EMPLOYEE TURNOVER RATE-
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
MARRIOTT HOTEL IN GENT
PHUONG DAO – 435908 - SAXION UNIVERSITY OF APLLIED SCIENCES SUBMISSION DATE: 02/07/2020
THESIS REPORT
Thesis report Marriott Hotel Gent
Title: Employee turnover rate – Internal communication
Name and student number: Phuong Dao – 435908
Place and year: Amersfoort, 02nd, July, 2020
Module: Thesis
Organization: Marriott hotel in Gent
First examiner: Vanessa Urdaneta
Second examiner: Erik Pakkert
Preface
This report is an advisory and research project for the Marriott hotel in Gent. The report is written by Minh Phuong Dao. The main problem that this thesis investigates is the reason behind the employee turnover rate of Marriott hotel in Gent, which is the effectiveness of internal communication.
The goal of this thesis is to improve internal communication by contributing a new communication plan. At the end of the report, the implementation and financial implications will be discussed.
The thesis is applied to the Hospitality of Business School and APA guidelines.
I want to express my most enormous gratitude to my first and second examiner. Thank you for your guidance, support, and advice during the thesis progress. Thank you for your dedication and patience; I have finally completed the thesis in time with your help.
Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends for all of encouragement, inspiration, and motivation.
Amersfoort, 02nd, July, 2020
Summary
In recent years, the hospitality industry has become more and more popular in the labor market, which resulted in fierce competition among organizations. However, the Marriott hotel in Gent is facing a turnover rate of 33%, which is much higher than the average rate and shows that it is not healthy. With the high employee turnover rate, the company experiences many consequences from the inconsistency of service quality to a high recruiting and training cost. Even though the company has been experiencing these negative influences, serious solutions and main reasons have not been found. Many reasons cause a high employee turnover rate; however, in this report, the researcher will focus on ineffective internal communication. Hence, severe measures about internal communication should be applied to reduce the turnover rate. This report is a research project with specific advice to the company, which aims to improve the effectiveness of the internal communication of the Marriott hotel in Gent to reduce the turnover rate. By using mixed-methods, the researcher uses both quantitative and qualitative research. This method helps the researcher look at the problem from different angles and balance the one approach method's weakness. Quantitative analysis provides data from a large population. This research is used to understand generally the degree of satisfaction of employees in the Marriott hotel in Gent with internal communication. From that overview picture that quantitative research made, the qualitative will follow up. By using qualitative research, details, and more in-depth information of the participants will be discussed. This research provides detailed information, and the expectations and opinions of employees at Marriott hotel in Gent will be conceived from the interview. Due to an unexpected situation, the field research changed from face-to-face interviews to online interviews, and hand out questionnaires will be removed. Even though this is an unfavorable condition, the data collection and analysis progress turns out good. Ultimately, the satisfaction with internal communication between employees at the Marriott hotel in Gent is average with three main problems: the inefficient communication tools, absence of meetings and feedback sessions, and interaction between departments. Therefore, a communication plan is conducted with three main factors: communication standards, meetings, and feedback sessions, and cross-functional teams. The advisory's goal is to contribute a solution to the company and specify the implementation, assessment, and financial implications.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 7
1.1. Background information about the client 7 1.2. Thesis purpose 8 1.3. Management question 8 1.4. The objective for the advisory part 9 1.5. Research objective 9 1.6. Sub-questions 9 1.7. Reading guide 9
2. Theoretical framework 10
2.1. Description of the search methods used 10 2.2. Core concepts 10
2.2.1. Employee turnover 10
2.2.2. Employee turnover intention and turnover rate 11
2.2.3. Internal communication 11
2.2.4. Effective internal communication 12
2.2.5. Relationship between internal communication and employee turnover 12
2.3. Literature review 13 2.4. Theories of internal communication 13 2.5. Operationalization 14 3. Research 15 3.1. Methodology 15 3.2. Quantitative research 15 3.2.1. Research question 15 3.2.2. Research strategy 15 3.2.3 Data analysis 16 3.3. Qualitative research 16 3.3.1. Research question 16 3.3.2. Research strategy 16 3.3.3. Data analysis 17 4. Result 18
4.1. Qualitative research analysis 18 4.2. Quantitative research analysis 20
5. Conclusion 22 6. Discussion 25 6.1. Validity 25 6.2. Reliability 26 7. Advice 27 7.1. Target audiences 27 7.2. Alternatives 27 7.3. Objectives 37
7.4. Communication standards 37 7.5. Implementation strategy 40
Afterword 41
Bibliography 43
Appendix 46
Appendix I: Literature research 46 Appendix II: AAOCC table 47 Appendix III: Quotes and definitions of core concepts 51 Appendix IV: Operationalization 53 Appendix V: Interview guide 54 Appendix VI: Transcriptions 57
1. Bar and Banqueting manager 57
2. Front office operational employee 61
3. Front office operational employee 67
4. Food and Beverage operational employee 71
Appendix VII: Open coding process 75 Appendix VIII: Axial coding 102 Appendix IX: Structuring visualization 104 Appendix X: Univariate analysis 105 Appendix XI: Bivariate analysis 112 Appendix XII: Schedules for meetings and feedback sessions 118 Appendix XIII: Numbers of staff at the Marriott hotel in Gent 119 Appendix XIV: Specific implementation plan 120
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1. Introduction1.1. Background information about the client
Marriott Hotel is located at the center of the beautiful and vibrant Gent city. The company began in 2007 as a franchisee of Brand Marriott by Harry Gross – an American businessman and owns by the Interstate hotel group, which is one of the world-leading hotel management companies. The core product is hotel service, the core business is the hotel, and the primary customers are businessmen.
Throughout 12 years, the company has been developing continuously with an annual revenue of around 10 million euros. Marriott hotel has an average daily occupancy of 84% and 20% for the Midtown Grill, Marriott's restaurant. Marriott Gent always tries adapting to their tasks and develops based on the mission, vision, and core value of the brand to be on top of the game. The turnover rates in two recent years, 2018 and 2019, are 32% and 33%, respectively.
Julie Ternier is the Human Resource Manager of the Marriott hotel in Gent. She previously worked for the Human Resource department for a few years in Pillows Hotel before moving to Marriott in September 2018. Although her arrival at the Marriot Hotel is not long ago, with her knowledge and experience, she understands and knows well the main reason behind the high turnover rate. The role of the Human Resource department is to build and maintain the communication policy. In the company, anything related to communication management will be directly sent to the Human Resources department. Besides the responsibility for communication policy, the Human resources of Marriott hotel in Gent is also a department that takes care of employee turnover. Employees can give feedback about what they are dissatisfied with and whether they want to stay with the company in the future or not. The Human Resources department's door always opens, and they care about solving the problem for the people working at the hotel. In this current year, there is a higher rate of turnover, according to the Human resource department, several people came to the department to talk about the dissatisfaction of communication in the company (Trappeniers, 2019). There is a gap between the operational employees and managers in communication about the growth opportunity. Julie Ternier (2020) stated that people who left the company told her that the manager did not listen and care about what they wanted, and most of the time was just one direction communication. Marriott hotel in Gent uses mostly WhatsApp group chats, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings as the primary communication channels. Besides, e-mails and meetings are managed as tools to send relevant information to the employees. In the meeting with the Human resource manager, Ms. Ternier (2020) stated that the main reason for the high turnover rate is ineffective internal communication.
Furthermore, the Marriott hotel's managers also noted that the flow of communication within the company is insufficient and emphasized that it is crucial to have better internal communication (Trappeniers, 2019). The core values of the Marriott brand stated that employees are the most valuable asset. Thus the company's failure and success depend significantly on this asset.
Based on the latest survey results, only 9% of people are comfortable getting or giving feedback, even though more than 55% of people claimed that they always communicate with the manager/supervisor and colleagues. The result of the latest survey also demonstrated that 52% of people who said they feel adaptable to communication methods, and 30% are dissatisfied. Only 19% of those in the department are genuinely satisfied with internal communication. The dissatisfaction percentage is even worse when it comes to communicating with other departments. 56% of participants said they are displeased with the connection between departments. The result shows that the domestic intelligence in the Marriott Hotel in Gent is a problem that needs to be resolved. With the high level of dissatisfaction in communication comes inefficient productivity, low working quality, and, eventually, an increase in turnover rate.
Hence, this study will look at how to improve the Marriott hotel's internal communication in Gent. Julie Ternier (2020) expressed that each department has distinctive characteristics and ways of
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communication. Therefore, to understand the internal communication problem, which leads to employee turnover intention, the research needs to study each department separately.Core value: "We put people first, we pursue excellence, we embrace change, we act integrity, and we serve our world." (Marriott International)
1.2. Thesis purpose
In recent years, the hospitality industry has become more and more popular in the labor market, which resulted in fierce competition among organizations. To have a good team with talented people, organizations must retain their employees (Azim, 2012, p. 19). This problem has always existed, but not many organizations know the right solutions. The average turnover rate is around 10% to 15%; however, with a thriving industry like hospitality, the turnover rate can be up to 20%. A healthy company's turnover rate should be 10%. Nevertheless, the Marriott hotel in Gent is facing a turnover rate of 33%, which is much higher than the average rate and also shows that it is not healthy.
Employee turnover is a big problem with many adverse outcomes. First of all, the higher the turnover is, the lower the quality of work, the more suffering other employees need to handle since they will have to pick up workload and disruption of daily tasks (Donhoe, 2019). With a high employee turnover rate, the company could face the inconsistency of quality, which reduces its value. Secondly, low employee retention in hospitality organizations results in the loss of thousands of dollars (Freedman & Kosova, 2014, p. 79). This statement indicates the significance of employees towards the success of the company. Nevertheless, if the company has a high turnover rate, the cost of recruiting, training will be a financial problem. Lastly, frequent personnel modification can increase the staff's insecurity and the management's difficulty controlling the team (Donhoe, 2019). The issue could easily lead to job dissatisfaction among workers and encourages intentions to leave the company.
According to the background information, internal communication is the biggest reason for employee turnover intention. Many years ago, numerous researchers intimated this problem as a crucial point in maintaining excellence and turnover rate. A highlighted quote is that active communication is an essential method to retain employees because of communication influences leadership, organizational culture, and working environment (Clifton, Ziskind, Morrow, & Wright, 1980). Support this statement, Solar (Solar, 2019) stated that effective communication is a critical aspect of an organization, and it is the key to maintain a business's profitability.
There are numerous scholars and researchers have specified that internal communication can have a direct and indirect impact on employee turnover (Storey, 2007) (Tett & Meyer, 1993) (Price, 1977). Petitt, Goris, and Vaught (1997) stated that there is a positive correlation between job satisfaction and communication, while Tett & Meyer (1993) and Price (1977) underlined that there is a relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover. Sims emphasized that poor internal communication can be a reason for productivity, employee satisfaction, and profits deduction by 58%. It also increases the duplication of the task to 70% (Sims, 2014), which leads to poor job performance and dissatisfaction, thus, increasing the intention of leaving the company. Supporting these statements, Mobley emphasized that ineffective communication can provoke a high turnover rate (Mobley, 1982, p. 506).
Conclusively speaking, turnover is a problem for the Marriott Hotel in Gent, which affects many aspects of the company with the main reason for ineffective internal communication. Serious measures about internal communication should be applied to reduce the turnover rate.
1.3. Management question
How can the Human resource management team of Marriott hotel Gent improve the internal communication to reduce the employee turnover rate?
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1.4. The objective for the advisory partThe advisory part's objective is to contribute to a solution for the Marriott Hotel in Gent with regards to improving their internal communication effectively by delivering a new communication plan.
1.5. Research objective
The objective of the research part is to gain insight into the role of using internal communication effectively within a company and determine the degree of satisfaction and opinions employees have with internal communication.
1.6. Sub-questions
Report’s part Questions
Theoretical framework - What is internal communication? - What is the employee turnover rate? - What is employee turnover intention? - What is effective internal communication?
- What is/are the key factors of internal communication? - What is/are the critical elements of the quality of internal communication?
- How does internal communication cause the employee turnover rate? Research - To what extent are the employees at the Marriott hotel in Gent satisfied
with internal communication?
- What are the opinions and expectations of employees at Marriott hotel in Gent about internal communication?
- What is the impact of using internal communication effectively within the company?
1.7. Reading guide
In the next chapter, the theoretical framework is discussed. The report will begin with definitions of the core concepts related to the management question. Next, the interrelation between internal communication and employee turnover rate will be discussed. By reading and assessing different articles relevant to the topic, the AAOCC table was conceived. In the theoretical framework, theories that help to evaluate internal communication and create a questionnaire were proposed. The next step is the research part. The methodological decisions will be described, and from there, the research progress, data collection, and generating data analysis. The research part will be based on the theoretical framework and operationalization. Finally, the report will close with the answers and advice for the Marriott hotel in Gent about the main question. In this advisory part, the study will come up with a new communication plan. Besides that, the financial implication will be suggested.
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2. Theoretical framework2.1. Description of the search methods used
Literature sources are the key element for all the knowledge as well as the core guide to doing precise research. However, to approach the right information, the necessary step is to have substantial questions. Here are the questions that need to be answered through literature research:
• What is internal communication? • What is the employee turnover rate? • What is employee turnover intention? • What is effective internal communication?
• What is/are the key factors of internal communication?
• What is/are the critical elements of the quality of internal communication? • How does internal communication cause the employee turnover rate?
With the questions above, the researcher created keywords to access appropriate and relevant articles to the thesis. Keywords that the researcher used to find the articles are:
• Internal communication, Effective internal communication • Employee turnover, Turnover intention, Turnover rate
• Employee turnover AND Internal communication, Turnover intention, AND Internal communication
After choosing keywords to find articles, two online engines were used to search for sources and information. The first one is Google Scholar, and the second one is the original Google.com. Google Scholar is well known for academic articles, which provide publishing date, author’s information, and publishing companies, thus makes it easier to sort out reliable sources and make searching more convenient. On the other hand, the standard Google provides different results and also has relevant articles. Through the AAOCC-criteria, the researcher evaluated the found articles and deemed them appropriate for the research.
Using Google Scholar and Google.com, the researcher found numerous definitions and quotes relevant to the study. The researcher chose Google scholar to get insights into the relationship of two core concepts: employee turnover and internal communication. By using Google.com, the researcher defined the interpretations of each keyword. The number of hits and results will be described in the table, which can be found in Appendix I.
2.2. Core concepts
Core concepts of the research will be internal communication, employee turnover, employee turnover rate, employee turnover intention, effective internal communication.
2.2.1. Employee turnover
"Employee turnover refers to the number or percentage of workers who leave an organization and ar e replaced by new employees. Measuring employee turnover can be helpful to employers that want to examine reasons for turnover or estimate the cost-to-hire for budget purposes" (Mayhew, 2019). It is about the percentage of employees who left the company. By understanding the employee turnover, the company can forecast the recruiting budget and reasons for turnover.
"Employee turnover is a measurement of how many employees are leaving a company. It is a way to
track whether a company has more employees leaving than is typically expected" (Wilkinson, 2014).
The definition means employee turnover is an assessment in which the company compares how many employees left with the expected number.
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The explanation which covers the best of what employee turnover is: Employee turnover is the assessment to compare the amount of staff leaving with the company's expectation, which is shown by the number of percentages. By measuring the percentage of employees leave the company, employers can figure out the reason for turnover and calculate the financial factors.There are two kinds of employee turnover: voluntary and involuntary (BambooHR, 2020).
"Voluntary turnover is any instance in which an employee actively chooses to leave an organization.
Involuntary turnover is when an employer chooses to terminate an employee" (BambooHR, 2020).
This definition shows that voluntary turnover is from an employee's mind, and involuntary turnover is from the organization's account. Hence, in this study, involuntary turnover is no utilization since it is what the company expects and foresees. The research will focus on voluntary employee turnover.
2.2.2. Employee turnover intention and turnover rate
“Turnover intention is a measurement of whether a business’ or organization’s employees plan to leave
their positions or whether that organization plans to remove employees from positions. Turnover intention can be either voluntary or involuntary” (Curtis, 2019).
This definition interprets that turnover intention is an analysis of the likelihood of employees in leaving or company wants to eliminate an employee.
“Employee turnover intention revealed the likelihood of leaving the current job of an employee” (Ngamkroeckjoti, Ounprechavanit, & Kijboonchoo, 2012). Genuinely, this definition is also about the possibility of an employee leaving the position.
According to Tett and Meyer (1993), employee turnover intention is the final mental step when an employee is deciding on quitting or finding a different job.
It can be seen that employee turnover intention is about the possibility of an employee who wants to leave the current position. Therefore, the meaning that will be used in this study is: The turnover intention is not only a measurement of the likelihood of leaving the company but also the final cognitive step of making decision progress in quitting the position of an employee.
According to Wilkinson (2014), the employee turnover rate refers to the ratio of the total staff leaving the company in a period. The turnover rate is a percentage and calculated annually.
2.2.3. Internal communication
"Internal communication is the future of work. It refers to a group of processes or tools that are
responsible for effective information flow and collaboration among participants within an organization"
(Jouany, 2019).
It means that internal communication is the tool that assists the company in operating information flow.
"Internal communication ensures mutual understanding between the management and the staff,
expresses the goals of the organization, and explains the roles of each individual. The employees will become motivated and increase workforce engagement. Therefore, the employees feel valued"
(Amanda, 2017).
This definition does not interpret the meaning of internal communication yet, explain the benefits of having excellent internal communication. Amanda (2017) stated that with effective internal communication, the organization would have higher productivity, and the employees will be motivated
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noticeably. This definition is one of the main bridges connecting internal communication with turnover intention."The full spectrum of communication activities, both formal and informal, undertaken by an
organization's members for the purpose of disseminating information to one or more audiences within the organization" (Carriere & Bourque, 2009).
Generally, this means internal communication is communication activities which used to transmit the information.
According to Jouany (2019), internal communication is the tool to help the company deliver the information flow, while Carriere & Bourque (2009) interpreted it as the company's communication activities. While two authors define the meaning of internal communication, Amanda (2017) expressed the benefits of having effective internal communication. In short, the definition that covers the most meaning of internal communication is: Internal communication is a group of tools and progress which the company uses to transmit the information. Having excellent internal communication will eliminate the misunderstanding and ambiguity in employees, maximize productivity and motivation, and reduce turnover.
2.2.4. Effective internal communication
Effective communication is an essential aspect of organizations as it aids the sufficient flow of information, and it is “the key to running a profitable business” (Solar, 2019).
2.2.5. Relationship between internal communication and employee turnover
"Communication issues are antecedent to employees' affective responses in relation to communication satisfaction and job satisfaction as well as organizational commitment, which eventually leads to employee turnover intension and actual turnover" (Nwagbara, Oruh, Ugorji, & Ennsra, 2013, p. 16). The definition means ineffective internal communication is the cause of dissatisfaction in both job and communication of employees. Subsequently, the turnover intention will be raised and leads to a high turnover rate. According to Touranil and Rast (2012), internal communication is a critical aspect that makes employees feel satisfied with their job. In support of this idea, by researching about 131 companies in Serbia, Milan, Jelena, Milena, Olga, and Edit (2013) indicated that there is a positive relationship between internal communication and job satisfaction.
"Managers will not be able to foster job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment through internal communication practices unless they recognize and appreciate what information is valued by employees. Managers must have a clear understanding of both the quantity and quality of information desired by employees. Communication satisfaction represents a fundamental yardstick against which all of the organization's activities and change initiatives are measured" (Carriere & Bourque, 2009). This quote does not define the relationship between two core concepts, but it is more like the bridge connects them. According to Jules Carrier and Christopher Bourque (2009), managers need to create an effective internal communication strategy to give the most useful and desired information to the employees. Therefore, the stream of communication within the company becomes more active and fosters job satisfaction, which reduces the turnover rate. Moreover, with the correct measures for internal communication, the company's organizational culture, goals, and strategy can be delivered quickly and efficiently. Eventually, employees will have a better understanding of the company, thus improving the relationship between departments and colleagues.
After gathering all the definitions and quotes of the relationship between employee turnover and internal communication, the description is: Internal communication is the preliminary and crucial aspect to the
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likelihood of turnover intention. The stream of communication within a company is the element to foster satisfaction and productivity, eliminate misunderstanding, and reduce ambiguity among employees. Therefore, it reduces turnover intention and turnover rate.2.3. Literature review
The AAOCC table can be found in Appendix II. The table of definitions can be found in Appendix III.
2.4. Theories of internal communication
The research needs to understand communication quality and dimensions related to the progress of exchange information within an organization to evaluate internal communication properly.
As stated in “The relations between Internal communication conditionings and its effectiveness” (Rogala, 2014), the quality of internal communication can be referred to:
• Access to information
• Speed of the flow of information
• Amount of information received compared to the amount of information needed. • Reliability, clarity, and usefulness of the information
• Communication atmosphere
There are four dimensions of internal communication: communication frequency, communication mode, communication content, and communication direction (Johlke & Duhan, 2000).
Communication frequency
Communication frequency is a measurement of the interaction between employees and organization (Farace, Monge, & Russell, 1977). The higher the amount of communication, the better the work environment and job performance will be (Johlke & Duhan, 2000). However, if there is an overuse of communication in the company, the information will be excessed and less efficient. A researcher emphasized that the frequency of communication in a company can be the antecedent for the misunderstandings or overload of information (Maltz, 2000). By looking at the rate of communication in the Marriott hotel, the research can understand the amount of interaction between employees with employees or employees with managers. Hence, the advice for communication frequency can be distributed.
Communication mode
Communication mode is the channel being used to communicate (Stohl & Redding, 1987). There are two modes: formal and informal. Formal mode refers to impersonal channels, usually group meetings, memos, emails, reports, and conference calls. This mode is used for managers/supervisors to distribute the organization's strategy, goals, and feedback. Informal mode refers to personal channels, which are face-to-face, group chats, private messages, notes. This mode is used to transmit information quickly, adjust the situation rapidly. During the process of communication mode, the research can understand the organizational culture and find out which mode employees at the Marriott hotel in Gent are keen.
Communication content
Communication content is the directness of communication from the sender to the receiver. Directness can be direct or indirect (Johlke & Duhan, 2000). Direct communication content usually used by the manager to demand employees of required actions and procedures. This kind of content is not included or just a small input of employees. On the other hand, indirect communication content is used to conduct more information and involve employees in decision making. By letting the employees involved in decision making, the decrease in ambiguity will help them have better performance and experience less uncertainty. Using this dimension in the survey for employees in the Marriott hotel will help the researcher determine whether the communication content meets the expectations.
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Communication directionCommunication direction refers to the flow of information, which are unidirectional (one way) or bidirectional (two ways) (Johlke & Duhan, 2000). Unidirectional communication direction is used to send the information from the sender to the receiver without reverse, and this can be from manager to operational employees or employee to employee. Bidirectional communication direction, on the other hand, refers to the interaction between the sender and receiver. The flow of information goes to the receiver and back to the sender. This direction is typically used in feedback sessions or meetings where the two parties need to give opinions and be actively involved. This dimension shows the interaction between people in an organization and whether it triggers internal communication dissatisfaction in the Marriott hotel in Gent.
Even though this research is written purposely for supervisors and service employees in communication, these dimensions can enable us to see the relation between employees and colleagues. Subsequently, combine the communication quality and four aspects of communication, the research has a concreted fundamental to work on research and find out the solution for the problem.
2.5. Operationalization
After desk research about internal communication and employee turnover, the operationalization will be distributed. Regards to the literature research, the aspect that affect the employee turnover rate is not only internal communication but also smaller elements of communication. Besides these little internal communication elements, employees' general information somehow influences the degree of satisfaction with internal communication. The operationalization will be distributed hypothetically with the relationship between employees' general information and degree of satisfaction with internal communication.
The tree diagram starts with employee turnover, which has two factors: voluntary and involuntary. In this study, the involuntary factor will be of no utilization because this is what the organization has already foreseen while the voluntary factor is hard to control. According to the introduction, internal communication is the main problem, which leads to a high turnover rate. Thus, the voluntary element will connect with internal communication. From there, the internal communication will spread into two significant parts. The first one is the general information about the employees, which will help the advice go to the right target group, and the second one is the factors of communication.
The general information is from the researcher's curiosity, and the Human Resource department manager stated that there are distinctive characteristics from different departments (Ternier, 2020). With the general information, the advice can be more suitable not only for the whole organization but also for small, specific targets. The communication elements are based on the theories about communication quality (Rogala, 2015) and four aspects of communication by Johlke and Duhan (2000). The dimensions of communication and communication quality will be used as the foundation for creating questions in the questionnaire and also for the evaluation of the communication plan in the advisory part. The big block of dimensions of communication will be connected with smaller elements. First of all, is communication quality; in this block, the researcher divided it into smaller parts: atmosphere, speed, clarity, and reliability, access, amount of information. By adding these small factors in the questionnaire, the researcher can understand each internal communication element's quality. Follow up, dimensions of communication will be described; there are four dimensions of communication: mode, frequency, direction, and content. With these elements, the participants will help the researcher perceive the kinds of methods, frequency, direction, or content that meet the employees' expectations and the extent to which they are comfortable and satisfied with the current communication. Therefore, by analyzing these questions about the quality of communication and dimensions of communication plus the general information from the employees, the researcher can give specific advice to the organization.
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3. Research3.1. Methodology
In this report, a mixed-method will be used to obtain the objective. The research objectives are gaining insight into the role of using internal communication effectively, measuring the degree of satisfaction, and understanding the opinions and expectations of employees with internal communication in the Marriott hotel in Gent. The mixed-method is a methodology for researching a problem by using both quantitative and qualitative research (Shorten & Smith, 2017). By mixing both research methods, the study can gain insight into the problem from different angles and balance the weakness of one approach method (Shorten & Smith, 2017). By collecting and analyzing the data through both quantitative and qualitative, the mixed methods can compare the data, reflect the opinions of different participants, create flexibility in methodology and bring out the most comprehensive data for the researcher (Wisdom & Creswell, 2013).
Quantitative research is an approach in which the researcher collects the data from a significant population by asking close and specific questions, then analyzes the data by statistics. Quantitative research uses the literature review as a guide to the research questions and hypotheses (Creswell, 2012). In this report, quantitative research will be used to determine the degree of satisfaction of employees at Marriott hotel in Gent with internal communication. Moreover, the research will show the relationships between variables by answering the testing research questions.
Qualitative research, on the other hand, is a research in which the researcher collects the data from a small population with open questions and analyzes the data in the category of words. Qualitative research uses the literature review in various ways (Creswell, 2012). In this study, the principal purpose of qualitative research is to gain insight into employees' opinions and expectations on internal communication and investigate the company's internal communication situation. Moreover, with qualitative research, the relationship between employee turnover and internal communication and the impact of using internal communication adequately will be answered.
3.2. Quantitative research 3.2.1. Research question Descriptive research questions
• To what extent are the employees at the Marriott hotel in Gent satisfied with internal communication?
• On a scale from 1 to 5, how satisfied are the employees with internal communication at the Marriott hotel in Gent?
• To what extent does the communication quality influence the satisfaction with internal communication of employees at Marriott hotel in Gent?
• To what extent are the employees at the Marriott hotel in Gent satisfied with the dimensions of communication?
Testing research questions
• Is there any relationship between age and satisfaction with internal communication? • Is there any relationship between gender and satisfaction with internal communication? • Is there any relationship between nationality and satisfaction with internal communication? • Is there any relationship between job position and satisfaction with internal communication? • Is there any relationship between types of the department and the satisfaction with internal
communication? 3.2.2. Research strategy
In quantitative research, the researcher chooses the survey to collect data straight from the target group. The survey is also useful when testing if data from reality support the collected theory (Verhoeven, 2011). By using scales, the researcher will ask sub-questions or present statements with a limited choice of
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answers in apparent order. It is an advantageous method when asking the level of satisfaction or agreement. The closed scales questions make the data easy to compare and analyze. The questionnaire is a quick and easy way for the respondents to participate in the research. In this research, the questionnaire will be distributed online. The sampling plan is unnecessary for this case since the population will be employees at the Marriott hotel in Gent. There are 74 employees in the Marriott hotel in Gent. Nevertheless, the Housekeeping department is the only department that cannot do online-survey. Because of the Coronavirus's situation, the border of the Netherlands and Belgium closed; hence, the researcher cannot come to the company to hand out the questionnaire. Subsequently, the Housekeeping department with 22 employees will be left out. The population of the research will be 52 people.
The questionnaire is conceived based on the operationalization. The survey questions are based on the sub-questions and the theories about communication quality and dimensions. Moreover, there are some testing research questions about the relationship between factors (ages, genders, job positions, nationalities, types of department), and internal communication satisfaction. The factors described above will be seen as moderators of satisfaction with internal communication. Therefore, by answering testing questions, the researcher will give bits of advice to the right target with distinctive characteristics. The link to the questionnaire: https://saxion.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8iRibNc66eBwdj7
3.2.3 Data analysis
The result of the online survey will be directly sent to the database by the Qualtrics website. After collecting all the data, the researcher will use SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) as a tool to analyze the data (Kirkpatrick & Fenney, 2012). Subsequently, the transfer of data into SPSS will establish a general data illustration. Next, the univariate analysis will be used to answer the questions regarding the satisfaction of the employees with internal communication at the Marriott hotel in Gent. Finally, the interpretation of the correlation between different factors and satisfaction with internal communication will be established. The data analysis will be conducted based on operationalization’s elements.
3.3. Qualitative research 3.3.1. Research question
• What is/are the employee opinions on the current internal communication situation in Marriott hotel in Gent?
• What is/are the employee expectations of internal communication in the Marriott hotel in Gent?
3.3.2. Research strategy
In this research, the researcher will use different types of data collection methods: open interview, literature research. Hence, the researcher establishes a triangulation. The desk research will be insights gathered from the literature research, therefore possibly deliver an extra dimension to the answers from the interview.
The researcher chooses to have open and standardized questions that reduce the analyzing and comparing process. Moreover, with this interview, the participants will elaborate their opinions more deeply than in the survey, and the researchers have a chance to gain more insight into the hidden information. The researcher will make an appointment with each participant through Julie Ternier – Human resource manager. After the selection is made, the researcher will contact each interviewee, and the interview will take place. The interview will be done in English, online interview via Skype or WhatsApp video calls, and recorded by phone. Each of the participants will have a standard 20 minutes to answer the questions which can be found in the interview guide. After the interview data was recorded, written transcriptions will be distributed. By using English as a standard language, and every interview is recorded, the validity of the analysis will be increased since everything is transparent.
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For the sampling plan, because the interview is more time consuming and more complicated, so it is favored to have representatives of the population. Quota sampling is known as purposive sampling; the researcher can choose how many participants with different characteristics as the target for research (Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, & Namey, 2005). According to Julie (2020), each department has distinctive features and ways of communication; hence, it is more accurate if the researcher looks at each department separately.The researcher will choose spontaneously four people from the Front Office and Food and Beverage department as representatives for the population. Considering that most of the employees at Marriott hotel are Belgian, it is favorable to choose three Belgian employees. These three participants will represent the main population of Belgian employees in the company; by interviewing them, the researcher will understand the culture, preference in communicating, and how they think of the company's current internal communication situation. Besides Belgian employees, numerous international people are working at the Marriott hotel. By choosing one foreign employee, the researcher will determine the differences between culture and internal communication’s expectations at the workplace. Therefore, the study will have more in-depth information about the target group. It will also provide a valuable answer in harmonizing the difference between cultures in communication and preferences in communicating. Consequently, the chosen interviewee will be:
• Jessie Christiaens: Banqueting and Event manager, Belgian and around 30s
• Ellen Van Ballegooien: an operational employee from Food and Beverage, Belgian and around 20s
• Daphne Stremus: an operational employee from Front Office, Belgian and around 20s • Derry Lantigua: an operational employee from Front Office, Colombian, around the 30s The interview guide can be found in Appendix V.
3.3.3. Data analysis
For the data analysis, the study chooses to use the inductive approach because of its characteristics. The inductive approach is used to summarize the text and distribute the relationship between the research objective and the interview data's findings. Furthermore, by using the inductive method, a model that shows the structure or relationship between outcomes will be distributed (Thomas, 2003). The coding process will be done by the Atlas.ti program. In the coding process, the researcher uses operationalization to have a guide in dividing the tags. By using open coding, the transcription will be broken down and put into tags. By that, the axial coding will follow up; in this step, the tags and data will be organized into a useful form. After coding the complete information, the categories, and the result will be described.
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4. Result4.1. Qualitative research analysis 4.1.1. Result of axial coding
The open coding process was made to discover the codes and to understand the relationship between core concepts. To be able to exquisite the connection, the researcher decided to code fragments with the core concepts. Next, the researcher used the Atlas.ti program to publish the transcripts with all the codes and quotations. Subsequently, there are many overlaps between different codes. Since there is no order in coding, the axial coding process follows up. By continue using Atlas.ti program, the document with all distinguished quotations was conceived. The document shows each tag separately with different quotations; thus, the researcher can see some of the quotations applied to several subcategories. Consequently, the report helps the researcher get a deeper understanding of the relationship between subcategories and the influences on the core concepts. The transcriptions could be found in Appendix VI. The coding process and visualization could be found in Appendix VII, VIII, and IX.
4.1.2. Summaries of the most critical topics and fragments Employee turnover
To understand the employee turnover issue, the researcher asked each interviewee their opinions about the number of employees leaving the company recently and whether they intend to leave the position. Many reasons have been recognized, such as workload, pressure, official tasks and responsibility, leadership, and relationship. Nevertheless, internal communication has been observed by most of the interviewees. The researcher chose one manager, two from the Front office department (mostly desk job), and one operational employee from Food and Beverage department.
According to an employee from the front office, the high turnover problem could ignite from the core of the company. He said that managers change after a particular period. Subsequently, employees who have put trust and developed a relationship with former managers will have to start over in building up the relationship with new managers again. As a result, they do not want to commit to the company anymore. Moreover, because of false promises from the managers, the new employees will feel insecure, lost trust, and increase the likelihood of turnover. Another employee from the Front office department stated that there is no connection between departments as a result of no communication and ineffective internal communication. Different from the employees from Front Office, an employee from the management team has other thoughts of reasons for turnover. She declared that the reason people want to leave Marriott Gent is that there was no team or consistency at the beginning. The management team was so insecure and not confident enough to lead the whole company, which led to miscommunication among themselves. Additionally, since there is a problem of communication between the management team, official announcements and feedback sessions are absent in Marriott Gent. Hence, operational employees will have ambiguity and misunderstanding in performing daily tasks, which results in low productivity, unqualified performance, and dissatisfaction with the job.
As a consequence, the high turnover rate showed significant impacts on the employees of the Marriott hotel. The communication styles become frustrating since there are so many changes in the team that there is no consistency in team leading. From an operational employee's perspective, the issue also affects daily tasks. Interviewed employees from the front office agreed that there are more pressures and responsibilities as having a shortage of staff. Moreover, since the turnover is high, people do not have enough time to build a relationship, which creates insecure and lost trust between employees. An employee from Food and Beverage intimated that since people do not know each other well, there is no connection, and they are discouraged from communicating with each other. Additionally, she expressed that since people come and leave time by time, the tasks will increase with less communication between the departments; hence the performance and productivity will reduce.
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This topic is about the general internal communication situation in Marriott Gent. In this part, the interviewees were asked to describe the situation at their workplace generally. Each point of communication will be explicitly discussed below. According to the interviewee from the management team, she is quite satisfied with the current communication situation. She said that internal communication is very open and informal, but restrained to colleagues only.On the other hand, the employees from the operational level are not pleased with the current communication situation. These points of ongoing communication are critical in evaluating internal communication at Marriott Gent. As referred by the employee at the Food and Beverage department, the communication is not in its best shape within and between departments. There are very few connections between departments because they are secluded. Furthermore, since people do not understand the means of communication, they sometimes use it in misleading ways, which results in a slow flow of information. Adding to this opinion, the interviewed receptionist said that communication within the department is mainly handover and endless emails as communication between departments. Besides, it is also noticed that there is no feedback sessions and general meetings in the company.
Dimensions of communication
Communication direction and content
All four interviewees have designated bidirectional communication. The reasons employees prefer bidirectional over unidirectional were because they feel involved, and their opinions are valued. Moreover, it encourages employees to work more efficiently and responsibly, eliminating the vagueness in the job. In communication content, there are different points of view from interviewees. According to an employee from the management team, she would like to know her subordinates' opinions and understand their decisions. This way, the lines among ranks will be blurred, and everyone will be able to work sufficiently as a team. On the other hand, interviewed receptionists prefer to have a manager who can guide and show leadership. They need a manager at an interpersonal level who can communicate and impart information in discussing tasks with employees. It would show the manager not only know how to exhibit the structure but also can patiently listen to his/her subordinates' opinions and involve them in the decision-making process. Consequently, employees feel more involved and engaged in the company but also less time-consuming due to the manager demands his/her subordinate directly the tasks.
Communication frequency
The interviewed employees are thoroughly satisfied with communication frequency. A positive feature of communication frequency can be found out that at Marriott Gent is that managers are willing and able to have conversations with their subordinates. People within a department are close and friendly, encouraging co-workers to communicate with each other more frequently. Nevertheless, this satisfaction just stops at the departmental level. An operational employee from Food and Beverage experienced that employees from different departments only communicate when there is a need for cooperation; otherwise, there is hardly any contacts. The reasons are because communication in the workplace is too personal, and there is no connection. When being asked about the causes, the interviewees just beat around the bush. Assumably, the reasons are because having conversations at the workplace is considered personal, and colleagues only communicate with people they are familiar with, which, in this case, are people from the same department. Since employees only communicate with people they know, when put under an environment with unfamiliar people, it will create difficulties, dissatisfactions, and frustrations. Subsequently, the communication frequency within the department and employees with mangers are at a fair rate. Still, measures need to take place to improve information flow and cooperation between departments.
Communication mode
According to the interview, employees at Marriott Gent use different social platforms and methods to communicate. The most common means of communication are WhatsApp group, face-to-face conversations, emails, and meetings. Emails and meetings are mainly used to transmit information
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between departments and general. Within departments, employees prefer to have more informal communication since they view each other as friends. This mode of communication is also a way to reduce stress from work. Contrarily, communication between departments is referred to as formal communication, which is a more professional, official, and creates a clear flow of information.
Quality of communication
Amount and access to information
Employees from the management team and Front office are quite satisfied with the amount and access to information. When the interviewees were being interviewed about the drawbacks, they were mostly solvable and not too critical to encourage them to leave. One of the interviewed receptionist answered that she thinks the amount and access to information need to be controlled since some of the data are private and confidential, yet everyone in the company can access. Unlike other interviewees, an employee from the food and beverage department indicated the amount and access to information depending on the person with whom she communicates. One of her examples is that sometimes she loses track of responses since the group chat is flooded with messages from different members, which could affect communication flow if it is work-related.
Speed and accuracy of information
As stated in the interview with an operational employee from the food and beverage department, she was not entirely satisfied with the speed and accuracy of information. The speed and accuracy are high if the information is from the Human resource department or official emails sent to all the employees. She even emphasized that group chat is not an excellent way of communication since not everyone in the group will check the messages. This leads to the fact that the speed and usefulness of information decrease. Conversely, employees from the management team and the front office department are quite happy with the pace and accuracy of information. Nevertheless, they still experience some negative points which required improvement.
Atmosphere of communication
The atmosphere of communication at Marriott Gent, in general, is open, friendly with a mix of formal, professional. Most of the interviewees are satisfied with this; however, some points are bothering. The management employee is not happy with the atmosphere between managers because it is more tense and formal. The interviewee from the front office, on the contrary, prefers to have a formal atmosphere because he thinks the work environment will be more professional and boost his productivity.
4.2. Quantitative research analysis
As mentioned before, the expected number of participants is 52 people. However, due to the Coronavirus and lockdown in Belgium and the Netherlands, the number of participants changed from 52 to 23. This is not a small number of people who responded yet not big enough to reach a decent conclusion. Since there are only 23 people, the data analysis of some aspects is not available, so the researcher will conclude and give advice according to the amount of data collected from the participants. In the general information of employees, many Belgian and Dutch participated while only a small percentage of international employees are covered. Therefore, the testing of whether there is a relationship between nationality and level of satisfaction with internal communication is not favorable for reliability. The result could be different if there are more respondents for the survey. The same problem with the nationality, the number of employees from various departments is not enough to conceive a good result. Hence, the answer to the correlation between departments and the level of satisfaction with internal communication is not valid to the report. Even though there is some problem in publishing the data, the researcher manages to establish an analysis report for quantitative research. The specific univariate analysis could be found in Appendix X.
Due to the general information analysis, most of the employees from Marriott hotel Gent are Belgian and Dutch, age 25-34, and 45-54. Moreover, there are more men than women, and the central departments are Front office, and Food and Beverage.
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In the quality of communication, it can be concluded that employees are "somewhat satisfied" with the quality of communication. However, some aspects have more dissatisfaction than others: access, speed, and usefulness of the information. The amount, clarity, reliability, and atmosphere of communication have more people to choose "average" and "satisfied," which made those aspects become favorable elements in the quality of communication.In communication frequency, departmental level and employees with managers have the rate of "most of the time," and "always." The level of satisfaction is quite good with high distribution on "somewhat satisfied," "neither satisfied nor dissatisfied." Moreover, compared to the communication frequency with other departments, the communication frequency within the department and with the manager/supervisor has more "extremely satisfied" votes. Unlike the answers in the first two questions of communication frequency, the reply to this topic with other departments is less definite. More people chose "sometimes," and the level of satisfaction is lower with more distribution on "somewhat dissatisfied." Therefore, it is sure that employees frequently communicate with each other in the workplace; however, communication frequency between departments is a problem that needs to be solved. The level of satisfaction with communication frequency, in general, is at the average with slightly displeased in the rate of communication between departments.
In communication mode, more than 50% of the employees chose "informal" mode. The level of satisfaction distributions of communication mode within the department and with the manager/supervisor is the same with mainly "somewhat satisfied" and "neither satisfied nor dissatisfied." Compared to the last aspect, which is satisfaction with communication mode with other departments, the first two aspects are slightly higher because more people selected "somewhat satisfied." In short, the mode that most employees at Marriott Gent would like to use is informal. The level of satisfaction generally is at average with mainly "satisfied;" however, the satisfaction with communication mode between departments is problematic to the dimension.
In communication content, employees at Marriott did not make a clear choice of which way they would like the manager to communicate with them since both questions have the same amount of response. On the other hand, employees made their choices clearly in communication direction by choosing two-way communication. Additionally, there are different answers in one-two-way communication, so the distribution is frustrated. In the question of prefer one-way communication, "somewhat agree" and somewhat disagree" have almost the same classification. Thus, it is tough to say that using one-way communication is favorable in Marriott Gent. In a nutshell, employees would like to have a mix of direct demand and discuss the task in communication content. In the communication direction, it is more advantageous to use two-way communication.
Generally, employees are "somewhat satisfied" with the overall internal communication at the Marriott hotel in Gent. Although some aspects of communication do not meet the expectation, employees are quite happy with them. Furthermore, not too many cases showed "extremely dissatisfied," so the organization's satisfaction score is around 7 – 8. Aspects that need to be improved are access, speed and usefulness of the information in communication, the communication frequency between departments, and the satisfaction with communication mode between departments. As referred by the expectation of employees, internal communication at the Marriott hotel in Gent should be more informal, with a mix of direct and indirect communication, and two-way communication.
After analyzing all the data, from the researcher's curiosity, there is a part of the bivariate analysis. This part focuses on testing the hypothesis between variables. Nevertheless, due to the participants' shortage, the relationships between variables are not attractive. Therefore, this part will be an extra as desideration of finding more in-depth knowledge about the research topic. The detail of bivariate analysis could be found in appendix XI.
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5. ConclusionWhat is the definition of internal communication?
To provide the most accurate definition for this study, the researcher decided to go through various interpretations and conclude with this definition: Internal communication is a group of tools and progress which the company used to transmit the information. Having excellent internal communication will eliminate misunderstanding and ambiguity in employees. Hence, maximizing productivity, motivation, and reducing the turnover rate.
Besides, the paper pointed out that effective communication is crucial to have sufficient dissemination of information, which advocates the organization running successfully (Solar, 2019).
During the research of critical factors of internal communication, the researcher found out a research report written by Johlke and Duhan (2000). In the study of Supervisor Communication practices and service employee job outcomes (Johlke & Duhan, 2000), there are four communication dimensions: communication frequency, communication mode, communication content, and communication direction. Although the study mainly focused on the communication between supervisors and employees, the definitions of crucial factors apply to this report. Farace, Monge, and Russell (1977) indicated that communication frequency is a measurement of the interaction between employees and the organization. It marked in the report that the company with a higher rate of communication will have a better work environment and job performance. In communication mode, there are two modes: informal and formal. The communication mode acts as the channel to disseminate the information (Stohl & Redding, 1987). Communication content and communication direction are equivalent. In communication content, there is indirect and direct communication (Johlke & Duhan, 2000). This aspect shows the way managers communicate with subordinates by directly demanding or discussing the tasks. Similar to communication content, communication direction has unidirectional and bidirectional communication (Johlke & Duhan, 2000). However, in this dimension, it targets the communication between employees. Unidirectional communication is typically demonstrated with one person listens and the other talks, while bidirectional communication shows there are reactions in both sender and receiver.
To answer the question "What is/are key factors of communication quality?", the researcher referred to the report of "The relations between internal communication conditionings and its effectiveness" (Rogala, 2015). Internal communication's quality can be divided into access, speed, amount, atmosphere, and legitimacy of information (reliability, clarity, and usefulness).
What is the definition of employee turnover?
Employee turnover intention was described as the measurement of the probability and the final cognitive step of making the decision progress of an employee leaving the position.
Employee turnover rate was defined as the ratio of amount employees leave at a period (Wilkinson, 2014). This rate is calculated in percentage and annually.
The study concludes employee turnover as the assessment compared to the amount of staff leaving with the company's expectation, which is shown by the number of percentages. By measuring the number or rate of employees that leave the company, employers can figure out the reason for turnover and calculate the financial factors. There are two kinds of employee turnover: voluntary and involuntary.
How does internal communication cause the employee turnover rate?
In the literature review, the researcher analyzed three definitions/quotes of the relationship between internal communication and the employee turnover rate. The best definition that covers this relationship's meaning is: Internal communication is the preliminary and one of the most crucial aspects to the likelihood of turnover intention. The stream of communication within a company is the element to foster satisfaction and productivity, eliminate misunderstanding, and reduce ambiguity among employees. Therefore, it reduces turnover intention.
