Management Assignment Samples

1. Introduction to the research proposal

1.1 Background Information

Tourism is the fast growing sector, and it is equally important in Australia. Its contribution to the GDP is $41 billion. This particular industry has more than 300000 of other business activities that are included like accommodation, cafes as well as restaurants, education sector, the retail sector, transport sector, etc. This study deals with the issue that is prevailing in the tourism industry on the topic relating to shortage of labor force in Australia. There is the employment of over 530000 due to this tourism industry. In the recent trend, it is noticed that there is the constant shortage of labor force of around 56000 workers. Due to the labor shortage, it is difficult for the industry to meet the demands of international level in order to provide tourism services, products as well as experiences.

1.2 Research aim statement

The main aim of this research study is to find out the issues that underlie on the shortage of labor force in Australia.

1.3 Research Objectives

• To promote career opportunities to the potential employees with the development of the program.
• To take various preventive measures to recruit new employees to this sector.
• To encourage nontraditional workers so that they get an opportunity to work in the tourism industry.
• To conduct training session so that the employees have an idea of the responsibilities they need to take while working in this particular sector.

1.4 Significance of the research

The research helped to bring out the issues that were faced by the tourism industry on the shortage of labor force in Australia. The research is conducted on the qualitative basis whereby labor is the subject of study. This research helps to bring out the development in the labor force by continuous training programs conducted for them.

1.5 Limitations

The limitations of this study are that most employees are leaving the job due to long working hours. As the time to conduct the research is for limited time, information is precise and concrete in nature. Due to hard work and stressful work environment, employees quit the job, and it showed a negative impact on the entire tourism industry,

2. Literature Review

This study deals with Australian hospitality as well as tourism industry based upon the issues faced due to the shortage of skilled labor. Several reasons are present for the shortage of skilled labor, and this study will successfully point out every aspect relating to tourism as well as hospitality management in Australia (Duncan, Scott and Baum, 2013). One of the issues that are prevailing in the hospitality industry is high turnover rate as far as staff are concerned.

Another issue for the reduced amount of staff is that the industry requires the staff to work for long hours as well as they are not allowed to take leave on special occasions. Staff members who are working in this industry are under huge stress as well as they need to work hard physically (Pearlman and Schaffer, 2013). The government of Australia is taking necessary measures to enhance in the labor as well as skill shortage that is prevailing in the tourism as well as the hospitality industry. They are recruiting more skilled labor especially from overseas that have the domain knowledge of this sector. Indigenous, as well as disabled workers, are employed by the government so that they are given an opportunity to expose to this sector. Another way that can help the sector to reduce the shortage of labor force is to give incentives that will encourage the employees to work more in the business enterprise (Baladacchino, 2013).

Random sampling is done whereby all the tourism industry is taken into consideration to deal with the problems of the shortage of labor (Joppe, 2012). Tourism sector engages in diverse culture, and many businesses are under this sector. The transport sector is also directly linked to the tourism sector. The problem is not faced only by the individual business but also the industry that are effectively competing in the global market. The government has come with the objectives to attain Tourism 2020 that focus more on the improvement of the labor shortage. Tourism Employment plans are developed in order to address the issues on the shortage of labor force in the tourism industry. The plan will essentially help in achieving the international competition to provide with the best quality product at reasonable prices.

Tourism employment plan helps to solve the problem of shortage of labor workforce in Australia (Chan and Kuok, 2011). This plan successfully takes retentive measures to conduct recruitment process as well as try best to retain the existing employees, as they are cost effective. This plan helps the industry players to look at the issues in an efficient manner. The solution is provided by this plan to attract the workers to come up with new ideas that will help in improvement of workforce planning. From the perspective of business, recruitment process will be easier so that it can effectively meet the requirements of the future activities. From the point of industry, it helps in maintaining collaboration on various business, training sector as well as government. It is important to work as a team so that goals are achieved in the end (Kara, Uysal and Magnini, 2012). As far as the local region is concerned, this plan helps to improve the training, and that will lead to employment opportunities. Training will directly help in gaining more skilled workforce that will improve the service quality as well as the overall experience will be better in the tourism sector.

It is required to define the profile that will help in setting various parameters in providing information to some of the specific region (Shani et al. 2014). There is often the lack of attractiveness noticed in the tourism as well as hospitality management. In order to solve this issue, it is required to set up a regional career that will be treated as targeting the secondary school students. It is required to grab their interest in this particular industry so that they are willing to work in this industry in the near future. Addition to that, programs should be conducted whereby the family members are also invited and tell them the importance of tourism industry. Another issue is the recruitment of individuals in the tourism as well as hospitality management. Innovative solution is required that will attract the workers to work in the given environment. It is essential to encourage the workers who are nontraditional in nature because that will add value to the workforce in an effective manner. Employment should be provided to the people who are disabled and need assistance for their daily livelihood (Ladkin, 2011). Employers who engage in the activities to employ people with disability will get financial help from equipment as well as provided with wide range of services. It is required to support the employers in order to employ indigenous workers who will help in increasing the growth of the particular industry.  Incentives and bonus will attract the workers to work more because they will get the extra pay for their additional hard work. It is always necessary to establish diverse workforce so that they can hire as well as train the nontraditional workforce.

Another issue that is prevailing in the labor shortage is the level of difficulty that is noticed in the local labor sourcing especially during the peak seasonal periods. This issue can be resolved by conducting a labor exchange program that will be between regions in order to fill up the demand as required (Richardson and Butler, 2012). It is required to accommodate the seasonal worker so that it can sustain especially in the peak seasons. The introduction of the seasonal program will help to provide the workers with the shortage of labor.

At the end of the literature review, it is noticed that there are many issues prevailing in the tourism as well as hospitality industry on the shortage of labor. Employees are not willing to work due to long working hours (Davidson and Wang, 2011). They were under the stressful condition and had to undergo physical work that was not possible for the residents in Australia. However, the government took various measures to solve the issues at local as well as international level. This study also displays the Employment Plan that focused mainly on recruitment of new workers and made strategies to attract them.

 3. Research paradigm and role of theory

3.1 Research paradigm

To carry out the research proposal regarding the issues of the labour shortage in Australia, qualitative research method will be incorporated to carry out the research work. The problems of the labour shortage are not experienced by the tourist who are visiting the country but by the managers of various travel agencies and tourist spots. Hence, by carrying out qualitative research method where the view points of the managers of these agencies will be evaluated to study the problems faced by the agencies due to the labour shortage. A questionnaire that will cover all the aspects regarding the labour shortage will be useful to reach the desired outcome in the research on the topic (Alonso and Northcote, 2010).

The qualitative research method will also help in evaluating the ontological and epistemological conditions that surround the problem in the tourism sector in Australia. The ontological condition will throw light on where the problems reside in the tourism sector and the epistemological conditions will throw lights on how the problem arose in the tourism sector of Australia(AUSTRALIAN TOURISM LABOUR FORCE REPORT LABOUR FORCE PROFILE (PART 1), 2015).

3.2 Theoretical underpinning

The main difference between applied research and academic research is that academic research is mainly based on the publications and journals regarding the topics, while applied research is based on the practical problems that the industry is facing right now and how the research will help in future to counteract the problems. On one hand, the research will require an academic reference regarding the publications in journals and a study of the previous research regarding the topic. On the other hand, the research will also adhere to the applied research as the tourism industry is already suffering from the labour shortage in the country. The applied research method will help to understand the problems being faced by the managers of various travel agencies (Brien, 2010).

As the research will mainly incorporate qualitative research method to study the problems of the labour shortage in the tourism industry hence, the research will induce a theory regarding the problems of the labour shortage in Australia. To induce a theory, the literature review regarding the problems of the labour shortage in the Australian tourism industry and how the managers are thinking to counteract the problems will be studied. The problems cited and the solutions mentioned in the literature review will help to generate a theory regarding the problems of labour shortage in the tourism industry and methods applied to solve the particular issues (Jefferson and Preston, 2010).

4. Research design

4.1 Methodology

To carry out the research regarding the problems of the labour shortage in the tourism industry in Australia, a qualitative approach will be incorporated to reach a desired outcome in the research. The qualitative approach will help to identify the problems faced by the managers in the various agencies due to the issues of the labour shortage. The research will incorporate both primary data as well as secondary data. The secondary data might help in the research work with the data that are already being collected regarding the current topic. The previous research will help in understanding what are the problems that the tourism industry is facing, while the outcome of the previous research works will help to understand what are the area that need in-depth research on the topic. In addition to this, the primary data that will be collected with the help of the questionnaire will help to understand the problems faced by the managers of the agencies directly from them and not through any other medium (Jones, 2009).

4.2 Nature of the research

The nature of the research will be a combination of exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. The research will explore the areas where the tourism industry is facing the problem. By exploring the answers given by the managers of the hotels, the research will be able to reach an outcome regarding where the main problem lies and which are the areas that need improvement. The nature of the research can be termed as descriptive and explanatory because, it will evaluate the secondary data and describe the problems that the tourism industry has been already been facing. In addition to this, the research will provide explanations to various problems, as to why do the problems exist and what are the factors that have led to the problems in the tourism industry (KARANASSOU and SALA, 2009).

4.3 Research Strategy

To carry out the research successfully, the research will evaluate a case study as well as carry out a survey to collect the data and reach an outcome. The case study will be based on a tourist destination called Broome as well as Red Centre, where the problems of labour shortage have been affected the most. By evaluating the previous researches that have been carried out on the tourist spot will help to evaluate the problems that been has been faced by Broome and Centre and hence, will help the readers to understand how similar problems have been faced by other tourist destination in Australia (Low and Everett, 2014).

In addition to this, a survey will be carried out to evaluate the problems that the managers of different hotels and travel agencies face due to the certain problems regarding the sudden downfall in the number of labours in the tourism industry. The questionnaire will mainly help to identify the problems face by the managers and what are the measures the managers are taking so that the problems of the labour shortage can be handled in the tourism sector (Tackling labour and skills issues in the tourism and hospitality industry, 2015).

5. Data collection

5.1 Data required

To reach the desired outcome in the research, the information regarding the source of labour issues in the tourism industry is mainly required. The managers need to answer the questions regarding what are areas that the industry is mainly facing the problems; are the labourers leaving the industry because they are getting better job opportunities in other industries? Are the labourers leaving the job citing instability in the tourism industry? Are the labourers having any other infrastructural issues that are driving them to switch the jobs? and so on. All these information will be required to carry out the research regarding the problems. In addition to this, the managers will be required to answer what are the steps they are taking to solve the issues regarding the labour shortage in the tourism industry (Peake, 2011).

5.2 Data Sources

The secondary data will be retrieved from the various journals or previous researches that have been performed or published regarding the issues faced by the different agencies regarding the labour shortage in the industry. In addition to this, the data received from the managers of various travel agencies or tourist spots will help to reach the desired outcome in the research.

5.3 Data collection methods and instrumentation

To carry out the research regarding the problems of labour shortage in the tourism industry of Australia, qualitative research is found to be the appropriate approach in the research; the qualitative approach will be combined with primary and secondary data to reach an expected outcome in the research (Richardson, 2009).

For the qualitative approach, the managers of the various agencies, hotels and tourist spots will be interviewed; the interviews will act as the primary data in the research. The questionnaire will include questions like

• Since when the organization is facing the problems of labour shortage?
• What are the complaints received by the organizations from the employees who are working in the organization?
• What are the main reasons the employees have pointed out while leaving the job?
• Has the manager evaluated which strata of the population are more prone to the leave the job?
• What are the methods applied by the managers to counteract the problems of the organization?

The fourth question will mainly be asked to see whether the labour shortage is arising due to the instability of the students who get into the tourism industry just for part time job and leave after they get a stable job according to the area of interest, or there are any serious issues related to the tourism infrastructure that are driving the people to leave the job.

The interviews will mainly be conducted through e-mails. The manager will receive the questionnaires in the personal e-mail id, and they will be asked to send the replies within a given period of time. The research will be carried out depending on the number of responses received from the managers.

The secondary data will be retrieved through online search engines that will provide the previous researched that have been done on this topic. All the researches may not be helpful in the present research; hence, an in-depth search of the previous work is required to identify the required data.

6. Sampling

• Non-probability sampling

The main difference between probability and non-probability sampling is that, in the former method all the individuals are given equal chance to respond to the questions, while the latter method does not get a chance to give equal opportunity to the entire respondent. As this research employees qualitative approach to reach an outcome, non-probability sampling will be applied in this situation. As the research is depending on the responses by the managers of the travel agencies, the labourers who are facing the problem are not getting a chance to put forward their problems in the research (Drinkwater, Eade, and Garapich, 2009).

• Sampling strategy

The non-probability sampling will follow the purposive sampling strategy where the researcher will select the respondents according to the objective of the research. As the research is carried out to study the labour shortage in the tourism industry in Australia and what are the methods applied by the managers to counteract the problems in the industry, the research mainly stresses on the managers and the problems faced by them. In addition to this, a purposive sampling strategy is employed as it has been already being judged that the managers are the best respondents, in this case, to make the readers aware of the problems and issues related to labour shortage (Ruhanen, and Cooper, 2009).

• Sample size

The research will prepare the questionnaire for 100 respondents and will be sent to them to given back within a set period. The research is considering the fact that all the 100 respondents may not send back the responses and hence, is choosing a huge number of people for the research work. Even if the half of the respondents sends back the replies, there are chances that the research will help to evaluate a considerable number of respondents to carry out the research.

7. Data analysis methods

As the research will be carried out in the qualitative approach; hence, the responses of the questions should not indicate any data or number but the perceptions of the managers of the various organizations. The questionnaire starts with the question that for how long the managers are experiencing the problem of labour shortage in the industry, the response will help the researcher to understand the time period since when the managers are experiencing the problem (Kusluvan et al., 2010). The time period since when the problem is persisting in the industry will help the researcher to understand the issues that have given rise to the problems in the industry. The complaints received by the managers from the workers will help the researcher to evaluate the main areas where the workers are facing issues in the industry. In agreement with the complaints received by the managers from the workers while working in the organization, the reasons will vary. The complaints that the workers are putting forward in the organization will eventually become the reason behind the leave from the organization (Tonts, 2010).

Finally, the strata of the population who are leaving the organization will mainly highlight the problems in the organization. Provided that number of students is leaving the industry may point towards the growing opportunities in other industries. The instability in the tourism industry is urging the students to leave the job and settle in a different industry of their choice. In addition to this, students see the tourism industry as a part time job opportunity and never take the work in the tourism industry as a stable one (Davidson, and Wang, 2011). Provided that the population other than the students are leaving, the infrastructure of the organization will be taken into consideration. In addition to this, the tourism requires a lot of travellings, hence it is the young generation who are more interested in the tourism industry. Gradually, when an individual starts ageing, the person tends to look for another job where there are less travelling and more in-house jobs. The tourism industry also demands extensive travelling as well as relocation to remote areas. The individuals are not always ready to relocate to remote areas and hence tend to leave the job (Richardson, 2010). There are various reasons why people are leaving the job and shifting to other industries, the questionnaires will help to identify the problems in the tourism industry and try to find out the methods applied by the managers to counteract the problems in the society (Joppe, 2012).

Though the secondary is a form where the research work is already done in the following topics, yet the secondary data can also help in finding out new data that are relevant to the topic. By analysing the secondary data, the existing problems in the industry will be evaluated. In addition to this, the outcome of the previous researches will also be helpful in finding out the limitations of the researches and how the researches are helping the future researchers in paving the way for further research (Scott, 2011).

8. Ethical considerations

While carrying out the research work, there are various ethical considerations are taken into account before as well as after the research work in carried out.

The researcher should not forcefully extract the information from the participants in the research. That is, if the participants are not willing to participate in the research work, the researcher is not allowed to threat or bribe the participant to take part in the research. The participants should given the freedom to responds according to the choice of the participant (Ruhanen, Mclennan, and Moyle, 2013). Before publishing the data, the researcher will take the necessary consent from the participant and make the participants aware of any data or information being used in the research work. The researcher is not allowed to publish any fake or false data in the name of the respondents that may help the researcher highlight the work among the readers. In addition to this, if any of the participants demand anonymity any information, the researcher should adhere to the request of the participant. The researcher is not allowed to alter or add any data that has not been given out by the researcher. The participants will be given a time period to respond to the questionnaire. Provided that any of the respondents is not submitting the responses in the given time period, the researcher can give a gentle reminder regarding the deadline for the submission. In spite of the reminder, when the participant is not submitting the responses, the researcher should understand the participant is not interested in taking part in the survey and should stop any further contact with the participant. Continuous poking regarding the submission of the responses can be termed as harassment in various cases and can be subjected to legal considerations if the participants complain to the law (Nickson, 2013).

9. Methodological limitations

Though the researcher will try every possible way to make the research fruitful, yet there are certain limitations in the project that is beyond the control of the researcher.

Firstly, the truthfulness of the participant while responding to the questions given in the questionnaire. It may happen that the participant is not able to trust the source of the questionnaire and thus give false replies to the questions asked.

Secondly, the time period given to the participants to respond to the questionnaire may not be enough to carry out the research work. Many participant might miss out the e-mail or have some other work, and hence may not be able to respond back to the researcher in the given time period (Duncan, Scott,  and Baum, 2013).

Finally, the sample size of the research may hugely affect the outcome of the research. The research mainly evaluates the problems faced by the various managers due to the problems of the labour shortage. However, the research does not explore the problems as faced by the labourers in the industry. The point of view of the managers may differ from the point of view of the workers in the industry. Hence, this can be considered as the limitation in the research.

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