International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

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Gears of Job Satisfaction among Star Hotel Employees

Kiruthiga.V1, Dr.R.Magesh2
  1. Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Anna University, Chennai, India
  2. Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, Anna University, Chennai, India
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Abstract

The attitudes and behaviours of the employees are crucial in the hotel industry as it directly impact the customers. In this regard, employees are primarily responsible for providing a sustainable competitive advantage for the hotels. In the hotel industry employees experience many problems which force them to leave their jobs. The researcher aims in identifying which of the Herzberg's motivation-hygiene factors is valued more by the employees of star category hotels. A total of 100 employees were surveyed on their level of satisfaction with the hygiene and motivating factors. From the analysis it can be concluded that employee recognition, growth opportunity and work itself result in ultimate job satisfaction among the employees and they emphasize a greater value on these variables.

Keywords
Hotels, job satisfaction, Herzberg, recognition, growth opportunities, work itself.

INTRODUCTION
The important and critical managerial problem faced by the employers all over the world is to maintain job satisfaction among their employees. The hotel industry fortune is directly tied with the fortune of tourism and the general business climate in the country. This is the reason behind the economic liberalization initiatives that was implemented since 1991 and it led to a soaring demand and supply gap in the hotel industry. Hotel Industry in India has witnessed tremendous boom in recent years. The arrival of low cost airlines and the associated price wars have given domestic tourists a host of options. The 'Incredible India' destination campaign and the Atithi Devo Bhavah' (ADB) campaign have also helped in the growth of domestic and international tourism and consequently the hotel industry. Employees in hotels play a significant role because they are important to the development of the hotel. Therefore, success in the hotels depends on managing and retaining employees. In Today‟s world of competitive development, the hotel industry should try to increase the job satisfaction among the employees by motivating them and at the same time they should aim in developing their business (Aksu, 2000). The most important source for the success of the hotel business is their valuable employees. The efficient and effective performance of an employee is the building block for the success of hotel business.
The employees face highest stress levels when personally dealing with guests. The hotels should make the employees aware of the short and long-term development needs that support the hotels‟ objectives and the employee‟s career goals. The hotel‟s prestige and philosophy acts an emotional reason for the employees to quit their jobs. The employees leave their jobs due to the lack of substantial benefits such as health insurance, retirement benefits, vacation pay, sick leave, additional training programs and other fringe benefits which are so often perks of other industries. Employee Job satisfaction refers to the contentment of the employees with their work. It means fulfilment of their desires and needs at work. Some factors that in-build job satisfaction among employees are compensation, workload, perceptions of management, flexibility, teamwork, resources, etc. Employee job satisfaction is also used to describe the employees‟ happiness, contented, fulfilling their desires and needs at work. Hotels that provide higher salaries, strong reputation, and benefit-in-kind can easily retain their employees because the employees become satisfied with their job. Job satisfaction among the employees arises among one who enjoys the position and feel rewarded for the successful efforts. Job satisfaction is a factor that motivates employees, helps in employee goal achievement, and boosts employee morale in the workplace. A mediocre employee would like to stay in the organization if the employee is satisfied with the workplace environment. Moreover, the longer an employee works for a company, the more valuable they are becoming, especially in the service industry. There should be a friendly atmosphere with a positive image. The employees should be duly recognised for their performance.
The current paper analyses job satisfaction of star category hotel employees, as an outcome variable, as it is the one which the hotel employers seek to influence through management practices and supervisory behaviours. The analysis is in line with the theory of motivation and job satisfaction by Herzberg et al. (1959). There are empirical studies that analysed job satisfaction in different ways using different theories. Herzberg et al. model is very influential as it includes the current management guidelines. Based on a review, Herzberg et al. conducted a study on the work attitudes to test the assumption that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are not two extremes of a continuum but are caused by different underlying job factors and they cannot substitute for each other for practical purposes.
According to Herzberg et al. there are five factors that act as strong determinants of job satisfaction and it includes achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, and advancement. But these factors alone are not responsible for the dissatisfaction of the employees in their job. Another cluster of factors describes the situation, the context or the environment, in which the job is done. These factors can prevent or cause dissatisfaction, but not satisfaction. Herzberg et al. term these factors „hygiene factors‟ or „dissatisfiers‟. Significant hygiene factors in the original study included company policy and administration, supervision-technical, salary, interpersonal relations, supervision, and working conditions. (Herzberg, 1966).

RESEARCH GAP
In this study, Herzberg‟s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation was used as a tool to investigate motivation and job satisfaction among the star category hotel employees. Several research studies have assessed the validity of Herzberg‟s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation and its relationship to job satisfaction. However, hospitality and tourism research lack studies that attempted to systemically investigate the relationship of Herzberg‟s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation with job satisfaction.

LITERATURE REVIEW
When the employees work effectively and perform well, it indicates that they are satisfied with their job (Toker, 2007). This implies the growth of hotel business depends upon the job satisfaction of the employees. Although employees do want to be paid fairly for their job, money is not be said to be the solely effective way to motivate individual. Employees need more than the monetary reward to be motivated, a reasonable amount of social interaction on the job is required. ( Hertzberg review 2008,112-113.)
Albanese described job satisfaction as an attitude. It is both a general attitude that a person has towards his overall job and a set of specific attitude that a worker has towards his overall job and a set of specific attitude that a worker has towards a particular component of a job such as pay or working conditions (Albanese 2001, 27). Locke (1999) describes job satisfaction as the overall feeling of contentment. This has risen from the worker as a response to the total job satisfaction. He pointed that job satisfaction is hard to describe and visualise. Jenner (1994) in his research proved that employee‟s job satisfaction or morale can be increased to eliminate absenteeism, reduce turnover, and ultimately raising productivity.
Job satisfaction is the general attitude of the employee towards the job and it includes five components: attitude toward work group, general working conditions, attitude towards the organisation, monetary benefit and attitude towards supervision and it is connected with the employee mindset regarding the work itself (Fajana 2002). In fact, employee job satisfaction is directly linked with customer satisfaction. Higher customer satisfaction could be generated by increasing job satisfaction among service personnel (Rogers, Clow, & Kash, 1994). According to Solnet (2007), one of the measure of job satisfaction is the identification of the employees with their companies as it helps in determining employee attitudes and their subsequent behaviour. It has a significant correlation with customer satisfaction. In the foodservice industry, job satisfaction is very important because it is the best way to ensure the quality of customer service. Opportunities for bonus as an incentive is another good way to increase job satisfaction (Walkup, 2002)..

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data was collected from 100 employees working in the star category hotels. The employees were selected using simple random sampling. A questionnaire was designed on two parts. Part 1 focus on the hygiene factors as the absence of these factors will cause dissatisfaction among the employees. Part 2 focus on the motivators which result in satisfaction among the employees. A survey was also done on the overall satisfaction of the employees.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
From Table I, it is inferred from 100 employees, 34 per cent of the star category hotel employees are dissatisfied, 23 per cent of the star category hotel employees are highly dissatisfied and 5 per cent of the star category hotel employees are neutral in their relationship with their supervisor. 18 per cent of the employees are satisfied and 20 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied in their relationship with their supervisor. Out of 100 employees, 48 per cent of the employees are satisfied and 16 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied with their relationship with their coworkers. 10 per cent of the employees are neutral in their relationship with their co-workers, 20 per cent of the employees are dissatisfied and 6.80 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied with their relationship with their co-workers.
TABLE I ATTITUDES RELATED TO HYGIENE FACTORS
It is observed that 45 per cent of the employees in the star category hotels are satisfied, 18 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied and 10 per cent of the employees are neutral in the satisfaction levels for their relationship with their subordinates. 12 per cent of the employees are dissatisfied and 15 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied with their relationship with their subordinates.
It can be concluded from the results that 29 per cent of the employees are dissatisfied, 20 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied and 26 per cent of the employees are neutral in their satisfaction levels with the star category hotel policy. While 16 per cent of the employees are satisfied and 9 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied with the star category hotel policy. It can be inferred that 38 per cent of the employees are dissatisfied and 23 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied with the working condition in the hotel. 6 per cent of the employees are neutral toward their satisfaction with working condition, 14 per cent of the employees are satisfied and 19 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied with the working condition in the hotel. 34 per cent of the star category hotel employees disagree and 27 per cent of the employees strongly disagree regarding the satisfaction with the hotel‟s salary and service benefits. 8 per cent of the employees are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the salary, 15 per cent of the star category hotel employees agree and 16 per cent of the employees strongly agree to the satisfaction of the hotel‟s salary and service benefits.
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TABLE II ATTITUDES RELATED TO MOTIVATORS
From Table II, it can be indicated that 9 per cent of the star category hotel employees have a neutral satisfaction level for the career advancement opportunities provided by the hotel. 27 per cent of the employees are dissatisfied, 23 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied, 25 per cent of the employees are satisfied and 16 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied with the career advancement opportunities provided by the hotel. It is indicated that 48 per cent of the star category hotel employees are dissatisfied, 16 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied and 7 per cent of the employees have a neutral satisfaction level regarding the growth opportunities provided by the star category hotels. 17 per cent of the employees are satisfied with the growth opportunities provided by the star category hotels and 12 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied.
The results show that 44 per cent of the star category hotel employees are dissatisfied and 21 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied with the employee recognition by the management. 6 per cent of the star category hotel employees have a neutral satisfaction levels regarding the employee recognition by the management, 14 per cent of the employees are satisfied and 15 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied with the employee recognition by the management.
It is observed that 34 per cent of the star category hotel employees are dissatisfied, 15 per cent of the employees are highly dissatisfied and 26 per cent of the hotel employees have a neutral satisfaction level for the achievement in doing their work. And 22 per cent of the star category hotel employees are satisfied and 3 per cent of the employees are highly satisfied and they get a sense of achievement in doing their work. It is inferred from the analysis that out of 100 star category hotel employees 37 per cent of the employees dissatisfied and 23 per cent of the employees highly dissatisfied with the work provided by the star category hotels. While 7 per cent of the employees are neutral with their satisfaction levels, 16 per cent of the employees are satisfied and 17 per cent of the star category hotel employees are highly satisfied with the work provided by the star category hotels

SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION
TABLE III infers that 57 per cent of the employees have low satisfaction level with the job. This means that majority of the employees are not satisfied with their current job. From the discussion it can be revealed that the absence of the following three factors will cause dissatisfaction among the employees. Among them hotel‟s salary and service benefits play a critical role in dissatisfying the employees, followed by, working condition provided by the hotels for the employees and relationship with the supervisors.
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TABLE III: OVERALL JOB SATISFACTION
In accordance with the satisfiers/motivators growth opportunity plays a lead role in satisfying the employees, recognition of the employee is also playing an equally important role and work characteristics help in satisfying the employees. Hotels should aim in enriching the employee creativity levels, induce empowerment and ability should utilize the knowledge and abilities of the employees by removing the barriers that hinder the employees‟ growth. Such actions will help in inducing high level of satisfaction among the employees.

References
  1. [1] Aksu, A. A., “Hotel management affecting the success of external environmental factors”, Balıkesir University of Social Sciences InstituteJournal, Volume 3 (4), pp.269-281, 2000.

  2. [2] Albanese R., “Managing toward accountability”, USA. Irvin inc, 2004.

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  8. [8] Locke, E.A., “The Motivation Sequence, the Motivation Hub and the Motivation Core”, Organizational behaviour and human decision processes,50, 288 – 299, 1999.

  9. [9] Rogers, J. D., Clow, K. E., &Kash, T. J., “Increasing job satisfaction of service person”, The Journal of Service Marketing, 8, 14 – 26, 1994.

  10. [10] Solnet, D., “Employee- customer linkages: A social identification perspective in a Hotel industry context”, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 14(2), 132 – 140, 2007.

  11. [11] Toker, Boran., “The Effects of Demographic Factors on Job Satisfaction”, DoğuşÜniversitesiDergisi, 8(1), 92-107, 2007.

  12. [12] Walkup, C., “Panels agree satisfied employees will best serve customers”, Nation‟s Restaurant News, 36(42), 62, 2002.