An empirical study to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practice of staff in a large United Kingdom hospitality business

Abstract

Using questionnaires, this study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of staff in a United Kingdom (UK) hospitality business. The aim of the research was to determine if a correlation existed between knowledge, attitudes and practices and NSF audit rating. Results were analysed using two methods. Firstly, Microsoft forms and its function of providing bar charts and pie charts. Data was exported to Excel then into SPSS. A Chi-squared test was run on multiple variables to determine correlation/association. On all Chi-squared test results the assumptions were violated, meaning that for 20%, the expected count was less than 5. The likelihood assumption was adopted instead of the Pearson method. Results from Microsoft forms data analysis showed that participants who had an extremely positive attitude towards being audited generally, also had good knowledge. Twenty percent of participants answered ‘extremely positive’ for the question: ‘How would your team describe being audited?’. All 20% answered the question: ‘When cooking foods, what temperature should the centre of the food be to ensure bacteria has been killed?’, correctly. Fifty seven percent of participants selected ‘Always’ for the question: ‘In your opinion how often are food safety and health and safety procedures followed by your team’. Seventy three percent answered with the most positive option of ‘extremely important’ for the question: ‘How important do you think food safety and health safety is to the company?’. It is worth noting that an observational method of data collection could potentially provide stronger data to analyse.