Covid-19 Health Protocols and Operations Performance in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

Operations managers in various industries globally faced several challenges in their attempt to maintain optimum operations performance within their organizations, especially in operational planning, logistics, and supply chain management during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kenyan entities also faced challenges such as reduced revenues due to reduction in their sales, changes in demand and supply due to reduced operating hours as a result of night curfews, uncertain timeframes of returning to normal business operations, and the need to adhere to the existing health protocols adopted to lower the risk of contracting Covid-19. The hospitality industry was arguably the most affected despite being one of Kenya’s biggest foreign exchange earners. Since future pandemics or deadlier variants of the Covid-19 virus cannot be ruled out, there was a need to determine the relationship between Covid-19 health protocols and operations performance in the hospitality industry, which will be essential in operations planning in case of future pandemics. The study took a descriptive research design approach, with organizations in the hospitality industry in Nairobi County forming the population. 99 entities were sampled from four sub-counties and the data analyzed using SPSS. The findings showed that there were organizations that never implemented some of the protocols. Additionally, there was significant evidence on the relationship between Isolation and Quarantine of Sick Staff with Cost, Quality, and Flexibility performance. There was also significant evidence on the relationship between Travel Restrictions protocol and Dependability performance. The results also indicated that 52.5% of the respondents felt that the protocols had a positive impact on their organizations while 31.3% had a contrary belief. The study, therefore, concluded that not all organizations implemented the Covid-19 protocols, and the implemented protocols had both positive and negative impacts on operations performance of organizations. The study recommended that organizations be sensitized on the importance of adhering to all health protocols in future to prevent the spread of pandemics. Additionally, more research needs to be done to find out why some organizations never implemented some of the protocols. The study also recommended that organizations allow their staff to choose the roles they would be comfortable taking in the fight against future pandemics so that they perform their best