Stakeholders’ Awareness of Quality and Quality Management Systems in Zimbabwean Hotels

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the stakeholder’s awareness of quality and quality management systems (QMS) in the Zimbabwe hotel industry. This study sought to investigate the stakeholder’s awareness of quality and quality management systems (QMS) in the Zimbabwe hotel industry by (1) establishing the definition of quality, (2) exposing dimension of service quality, (3) identifying how customer satisfaction is measured and (4) identifying quality management systems and quality philosophy used in hotels. Appreciation of quality and QMS in the hotel industry can assist stakeholders to employ holistic measures to improve adoption of quality management systems in hotels and improve the operations of the hotels. The study followed a multi case study approach, with 9 hotels from Harare chosen purposively to represent the hotel industry in Zimbabwe. Managers and key stakeholders were interviewed and focus group interviews were conducted. Key questions on quality definition, dimensions of service quality and customer satisfaction measurement were asked and the data was analysed using thematic analysis -directed content analysis. The results showed that stakeholder in the hotel industry are very much aware of QMS, though in abstract. There is greater awareness of quality and QMS among group chain hotels than in independent hotels. There is need to upgrade on quality training in the hotel industry from collaborative perspective so that the stakeholders appreciate quality and QMS fully so that the industry remains competitive.