Factors influencing effective communication in Singapore Tourism Industry

Selected Topic: Factors influencing effective communication in Singapore Tourism Industry.

Section 1: Introduction & Objectives

Firms across the world have been trying to find new ways to achieve growth and competitiveness. Creating growth within the firm is challenging, and internal communication is essential in the business world today. According to Corey Moserey, internal communication involves promoting effective communications within the organization and facilitating a dialog within the organization.  In this study, we will be exploring the factors that can influence the effectiveness of communication between employees in Singapore tourism organizations. According to MacLeod, given the increasing diversity of employees that the tourism industry receives nowadays, the effectiveness of communication between employees has become a crucial part of building a successful and efficient business (MacLeod, 2009). Hence, with great emphasis on this matter, we will, in this paper, undertake an in-depth review of the relevant factors that can influence the effectiveness of communication in an organization.

Given the complex nature of the study, we will be taking more of a qualitative approach to understanding what employees identify as critical factors. Future research with more resources and time can consider delving into the quantitative aspect of the study to yield more concrete trends from specific interventions. The role of communication in an organization is to build and nourish employees’ relations and establish trust in providing reliable and timely information. According to Elving, effective communication should have three primary objectives (Elving, 2005).

1. The information communicated to employees should be understood and accepted concerning intent, content, merit, and the relevance of the message. As such, the employees should understand each other and be able to communicate with tourists.
2. Goals to be achieved concerning directing, informing, motivating, or gaining an audience among the employees and clients. The research will try to evaluate the initiatives started by the company to achieve those goals.
3. The result of improved communication is to achieve improvement in terms of product quality, performance, sales, and satisfaction.

The key objectives of this study are to the various factors that can influence effective communication in the Singapore hospitality and tourism industry. The fundamental goal can be further broken down into secondary purposes based on the different variables that we would be testing for, namely training, positional difference, and cultural diversity. These will be studied in a qualitative focus study with a selected MNC, exploring different departments and identifying their critical views on matters that affect the effectiveness of communication within the organization. In point form, According to Powell, the key objectives the research should cover are:

1. To determine critical factors that affect the effectiveness of communication in the company. According to Singapore Tourism Board, Tourism in Singapore has witnessed rapid development since in late 1990’ with an estimated 18 million visitors expected yearly as from the year 2019; there is a need to research as it affects the overall tourism industry.
2. To evaluate factors that employees in the Singapore tourism industry feel affect communication effectiveness in their company. The research will show if the employees are equipped with a multiplex of languages to help deal with the upsurge of tourists from various parts of the world.
3. To rank and evaluate the importance and significance of selected factors that affect communication competencies to the employees working at the Singapore Tourism Industry and how they are vital in determining communication.

The problems identified through the data analysis are analyzed. The results would allow for the most efficient and effective development of effective communication techniques within the company.

1.1 Significance of the study

Although extensive research has been carried on in the tourism and hospitality industry concerning broad functional areas, which include; customer loyalty, job performance, organizational innovativeness, brand image, productivity, and social entrepreneurship, the study on effective communication is relatively incomplete. There is a significant communication problem that affects the uniformity of the cultural diversity workforce in the Singapore tourism and hospitality industry, which reduces the achievements of organizational goals. Little is known about the impact of effective communication in a culturally diversified workforce. In this research, we will study communication issues affecting employees’ input, organizational culture, and leadership in the Singapore hospitality and tourism industry.

Section 2: Dependent Variables and Independent Variables and Literature Reviews

          IVs                                                                              DV

Source: Self-Created by Student

Section 3: Literature Reviews

Several papers are documenting two factors influencing communication in an organization that can affect a project either in a good or a wrong way, which are; a clear communication plan and availability of technology. The use of the internet plays a crucial role in tourists’ area of destination, as the tourists search for travel information.

Kinnersley, Featheringham, Keefer, Butler, and Rollnick’s studies concluded that applied communication ability is essential than theoretical education. Beardsley’s study stressed on the importance of acquiring communication skills through teaching. Cickovska emphasized on the importance of learning multiple languages for tourism students (Cickovska, 2012). Tavmergen, concluded that communication between service personnel, local residents, and visiting tourists play a vital part in fulfilling tourists’ needs.

Park, Focuses on the factors influencing communication in the tourism industry as follows (Park, 2002).

• Chain of command and policy implementation affects communication policy.
• Human relations with integration between employees and management encourage participation and promote input in the tourism industry.
• The organizational structure leads to a clear and concise communication plan and relay.
• Proper system use helps in the availability of communication; this is where the correct channels are used and the follow-up of the chain of command.
• Through effective communication in the team’s management, the information remains effective.

In the study that we will be undertaking, based on the study’s objectives, we can identify the dependent variables and the independent variables that we will be considering.

• The dependent variable is the metric that we will study as a part of the research and the metric outcome measured. The study will be linked to the effectiveness and productivity of work. Hence a good gauge of the communication effectiveness can be linked to two key metrics in the form of job satisfaction as well as job productivity (Pfister et al., 2009). These two measures would help us make a gauge on how good communication is within the company. The relevance between the standards is based on the methodology that we will adopt. Different factors will be introduced to different groups of employees to assess the impact of the said intervention on these two measures, which can offer an approximation of where productivity and happiness are increased.

The independent variables that we have identified in the introduction are as follows.

• Training Hours. Training in an organization is to facilitate learning concerning a job. Investing in training is of the essence of the organizational long term success. Training programs build relevant skills in financial management, strategic management, marketing, and business development areas. No doubt, the number of group training in terms of communication and teamwork can affect the overall efficiency and effectiveness of communication. However, the actual impact of such training begs the question (Schultz & Lavenda, 2005). In this research, we will explore this as one of the possible independent variables that affect communication effectiveness. The training that will be considered is communication-based training or teamwork training.
• Positional Difference. Another area that affects communication in an organization is the hierarchy: senior officials often not integrating well with those in lower ranks. Existing studies show that the presence of a more significant difference in terms of the authority can result in a reduction in the effectiveness of communication (Smith, 2008). Hence, this is one of the independent variables that we will be exploring. According to MacLeod, Lack of effective communication from senior managers, all the way to the lowest rank would lead to a lack of clear guidelines among the employees and this would lead to a challenge to meet the set goals.

Cultural Diversity. Quality verbal communication is essential in business as you come across people of various cultures, races, and ages. Verbal communication is vital in business meetings and plays a crucial role in relating to clients. Understanding organizations’ objectives, technology, politics, resources, culture, and constraints are essential before considering the growth of information architecture. According to Luijters, Cultural diversity occurs when a company employs people of different backgrounds regardless of religion, race, or culture (Luijters, 2008). Historically, Singapore has a tradition of accepting and promoting cultural diversity. Cultural diversity in an organization makes communication difficult as the mind-set of people with different cultures differ in terms of opinions. According to Goh, Singapore is a multi-cultural country comprising of Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and people of different cultures. (Goh, 2008).

In the Singapore Tourism industry, some factors need to be addressed in the workplace. In this study, we are going to show that cultural diversity affects communication in the Tourism industry. As workplaces are integrated, cross-cultural understanding is vital for everyone in the organization, including managers, executives, business readers, and employees. There is a need to be knowledgeable of factors that make communication across different cultures to fail or succeed. These factors include ethnic, racial, cultural, roles, identities, individual personalities, social class, age, and gender roles (Luijters, 2008).

Several research papers seem to agree ethnic diversity in the tourism industry affects effective communication in the organization and affects GDP per capita growth. In 2014 Bacsi’s research reveals positive results of cultural diversity as there are competitiveness and innovations in the tourism industry. Similar analyses have proved a positive effect on a variety of tourism competitiveness and economic freedom. Other studies, like DiRienzo’s research, suggest that ethnic and linguistic differences negatively influence tourism competitiveness.

According to Spierenburg, given the context of the global economy today, where there is a broad mix of employees from a different cultural background supported by ample literature is a crucial factor affecting the effectiveness of communication between employees (Spierenburg et al., 2006). The communication problem draws back to the concept of the employee’s cultural intelligence (Sundermand & Kroll, 2006).

• Team Size. Indispensable to meetings and effective communication would be the number of employees engaged in each project. The figures will vary based on the firm’s project urgency and importance. Still, the size of the teams that employees are exposed to can affect communication effectiveness and even drive employees in organizations to strive for improvement (Powell & Lorenz, 2019). This research will explore how any variation in team size will affect communication effectiveness.

However, we will assess how significant each is to employees in the Singapore tourism industry and try to understand their views on the issue based on these different factors that we have identified.

Section 4: Research Methodology

4.1 Research Methods

The research will use both primary and secondary data collection methods. Due to the nature of the study being heavily tied to actual industrial applications, we will seek to conduct a meta-analysis of the existing survey and an in-depth review of the survey (Jensen, 2013). The measurement will be in the form of qualitative data that will form a basis for possible relation formulation.

4.2 Research Strategy

Different research methods can be used in primary data collection. According to Creswell, there are three research methods which include: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods Qualitative methods, however, use open-ended questions to avoid predetermined answers. Mixed methods are a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods (Creswell, 2014). Qualitative methods are conducted in the form of ethnography, case studies, or narrative theory, whereas quantitative is applied in surveys and experiments. Qualitative designs avoid predetermined answers by using open-ended questions. The mixed-method is a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods (Creswell, 2014)

In this study, an online survey and sending of online questionnaires to respondents through emails will be used. The reason for this method to be used is the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic; it’s also a cheap and time effective method.  Moreover, the response rate in an online survey is high as compared to traditional studies.

4.3 Data collection

To conduct the study, we will select a multinational company to work with us and undertake a focus group study with employees from different departments. A series of questions will be posed to them concerning the effectiveness of communication within their current work environment (Jensen, 2013). Following which, they will be asked to rank the various factor in terms of how significant they feel the elements are in ensuring or affecting the level and effectiveness of communication within the organization.

Based on the results that are obtained, the responses will be analyzed, and keywords will be determined from the conversation as a highlight of importance for the matter. The results will then be compared to existing literature that is conducted on the topic so that we can make a comparison of the results that we have obtained against these international studies.

4.4     Data Sampling and Population of Study

The study will use purposive sampling to evaluate communication effectiveness for a group of 60 people in various age groups working in the Singapore tourism industry, who will be selected randomly. The sampling method is preferred since the chosen elements will not in any way relate to each other, thus giving an equal chance that the study population is not selective. The qualitative methodology will be used to generate statistical data, which is also quantified and focused on data measurements (Jensen, 2013). The study will involve both primary and secondary data with the primary data collected through the administration of questionnaires that will be distributed across the company. Secondary sources of data will be obtained through academic journals, news articles, and textbooks about communication effectiveness (Jensen, 2013). The survey will be distributed among tourism industries that employ a large workforce, foreign or domestic, which will provide the intended type of participants.

Data will be collected through telephone interviews, emails, and online questionnaires sent to the respondents due to the nature of complications arising from the Covid-19 epidemic. An online survey’s importance is to answer the impact of communication in the organization and its effect on the tourism industry in Singapore. The respondents will be asked about how long they have worked in the tourism industry, and their views and communication challenges they have encountered in the tourism industry.

4.5 Statistical analysis

Primary data that will be obtained will be summarized and then tabulated and analyzed through graphs and frequency tables (Jensen, 2013). The questionnaires will determine the level of communication efficiency in the organization. The data obtained is used to also subject to observation, intellectual and comparative methods of analysis.

• Ethical Considerations

Possible ethical considerations for the study are the privacy of the participants as well as their responses. Hence, to protect the anonymity of the respondents, the study will be conducted through blinded research where the participant’s identity will be hidden and not revealed. The participants’ responses will also be redacted to remove any possible markers that could cause them to be identifiable to readers. The results will help to alleviate the potential ethical considerations that can hinder the participants from revealing their real thoughts with regards to the effectiveness of communication within the environment. Participants will have to be protected in that aspect.

Section 5: Schedule

References

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