40.7%) and HSES 306 (34.9%). Among the socioeconomic factor indicators, only the level of education of a parent/guardian and family ownership of vehicles determined the children’s choice of transport mode. Ownership of motorcycles and/or bicycles had no significant difference on the children’s choice of transportation mode. Most children achieved the recommended pedometer step counts on the first day x̅=13,502.43 and a weekly x̅=12,490.53 of wearing the pedometer. The study recommends that Nairobi City County in liaison with all stakeholders develop interventions for increasing AT among school going children. This should be done by developing safe routes to school, walking and cycling programmes that ensure local environment of schools’ catchment regions provide opportunities for children to walk and cycle. The results from this research may inform policy formulation on development of future school transportation systems and physical characteristics of schools.
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    Food Safety Management Systems Orientation and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point System Uptake by Hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2021) Chege, Peninah Wanjiku; Moses Miricho; Bichage Gesage
    Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system is an important food safety management system that most food production entities across the world endeavor to implement. In spite of this, a review of extant literature on food safety management reveals that the successful adoption of the HACCP system faces a number of challenges regarding its management and implementation. The barriers to effective execution of HACCP system vary from country to country and from one hospitality sector to another. The general objective of this study was to establish the influence of food safety management systems orientation on HACCP system uptake in star rated hotels in Nairobi City County given the moderating effect of a set of contextual factors namely food safety regulations, market forces, size of the hotel, management commitment and funding level. The specific objectives of the study were to assess the following aspects within the four and five star-rated hotels in Nairobi City County: i) the influence of employee behaviors towards HACCP system on HACCP system uptake; ii) the influence of employee attitudes towards HACCP system on HACCP system uptake; iii) the influence of employee knowledge of HACCP system on HACCP system uptake; iv) the moderating effect of contextual factors on the relationship between employee food safety management systems orientation and HACCP system uptake and lastly v) the effect of the contextual factors on HACCP system uptake in the four and five star rated hotels in Nairobi City County. Corresponding null hypotheses were also set for empirical assessment. The study was guided by the logical positivism philosophy of research and adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. Quantitative data was successfully collected from a total of 33 executive chefs and 255 chefs who constituted the study units/respondents of the study from 16 out of the targeted 22 four and five star rated hotels in Nairobi City County. In addition, qualitative data was collected from a total of 16 Food and Beverage Managers through an interview schedule with one manager being interviewed from each of the 16 hotels. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statics, regression analysis and partial correlations while content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The study results established a significantly positive relationship between employee behaviors and attitudes towards HACCP system and the star rated hotels’ HACCP system uptake. The study further found that that contextual factors direct influence on the hotels’ HACCP system uptake was significantly positive for size of the hotel, management commitment and adequacy of HACCP system funding while market forces effect on HACCP system uptake was found to be significantly negative. When the moderating effect of the contextual factors on the relationship between food safety orientation and HACCP system uptake by the star rated hotels in Nairobi City County was assessed, it was established that food safety regulations, market forces, size of the hotel and management commitment had a significantly negative influence on this relationship. Although the study had certain limitations, it nonetheless offers opportunities for future research. In addition, the study provides important recommendations to hotel managers and other food production industry practitioners on requisite considerations when implementing HACCP system in addition to advancing the frontiers of knowledge on the concept of food safety management in general and HACCP system in particular.
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    Organizational Culture and Women's Career Advancement in Three to Five-Star Hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2023) Maringa, Leah; Rosemarie Khayiya; Vincent Maranga
    The profile of the hospitality industry is characterised as youthful, with a high proportion of women. However, in the corporate hotel ladder, women are underrepresented at every level, non in the middle and senior management and fall in number the higher they climb. Only 5% of women make it to the very top. In addition, most studies on organizational culture and women's advancement come from North America, Europe and a few from Asia. Studies that have been done in Kenya fail to capture this important area. Arising from this gap, this research aimed to provide an understanding of the organizational culture factors that influence the advancement of women into top management levels in 3 to 5-star rated hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya. This study examined the relationship between organizational culture, the dependent variable and the hotel environment, the mediating variable on women's career advancement, and the independent variable. The objectives of the study were to establish the cultural beliefs about women, workplace practices and structures and patterns of interaction on the independent variable of women's career advancement in the Nairobi City County 3 to 5-star rated hotels. The study had five hypotheses. The study adopted embedded mixed model design involving a pragmatic paradigm. The target population was 342 employees from 35 three to five-star hotels in Nairobi City County. Of the total, 18 hotels were sampled using systematic random sampling. Purposive sampling was used as the sampling technique to select 96 heads of departments from each of the 18 Nairobi hotels. The systematic sampling technique was used in this research to select 246 operatives. This research used interview schedules and questionnaires to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyse the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics employing percentages, frequencies, means, and standard deviations was used to establish the demographic characteristics and perceptions of managers on the various organizational culture dimensions. Factor analysis, multiple linear regression, was used to identify the best predictor variable got women career advancement. The study used hierarchical regression analysis to test whether the hotel environment moderated the effect of organizational culture on women career advancement. Generally, this research showed that organizational culture influences women's career advancement Specifically, cultural beliefs about gender prevalence hurt women's career advancement in 3-5 star rated hotels in Nairobi City County, leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis. Under the workplace practices, talent retention has a positive and significant effect on women's career advancement in 3-5 star rated hotels providing evidence against the null hypothesis. From the interviews work life balance, long working hours, and extensive travel are obstacles to women career advancement Inadequate decision-making power possessed by women and male dominance in social gatherings had a negative and significant influence on women career advancement. This study also indicated that the hotel environment has a moderating role in the relationship between cultural beliefs about gender prevalence and women's career advancement but no moderation effects were noted with workplace practices and patterns of interaction. This research makes necessary recommendations to hotel practitioners to promote gender-neutral culture in the hotels, by providing unconscious bias training for all employees and to the policymakers to development and implement a standard framework for monitoring and evaluation of women career adoption. To achieve maximum desired change that promotes women career growth in hotels most efficiently, priority emphasis in any intervention should be given to the organization support factor of work place practices variable.
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    Tipping Impetus on Food Service Quality in Two and Three Star Hotels within Kisumu County-Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2021) O, Were Simon; Moses Ngatia Miricho; Vincent Nyamari Maranga
    Tipping is believed to be the foundation of compromised food service quality within hotel restaurants. This is as a result of the discriminatory food service, with a predispo-sition towards clients who are perceived to be good tippers unlike bad tippers as well as non-tippers. Thus selective food service, which is partly associated with the tipping ability of clients, remains a challenge to hotel managers as it is the main contribution to restaurant service failures. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the tip-ping impetus on food service quality in two and three star hotels. Equity theory, reci-procity theory, and the social norm theory were applied by the study to yield the pro-posed fusion model of tipping. The study was guided by four specific objectives; to de-termine the relationship of rewards upon perception of service on food service quality, to examine the association between incentives for improved future service and food ser-vice quality, to establish the relationship of the social norms of tipping on food service quality and to investigate the moderating effect of demographic factors on the relation-ship between tipping and food service quality in two and three star hotels within Kisu-mu County. Descriptive and exploratory research survey designs were adopted. The study was carried out in nine hotels within Kisumu County, among which one hotel was selected for pre-testing. On the other hand, respondents constituted food service clients and managers, who were selected via simple random sampling as well as purposive sampling respectively. Thus 384 food service clients, eight food and beverage as well as general managers were sampled. Questionnaires, semi-structured interview guides and content analysis were used in the collection of data. Reliability was determined by Cronbach‟s coefficient Alpha test (> 0.70) while content validity was used to assess the internal validity of the research instruments. The study applied Pearson‟s correlation coefficient, Linear regression, Multiple regression, Hierarchical Multiple regression as well as Stepwise Multiple regression at 0.05% level of significance to determine the re-lation, direction and magnitude between the study variables and test the hypotheses. The study results show that respondents‟ food service quality was significantly related to rewards upon perception of service (P ˂ 0.05). Further, the correlation analysis yielded results showing that respondents food service quality was significantly related to incen-tives for improved future service (rho = 0.453). Nonetheless, respondents food service quality was significantly related to the social norms (F = 14.27, P ˂ 0.05). And lastly, the study found a moderating effect of the demographic factors on the relationship be-tween tipping and food service quality. Further, the study gave results indicating service level as the best tipping-food service quality predictor (t = 3.714, Sig. 0.000), while al-cohol consumption was the least predictor (t = -1.172, Sig. 0.242). The study therefore recommended the ministry of Tourism and Wildlife to establish and document a tipping policy in order to have control on the tipping process across the entire hospitality ser-vices industry for purposes of ensuring standardized, excellent and continuous food ser-vice quality.