In the Hospitality Industry Job Satisfaction Is Critical to Service Efficiency - Research Paper Example

The hospitality industry operates in an uncertain environment with great emphasis on responsiveness to needs and the provision of superior quality, customized goods and services. This requires an innovative and developmental approach to HRM which aims at providing employee flexibility, adaptability and commitment to the organization (Hoque, 1999). Job satisfaction is critical to service efficiency as a satisfied employee means a satisfied customer, according to Malhotra and Mukherjee (2004). These are difficult to achieve in the hospitality sector as it has a high rate of turnover of employees. Societal norms are changing where loyalty is no more considered an important criterion (Gustafson, 2002). Managers are faced with the challenge to retain current employees and position themselves in a way to attract talent. The situation is challenging because staff is unskilled and untrained. If the organization invests in their training, employees switch to better paying jobs and this translates into fresh recruitment and training costs. Without training, the employees do not find the work meaningful and hence results in poor job satisfaction and low organizational commitment. Job redesigning, better communication between the staff and the managers, a stable work environment, sense of belonging, recognition, flexible working hours, mentorship, groups tasks, shorter working hours and compensation programs can help to increase the level of job satisfaction and increase organizational commitment. Locke (1976) has defined job satisfaction as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experience (cited by Lee, 2000). Job satisfaction is directly related to motivation, role clarity and organizational commitment. Organizational commitment relates to attachment to the organization while job satisfaction is concerned with the task environment where the employee performs his duties. An extensive study conducted by Woods and Macaulay in 1989 to try and determine the reasons for high turnover in the hospitality industry revealed eight frequently cited reasons – quality of supervision, ineffective communication, working conditions, quality of co-workers, inability to ‘fit’ with the organizational culture, low pay and few benefits, lack of clear definition of responsibilities, no direction at work (cited by Gustafson). In the lodging industry pay was important apart from communications problems, lack of advancement in career, recognition and conflict with management. These have been explained by Lee who contends that job redesigning leads to job satisfaction by making jobs more interesting (Lee, 2000). When people find their work to be meaningful, they will find interest in doing the work and will like their jobs. Organizational commitment is a critical factor in understanding and explaining the work-related behavior of employees in organization. It is the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization. It moves beyond passive loyalty and the employee must have strong belief in the organization’s goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort for the organization, and a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization. Organizational stability has a high degree of correlation with low turnover. Employees are more likely to stay when there is a predictable work environment. At the same time, organizations with high level of inefficiency have a high level of turnover. Simultaneously, increased training promotes high level of job satisfaction and thus leading to retention. Firms that have strong communication systems enjoy lower staff turnover. Employees react favorably and stay longer in positions when they are involved in some level of decision making process. These imply that employees need a stable work environment and they want to be knowledgeable about issues that affect their work environment (Magner et al., 1996 cited by Gustafson). Club Managers’ Association of America (CMAA) formed in 1927 representing more than 3000 clubs is a professional association for private club members. A study was conducted by Gustafson by randomly selecting 500 managers from the database to determine the reasons for turnover. Random selection was used to avoid any bias in club size, location or type. Data relevant to the research question were gathered through a self-administered survey. The turnover rate was determined by dividing the number of people who had left the clubs’ employment in 1998 by the average number of employees. The study found that turnover was low in clubs where managers frequently filled in for the employees. This perhaps gave a sense of teamwork shared vision and common goals to pursue. The employee too felt needed and valued and hence less likely to leave. Gustafson further cites that employees in the hospitality industry desire organizational support and a sense of workplace community. When an employee feels that he contributes to the organization, he derives job satisfaction and immediately he feels committed to the organization as well. The second significant finding was that clubs that held sponsored social functions for employees experienced low turnover. Once again workplace community and managerial support were the likely reasons, contends Gustafson. Social functions are a form of incentive pay which fulfilled the need for recognition and hence social functions were attributed to low employee turnover. The third finding was that clubs that had internal promotions saw low turnover of staff. Lack of advancement opportunities has been linked to high turnover and an employee is more likely to stay longer if he finds there is career potential. The culture in the hospitality sector differs from the regular retail jobs. Here people cannot expect to stick to nine-to-five job five days a week. Work here is customer-focused, service-oriented, and specialized. It usually calls for shift work or unsocial hours of work. To move up the ladder staff has to be flexible and adapt to the ever-changing culture of the industry. Within 5 to 7 years, it is possible for a trainee to reach the level of the General Manager of a hotel but it requires a lot of dedication and commitment. Getting dedication and commitment in the hospitality industry is not easy as payroll and incentives in this industry is not attractive. people cannot design their career based on these jobs and besides the demand in this industry is seasonal. Gustafson emphasizes that flexible timing could lead to reduced turnover. Although the hospitality industry is rife with shift duties and prolonged hours of work, and this fact is known to the employees when they join, nevertheless, over a period of time, the quality of life deteriorates. It was found that if employees are allowed to make their own schedules turnover could reduce. When managers fail to establish a team environment, sense of belonging and desirable organizational culture, it may cause employees to leave. Employees thrive in an environment that is predictable, communicative, and participatory where the organizational culture meets their personal needs. Especially in the low-skilled workforce, good relation with the supervisor is critical to keeping the staff motivated. The hospitality sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK. As far as the women workforce in this sector is concerned, the challenges are even greater. This is because women change jobs twice as often as men, which is a reason for concern and warrants research. There are three types of transitions impacting working women at their work places – career-focused transitions, life-cycle induced transitions and workplace or market-induced transitions (Womenomics, 2006). They even switch jobs between sectors and prefer a job where they can make a difference. They prefer jobs which offer facility for skill development to increase their employability. Compensation, opportunities for better pay and excessive work (not uncommon in the hospitality industry) has also been linked to poor job satisfaction and low organizational commitment. Conflict with supervisor is a major source of turnover in the industry. Studies suggest that when women do get access to functional roles in their current employment, they either stall in their career advancement or move to other employers. Thus in the hospitality industry mentoring should lower the turnover itself as it fosters a sense of loyalty that other training methods cannot achieve, feels Lavra (cited by Gustafson). To attain high level of customer satisfaction, companies invest in simulated training but the high rate of turnover of staff raises concern for the organization (Malhotra & Mukherjee, 2004). High staff turnover increase the training and recruitment costs over and over again. Job satisfaction has also been studied in conjunction with performance. Employees who are not suited to their job will not be able to deliver quality service but job satisfaction is more critical in delivering satisfactory service. Allen and Meyer identify that an employee’s commitment to the organization can either be affective, normative or continuance commitment (cited by Malhotra & Mukherjee, 2004). An employee can either have an emotional attachment with the company or feel obliged to carry on working or is concerned with the costs involved if he leaves the company (Malhotra & Mukherjee, 2004). Each of these commitments will have a different outcome and affect the job performance and behaviour of the employee. Committed employees deliver better than non-committed employees. Research evidences that only affective commitment induces employees to support organizational goals and attains job satisfaction. This makes it important that organizations strive to make the employees feel committed to the organization through different programs. Job satisfaction is also related to role clarity. It relates to the kind of work they do and the nature of their job. Employees who are clear about what is expected of them are more satisfied with their jobs than those who are not clear as to how and what they should perform (Mukherjee & Malhotra, 2006). Research has demonstrated that clarity in role is needed to handle various types of calls and deliver quality service. The fast food industry is based on the Taylorist principles of mass production where the work is routinised, dull and standardized. It is low skilled, low paid and offers few career opportunities. Even though work in the fast food industry is considered a low-profile job, workers at McDonalds feel they develop general work competencies and maturation skills like reliability, strong work ethic, responsibility, concentration, punctuality and diligence (Allan, Bamber, Timo, 2006). Working in the areas like fast food promotes team working and reinforces the identification of the workers to the organization with one another. This practice of moving workers around jobs and tasks as per needs is known as functional flexibility (Dyer, 1998). This allows for movement and redefinition of working time. Since McDonalds offered low wages, they could move workers around jobs and functions but this benefits the organization and is in no way employee-centered. Flexibility for workers improved working conditions due to varied and interesting jobs. Thus, despite the low pay, due to the training the company provided, the employees remain committed. Buick and Thomas (2001) cite Cherniss who suggests that prolonged job stress is higher in the service industries where the job involves high degree of interaction with clients. High-burnouts also result in absenteeism and high turnover of staff. The middle managers in hotels are the most stressed as they have to attend to paper work, supervise, praise and reprimand employees and attend to customers. Switching from one role to another creates stress. An annual staff turnover of 27% in 1996 resulted in a loss of £430 million to hospitality providers in UK. Surveys showed that single managers are more stressed due to lack of family support. To combat this problem, more number of people are being employed, while stress is also being laid on training and development of the staff. Compensation programs, employee relations and group tasking are some of the other methods that this sector is using to reduce the stress level amongst the middle managers although monetary remuneration is an area of dissatisfaction. This leads to job withdrawal. Shorter working hours, more flexible working options and more support and assistance may ultimately cost the hotel much less than the cost of high turnover of staff. Thus it can be seen that in the hospitality industry, job satisfaction is very high due to various reasons. Because of the unstable nature of jobs, there is low organizational commitment. The solution to challenges and contradiction in the industry lies primarily in investment in training and then adopting retention strategies. It has been found that training can result in higher involvement and commitment to work, better job satisfaction and consequently retention. Situations differ across organizations within the hospitality industry and most come here to fill in a gap. This has to be avoided and when the employees are assured of a stable job with variable working schedules, when they are offered the recognition when due, if the skills are matched to the job assigned, when they are made to feel a part of the organization, the job satisfaction is bound to increases. When they feel happy the commitment or the attachment to the organization automatically comes. References: Allan, C., Bamber, G. J., & Timo, N., (2006), Fast-food work: are McJobs satisfying? Employee Relations Vol. 28 No. 5, 2006 pp. 402-420 Buick, I. & Thomas, M. (2001), Why do middle managers in hotels burn-out? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Vol. 13 No. 6, 2001 pp. 304-309 Dyer, S., (1998), Flexibility models: a critical analysis, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 19 No. 4, 1998, pp. 223-233 Gustafson, C. M., (2002), Employee turnover: a study of private clubs in the USA, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality, 14/3 [2002] pp. 106-113 Hoque, K., (1999), Human Resource Management and performance in the UK Hotel Industry, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 37/3 419-443 Lee, H., (2000), An Empirical Study of Organizational Justice as a Mediator of the Relationships among Leader-Member Exchange and Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intentions in the Lodging Industry, 15 Feb 2008 Malhotra, N. & Mukherjee, A. (2004), The relative influence of organisational commitment and job satisfaction on service quality of customer contact employees in banking call centres, Journal of Services Marketing Volume 18 Number 3 • 2004 • pp. 162-174 Mukherjee, A. & Malhotra, N. (2006), Does role clarity explain employee-perceived service quality? International Journal of Service Industry Management Vol. 17 No. 5, 2006 pp. 444-473 Womenomics (2006), Discussion Guide, 15 Feb 2007 Read More