| dc.description.abstract | Liberalization and globalization of world economies have caused turbulence in the
business environment, more so to those in the hospitality industry. In this regard,
protected organizations have found themselves in an unfamiliar trading environment.
Their past operational efficiency and markets are no longer protected. They are now
under pressure to change and align their structures and management strategies to
environmental challenges.
This project was a case study of Serena Group of Hotels to determine response
strategies that have been adopted by the Group to deal with the environmental
challenges in East Africa.A case study is an in-depth investigation of an individual,
institution or phenomenon, and has a value of enabling the authors to explore the
content under study and retain holistic characteristics of real life events in fields such
as organizational and managerial processes. The study also helped establish that it is
indeed true that Serena Group of Hotels operates in a very dynamic environment. The
objective was to document the responses by the Serena Group of Hotels to curb the
challenges caused by the environmental challenges. Being a case study therefore, the
research findings cannot be used to make generalization for the hospitality industry as
a whole.
The study made use of primary and secondary data. The primary data was obtained
through sending the interview guideto the departmental heads, in charge of finance
and accounts, engineering, operations, information technology, human resources,
sales and marketing, and administration, in which case all the targeted respondents
were available for the interview. This method helped in extracting some in depth
information through direct questions in which a questionnaire by itself could not be
very helpful. The interview guide was constructed around the research propositions
that were expected to be answered in the research. The results were developed in line
with the objective of the study (the questionnaires had open ended questions so as not
to limit the responses by the interviewees). Data analysis was done through content
include other response strategies adopted by Serena Group of Hotels, such as,
business process reengineering, among others. The study found out that Serena Group
of Hotels has responded to challenges in the business environment through
implementation of response strategies that include cost leadership, differentiation and
focus, outsourcing, restructuring, new technological development, distribution and
product innovation. From the study results, it is recommended that the management of
Serena Group of Hotels needs to be more proactive rather than reactive in its response
strategies, that is, management should be very alert on the changes in the business
environment and they should be keen to respond in good time in order to outsmart
competition. | en |
