The Different Influences of Long-Term and Short-Term Contracts on Employee Behaviours in Hotel Industry (Dissertation Sample)

The different influences of long-term and short-term contracts on employee behaviours in hotel industryAbstract
Labour contract refers to the agreement between labour and enterprises to establish labour relation and define mutual rights and obligations of both contract parties. Contracts some employers provide for the graduates have been changed from long-term contracts to short-term contracts recently. Struggling to be survivors of the financial depression, the hotels changed the staff composition by reducing permanent workers and increasing temporary workers to meet the challenges from the increasingly fierce market competition.
The objective of this research is to test if the term of contracts has effects on the employees’ career development, working initiatives, degree of satisfaction, and loyalty. This research employs interpretivism philosophy, induction approach and case study as research strategy. Six managers of a famous multinational hotel in China have been interviewed in order to collect primary data.
Research conclusion shows that term of contract has an effect on career development and job rewards. If the company attaches great importance to the position or the employee, it will sign long-term labour contracts with them, and give better rewards and guarantee to the employees; on the contrary, if the company does not attach great importance to the position or the employee, it will sign short-term contracts so that it can make frequent changes. The traditional culture has an important influence on Chinese staff’s attitudes towards the term of the labour contract, and they tend to sign long-term labour contracts, and then get development in the company. Chinese culture and customs attach great importance to the development of the family, so the behaviours of family members will be under the impact of family values to some extent.
Contents
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1. Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc270524781 \h
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1.1 Background  PAGEREF _Toc270524782 \h
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1.2 Research aims and objectives  PAGEREF _Toc270524783 \h
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1.3 Research Rationale  PAGEREF _Toc270524784 \h
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2. Literature review  PAGEREF _Toc270524785 \h
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2.1 Term of labour contract  PAGEREF _Toc270524786 \h
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2.2.1 Term of labour contract  PAGEREF _Toc270524787 \h
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2.1.2 Chinese traditional culture and job stability  PAGEREF _Toc270524788 \h
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2.2 Term of the contract and employee development  PAGEREF _Toc270524789 \h
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2.2.1 Meaning of employee development  PAGEREF _Toc270524790 \h
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2.2.2 Content of employee development  PAGEREF _Toc270524791 \h
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2.2.3 Impact of term of contract on employee development  PAGEREF _Toc270524792 \h
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2.3 Term of the contract and employee service quality  PAGEREF _Toc270524793 \h
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2.3.1Hotel service quality  PAGEREF _Toc270524794 \h
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2.3.2 Employee factor of service quality  PAGEREF _Toc270524795 \h
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2.3.3 Impact of the term of contract on service quality  PAGEREF _Toc270524796 \h
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2.4 Term of contract and employee satisfaction  PAGEREF _Toc270524797 \h
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2.4.1 Meaning of employee satisfaction  PAGEREF _Toc270524798 \h
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2.4.2 Components of employee satisfaction  PAGEREF _Toc270524799 \h
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2.4.3 Term of contract and employee satisfaction  PAGEREF _Toc270524800 \h
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2.5 Term of contract and employee loyalty  PAGEREF _Toc270524801 \h
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2.5.1Employee loyalty  PAGEREF _Toc270524802 \h
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2.5.2 Factors affecting employee loyalty  PAGEREF _Toc270524803 \h
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2.5.3 Impact of term of contract on employee loyalty  PAGEREF _Toc270524804 \h
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2.6 Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc270524805 \h
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3. Methodology  PAGEREF _Toc270524806 \h
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3.1 Research philosophy  PAGEREF _Toc270524807 \h
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3.2 Research Approach  PAGEREF _Toc270524808 \h
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3.3 Research Strategy  PAGEREF _Toc270524809 \h
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3.4 In-depth Interview  PAGEREF _Toc270524810 \h
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3.4 .1 Introduction on In-depth Interview  PAGEREF _Toc270524811 \h
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3.4.2 Data Collection and Analysis  PAGEREF _Toc270524812 \h
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3.5 Ethic issues in business research  PAGEREF _Toc270524813 \h
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3.6. Data analysis  PAGEREF _Toc270524814 \h
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4. Data analysis  PAGEREF _Toc270524815 \h
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4.1 The term of the labour contract  PAGEREF _Toc270524816 \h
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4.1.1 The term of the contract can reflect the importance that the hotel attaches to the employees  PAGEREF _Toc270524817 \h
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4.1.2 The staff pay special attention to the term of the contract  PAGEREF _Toc270524818 \h
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4.1.3 The traditional culture has influence on employees’ attitude towards the term of the contract.  PAGEREF _Toc270524819 \h
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4.2 The term of the contract and the staff development  PAGEREF _Toc270524820 \h
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4.2.1 Staff development needs a long time  PAGEREF _Toc270524821 \h
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4.2.2 Staff development is susceptible to the term of the contract  PAGEREF _Toc270524822 \h
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4.3 The term of the contract and the staff service quality  PAGEREF _Toc270524823 \h
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4.3.1 The staff service quality  PAGEREF _Toc270524824 \h
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4.3.2 The term of the contract has significant influence on staff service quality  PAGEREF _Toc270524825 \h
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4.4 The term of the contract and staff satisfaction  PAGEREF _Toc270524826 \h
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4.4.1 Stability, promotion and remunerations of the job are important influencing factors of staff satisfaction  PAGEREF _Toc270524827 \h
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4.4.2 The impact of the term of contract on staff satisfaction  PAGEREF _Toc270524828 \h
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4.5 The term of the contract and staff loyalty  PAGEREF _Toc270524829 \h
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4.5.1 The hotel staff’s loyalty is not high  PAGEREF _Toc270524830 \h
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4.5.2 The impact of the term of contract on staff loyalty  PAGEREF _Toc270524831 \h
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4.6 Discussions  PAGEREF _Toc270524832 \h
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5. Conclusions  PAGEREF _Toc270524833 \h
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5.1 Conclusions  PAGEREF _Toc270524834 \h
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5.2 Recommendations  PAGEREF _Toc270524835 \h
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5.3 Research limitations  PAGEREF _Toc270524836 \h
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5.4 Reflection  PAGEREF _Toc270524837 \h
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Reference  PAGEREF _Toc270524838 \h
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Appendix 1 Interview protocol  PAGEREF _Toc270524839 \h
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Appendix 2 Interview Records  PAGEREF _Toc270524840 \h
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1. Introduction
1.1 Background
An economic crisis swept all over China in 2008, leaving its influences on business, the public, governmental organisations and agencies as well as the hotel industry. Struggling to be survivors of the financial depression, a great many companies and organisations adopted some new forms of employment including temporary work, part-time work, and outsourcing to cut down all kinds of expenses in order to strengthen their competitive competence.
Labour contract refers to the agreement between labour and enterprises to establish labour relation and define mutual rights and obligations of both contract parties; it is an important legal protection form to vindicate the legal rights and interests of both contract parties (Kong and Cheung, 2009). Before 2008, Article 20 of the Labour Law of the People's Republic of China developed some stipulations with regard to the contract term, dividing labour contracts into three types: fixed term labour contract, open-ended labour contract and the kind of labour contract which is to expire upon the completion of the task (Collins, Culver and Marino, 2007). Due to its oversimplification of the statements concerning about contract terms in China Labour Law, many problems such as labour contract short-termism, labour relation instability have emerged. According to the statistic data released by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People&rs...