Adoption of Kubler-Ross Grief Model to describe employee reaction to the human resource cost reduction strategies adopted by Tangerine Hotels to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic



Introduction

Tangerine Hotels (TH) is one of Sri Lanka’s oldest and best-known hotel operators. TH comprises of five Four Star hotels in Sri Lanka (TH, 2020). Employee cadre of TH is approximate 500 employees. TH offers a full range of facilities to its guests in Sri Lanka. The facilities include meeting and banquet facilities, bar and restaurant facilities, gymnasiums, spas, swimming pools, deluxe and luxury rooms, and hotel suites (TH, 2020).


Objective

In order to mitigate the massive impact to its financial health due low occupancy and revenue levels caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, TH introduced a recreation organizational change model. While this organizational change model has been successful in easing the financial burden on the company caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, no research has been conducted to determine employee reaction to these strategies. This study addresses this dearth of research.


Research Methodology

Research methodology in this study was a quantitative research strategy. In this research methodology, quantitative data was obtained from a structured self-administered questionnaire survey conducted with 100 employees of the company.


Findings

Findings from the analysis of survey data indicate low job satisfaction, motivation, and energy levels amongst TH employees. In order to describe the reasons for this low job satisfaction and motivation levels amongst TH employees, the Kubler-Ross Changer Curve Model aka 5 stages of grief model was adopted (Figure 1). As detailed in this figure, low employee satisfaction and motivation levels is due to employees going through the initial shock, frustration, denial, and depression stages in the grief model due to Covid-19 pandemic induced new normal. The initial stage experienced by TH employees was shock on the sudden changes to their day-to-day routines caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This stage was followed by the denial stage in which employees looked for evidence to reject the sudden changes to their day-to-day routines. The denial stage was followed by the frustration stage in which employee realized that the new normal caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is permanent and are angry and frustrated about it. TH employees are currently in the depression stage and are expressing typical symptoms of demotivation, job dissatisfaction, and low energy levels associated with this stage.


Figure 3.2: Kubler-Ross change curve


Source: Kubler-Ross (1969)

The good news for TH is that the depression stage indicates that employees have reached rock-bottom in the grieving process and are likely to exhibit improvements in motivation, job satisfaction, and energy levels from here onwards.\


Conclusion

Findings from the study indicate that TH employees are demotivated, dissatisfied, and have low energy levels due to massive changes to their day-to-day routines caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Further, application of the Kubler-Ross Grief Model to TH employee reaction to the Covid-19 induced changes to their day-to-day routine suggests that employees have reached the lowest point in the grief process and that this is likely to see an improvement in employee motivation, satisfaction, and energy levels in the short to medium term.


References

Kubler-Ross, E., (1969). Kubler-Ross Model of Change. [Online] Available at: <https://silverlobster.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/kubler-ross-change-curve-001.jpg> [Accessed 11 April 2021].

Tangerine Group of Hotels, (2020). Annual Report 2019/2020. [Online] Available at: https://www.cse.lk/home/company-info/TANG.N0000/financial







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