Crisis Management Strategies and Business Continuity for Star Rated Hotels in Kenya

Abstract

Hotels face the continuous risk of disruptions from factors beyond their control. This includes man made calamities such as post-election violence, poor service delivery and terrorism. Disruptions may also arise from natural calamities such as the outbreak of diseases such as Covid-19, floods and earthquakes. These disruptions do not only affect the normal operations of the business but also threaten the existence of the hotels. Despite the enormous risk of closure as a result of these crisis very few studies have been done to find out the impact of crisis management strategies on the business continuity in the hotel industry in Kenya. This study therefore sought to find out the relationship between crisis management strategies and business continuity in star rated hotels in Kenya. The independent variables were the crisis management strategies (prevention, containment, confrontation and cooperation strategies) while the dependent variable was business continuity. The study was anchored on the contingency theory, resource-based theory and resource dependency theory and used descriptive cross-sectional research design and stratified random sampling technique to come up with a representative sample of 138 respondents. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and a response rate of 83% achieved. The limitations to the study included data collection as it was carried out during the Covid- 19 pandemic whereby physical contact during data collection was either limited or impossible. This was countered through the use of online methods to administer the questionnaire. The methodological approach was also a challenge as the variables had not been locally studied together in a single study to establish the relationship. This was countered through the expert guidance of the supervisor on how to treat the variables. The other limitation involved the nature of data collected where the respondents were concerned that their strategies would be known to their business rivals.