The Effect of Participative Management on Quality Service Delivery: A Survey of Meru County Star Hotels

Abstract

It is a challenge for hotel management to motivate their employees to stay on the job and to offer the efficient, good service which customers expect. Participatory Management is seen as the quick cure for poor morale, employee attrition, low productivity and job dissatisfaction. Hence the purpose of this study was to establish the effects of participative management on service delivery. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. Thirty (30) managers and 75 customers from 15 Star hotels in Meru County were used for the study. Validity and reliability were ascertained by careful development of the questionnaires and a pretest before using it for the data collection. Confidentiality was assured to guarantee ethical practice. Permit for the study and consent of the respondents were sought in advance. Primary data was collected by use of self-developed questionnaire through a drop and pick later method. Collected data was analyzed by help of SPSS computer software to obtain de~ptive and inferential statistics needed to support the hypothesis. The research found that some elements of participative management indeed had significant effect on service delivery. Autonomy, communication, customer care and computer literacy had significant positive effect on service quality but not on customer satisfaction. Training and customer care methods were also found to have significant and positive effects on both quality of service and customer satisfaction. The researcher concluded that while participative management is judged wholly as effective or ineffective, revelation that its components have different effects on service delivery requires that those components are treated singly on their own merits and where possible replicated across all management styles for service improvement.