Internal Control Measures and Cost Reduction in Housekeeping Departments of 3-5 Star Hotels in Nairobi City County Kenya
Abstract
Internal control system is one of the fundamental issues from a global perspective. The growth of the global economy and many small and medium sized enterprises that are coming up in this century has led to the challenges in the management of resources and hence the need for the internal control systems. Internal control measures are generated to ensure that the assets and resources of the organization are safe guarded. They also assist in detecting against possible frauds that might occur in the organization. Various cost reduction mechanism have been adopted by many hotels in the various departments. However, many hotels have had difficulties in controlling costs which in the long run has always escalated the cost of expenses. Additionally, limited studies have been done on cost reduction measures in the housekeeping department of hotels.The study therefore sought to find out the internal control mechanisms adopted and their influence on costs in the housekeeping department on the various hotels that formed part of the study.The specific objectives for the study were to establish the types of internal control measures instituted in hotels that formed part of the study, to determine whether an internal monitoring and review system that can detect internal control weakness existed in the hotels that formed part of the study and lastly to determine whether the hotels in Nairobi often conduct risk assessment processes to avert any problems of internal control. The study was conducted in Nairobi County whereby the hotels that formed part of the study were selected through a census from the population. The study adopted descriptive survey design with both quantitative and qualitative research approaches for data collection and analysis. Quantitative data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential analysis. The target population was 1380 middle and senior level staff in all the forty-eight (48) classified hotels comprising of 3-5-star hotels in Nairobi County.This population yielded a sample size of 300 respondents. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data. Validity and reliability of the research instruments was tested by conducting a pre- test of the study before embarking on the actual study. The quantitative data was regressed linearly to ascertain the relationship among the variables. Qualitative data was triangulated and analyzed based on the findings. The results revealed that there was a relationship between control environment and cost reduction was positive and statistically significant (r=.595, p<0.05). The relationship between control activities and cost reduction was positive and significant (r= 0.699, p<0.05), the relationship between monitoring system and cost reduction was positive and significant. (r= 0.690, p<0.05). There was a positive and significant correlation between Risk assessment and cost reduction (r =.679, p<0.05). The regression of the variables generated the R square value of 0.853 (R2 = 0.853) which indicated that the predictor variables explained 85.3% of the outcome variable a significant relationship among the variables. The study concluded there is a correlation between internal control measures and cost control yielding a strong positive relationship between the above mentioned variables. The study recommended that hotels in Nairobi County should endeavor to build capacity in getting good internal control measures to ensure that their cost reduction is not compromised.
Keywords: Housekeeping control environment, housekeeping control activities, housekeeping monitoring system, housekeeping risk assessment, internal control measures, cost reduction, 3-5 star hotels, Nairobi City County, Kenya
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