The role of people training and development in delivering service quality in UK based Thai restaurants

Oxford Brookes of Hospitality Management Oxford Brookes University THE ROLE OF PEOPLE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN DELIVERING SERVICE QUALITY IN UK BASED THAI RESTAURANTS Trang Ngo Thi Quynh Academic Year 2014- 2015 This dissertation is submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in International Hotel and Tourism Management !1 DECLARATION This dissertation is the result of my own independent work Where material other than my own work has been used it is appropriately attributed and reference in the text I agree that this dissertation may be made available for reference and photocopying at the discretion of the Head of School, who will only give permission for such reproduction to the text which s/he considers fair and reasonable Trang Ngo Thi Quynh Page i
 !2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is a result of my Master journey at Oxford School of Hospitality Management I would like to send thanks to all lecturers and professors who are part of the School, for the passion and contribution for teaching and supporting students in their academic and professional experiences I would like to thank Dr Judie Gannon for all her help and guidance throughout my project A significant “thank you” to owners and managers in eight Thai restaurants I interviewed for their supports during the time I did my research Last, but not least, I spend my sincere thank for my family and my friends for their support throughout all these years of studies Thank you very much Page ii !3 ABSTRACT Literature review Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of people training and development in delivering service quality in UK based Thai restaurants The study focuses on small and medium sized Thai restaurants in the UK, particularly in London, Oxford and Bath city These restaurants are independent, family- run business and brand Thai restaurants Design/ method/ approach Based on a choice of phenomenon philosophy, the researcher conducted a small- scale qualitative research with one observation and twelve interviews of owners and managers in a sample of eight Thai restaurants As applying a purposive sample technique, the research carried out the study in chosen small and medium size Thai restaurants, both run by families and brands in three cities such as London, Oxford and Bath In terms of interview, the researcher chose semi-structure interviews to explore the views of Thai owners and management team on the impact of people training and development in the delivery of service quality These chosen interviewees hold positions such as operation, business, training managers, assistant managers in chosen Thai restaurants One nonparticipating observation was taken place at one specific restaurant site in Oxford to observe how service was delivered by staffs Findings This study will add to the existing knowledge by addressing the impact of people training and development on deciding which dimension of service quality (technical or functional level) Research limitations The study used qualitative research, semi-interviews, observation which leads to a limitation of generalization and data validity Practical implications Implications from the study could assist Thai restaurants, both run by families and brands to benefit from how to conduct training method and content to influence staff performance and customer perception of service quality Originality/ value This paper is the first study to explore the role of training and development in the delivery of service quality in selection of Thai restaurants in the UK !4 Keywords: Service quality, Ethnic restaurant, human resource development, people training and development !5 Table of Contents Table 1: A summary of restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in full-service restaurants Table 2: Research design summary Table 3: Constructing question content following the research objectives Table 4: Time schedule interview Table 5: Data order and display Table 6: Cluster of data collection Table 7: A summary of data cluster collected from interview and observation !6 Table of figures: Figure 1: A conceptual framework of the thesis Figure 2: Model illustrating alternative philosophical approaches to research (Shepard et al., 1993) !7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale ………………………………………………………………….……………….11 The context of the study ……………………………………………………………… 12 The significance of the study…………………………………….… ………… …… 14 Aim and objective……………………………………………………………….……… 15 Scope …………………………………………………………………… ……………… 15 The overall structure of the thesis ……………………………………………………15 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….…….17 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….… 18 2.1 Service…………………………………………… ……………………………….…… 19 2.3 Service quality………………………………………………………………………… 20 2.4 Customer satisfaction ……………………………………………………………….…21 2.5 Restaurant attributes to customer experiences………………………………… 21 2.6 Restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in ethnic restaurants…………………………………………………………………………………… 25 2.7 Delivery service quality through people ………………………………………… 26 2.8 Human resource management approach ……………………………………… …27 2.8 Human resource management in service industry…………………………….… 31 Human resource management in SMEs in service industry Relationship between human resource management and the delivery of service quality ………………………………………………………………………………………… 29 2.10 Training ………………………………………………………………………………… 30 2.11 Training approach ………………………………………………………………… …33 2.12 Practice of training in SMEs …………………………………………………….… 35 !8 2.13 Conceptual framework ………………………………………………………… ……34 2.14 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 35 CHAPET 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….…… 37 3.2 Research philosophy ……………………………………………………………….….37 3.3 Research approach and strategy…………………………………… ………………39 3.3.1 Research approach ……………………………………………………………………39 3.2 Research strategy…………………………………………………………………… 40 3.4 Research design…………………………………………………………………………40 3.5 Research sample…………………………………….………………………………… 41 3.6 Data collection technique………………………………………………………………45 3.6.1 Observation…………………………………………………………………………… 45 3.6.2 In- depth interview………………………………………………………………….… 47 3.7 Analysis of data ………………………………………………………………………….50 3.8 Ethnics consideration ………………………………………………… ………………55 3.9 Limitation of the research methodology…………………………………………… 55 3.10 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….…… 55 Chapter 4: FINDINGS 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….… 56 4.2 Findings from interview …………………………….…………………………….….…57 4.3 Findings from observations ……………………………………………………………68 4.4 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… …69 Chapter 5: Discussion !9 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………… 71 5.2 Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……… 71 5.3 Cluster 2: The role of staff interaction in customer experience …………….….74 5.4 Cluster 3: Practice of training and development ……………………………….…77 5.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………… 79 Chapter 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 6.1 Introduction……………………………………………….……………………………… 81 6.2 Accomplishing the aim of the thesis……………………………….……… ……… 81 6.3 The unique of the study …………………………………………………… …………82 6.4 Recommendations for further research …………………….……………………….83 6.5 Limitation …………………………………….…………………………… …………… 83 6.6 Conclusion ………………………………….……………….…………… …………….84 REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix 1: Observation guide Appendix 2: Observation note Appendix 3: invitation to join the interview Appendix 4: Interviewee Engagement Participant Information Sheet Appendix 5: A consent form Appendix 6: Interview guide Appendix 7: Interview transcript Appendix 8: Example of data coding Appendix 9: Basic design of case studies undertaken in the research Appendix 10: Demographic data about Interviewees !10 !11 Chapter 1: Introduction Rationale Every success of an individual organization depends on its human resource It is absolutely appropriate in the restaurant sector (Tepeci, 2001) where there is a high level of customer-staff contact (Kotler et al., 1998) Many researchers (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996; Kelley and Hoffman, 1997; Parasuraman et al., 1985) have emphasized the importance of service employees in creating and providing good service quality As such, positively perceived service quality is a reflection of how effectively service employees perform and communicate with customers to meet their expectations (Hays and Hill, 2000; Sheng and Lin, 2004) Staff interactions with customers could be seen from concern and civility (Windsted, 2000) or demonstration of listening and understanding by employees (Chandon, Leo and Philippe, 1997) As a result, employee skills play a key role in ensuring service quality (Farrel et al., 2001; Nick et al., 2005) In a sense, welltrained staffs with certain knowledge can help to offer good service quality ( R e e s , 1995) In the hospitality industry, service skills have been of great interest (Chand, 2010) This industry has become one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, nevertheless, there are certain challenges in matching employee skills with the industry requirements (Baum, 2006; Thomas et al., 2000) Seen from a report of The Hospitality Training Foundation (2000), the hospitality all over Great Britain is in need of 7,736 vacancies in July, 1999 which accounts for nearly per cent of the industry demand (Prattten, 2003) Staffs in hotels and restaurants, for instance, are short of knowledge and experiences in certain operative level occupations, especially relating to customer service (Dewhurst et al., 2007) One main reason for that shortage is due to a quality of human resource (Pratten, 2003) Particularly in restaurants, most of full-time and part-time staffs are students or young people Reasons for their choice of joining hospitality job are in need of money for tuition fee or looking a temporary job while studying or travelling (Lucas, 1995) They are seen an only available labour source that restauranteurs can easily approach (Lucas and Ralson, 1997) Most of them have experience in restaurants and consider working in restaurants as a “transient” job in their career path (Kelliher and Perrett, 2000) Yet, nowadays, waiters and waitresses are requested to deliver a high level of skill and knowledge in serving customers (Pratten, 2003) In such a competitive hospitality industry, every service organization needs to focus on service quality for its competitive !12 advantage over their competitors (Bhat, 2010) Service quality is essentially deciding an ability of service providers to attract more customers (Backman and Veldkamp, 1995) as it impacts greatly customer satisfaction and positive post-consumption behaviours such (Olsen, 2002) On the other hand, delivering consistent and superior service is believed to lead service business to success in terms of productivity enhancement, cost reduction, increased customer loyalty and market share improvement (Albrecht and Zemke, 1985; Berry et al., 1989; Leonard and Sasser, 1982; Parasuraman et al., 1988; Ross and Shetty, 1985) Gaining and maintaining service quality, hence, is a strategic target for all service firms (Behesti and Lollar, 2003) and so restaurants, especially, in the highly competitive restaurant industry (Ryu et al., 2012) As a main remedy to deal with skill shortage, training is widely considered to be beneficial to improve employee competencies (e.g skills, attitudes and knowledge), which enables them to provide higher service quality (Dewhurst et al., 2007) Training, however, is not what most managers prioritise (Wilson et al., 1998) In fact, there is a culture of training avoidance in many UK hospitality firms (Dewhurst et al., 2007) Practically, restaurants and hotels provided lower levels of post-induction training than other sectors In particular, employers in small and medium size firms (SMEs) have less training than large firms (Frazisetal., 2000; Hoque and Bacon, 2006; Kitching and Blackburn, 2002; Small Business Service 2001; Storey, 1997) The tourism industry as an example, has a reputation as being a poor trainer (Jameson, 2000) and much of the training happens mainly due to legislative requirements (Keep and Mayhew, 1999) Below 50 % of small hospitality firms are engaged in training (Thomas et al., 2000) and 85% of hospitality employers provide some training for some employees (Hospitality Training Foundation, 1999) Bearing in mind the importance skill staffs in providing service quality in the hospitality sector, impacts of training in development human resource capability, the researcher, set a clear aim for this study It is to fill the existing research void by exploring the role of people training and development in the delivery of service quality n UK ethnic restaurant sector from owners’ and managers’ views The study focuses on UK based Thai restaurants The context of the study Nowadays, the widespread impact of globalization can be seen clearly from the global !13 economy, society to culture aspects, consequently, the UK itself has turned into“a gastronomic hub with a reputation rivaling those of its continental counterparts” (Wong and Chung, 2003) Instead of cooking at home, more people demand for dining out (Chang, 2013), which support hospitality to become the fourth largest industry in the UK and an intensive competition in the restaurant industry particularly (Symons, 2013) In UK food service industry, particularly, restaurants are a key driver for business growth (Euromonitor, 2013) with £5.9 billion spent by foreign companies and people on dining out services 83% of this expenditure is spent in restaurants (Silva et al., 2013) Alongside with UK restaurant industry development, ethnic restaurants increase rapidly (Symons, 2013) This fast growth is driven mainly by an increase in UK immigrant and “expatriate populations”, more exotic foods adopted by British people after their long distance outbound travel to different parts of the world (Mintel, 2008) Besides, a globalisation of the food market makes consumers’ tastes more and more cosmopolitan (Leung, 2010) All these changes create a great demand of ethnic foods among UK consumers (Edwards, 2013), which triggers for an increase in outlet number of ethnic restaurants (Ebster and Guist, 2005) An ethnic restaurant is defined as "a restaurant whose signboard or publicity clearly promises the national or regional cuisine of another land" (Turgeon and Pastinelli, 2002: 252) This type of restaurants introduces exotic cuisines which are not familiar with local customers (Ebster and Guist, 2004) Ethic food is cooked and served in a different way with the locality (Lego et al., 2002), which is seen a powerful appeal to local customers who look for an "out-of-the-ordinary dining experience" (Boyce, 2007) Also, they play as “cultural ambassadors” advertising not only ethnic food but culture to local customers (Cobe, 2004; Wood and Munoz, 2007) Regarding to ethnic food history in the UK, Chinese and Indian cuisines have become dominant since the end of the 19th century with the first arrival of Chinese and Indian immigrants (Mintel, 2008; Leung, 2010) Since the end of 1960’s, along with an increasingly popularity of ethnic cuisines, recently, emerging cuisines such as Thai have been introduced (Leung, 2010) An emergence of Thai foods has been positively supported by a trend of eating healthier foods with less oil and more vegetables in the UK (Eurmonitor, 2008) Further, despite being similar to Chinese and Indian cooking style, Thai cuisines provide lighter and fresher alternatives (Mintel, 2007) Therefore, an increasing demand for healthier foods in the UK has brought in a potential prospect for !14 Thai food development in a market of differently healthier choices even though Chinese and Indian cuisine has had longer establishment and greater market (Mintel, 2007) Yet, Sriwongrat (2008) argues that, for a success, ethnic restaurants cannot only complete on their authenticity of cuisine and ethnic atmosphere, especially when ethnic food is getting increasingly popular Indeed, although the main reasons why consumers dine in ethnic foods are food different (Roseman, 2006), ethnic restaurants should also focus on offering customers unforgettable and satisfied experience (Su, 2010) Adding to this idea, Ryu et al., (2012) propose, no customers are willing to experience poor service or dining environment just for high quality exotic food in ethnic restaurants Today, they are demanding for an excellent overall dining experience Research aims, questions and objectives To reach the aim of the study (exploring influence of people training and development in the delivery of service quality in a selection of Thai restaurants in the UK), three research questions underpinning the study are: • What are the factors that influence customer dining experience in Thai restaurants? • How restaurant owners and management team view the role of staff interaction in providing service quality in Thai restaurants? • What is the impact of people training and development on the delivery of service quality? To find answers for these questions, the researchers set up six objectives within the study These are 1) To review the existing literature on definition of service, service quality, restaurant attributes to customer experiences, customer satisfaction, factors affecting the delivery of service quality 2) To examine the relationship between service quality management and human resource management, specifically the impact of people training and development on the delivery of service quality with particular reference to the ethnic restaurant sector 3) To conduct primary data collection to explore owners and managers attitudes towards factors influencing a provision of good service quality to customer !15 4) To explore how restaurant owners and management team view the role of people training and development in improving service quality delivered in Thai restaurants 5) To analyse and discuss restaurant owners’ and management team’ perspectives on the impact of people and training practice in the delivery of service quality in Thai restaurants against the established literature 6) To provide conclusions and formulate justified recommendations for owners and managers of Thai ethnic restaurants on people training and development to improve service quality in Thai restaurants, followed by a reflection of limitations of the study The significance of the study The study is significant and important for at least forth reasons First, it helps fill the gap in managers’ and owners’ awareness of training benefits, particularly in the delivery of service quality Second, it contributes to understanding of training practices in restaurant organizations, ethic restaurants as an example Third, as exploring perspective of different owners and managers, a comparison can be made among these perspectives and find out the common viewpoints toward the impact of people training and development on service quality provision The last but not least, the author expects to recommend Thai restaurateurs in a way to improve service quality via human resource practices in order to meet their customer's satisfaction in the area of the UK Scope The scope of the study focuses on Thai restaurants in London, Oxford and Bath in the UK Compared with other cities, these three cities are located in London/South East area which covers a largest number of restaurants in the UK (45.9 % in 2002) as well as 30 % of UK population (British Hospitality Association, 2002).According to Pia et al., (2010), such urban big cities (i.e London, Bath, Oxford) are where most ethnic minority groups choose to live in Further, these locations are land for inbound tourism and foreign visitors who probably have great demand for ethnic cuisines The overall structure of the thesis In order to achieve the aim of the research, this dissertation will consist six chapters based on the objectives listed below: Chapter 1: Introduction !16 Starting with a background of UK hospitality, restaurant industry and a growth of ethnic restaurants including Thai, the first chapter introduces the importance of service quality, the role of skilled employee on customer perception of service quality The following part declares the necessity of people training and development to improve staff skill in a context of less training practise in the hospitality due to unawareness of training benefits among management team From that, the research aim and objectives are established together with mentioning a study scope focusing on UK based Thai restaurants Last parts of this chapter explain the format of the thesis and definitions of key terms used within the study Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter reviews literature on definitions of service, characteristic of service, customer satisfaction, restaurant attributes to customer experiences, which leads to the importance of service quality and the role of staff interaction in customer perception of high quality service The following part provides definition of HRM, SHRM, PM, training and development It addresses the important of HRM practices in the service industry, training practices and available training approach to improve service quality Chapter 4: Research methodology Chapter begins with a choice of phenomenology philosophy, qualitative research, multi-case study, the research design with non-probability sample, observation and interview technique is explained by discussing both advantages and disadvantages of each deployed method The section then observations and semi- structured interviews are chosen to gain rich primary data The latter is followed by the analysis of the sample selection and process of the data collection and analysis The last part of this chapter includes discussion of methodology limitations that might have had effect on this research Chapter 5: Research Findings and Discussion This chapter provide the readers with key insights from interviews and observation about how Thai restaurant owners and managers rank the importance of service quality and the current practices of adopting people training and development in improving service quality in Thai restaurants Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendation The final part of this thesis, chapter draws conclusions from the gathered primary data analysis This will add value to the industry in making the topic more transparent and give best practices advice for restaurants owners and managers who are planning to !17 implement people training and development in improving service quality The latter is followed by the discussion of this research's uniqueness and implications of findings for academic audiences and practitioners in hospitality industry Finally, this chapter concludes with the discussion of the research limitation, followed by the identification of the areas that need further research and development Main definitions This part is to define ethnic Thai restaurants mentioned as the population in this thesis Based on the definition of ethnic restaurants by Easter and Guist (2004) and Turgeon and Pastinelli (2002; 252), in this study, ethic Thai restaurants (or ethnically- themedThai restaurants) are full-service restaurants serving Thai cuisines Goldman (1993) claims that the upscale restaurant segment provides different restaurant concepts, of which an ethnic concept is one example Features of an upscale restaurant are introducing a full menu, full table service, high-quality food produced with fresh ingredients, personalised service and décor Common types of upscale restaurant segment range from high-check, casual-dining and fine-dining restaurants (Goldman, 1993) For the purpose of this thesis, upscale ethnic restaurant population consists of casual and fine dining units offering full service, a table service provided regarding Thai themed restaurants For the size of restaurants, small and medium size restaurants are the focus of the research An identification of the restaurant size depends on the number of employees each unit hires (Barrett and Buttigieg, 1999) According to The European Commission (DTI, 2001) small businesses have 10–49 employees and medium-sized enterprises employ 50–249 employees Conclusion This chapter has presented the background of this study and outlines the research aim and objectives From this chapter, the readers should obtain the overall themes of the study which will be taken into consideration in more details in the following chapters The next chapter, literature review, will provide more in- depth insights in terms of theories related to ethic restaurant development, customer selection criteria of restaurants and the importance of service quality These literatures are to develop the foundation for the primary data collection !18 Chapter 2: Literature review Introduction The chapter reviews literature on service definition, characteristic of service, service quality, customer satisfaction, restaurants attributes to customer experiences, a provision of service quality through people As coping with increasing customer sophisticated demand and high competitive hospitality industry, every service company should focus on improve their service quality delivered to customer One of the main factors affecting the delivery of service quality is skills, knowledge and attitude of service employees As a result, people training and development plays an important role in creating learning experiences to improve employees' performance, in turn, helps organization to gain business success However, seen from literature review, there is a lack of training practices among SMEs, specifically on restaurants industry One of the main reasons for that shortage is, high training cost and SMEs owners are not aware of training value such as business improvement, human resource development Even there are some academic sources showing evidences of informal training conducted in small business However, it is necessary to have an academic framework of training practices for small business where organizations are intensive-labour Based on these arguments, it is necessary to carry out more research to fill in the gap in terms of academic study as well as practices aspects By doing that, owners or managers should find the important role of people training and development in delivering service quality in Thai restaurants Service Definition Defined by Looy et al (2003:11), service is “any activity that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything” Another author defines services to be “deeds, processes and performances” (Zeithaml et al., 2006: 4) Hints from these definitions indicate that services have a nature of more processes than products Nature of Services Widely accepted in marketing literature, major features of services are intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability and inseparability of production and consumption (Shostack, 1977, 1982) !19 Intangibility: Not like tangible products, services cannot be sensed in a way of being felt, tasted or touched (Zeithaml et al., 2006:22) This core characteristic of services leads to the fact that the evaluation of servicesh as to be done during or after a service being purchased (Looy et al., 2003:12; Parasuramanet al., 1985) Heterogeneity: Services are treated as performances that humans provide to customers, thus there exists differences in services produced It means, different employees can offer varied services, therefore, ensuring a consistent level of service quality is not that easy (Zeithaml et al., 2006) Perishability: Not like physical product, services cannot be stored, inventoried It means, when services are produces, they need being consumed (Zeithaml et al., 2006) Following to Looy et al (2003), as services have to be consumed once they are made, service providers should predict how much demand for services, which is normally unpredictable Inseparability: According to Rathmell (1974), service providers and consumers cannot be separated during a process services are being provided It means, customers and service employees interact with each other (Zeithaml, 1981) Due to these main features, the evaluation of service quality is more challenging than that of physical products (Shostack, 1982) Service quality Service quality is an attitude of evaluating a provision of service in a long term (Looy et al., 2003) In 1994, Rust and Oliver established a model to conceptualize service quality with three indicators such as service environment, service outcome and customer– employee interaction Based on the work of Rust and Oliver (1994), Brady and Cronin (2001) introduce another conceptualization of service quality including three factors (i.e physical environment quality, output quality and interaction quality) As such, quality of physical environment is decided by atmosphere characteristics, decoration and design Output quality is tested by food quality, time for waiting Interaction quality is evaluated by attitude, behaviour and skill According to Brady and Cronin (2001), these all factors are main contributors to measure service quality !20 In hospitality industry, especially catering sector, nature of service quality is deemed to be “individualized, intangible and subjective” (Johns and Howard, 1998) Lots of hospitality scholars have shown interests in how conceptualizing and measuring service quality during the last decade (Nelson and Raymond, 2011).For example, argued by Grönroos (1984), service quality can be classified into technical and functional quality Technical quality means what the customer is received such as food quality they are provided in restaurants Meanwhile, functional characteristic refers to psychological and behavioural features which can be seen through interaction and atmosphere influencing the delivery of service quality Hospitality literature seems to care more about the functional quality than the technical side of quality (Nelson and Raymond, 2011) According to Grönroos (2001), service quality is not as easy to be evaluated as physical products because the production and consumption of a service experience can be not separated (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003) and service evaluation is linked closely with quality perception of service quality Stated by Grönroos (2001), one way to evaluate service quality is from customer perception As followed, service quality is defined as the degree of matching between customer before-purchasing expectations and their perceptions of the service performance (Sureshchander et al., 2002) According to Ha and Jang (2010), the degree of matching customer expectations and their actual restaurant experiences leads to a status of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, which is discussed in the next part of the chapter Customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction is defined as an evaluative decision after purchase (Day, 1984) This decision of evaluation is done when customers compare their actual experiences of product/service consumption with their before-purchasing expectations (Oliver, 1980, 1989) If the actual performance exceeds expectations, customers will be satisfied; and if the actual performance is worse than expected, customers will be dissatisfied (Ha and Jang, 2010) Argued by Tse and Peter (1988), a level of dissatisfaction or satisfaction influences an attitude toward the product or service and future behavioural intentions.It means, if customers are happy with their consumption of certain products/services, they could repeat their buying in the future (Carpenter, 2007) Seen in this perspective, meeting customer satisfaction is very important for every hospitality organization if they would like to have more returning customers To make customer satisfied, according to Grönroos (2001), service organizations need to understand what kind of service !21 customers are in demand at which level of quality Thanks to knowing what consumers need, they could find a way to meet their expectation (Sureshchander et al., 2002) Viewed from a performance-based approach, many previous studies (Lin, 2004; Mano and Oliver, 1993; Westbrook and Oliver, 1991) have insisted that customer satisfaction goes hand in hand with cognitive judgments and affective reactions It means, customer satisfaction is decided when customers consume products or experience performance of service providers (Westbrook, 1987; Yi, 1990) In the restaurant sector, customers evaluate their satisfaction by assessing their dining experiences based on how their motivations or goals are fulfilled (Roseman, 1996).Supporting this idea, Oliver (1997) claims that, the level of how dining experiences reach customers goals likely leads to emotional states of being pleasure or unpleasant In a field of psychology research, customer emotional states depriving from consumption experience have a great effect on customers’ satisfaction (Mano and Oliver, 1993; Oliver, 1993) It means, a customer’s feeling status is impacted by the performance of service providers (Han and Jeong, 2013) Specifically in the restaurant context, interaction between customers and service providers is considered as a factor influencing customers’ reaction (Namasivayam and Mattila, 2007) Adding to this argument, Ha and Jang (2010) clarify customer reactions could be reflected by their behavioural intentions in the future such as repurchase intention, positive word-of-mouth intention and willingness to recommend All these reactions are a reflection of customer satisfaction (Ha and Jang, 2010) From this perspective, it can be concluded that restaurants should pay attention to staff performance and communication when they provide services (Zeithaml et al., 2006; Solomon et al., 1985) By managing staff interaction in delivering service, they can satisfy their customers and influence their post dinning behaviours such as recommendation or willingness to pay more (Ladhari et al., 2008) Customer experiences in full- service restaurants According to Carlback (2011), the food-service industry belongs to the economy of experience For success, every restaurant are interested in clarifying what factors influence customer dining experiences and then establish business strategy to develop these determined factors for further improvement of customer satisfaction and loyalty (Monteiro, 2000) Indeed, customer experience is the crucial antecedent factor influencing customer satisfaction then post-purchasing intention such as, word-of-mouth, loyalty, complaining behaviour and price susceptibility (Sajeev and Mark, 2001; Su, !22 2011) For example, in a study of word-of-mouth advertising influence, Plymire (1991) indicates, most of customers (about 91 percent) who are not satisfied with restaurants service will not come back and tell eight to ten others about their experiences In ethnic restaurants, Raymond and Tian (2002) believe that, customers tend to feel comfortable when dinning at a new restaurant if they know their friends used to have a good time there Restaurant experience goes hand in hand with the evaluation of restaurant characteristics (Johns and Pine, 2002 and Park, 2004) Many scholars have studied which attributes impact customer evaluation of restaurants Table represents a summary of various factors affecting a restaurant experience identified in previous studies Table 1: A summary of restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in fullservice restaurants Authors Empirical setting Sample Methodology Main findings Andaleeb and C o n w a y United States
 Fine dining restaurants 119 Random and Q u a l i t a t i v e interviews and Responsiveness, food quality, and price were identified as the key j u d g m e n t a l sampling regression analysis restaurant attributes driving 226 Judgmental sampling R e g r e s s i o n analysis (2006) Arora and Singer (2006) United States
 Fine dining restaurants customer satisfaction Food quality and service impact customersatisfaction, while food quality, service and ambience and menu price affect customer perceptions of value Clark and Wood (1998) UK
 Unavailable 63 Convenience sampling Descriptive statistics Food list, food quality, food price, atmosphere and speed of service are the key factors deciding customer selection of restaurants Hyun (2009) United States
 Chain restaurants 208 Convenience sampling Structural equation modelling Value equity comprised of food quality, service quality, price, location and environment significantly affected customer equity Jang et al United States
 517 Panel-survey Factor analysis and Food quality, authentic food, (2012) U p- s ca l e an d cas u al sampling Structural equation restaurant environment are the modelling most important factors influencing customer perception of value, Korean restaurants emotions and behavioural intentions !23 Authors Empirical setting Sample Methodology Main findings Jang et al United States
 424 Panel-survey A N O VA and Identified common and unique (2009) Ethnic restaurants sampling i m p o r t a n t performance attributes of six types of Asian food Importance of appearance, analysis health-related, uniqueness and others differed across six Asian restaurants Kivela et al (2000) Hong Kong
 Theme/Ambience 861 Random sampling Factor analysis and logistic regression Restaurants F o o d q u a l i t y, s e r v i c e a n d uniqueness of the restaurant are assigned more importance among the nine attributes determining the preference toward choosing a restaurant Qu (1997) United States
 Chinese restaurants 124 Systematic sampling Factor and regression analysis Food and environment, service and courtesy, price and value, and location were related to choice intention attributes Food and environment had the largest impact on intentions to coming back again Shown in Table 1, what attributes to customer experience can be tangible things such as food and layout (e.g Clark and Wood, 1998) or intangible elements such as atmosphere and staff friendliness (Jang et al., 2012) Differences among the attributes type is due to various type of restaurant services (fine dining, fast food, or ethnic restaurants) In hospitality industry, Reuland et al (1985) claim, what contributes to a service experience comes from a harmonious collection of the material product, the behaviour and attitude of the employees and the environment As argued by Clark and Wood (1999), food quality, restaurant ambience and service are crucial variables affecting customer choice of restaurants Food quality The quality of certain food is reflected by tastes, cooking ingredients (Su, 2008); menu variety (Wansink et al., 2005); good presentation (Rozin and Tuorila, 1993); healthy food options (Namkung and Jang, 2007), nutritional value (Howlett et al., 2009) Food quality is considered to affect customer satisfaction and post-dinning behavioural intention (Liu and Jang, 2009) in full- service segment (Sulek and Hensley, 2004) or in authentic segment (George, 2001; Namkung and Jang, 2007) For example, authentic food is favoured more than the decoration, music and uniforms in an authentic restaurant setting (George, 2001) That is why food quality is seen as the main factor driving customers to visit ethnic restaurants (Su, 2008) In addition, Jeong and Jang !24 (2011) believe high-tasting food encourages customers to recommend in terms of wordof-mouth Restaurant atmosphere Restaurant atmosphere refers to the surrounding quality made from music, lighting, color and scent (Liu and Jang, 2009) In ethnic restaurant setting, physical environment is considered as a key factor affecting customers’ positive evaluations of restaurant (Dube and Renaghan, 2000, Lin and Mattila, 2010), their emotional responses (Ryu and Jang, 2007), which in turn affects customers’ post-dining behavioral intentions Accordingly, customers can decide to approach or avoid a particular environment due to their evaluation of a restaurant experiences based on restaurant environment (Wall and Berry, 2007) Indeed, ethnic music and decoration can impact customers 'menu selection in authentic Chinese restaurants (Ryu and Zhong, 2012) These authors suggest that when a positive feel of physical environment likely make customers trust the restaurant service and less suspect food quality Service Regarding to the restaurant industry, Kotler et al (1998) argues, customers have a high level of contact with service employees while enjoying services, therefore, they assess the service experiences based on the skills and performance of service providers When customers have a positive evaluation of employee interactions, they will have a long-run perception of entire service quality (Czepiel, 1990) In another case, when customers have a negative perception of restaurant atmosphere, impressive employee behaviour could help improve consumers’ perception of dining experience (Wall and Berry, 2007) Adding to this idea, Brooks (2000) believes how employees interact with customers affects 40–80% of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty Indeed, Nick (1998) claims that, when customers see enthusiasm and capability to provide products/services among employees, they will have a good perception of the service quality From these arguments, no doubt, employee interactions play a vital role in customer experiences in terms of influencing customers’ perception of service quality (Cowell, 1989) Therefore, !25 to make customer have a good perception of service quality, restaurateurs need to improve employees’ skills and attitudes in interacting with customers while service is being provided Restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in ethnic restaurants Particularly in ethnic restaurant sector, recently, food quality and ethnic atmosphere are not all what customers want for an ethnic dining experience (Jang et al., 2011) A true type, taste and culture of restaurant environment and good- tasting food make up "authenticity" (Carroll and Wheaton, 2009; Ebster and Guist, 2004) This kind of authenticity provides an out-of-ordinary dining experiences such as “culinary tourism ”which is totally different with customer native region and local rivals (Ebster and Guist, 2004; Wood and Munoz, 2006), As a result, customer can perceive an unique authenticity which is seen one of the main drivers of customer satisfaction in ethnic dining restaurants because today (Tsai and Liu, 2012) Yet, as ethnic food is getting more and more popular, ethnic restaurants cannot only depend on their authenticity of tasting food and restaurant surroundings to become successful (Sriwongrat, 2008) In other words, even though food quality is an important factor contributing to authenticity perceptions (Munoz and Wood, 2009; Tsai and Lu, 2012), it is not appealing enough to drive customers to make a visit (Su, 2011) In some situations, customers not have knowledge to determine food authenticity, they look for something apart from only a meal for eating (Wang and Mattila, 2015) In upscale restaurant segment particularly for groups of customers who are seeking for adventurous and healthy alternatives for example, Yuksel and Yuksel (2002) believe that consumers demand for a complete dining experience, not just high quality food Similarly, in a market of full-service restaurants, service responsiveness is the most important contributor against food quality, physical environment (design and decoration as examples) to customer satisfaction (Andaleeb and Conway, 2006) In other words, Ryu et al., (2012) propose that, no customers are willing to experience poor service or dining environment just for high quality exotic food in ethnic restaurants Further, in a survey of three types of diners, fine diners, casual diners and quick-service, Stevens et al (1995) acknowledge that, the higher perception of service quality customers have, the more intension of returning and recommending they will have Seen from these perspectives, obviously, ethnic restaurants should also focus on offering customers unforgettable and satisfied experience including not only good food, good atmosphere but high-quality service (Su, !26 2010) As staffs interaction influences how services are provided and how customers evaluate the quality of service delivered (Namasivayam and Mattila, 2007), restauranteurs need to focus on people with a view to ensure a high quality service provision Delivering Service Quality through people In the hospitality sector, an uncertainty of customer demand has brought in challenges in defining, delivering and measuring service quality for service firms As such, due to fluctuation in customer demand for service between peak periods (e.g checkout time or holiday) and off peak seasons, every firm struggles to deliver a consistent level service quality during these seasons (Sasser et al., 1978) Stated by Nickson et al (2005), one effective way to maintain the delivery of service is managing the way services are provided by service employees Arguably, hospitality employees contact directly and frequently with customers when they provide services (Kotler et al., 1998) They are seen a part of the product in a sense that their performance and communication with customers contributes to the service experience, which affects how customers perceive service quality (Nickson et al., 2005) For example, when staffs are not quick enough to serve food to customers or delay in carrying food from kitchens to tables, customers cannot enjoy hot food as it should be They could be disappointed and have a negative view about the service quality (Pratten, 2003) In this case, it can be understood that even the food are of good quality but slow speed of serving could run that quality In contrast, when staffs make some mistakes in serving guests, they still can satisfy customers with suitable reactions (Bitner and Booms, 1990) Appropriate responses that consumers are expecting employees to display, generally, are being attentive, courteous and possess a good knowledge of the menu (Heung et al., 2000; Pratten, 2003; Sulek and Hensley, 2004) Customers’ perception of service quality is influenced by employee behaviours (Bitner et al.,1990; Parasuraman et al., 1988) In such, staff behaviours such as reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy are main attributes to customer evaluation of quality (Russell and Pratt, 1980) Meanwhile, these authors suggest restaurant ambiences influences more on customer states of feeling such as pleasure or unpleasure Hints from these examples indicate that, staff interactions play an important part in customer perception of the service quality, therefore, service firms have to pay attention to human capital such as knowledge, skill and attitude (Altinay et al., 2008) !27 Supporting the argument of Altinay et al (2008), Wilson et al (2008: 280), suggest service organizations need to establish human resource strategies to make sure “service employees are willing and able to deliver quality services and that they stay motivated to perform in customer-oriented, service-minded ways" It means, organizations have to set up strategies to “hire the right people, develop people to deliver service quality, provide the needed support systems, and retain the best people" The next part is going to discuss in details which kind of human resource strategies is applicable to improve service employee capabilities of providing a high quality service in a case of ethnic restaurants Human resource management approaches Gaining competitive advantages and innovation in human resource management (HRM) practices are what every firm is looking for with a view to utilizing its human capital (Tan and Nasurdin, 2011) According to Stone (2005), HRM relates to internally consistent policies, practices and systems to motivate and attract employees whose behaviour, attitudes and performance have a strong impact on the survival of the organization.HRMis a "strategic approach" to help firms develop human resource capacities and commitment towards long- term competitive advantage (Bratton and Gold, 2012: 7) As such, “strategic” and “competitive advantage” is the focus of HRM, which orients a right direction for companies to plan, monitor and control their resources to achieve its goal (Lojie et al., 2012) Argued by Sisson (1994), the introduction of HRM is a result of the search for competitive advantage At the same time, human resource has been acknowledged as a crucial source of the firms' competitive advantage over their rivals, not just "simply one of the factors of production, along with money and machinery" (Sisson, 1994: 4) Therefore, how employees are recruited, trained, rewarded, motivated and disciplined influences significantly the business success (Sisson, 1994) Moreover, compared with external factors such as politics, economy, society and culture which impact employees’ relation and performance, HRM is advanced in terms of team development and employee empowerment in long run (Ihuah, 2014) Personnel Management In comparison with HRM which focuses on resources to achieve the organization’s goal, the concentration of personnel management (PM) is managing labour force (Lojie et al., !28 n.d) PM is defined “as the optimum utilisation of human resources in pursuit of organization goals” (Legge, 2005: 46) Under PM approach, organizations take administration of their human resources by staffing, recruitment, compensation and benefits (Rowden; 1999; Wei 2006; Ulrich, 1997) to meet four requirements These are meeting objectives related to all employees, goals related to work, objectives relating to management changes and administrative goals (Torrington et al., 2004) The advantage of PM application is maintaining a good employee- employer relationship by a means of training and satisfying employees' needs (Grimsley, 2014) An "effective PM", as claimed by Boella and Goss-Turner (2005), requires fair share and conditions among employees at work However, the downside of PM is a limited strategic orientation such as a shortage of integration among its labour practices (David and Geoffrey, 2009) Indeed, Drucker (1961: 269) indicates that, PM is as "a collection of incidental techniques with little internal cohesion As personnel administration conceives the job of managing worker and work, it is partly a file clerk’s job, partly a house keeping job, partly a social worker’s job and partly firefighting to head off union trouble or to settle it" Although Guest (1990) argues that the focus of PM is organisational survival and worker welfare, that welfare role is seen as a lack of credibility related to managerial function (David and Geoffrey, 2009) Arguably, the development and operation in ethnic restaurants in UK catering industry have been influenced by cultural values, attitudes, behaviours and perceptions of entrepreneurial opportunities (Basu and Altinay, 2002 cited in Abdullah et al., 2009), These factors require restaurants to develop human resource and empower employee for a long term (Stone, 2005) Moreover, service organizations also need to find a way to accumulate human capacities to sustain their competitive advantage over their rivals Therefore, an adoption of HRM is seen as crucial and beneficial choice for service firms (Kakavelakis, 2010) Philosophy of managing people Schuler (1989) suggests three major philosophies for managing people, "facilitation'', "accumulation'', and "utilisation'' which are used to link people management with management values "Accumulation" refers to a longer-term approach to manage people, especially in terms of selecting the "right type of person'' and people investing such as training and building long-term relationships "Utilisation'', on the other hand, is a short-term approach, in which staffs are recruited on the basis of skill, given little training !29 and provided remuneration and incentive based on individuals Meanwhile, "facilitation'' allows organizations develop employees value, of which an example can be stimulating and rewarding environment to retain valued staff In assessing strengths of these three approaches, Schuler (1989) proposes that utilisation is most appropriately used with a cost reduction strategy, accumulation with a quality enhancement strategy and facilitation with a development strategy Relationship between human resource management and the delivery of service quality In the service industry, every organisation has to cope with increasingly customer demand for high quality service (Dewhurst et al., 2007) in terms of attentive, flexible and novelty aspects (Peter, 1987) On the other hand, as there is a high level of customeremployee contact in the hospitality sector, staff interactions are considered to influence significantly customer perception of service quality (Sheng and Lin, 2004) Thus, one widely accepted way to ensure the service quality offered is via managing employee performance and behaviours (Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Carlzon, 1987) Stated by Morrison (1996), the adoption of HRM practices can help firms create an encouraging environment for employees to have more customer-oriented behaviour HRM practices to improve employees' behaviours performance are selection, hiring, appraisal, promotions, and reward administration following customer-oriented value (Schein, 1985; Ulrich et al., 1991) Namely, service organizations recruited and hired employees following a basis of duties and experiences Employees then are trained with necessary skills to carry out their work requirements, especially how to meet customer needs and wants (Ulrich, 1989) Every positive performance of employees that meets customer demand are appraised and rewarded By doing that, companies can link meeting-customer-need orientation in managing human resource, which helps increase a share of “mindset among employees and customers” (Ulrich et al., 1991: 91) Argued by Zerbe et al (1998), the use of these HRM practices shape employee behaviours and skills of doing their work, in turn, affect organizational effectiveness Supporting this idea, Schneider and Bowen (1985) explained, under HRM approach towards customer orientation, employees could perceive what their firms to improve their performance in serving customers, which helps to navigate their customer-oriented behaviours (Zerbe, Dobni, and Harel, 1998) In a sense, employees are willing to treat customers as well as the way they are treated by their companies (Bowen Schneider and, 1993) !30 Based in this perspective, it is necessary for every service firm to carry out HRM practices in order to develop customer-oriented behaviour among employees By focusing on selection, training, and compensation of employees, service firms could improve their service quality delivered by their staffs (Fey et al., 2000; Schneider and Bowen, 1985) 10 Training Definition According to Schuler (1989), key functions of HRM practice are planning, staffing, appraising, compensating, training and development and labour-management relations Defined by Mondy et al (1999: 254), training and development (T & D) is activity that is planned and done by management team to “improve employee competency levels and organisational performance" It means, management team set up system, standards and time frame to create employees learning experience in terms of skill, attitude and knowledge in order to develop their performance at work (Mccleland, 2002; Sommerville, 2007) Benefit of training in hospitality industry According to Ram et al (2000), training and development belongs to human resource development (HRD) and is seen as significantly important for the development of every organization In a context that recruiting skilled employees is not that easy, organizations need to develop a flexible and skilful labour so that they can their job effectively (Garavan et al., 1995) Dewhurst et al (2007)believes training stimulates employee capability of learning, sharing knowledge to their work effectively and efficiently in terms of proving better service quality Namely, employees adopting what they are taught during training provide a better service than who are not trained In a sense, they are able to carry out service task in a dependable, reliable and flexible way; present a quick response and present a confidence in communicating with customers (Zumrah et al., 2013) By providing a superior service, trained staffs can meet customer satisfaction and in turn, organizations have more customer returning (Delaney and Huselid, 2007) Further, investment on training allows organizations to reduce staff turnover (Storey, 2002) As such, when staffs are able to improve their performance such as providing a better service, they gain their satisfaction at work (Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2004) Since then, the type of these employees shows more commitment to work for organizations which give them training (Back et al., 2011) Another explanation is that, compared with large organizations, small firms likely have less internal labour market, therefore, they !31 tend to provide less career progression to trained employees That is why workers are more likely to quit for where they can have better career path (Holtman and Idson, 2001) Joining such a high competitive hospitality industry where customer demand is getting more sophisticated, service organizations at all sizes cannot offer high quality service if they not have well-trained and skilled human resources (Rees, 1995; Altinay and Altinay, 2006) Employees with qualified knowledge, skills and behaviour are a key factor deciding a firm’s success (Altinay and Altinay, 2006) Argued by Wilson et al (2008), service organizations can improve quality of service provided to customers by conducting training focusing on customer-oriented behaviours Therefore, it cannot be denial that training is a key procedure to arm employees with necessary skills and knowledge to improve their performance following organization requirements (Kerr and McDougall, 1999) According to Spector (1997) and Storey (1994), people training and development is what all service organizations as well as modern restaurants and SMEs (Eaglen et al., 2000; Johnson and Gubbins, 1992) prioritize to gain their competitive advantage The next part will elaborate in detail which training approach is suitable for service quality improvement 11 Training approach Today, the adoption of training should depend on the need of organization and employers as well as philosophy of the management team (Salas et al., 1999; Zainal and Adullah, 2003) As operating in the service industry, service organizations had better conduct training content and method to improve their delivery of service quality (Mosahab et al., 2011) Training content: hard/soft/ aesthetic skill training Training content relates to what type of training that employees provide to trainees (Tharenou et al., 2007) It is impacted competencies demand of the industry (Pratten, 2003) as well as firm goals of training (Gist et al., 1990) In this case, competencies can be defined as necessary skills and knowledge to fulfil requirements of a particular job (Tas, 1988) A topic of which skills are required in the service industry has received lot of interest studies of Burns (1997) and Pratten (2003) Following to the two researches, required skills for service staffs belong to three categories, hard, soft and aesthetic skills !32 These three sections of skills are the main training content for service organizations Hard skill training (or technical training) is to guide staffs how to carry out serving procedures, use company equipment and provide them specific product knowledge (e.g food, drink) (Nick et al., 2005).The purpose of this method is to ensure staffs provide service in a right and effective way following instructions of managers or supervisors (Wilson et al., 2008) Besides, soft skill training (or functional training) instructs staffs how to communicate with customers to provide "courteous, caring, responsive and empathetic service" (Wilson et al., 2008: 283).The focus of this method is to educate staffs with appropriate attitudes and behaviours when they interact with the guest (Hallier and Butts 1999; Guerrier and Adib 2003) In some multicultural working environment where there is a diversity in workforce (Bochner, 1982), service employees are also given cross-cultural training Under this section, trainers equip trainees with necessary information and tools to avoid misunderstanding and inappropriate behaviours which might lead to cultural conflicts in working places (Lee and Chon, 2000) Thanks to that, learners are believed to gain confidence in communicating with people from different background (Back and Mendenhall, 1990) Additionally, aesthetic skills instructions is to orient staffs how to prepare their appearance such as good looking when they are on job duty (Nickson et al., 2005) Training methods: on-job training/ off-job training There are two types of training methods Under off-job training approach (or formal trainings), employees are given oral or written information presenting concepts or principals to develop employee knowledge and skills for performing a certain task, which helps to develop (Blanchard and Thacker, 1998) In contrast, following to on-job training (or informal training), trainers provide trainees with practice behaviours that they have to display at real working setting (Ahammad, 2013) • Off-the-job training methods include lecture and computer-based training which can be organized outside actual workplace This approach is suitable for sharing knowledge among lots of people as well as allows self- study of each trainee (Ahammad, 2013) Computer based training means, trainees use computers to access training sections (Jerris, 1999) • On-the-job training methods provide staffs certain techniques and specific tasks to their particular job following day-to-day need set by management team (Curran et al., 1997; Monder et al., 2000) Under this approach, employees are given particular the knowledge and skills required in their positions related to job requirements (Ahammad, 2013) !33 Employee empowerment Beside training method and content, empowerment is other aspect of training that plays as asignificant role in increasing job satisfaction and organizational commitment within organizations (Wilson et al., 2008) Empowerment means giving employees necessary knowledge and tools so that they can make their own decisions, daily decisions as an example, within their permitted responsibilities (Bowen and Lawler, 1992; Lee et al., 1999) An advantage of giving employees that authority is to increase attention, response, reliability in employee behaviours (Bateson, 1995) Particular in the service industry, giving authority to staff is important because it helps employees react to customer’s demand for service in a quick and effective way (Kelley, 1993) Consequently, service staffs are flexible enough to make “on-the-pot decisions” to please customer needs (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996), which assists to improve customer’s perception of higher service quality (Lashley, 1995) In addition, when employees are given authority, they have a feeling of being trusted by management team (Khan, 1997) In turn, they show more commitment at work, which again stimulates their better provision of service quality (Hellriegel et al., 1999) 12 Practice of training in the hospitality industry Widely accepted is that training is beneficial in terms of staff competencies development to improve the service quality provided, nevertheless, there is not much attention in training practice (Altinay el al., 2008) Arguably, there is a lack of training in small and medium size organizations (Coetzer and Perry, 2008; Harris, 2009) due to a number of reasons First, the cost small firms spend on training is higher than in large firms As such,larger firms can put more employees to join training at the same time so they can save fixed cost of training per unit In contrast, smaller organizations sometimes not have a number of employees big enough for one training, so more training sections have to be conducted which increase fixed cost (Lynch and Black, 1998) Second, internal workforce in large firms tends to keep more employee retention, bringing in return on training investments (Green, 1993) Third, small firms may not be convinced that focusing on training activities could improve their business performance (Storey and Westhead, 1997) Indeed, owners in smaller firms see training value in "academic" and abstract perspective, which is beyond their immediate business concerns (Smith et al., 2002; Storey, 1999) As having high customer and market uncertainly, smaller organizations have less demand for training than in large firms In addition, these firms !34 likely thinkthe skills they train their employees can be applied outside their firms, so preventing them from investing on training (Storey, 1999) For all these reasons, smaller firms are less likely to provide training for their employees However, less investment in training mainly leads to low productivity growth and poor performance within SMEs (Ashton and Felstead, 2001) An application of training practices depends on business type and level of services Differences in business type (e.g brand or non-brand businesses, small or medium size organizations) influence a choice of training practice (Eaglen et al., 2000) According to these authors, branded organizations or are favourable for formal trainings so as to maintain a consistent level of service to consumers In other words, these companies apply formal training for enhancing their standard of service quality Another factor is organization sizes Small companies tend to provide less formal training or less training than large organizations (Curran et al., 1996) Claimed by Ram et al (2001), small firms offer informal training on their day-to-day need within a short time period Differences in level of service also affect training approach For an example, in up-scale restaurants where customer demand for a certain high level of service quality, new head chief is still given some trainings Even before starting working for particular restaurants, a head chef has to possess certain skills However, some on-job training helps them get used to a unique cooking way in their new working place (Monder et al., 2000) 13 Conceptual framework A conceptual framework is defined as research paper structure giving explanation of main things the study aims to investigate (Miles et al., 1994: 18) Following this definition, a conceptual framework of this dissertation will represent key topics with a view to fulfilling the research aim A visual framework is illustrated in Figure 1for a clear understanding In narrative form, the conceptual framework of this dissertation can be outlined in the following structure, part of which has been already covered during the literature review 1) Business type of Thai restaurant samples 2) Restaurants attribute to customer experiences in Thai restaurants 3) Human resource management in Thai restaurants 4) Training approach in terms of method and content 5) The effect of training in the delivery of service quality in Thai restaurants Figure 1: A conceptual framework of the thesis !35 2.13 Conclusion This chapter successfully meet the research objective and It reviews literature on definitions of service, characteristic of service, customer satisfaction, restaurant attributes to customer experiences, which leads to the importance of service quality and the role of staff interaction in customer perception of high quality service The following part provides definition of HRM, SHRM, PM and addresses the important of HRM practices in the service industry As coping with increasing customer sophisticated demand and high competitive hospitality industry, every service company should focus on improve their service quality delivered to customer One of the main factors affecting the delivery of service quality is skills, knowledge and attitude of service employees As a result, people training and development plays an important role in creating learning experiences to improve employees' performance, in turn, helps organization to gain business success However, seen from literature review, there is a lack of training practices among SMEs, specifically on restaurants industry One of the main reasons for that shortage is, high training cost and SMEs owners are not aware of training value such as business improvement, human resource development Even there are some academic sources showing evidences of informal training conducted in small business However, it is necessary to have an academic framework of training practices for small business where organizations are intensive-labour Based on these arguments, it is necessary to carry out more research to fill in the gap in terms of academic study as well as practices aspects By doing that, owners or managers should find the important role of people training and development in delivering service quality in Thai restaurants !36 The next section will explain the choice of the methodology to collect the primary data in order to fill the gap displayed in the conceptual framework !37 Chapter 3: Research methodology and design Introduction Highlights from literature review, service quality is of the most important factors influencing customers’ satisfaction and loyalty and the need for ethic restaurants to focus on human resource development to improve service quality.This chapter will discuss when, where and how to conduct primary data collection to fulfil the research purposes Respectively, the chapter demonstrates the choice of phenomenology approach and qualitative research to achieve the research objective two and three The following part explains why case study was adopted as a research strategy to examine a specific Thai restaurant setting Also, the chapter rationalizes the sampling strategy and the use of semi-structured interviews and observation to collect data, followed by the qualitative analysis techniques for data interpretation The end of this chapter is to present issues related to ethical considerations and limitation of the research Research philosophy In doing research, researchers need to choose either positivism or phenomenology, of which the chosen philosophy impacts the type of data collected (quantitative or qualitative) and research methods (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) (Figure2) Also, a choice of adequate philosophy depends on the research question of each study(Saunders et al., 2012) Positivism enables researchers to investigate the reality by “identified, quantified, and reported as a verifiable fact” and the process of examination can be separated with data analysis (Shepard et al., 1993) In means, researchers could observe the reality from a distant view (Levin, 1988), establishing hypothesis of anticipated inter relationships among variables within the reality (Hirschheim, 1985) Afterwards, researchers collect data which is presented by statistics to test hypotheses set in advance (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008).This philosophy is seen as an objective approach in which the process of data analysis and collection is separated (EasterSmith, 1999) Relationships among variables are presented by facts or numbers following scientific research way (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008; Thorpe and Lowe, 1999) Figure 2: Model illustrating alternative philosophical approaches to research (Shepard et al., 1993) !38 ! In contrast, phenomenology aims at describing, explaining social reality by interpreting people experiences from their perspectives, behaviours and motives (Easterby- Smith et al., 2002; Titchen and Hobson, 2005) As different people possess different perspectives towards their living context, this philosophy allows an examination of different realities to find out common themes, therefore, help researchers understand deeply perspectives of specific people group (Shepard et al., 1993) Compared with positivism approach in which researchers observe the reality from far-away view,the later enables researchers to get in the phenomenon, interact with “stakeholders” or observe people to explore their experiences (Titchen and Hobson, 2005) Based on the research purpose, a choice of phenomenology was deemed as appropriate By adopting this approach, the researcher could join Thai restaurants setting, observing how staffs are trained to serve customers, interacting with restaurants owners and managers to understand their way of thinking Hence, she could have an indepth understandings of situations and behaviours of related people within Thai restaurant setting that she studied (Shaw, 1999) As such, the author could investigate different perspectives of owners and managers towards there search topic, consequently, she could point out some differences and similarities among these people (Easterby- Smith et al., 1999; Gray, 2004; Saunders et al., 2007) !39 Research approach and strategy 3.3.1 Research approach The study adopted qualitative approach because of its suitability with the research questions (Bryman, 1988) Arguably, the focus of qualitative research is to explain meanings, concepts and features of the phenomenon (Berg, 2001) In contrast, quantitative research is to measure and examine cause-and-effect relationships among variables (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998) As the research aim is to shed further light on the impact of people training and development in delivering service quality in Thai restaurant context, it requires an exploration of perspectives or experiences of people who relate to the studied context (Patton, 2002) Hence, qualitative approach enables the author to draw a highly contextual picture of the phenomenon, explore "how" and "why" human resource development happens (Barbour, 2008; Gray, 2004).Conversely, the latter approach is a measure that the researcher uses to test relationship among variables in the phenomena setting (Saunders et al., 2009) Quantitative research can show interrelationship among variable within the investigated context, but for finding new insights of how events happen, qualitative approach tends to work better (Saunders et al., 2009) Another reason is, compared with close- ended question following quantitative research,qualitative research leads to the use of open- ended question format, which encourages informants to share what they think in relation to what they were asked (Mack et al., 2003) The more ideas informants share, the deeper understanding researchers can have about what is going on towards the reality (Saunders et al., 2003) As such, by using interview, the researcher could interact effectively with research participants, hear what they regarding human resource development issues in their restaurants.Since then, she obtained different views of different people towards the same research problem, then pointed out common perspectives (Bryman, 1988; Lofl and, 1971; Marshall and Rossman, 1995; Miles and Huberman, 1994) Moreover, due to the lack of academic references regarding the role of people training and development in ethic Thai restaurants to improve service quality, according to Maxwell (2005), qualitative research enables the author: • Conduct investigations within the research area that is short of literature foundation • Use literature review as a starting point to establish a conceptual framework and further investigate the topic by collecting primary data !40 • Carry out primary data collection within a small- scale sample 3.3.2 Research strategy To reach the research aim, a research needs to set up a strategy as a plan to link the research philosophy with data collection technique and data analysis (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011) In the research methodology theory, there are a variety of research strategies such as experiments, surveys, action research, case studies, grounded theory, ethnography and archival research (Veal, 2006) Among of them, case study is considered as a dominant strategy in tourism or hospitality research (Rowley, 2002) Case studies are defined as an “empirical” examination of a specific scenario within the social life settings based on many sources of evidences (Robson, 2002: 178) This study adopted case studies to find out “how” a relationship between HR development practices and service quality management in Thai restaurants is rather than just find out what HRM practices are (Denscombe, 1998: 31; Yin, 2003) It also helps to answer a question why Thai restaurants might or might not launch training and people development to improve their service quality (Gray, 2004) Additionally, under case study approach, data could be gathered from a variety of sources (e.g different perspectives of many people) and collection tools in order to give an exploration of what is being investigated, which, therefore, set up a validity for data (Denscombe, 1998) There is a major concern about the generalization of findings related to case study approach (Yin, 1994) However, as the purpose of the study is explore the meanings, definitions and description of the situation in Thai restaurants in the UK, a case study enables the author to analyse the reality deeper rather than just describing what it is (Thomas, 2003).To establish a multi-layer understanding about the research problem, multi case studies were applied in this study, even they took more time and cost to carry out research than doing only one case (Yin, 2003) Further, evidences gathered from different case studies enable the author compare and contrast to see certain differences and similarities (Sauders et al., 2008) Therefore, data is more reliable and valid than that collected from single-case format and that findings tend to be generalized (Yin, 2003) As followed, the author chose small and medium size restaurants Research design Following a qualitative approach, a flexible research design was established so that the researcher could have in-depth understandings of the research topic from investigating informants’ perspectives (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) It means, the design for data collection was less structured to stimulate informants to share more information (Shaw, !41 1999) Hence, before entering the studied field, the author designed the sample selection and collection methods (Table 2) (Wolcott, 1994) The justifications for the selection are discussed in details in the following sections Table 2: Research design summary Aim To critically examine the role of people development and training in delivering service quality in Thai restaurants from management perspective Objective To explore the attitudes and perspective of the owners/management team in small and medium sized Thai restaurants based in the UKregarding how they view the importance of people training and development in improving their service quality delivered Procedures 1- Develop multi- case study of small and medium sized Thai restaurants (those have more than 10 employees and less than 200 employees) in three cities, London, Oxford and Bath 2- Conduct an observation in one chosen Thai restaurant to see how owners or managers guide their staffs to deliver a good service to their customers 3- Conduct a series of interviews with chosen restaurant owners and management teamto identify their attitudes, motivestoward the research questions 4- Develop data analysis in terms of comparing findings from observations and interviews with literature review related to the research problem Method Direct observation, semi-structured interviews Sample The author decided to use non- probability sample technique within the study The meaning of this technique is, the probability to choose each one within the sample is unidentified (Smith, 1983) but depends on characteristics of the population (Lunch research, 2012; Ritchie and Lewis, 2003) Meanwhile, in probability sampling, each one in the population has the same chance to be involved in the sample (Corbetta, !42 2003).Considering the exploratory purpose in this thesis,non- probability sample tends to be more effective than the latter one in providing rich data relevant to the research problem (Marshall and Rossman, 1995) Compared with probability sample method in which the researcher views the studied reality from a distance, a purposive approach enables the author to be a part of the study for observing and investigating people’ experiences more deeply (Ritchie et al., 2003) Further, regarding to hospitality and tourism research, researchers often encounter certain difficulties in terms of time, cost and ethnic aspects in accessing to probability sampling (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008: 95) Non - probability sampling helps the author save time and cost when approaching the studied sample (Lund Research, 2012) In addition, alongside with qualitative research, this approach is more suitable for small- scale studies, which the author could select sample purposively and discover particular characteristics of the selected groups within the whole sample population (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003; Saunders et al., 2003) Among four popular methods of non-probability sampling such as availability sampling, quota sampling, purposive sampling and snowball sampling (Schutt, 2006), purposive sampling is appropriate for this study Namely, the author decided by herself who or what units to investigate (Jennings, 2001) Additionally, with a view to ensuring caserestaurants involved in the research provide rich data to answer the research questions, criterion sampling tactics were used (Patton, 1987) Indeed, the author predetermined some criteria for selecting what restaurants and interviewers that would be involved in her study (Shaw, 1999).These criteria are: • Service: They have to provide full services such as menu, drinks and foods related to traditional Thai cuisines • Size of restaurant: Chosen restaurants must be small and medium size The restaurant size can be identified depending on a number of employees hired in each unit (Barrett and Buttigieg, 1999) As such, the author chose restaurants which are small units (10-49 employees) and medium size units (50-249 employees) (Euromonitor, 2013) • Location: Case-restaurants are located within daily travelling distance of the researcher so that she could make a visit to them by bus or train easily Location that is convenient for the author to travel is within city of London, Oxford and Bath • Business history: Case-restaurants had been trading for a minimum of three years before the research was conducted The reason is, when a company does business for a certain period of time, they are supposed to experience some !43 practices of training and developing their human resources Hence, the researcher can make questions to find out how they perceive the impact of human resource development on service quality management • For interview sample, the author decided to interviews owners and restaurant management team who had experienced the phenomenon being investigated Namely, participants are those responsible for or participating in training staffs and willing to share and communicate in English their experiences without any bias and embarrassment Considering how many restaurants the author should investigate to develop a comprehensive understanding of the researcher problem, the chosen number of cases involved is less than when using probabilistic sampling (Easterby- Smith et al., 1991) In addition, the number of cases being studied was not determined in advance before the researcher visited the field (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994) Meaning, when the authors felt there were no new ideas she could gain from participating any additional units, the process of research should terminate (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, Shaw, 1999) Initially, a total of twelve small and medium size Thai restaurants were recognised through the website (tripadvisor.co.uk) (accessed during June, 2015) by using a searching word “Thai restaurant” and good review from customers in the location of London, Oxford and Bath Respondents were contacted using two different means First, an email letter was sent to a restaurant’ email address taken from their websites, which gave a brief introduction about there searcher (e.g name and university, university and training course) and research topic(appendix 1) together with Interviewee Engagement Participant Information Sheet (appendix 2).In the latter form, the researcher introduced the research aim, rationale and the researcher contact (email address, mobile phone number) if they would have any questions or concerns Also, the researcher addressed the research gap and the importance of primary data gathered through interviews and the contribution of interviewees to the research Second, within 48 hours of sending the letter to the targeted person, the researcher made phone calls to chosen restaurants following their numbers listed in their websites for arranging an interview time The way of informing participant in advance for the research aim and interview purpose ensured the objectivity of the data collected (Shaw, 1999) Moreover, by establishing a clear description of sampling criteria, Kalof et al (2008) believes that the generalizability of the research findings is achieved Among chosen twelves restaurants, there were eight restaurants willing to join interviews with the researcher They are among the most !44 popular ones in its locality for authentic Thai restaurants In this case, these chosen locality are London, Bath and Oxford cities Data collection technique Direct observations and semi- structured interviews were chosen to collect qualitative data from a small sample size (Easterby- Smith et al., 1999; Saunders et al., 2007) By applying two methods, disadvantage sides of one tool can be compensated by the other as every technique has pros and cons (Gill and Johnson, 2010; Gray, 2004) Also,as data was collected in a form of opinions, thoughts and behaviours, the use of two tools enhanced an objectiveness of the data interpretation (Sandiford and Seymour, 2007) Compared with quantitative data which is normally displayed by statistics, qualitative data is not that easy to be interpreted by one technique because the interpretation might be affected the researcher bias Hence, the adoption of two techniques is to yield valid and reliable data (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008; Patton, 2002) In addition, thinking about how rich data could be gathered, no questionnaires or surveys were used at this stage Questionnaires or surveys have a tendency of low responses (Groundwork, 1995; Meritt, 1998) and participants might misunderstand or give unsuitable answers to research questions (Malhotra, 1993).Therefore, with a view to knowing better what people experience within a context of Thai restaurants sample, using surveys could not let the researcher enter these restaurants to have a real experience of the investigated phenomenon (Shaw, 1999) In contrast, semi- structured interviews allowed the author to interact with participants in order to encourage them to talk more about their experiences, which helped the author enrich her conceptualization of the interviews’ behaviours and perspectives (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008; Sandiforda and Seymourb, 2007) 6.1 Observation: Observation method was conducted by the researcher to discover how services were provided by staffs in one purposively-chosen Thai restaurant (Jennings, 2001) As joining the real situation, the author could see things that participants in the location did not pay attention to or probably find out things that people would be reluctant to talk about in an interview such as critical issues (Patton, 2002) This information, in turn, was used to develop interview questionnaires and reconfirm the match between information received from interviewees with what really happen in Thai restaurants (Marck et al., 2005) To gain valid and reliable data related to the research problem, some criteria were !45 set in advance to navigate the author’s observation (Slack and Rowley, 2000; Thomas, 2003) These are: What to observe: a guide framing clear steps and content for an observation was established (Sarantakos, 1998; Jennings, 2001), which was to avoid no loss of important information (Slack and Rowley, 2000) (appendix 1) Also, key things for attention were listed in the guide based on literation foundation in chapter and There were cultural physical signs of Thai restaurants (i.e restaurant decoration, furniture, menu, music, staff uniform) and staff behaviours when they delivered service to customers (i.e gestures, body language, language for communication) By watching these core features, the author could understand how authenticity of Thai restaurants was display (Ebster and Guist, 2004), service level and staffs delivered service to make customer satisfaction(Liu and Jang, 2009) As a result, the observer was able to find answers to the research objective three Further, using the pre-set guide with theory foundation to observe, the author could reduce subjectivity and selectiveness of things to be watched It means, observer bias or selective observation hardly influenced the content for observation (Jennings, 2001) Otherwise, in case of free observation, the researcher may likely select things randomly as she might not recognise core activities to pay attention to (Spradley,1980) Shortly after the observation finished, gathered information was written down into notes but in a brief manner (Slack and Rowley, 2000) (appendix 2) Howto observe: The author played as a non-participating observer instead of being a customer or member staff during her observation process(Slack and Rowley, 2000) Arguably, acting as a customer or staff during the observation period, the author could see the whole picture of restaurant setting, the process of providing service Such participating activities seem to provide an objective view of observation, however, it is difficult to record the experience without being interrupted (Slack and Rowley, 2000).Additionally, when the observer plays a staff member or guess, she can have bias due to her sensation during her participation (Lugosi, 2006, 2008) Therefore, nonparticipating observation approach was chosen Under this access, the observer can spend more time on note- taking and details compared with participating observation, therefore, problem situations is able to be identified to fulfil the research aim (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008; Mack et al., 2005).The author understood that her presence as an observer might affect reactions of participants in a way that staffs or guests could act unnaturally when they felt being watched (Easter- Smith et al., 2002) To avoid unnatural !46 behaviours of these people, before doing observation, the author asked the owner of the chosen unit to let her observe one working shift By introducing the purpose of the observation and her topic of the dissertation, the author got the permission to be an observer in that restaurant and promised her observation would not influence their operation (Easterby- Smith et al., 2002) Additionally, the observer seated outside view of staffs and customers (behind the bar in the restaurant) while still watching appropriately what staffs and customers were interacting (Slack and Rowley, 2000) When to observation: the author chose a dinner shift specifically on a Friday night when the restaurant was busy with more customers and service staffs than normal week days This case is believed to provide useful opportunities to observe service workers delivering the service experience (Webb et al.,1966; Lee, 2000) Where to observe: the author focused on a restaurant in the centre of Oxford It is a findinning Thai restaurant and quite famous with many good reviews from customers for Thai food and service in Tripadvisor (appendix 2) As the author knew the owner so it was not difficult to ask for a permission to join one working shift as an observer This restaurant is believed to display "physical, social, cultural and economic context” where investigated participants present their behaviours and interactions (Slack and Rowley, 2000) 6.2 Interview According to Altinay and Paraskevas (2008), the flexibility of face-to-face interview method enables the finding of richer primary data Compared with questionnaire surveys, interviews allow interviewers to use proper interactions and behaviours to build rapport with interviewees (Arksey and Knight, 1999).Participants were informed in advance the research aim and the importance of their contributions by joining interviews Before each interview, respondents were also reassured about the confidential nature of the data they gave As a result, the researcher was able to build relationships and trust, which was important to increase the openness of participants to share valuable ideas regarding to personal aspects (Arksey and Knight, 1999; Gray, 2004) As the research purpose is to examine how owners and management team evaluate the importance of people training and development in service quality management in Thai restaurants,interviews are suitable for investigating a small focal sample size to explore certain phenomenon (Saunders et al., 2007) Instead of sending out many questionnaire !47 surveys to gain the generalization of data, the author did twelve interviews with owners and different managers in six Thai restaurants (Teng, 2011) The author applied semi-structured interviews, of which the format included open questions and probes when appropriate (appendix 5- interview guide) Such varied types of questions enabled the researcher collect detailed answers on owners’ and managers’ experiences, opinions and knowledge related to the research topic (Patton, 2002) The author, hence, could compare respondents' responses to generate a common theme among their answers (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) Arguably, open- ended questions inspire participants to share as much details as possible to describe an investigated situation (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) Therefore, open-ended questions starting with "what", "how" were adopted to collect qualitative data on a wide range of aspects referring to personal backgrounds, business sector and structure of their working places, their responsibilities and years of experiences (question 1-3, appendix 5) The interview starting by asking these background questions also made informants more comfortable with the interviewer (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) The interview guide then progressed with possible probes and promts to encourage informants to talk more about the topic that the research aims to answer Example of probes was extra question used to drive informants to give their in- depth responses when the author felt they had more to give (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) These extra questions were "Can you give me an example? or "Can you explain that?" then participants elaborated on their responses These questions types were applied in questions related to the role of food quality, menu, restaurants atmosphere, employees’ interactions on customers’ experiences, the role of staff training (questions 7- 9, appendix 5) (Easterby- Smith et al., 1991).With a view to answering the research objective 3, the main question content was grouped into four areas (see table 3) Table 3: Constructing question content following the research objectives Questions Q - Literature foundation Objective : Chosen sample have to be provide valid To gain richness in data Interviewee and reliable data to answer the research background questions (Patton, 1987) !48 Q4-6:Restaura • Good- tasting food and restaurant Objective 3: To identify nt attributes to environment customer "authenticity" (Ebster and Guist, perceptions towards what experiences in 2004) and be one of the main factors affecting customer T drivers attracting customers (Liu e x p e r i e n c e s i n T h a i h a i restaurants make u p owners and managers and Jang, 2009) • restaurants High quality service is what every service organizations should prioritize (Altinay et al., 2008) in order to meet customer satisfaction and company competitive advantage (Su, 2010; Ryu et al., 2012) Q 7-9: The The delivery of high quality service Objective 4: To explore role of T & D depends on well-trained and skilled owners and managers in delivering human resources (Altinay and Altinay, attitudes towards the service quality 2006; Cowell, 1989) influence of T & D in a provision of service quality Q 10-13: • HRM philosophy- facilitation, Objective 4: To explore Practices of T accumulation and utilisation owners and managers & D in relation (Schuler, 1989) with a provision of service quality • attitudes towards the role T& D approachs including method of T & D in the delivery of and content (Eaglen et al., 2000) service quality in Thai restaurants Further, due to the structure flexibility, the author could interpret the question meanings or change the question order (i.e skipping additional questions added or initial questions) (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) That made the interviewer adaptive to the interviewee behaviours, stimulate them to clarify more their answers(Jennings, 2001) On the other hand, the flexible question structure directs the interviewer the flow of what to ask (Rowley; 2012; Lewis et al., 2009) but does not lead to any specific answers (Mack et al., 2005) Moreover, the interview guide was established by reviewing the existing related literature and asking consultancy from the supervisor (Jennings, 2001) !49 (appendix 6).The purpose of this activity was to ensure the match of the question frame with the research objectives (Jennings, 2001) All interviews were conducted with owners and managers working for chosen Thai units at their working places during the time suggested by them (Bryman, 1988, Marshall and Rossman, 1995) By choosing Thai restaurants as locations for gathering data, the author was also able to build up a feeling of ethic restaurant settings that participants mentioned (Shaw, 1999) Every interview was recorded by the researcher’s phone and later on transcribed for further analysis in the following part (appendix 7) (Shaw, 1999) Each interview last from thirty minutes to one hour (table 4) By interviewing different people working at different positions, the author could approach various perspectives of people about the research topic to compare and contrast for an in-depth understanding (Oppenheim, 2005) Table 4: Time schedule interview Interviewee Job title Record Duration Owner Yes 30 minutes Restaurant manager Yes 41 minutes Restaurant manager Yes 37 minutes Restaurant manager Yes 42 minutes Owner Yes 39 minutes Owner Yes 45 minutes Business manager Yes 30 minutes Training manager Yes 35 minutes UK operation manager Yes hour 10 Group Beverage manager Yes 45 minutes 11 Assistant manager Yes 35 minutes 12 Restaurant manager Yes 40 minutes Data analysis All data gathered from twelve interviews was inductively analysed then compared with literature review (Shaw, 1999) Indeed, the author interpreted data in a descriptive way, to understand what participants described their experiences (Teach, 1990) Acknowledging there is no “correct” or “best” formulae to analyse qualitative data !50 gathered from observations and interviews, the author based on the research purpose to analyse data (Schutt, 2012) The research aim is to explore and generate an in-depth understanding of the research problem rather than finding data to support pre- set hypotheses or assumptions (Jones, 1985; Sandiford and Seymour, 2007) Therefore, using inductive and deductive analysis together was to ensure the data reliability as it avoided mis interpreting data (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) Data in this study was interpreted following four stages suggested by Bryman (2008) and Daymon and Holloway (2001) Data familiarization: When interviews records were type-written, the author prepared an Excel spread to classify answerers following each questions The researcher did listen to the records, read and re- read transcripts several times, to familiarize herself with the data (Easterby- Smith et al., 1991) While re-reading these presented-by-words data line by line, the author did mark repeating information ,common terms mentioned by interviewees; highlight information related to research questions or any statements within the text that she felt important (appendix 6) (Ryan and Bernard, 2003; Strauss, 1987) Afterwards, annotations were attached with notes to comment what the text was about (Strauss and Corbin, 1990).The author kept re-reading until recognizing chunks of data (text) showing the same “patterns” or ideas (Patton, 1987: 150) These same “patterns” were afterwards structured and put into categories or clusters (Bryman, 2008) In this way, the author not only became familiar with collected information but also understood which "concepts” of data categories were provided by informants (Jones, 1985: 25) Data reduction: In this step, the author carried out coding(or indexing) emerging categories (or clusters) which were identified beforehand As such, all relevant statements related to the research questions or repeated text (i.e sentences, phrases) provided by informants were given a code together with transcripts (appendix 7) (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) Along with coding, a constant comparison was made among codes and categories, as well as with literature concepts listed in chapter and so that similar codes were grouped together (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) In this stage, both preexisting codes and open codes were utilized Pre-exiting codes based on reviewing literature so that the author easily labelled relevant data while open code was to avoid missing any meaningful data (King, 2004) As a result, the researcher could recognize relationships among emerging data clusters (Marshall and Rossman, 1995) During coding, the author also discarded data irrelevant with the research questions (Patton, 2002) As interviews brought in a collection of an extensive volume of data, the !51 author kept coding data which was valid to answer the research questions or repeated many times by interviewees At the same time, invalid data was being eliminated (Bresnen, 1988) Bearing in mind that data reducing was affected by the researcher’s subjective decision, the author continued re-reading transcripts and searching for statements fit into the previously-identified themes (Schutt, 2012) Also, the author interrogated these codes by comparing with observation notes and asking questions such as “What are people doing? What is the respondent saying? What these actions and statements mean? What are people's strategies with dealing with the behavior” Charmaz, 2003: 94-95; Frankfort-Nachimas and Nachimas, 2007) By this way, the author got rid of irrelevant codes which did not reflect accurately what was being researched (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) In a sense, the author could still identify distinct codes with no overlap and further develop additional codes (Shaw, 1999) Also, theaction of asking question helped the author constantly compare different codes with each other and literature review, which provided a structured conceptualization of relationships among valid codes (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) It is meaningful to improve a rich description of informants’ experiences relating to the research problem and possibly contribute to current understanding of the investigated phenomenon (Shaw, 1999) This process of filtering and reducing data continued until there were no new patterns or themes emerging At this stage, the author moved from developing open codes to concentrate on key codes and codes categories contributing to the deeper analysis (Shaw, 1999) Data display In this step, relevant codes which were identified previously were taken away from text, presented in the form of tables (table 4) (Bryman, 2006: Miles and Huberman, 1994) following clusters of data collection (Yeo, 2007) By display identified themes, the researcher could illustrate relationships and interconnections among codes for further understanding of the meaning of given data (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008) Table 5: Data order and display Cluster Identified theme Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants Category 4: What makes overall authentic Thai food, good services customers experience restaurant atmosphere, business concept !52 Category 5: The role of menu in authentic Thai food, Thai culture and restaurant customer experiences concept Category 6: The role of restaurant authentic Thai culture, restaurant market design and décor in customer segment and business concept experiences Cluster 2: The role of staffs interaction in customer experiences in Thai restaurants Category 7: The impact of staff satisfaction,Thai culture, good services and sale interaction in customer experiences Category 8: Key staff interaction Thai hospitality culture, professional, restaurant concept, increase sales Category 9: How to evaluate staffs Key Performance Indicator (KPI), customer provide the right service satisfaction, report from the hospitality company training and managing people Cluster 3: Practices of T & D for improving service quality Category 10: The role of T & D in providing staff necessary competencies, managing service quality creating learning experience, improving service quality, increasing sale Category 11: Who T & D staffs owner, managers and senior staffs Category 12: Training practices training content, training purpose and type of training C a t e g o r y : C h a l l e n g e s i n employee background and training cost providing trainings Note: T & D: training and development Conclusion drawing The author initially reflected her data interpretation from interviews and observation about what owners and managers thought about the impact of people training and development in delivery service quality in investigated Thai restaurants (Hampton, 1999) As followed, the author verified previously- identified patterns, clustering phenomena based on different codes, subsuming particulars into the general, make a logical chain of evidence, linking with theory to answer research questions(Miles and Huberman, 1994) At this stage,look for further broader themes based on keeping comparing the existing data to exhaust possibilities !53 Ethics considerations On doing research, ethics is seen a principle for judging what is good conduct (Trusted, 1987; Birch et al., 2002) In this thesis, ethics was considered in a field of protecting participants’ privacy and maintaining the correctness in data interpretation and analysis (Lichtmann, 2010) To ensure all interviewees’ willingness to join interviews, Consent form was sent to them before any interview took place (Appendix 10) It informed their ability to withdraw at any time, their choice of recording their conservation via suggested instruments (video or audio) Also, this form was to confirm with all participants that their information, regarding their given data, their background (working place, responsibilities, years of experiences) was only used for the dissertation aim and findings presented there would keep participant privacy The author promised to keep their information confidential and only used for academic purpose Although detailed answers to background were interpreted, compared with literature review to see any differences or similarities, the data was only analysed to provide evidence for drawn conclusions and recommendations for the purpose of further research and industry application (Lichtmann, 2010) Limitations of the research No research design is perfect (Kinnear and Taylor, 1996) In spite of the best effort the researcher conducted this research, the researcher was aware of some certain weaknesses The first limitation refers to the generalization of the research results Within a limited time period for doing research, findings withdrawn from the small sample size (eight restaurants) were narrative and could not make statistical generalisations for the whole Thai restaurants population in the UK (Finn et al., 2000; Saunders et al., 2009) Besides, qualitative data from interviews and observations threw back light of personal and contextual aspects of informant's experiences These can be culture, attitudes and beliefs for a particular context that participants underwent These given data was described due to their memory or their understandings regarding to the interview questions, which might be subjective in reflecting experiences of a specific group, not the whole population within the phenomenon being investigated (De Vaus, 2002) Another limitation is data reliability To encourage interviewees to share more ideas, the author based on the flexible interview guide to make appropriate probes The way of probing was to clarifying the meaning of research questions, not lead to any specific !54 answer However, probing could be affected by interview bias (Easterby- Smith et al., 2008; Silverman, 2007) For example, bias could come from the comments, voice tone or non - verbal behaviours of the interviewer when she tried to impose her own reference in making promts or probes (Easterby- Smith et al., 2008) It, therefore, could result in interviewees’ misunderstanding the question meaning then give unsuitable answers, which, in turn, influence the correctness of data On the other hand, bias could come from interviewees itself (Altinay and Paraskevas, 2008: 107) Some interviewees did not understand some terms related to questions such as customer experience, key staff interaction and so on Even though the author made an effort to interpret the main ideas of the question, some informants answered following their understanding, which affected the validity of data(Saunders et al., 2009) Additionally, as English was not a native language for all participants and the interviewer’ nationality was not Thai, cultural differences brought into some misunderstanding among participants Consequently, data was misinterpreted (Finn et al., 2000) Conclusion: With a view to fulfil the research aim, this chapter addressed the appropriate choice of research philosophy, approach, strategy and design, sample technique, data collection methods and data analysis Specifically, to match with an exploratory research, qualitative approach was used, which allowed multi-case studies were carried out via observation and in- depth interviews techniques As such, owners and management team within the sample of eight Thai restaurants were asked following a flexible interview guide The author then was able to gain highly personal and context data related to explore the role of people training and development in delivering service quality in their restaurants The researcher reviewed the benefits of qualitative data analysis and outlined in great detail each of the two chosen data collection techniques Moreover, an explanation of how the data was analysed was given and followed by ethics considerations As every research has pros and cons, the researcher tried to reduce certain limitations related to bias, data misinterpretation by using purposing sampling, inductive and deductive analysis The next chapter will be more elaborate on findings withdrawn from data analysis and focus on discussion between findings and literature review !55 Chapter 4: Findings Introduction The research methods were presented on the previous chapter in which the primary research and data collection were explained The focus of this chapter is to display findings gathered via interviews and observation According to the aim of the research, this study was conducted to explore the influence of people training and development on delivering service quality in the UK based Thai restaurants In order to fulfil the research aim, findings are illustrated following three clusters based on the interview content structure (table 6) and observation guide (appendix 1) These corresponding clusters are: Table 6: Cluster of data collection Cluster Interview Observatio n Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants Category 4: What makes overall customers experience Yes No Category 5: The role of menu in customer experiences Yes Yes Category 6: The role of restaurant design and décor in Yes Yes customer experiences Cluster 2: The role of staffs interaction in customer experiences in Thai restaurants Category 7: The impact of staff interaction in customer Yes Yes experiences Category 8: Key staff interaction Yes Yes Category 9: How to evaluate staffs provide the right service Yes No Category 10: The role of T & D in managing service quality Yes No Category 11: Who T & D staffs Yes Yes Category 12: T & D activities Yes Yes Category 13: Challenges in providing trainings Yes No Cluster 3: Practices of T & D for improving service quality !56 Findings from interviews Restaurant background Eight restaurants participated in the study Interviewees were asked to provide information of restaurant name, location, number of employees, years of business operation, market segment and business type(appendix 7) In general, all units provided full service of authentic Thai cuisine in Thai culture surroundings and Thai style reflected by restaurant decoration, furniture (appendix 8) All of them had been trading for at least years with ten to fifty-five staffs by the time of interviews was conducted Three out of eight units had relatively longest business operation time (7, 20 versus 22 years) and belonged to Thai corporate companies whose headquarters were located in Thailand Two of them were based in London while one was situated in Oxford As a branch of a restaurant group, these three units had medium size, employed a larger number of employees (from 40 to 55 Thai staffs) compared with nine small units with 10-20 employees Two corporate units in London only hired Thai people while the unit in Oxford which, with less years of operation, employed both Thai and non-Thai staffs for full and part-time jobs All of three restaurants provided fine-dining service Interviewee No (UK operational manager) said: “As the concept of our company is to be the top Thai fine-dining restaurants in the UK, we introduce real authentic Thai food and Thai style service.We always employ Thai staffs, from chiefs to staffs in the front All of our chiefs are recruited from Thailand We try to keep a real Thai culture here in our restaurants” In contrast, the remaining five restaurants were run family-owned, having a smaller size with less than 20 employees Three out of five hired all Thai staffs while other two units employed Thai staffs for full-time position and non-Thai for part-time jobs.As Interviewee No (an owner of a casual-dining restaurant) explained, “we believe that Thai waiters and waitress can explain about Thai food better than other countries So we only hire Thai people here”.Among these five family-run units, three units provided casual dining while the remaining offered fine dining Interviewee profile (position, responsibilities and years of experiences) !57 Twelve interviews were conducted from the middle of July to the middle of August Interviewees were three owners and nine managers at different levels (operation manager, group beverage manager, business manager, assistant manager, training manager) (appendix 9) Overall, responsibilities of participants were among six areas such as operation, training staffs, recruitment, sales, customer service, dealing with suppliers and finance & accounting Owners and managers in small unit nearly take care of all areas while responsibilities of managers at corporate level were different following their positions Three participants were owners with longest years of working experiences (6-7 years) and responsible for all operation in their units It ranged from operation, managing and training staffs, dealing with suppliers to finance and sales For example, interview number No.1 (an owner)said: “I take care of everything in the restaurants from operating the restaurants, managing staffs and training them, make sure staffs the right thing I also deal with suppliers of food and drink I have to manage sale to make sure everything in the restaurant is run probably” Meanwhile, the rest (nine respondents) were managers having responsibilities based on their levels Generally, all of them were in charge of customer services and training waiters There was one training manager (Interviewee No.8) working for one corporate company and specializing only in training service staffs such as service mind, customer serving process following company procedure Besides, there were four restaurant managers also in charge of finance (profit and loss) and sale(dealing with bookings) One operational and one group manager at corporate level mainly were responsible for overall operation and sale of five units One assistant manager working for one corporate company had duties of accounting such as doing invoice, banking transactions, cash management, contact with headquarter in Thailand and training staffs mostly by paper training such as company history, company mission and vision, customer segment All of them were Thai with at least five months to seven years of experiences working at Thai restaurants by the time this dissertation was made Their ages were from 25 to 50 years old The corresponding names of interview partners are confidential and to the researcher's discretion only Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants Category 4: What makes a great customer’s experience !58 Regarding question No asking respondents to explain what formed a great Thai experience, given answers showed four main themes, good food, good service, restaurant atmosphere and business concept Good food and good service were rated as the main attributes to customer satisfaction by all respondents Good food, following their explanations, was authentic Thai food (“healthy”, “fresh- cooking”, “good presentation” and “real Thai taste with spicy flavour”) and different taste Interviewee No (a restaurant owner): “We try to serve the food with the same quality as the customer can get it from Thai restaurant in Thailand We use some imported ingredients and even the fresh vegetables from Thailand Thai restaurants are where customers come to have a real Thai food, different with what they normal have like fish and chip, steak or spaghetti” Interviewee No (UK operational manager): “Customers nowadays come to enjoy food by eyes That is why we try to make a nice food presentation” Good service was also an important factor to make customer satisfied Good services included real Thai hospitality and professional Indeed, interviews indicated all agreement on an idea that, customers came to Thai restaurants to because they liked Thai service such as “warmly welcome”, “smiling staffs”, “friendly Thai waiters and polite” Interviewee No.7 (a business manager): “for customers who used to travel to Thailand, they know how Thai is, smiling and polite That is why when they come to Thai restaurant, they want to have the service like they had before” Two out of twelves, who worked as corporate managers in charge of five restaurants in London also added, services were delivered in a professional way following the pre-set company procedures Interviewee No 10 (group beverage manager) explained: “we aim to be on the top fine-dining Thai restaurant in the UK so all the services must be provided in a professional luxury standard we set” For the role of restaurant atmosphere, all had the same idea that it must display Thai culture As interviewee No (UK business restaurant) said: “for all who used to come to Thailand, they have some memories of Thailand So they would like to visit Thai restaurant because it reminds them a bit of Thailand” The environment could be authentic Thai or contemporary Thai, which were reflected by decoration, furniture, music Five out of twelve interviewees, all working for corporate !59 company in Oxford and London, attributed restaurant atmosphere such as “furniture”, “wooden table”, “decoration” and “music” to be main factors for customer relaxation Following their views, customers come to Thai restaurant to enjoy Thai lifestyle, Thai culture Apart from three main factors affecting customers’ experiences in Thai restaurant, there was one new idea raised byinterviewee No 10 (beverage group manager) According to this interviewee, as restaurant trend changed rapidly in the last five to ten years, “unique selling experience” was what customer thrived for, for example, “street food” concepts Therefore, a business concept attracted customers Category 5: The role of menu in customer experiences When respondents were asked about the role of restaurant menu in making Thai restaurant experiences, emerging categories were authentic Thai food, Thai culture and restaurant concept All agreed that menu was to present real Thai food reflected by displaying descriptions of ingredient, cooking style, Thai flavour, a variety of food (from starters, salad, curry, stir-fry meet, desert) Menu was believed to introduce special and unique features of Thai, which was different with other cuisines such as Western or Chinese food Also, following five out of twelve interviewees, menu in their restaurants were written in Thai as well as English so that customers could know how these foods were called in Thai Alongside with that, three out of twelve recommended, menu descriptions of ingredient and cooking style were to educate customers how Thai people ate and made food Therefore, they were able to know more about Thai culture As Interviewee No (a restaurant owner) viewed: “Our menu introduces different foods, each food has different taste so that customers can easily choose following their taste We list special food, real Thai food in the menu with description of ingredient When customers look at our menu, we think they can have an idea of our eating culture as well” In addition, one out of twelve considered menu as a way of transferring restaurant concept to customers such as casual dining "as treet food concept", "one food and go" or fine-dining Thai restaurants (from interviewee No 10) Category 6: The role of restaurant design and décor in customer experiences !60 Being asked about how restaurant atmosphere impacted customer experiences, interviewees provided data following three themes There were authentic Thai culture, restaurant market segment and business concept Restaurant decoration (i.e graphics, paint colour), music display, furniture were all addressed to introduce true Thai culture and life style to customers For example, Interviewee No (a training manager) said, "most of the items for decoration here have been used in the real situation in Thailand And we bring them here to make people remember what they see in Thailand" Three of them (one owner of more than two units and two corporate managers) added more details that, restaurant decoration presented restaurant market segment For finedining style, the ambience was "royal style with wooden furniture", "luxury style with golden colour" and "antique style" while "street style" and "contemporary design" was used in casual-dining units Interviewee No (a restaurant owner) gave an answer that: "Based on target customer, we will design a restaurant If most of our customers are students, we still use Thai decoration but simple design, easy for them to come and eat In another restaurant, we have most of customers like local residents, we will decorate a proper fine-dining Thai" Meanwhile, only interviewee No (a business manager) insisted that, a choice of the decoration had to follow the restaurant business concept As he answered: "We decide to choose street food concept in this unit so all the decoration is designed following free and funky style as you can see in every street in Thailand" Cluster 2: The role of staff interaction in providing service quality Category 7: The role of staff interaction in customer experiences Question No asked interviewee's opinion of how staff interaction influenced customer experiences Their answers were divided into four categories, which were satisfaction, Thai culture, good service and sale As such, all twelve participants agreed that staff interaction helped increase customer satisfaction such as “make customer happy”, “have a good time in restaurant” and “feel relaxing like their home” As interviewee No (a business manager) explained, “We try very hard to make sure customers to come here, they feel like, they are home and looked after by staffs Staffs are always there when they need […] staffs have to make sure they sometime to have some conversations, some follow up, talk with customers friendly” !61 Four interviewees from corporate level added, staffs behaviours need to show Thai hospitality culture For example, interviewee No 12 (a manager of corporate restaurant) recommended: "people know Thailand is a land of smile so when they come to Thai restaurants, they expect to see smiling face and friendly staff That is why our staffs are friendly and polite to remind customers of Thailand where they used to come” Good service was mentioned by two out of twelve interviewees (one private restaurant owner and one assistant manager) As followed, when staffs communicated with customers, they could try to meet customer expectation For instance, interviewee No (an owner), “if customers are happy, they will tell why If not, they will make complaint and we know there is some problem from our staffs” Interviewee No 11 (an assistant manager): “We have mystery diners come to check our service every month That person will check our staffs from greeting to serving, clearing table If our staffs provide good service, we will get a good report from them If not, the report will show which part our staff not well We use thatto monitor the service and standard of the store as well as staff performance” One new idea brought by two respondents, one UK operational manager and one owner of private unit, was that, staffs interaction helped increase sale They explained, when staffs made customer pleased, they would order more food Category 8: Key staff interaction In exploring key service-staffs interaction, the author identified four themes from given data These were showing Thai hospitality culture, professional, restaurant concept and increasing sales All respondents hold an agreement that staffs had to show their Thai hospitality (i.e smiling face, politely speaking in Thai way) and meet customer satisfaction (i.e understanding what customer want, meeting customer expectation and making them relaxed) Another core staff interaction was professional, which was raised by two out of twelve informants at corporate level Professional was displayed by being confident in communication, able to handle problem such as customer complaint Interviewee No 12 (a restaurant manager in corporate unit) said: “Thai staffs are not really good in interaction like approaching style Because their characteristics are not open, a bit shy, which is a weak point compared with !62 Western people Therefore, staffs in our restaurants need to be more confidence in language, talk more, more social with customers” The idea of staff interactions should follow business concept was mentioned by two participants working in corporate company in Oxford Namely, following interviewee No (a training manager), “as our concept is funky, energetic, family style so staffs need to make customer relax, treat them as one family member” Whereas, two out of twelve (one UK operation manager and one owner of private restaurant) thought, staffs had to use their product knowledge and service mind to appeal customer to order more That way helped to up-sell product Category 9: How to evaluate the right service provided by staffs In a relation with a question as how to ensure service delivered was of the right quality, interviewees gave data following five themes These were customer satisfaction, Key Performance Indicator (KPI), report from the hospitality company, training and managing people Among five themes above, both private and corporate units considered customer satisfaction as the main method to manage service quality Customer satisfaction could be checked by customer feedback (at restaurants or through social media such as restaurant email, restaurant Facebook, Tripadvisor), repeated guests This method was rated as a direct channel to check customer satisfaction As interviewee No (a manager) said: “when customers finish their meal, I come to ask if they are ok or not If they are ok, it means our service is good They are happy with staffs” Interviewee No (UK operation manager) shared: “social media is very important Customers post their comments about services We look at good and bad comments to see our services Especially bad comments because we know, when customers are satisfied, they can say to one or two people, but when they are not, they will tell to nine or ten people” Meanwhile, managing staffs was rated by three respondents from small private units as a way they did to ensure staffs the things they were required As interview No (an owner) stated, “I check my staff often to see if they the things I ask” Interview No (a restaurant manager): “I keep an eye on new staffs, support them if they need I cannot let them work alone otherwise they will make mistakes” Five respondents attributed training as an important method to control service quality Training provided employees skills, knowledge which enabled them to the right things !63 following restaurant procedures That is to say, interviewee No 5: “staffs have to joint two days training to make sure they know what they have to do” Additionally, KPI such as sale, tips, spending per head was rated by six participants (two owners and four corporate managers) as an efficient way to manage service quality Two owners of family-owned units based on tips as a signal of knowing customers enjoyed the service In addition, three managers from corporate unit added KPI such as sales, spending per head as the way to check the service quality As followed, when customer perceived good service, they would spend more on product, give more tips or become repeated guess Interviewee No (UK operational manager) said: "if the restaurant has good food, good location but less customers, less sale, it means customer don’t like your service They not want to spend their money in your restaurant and the business will be down one day" Interviewee No.7 (a business manager) showed that: ”imagine in one Friday night, when restaurants are full of customers But sale from that night is less than previous week or customers made lots of complaints It means, staffs not provide services that customers want, or staffs not upsell or their job probably So we will look at it and have a meeting" Compared with small units, corporate units used external reports done by outsource audit parties such as Mystery guest or external hospitality company to check their service These reports gave mark of the service delivery process following specific criteria ranging from staff greeting, serving sequent, staff attitude to food quality Based on given grade of each requirement, managers could see how good or bad service quality was and made further improvement As claimed by all restaurants managers of corporate level, this was the main method they used frequently to monitor their business If reported grade was below a certain level, they had to organize meetings and discuss solutions As interviewee No.8 (a training manager) explained, “We have a competition among all units in the company Grade in the report will tell who is the winner So we look at it as the main to check our service standards” Cluster 3:Practices of T & D for improving service quality Category 10: The role of T & D in the delivery of service quality !64 Being asked to evaluate the role of T & D in the service quality delivered to customers, interviewees shared their opinions following four themes There were providing staff necessary competencies, creating learning experience, improving service quality, increasing sale Namely, according to all participants, training helped prepare staffs necessary skills and knowledge to fulfil their duties For instance, interviewee No 11 (an assistant manager)said: “All staffs have to join online training and pass online test within the first month of working We also have on-job training After staffs join training, we believe that they are confident to serve guests” Interviewee No (an owner) believed: “we training to make sure staffs doing the right things” Five out of twelve, both in corporate and private units, proposed thattrainings created learning experiences for staffs by sharing information among teamwork Staffs, therefore, could develop competencies needed for their positions, which helped improve their performances Indeed, interviewee No (a business manager) said: “All managers of each department, a floor supervisor, head chief, training manager, business manager joined to train new staffs We teach staffs what they need to do, service sequence, dealing with complaints, we updated new trend or every problem with staffs” Three interviewees from medium size units addressed the effect of training on maintaining the service quality set by the restaurant strategy As such, by guiding and coaching staffs what they have to in terms of “behaviours”, “body langue” and “communication”, staffs could deliver the service defined by the restaurant concept (i.e casual or fine-dining service) Interviewee No (a training manager) shared, “We use mystery report to taught staffs what they have to Staffs have to follow criteria in the report because we have to ensure our score up to 95 every month” In addition, there were three participants, all from corporate units, considering training as a way to increase sale One private restaurant unit and two managers at corporate level explained “continuous training was to increase sales, in turn, restaurants could reach their business goal” Category 11: Who provide T & D for staffs !65 According to the question who conducted T& D for staffs, given data indicated that, management teams or senior staffs were responsible for training staffs In five family-run units, staffs were trained by owners, restaurant managers or senior staffs who were assigned to give training Following interviewee No.5 (an owner), “I myself train staffs like chief My manager train staffs in the front and all senior staffs need to look after new staffs on the working shift, make sure new staffs know what to do” Whereas, all managers from a big chain of restaurants stated, restaurant managers, assistant managers or training managers had responsibilities of training new staffs Especially in one corporate unit in Oxford, new staffs were trained by a training manager and a manager from corporate level coming every month to give lessons In contrast, in the other two corporate units, new staffs were trained mainly by restaurant managers For example: Interviewee No 12 (a restaurant manager): “I myself look after new staffs, make sure they know what we expect them to do” Interviewee No (UK operation manager):“we select an experienced staffs to coach new staffs They are normally restaurant manager in each unit” Category 12: T & D activities Regarding a question of what staffs were trained to do, given data was classified based on three themes There were training content, training purpose and type of training In relation to training content, all respondents hold the same perspectives that training was to provide staffs service skill (i.e greeting customers, taking customer to tables, taking orders, clearing table, giving bills) and knowledge (product knowledge, using equipment, opening till) Besides, four out of twelve interviewees who worked in corporate units said, staffs were given food hygiene, fire and safety training Similarly, attitude was rated by all interviewees as an important content of training Staffs were told to be friendly, attentive, calm and polite with customers In terms of skill training, only two managers from one corporate unit in Oxford said, staffs were guided how to deal with complaint or offer discounts based on their level Interviewee No (a business manager) said: “Here we set up level for each staffs They could deal with complaint depending on your level For example, waiters can deal with food complaints or discount If something is over than that, they have to ask supervisors” !66 Purposes and types of training were not the same among eight units In small privatelyowned restaurants, most fixed staffs were senior staffs with certain experiences, therefore, less training was given to them Meanwhile, new staffs normally worked parttime (12-16 hours per week), mostly in the weekend, as a result, was basically-trained Mostly, they were told how to service sequences (greeting, seating, bringing menu to customers, taking order, serving food, cleaning table) Reasons for simple training were, training took time, part-time staffs just worked in weekends and for a short time such as 3-6 months For example, interviewee No.1 (an owner) said: “we only need part-time staff on weekend when we are busy so we not give training much Most of them need to know basic things, like taking order, cleaning table” Interviewee No (a manager in a small unit): “as we hire students to work in weekend, most of them are Thai so they know the food In weekend, we are so busy so we need to serve customer quickly So we need part-time to bring the food and customers not need to wait for long” Conversely, more training was provided in medium size restaurants with different types such as online training (i.e product knowledge, fire and safety), service training (floor training) and service mind (Thai culture, restaurant concept) Frequent meetings and briefing were considered as a crucial way of training because emerging problems or update information or discussion should be shared within meetings The purpose of these training was to maintain the service standard and staffs performance Interviewee No (a business manager): “We have Thai and non-Thai staff, both full time and part-time Before putting staffs in the floor, they have to join induction training to know company culture, Thai culture and our service They also have to pass online training within one month so they know what we are expecting them from them While they work, management team like business manager, assistant manager always keep an eye on them to make sure they provide our standard” Interviewee No.8 (a training manager): “we have three levels of staffs, managers, supervisors and staffs in the floor Each level has different training We provide training to make sure staffs the right things at the level in terms of company rule, regulation” !67 Interviewee No (UK operation manager): “we aim for high service in fine-dining restaurants so we use internal and external report to train staffs” Category 13: Challenges in providing training as a way to improve service quality Challenges in providing training were classified into two themes such as employee background and training cost Background of employee such as nationality, family profile, staff position was rated by six out of twelve as a major hindrance of training For instance, Interviewee No (an owner): “we only need part-time staff in the weekend for two evenings Normally I hire Thai people so I not give them many trainings” Interviewee No (a business manager): “we have Thai and non-Thai staffs For nonThai staffs, sometimes they can understand Thai culture” Interviewee No 11 (an assistant manager): “we have students work here, some are from rich family and never work in the restaurant so they not what service is” Whereas, training cost was only mentioned by two interviewees from corporate units at a highest management level One business manager explained, as the training took time so they usually waited for more staffs joining to organize training Otherwise, it would incur some cost in terms of time, human resource to conduct training only for one or two staffs Additionally, one UK operation manager stated, training was given more to fulltime staffs because they worked more hours in the restaurants while part-time staffs only worked few hours per week Thus, instead of focusing on training part-time staffs, they tried to find “the right person with right skills to work for long time” so less training was provided That UK operation manager also commented, part-time staff likely worked for a certain short time, therefore, training was deemed to inappropriate Findings from observation Category and 6: The role of menu and restaurant decoration in customer experiences Seen from the observation note, the ambience of an observed unit reflected Thai restaurant theme in terms of foods introduced in the menu (i.e taste, cooking style, ingredient) and Thai culture (i.e decoration, music, picture display, paint colour) During the observation, the author saw customers being quite happy with a variety of food and fresh flavour Also, one observed Western customers said, she liked the way of sharing food in Thai restaurant, which was different with British style !68 Category 7: The impact of staff interaction in customer experiences Data from observation showed that staffs followed a basic process to service customers from greeting, seeting customers, giving menu, taking order, serving food, cleaning tables The langue used for communication seemed simple even this unit was fine-dining location They did not speak with customers much for asking feedback except from the time they took order, served food and asked to clear table They appeared to focus on finishing their job more than caring customers’ wants and needs There was a difference in interactions with customers based on customer nationality More time was spent on talking with Thai guests than Western ones Category 8: Key staff interaction All three staffs, both managers and staffs looked friendly and calm They did not really show smile face because it was busy on that night When one Thai staff was asked to recommended food to a new-comer in this unit, that staff seemed confused She tried to explain ingredients, however, as her English seemed to be not good, so customers merely could understand what she tried to say That staff left the table and told that customers: “I will take order later, so you can have more time to look at the menu” Category 11: Who T&D Due to busy time and only having three staffs in the floor, there was no T & D given to staffs by managers They all focused on doing till, clearing tables and taking orders These tasks made them busy Category 12: Practice of T & D There was no guiding from managers such as showing staffs what to or explaining Instead of that, managers allocated tasks for staffs to such as “can you go to the kitchen to bring the food out” or “bill table four please” Conclusion This chapter outlines findings the researcher discovered during interviews and observation These findings were given coded with themes in accordance with clusters defined in chapter 4.7 Analysis of data (table 7) All identified themes under each cluster were used for further discussion in the following part in order to have in-depth understanding of owners and managers opinions, perspectives and behaviors within the Thai restaurant setting Table 7: A summary of data cluster collected from interview and observation
 !69 Cluster Identified theme from interview Identified theme from observation Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants Category 4: What makes a great Authentic Thai food, good services customer’s experience No restaurant atmosphere, business concept Category 5: The role of menu in Authentic Thai food, Thai culture and A u t h e n t i c T h a i customer experiences restaurant concept food, Thai culture Category 6: The role of restaurant Authentic Thai culture, restaurant market design and décor in customer segment and business concept experiences Cluster 2: The role of staffs interaction in providing service quality Category 7: The impact of staff Satisfaction,Thai culture, good services and Basic service i n t e r a c t i o n i n c u s t o m e r sale experiences Category 8: Key staff interaction Thai hospitality culture, professional, Not professional, restaurant concept, increase sales not increase sale, Category 9: How to evaluate staffs Key Performance Indicator (KPI), customer No provide the right service satisfaction, report from the hospitality company, training and managing people Cluster 3: Practices of T & D for improving service quality Category 10: The role of T & D in Providing staff necessary competencies, No managing service quality creating learning experience, improving service quality, increasing sale Category 11: Who T & D staffs Owner, managers and senior staffs Less training Category 12: Training practices Training content, training purpose and type of Task allocation training C a t e g o r y : C h a l l e n g e s i n Employee background and training cost No providing trainings !70 Chapter 5: Discussion 5.1 Introduction Based on findings from interviews and observation presented in chapter 5, this chapter is to discuss results in a comparison with literature review and provide recommendation later on Before discussing the findings, it is necessary to reaffirm three objectives of primary data collection and analysis These are: Objective 3: To conduct primary data collection to explore owners and managers attitudes towards the role of menu, restaurant atmosphere and service quality in making a great Thai experiences for customer Objective 4: To explore how restaurant owners and management team view the role of people training and development in improving service quality delivered in Thai restaurants Objective 5: To analyse and discuss restaurant owners’ and management team’ perspectives on the impact of people and training practice in the delivery of service quality in Thai restaurants against the established literature Based on all research objectives above, the order of discussion and recommendation is divided into three clusters addressing respectively factors affecting customers’ selection of Thai restaurants, the role of staff interaction on customer satisfaction while the last cluster is to illustrate T & D practices 5.2 Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants To address the third objective of the study, respondents were asked to share ideas of which factors contributed to a great Thai customer experience Evidences from interviews and observation both showed that, food quality and good services were rated as the most important contribution to customer experiences Food quality: Following all informants, food quality crucially impacts customer experiences in Thai restaurant setting This view is consistent with the study of Su (2008) As such, both these scholars and interviewees claim, customers demand for real Thai tastes, fresh cooking ingredients, various choices in menus as well as healthy options This demand drives customers to visit Thai restaurants for good Thai cuisine (Liu and Jang, 2009; Namkung and Jang, 2007) Seen from findings, participating restaurants all tried to serve Thai food with the same quality served in Thailand Some !71 restaurants even imported ingredients or fresh vegetables from Thai Land It indicates that these restaurants not only aimed to keep the food quality but also the authenticity of their foods According to these restauranteurs, the authenticity of Thai cuisine formed their difference with local rivals, which was an attraction to customers in the UK This evidence is similar to the argument that, the authenticity creates a unique and different feature of Thai restaurants compared with the locality (Ebster and Guist, 2004; Su, 2011) Based on this perspective, it could be suggested that all Thai restaurants, both casual and fine-dining units, should continue maintaining quality as well as authentic features of their food They had better sustain exceptional good taste, variety food list in menu, keep using nutritional and fresh ingredients for making food (Sukalakamala, 2004) By doing this, they could maintain good food value (Sukalakamala and Boyce, 2007) and meet the demand of UK consumers for healthier foods, specifically lighter and fresher alternatives that Chinese and Indian food not have (Euromonitor, 2008; Mintel, 2008) By meeting this demand, consequently, these restaurants are able to gain customer satisfaction (Sukalakamala and Boyce, 2007).At the same time, the authentic feature of their food (i.e taste, presentation) need to be preseved as it is one of the main strengths for their competitive advantage against local rivals (Liu and Jang, 2009; NRA, 2010; Tsai and Liu, 2012) such as Chinese or Indian units with longer existence in UK ethic restaurant market (Mintel, 2007) Service quality: Besides high-quality cuisine, evidences highlighted the importance of good service displayed by staff interactions in customer experiences This result is similar to Sriwongrat’s study (2008) in a sense that, what creates a great customer experience in ethnic restaurants is not only because of good-tasting food Regarding the fact that ethnic food is more popular even in the supermarket (Mintel, 2008), this argument of Sriwongrat (2008) is absolutely appropriate Ryu et al., (2012) believe, bad services cannot compensate for even high quality exotic food in ethic restaurants Informants from corporate restaurants insisted that, as their units were in fine-dining level, their customers tend to have a high expectation of good service, not just only high tasting food and cultural ambience Similarly, Yuksel and Yuksel (2002) shared an idea that, consumers demand for a complete dining experience, not just high quality food in up-scale restaurants One surprising thing is that, only corporate managers mentioned professional serving (e.g following company serving procedures) was one component accounting for good service No owners or managers from private-owned units mentioned any professional !72 requirements in their service quality except from staffs being polite, friendly with customers During observation in one chosen unit, the researcher could also the same thing Apart from greeting and speaking when taking order, staffs had less conversation with guests to ask their feedback with food or services Compared with medium units, small firms seemed to focus on serving food, clearing tables quickly rather than checking how customers felt or perceived their services Linking with Gronroos’ study (1984), about technical and functional quality, it can be said that small firms concentrate on technical service quality (providing food quality) Meanwhile, larger units likely care more about functional characteristic such as staff behaviours when they deliver service According to Morrison and Thomas (1999), service quality should be prioritised in small service firms if they want to succeed in the competitive hospitality industry (Bhat, 2000; Karmarkar, 2004) Thus, the author suggests all Thai units ranging from small to medium size, fine-dining to casual-dining should focus on ensuring high quality service delivered to customers The quality of service should not attribute only to serving speed but also more on personalised services It can be more communication with guests, regular checking customer feedback so that service providers should understand customer perception of their service quality By knowing how service quality is perceived by customers, restaurateurs are able to find ways to increase customer satisfaction, in turn, have further returning guests (Su, 2011) Restaurant atmosphere: In terms of restaurant atmosphere impact, data interpretation displayed all agreement of interviewees that Thai restaurant environments (i.e decoration, design, furniture display) were to present real Thai culture to customers According to these informants, customers could experience a surrounding of calmness, warmness and luxury created by wooden furniture, colour paint and light setting, which was popular in Thailand Also, this kind of surrounding influenced customer emotional status in a way of offering a temporary leisure and out-of-ordinary cultural experiences different with their original background This argument matches with statements of Ha and Jang (2010) and Liu and Jang (2009) recommending that, authentic culture surroundings in ethnic restaurants bring new and different exotic dining experiences for local customers Establishing in a culture background different with the locality, ethnic restaurants could offer customers a chance of experiencing “culinary tourism” as stated in a study of Wood and Munoz (2006) This way is to increase customer perception of the authenticity culture, which is seen one of the main drivers of customer satisfaction in ethnic dining restaurants (Liu and Jang, 2009; Tsai and Liu, 2012) In this perspective, !73 Thai restaurants are advised to keep maintaining their cultural atmosphere with a view to increasing customer satisfaction and their intension of re-visiting Surprisingly, restaurants atmosphere was assumed to reflect market segment and business concept of the business This idea was shared by three managers at highest level in chosen corporate units who were responsible for business strategy and one owner of more than two private units Under their justification, restaurant environment was decided based on a business strategy and target customers Meaning, if a unit aims to offer Thai casual dining experiences, restaurant design and furniture should be a mixture of authentic Thai and simple, contemporary design In contrast, in fine-dining units, design and colour should display luxury design in Thai royal decoration style Likewise, when customers are mainly local residents, Thai restaurant ambience should be designed following an up-scale restaurant concept Compared with current studies of ethic restaurants which mainly focus on food quality, service quality and authenticity, the idea of business concept affecting customer experience is quite new Arguably, customers visit ethnic restaurants mainly because of different food quality (Roseman, 2006) as well as satisfied experience (Su, 2010) Therefore, the reflection of business concept through restaurant atmosphere should be an additional factor to customer experiences A display of business concept had better represent more food quality and service standard In overall, based on findings and literature review, food quality, atmosphere and service quality are vital to create a good customer experience in Thai restaurants, both in casual or fine-dining, small or medium size For restaurateurs, the findings suggest that achieving customer satisfaction depends not only on food quality and restaurant atmosphere It is more about offering a complete dining experience through providing high quality service Each segment of Thai restaurants and target customer will decide how high quality service is Cluster 2: The role of staff interaction in providing service quality Category and 8: The impact of staff interaction in customer experiences and keystaff interaction with customers Shown from findings, all interviewees considered satisfaction to be the most impact of staff interaction with customers Evidences indicate that all Thai owners and managers !74 view the way staffs contacted with customers could create happy and relaxing experiences Compared with small units which only required staffs to smile, be polite to satisfy customers, corporate units asked staffs to provide intensive care of customers They had to look after customers frequently, treat them as a family member and spending enough time communicating with customers Seen from how staffs in medium size units paid attention to guests, it means they were trying to meet customer needs and wants Based on a study of Russell and Pratt (1980) about key staff behaviours to satisfy customers (reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy), the way staffs in small units smiled, being calm was meet a requirement of empathy behaviours Whereas, by providing great attention to customers, staffs in corporate units displayed behaviour of responsiveness and reliability Moreover, the way waiting staffs in medium size units kept communicating with customers means they tried to understand customer needs and wants (Kotler et al., 1998) Seen from this perspective, one recommendation can be made, which suggests small units should encourage employees have more communication with customers By doing that, they could discover what customers demand and know the way to satisfy them Only two informants mentioned staff interaction need to deliver good services during the service consumption of customers in restaurants According to them, if staffs performance (i.e skills, attitude) was not as good as customers had expected, they would complaint about something related to service quality They might think the quality was not of good value This thought backs up a statement of Kotler et al (1998) that staff performance impacts customer perception of good or bad services in restaurant setting Following these authors, customers evaluate their service experiences by judging the skills and performance of service providers Further, impressive employee behaviour is believed to improve consumers’ perception of dining experience even when customers have a negative perception of restaurant atmosphere (Wall and Berry, 2007) From both arguments above, it could possibly state that, good service should become the second focus after customer satisfaction when staffs communicate with customers They can display their skills and attitudes in a way to influence customer perceptions of good services Indicated from findings of question No (what key interactions staffs should present to customers), all Thai units totally understood the importance of staffs communicating friendly, calmly and politely with customers during the delivery of service In all medium units participating in the study, they even made the most of Thai hospitality culture !75 (smiling faces) when their services were provided Comparing with some authors’ studies (Heung et al., 2000; Pratten, 2003; Sulek and Hensley, 2004), this kind of understanding seems appropriate as today, customers are demanding for attentive, professional or courteous services Within a context that ethnic restaurants are getting more popular and customer demands are increasingly sophisticated (Mintel, 2008), Thai restaurants should orientate staff performance to pay more attention to and have more communication frequently with customers As a result, customers could have a positive perception of staffs contact and in turn, good services (Albrecht and Zemke, 1985; Berry et al., 1989; Leonard and Sasser, 1982) Interestingly, three managers at corporate level viewed business concept and increasing sale were core interaction points for staffs This idea likely means the management team used financial outcome to evaluate staff performance in providing service In a case customers pay more, managers tent to think their staffs were good at their service activities This view shares a link with the theory that delivering consistent and superior service enables service business to gain success in terms of productivity enhancement, increased customer loyalty and market share improvement (Berry et al., 1989; Parasuraman et al., 1988) In other words, managers at top management level view staff interaction is a factor driving sales and transfer their business concept No small units acknowledged this idea It could possibly mean in small units, they tend to think food quality is the crucial factor helping firms increase sales more than staff interaction Category 9: How to evaluate the right service provided by staffs Findings related to how owners or managers evaluated the service delivered by staffs was of the right level, customers satisfaction, Key Performance Indicator (KPI), report from the hospitality company were among the most preferable criteria All agreed customer satisfaction to be a main method to check the quality of the service provided This means, managers based on customer perception of the service quality to see whether or not their staffs make any mistake This way of checking can be suitable As such, in the restaurant sector, customers have a direct and frequent contact with service employees (Kotler et al., 1998), therefore, they are a part of the service encounters In a sense, their cognitive evaluation of quality can be a foundation to examine employee performance (Nickson et al., 2005) Therefore, the author recommends restauranteurs !76 keep paying attention to customer satisfaction as a way to check their quality of service provided KPI (sale, tips) and external report from hospitality their parties were used by corporate units to monitor their service quality This way is seen as appropriate in a context that customer demands are getting changeable (Sasser et al., 1978) According to corporate managers, they adopted these methods with a view to evaluating their employee performance As such, score received from each reports (Mystery Guest) showed the level of fulfilling job requirements of service staffs under each marketing criteria It means, when staffs follow what they have to and complete that requirement, they are considered to provide a good service which is accessed by company rules According to Nickson et al (2005), that way of checking quality based on company procedure is a reliable way to manage the service quality because it focuses on employee performance and result Besides, KPI (sales or tips) are a financial indicator that only corporate units use to evaluate the quality of service delivered Following to their perspective, an increase in revenues or commission reflects that employees provide services that meet customer satisfaction and they are willing to pay more for service Similar with this idea, Su (2011) supports that, high service quality could result in better customer behavioural intentions such as repurchase and price susceptibility Also this new idea emerging means, organizations can adopt HRM to manage the quality of service provided It means, organizations need to carry out HR practices to manage their human resource in a way to complete their business target It can be very necessary because in medium restaurants, the number of employees was more than that of small business, which required management team to conduct specific HRM practices One recommendation from this case is besides customer satisfaction, small units should look at financial outcome such as sales or tips to evaluate the quality of service quality Moreover, HRM could be an effective way to manage service quality because by adopting HRM practices (i.e training and development), organizations can monitor their workforce, particularly their capital (skills and knowledge) to improve staff performance towards objectives of firms People training and development was the third methods that nearly all restaurants ultilise to manage the right quality of service offered They assume by training, staffs were given necessary skills and knowledge to perform their job probably (e.g serving customers in a right way) Hint from this statement is managers see the role of employee skill and behaviours as a part of service quality In other words, as stated by Altinaly et al (2008), employee interaction with customers influences customer' perception of !77 service quality Thus, to ensure a high perception of quality, all restaurants are suggested to pay attention to people training and development, focusing on developing staffs customer-oriented behaviours Cluster 3: Practices of T & D for improving service quality Seen from findings from categories to 13, there is a difference in people training and development practices in the provision of service quality among eight Thai restaurants Two medium restaurants have different training method and content All respondents agreed that, T & D was to provide staffs with necessary competencies (i.e skills, knowledge and attitudes) to fulfil their job duties In small family-owned units, staffs were guided basic skills of serving sequences, knowledge of food and menu together with friendly attitude (smiling face) through on-job training Seen from literature review, it can be said that skills small units provided belong to hard skills which is necessary for every staff to complete their job requirement These skills are given through informal training in which staffs are trained during their shift by owners, managers or senior staffs (Pratten, 2003) In terms of soft skill, staffs were also told to be polite, friendly when speaking customers and given little guide on dealing with customer complaints As mentioned by most owners and managers in family-run units, they had full-time staffs taking care of customers, dealing with complaints so for new staffs (part-time), they did not spend much time training Instead of that, basic training was provided when owners or managers felt it necessary These findings match with Nolan’s study (2002) in an idea that informal and unstructured training was conducted in small units According to this author, informal training is seen relatively suitable for small firms in which trainees just need being taught some certain skills to their job probably Butcher and Sparks (2011) argue that, however, in catering industry, even in a small business, training purposes should ensure staffs provide a more sustainable and superior service manner Applying in small Thai restaurants, trainers are advised to give more soft skill training such as dealing with customer complaints, food hygiene Further, in a context of hospitality industry, customers are demanding for a complete service experience (Ryu et al., 2012) Additionally, specific in restaurant setting, customers have a high contact level with staffs (Kotler et al., 1998) Therefore, if these small restaurants not provide more functional training to improve interpersonal and communication skills of staffs, which could encourage more interactions with customers, in turn, affect customer perception of service quality and satisfaction (Bacon and Hogue, 2005; Dewhurst et al., 2007) Thus, small Thai restaurants are advised to give functional !78 training with a focus of communicational skills, dealing with customer complaint for staffs to maintain and develop their skills better In medium size Thai restaurants, seen from results, staffs joint online training (i.e food hygiene, equipment handling, fire and safety, company business concept) and floor training (i.e service sequences, service attitudes, company culture, product knowledge, dealing with complaints) It means these organizations offered both on-job and off-job training in which they provided hard skills, soft and aesthetic skills Compared with small units focusing on technical and basic soft skill training, these corporate restaurants offered business concept and culture education to navigate staff behaviours as well as how to present themselves in front of guests following their core product/service features Thanks to that, learners are believed to be confident in communicating with people from different background (Back and Mendenhall, 1990) as well as display an good looking appearance when they are on job duty (Nickson et al., 2005) These kinds of staff display are hoped to meet customer demand in up-scale restaurants In terms of training methods, they adopt various tools to transfer knowledge and skills to employees Therefore, trainees can improve their understandings deeply, which helps them fulfil their job effectively Moreover, by integrating business concept, company culture in training content, their organizations seem to focus on maintaining a service standard that is set by the company In a comparison with use definition of strategic HRM approach in which companies connect HRM functions (training as an example) with their business strategy (Bratton and Gold, 2012), the researcher could see some similarity It can be state that, in corporate level, training seems to be carried out in a strategic way navigated by firm business objectives As such, these corporate restaurants develop their human resource capacities to achieve its business goal (Lojie et al., 2012), specially to sustain the competitive advantage of the organization (Stone, 2005) It is an A the service industry is much more labour- intensive than the other, it accounts for higher cost of production (Dewhurst et al., 2007) Further, according to Altinay and Altinay (2006), service companies are in need of human resources to sustain their competitive advantage to meet customer demand for high-quality service/ products which is changing day by day (Dewhurst et al., 2007) Conclusion: This chapter discusses a comparison between findings from data collection techniques with what have been written in literature so far following three clusters In terms of cluter 1- restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants, evidences prove that service quality and food quality are the most important factors deciding customer !79 satisfaction Meanwhile, restaurants atmosphere is a crucial factor affecting customer state of feeling (pleasure or nor unpleasure) One interesting things pointed out from interview, restaurant atmosphere display the business concept and customer segment that restaurants aim at This is a new idea that needs further research in the future In terms of cluster 2-The role of staffs interaction in customer experiences in Thai restaurants, customers satisfaction, customer perceptions of good service quality is the main target for staff communication In a sense, staffs have to communicate in a way to satisfy guests so that they will have more returning to restaurants They also have to display good behaviours and skills to influence customer cognitive evaluation of good service quality One new thing emerging from findings of this cluster shows that, the target of service-staff interaction is to increase sale and ensure the consistent of service quality This way of thinking based on management team perspective on how to manage the process of delivering service quality done by their staffs, which requires a practise of HRM It displays a need to adopt HRM to manage human resource in a way to complete business objective of organizations For cluster 3-Practices of training and development, in this perspective, obviously there is a difference in which method, content restaurants use to train staff The difference illustrate a fact that, in small business, they focus on technical training in an informal way to make sure staffs know what they are required to This kind of training facilitates organization to monitor staffs performance within their duties In contrast, in medium units with upper scale level of service, they concentrate more on functional skills Their staffs are trained with interpersonal skill so that they are confident in communicating with customers when they provide services Linking with management people philosophy, this method is to accumulation human resource capital to improve the quality of service offered Content of this discussion part assists the author to check to what extent she fulfils the research objectives as well as make further recommendation for both academic scholars and practitioners in the restaurant sector The next chapter is to conclude what the author did during the research time frame and highlight implications as well as limitations of the thesis !80 Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations Introduction Based on the previous discussion part comparing primary data collected with literature review, this last chapter of the dissertation will highlight to what extent the research aim and objectives was achieved The author will explain how this research differs from previous ones in the second part The following section will provide theoretical and practical implications alongside with an analysis of the research limitations and recommendations in terms of academic and industry research Aim and Objectives The researcher set up six objectives within the research There are: 1) To review the existing literature on definition of service, service quality, restaurant attributes to customer experiences, customer satisfaction, factors affecting the delivery of service quality 2) To examine the relationship between service quality management and human resource management, specifically the impact of people training and development on the delivery of service quality with particular reference to the ethnic restaurant sector 3) To conduct primary data collection to explore owners and managers attitudes towards factors influencing a provision of good service quality to customer 4) To explore how restaurant owners and management team view the role of people training and development in improving service quality delivered in Thai restaurants 5) To analyse and discuss restaurant owners’ and management team’ perspectives on the impact of people and training practice in the delivery of service quality in Thai restaurants against the established literature 6) To provide conclusions and formulate justified recommendations for owners and managers of Thai ethnic restaurants on people training and development to improve service quality in Thai restaurants, followed by a reflection of limitations of the study To fulfil the objective No.1 and 2, the author provides a list of literature review in chapter In the first section of this chapter, the author reviewed definitions of service, service quality, customer satisfaction, restaurant attributes to customer experiences in !81 restaurants, delivering service quality through people Seen from all related theory review, service quality plays the most important part in customer experiences more than food quality and restaurant atmosphere Thus, restaurants have to focus on service quality improvement with a view to increasing customer satisfaction As the restaurant industry has a high contact between staffs and customers, employee performance plays a crucial role in customer cognitive evaluation of service quality Therefore, one effective way to manage service quality is managing people, especially skills, behaviours and attitudes This requirement drives organizations to adopt HRM practice In particular, training and development is an effective way to improve staff competencies which has impact on service quality improvement Literature review displays that, different training approach and content leads to different level of service quality (functional or technical) Hence, by adopting people training and development, restaurants can manage service quality level whether it is technical or functional dimension To reach the aim of objective No 3, in the chapter 3- Research methodology, phenomenology approach and qualitative research was chosen to help the author explore in depth the role of training and development in a provision of service quality through management perspective To have deeper understanding of the research topic, case study was adopted as a research strategy to examine a specific Thai restaurant setting Also the author decided to choose non-probability sampling strategy, semistructured interviews and observation to collect primary data Information collected was analysis inductively and deductively To complete requirement of objective 4, by doing semi-interviews and observations, the author had a chance to approach owners and restaurants managers who were responsible for managing service and training staffs A list of open questions was made to encourage informants to provide their thoughts and experience information By choosing these methods, the author could develop a clear and in-depth understanding of the research topic through personal and context data gathered from a focus group belongs to Thai restaurant samples To reach the objective and 6, the author display findings gathered via interviews and observation following three clusters which are established due to research questions After that, literature was used as a foundation to compare findings and suggest recommendations 6.3 The unique of the study !82 The study is the first paper examining the role of people training and development in the delivery of service quality in Thai restaurant based on discovering management team perspective Recommendation In terms of academic field, the research helps to enhance the role of training and development in the delivery of service quality In a sense, by applying training and development with proper method and content, staffs are provided with technical and functional skills that needs for their performances The focus on hard or soft skill in training will decide the dimension of employee skills, which affect mostly service quality aspect As such, when restaurants provide more hard skill training, employees tend to pay attention to serving technique and develop product knowledge Meanwhile, when more soft skill training is given, service staffs are able to be confident to communicate with customers, therefor, they could develop a functional level of service New findings related to the role of employee interaction on presenting business concept and market segment suggest further researches should be done in this area Besides, more studies should be conducted to clarify a relation between KPI and staff interaction when they provide service For practical implications, small firms are advised to provide more soft skills training if they want to improve customer satisfaction To manage service quality, small restaurants should look at KPI such as sales or tips to evaluate to what extent customers perceive the quality and how satisfactory they feel with the service For medium restaurants, they are recommended to integrate training practices with business operation, in which they are able to manage service standard following company policies Limitation The first limitation refers to the generalization of the research results As there is limited time for doing research that leads to an approach to small sample size Moreover, the usage of qualitative data from interviews and observations mostly display understanding, thoughts These data is seen as subjective in reflecting experiences of a specific group, not the whole population within the phenomenon being investigated (De Vaus, 2002) Another limitation is data reliability As semi-interviews with open questions and probes, data given could be affected by bias of interviewee and interviewers In a sense, the way the author made probes, her voice or accent can affect what interviewees answer On !83 the other hand, bias could come from interviewees itself due to a different on cultural background and the way of using English for communication Conclusion This study is successful at exploring the role of people training and development in the delivery of service quality through examining management perspective As such, all management team evaluate training and development plays an important part in 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To examine how staffs interact with customers when they deliver service and compare to see any difference or similarities among all staff interaction in the floor Level of personal/ standardized service: Do service workers smile at the customers very often? What kind of language they use when they serve customers? Is the language the same among employees? Describe body language and report on any comments or overhead conversation To explain the level of service in the restaurant Do employees enjoy serving the customers? Do customers enjoy being served? To understand the impact of staff interaction in customer experiences Describe how managers or supervisors communicate with staffs? Do they manage their staff to serve customers? How they guide staffs to serve customers? To explore how management team train and develop their employees in serving customers !101 Appendix 2: Observation note Describe the restaurants such as menu, decoration, atmosphere • All displayed Thai restaurant theme Foods in the menu were Thai food with English descriptions of ingredients, flavour (spicy or vegetarian), cooking style.Restaurant atmosphere such as decoration, music, picture display, paint colour reflected Thai culture • Most customers were quite happy with a variety of food and fresh flavor especially Western guests One observed Western customers said, she liked the way of sharing food in Thai restaurant, which was different with British style Describe service-staffs in the restaurants when they provide services such as their nationality, their interaction in greeting customers, taking orders, their body language Is there any difference between interactions across different customer groups? • Staffs from managers to waiters looked like Asian people, probably they were all Thai They looked friendly and quite calm when speaking with customers When serving guests, all staffs seem to follow one similar process: greeting, seeting customers, giving menu, taking order, serving food, cleaning tables Because it was on busy Friday night, some staffs seemed to rush customers to make order • There were different types of customers with Western, Thai, Chinese nationalities in the restaurants With Thai guests, staffs used Thai language to communicate while English was used with other guests Between Thai and Western customers coming at the same time, staffs seemed to spend more time speaking with Thai people when taking order They smiled and seemed to talking freely with Thai customer.In contrast, with Western guests, one staff came to their table and asked: “What would you like to order?[customers ordered] Ok Curry chicken, right? What else?[customers answered]Thank you” The time this staffs spent for Western customers probably less than the time they spent for Thai ones Level of personal/ standardized service: Do service workers smile at the customers very often? What kind of language they use when they serve customers? Is the language the same among employees? Describe body language and report on any comments or overhead conversation There were three staffs in the floor including manager All of them looked quite serious because they had to serve so many customers It was quite busy so staffs seemed to focus on taking order, serving food and clearing table They did not really smile frequently There was no check back or asking how customers felt about the food except !102 asking to clear table Staffs did not use the same language for every guests For example, Thai staffs spoke Thai language with Thai people There was a table of Chinese guests, when they wanted to ask staffs to explain food, staffs did not explain much Staffs seemed to focus on taking order, serving food and clearing table more than asking customer feedback Do employees enjoy serving the customers? Do customers enjoy being served? Staffs seemed to run in the floor to serve food, clean tables and give customers bills They appeared to have less conversation such as asking “How are you? Are you alright?” Some customers had to wait or even wave their hand to call staffs Staffs said to them: “OK Wait me a minute” Describe how managers or supervisors communicate with staffs? Do they manage their staff to serve customers? How they guide staffs to serve customers? There were a time three staffs not talking with each other One was doing till, one was clearing plates while the rest was looking at customers They seemed to work separately When it was less busy because some customers left, they stood behind the bar, drinking water and chatting a bit Category 6: Following observation data (question No 1, appendix 10) and website picture of all restaurants (appendix 7), the researcher could feel a Thai culture and style displayed by restaurant surroundings Besides, as each restaurant was different in its market, casual or fine-dining, the way of decoration was slightly different The same style of Thai was used in every unit, however, the quality and features of furniture and equipment was not the same among eight restaurants Category 7: Data from observation (question No from to in appendix 1), staffs in the observed unit greeted customers in Thai language in a polite and friendly way, which made customers quite pleased When one Thai staff was asked to recommended food to a new-comer in this unit, that staff seemed confused She tried to explain ingredients, however, as her English seemed to be not good, so customers merely could understand what she tried to say That staff left the table and told that customers: “I will take order later, so you can have more time to look at the menu” Category 8: Depending on data from observation (question No 4, appendix 1), staffs in observed unit communicated with customers in a friendly and Thai style through their greeting language, saying thank you and explaining Thai food However, on a busy !103 Friday night, they did not check back or ask customers whether they were happy with food when they cleared a table !104 Appendix 3: invitation to join the interview Final version of e- mail sent out to potential interview participants for data collection purposes ! !105 Appendix 4: Interviewee Engagement Participant Information Sheet Researcher Name: Thi Quynh Trang Ngo Contact Details: 13112462@brookes.ac.uk Oxford School of Hospitality Management, Oxford Brookes University Course: International Hotel and Tourism Management (MSc) Supervisor Approving Research: Dr Judie Gannon (jmgannon@brookes.ac.uk) Research Aim: To explore the role of people development and training in delivering service quality in UK based Thai restaurants You are being invited to take part in a research study Before you decide whether or not to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve Please take time to read the following information carefully As part of my master degree, I am required to undertake a research project on a topic of my choosing which can involve either primary or secondary research The purpose my study is to explore the role of people development and training in delivering service quality in the UK based Thai restaurants As part of my research, I have chosen to incorporate both primary and secondary research in order to gain a greater understanding as well as to provide relevant results From the secondary research through academic and industry perspectives, service quality is the key factor affecting organizational competitiveness, especially for ethnic restaurants in the UK, including Thai ones For modern restaurants, people training and development plays a basic role in helping organizations achieve competitive advantage by improving service quality However, literature on ethnic restaurants specifically Thai restaurants in the UK has a gap of evaluating the role of people training and developing in improving service quality Hence, to fill the existing research void, the purpose of study is to contribute a better understanding of the role of human resource development and training as a procedure for Thai restaurants to improve service quality in the UK As a research method, I have chosen to use face-to-face interview which is recorded by Dictaphone with transcription The interview is anticipated not to last any more than one hour I would be happy to provide all participants with a copy of my research once it is submitted and marked after December 2015 It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part If you decide to take part you will be given this information sheet to keep and be asked to sign a consent form If you decide to take part, you are still free to withdraw at any time and without giving a reason Information collected will remain strictly private and confidential under Oxford Brookes University Code of Practice !106 Thank you for taking the time considering to participate in this research study and if you have any further queries please not hesitate to contact me Kind regards, Trang Ngo
 Oxford Brookes University !107 Appendix 5: A consent form ! !108 Appendix 6: Interview guide I Background Can you introduce briefly your organization (name, location, number of employee, market segment)? What are your position and responsibilities within the organization? How long have you been with the company? II Service quality related questions to explore the informants' perceptions of quality service Please tell me about what in your view makes a great Thai restaurant experience? What is the role of the menu in the Thai restaurant experience? What is the role of design and décor of the restaurant in the Thai restaurant experiences? How you evaluate the role of staffs in delivering a great Thai restaurant experience? Can you give me some examples? III Improving service quality through people training and development How you think are they key staffs interaction with customers when delivering quality service in Thai restaurants? What can restaurants owners/ managers to ensure their staff level deliver the right service? Can you give me some examples? 10 What is the role of staff training and development in delivering quality service? 11 Who is involved in training and developing staffs? 12 What are staffs trained to be able to do? Can you give me some examples? 13 What are the challenges of proving training with a view to improving the delivery of quality service in your restaurant? Can you give me some examples? !109 Appendix 7: Interview transcripts I: Interviewer P: Participant [General Introduction to the reason for the interview guide Interview read through the informed consent form and signed] I: To begin with my interview, the first question is, can you introduce briefly your restaurants? P: Oh, basically, the organization is called Thai Leisure Group (or TLG) which we have 13 restaurants across the UK We have four different types of sectors for Thai restaurants here in the UK We have Thai Kun which we have now four units, and we have Chaophraya which has three units, and we also have Chaoya with one unit, Chaobaby with other two units We also have some small brands called Bam Sugar which is a kind of bar attached with Chaophraya or Thai Kun at the moment Our restaurants locate more outside of London such as in the North side The Oxford unit, the one now I am working for is the Southern unit in the UK I: Interesting So what are your position and responsibilities in this unit, Thai Kun restaurant at the moment? P: My position here is the business manager who runs the unit on the site, looking after all business for the site, like running everything Instead of restaurant manager, we call business manager, we don’t have restaurant manager here Besides business manager, we have assistant manager who supports the business manager, and we have bar manager and floor supervisor.Basically, everything here relates to performance is under my responsibility Starting from the sales, it is like, the company has a budget for the sales and we have to set the target for the sales for our own site So basically, I am responsible for making sure the site is run probably without any problems, any issues, any interruptions So to make sure we deliver the sale to whatever target we set I: So how long have you been working for Thai Kun? P: Basically I joined the company ( Thai Kun) for one year and a half But before, the first time I joined the company, I looked after Chao Paiza unit in Birmingham, and then after four months, I was promoted to the Operation manager looking after three sites of restaurants, which are in Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield And four months ago, we !110 had a new plan to open more units in downside of the UK, which is Oxford So I decided, vontunteer myself to be the business manager here because I have my family in London So it is quite convenient for me to go back to see my family in London So yah, only four months working for Thai Kun until now I: So the next question, please tell me what in your views makes a great restaurant experience for customers when they come to have dinner or any meal here in Thai restaurant? P: Yes, here in Thai Kun, our concept is fun, funky and authentic and great customer services Staff need to be energetic So we need to make sure who come to the restaurants, customers that they have what they expect That is great quality of food, something authentic, because we target our restaurant is to provide street Thai food It is very important for us to make sure when they come here they get what they expect for, which is the real Thai street food in Thai Kun Yeah, that is in terms of food In terms of the service, like I said, we make clear here that we create an atmosphere, which is fun and funky place so we train our staff to make sure when they come here, they get very good customer service, make sure they relax when they are here We tend to be fun and funky, make sure they feel like, they are at home We need to look after the staff, look after the family, look after customers I: And the question number five, what is the role of the menu in making a great Thai restaurant experiences? P: for Thai Kun, like I said, we aim to deliver street Thai food So the theme of the menu, the role of the menu gonna be something street food If you to Thailand, or have a chance to go to Thailand, almost of the items in the menu here, all of them you can find on street site restaurants, something every popular or normal to Thai people And we try to deliver the Thai taste, the flavor, which is what Thai people is expecting for and it is what we aim for I: Yeah, and what is the role of the design and decoration of the restaurant in Thai restaurant experiences? P: Oh… talking about Thai Kun Thai kun is more something different with all restaurants in Oxford Like a said, for us, it is more to make people to feel when they come here, they are in Thailand or to remind them the life in Thailand Something like Tuktuk( a name of popular vehicle in Thailand) As you can see here, I have TukTuk standing in the front to make sure they are in Thailand at the moment And we have many kind of !111 decorations around here Most of the items for decoration here have been used in the real situation in Thailand And we bring them here to make people remember when they see them, or remind them of something they see in Thailand We make the atmosphere like real Thai street, to make fun and funky Yeah I: So the next question, how you evaluate the role of staff in delivering a great service quality here in your restaurant? Can you give me some examples? P: Yes, basically, we start from training We have a lot of training done through the team since before we opened already In terms of training, we have two different ways The first one, we online training like online course, online module for staffs Staffs need to training on customer service, complaining and also knowledge of staff to make them aware of what is going on And also we have customer service training which is done by group training manager The training manager comes to support us all kind of trainings we are looking for, to make sure staffs are aware Normally here we have service, the service we are doing here, we call it, Thai Kun way So the training manager supports us to make sure all staffs are trained in Thai Kun way Thai Kun way, like I said, to make sure people come here, they feel fun and funky, friendly, this kind of thing Yeah And then we have the follow- up section which is to observe and support on day-to-day basic, which is done by the person called Restaurant Ambassador We have one person running this role, it means, the person works very closed with the training manager to make sure, whatever the training is delivered by training manager, the Ambassador and myself ( the business managers) to make sure they follow up what they have been trained, to make sure they make it probably I: Interesting, so how you think are they key interaction when staff deliver quality service in Thai restaurants? P: Yes, it is very important as well Observe to make sure your staff is running probably, doing probably their service that they are trained And also, the other thing is, we have the daily briefing and weekly meeting, which is very important to discuss the service to make sure is there anything we can improve or anything new we have to be aware and update among the team I: So for example, when staffs interact with customer such as speaking with customers, what are the key things staffs have to, let say, express or have any way to talk with customers? !112 P: Yes, we try very hard to make sure customers to come here, they feel like, they are home and looked after by staffs Staffs look after customer like they look after their family We allow staffs to talk with people at the table, sometimes we allow them to seat at the table if they really need, I mean, not to interrupt them too much Staff to make sure they are relaxed, to make sure it is fun and funky and friendly for customers And staffs are always there when they need And we have staff looking after their own sections, which is at maximum 24 seats per person I think it is quite a right number at the moment because we have quite a big restaurant and we have many areas to look after So we try to put customer in every section, you know, one by one, I meant, not put people on the same section at the same time So staffs, they have sometimes to make sure they time to have some conversations, some follow up, talk with customers, make friend, not not in terms of friend, I mean, to be friendly with customers, like one of their family to look after customers I: Yes, very interesting So as a manager of the restaurant, what can you to ensure staffs deliver the right the level of service Can you give me some examples? P: we have quite some levels of staff here starting from the floor staff, they have certain level that they can And then we have supervisor level and the manager level For staff level, more likely, we allow them to whatever in terms of contact with customer to make sure customer happy, to make decision straight away without waiting Because like I said, we have meeting, we have discussion, we have training before we put staff in the floor And more likely, they know what their level are, something for example, if customers want to change curry from green chicken curry to green beef curry, this is kind of thing staffs can make decision straight away But apart from, if something further up, something is to deal with discount or complaint or something like that, it is another level of supervisor We have supervisor to look after the area to deal with these kinds of things And then, if we have more problem, or something is to deal with, you know, something the supervisor cannot deal with, it will be managers We have three manager person doing the manager role here I: So the next question is, what is the role of staff training and development in delivering the service quality in Thai restaurants? P: The role of staff training, like I said, when we recruit new people to join the team First of all, we recommend them to go for floor hospitality staff training which is we have 13 modules for staffs, and 16 modules for the supervisor role and modules for the bar person So in those modules, we have four compulsory modules which staffs need to !113 finish the module in one month, food hygiene, fire and safety, food allergy and alcohol These modules they need to finish in one month to make sure they know everything before they can provide service efficiently to customer And later, after one month, we continue to training for both bar and floor supervisors in terms of service through the hospitality training This is, they need to be involved and make sure they are on top of it all the times And we have one of these managers to support and make sure staffs, let them know where they are at the time It is one section The other section is induction for new staffs, which is also we training by person, not just by computers This person will make sure people need to know what exactly we are looking for, in terms of rules, regulation, service and customer relation and knowledge as well Normally, we it within the first month Newcomers need to join the section, probably it takes about four hours for training And after that, we have the training which is food training with the chief involved in We have beverage training and bar supervisor involved And we have service training which we have a member of management team, sometimes done by myself This is to make sure people aware of and they need to get involved as well And latter we have follow- up section, like I said, Ambassador manager or senior manager, like I said, to support training manager to training I: who is involved in training and develop staff in your restaurants? P: Yes, this is, like I said, we are talking about the company first The company, we have the training manager And then on very site, we have trainee manager, actually, the trainee manager, is who recruited and trained to be a business manager in the future It means, this person has very good skill and was trained before and we have a lot of support from training manager work with trainee manager, which is doing training on the site And another person, Ambassador, the person has been trained also from training manager to make sure staff provide service from their heart It is the Thai way, special thing of Thai Leisure Group More likely here, we have myself (business manager) to lead the team, trainee manager, or training manager and Ambassador who provide proper service But more than that, we have the supervisor in the floor or bar supervisor to day-to-day service Those people, they pick up any issue from day-to-day service to bring into meeting, or team briefing We have team briefing every day in the morning And whatever issue happen in the night before, or week before, the supervisor pick up the issue, come to discuss with me and training manager and we can have proper training to make sure whatever we miss in serving service I: Yeah… So what are staffs trained to be able to do? Can you please give me some examples? Staffs here can be staffs in the front As you said, you have many levels of !114 staffs So my question will be more staffs who interact, deliver the service directly to customers P: Basically, the staff who interact with customer are more likely floor staff So in terms of this level, they are trained to talk with customer, deal with small complaint with customer such as with food such as the curry is really hot, or not up the standard This is the level of staff who can take the food, bring back to the kitchen and ask the chief to make another food I: So as a business manager of the restaurant, how can you evaluate that the service delivered in the restaurant is of the right service that the restaurant hopes to deliver to customers? P: yes, we have quite a few ways to measure the service We have in terms of the company, we have 13 sites across the UK, we have the head office which is the operation team We have service performance which is done by outside audit We have mystery dinner which comes to restaurants for dinning every month we don’t know In terms of booking by phone, we have mystery phone call which is done by a team to check that And we are required to have up to 95 score or more If we have the score come to us lower than 95, it means we fail in terms of measuring service quality from the head office Also we have KPI, like I said, performance which is check by head office We also have inside audit The person from the head office comes to check the site to see, such as cleanness, service and also we have the score to make sure our standards More than that, we measure from the feedback which is we have booking system When customer book table with us, they book in a system or we put into the system by ourselves When customer come and seat in the table, we click in the system, then after that, three or four hours, we have email sent to customers to give their feedback for their experiences And in the feedback, customer have space to give feedback But we have one topic to measure, to give score from one to ten Normally, we have one category, see you again, this is not my place or give it blank We need to make sure that, out of ten, customers choose see you again with mark nine If we fail, it mean, the mark is below nine, within score of ten of see you again Because for example, normal standard, if we have ten people, they feel happy when they come happy, they will tell, only one people tell one people If one people are not happy, they will ten people That is why we need to make sure we have nine of the person who gives us score And we also measure from tripadvisor which is very important, because it is more likely standard to customers, when they come to new place, they keep searching, looking for comment, review So we keep a little bit alert about that !115 I: the last question, what are challenges in delivering service quality to customers in Thai restaurants? P: To me, you know, people know Thailand is the land of smile People come to visit Thailand, they see people smile all the time So customer come to Thai restaurants, they expect, have high expectation of the service to represent some kind of Thailand Sometimes, when we are busy, we cannot provide kindness, smile, whatever to make them relax Sometimes, customers expect services in Thai restaurants to make them calm, more kind of relaxation This is our challenge to make sure they get what they expect I: so are there any challenges apart from service smile? P: Well, at the moment we have cosmopolitan style, we have Thai and non Thai staff Sometimes, the culture is an issue to train them to understand Thai culture of smiling Like I said, when customer comes here, they expect to see staff smiling, kindness, calm Sometimes to manage non- Thai to make sure they are aware of what customer wants, it is quite challenging as well That is why in the training, before we put staff in the floor, we make sure staffs who are non Thai, they are aware of Thai culture We showed them the video, let them see how Thai people and culture are The end of recording [Thanks given to the respondent and the issue of confidentiality was further discussed Appendix 8: Example of data coding Questio Representative quotes Key themes n and patterns !116 Q5 Interviewee No.7: “…for Thai Kun, like I said, we aim to D i s p l a y deliver street Thai food So the theme of the menu, the authentic Thai role of the menu gonna be something street food If food you to Thailand, or have a chance to go to Thailand, almost of the items in the menu here, all of them you can find on street site restaurants, something every popular or normal to Thai people And we try to deliver the Thai R e s t a u r a n t taste, the flavor,which is what Thai people is expecting concept for and it is what we aim for…” Interviewee No.5: “…our menus introduce different Thai culture foods, each food has different taste so that customers can easily choose following their taste We list special food, real Thai food in the menu with description of ingredient When customers look at our menu, we think they can have an idea of our eating culture as well” !117 Appendix 9: Basic design of case studies undertaken in the research No Name Location N o Nationality Ye a r s o f M a r k e t Business o f of service operations segment type staff s t a f f s (waiters) Thai Basil Bath 10 Thai 12 (full- time) T h a i Bath 12 Bacony B a n g k o k Oxford At Thai dinning 10 (full- time) 12 house Thai Oxford 15 Thai Casual FamilyF i n e Familydinning 10 run run F i n e Family- (full-time) dinning run Thai (full- F i n e Family- time) and dining run non Thai (part-time) T h a i Oxford 20 Angrid Thai (full- Casual Family- time) and dinning run non Thai (part-time) Thaikun Oxford 55 Thai and C a s u a l Company non-Thai dinning (full-time and parttime) P a t a r a London 40 Soho P a t a r a London Oxford 45 Thai (full- 20 F i n e Company time) dinning Thai (full- 22 F i n e Company time) dinning Circus Appendix 8: Thai restaurant background No Name, website and picture description !118 Thai Basil, Bath Website:http://www.thaibasilbath.com/index.php ! Thai Bacony, Bath Website: http://www.thai-balcony.net/ ! !119 At Thai, Oxford Website: http://atthai.y4f.co/ ! Bangkok House, Oxford Website: http://www.bangkokhouse.co.uk/ ! !120 Thaikun Website: http://thaikhun.co.uk/ ! Thai Angird Website: http://angridthai.vpweb.co.uk/ ! !121 Patara Soho and Patara Oxford Circus Website: http://www.pataralondon.com/about/ ! Appendix 10: Demographic data about Interviewees Interviewee Job title Y e a r s o f Unit Responsibilities Nationality experience Owner T h a i Operation, recruiting Thai Basil and training staffs, managing profit and loss, dealing with suppliers Restauran T h a i R e c r u i t i n g a n d Thai t manager Basil training waiters, customer services, dealing with suppliers and bookings !122 Restauran T h a i Customer services, Thai t manager Bacony managing profit and loss, training waiters, dealing bookings with and suppliers Restauran At Thai t manager Tr a i n i n g w a i t e r s , Thai services, dealing with bookings, training waiters Owner T h a i O p e r a t i o n , Thai Angrid managingprofitand loss, dealing with suppliers, recruiting and training staffs Owner Bangko Operation, customer Thai k house service, recruiting and training staffs, managing profit and loss, dealing with booking, promotion Business T h a i Managing operation, Thai manager Kun sales, services, profit and loss, training staffs Training T h a i Training staffs manager Kun U K operation P a t a r a Managing operation, Thai Group manager 10 Thai sales of five restaurants G r o u p months P a t a r a Managing beverage Thai Beverage Group manager sale for five restaurants !123 11 Assistant manager P a t a r a Accounting (bank Thai (Soho) statement, cash flow, invoice); training staffs 12 Restauran P a t a r a Operation, customer Thai t manager (Oxford s e r v i c e , s t a f f s , Circus) managing profit and loss,training staffs !124 ... the aim of the study (exploring influence of people training and development in the delivery of service quality in a selection of Thai restaurants in the UK) , three research questions underpinning... explore the role of training and development in the delivery of service quality in selection of Thai restaurants in the UK !4 Keywords: Service quality, Ethnic restaurant, human resource development, ... exploring the role of people training and development in the delivery of service quality n UK ethnic restaurant sector from owners’ and managers’ views The study focuses on UK based Thai restaurants