Evaluating Hotel Resilience: Understanding Effective Disaster Management of Hotels in China.

Abstract

While the concept of hotel resilience has attracted some attention from researchers, few have considered the concept with the specific focus on the contribution of human factors to hotel resilience. The human agency plays a critically important role in effectively interpreting disasters and making preparedness to reduce negative disastrous impacts (Eiser et al 2012). Meanwhile, the organisational structure can underpin and influence human agency. The omission of human factors in relation to the study of hotel resilience is significant, especially in the context of the human-centred nature of hotel disaster management. To address this research gap, this thesis refines the focus on human factors to investigate if hotel resilience can be effectively improved by examining two elements: (i) the evaluation of entrepreneurial resilience of hotel agents and (ii) the level and provision of effective human resource management operating within and available to respective hotel establishments. More importantly, by examining the relationship between these two elements, this thesis seeks to further understand how human factors in hotel resilience can be strengthened to effectively enhance hotel disaster management. This research utilises deep, open semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data from hotel managers in two cities in China to provide a deeper perception of how the entrepreneurial resilience of hotel managers and human resource management significantly enhance hotel resilience. A conceptual framework was produced that identified the key elements of the human factors in hotel resilience and how these interact and add value together to maximise practices of implementing hotel disaster management. This study makes contributions to the academic field by 1) responding to the call for extending resilience research into organisations and has subsequently linked hotels to the concept of disaster resilience in a specific way 2) adding great value to developing disaster management literature in the hotel industry and specifying the scope of hotel resilience to disasters and 3) explicitly identifying where value is added in building hotel resilience by synergising entrepreneurial resilience and human resource management. This study also makes contributions to the practical field by identifying key elements to build hotel resilience, which provides recommendations for hotel managers and practitioners in China and the global hotel industry for effective disaster management.