however, a discussion regarding access to hospitality organisations for data
collection purposes follows.
Access to hospitality organisations
To gain access to hotels for data collection, in the first instance, Alan Cutler of the
independent consultants Hospitality Leadership Ltd was contacted. Alan had
previously worked with Bournemouth University School of Tourism on a small-
scale research project looking at leadership issues in hospitality organisations.
Alan provided contact details for relevant managers in six hotel groups. The first
managers with whom cooperation was able to be arranged represented two hotel
groups: (i) a group of ten 4 star hotels in the south east of England; and (ii) a
larger group of 4 star hotels across the UK with 27 individual facilities.
Alan was also instrumental in providing a contact within the National Skills
Academy for Hospitality. This group is part of the People1st^6 organisation and its
remit is to identify, endorse and promote qualifications and learning opportunities
in the hospitality sector. The National Skills Academy for Hospitality was happy to
endorse the survey work and have their logo included on the questionnaire and on
the stationery used to contact hotels. It was hoped that this endorsement would
have a positive effect on the recruitment of hotels to participate in the data
collection.
Details of the administration method
The pilot survey was administered with the participation of the first two hotel
groups (described above) with which cooperation was successfully arranged.
Initial contact was made with a senior human resources staff member in each of
the two hotel groups. In one group, contact was then delegated to the head of
food and beverage and in the other group, to a less senior human
resources/personnel employee. With the first group (the group of ten hotels in
the south east of England), the head of food and beverage supplied the number of
non-supervisory waiting staff in each hotel facility and a ‘survey pack’ containing
the relevant number of questionnaires was then sent to each hotel’s general
6
The sector skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism in
the UK.