INTRODUCTION
Research background
Tourism industry plays a significant role in Vietnamese economic structure
According to Grant Thornton Vietnam, in 2012 tourism market has welcomed more than six million foreign travellers, which increases 19.1% compared with last year data That result has contributed to general development of hotel industry This field had been attracting nearly 11 billion USD with 247 projects up to 2009; ranked the
3 rd after industrial processing, manufacturing and real estate The more development in hotel industry, the more demand of labor force in this field But hotel industry is a kind of service industry, whose products created from human’s contact, owned unique characteristics Seasonableness is a stand out characteristic, which influences to labor force in this field In the peak period, hotels need a large amount of labor force, working with high productivity But in low season, they keep a few permanent employees The consequence is an unstable labor force, demotivated part-time employees and negative influence to performance of permanent staff
Customer target in hotel is tourists, who come from different countries, which owned different cultures, hobbits, customs, etc Servers, who directly contact with customers, need to understand their requirements in order to assure quality service
The consequence is the stressful job toward servers In addition, employees in hotel are required to work in high specialization, under high pressure of discipline, together with sensibility, accuracy and consistency
For those above characteristics, labor force in hotel is likely to leave when they are under high pressure and demotivated from management team High staff turnover is a common and costly problem in hotel industry Reasons include such as low pay, antisocial working hours, menial work and limited career opportunities (Xander Lub et al 2012, cited in Barron, 2008; Davidson et al., 2011; Kusluvan and Kusluvan,
2000; Walsh and Taylor, 2007) An organization will be forced to invest million dollars in recruiting, orientating, training, etc if they own an unstable workforce
Without continuity in customer relationship, organization does not have customer loyalty, stressful management, conflict happens easily and low efficiency Those make difficult for company to compete on marketplace Hence, constructing a good policy to motivate and retain good performance employees, who can create unique experiences and relationships with customers, is an important mission A stable workforce is a significant competitive advantage “Customer relationships are stronger when an organization’s workforce is stable and customers can depend on the company people – the continuity of their product knowledge, industry experience and proven performance.” (Kreisman, 2002)
There have many researches, conducted in many countries, found out factors affecting to employees’ motivation in hotel industry in general With a speed-up in developing hotels, needs of recruiting new employees and retain good performance ones, studying about motivation in hotel in Vietnam is necessary in order to improve competitive advantage in market This study raises research objectives about creating motivation in hotel industry.
Research questions
1.What factors affecting to employees’ motivation in hotel industry in Ho Chi Minh City?
2 How does each factor affect to employee’s motivation?
Research objectives
The goal of this research are as below
- To determine factors affecting employees’ motivation in hotel industry in Ho Chi Minh city
- To evaluate how each factor affects to working motivation
- To determine the impact of personal characteristics such as: gender, age, education level, experience, contract type and hotel standards to employee motivation.
Scope of this study
This research will be conducted in hotel businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, included 4 or 5-star hotels and other under 4-star hotels The interviewees will be employees who working in variety departments such as: food and beverage, front office, finance, human resource, etc.
Research contribution
This research has contributed to measurement system of working motivation level in hotel industry In reality, this research will help Managers who working in hotel industry in decision making in human resource management, creating appropriate decisions in managing, in order to increase productivities and employees’ motivation level Otherwise, the result of this research has contributed to human resources management researches in overall and in hotel industry.
Research structure
This study includes four chapters after chapter 1 Introduction, as below:
Chapter 2 – Literature review : this chapter includes Definition of motivation, theories of motivation, previous researches in hospitality industry and identifying significant motivational factors in this paper
Chapter 3 – Research method: this chapter consists research process, measurement scale, the pilot test and the main research which was conducted
Chapter 4 – Data analysis: this chapter describes how each measurement scale was evaluated and the result of testing hypothesis It consists of sample description, measurement scale data analysis, regression analysis and evaluating the impact of personal characteristic on employee motivation
Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendation: this chapter presents brief description about research findings and some of implications has mentioned At the end, research limitation and recommendations for future research have presented as well.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of Motivation
Motivation is defined as “a process that starts with a physiological deficiency or need that activates a behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal incentive” (Luthans,
1998) According to Spector (2003), motivation is “an internal state that induces a person to engage in particular behaviors” Pinder (1998) describes work motivation as the set of internal and external forces that initiate work-related behavior, and determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration The definition recognizes the influence of both environment forces (e.g organizational reward systems, the nature of the work being performed) and forces inherent in the person (e.g individual needs and motives) on work-related behavior
In generally, most of definitions of motivation are related to unsatisfied needs of employees, under influences of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, forces employees to engage to a particular behavior in order to reach their goals and satisfy their needs
The psychology of motivation is tremendously complex (Herzberg, 1987) Theories about motivation were developed and became popularly in practice as below.
Motivation theories
Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A theory of Human Motivation” Maslow believed that at least five sets of goals which can be referred to as basic needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualization (Exhibit 2.1) The implication from this theory is useful for managers and organization leaders For example, there has a advice for managers is finding ways of motivating employees by devising programs or practices aimed at satisfying emerging or unmet needs Another way is implementing support programs and focus groups to help employees deal with stress, especially during more challenging time
In the publication “The Achieving Society” in 1961, McClelland described the theory of needs focusing on three needs: achievement, power and affiliation The need for achievement was defined as the drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive to succeed The need of power was defined as the need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved otherwise The need for affiliation was defined as the desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships McClelland proposed that high achievers are more likely to be successful entrepreneurs The need of affiliation suggested that people have the desire to spend time in social relationships, join group, and wanting to be loved The need of power reflects an individual’s desire to influence, coach, teach, or encourage others to achieve
The Two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory and Dual-Factor Theory) states that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction It was developed by Frederick Herzberg, a psychologist, who theorized that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction act independently of each other (Herzberg, 1959) Two-factor theory distinguishes between:
- Motivators (satisfaction): five factors stood out as strong determiners of job satisfaction:
- Hygiene factors (dissatisfaction): the determinants of job dissatisfaction were found to be:
According to Herzberg, the factors leading to Job Satisfaction are separate and distinct from those that lead to Job Dissatisfaction Conditions surrounding the job such as quality of supervision, pay, company policies, physical working conditions relations with other and job security were characterized by Herzberg as hygiene factors, when adapted, people will not be dissatisfied; neither will they be satisfied
If organization wants to motivate people on their jobs, Herzberg suggested emphasizing factors associated with work itself or to outcomes directly derived from it, such as promotional opportunities, personal growth, recognition, responsibility and achievement These are the characteristics that people find intrinsically rewarding (Exhibit 2.2.)
Clayton Alderfer reworked Maslow’s Need Hierarchy to align it more closely with empirical research Alderfer’s theory is aslo called ERG theory – Existence, Relatedness and Growth
Existence refers to our concern with basic material existence requirements; what Maslow called physiological and safety needs
Relatedness refers to the desire we have for maintaining interpersonal relationships; similar to Maslow’s social/love need, and the external component of his esteem need
Growth refers to an intrinsic desire for personal development; the intrinsic component of Maslow’s esteem need, and self-actualization
Alderfer’s ERG theory differs from Maslow’s Need Hierarchy as ERG theory demonstrates that more than one need may be operative at the same time ERG theory does not assume a rigid hierarchy where a lower need must be substantially satisfied before one can move on (Table 2.1)
The equity theory of motivation assumes that individual is strongly motivated to maintain a balance between what they perceive as their inputs and their rewards (Exhibit 2.3) Adams (1965) suggested that individual expectations about equity or fair correlation between inputs and outputs are learned during the process of socialization and through the comparison with inputs and outcomes of others The consequence of employee who perceiving they are not being treated fairly, create a variety of options for the employees (Champagne, 1989) The options include reducing their inputs through directly restricting work outputs, or increasing their outputs in order to seeking salary increases or seeking a more enjoyable task The employee could withdraw from the situation, quit the job and seek another employer
Expectancy Theory proposes that a person will decide to behave or act in a certain way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over other behaviors due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be (Oliver, R.,1974) Victor H Vroom (1964) defines motivation as a process governing choices among alternative forms of voluntary activities, a process controlled by the individual (Exhibit 2.4) The individual makes choices based on estimates of how well the expected results of a given behavior are going to match up with or eventually lead to the desired results There are three mental components that are seen as instigating and directing behavior: Valence, Instrumentality and Expectancy
Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by Douglas McGregor in the 1960s They describe two contrasting models of workforce motivation
- Theory X workers could be described as follows:
Individuals who dislike working and avoid it where possible
Individuals, who lack ambition, dislike responsibility and prefer to be led
The management implications for theory X workers were that, to achieve organizational objectives, a business would need to impose a management system of coercion, control and punishment
- Theory Y workers were characterized by McGregor as:
Consider effort at work as just like rest or play
Ordinary people who do not dislike work Depending on the working conditions, work could be considered a source of satisfaction or punishment
The management implications for theory X workers are that, to achieve organizational objectives, rewards of varying kinds are likely to be the most popular motivator The challenge for management with theory Y workers is to create a working environment (or culture) where workers can show and develop their ability (Exhibit 2.5)
Edwin Locke (1968) stated that employees were motivated by clear goals and appropriate feedback In 1990, Locke and Gary Latham, who studied the effect of goal setting in the workplace, published their seminal work, “A theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance” To motivate, goals must have five principles as below:
Five characteristics of Goal Setting theory is illustrated through SMART acronym, which is applied widely in most of organizations The Clarify of the goal is ensured by making it Specific, Measureable and Time-bound The Challenge associates with Relevant, but must be Achievable firstly The Commitment to the goal can be set with A – Agreed and R – Realistic, instead of Achievable and Relevant Agree goals lead to commitment The Feedback can be provided through Measurable
The Job Characteristics Model (JCM) (Exhibit 2.6), as designed by Hackman and Oldham attempts to use job design to improve employee motivation the JSM proposes relationships between three classes of variables:
They have identified that any job can be described in terms of below key job characteristics:
- Skill Variety: a degree to which a job requires different skills and talents to complete a number of different activities
- Task Indentify: the dimension refers to the completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work versus a partial task as part of larger piece of work
- Task Significance: is the impact of the task upon the lives or work of others
- Autonomy: is the degree of independence or freedom allowed to complete a job
- Task feedback: individually obtaining direct and clear feedback about the effectiveness of the individual carrying out the work activities
- Dealing with others: the extent to which the job involves working closely with other people
There are some strategies in job design in order to increase work motivation, such as: Job enlargement, Job enrichment, Job rotation, work at home or flexible working hours, etc
Theorical researches of motivation determined factors with variety approaches But in practice, employers usually use terms of monetary and non-monetary factors as an easy tool to motivare their employees.
Previous researches about motivation in hospitality industry and identifying
The above motivation theories were studied, applied in afterwards researches, in order to determine which factor affecting to employee’s motivation in each specific circumstance According to studies, papers conducted in general and hotel sector, which were reviewed in this research, there are four motivational factors which are repeated many times Based on these factors, hypotheses will be built in order to verify and evaluate their affecting to employee motivation in Ho Chi Minh city context
Table 2.2 Summary of factors affecting to employees’ motivation in hotel industry
1 Management Barbara J Kreiman (2002); Buckingham and Coffman
(1999); Charl Van Wyk (2011); Sunil Ramlall (2004)
2 Working conditions Barbara J Kreiman (2002); Buckingham and Coffman
(1999); Charl Van Wyk (2011); Anastasios Zopiatis and Panikkos Constanti (2007); Boondarig Ronra and Manat Chasisawat (2010); Darrn Lee-Ross (1998); Terry Lam et al (2001)
3 Recognition Buckingham and Coffman (1999); Anastasios Zopiatis and
Panikkos Constanti (2007); Elisa Moncarz et al (2009)
4 Development Buckingham and Coffman (1999); Charl Van Wyk (2011);
Elisa Moncarz et al (2009); Sunil Ramlall (2004)
Barbara J Kreiman (2002) in her paper about employee motivation, commitment and retention has sorted factors which make employee motivational behavior into two groups The first one which belongs to individual concept are: needs, value and beliefs, knowledge and skills, motivation and their interpersonal style The second one which belongs to job context are management/ leadership, rewards, organizational environment, tools and equipment, atmosphere According to her, these factors are combined to Motivational behavior, which will lead to organization’s commitment In this paper, she specially emphasized role of manager’s control, which drive employee satisfaction and commitment Manager’s control includes “providing recognition and feedback, the opportunity to learn and grow, fair compensation reflecting an employee’s contributions and value to the organization, providing a good work environment, and above all, recognition and respect for the uniqueness of each person’s competencies, needs, desires and style.”
Buckingham and Coffman (1999) points manager’s role in employee’s commitment, that is they must have good communicate skills, providing positive feedback in order to develop their staff’s strengths and overcome weaknesses There are many reasons for employee resigning cited in studies of Buckingham and Coffman (1999); Kaye and Jordan-Evans (1999); Kreisman (2002); Herman (1999), and the most popular reason was given is bad relationship between manager and employee Hence, managers and their management ways play a signification and important role in motivation employee and builds organization commitment
According to Adam’s equity theory, Hellriegel and Slocum (2007) and Coetsee
(2003) provide some managerial approaches: first, managers should treat their staff fairly; second, encourage honest and transparent communicate about employee’s inputs and outputs in order to avoid dissatisfaction Manager’s role in Adam’s equity theory plays an important role because of its moderator position from individual effort to individual goals through recognition If employee’s effort is not recognized by manager, their new goal may be to decrease effort or quit the job
Locke and Latham’s goal-setting theory emphasized important role of manager in setting goal in order to motivate their employee Borkowski (2009) points that although goal-setting is a simple concept but it requires careful planning and monitoring by managers Positive feedback and coaching in approximate time is necessary to motivate employee working toward a specific goal
From above literatures, management was supposed to affect to employee’s motivation So, the first hypothesis is:
H1: Management positively affects to employees’ motivation
Working conditions is considered as a motivational factors, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs It is necessary condition in supporting employees work better and more effective In Herzberg theory, working conditions has more characteristics of a hygiene factor than a motivational factor However, there are many studies which conducted in hotel area, supposed that working conditions is a motivational factors Hence, in this paper, it is still considered whether a motivation factor or not
Darren Lee-Ross (1998) cited from Byrne (1986), argues that motivation is linked to working conditions “There are many models assume that if employees enjoy their working conditions, they become motivated and are less likely to quit their jobs” (DeMicco and Reid, 1988; Vroom and Deci, 1970) In the paper of Darren Lee-Ross, in order to improve working conditions in hotel industry, the Job Diagnostic Survey, based on motivation theory of Hackman and Oldham (1980) Job Characteristics Model, was conducted and recommended in practice Using simple Job Diagnostic Survey with 21-question version instead of the initial 87-question version, managers can construct job profiles for each department If any Core Job Dimension receiving low score, the practical action taken The formula for motivation potential score (MPS) is given to compare with existing industrial norms and organization norms This applied survey will help managers find out their managing “weakness”, in term of working conditions, and action taken to overcome
Terry Lam et al (2001) in his study of managerial job satisfaction in Hong Kong’s Chinese restaurants has pointed that work environment and job itself are two factors in predicting overall job satisfaction Working environment is place of harmonious working relationships between colleagues, unambiguous human resource policies, and opportunities for employee development exist (Terry Lam et al, 2001) High degree of autonomy of line employees or assistant managers is encouraged in this paper They should be given more power to make their own decision in restaurant operations, dealing with customers or other colleagues, be encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things to meet customer’s needs
Kadasamy and Ancheri (2009) cited in Yu (1999) “it is a challenge for the management to motivate employees to stay on the job, by ensuring measures at enhancing the working condition to counter turnover” Their study about quality of work –life (QWL) in hotel sector and they identified eight dimensions of QWL: job characteristics, person-job fit, company image, HR policies, physical working conditions, work-life balance, work group relationship and dealing with customers
Goal-setting is a part of job content When goals are set for employees that need to be completed with appreciate timeline, its role is shaping and reinforcing the effort of employees He or she will work toward a specific goal and continuously direct his or her efforts to achieve the goal (Nel et al, 2004) So goal-setting is supposed to increase motivation (Daft and Marcic, 2009)
From above studies which were conducted before, the second hypothesis in this study as follow:
H2: Working conditions positively affect to employee’s motivation
There are many researches about effecting of reward and recognition to employee’s motivation The recognition and respect is considered as “esteem needs” in hierarchy of Maslow’s need theory That is the thing employee would like to receive from organization for their efforts According to Hertzberg (1987), recognition is one of five dimensions of strong satisfaction, which lead to motivation, and it belongs to extrinsic motivation Achievement, recognition together the job itself, responsibility and feedback are all motivators in study of Nel at al (2004) These kind of extrinsic reward can include financial or non-financial rewards, such as: period bonus, increase salary, on the spot rewards, be praised in meeting for their performance formally or informally, etc An important point are made by Kreitner & Kinicki (2008) about inequity recognition If employees recognizes that their effort was not equity appraised compare to others, it will demotivate them Buckingham and Coffman (1999) has point one of the reason why employee chose to left company is felling unappreciated, not value in their organization Recognitions from organization can be anything: financial rewards or training, developing, opportunities to promotion, etc
So, with its necessary of recognition in motivate employee, the third hypothesis is:
H3: Recognition positively affect to employee’s motivation
Opportunities to develop, improve skills and career is of the most important reason employees choose to stay or left an organization (Buckingham and Coffman, 1999)
So, it is very important in human resource practices of employees development
“Development is considered as gaining skills and taking advantage of many different methods of learning that benefit employees and organization alike”
(Simonsen, 1997) Development not only be promoted, but also be provided a challenge, new learning opportunities or new tasks which contribute on skills improvement or organization’s success, such as: training, cross-training, job advancement, provide variety of knowledge or skills, etc
The job should be designed for “enlarging” or “enriching” to account for deficiencies of skill variety, autonomy and agent feedback (Lee-Ross, 1998) In hotel sector’s practice, cross-training is encouraged for most of employees who ready to improve their skills and “know-how” knowledge Training is offered in most of hotels in order to remind operation standards, introduce new products or services skills This is a good investment to people when there are many evidence show that training activities are correlated with productivities and retention (Moncarz et al, 2009) Moncarz et al (2009) cited in Youndt et al (1996) point that human resource practices developing talent and team-oriented workers improve employee productivity and customer satisfaction Hotels should focus on training and developing for their exist employees instead of waste cost on hiring or orientation new employees, this would increase employee motivation, retention and job satisfaction (Rashid, 2010, cited in Paswan et al, 2005)
Hence, based on previous researches about affecting of development on employee motivation, the forth hypothesis is:
H4: Development positively affect to employee motivation.
Research model
According to above hypotheses, a research model was built as below:
The first Introduction chapter has presented basic Motivation theories, previous researches has studied in other to identify fours motivational factors which were used in this paper: Management, Working conditions, Recognition and Development In the end, the research model has built
RESEARCH METHOD
Research process
The research was conducted as the below chart
Measurement scale
Scale items of Management was adopted from Smith, et al (1996)
M1 I know what is expected of me
M2 Supervisor willing and able to help out
M3 Supervisor treats everyone equitably M4 Supervisor lets me know how I am doing
M5 Supervisor listens to my comments
M7 I receive ongoing feedback that helps me improve my performance
M8 I am received enough instructions to do job well
M9 I am received additional training when needed
Scale items of Working conditions based on Devadass (2011)
Table 3.2 Scale of Working Conditions
J1 I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right
J2 Progress and procedure allow me to effectively meet my customers’ needs
J3 I am offered a work-life balance environment for employees
J4 I am empowered to meet customers’ needs
J5 I am encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things
J6 My manager and I have discussed my individual goals for each year / semiannual
J7 My manager and I have identified ways I can develop in my career
J8 The goal setting for task in achievable
Recognition was measured base on Moncarz et al (2009)
R1 People are rewarded for meeting customer-quality assurance goals
R2 The compensation / benefit system that is communicated to employees
R3 People are rewarded/ recognized for meeting their goals/ objectives
R4 Work teams rewarded/ recognized for meeting their goals/ objectives
Scale of Development was measured base on Lub et al (2012)
L2 I am offered team-building training for employees
L3 I have opportunity to be cross – trained
L4 My company posts job openings so existing employees can apply
L5 My company supports promoting employees from within
Scale of Motivation was measured by below items
MOT1 Overall, management creates my working motivation MOT2 Overall, my working conditions creates my working motivation MOT3 Overall, recognition creates my working motivation
MOT4 Overall, development creates my working motivation MOT5 Overall, my hotel creates my working motivation
The qualitative pilot research
The pilot test was conducted through qualitative pilot study with group discussion technique The qualitative pilot survey was conducted in November 2012 by making an in-depth interview with ten employees who working in Park Hyatt Saigon It was used to check the content and meaning of words which were used in the measurement scale
The interviewees who joined in group discussion study understood the content and meaning of each statement of measurement scales The pilot study would help to create the main questionnaire that would be used in the main research.
Main research
The main research is conducted by qualitative method with 270 employees who working for hotel industry in Ho Chi Minh city through questionnaires The official questionnaires were made in English, then translated into Vietnamese for understanding clearly The measurement scale of indicators is five-point Likert scale, from 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree
Hair et al (1994) pointed out the minimum sample size is equal or larger 5 time of variables This study has 31 variables so the minimum sample size is: n= 31 x 5 155
The primary data will be collected through questionnaires which sent directly or via emails The secondary data sources from books, articles, newspaper, business magazines and websites
The satisfied questionnaires, after screening, were coded and input the raw data in SPSS version 16 Cronbach’s Alpha and Exploratory factor Analysis would evaluate the reliability and validity of measurement scales Then, the multiple regression would be conducted to evaluate correlation between dependent and independent variables
3.4.3.1 Reliability Cronbach’s Alpha is used to compute the internal consistency reliability for multiple item scales The Item-to-total Correlation Coefficients would be used to reject the unappreciated items Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.6 or greater is considered
After computing Cronbach’s Alpha, the Exploration Factor Analysis method would be applied to explore the relationship between the variables The KMO index was greater than 0.6 and Barlett’s test has signification which is smaller than 0.05 (p