University of Queensland lecturer Dr Jie Wang has received international recognition for her research on crisis planning in the Australian accommodation industry.
Dr Wang, from the School of Tourism, won the 2012 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in the field of hospitality management, one of 12 subject categories.
School of Tourism Research Director Associate Professor Brent Ritchie said this was the second year in a row that a UQ School of Tourism graduate had won the international award.
“This indicates the high quality of our doctoral students and their research,” he said.
Dr Wang’s research explores the current level and nature of proactive crisis planning in the Australian accommodation industry, and incorporates theories of strategic management, crisis management, organisational behaviour and social psychology.
“The study identifies factors that influence crisis planning behaviour in this industry, including individual psychological factors, organisational factors, and environmental contextual factors,” Dr Wang said.
“Attitude, social pressure, and past crisis experience were identified as the key individual psychological factors that influence crisis planning behaviour.
“These findings suggest that managers and industry associations should articulate the advantages of crisis planning andprovide resources, tool kits, and workshops to support attitude change and boost reference group support.”
Other factors found to influence crisis planning included accommodation category, star grading type, organisation size and age.
The study indicates that crisis planning should be treated as a part of the organisation’s overall strategy.
“Smaller organisations can learn about crisis planning activities to improve their crisis preparedness; and industry associations and government stakeholders have a potential role as mentors for identifying benchmarks for crisis planning and developing appropriate policies to advocate strategic crisis planning,” Dr Wang said.
Dr Wang hopes the research will provide valuable guidance for both researchers and practitionersfor identifyingthe mechanisms to improve the crisis preparedness of organisations.
The internationally competitive awards were sponsored by a selection of Emerald journals and included a cash prize, a certificate, and the prospect of publication in the subject category's sponsoring journal. More information can be found here.
Media: Claire Shuter, (07) 3346 9259 or c.shuter@uq.edu.au
