Mansoura University

Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management

Hotel Management Department

Studying the Impact of Casual Employees on Service Quality Offered in

Greater Cairo Hotels
A Proposed Frame for a Doctorate Thesis in Hotel Management

By
Sherif Gamal Saad Soliman
B.Sc., Hotel Management, 2003
M.Sc., Hotel Management, 2009

Under the Supervision of

Prof. Dr. Saleh Abd El-Hamed Aroos
Vice Dean of Postgraduates Studies and Researches
Faculty of Tourism and Hotels
Minufiya University

2010
 Studying the Impact of Casual Employees on Service Quality Offered in
Greater Cairo Hotels
Introduction
Swarbrooke and Horner (2002) mentioned that any service industry is a
labor-intensive one. Human elements are responsible for the production and
delivery of the services. In that sense, the attitude and competence of human
interaction determines the success or failure of every service establishment.
Hospitality industry is a labor intensive service industry dependent for survival
and for competitive advantage on the availability of good quality personnel to
deliver, operate as well as to manage the hotel product (Boxall, 2003).
Moreover, Byars and Rue (2004) stated that the human element may be used as
a competitive advantage and differentiate the performance of one operation from
another, since all hotels may have the same physical condition from rooms,
equipment, and restaurant outlets. Also the human element is one of the most
powerful to ensure the creation of value for customers and profitability for
owners.

Casual employees defined by are those who are employed on an occasional and
irregular basis with no set roster or routine as to when they work. Moreover, the
Kryger (2004) defined casual employee as someone who is not entitled to either
paid holiday leave or paid sick leave. Casuals are employed on an ‘as needs’
basis, often to meet a changing workload within the workplace. Also, the same
author reported that casual employees have the following characteristics:
 They usually work for short periods of time on an irregular basis with their
actual hours varying from week to week.
 They employed and paid by the hour and do not receive annual leave or sick
leave.
 They do not have consistent starting or finishing times, or regular hours of
work.
 They generally contacted regularly and asked to work, rather than just
knowing when they are required.
 They are free to refuse to work at any time due to other commitments.
In terms of service quality, managers in the service sector are under increasing
pressure to demonstrate that their services are customer-focused and that
continuous performance improvement is being delivered (Shahin, 2004). Service
quality is a concept that has aroused considerable interest and debate in the
research literature because of the difficulties in both defining it and measuring it
with no overall consensus emerging on either (Wisniewski, 2001). Service
quality can be defined as the difference between customer expectations of
service and perceived service. If expectations are greater than performance, then
perceived quality is less than satisfactory and hence customer dissatisfaction
occurs (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985; Lewis and Mitchell, 1990).
Service quality leads to customer satisfaction (Spreng and Mackoy, 1996). The
most common interpretations obtained from various authors reflect the notion
that satisfaction is a feeling which results from a process of evaluating what has
been received against what was expected, including the purchase decision itself
and the needs and wants associated with the purchase (Armstrong and Kotler,
1996).

Aim and Objectives of the Study

This study aims to explore the impact of casual employees on service quality in
a sample of hotels in Greater Cairo. To achieve this aim, the following
objectives are to:
 Undertake a review of literature on casual employees and their impact on
service quality and customer satisfaction.

 Investigate the perspectives of customers in terms of service quality offered

in a sample of hotels in Greater Cairo.

 Identify the perspectives of food and beverage managers in regard to casual

employees and their impact on service quality in a sample of hotels in
Greater Cairo.
 Establish a set of recommendations to enhance the performance of casual
employees in order to improve service quality and thus to achieve customer
satisfaction and maximize the hotel profits as well.

Research Methods
Two types of sources will be used in order to achieve the aim and objectives of
the study. These types are as follows:
[1] Secondary sources: An extensive literature reviews will be conducted to
collect secondary data in relevant subject areas and a number of sources will
be used such as books, periodicals, previous researches as well as internet
websites.

[2] Primary sources: Both quantitative and qualitative approaches will be used
to address the objectives of the study. For quantitative approach,
self-administered questionnaire will be used with hotel customers in order to
investigate their perspectives regarding quality of service in the hotels. On
the other hand, the qualitative approach will be achieved through
face-to-face interviews with food and beverage managers in order to identify
their perspectives in terms of casual employees and their impact on services
quality and thus customer satisfaction
 REFERNNCES

Swarbrooke, J. (2002). Sustainable Tourism Management. New York, CABI

Publishing, P. 230.

Byars, L. and Rue, L. (2004). Human Resource Management. Seventh

Edition. New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc., pp. 4-5.

Boxall, P. (2003). “HR Strategy and Competitive Advantage in the Service

Sector”. Human Resource Management Journal, 13 (3), pp. 5-20.

Kryger, T. (2004). “Casual Employment: Trends and Characteristics”.

Research Note Index, No. 53, Australia, Parliamentary Library.

Shahin, A. (2004). “SERVQUAL and Model of Service Quality

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Wisniewski, M. (2001), “Using SERVQUAL to Assess Customer

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