Executive Summary and Thesis Chapter 1 on Factors Leading to the Organizational Commitment of Employees in Japanese Fast Food Chain in Hong Kong

Factors Leading to the Organizational Commitment of Employees in Japanese Fast Food Chain

in Hong Kong

Executive summary

Within the fast food industry, there are international organizations that are competing each other to promote their brand, obtain the competitive advantages, and generally to have a positive profitability. However, the organizational commitment of the employees remains a puzzle in the Japanese fast food store. The method used in the study is the qualitative interview in a closed and fixed response interview form, the perception of the 15 participants - who are also working in the Japanese fast food – were identified.

As a result on the pursuance of the study it determined that both training and development and motivational approaches are pertinent factors for the Japanese fast food chain employees to realize the organizational commitment. However, their willingness to learn and ability to compete with their colleagues enhances their ability to perform well. In the pursuance of the study to determine the factors towards organizational commitment, it discovers that aside from the training and development and motivation, there is also a need for influence coming from the organizational culture and job satisfaction. Furthermore, it proved that the cultural barriers are not considered as a major problem within the fast food but the lack of experience of the employees.

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Within the fast food industry, there are international organizations that are competing each other to promote their brand, obtain the competitive advantages, and generally to have a positive profitability. However, the trend within the fast-food industry seems rooted on the idea of expansion. As the firm continuous to grow and meet the expectations, the step in dominating the foreign countries is closer. Actually, based on the personal observation, the fast food industry is getting more popular year after year and that is because of the obviousness that along the streets where there is a recognizable lines or chains of fast food establishment. Talking about the appeal of the fast food business, there is no doubt that fast food chains, as compared to the restaurants, have a service and food quality that can satisfy their customers. Aside from that, the prices are cheaper and at least the cleanliness is maintained. Because of this factor, it appears that the restaurants are affected which forced them to stepped into the same level as the fast food establishments.

Most of the early restaurants are influenced by the Western Culture undoubtedly because of the worldwide domination of McDonalds or their McDonaldization (Ritzer, 1995). With regards to its significant influence the most common franchised fast food products are ranging from sandwiches, hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken, fish and chips, to ice cream, and frozen yoghurt. They also manage to serve coffee or hot chocolate and soft drinks as their beverages to the customers. Increasingly, the familiarity of these products grown worldwide that it slowly changed the views on the “fine dining”, “home cooking”, and even crossed the borders of different cultures. However, due to this very same influence, the Asian foods (e.g. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese foods) also offered their kind of delicacies through their small restaurants and street stalls.

Many related researches that applied either quantitative or qualitative methodologies somehow managed to recognize the various strategies and business techniques that are present within the fast food industry (Myers, 2008). In addition, there is a clear description that the business’ practices and management are established through the specified theories and traditional strategies in aiming for a quality product and services. However, it was identified that fast food establishments should not over emphasize their philosophical view regarding the expansion and franchising. It is true that the best strategy that a business can set in the arena of competition is to place a competitive advantage among the other competitors. But too much use of that particular advantage may lead to failure if not properly monitored; instead they must focus on serving the market well. Furthermore, the organizational commitment of the employees towards the fast food establishment remains undetermined.

1.1 Background of the Study

In the world where people are expecting the more convenient type of services, the word “fast” has been applied and attributable in many of the merchandise and servicing outlets. Literally, the word “fast” is the representation of the speed and bearing this idea, people are learning more on how will the application of this concept can affect their entire lives. Fast-foods can be the most inevitable inventions ever appeared in the continuous progress of the economy. It is clearly ideal for the people that does not have the time to do the traditional cooking, or the people that are in tight budget, or just want to try experimenting. The growth of the fast-food can be observed along the road or inside the vicinity of the shopping malls. Various names are competing for the same market and this very same reason allows the competitors to pour extra juice of effort. A typical consumer can actually feel the existence of the fast-food chains but still, only one name emerged in the midst of competition.

Fast-food industry changed the traditional restaurants and continuously growing. In some countries, the subways and street sides are considered as the areas that moves the fast-food industry (Stewart, 2004). Among the fast movers and growing businesses in the industry is McDonalds. McDonalds eventually emerged as a superior firm among the group of fast-food and restaurant competitors. The success of McDonalds in the fast food industry became another challenge for the businessmen and inspiration of the leaders. Aside from the competency and technologies involved, the organizational commitment of the employees is identified to be one of the factors towards the success of the business.

McDonalds, as one of the most recognized leaders in International business and in the nature of fast-food industry gets the attention of the business leaders in gaining the success. The recognition only verified the action of the organization in the continuous expansion and building international market. The competency of the organization from the mother country affects the other participating countries, and their strategies such as procedures have been passed right to other sister companies and franchises. The flow of knowledge and direct power of the mother company on its branches can be effectively promotes the relationship and presence of organizational culture. Aside from that, there are other applications of knowledge that continuously redesigning the face and appeal of the companies. Part of the international organizations should be centered on meeting local demands and doing business the locals’ way. With this, multinational corporations should consider certain significant factors. In general, global companies should give due priority in learning the culture of the country where they intend to operate. Specifically, the language, education, religion, attitudes and values of a specific country should be learned by any international company. This local knowledge should serve as the basis of their major marketing approaches.

Hong Kong is considered to have an affluent economy and a free market with almost zero import tariffs (with four category exceptions, including an 80% tariff on wine). It is a net food importer, and a market opportunity for high value food and beverages (Chung, 2007). In addition, Hong Kong is also a gateway for greater China’s food market, and a good test market for other parts of Asia. Within the food industry of Hong Kong, it is identified that the key driving forces of the society’s food trends are food safety, increasing health consciousness, changing demographics and busy lifestyles – which is at some point, might be difficult for the food service businesses to target. Due to the attempt to gain more competitiveness and enable to meet the challenges in the food industry, there are some significant emerging food consumption trends which include organic food; functional food; chilled and frozen meat; convenience food; snack food; and food for gifts. Opportunities for Victorian food exports are predicted to develop around safe, healthy, nutritional and convenient food. The food service sector in Hong Kong includes hotels, restaurants and institutions (airlines and hospitals). Due to the growth of tourism, demand for quality food is expected to increase at five star hotels and high end restaurants. There is also a trend for non-Chinese restaurants emerging, including Japanese food, fast food, coffee and snacks, and casual dining restaurants. Further research is required to analyze the potential of the airline and hospital sectors in Hong Kong.

Non-Chinese restaurants including Japanese food, fast food, coffee and snacks, and casual dining are currently a growing sub sector in Hong Kong. Fast food is the fastest growing sector, including the popular chains of Maxims, Café de Coral, Fairwood, McDonalds, Kentucky and Pizza Hut. Another significant trend is the increasingly competitive coffee shop sector around the city, where the two largest coffee shop chains are Starbucks (64) and Pacific Coffee. It is also worth noting a growing trend for fresh fruit juice and dessert bars, with the Hui Lau Shan chains a good example. On the other hand, there is a growing trend towards the health consciousness. And as consumers become more health conscious, restaurant menus have changed to accommodate this trend. For example fast food chains have provided healthier food options on their menus such as salads and fruit juice (Chung, 2007).

As verified by literatures, barriers to successful international marketing are centered on cultural differences. Thus, the success of fast food establishments in the western culture may have a lesser impact on Asian consumers who typically prefer meals made from scratch. In addition, countries’ where people are very particular with time and speed, such as in the American culture, may find fast food services very appealing. Nonetheless, this marketing approach may not work on cultures where speed is not that significant. In addition, some cultures prefer to eat on places where they can talk and relax – a significant contradiction to cultures that prefer meals to go (Sherman & Levine, 2004).

Accordingly, there had been a number of companies that have succeeded through effective international marketing strategies in the fast food industry. Effective promotions and advertising were also integrated into the company’s international strategy. One of these tactics include the company’s promotional offers of various items like Internet cards, concert tickets, CDs, T-shirts, caps and international trips. This promo had been done as the company collaborated with other organizations including Coca-cola, Sony, MTV and General Motors. Painting contests for children were also conducted by McDonald’s. This served not only as a promotional activity but also an effective fund-raising effort to help less fortunate children in need of corrective surgeries. Furthermore, the advertising strategies of McDonald’s had been focused on building an image of family comfort. Rather than just being an ordinary fast food that serves quality meals, McDonald’s intends to appeal to the market by building a fast food image where families can get together, enjoy and relax (Singh et al., 2001).

However, on part in cornering the roles of the motivation and organizational commitment within the organization, the Japanese fast foods (and probably other type of fast food chains) must emphasize these factors towards the employees’ organizational commitment (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Part of the basic psychological process is the motivation and from the past studies, an analysis concluded that the competitiveness problems in an organization appear to be part of the motivational nature. Motivation is a very important element of behavior but it can’t alone explain the behavior of an individual (Wright, 2001). The process of learning, the interaction on different personalities and attitudes influences the management of the motivation. Both motivation and motivating process deals with the consciousness of human behavior such as the reflex actions and learned habits. On the other hand, the organizational commitment focuses on the attitudes of the employees towards the entire organization. Commitment can be described as a strong desire to remain a member of a particular organization; there is an employee’s willingness to exert high levels of efforts on behalf of the organization; and the belief and acceptability of the values and goals in the organization (Tella, Ayeni, and Popoola, 2007; Meyer, Becker, and Vandenberghe, 2004).

1.2 Statement of the problems

In the practice of human resource management, attitudes of the employees are prioritized in the exploration within the idea of job satisfaction. Through the organizational behavior, the support on commitment in an organization causes the satisfaction. Part of the commitment is the contribution of the motivation and motivational factors that, together, produce a quality of output as being part of the modern organizations.  According to the study of Shafer (2009), the idea of conflict between organizational and professional values has a long history in both the sociology and business literature. Therefore, gaining the knowledge from the background of the study, there are identified two relative problems.

·         How can the identified factors contribute towards the organizational commitment among the Japanese fast foods?

·         What is the effectiveness of organizational commitment in achieving the organizational success?

1.3 Research Aim and objectives

The main aim of the study is to investigate the factors that might contribute towards the organizational commitment particularly among the Japanese fast foods. Most of the Japanese fast food chains are mingled with other fast food businesses. However, the entrepreneurs manage to cope in the competition and manage to stay in the Hong Kong market. Apparently, most of the employees under the Japanese fast food business are Chinese people which provide both advantages like establishment of good CSR and disadvantages like the language barrier and culture differences.  In order to facilitate the collection of ideas, there are four objectives that need to be considered. First is to demonstrate the influence of organizational commitment in various types of businesses. Second is to seek or review the previous studies regarding the factors that might contribute to the organizational commitment. Third is to recognize the perceptions of the employees in the organization, particularly in the Japanese fast food industries. And fourth is to analyze the gathered information and create a comprehensive link on the factors and discuss the ways to improve the organizational commitment in the organization.

1.4 Rationale and significance of the study

The study is meant to follow the investigative research regarding the organizational commitment and the various factors that might attract it. Various business analysts already explored the importance of the job satisfaction which may lead to the organizational commitment. As part of the foundation of this study, the principle is that to draw an idea on how a particular fast food chain operates in a foreign country like in Hong Kong. Although both are Asian countries, there are still fine lines of difference especially when we are tackling about the culture and the different personalities or characteristics of an individual. Hence, the study will face the various scenarios like in solving the workplace conflict or increasing the motivational approaches even though there is an obvious difference when it comes in food, societal culture, and organizational culture.

1.5 Scope and Limitations

The scope of the study falls in considering the framework associated in satisfying the objectives identified. The study will include some theories, concepts or models that might assist the study to determine the important factors that might lead to organizational commitment. In order to clarify some gaps in the literature, the study will use variables that are related in the problems and therefore, discuss the relationship of each variable in order to gain a full understanding regarding the topic of the study. Since the study recognizes the freedom bestowed and enjoyed by the people towards the food industry, the methods involved in the study will include the participation of the 15 people (10 employees and 5 managers or supervisors). The age of the group is estimated to be around 20-40 years old which may be ideal for the age bracket of the working group. With this focus, the study can have a clear picture on employees’ behavior towards the organizational commitment. To reduce the complexities involved in the investigation of the paper, the supplied methods are both driven by qualitative data collection. Both can be helpful in addressing the components of employees’ attitudes not only in terms of organizational commitment but as well as their performance.     

On the other hand, the study recognizes the frontiers that the researcher/s might experience while pursuing its aim. Part of the limitation is going an in-depth approach in the strategies and/or the flow of information through using the limited sources. The main reason is the fact that the study is primarily concern of the attitude or behavior of the employees particularly those who experienced low morale in the workplace and even the participation of ineffective leadership. Another limitation that the study might encounter is demonstrating the number or percentage that an online or telephone ordering system as compared to the day-to-day operation. This is because to the diversified visitors, they tend to choose various options to their convenience and wherein the study might lose its momentum in studying the employees’ commitment. Another is the inability of the study to present the employees’ nature on performance because of various ethical issues that the study might encounter.  

1.6 Structure of Related Chapters

This study is divided into five chapters in order to provide clarity and coherence on determining the organizational commitment of the employees in the fast food industries particularly the Japanese fast foods. The first part of the dissertation will be discussing the problem uncovered by the researcher and provide ample background of the topic. The chapter shall constitute an introduction to the whole dissertation, and the statement of the problem in order to present the basis of the study. Moreover, the chapter shall also have a discussion on the scope of its study as well as the significance of the study to society in general.

The second chapter shall be discussing the relevance of the study in the existing literature. It shall provide studies on the fast food industries and the limited organizational commitment of the employees to their employers are shown in the labour market.  This research is to determine whether the working environment (i.e. training, communication and work schedule) can elicit any impacts on the organizational commitment.  Academic issue such as Motivation, Performance Management and Management technique will be addressed as well as its advantages and disadvantages in the organization. After the presentation of the existing related literature, the researcher shall provide a synthesis of the whole chapter in relation to the study.

The third part of the study shall be discussing the methods and procedures used in the study. The chapter shall comprise of the presentation of the utilized techniques for data collection and research methodology. Similarly, it shall also contain a discussion on the used techniques in data analysis as well as the tools used to acquire the said data.

The fourth chapter shall be an analysis on the contents gathered through secondary research and qualitative research approach. This part will discuss the answers based on analysis, to the questions provided in Chapter 1.

The last chapter shall comprise of three sections, the summary of the findings, the conclusions of the study, and the recommendations. With the three portions, the chapter shall be able to address the problem stated in the initial chapters of the study.

 

 

 

 

 

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