An Analysis of Job Satisfaction in the Hospitality Industry

This report delves into the crucial role of job satisfaction within the hospitality industry. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of employee satisfaction for organizational performance, especially in a service-oriented sector. The project objectives aim to explore the concept of job satisfaction, identify influencing factors, and recommend strategies for improvement. The scope of the report covers the benefits of job satisfaction, the factors impacting satisfaction levels, and strategies for employee retention. A literature review examines the concept of job satisfaction, its influencing factors like supervisors, training, and rewards. It also covers motivational theories such as Herzberg's two-factor theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and their application in the hospitality sector. The report identifies gaps in the existing literature, particularly regarding practical strategies for improving employee satisfaction and the impact of specific policies. The research employs a survey methodology, collecting data from employees and managers in selected hotels. The data will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to determine the importance of job satisfaction, the strategies used by companies, and the overall impact on the hospitality sector. The research also acknowledges limitations, such as the sample size and the ethical considerations of the participants.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD
Business Research Method
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Project Objective........................................................................................................................2
Project Scope..............................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................3
Literature Gaps and opportunities..............................................................................................5
Research Question......................................................................................................................6
Research Methodology...............................................................................................................6
Data Collection.......................................................................................................................7
Research analysis...................................................................................................................8
Research Limitations..............................................................................................................8
Time Schedule............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Job satisfaction play a major role for an organization mainly hospitality sector. This is
because employees play a major role in the hospitality sector as the main work that the sector
offers is through staff service. Thus, a unsatisfied employees will prove to be detrimental for
the sector. On the other hand, a satisfied and loyal employee will effectively contribute to the
development of the business (Zopiatis, Constanti and Theocharous 2014). The appraisal,
salary package, remuneration and other benefits are decided by the management of the
company for the employees. Thus, it is the duty of the management to set the strategies that
offers best facility and growth opportunity to the employees. This will motivate them to stay
in the business and serve the organization loyally. Moreover, it is seen that the longer an
employee’s serves the organization the better it is for the company because they will be loyal
to the company (Crawford et al. 2014). However, for this purpose it is necessary that the
company offer full job satisfaction to the employees. Unsatisfied employees will not give
their full effort in the work which will hamper the performance of the company as a whole.
Thus, there is a positive relationship between job satisfaction of the employee and
performance of the organization.
Project Objective
 To explore the meaning and concept of job satisfaction.
 To address the factors that lead to job satisfaction among employees in the hospitality
industry.
 To recommend the strategy to improve the job satisfaction among employees in the
hospitality industry.

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Project Scope
The paper aims to analyze the benefits of job satisfaction on the organization. It helps
to understand the factors that influence the satisfaction level among the employees in the
hospitality industry. As it is crucial for the hospitality industry to maintain a good amount of
staff for smooth flow of service, thus it is necessary for them to understand the factors that
would help them in satisfying their employees. In the competitive environment of it becomes
necessary for the industry to satisfy the employees and store them for better customer service
(AlBattat and Som 2013). The paper also offers a clear understanding about the strategies that
the industry can use in order to satisfy their workers and retain them for longer time. Thus,
the main motive of the paper is to offer entrepreneurs to understand the relation that job
satisfaction and organizational performance holds between them.
Literature Review
The literature starts with the concept of job satisfaction that has been put forward by
researching various past literatures. Job satisfaction is said to be the cognitive emotion that
employees hold for their job (Wang, Tsai and Tsai 2014). It is the benefit that they get from
fulfillment of expectation that they wanted from the job. Moreover, there are various factors
such a supervisors, tasks, training, rewards, remuneration and others that impacts the job
satisfaction level of an employee (Fu and Deshpande 2014). However, there has been certain
literature that stated the reason behind importance of job satisfaction among the hospitality
industry. It has been found that employees in the hospitality industry seek satisfaction from
the organization they work because they spend maximum of their time in the organization
(Zopiatis et al. 2014). It has been shown that there is a strong relationship existing between
the employee’s job satisfaction and the performance of the company because a satisfied
employee will automatically serve their best for the organization.

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Various theories have been used to show the role of motivation in providing job
satisfaction. First theory is provided by Herzberg two factor theories. Herzberg showed that
there are two factors that influence the job satisfaction such as motivation and hygiene (Shani
et al. 2014). Hygiene is the factors which help the employees to enter the organization, on the
other hand motivation is the factor that helps in holding the employee to stay back in the
organization and perform well (Lee, Back and Chan 2015). In the absence of these factors in
the hospitality industry, employees in the organization will feel a strong sense of
dissatisfaction. The next strategy that was evident in the literature was the Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs that followed certain levels that an organization has to follow in order to
satisfy their workers and keep them in the business. It is a type of motivational theory in
which it can be seen that there are five categories that a human faces in a workplace and in
order to motivate them to give their best in their production (McPhail et al. 2015).
The third place where the literature followed is the factors that affect job satisfaction
in the hospitality industry particularly. The main factors that have been found from the past
literatures are working condition, environment, reward and recognition of the workers and
others. These factors are the most crucial for any kind of business (McPhail et al. 2015).
Hospitality industry hugely depends on training their staffs for better service. Thus, losing
staffs or increasing employee turnovers leads to a great loss for the company (Pan 2015).
Hence this industry faces the maximum pressure of offering job satisfaction to their staffs. It
has been stated by Crawford et al. (2014) that reward and recognition is the best way
companies can create an impact on their staffs by making them feel important in the
organization. It has also been evident that offering appreciation to the workers for their work
increases the level of satisfaction among them. However, the literature has also discussed
about certain factors that demotivate the workers. One being the responsibility that are given;
they are not fully allowed to make their own decisions (Namasivayam, Guchait and Lei

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2014). However, company can take up strategies to improve their job satisfaction level such
as personal motivation programs; organizing reward and recognition programs for the
employee will help the organization to manage their employee turnover rates.
Literature Gaps and opportunities
The literature has failed to give a detailed analysis about the ways companies can deal
with the problem of employ satisfaction or increase employee satisfaction level. There has
been much said about the importance of job satisfaction among the employees and the impact
this has on the business. However, there are not much said about the ways a company can
deal when they are faced with such challenges and increased employee turnover.
Secondly, the literature also failed to show the possibility of policies that the company
can design while planning their strategies that could have a positive and equal impact on the
employees. This is an important factor that has been ignored as it will be easy for the
company to follow same strategy for every employee in the company.
Moreover, the literature also failed to show the benefit that the hospitality industry
faces after offering satisfaction to their employees in the workplace. Employee satisfaction
has different type of benefits for different types of industry. Thus it would have been clear
about the benefits employee satisfaction offers to this industry. This would have further
helped and motivated the management to take necessary steps towards this, to get the
maximum benefit.
The gap that has been identified in the literature has the opportunity of offering the
company a better perspective to look in for improving the job satisfaction level among the
employees. Moreover, a policy decision that the company will make will make their process
very easy and less complicated. Thus, fulfilling the gaps will offer opportunity to the

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organization to solve the entire problem the employees have from their employers. The
fulfillment of gaps will also offer the hospitality industry to deal with job satisfaction
problems as it is one of the critical factor in that industry. Thus, soling the gap is very
important for this industry.
Research Hypothesis
 Null Hypothesis: Job satisfaction play an important role in hospitality industry
 Alternative Hypothesis: Job satisfaction does not play an important role in hospitality
industry
Research Question
Primary Question
 What role does employ satisfaction play in hospitality industry?
Secondary Questions:
 What is employee satisfaction?
 What role employee satisfaction plays in hospitality industry?
 What are the steps that industry can take to improve employee satisfaction?
Research Methodology
The research method that will be used for this research will be a survey method. This
is because gathering information from this industry directly will help in providing a better
result than other methods. Moreover, the method is effective way to collect appropriate data
from a huge amount of population. However, for collecting data from survey method it is
necessary to select a sample from the population (Smith 2015). The sample will be such that
will define the whole population. Thus, for the purpose the company will choose a sample

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using simple random sampling method. The researcher will choose ten hotels in a region
from among all other hotels. This will require that the researcher interact with some of the
hospitality companies such as hotels of a particular area to collect the data. The researcher
will formulate a questionnaire for the survey which will include both close ended and open
ended questions. The responses collected from the people on these questions will be analyzed
to determine the importance of job satisfaction on the hospitality industry (Bernard 2017). It
will also help the researcher to know the job satisfaction strategies these companies are using
for their employees.
Data Collection
Data collection technique will be done with the help of primary research. This will
involve collecting raw data from the employees and manager of the hotels that will be chosen
for the research. The questionnaires will be provided to the employees of the company
through internet by mailing them. The users will be asked independent questions from the
participants. Managers will be asked open ended questions and employees will be asked close
ended questions. This is because manager will be able to give a detail analysis of the
scenario going in the company and the policy they follow (Bryman and Bell 2015). The close
ended questions on the other hand will be easier for the employees to answer by choosing just
one answer. However, the close ended questions will be more than the open ended questions.
The questions will be about the policy that the company follow to satisfy the
employees, the turnover rate of company, the satisfaction level of the employees, the facilities
the employees are receiving from the company and others. The users will be asked to choose
the option they want. The respondents will be asked to give their responses independently
without getting influenced by anyone else (Sekaran and Bougie 2016). This will help the
researcher collect a error-free result and analysis.

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Research analysis
The research analysis will be done in a quantitative manner which will include a
descriptive analysis of the collected data. Descriptive analysis is the easiest way to explain
everything in details and it is the easiest analysis that the readers will understand when they
read it. Moreover, mainly open ended questions will be analyzed qualitatively as it has to be
written in details (Sekaran and Bougie 2016). The close ended question will be first presented
in a graphical manner using different types of graphs and then explained using descriptive
analysis.
Research Limitations
Every research has certain limitations which the researcher has to follow while
carrying out a research. First limitation will be that the research has to choose limited hotels
for carrying out the research in an error free manner. While choosing the hotel the researcher
will analyze certain characteristics in them and make sure each hotel is different from the
other. Secondly, participants of the research will be involved from various ethical
backgrounds and in this case there should be significant protection of human rights. Thirdly,
the respondents will not be pressurized for giving certain responses and they will be asked to
give their response independently. Moreover, no respondents will be forced to give their
response for the questionnaire forcefully. They will take part with their own capabilities.
Moreover, the researcher will ask only those questions in the questionnaire that is related to
the research objective. These are some of the limitations that the researcher will have to keep
in mind while carrying out the task.
Time Schedule
Activities Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6

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Selection of
the topic
Literature
review and
study of
existing
theories
Collection of
primarydata
Data Analysis
Preparing
Draft report
Final
Submission
The time schedule shows the time limit a researcher has to complete the research. It
has been subdivided into various steps and each step has a limited time span to finish the task.
The initial step is the most crucial one which involves the decision of choosing a topic for the
research paper. Followed by these steps, rest of the steps are not that difficult as it will take
place in a smooth manner. However, choosing questions for the questionnaire is yet another
crucial step that the researcher has to go through. However, managing the research activities
within the given time will help in finishing the assignment efficiently.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be concluded that job satisfaction is one of the most
crucial factors businesses are facing nowadays. This is because due to unsatisfied employees
businesses are losing capable employees which are increasing their employee turnover rate.
This topic is one of the most recent topics to be researched by a researcher to find the most
effective way to satisfy the employees and keep them happy. For the purpose hospitality

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industry has been chosen, as it is one of the most crucial problems faced by the hospitality
industry. Hospitality industry largely depends on their employees and an increasing employee
turnover rate will affect it negatively. For the research a primary data collection technique
has been chosen to get a close view of the industry. Data will be collected using a
questionnaire. Such research method and the analysis will be done carefully to avoid all
potential errors that can be caused.

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References
AlBattat, A. R. S., and Som, A. P. M., 2013. Employee dissatisfaction and turnover crises in
the Malaysian hospitality industry. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(5),
pp. 62.
Bernard, H.R., 2017. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. Rowman & Littlefield.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Crawford, E.R., Rich, B.L., Buckman, B. and Bergeron, J., 2014. The antecedents and drivers
of employee engagement. Employee engagement in theory and practice, pp.57-81.
Fu, W. and Deshpande, S.P., 2014. The impact of caring climate, job satisfaction, and
organizational commitment on job performance of employees in a China’s insurance
company. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(2), pp.339-349.
Lee, J. S., Back, K. J., and Chan, E. S., 2015. Quality of work life and job satisfaction among
frontline hotel employees: A self-determination and need satisfaction theory approach.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(5), pp. 768-789.
McPhail, R., Patiar, A., Herington, C., Creed, P. and Davidson, M., 2015. Development and
initial validation of a hospitality employees’ job satisfaction index: Evidence from
Australia. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(8), pp.1814-
1838.
Namasivayam, K., Guchait, P. and Lei, P., 2014. The influence of leader empowering
behaviors and employee psychological empowerment on customer satisfaction. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(1), pp.69-84.

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Pan, F.C., 2015. Practical application of importance-performance analysis in determining
critical job satisfaction factors of a tourist hotel. Tourism Management, 46, pp.84-91.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
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Shani, A., Uriely, N., Reichel, A. and Ginsburg, L., 2014. Emotional labor in the hospitality
industry: The influence of contextual factors. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 37, pp.150-158.
Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.
Wang, C.J., Tsai, H.T. and Tsai, M.T., 2014. Linking transformational leadership and
employee creativity in the hospitality industry: The influences of creative role identity,
creative self-efficacy, and job complexity. Tourism Management, 40, pp.79-89.
Zopiatis, A., Constanti, P. and Theocharous, A.L., 2014. Job involvement, commitment,
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Management, 41, pp.129-140.