Introduction
The importance of attracting and retaining employees in the hospitality industry is being recognized by many market players. Seeking solutions at corporate level is no longer valued and companies perceive this as a feature of traditional techniques of managing human resources.
Within the area of human resource, the international integration is being accomplished through mechanisms that increase the competitive advantages of organizations. The high competition in the hospitality industry has a dire need for effective and high quality human resource management. Creating a competitive advantage is a factor that has to be considered in human resource management strategies.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between several variables identified in literature and employee motivation in Radisson Hotel.
It is to this response that this study aims to review the literature and suggest the ways in which Radisson Hotel can respond to employee motivation and also recommend on the best strategies to increase its competitive advantages.
Literature review
Motivation is something that is inherently held by people that steers them to action. It varies in different individuals. It can also be regarded as the willingness to take action at a particular degree of effort. It appears in literature out of life goals, values and intentions.
As motivation comes from leaders, there is need to direct and cultivate the enticement that the workers already have (Ziegler et al 2010).
Individuals who appear to be much interested in motivation researches are leaders in their effort to provide directions into why employees perform tasks as they do and eventually provide themselves with techniques to enhance work productivity.
Motivation plays an important role in performance. This relationship was recently explored by Nawab, Bhatti and Shafi (2011) through a qualitative method to analyse deeply two important terms used in HRM: pay roll and organizational reward system.
Their conclusion was that different motivation factors can be used by an organization to enhance performance and efficiency of employees. These findings confirm an earlier suggestion by Bruce and Pepitone (1998) who proposed that motivation led to greater work performance.
This is true because a motivated individual pursues goals with greater vigor and focus. He/she has a better chance of attaining the set objective. There are many theories concerning motivation some of which are “needs-based” (Griffin & Moorhead, 2009).
In this theory, Maslow identifies five levels ranging from self actualization needs to physical needs. He contended that in his pecking order, a met need is no longer a source of motivation (Chopra, 2002).
The determination as to what level Maslow’s pecking order holds sway in the motivation of these employees will provide interesting findings.
Moreover, the role of intrinsic motivation will influence this study. After conducting three cross-sectional surveys on a total of 826 respondents Kuvaas and Dysvik (2009) found that the relationship between supposed investment in employee development and job effort was arbitrated by intrinsic motivation.
Also, other researchers have asserted that implicit motivation is the indispensable nature of human motivation that is well understood when considering three implicit motives: affiliation, achievement, and power or social influence (Schüler, & Kuster, 2011; Kehr, 2004).
Implicit motives contrast the conscious values and behavioral intentions which are driven by short-term constant situational forces by being predictive of motives in a long span of time.
This theory generally explains the factors that determine employees’ motivation in a complex environment while predicting on the long-term behavior, adaptation, and enactment of the desired leadership (Schüler, & Kuster, 2011).
In a cultural context, the theory predicts how the members of the cultures can be motivated and the particular leadership that can fit in those cultures and allow for continued motivation.
Another theory that researches have considered important in motivating people is the expectancy theory. This theory states that an individual decides to take a certain course of action over others because of the outcome he/she expects. Through this theory, the management can motivate employees to perform certain tasks if they attach a reward to the specific role.
Tepp and Poomann (2006) conducted an empirical study to confirm these suggestions. Their findings suggested that pay-for-performance is basically a stimulus, the intention of which is to direct behaviors of people and influence their motivation.
Unfortunately, these researchers based their conclusions about expectation theory on the findings that were biased by a small sample which could not reflect the whole population.
Foss et al (2009) attempted to justify that job design was the most important technique in motivating employees. They conducted an empirical research to test the hypothesis that “more externally motivated workers are to share knowledge, the more knowledge they get from and send to colleagues”.
Therefore, their findings indicated that job characteristics such as task identity, autonomy, and feedback influenced different motivations to share knowledge among the employees.
This study was reinforced by Grant (2010) when he developed a theoretical paper illustrating how job design can result in motivation, satisfaction and performance increases of considerable magnitude.
Nonetheless, his research was purely theoretical and cannot justify practical application of the technique especially in a dynamic business environment.
Obviously, the literature indicates deficiencies in motivating employees in the hotel industry except a study conducted by Ziegler et al (2010). The empirical study combined a conceptualized comparison of various motivation theories including implicit theories, incremental theories, expectation theory, entity theory and expansion theory.
The findings suggested that all theories apply to motivation management across many hospitality settings as long as the appropriate techniques are applied to fit in that context.
Relevant motivational variables for Radisson Hotel
Essentially, as literature suggests employees’ involvement in Radisson Hotel can be reinforced by adjusting variables such as rewards, employee participation and job enrichment motivation. The meaning of each technique depends on the perceptions manifested in the self.
Reward allocation versus employee motivation
Employee valuations of the reward system as well as its motivation potential in Radisson are shaped by the two major values of employee perceptions and influence.
In organization which does not value teamwork, people employ independent personal principles to assess the effect of motivation approaches on their sense of well-being and self-worth while a group-focused organizations use interdependent, group-based principles (Nawab, Bhatti & Shafi, 2011).
Therefore, Radisson Hotel and other players in an industry characterized by teamwork ensure that the employees have strong respect for their leaders, and avoid criticizing.
There are three allocation principles that can guide reward systems for Radisson across all its operative components. These include the principles of equality, equity, and need. These principles vary across many organizational contexts and represent the outcomes of preferences between service and good industries.
Equity leads to individual motivation plans based on individual evaluation of employees’ performance which determines the compensation allocated to a particular employee by the company. In service industries where team work is encouraged more than individual attainment and the harmonious rule is that of equality.
Participation versus employee motivation
By allowing employees to participate actively in Radisson three psychological factors can be influenced. First is the motivational factor which satisfies intrinsic work motivation properties by allowing greater influence, responsibility, and autonomy (Kim, 2006).
Secondly, cognitive factor of sharing information is aided by open communication amidst all group participants. Finally, group participation develops a dynamic process which exerts pressure on Radisson employees to enhance group decision.
Organizational values often influence adherence to the group. For instance, in some organizations employee participation is leveraged by strategies and is attached to the corporate structure that supports certain values (Holjevac, 2003).
Thus, employees’ participation in Radisson emphasize on harmonizing with organizational structure, but in the shape of participation through representatives. Commitment to the team’s objectives is dictated by group cohesion which is vulnerable to changes in strategies due to market dynamics brought about by competition.
Such elements have sometimes restricted individual employees from becoming fully committed to all group activities. Differences in international markets also may explain the reason why participation has significant effects on performance of Radisson Hotel.
Job enrichment versus employee motivation
In this technique, Radisson design tasks to be more satisfying and rewarding, and simultaneously enriched jobs aid effective performance. Motivational techniques that contribute to the fulfillment of self motivation are apparently harmonious with corporate strategy (Miner, 2007).
For example, job enrichment gratifies the independent-self, which originates from the job satisfaction in an individual (Grant, 2010). A combination of jobs that tolerate more responsibility, autonomy, and meaningfulness, make Radisson to be most suitable for corporate behaviors that support continuous training and development of employees.
In addition, Job enlargement can be seen as a component of job enrichment that is focused on supporting teamwork. In this respect, responsibilities in Radisson can be expanded in order to encourage individual employees to seek assistance from other and eventually value group efforts.
Theoretical framework
This study will focus on several issues that contribute to the literature. First, there will be a provision of additional evidence establishing reward allocation and employee motivation as distinct work related attitudes.
This means, if these two job attitudes are different, they should relate to varying work outcomes. This will be important, especially because of the concern in the literature that these attitudes are often treated as distinct without enough evidence of this distinctiveness.
A second intent of this study will be to provide additional knowledge into the correlation between employee participation and motivation since the study on this area is incomplete. An additional model is to conduct an investigation on the relationship between job enrichment and employee motivation to fill up the existing gaps.
In general, the study intends to look at the correlation between independent and dependent variables given by the model: y = ax where y is our dependent variable represented by employee motivation while x is our independent variables representing reward allocation, participation and job enrichment.
Employee Motivation (y)
References
Bruce, A. & Pepitone, J. S. (1998). Motivating employees. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Profession.
Chopra, S. (2002). Motivating in management. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons.
Foss, N., Minbaeva, D., Pedersen, T. & Reinholt, M. (2009). Encourage knowledge sharing among employees: how job design matters. Human Resource Management, 48(6), 871-893.
Griffin, R. W. & Moorhead, G. (2009). Organizational behavior: managing people and organizations. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Holjevac, I. A. (2003). A vision of tourism and the hotel industry in the 21st century. Hospitality Management, 22(5), 129-134.
Kehr, H. M. (2004). Integrating implicit motives, explicit motives, and perceived abilities: the compensatory model of work motivation and volition. Academy of Management Review, 29(3), 479-499.
Kim, D. (2006). Employee motivation: “Just ask your employees”. Seoul Journal of Business, 12(1), 19-35.
Kuvaas, B. & Dysvik, A. (2009). Perceived investment in employee development, intrinsic motivation and work performance. Human Resource management Journal, 19(3), 217-236.
Miner, J. B. (2007) Organizational behavior: From theory to practice. New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe
Nawab, S., Bhatti, K. K. & Shafi, K. (2011). Effect of motivation on employees’ performance. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3(3), 1209-1216.
Schüler, J. & Kuster, M. (2011). Binge eating as a consequence of unfulfilled basic needs: the moderating role of implicit achievement motivation. Motivation & Emotion, Mar2011, 35(1), 89-97.
Taleghani, G., Salmani, D. & Taatian, A. (2010) Survey of leadership styles in different cultures. Iranian Journal of Management Studies, 3(3), 91-111.
Tepp, M. & Poomann, M. (2006). Impact of pay-for-performance on work motivation of sales personnel: a case of information media firms. Working Papers in Economics, 19(141-144), 77-88.
Ziegler, A., Fidelman, M., Reutlinger, M. Vialle, W. & Stoeger, H. (2009). Implicit personality theories on the modifiability and stability of the action repertoire as a meaningful framework for individual motivation: a cross-cultural study. High Ability Studies, 21(2), 147-163.