Motivation of employees and the influence on service quality : the case of the Palace hotel, the Victoria hotel and the George

Abstract

This research assesses the real or potential relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic variables of motivation to service quality. Although the general expectations were that the different dimensions of motivation have a significant impact on the overall service quality, it resulted that on the contrary, motivation must be looked into more holistically. The study, which was carried out in three hotels in Malta, two of which four star and one was a five star, revealed that motivation as a behavioural component is a unique factor in the study of organisational behaviour, which must be looked into together with other predictors. To this effect, one understands that the level of service given by employees varies significantly due to a number of different factors, and motivation is only one of these factors. Thus, although the study has proved that when motivation is studied as one factor, its impact on service quality is notably important, it is not necessarily the most critical and significant variable. On the other side of the coin, one must also point that employers and managers in this industry, should above all recognize that ad hoc and unplanned individual actions to increase the employees' motivation may not necessarily increase service quality. In fact, this is evident in the high rate of employees moving in and out of this industry, as well as, moving from one hotel to another. Different other studies also reveal that the employee turnover is high in the hospitality industry. In addition, employees working within this sector are mostly part-timers or else individuals who have not managed to reach their aspirations and therefore are engaged in their work as a last resort and not by choice. Although this constitutes a different study, one recognizes that the level of motivation therefore, varies between those who chose tourism as a career to others who are engaged in the industry to earn a living. The study also reveals, as expected, that gender issues are not significantly different and as a result one cannot draw any conclusions that females and males perceive motivation and their relationship on service quality differently. In fulfilling the study, a series of recommendations particularly addressed to Human Resources professionals were also presented. In a nutshell, these recommendations circle round the idea of empowerment, transformationality in leadership as well as enriching the job through higher personal recognition.