Segments of cognitive responses towards local food safety concerns amongst international students in Ghana

Despite the attention paid to food safety research, few empirical works have used a non-reductionist perspective to understand how international consumers cognitively respond to local food safety conditions. Using the tri-component theorisation and the two-step clustering approach with the Kruskal Wallis test on a sample of 109 international students in Ghana, this study provides a non-reductionist cognitive segment of international students towards local food safety conditions in Ghana. The findings revealed that there are three cognitive segments of international consumers towards local food safety conditions, namely self-regards, pessimists, and epicureans. Self-assureds respond to their own self-cognition towards local food safety concerns but deny the cognition of others, moderately respond affectively and sometimes avoid local foods. Pessimists have a highly sensitive cognitive response towards local food safety conditions, high affective responses and avoid the consumption of local foods as a result, while epicureans do not cognitively respond to local food safety conditions, have low affective reactions and consume local foods regardless of the food safety conditions. The implications of these findings in the context of local food preparation, packaging, and handling as well as food safety regulations and marketing are discussed

Perceived organisational justice and unethical work behaviour among hotel employees in Accra: the role of gender and marital status

Ethics and organizational justice share common roots and patterns of development in that, employees’ ethical behaviours are influenced by the perceived fairness of the company’s policies, procedures and decision making. While this link has been established in many studies, whether this relationship is the same for different demographic groups has received little attention, particularly for the hospitality industry. This study, therefore, sought to examine perceived organisational justice and unethical work behaviours among hotel employees in Accra using gender and marital status as moderating variables. Data was collected from a sample of 379 employees of five four-star hotels in Accra. The moderated multiple regression technique, PROCESS by Hayes in SPSS was employed to test the significance of the moderating variables in the relationship between organisational justice and unethical work behaviour among hotel employees in Accra. The results showed that gender was significant in interactive justice effect on unethical work behaviours; while marital status was significant in distributive justice and procedural justice’ effect on unethical work behaviours among the hotel employees. The study recommends specific strategies for discouraging unethical workplace behaviours and encouraging organisational citizenship.

Job satisfaction and organizational commitment: experiences of family-owned hotels in Ho, Ghana

The study investigates the interplay between demographic variables, job satisfaction and organisational commitment among workers in family-owned hotels in Ho, Ghana. A convenience sample of 280 employees selected from 45 facilities participated in the study by completing self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and PLS-SEM were used to analyse the data. Path results showed a positive and significant association between extrinsic job satisfaction and affective and continuance commitment. There was a significantly positive association between intrinsic satisfaction and affective and normative commitment. Furthermore, employees within the age group of 30-40 years exhibited higher levels of intrinsic satisfaction and affective commitment compared to those in the 45-50-year age group. The findings of the study provide important implications for family-owned hotels. Managers and proprietors of family-owned hotels must embark on strategies that will help to improve extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction as well as affective and normative commitment.

Strategic HRM and competitiveness of Hotels in the Central Region of Ghana: the Mediating role of employee competencies

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effect of strategic HR practices on the competitiveness of hotels in the Central Region of Ghana. A secondary objective was to assess the mediating role of employee competencies on the link between strategic HR practices and competitive advantage. The study adopted an explanatory research design, using a purely quantitative approach. The target population comprised of all managers of registered hotels in the Central Region of Ghana. Data were collected through a self-administered survey questionnaire. The available data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling. It was established that strategic HRM practices have a positive influence on employee competencies, which in turn has a significant positive effect on competitive advantage. As a consequence, it was concluded that internal capabilities and competencies are the major sources of sustainable competitive advantage in the hospitality industry in Ghana. The effect of strategic HR practices on competitive advantage was, however, found to be insignificant. These findings require managers in the hospitality industry to continuously employ strategic HR practices such as training and development activities, linking incentive pay to performance, providing staff with a flexible compensation structure and promoting skill-based pay elements in employees’ pay package.

Does gender exacerbate the effect of Work-family conflict on employee Satisfaction in the hotel industry?

Hotel employees, in recent times, put in more effort at work, working for long hours and even on holidays and weekends. As a result, they find it difficult to efficiently meet the demands of both their work and personal life. This study used a cross-sectional research design to examine work-family conflict and its effects on job satisfaction and life satisfaction of hotel staff. The study also sought to examine the moderating effect of gender on the relationships between work-family conflict, job satisfaction and life satisfaction. A diverse sample of 286 respondents, conveniently selected, completed a structured questionnaire. Generally, the results of a PLS-SEM analysis showed that work-family conflict is not significantly related to job satisfaction but with employees’ life satisfaction. Specifically, work-to-family conflict has no significant relationship with job satisfaction whereas work-to-family and family-to-work conflict were uniquely associated with life satisfaction. The interference of family demands with the work of a hotel employee positively affects life satisfaction irrespective of the gender of employees. However, job satisfaction significantly relates to life satisfaction. Gender fully moderated employee work interfering with family and job satisfaction relationship. Theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future studies were discussed in the paper.

Political instability and tourism in Ghana (1966-1981)

In the 1960s most governments in West Africa, including Ghana which was under the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana began to incorporate tourism into their economic development plans. The idea was to diversify the economy in order to provide infrastructural development, economic and social prosperity for populace. Unfortunately, Nkrumah’s government was toppled in 1966. In the subsequent years, Ghana experienced a period of political instability. This paper takes a critical look at the efforts of the various governments in Ghana (from 1957 to 1981) to develop tourism in terms of their policies and their roles as agents of tourism development; the creation of a conducive environment for tourism to flourish, the involvement of the private sector both foreign and local, the provision of tourism infrastructure and how political instability impacted negatively on tourism development in terms of the flow of international tourist arrivals, potential investors, tourism product development and delivery, and tourism receptive facilities.

A safety and security audit of the Kakum National Park

Although Safety and Security (SnS) is a popular theme in the existing literature, the narrative has mostly focused on the broader destination and relatively, little is known of the SnS situation at the level of the individual components. This paper sought to appraise the safety and security situation at Ghana’s most visited attraction- the Kakum National Park, using a heuristic adaptation of the World Tourism Organization’s safety and security checklist. Through observations and interviews with management, an assessment of the safety and security situation at KNP was undertaken. It was found that even though safety and security measures at the park are generally inadequate, management does not consider the park to be under any real threat. The study also found that the Park management had a deliberative assessment of the security situation which reflected in three mindsets of collective security, passiveness and cautious security. The study recommends a change in philosophical outlook from passiveness to proactivity as an important first step towards making the KNP safer. Along with this philosophy, change would be the specific interventions in the areas of documentation, equipment and training.

Employees' perceptions of the effects of green training and practices on hotel sustainability in Ilorin, Nigeria

The current ozone layer degradation and constant environmental pollution occasioned by the activities of tourists and hotel operators among others have continuously endangered human survival in recent times. Despite various attempts by the governments and other stakeholders to mitigate the situation through policies and green practices orientation, the results have not been significantly felt in Nigeria. This paper explores the effects of employees’ perceptions of green training and practices on hotel sustainability. Data were collected from a selected sample of 100 employees of four leading hotels in Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State of Nigeria. Hypotheses were tested using Regression analysis. Data were presented through, frequencies means and standard deviation. The results show significant relationships between green practice and sustainability on one hand, and between green training and sustainability on the other hand. The study also found that hotel employees are willing to implement the training acquired. The study among others recommends green staff training as it could bring about employees’ commitment and promote customer retention and increased productivity.

Examining food safety knowledge and the microbiological quality of school meals in Ghana

Food safety studies have received much empirical investigation; however, limited studies regarding food safety and the microbiological quality of meals in boarding senior high schools exist. This study examined the food safety knowledge, the microbiological quality of school meals, as well as the barriers to food safety practices among food handlers in boarding senior high schools (SHS) in the Volta Region of Ghana. A cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study, using questionnaires to collect data from 97 food handlers in five boarding senior high schools in Volta Region, Ghana. A total of sixty samples of four cooked foods were collected and subjected to laboratory analysis. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyze the data. Results of the study revealed that respondents had good food safety knowledge. The laboratory results revealed the presence of rod and cocci shaped bacteria, where some of these isolates were identified as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas spp., and Bacillus cereus which are possible pathogens. The barriers to food safety practices revealed inadequate provision of equipment and irregular water supply. Findings of this study have implication for stakeholders involved in the management of SHS. Administrators of SHSs must design and implement food hygiene training and sanitation programmes for food handlers in schools. Also, more stringent supervision during food preparation processes is recommended.

Socio-economic effects of electricity crisis and coping strategies

Ensuring there is regular supply of electricity to support industrial growth and development is a huge challenge for countries the world over. However, Ghana’s power supply challenges culminated into a four-year electricity crisis (2012-2016) that earned the name “dumsor,” meaning “on and off” in the Akan language. The crisis was different in its intensity, complexity, and reach from any previously recorded case. At its peak, a greater expanse of southern Ghana endured a load shedding schedule of 12 hours with electricity and 24 hours without electricity, with the capital city (Accra) being the worse affected. Heavy electricity consumers were among the hardest hit businesses since the dumsor did not only increase operational cost and reduce productivity but also resulted in significant withdrawal of investments. The narrative was progressively dismal for hotels because the industry has high entry and exit costs and their success and reputation is based on rendering quality services at a comparatively lower price. Thus, any compromise on their product results in disproportionate decline in patronage due to poor reviews and bad word-of-mouth. Given the above, a review of the socio-economic effects of dumsor on hotels and adopted coping strategies were needed to lay a framework to examine the effects of electricity crises on the tourism industry. Adopting a mixed- method approach, seventy-three (73) hotels in the Accra Metropolitan Area were engaged. The results reveal an increase in both operational cost and customer complaints. This brought about the adoption of diesel-fuelled generators as an immediate stop-gap measure to curb the crisis.