The hospitality industry for a long time has struggled to get the best performance and loyalty from its employees. Hospitality industry employees have been subjected to poor working conditions, poor pay, and long working hours among many other issues and this has led to poor performance and disloyalty from many of them. Employee motivation has been found to be the key that could unlock the potential of hospitality industry employees. For a long time the hospitality industry has failed to establish what truly makes employees motivated and satisfied with their jobs (Karatepe & Sokmen, 2006).
Many scholars have emphasized on the need of motivation by noting that it is the prime determinant of employee behavior. It has been noted that high ability and high levels of training cannot lead to better performance if the employees are demotivated or under motivated at work. Weaver (1988) argued that many managers in the hospitality industry have experimented with many motivational theories but with minimal success because they are based on reward systems that have little meaning for the hospitality employees. A careful mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has been deemed essential to get the best performance and loyalty from the hospitality industry employees.
Extrinsic motivation occurs whereby the employees are motivated to perform behaviors or engage in activities in order to earn rewards and avoid punishment. Extrinsic motivation includes pay satisfaction, job security and the general job satisfaction. Intrinsic motivation on the other hand, involves the employees engaging in behaviors because they are personally rewarding. Intrinsic motivation includes job autonomy, the opportunity to complete tasks, close friendships, and variety of tasks among many other factors. Intrinsic motivation is the performance of an activity because of its sake rather than because of the desire of external rewards. The blending of the two types of motivation has been found to lead to better performance among employees.
Frederick Herzberg, famed for his motivator-hygiene theory of job satisfaction, stated that every employee has two types of needs namely: the motivator needs and the hygiene needs. Primarily, motivator needs are related to how interesting the job is while the hygiene needs are associated with the physical context in which the job is performed. Extrinsic motivation mainly focuses on the motivator needs of the employee while intrinsic motivation dwells on the hygiene needs of the employee (Herzberg, 1959).
Both extrinsic and extrinsic rewards motivate us to join and contribute to organizational success and promotion. Several studies have suggested that employees are either satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs. Herzberg theory suggested that employees could experience both job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction simultaneously (Herzberg, 1959). A case in point is whereby an employee is satisfied with the pay he or she receives, but dissatisfied with the job itself. The dissatisfaction from either the intrinsic extrinsic sources could lead to poor performance, disloyalty and turnover intention. It is becoming more necessary for managers come up with a more efficient strategy to increase the overall job satisfaction to improve performance. Managers have to find a way of using both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to boost employee performance, loyalty and job satisfaction.
A critical analysis at the hospitality industry has identified many pit falls with regards to employees, which has led to poor performance and disloyalty, Inadequate pay, long working hours, poor working environments, low job security, lack of training and high employee turnover have been identified as some of the problems ailing the hospitality industry. The biggest challenge to employee motivation is that employees more than often motivate themselves, based on their perceptions of what they want to achieve and the methods they will use to achieve them. However, managers who are aware of what the employees want from their jobs are able to design work environments that would be able to accommodate all their needs and desires. At the same time, the well-informed managers are able to avoid the common obstacles to employee motivation (Simon & Enz, 1995). An organization knowing why its employees come to work on time, stay with the organization for most of their working years, and they are productive, would most likely work to ensure that the same is replicated.
Money has remained the most significant motivational strategy in most industries. Most managers in the hospitality have always employed this strategy to improve performance and increase employee loyalty. From an economic perspective, pay does extrinsically motivate the employees but it does not guarantee job satisfaction. Hospitality employees have continually been subjected to increased salaries and perks as a means to motivate them but that has had little effect on their job performance and loyalty. In as much as pay for performance has led to increased performance in some cases, employee job satisfaction and other intrinsic needs are usually overlooked. Increased pay may only cater for the short term needs of the industry but in the long run the industry may go back to poor performance. It should be noted that work environment also leads to improved employee performance. A better working environment for the hospitality employees would influence them and contribute to better performance. Work related stress may cause employees to be less motivated and committed, and this may lead to lower quality performance and productivity.
Employees with a high level of job satisfaction would have healthier physical and psychological records that would result in higher performance, effectiveness and loyalty to the organization they are working for. Job satisfaction is one of the reasons for employee intentions of leaving an organization (Riley & Riley, 2000). Hence, job satisfaction can be a determinant of an employee’s motivation and intention of either staying or leaving an organization.
Job satisfaction is highly correlated with intrinsic and extrinsic job characteristics. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation leads to long working hours, greater levels of satisfaction and competency among employees. A blend of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations has been proven to increase an employee’s job satisfaction and improve their job performance. A good way of dealing with the problem of how to effectively motivate employees in the hospitality industry is the sourcing of information from the employees themselves. The employees would respond to what ignites and sustain their desire to work. This information would be vital to the managers as it would help them with the redesigning of work, increasing pay to the employees, changing the work environment and giving more credit for work done. Many managers tend to forget that in the motivating of employees, the desire to do the job comes from within the employee rather than their immediate supervisors. The trick is usually not for the employers to assume that what motivates them would also motivate their employees.
In an industry that that continues to grapple with the problems of below standards of performance among employees and retention of their best employees, motivation would most definitely provide a concrete solution. A careful analysis of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting employee motivation is essential in the achievement of increased performance and commitment among the employees. If the managers in the hospitality industry are able to satisfy their employees by understanding what motivates them, it would play a key role in ensuring of better performance, loyalty and even customer satisfaction (Riley & Riley, 2000).
References
Herzberg, F. (1959). The motivation to work. New York: Wiley.
Karatepe, O. M., & Sokmen, A. (April 01, 2006). The effects of work role and family role variables on psychological and behavioral outcomes of frontline employees. Tourism Management, 27, 2, 255-268.
Simons, T., and C. A. Enz. 1995. Motivating Hotel Employees: Beyond the Carrot and the Stick. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Feb 1995. 20-7. ABI/INFORM Global.
Riley, M., & Riley, M. (2000). Managing people: A guide for managers in the hotel and catering industry. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Weaver, T. (January 01, 1988). Theory M: Motivating with money. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 29, 3, 40-45.
