INTRODUCTION TO TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY:

Tourism is the travel for recreational, leisure, family or business purposes, usually of a limited duration. Tourism is commonly associated with trans-national travel, but may also refer to travel to another location within the same country.

Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. Today, tourism is the major contributor to the economy of many countries, and affects the economy of both the source and host countries.

Tourism brings in large amounts of income into a local economy in the form of payment for goods and services needed by tourists, accounting for 30% of the world's trade of services, and 6% of overall exports of goods and services. It also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism.

The service industries which benefit from tourism include transportation services, such as airlines, cruise ships and taxicabs; hospitality services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts; and entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, casinos, shopping malls, music venues, and theatres.

The hospitality sector is part of a huge group of travel and tourism industry and one of the fastest growing industries that provides the necessary and desirable goods and services to travelers worldwide. Scholar’s points out that employee satisfaction in the hotel industry is the highest priority for owners and managers competing with hundreds of others, because employee satisfaction is of prime importance. Tailoring of employee satisfaction has seen more and more employee switch from one employer to another; this is seen especially in the hotel sector where there is dominance of human interactions in the course of operations. As Kashmir Valley focuses to be among the top 10 destinations of the country by 2025, research foresees the hotel industry as one of the sectors that will contribute greatly to the economy of the state.

The hotel industry has seen employee satisfaction as a key marketing tactic in differentiating itself from its competitors and therefore a heightened understanding of the hospitality market and the employee satisfaction will enhance a guest experience and maximize hotel revenue.

What stands behind meaning of hospitality is the experience of the tourists/guests, namely the consumption of food, drink and accommodation while away from home. These experiences could be made cherishable through satisfied staff.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

“Job satisfaction is defined as “Favorableness or unfavorableness with which the employees view their work and results when there is a fit between job characteristic and wants of the employees” Keith Davis. Stephen P. Robbins defines Job satisfaction as the “Difference between the amount of rewards the workers receive and the amount they believe they should receive”.

However, support for the view that job satisfaction has a significant effect on job performance was difficult to obtain. As a result, there verse (that an employee’s job performance affects her job satisfaction) became the focus of research in the area (Lawler and Porter 1967). The idea that an employee’s performance subsequently affect her job satisfaction follows from a number of psychological theories. Intrinsic motivation theory posits that the motivation to work is innate and work itself is fulfilling (Deci and Ryan 1985). Self-perception theory (Bem1972) and cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger 1957) also posit that attitudes are inferred from behavior or adjusted to be consistent with behavior. Interestingly, few studies have found support for job performance having a significant effect on job satisfaction (Iaffaldano and Muchinsky 1985). Similarly, organizational studies of the sales force invariably find that the relationship of job performance to job satisfaction is weak (Bagozzi 1980; Brown and Peterson 1993). As noted by Brown and Peterson (1993), if the effect of job performance on job satisfaction is insignificant, firm actions designed to increase job performance should not have a direct effect on job satisfaction and related outcomes like employee turnover. The literature suggests that the antecedents of job satisfaction can be categorized into personal characteristics, role perceptions and organizational variables (Brown and Peterson 1993).

Job satisfaction has been closely related with many organizational phenomena such as motivation, performance, leadership, attitude, conflict, moral etc. Researchers have attempted to identify the various components of job satisfaction, measure the relative importance of each component of job satisfaction and examine what effects these components have on employees’ productivity. Ellickson and Logsdon (2002) support this view by defining job satisfaction as the extent to which employees like their work. Schermerhorn (1993) defines job satisfaction as an affective or emotional response towards various aspects of an employee’s work.

C.R. Reilly (1991) defines job satisfaction as the feeling that a worker has about his job or a general attitude towards work or a job and it is influenced by the perception of one’s job. J.P. Wanous and E.E. Lawler (1972) refers job satisfaction is the sum of job facet satisfaction across all facets of a job. Abraham Maslow (1954) suggested that human need from a five-level hierarchy ranging from physiological needs, safety, belongingness and love, esteem to self-actualization. Based on Maslow’s theory, job satisfaction has been approached by some researchers from the perspective of need fulfillment (Kuhlen, 1963; Worf, 1970; Conrad et al, 1985) Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction not only depends on the nature of the job, it also depend on the expectation what’s the job supply to an employee (Hussami, 2008). Job satisfaction is complex phenomenon with multi facets (Fisher and Locke, 1992; Xie and Johns, 2000); it is influenced by the factors like salary, working environment, autonomy, communication, and organizational commitment (Lane, Esser, Holte and Anne, 2010; Vidal, Valle and Aragón, 2007; Fisher and Locke, 1992; Xie and Johns, 2000). Different people interpret compensation differently. In this paper compensation, reward, recognition, and wages are terms used in different situations (Zobal, 1998).

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY:

The paper aims to study the satisfaction level of employees in the Centaur Lake view Hotel. This paper will serve to add to the corpus of knowledge already available regarding the subject in question. This paper is an attempt to understand the levels of Job Satisfaction among the employees of the Centaur Lake View and thus develop an analogy about the larger picture of employee satisfaction in the Hospitality Industry keeping in view the increasing rate of employee turnover in the said Industry. The paper will serve as a pathway for further research in this area, thus increasing the potential to make breakthroughs to understand, identify and resolve the issues confronting the Industry.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

To measure the level of Employee Job Satisfaction in the Centaur Lake View Hotel and to identify the reasons for the obtained levels of Satisfaction, and thus suggesting and recommending solutions, if any.

OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH:

This study was aimed at investigating the level of job satisfaction among the employees of the Centaur-the lake view hotel Srinagar.

The main objective of the study was to unearth the determinants leading to job satisfaction in the hotel. For conducting this research quantitative methodology was used to acquire the required information on job satisfaction.

The main objectives of this study were to:

· Measure job satisfaction level of the employees in the Hotel.

· Identify reasons for the measured levels of Job satisfaction.

· Recommend possible solutions to improve job satisfaction within the Hotel.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The study used a survey research design, which involved the administration of self-structured questionnaire to the target population. The questionnaire was squeezed into 10 Questions, covering different versions of the Job satisfaction.

AREA OF THE STUDY:

The study was carried out in Centaur Hotel which is centrally located in Srinagar on the bank of the Dal Lake. The city is home to a large number of Hotels, ranging from five star hotels to 1 star hotel.

POPULATION:

The population for the study comprised of the staff of centaur lake view hotel. There are presently 150 employees working. For conduction of this research only 140 questionnaires could be distributed; because rest was not available. Out of which only 130 questionnaires were collected back. So a sample size of 130 employees has been entertained for completion of this report.

DATA SOURCE:

Data was collected from two major sources that is primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources:

This source was providing first hand data directly from staff of the Hotel through a self administrated questionnaire and via list of questions asked in an interview.

Secondary sources:

This source provided secondary data from past performance appraisals, journals, magazines, newspapers and internet.

INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION:

The research involved the use of questionnaire. Data collection was done by using self administered questionnaire. The questionnaire used was designed to reflect the research questions under study. The questionnaire dealt with respondents personal data, which included;

I Age range of respondents

Ii Gender.

Iii Educational qualification.

DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES:

The questionnaire and personal interview were used to collect data from the field survey conducted by researcher. They were used to elicit information from respondents on the level of job satisfaction they derived from their jobs and how in turn it affects or influences their job, in terms of their productivity.

DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE:

The information or data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics viz simple percentages, mean and Pie charts and deviations. It is a method of data analysis that deals with the testing of many characteristics in relationship. It characterizes different states or levels of characteristics to obtain a joint contingency table.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

This chapter is aimed at analyzing the primary data collected, and it also attempts to bring out the insight HR policies currently booting in the Centaur Hotel.

TABLE 8: Are there programs for employee recognition and appreciation in your organization?

TABLE 10: Which of these best describe how you feel about your job?

TABLE 9: The operating conditions under which you work can be said to be:

Questionnaire for Employee Job Satisfaction

Variables	Mean	Standard deviation
Satisfaction with respect position	2.007	0.789
Employees are recognized as individuals.	2.70	1.004
Communication	3.96	0.871
Flexibility	2.51	1.147
Word of mouth	2.53	1.082
Discrimination	2.23	0.874
Career advancement	1.60	0.996
Recognition	2.60	1.219
Compensation	1.44	0.723
Job security	1.43	0.738

FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS:

1 From the above Tables designed to picturise the facts revealed in the personal interview of the employees of the CENTAUR the lake view hotel, it can be seen that 70% of the employees working in hotel are of the age group 41 and above. The data shows that the sector is occupied majorly by aged people.

2 The work force of the centaur hotel comprises a lion’s share of males about 91% and only 9% of females working over there.

3 The hotel staff seems lacking professionalism and knowledge about the sensitive nature of the hospitality sector as a higher percentage of staff members of Centaur Hotel are Matriculates; respondents with matriculation are 74.61 %.

4 Lack of orientation and training seems prevailing in the unit as 63% of the employees don’t have keenness towards complaint handling of their guests.

5 Majority i.e. about 41% of the employees believe that they enjoy an informal relationship with their colleagues. Also 80% of the employees were found to have formal relationship with their superiors.

6 A high percentage 61% of the employees find their job setting not enjoyable, this could be as a result of inadequate equipping of the establishment or department, and monotonous duty rosters resulting in less effort being used on the job.

7 93.85 % of the respondents said there are no programs for employee recognition in the establishment.

8 Also 73.85 % of the employees of the hotel find the operating conditions under which they work boring.

9 Majority i.e. about 60% of the employees are not satisfied with their job, this could be due to several factor, including two pending pay commissions, person factors, organizational factors and lack of career advancement opportunities.

10 Now for revealing facts and figures of the questionnaires mean scores have been computed by equally weighting the mean scores of all the items.

11 On a five-point scale, the mean score for communication is found to be 3.96 (sd = 0.871). It suggests that the communication approach of this hotel is good.

12 The mean score for employees recognized as individuals is found to be 2.70 (sd = 1.004). It suggests that the supervisors and managers of the hotel maintain good relationship with their subordinates.

13 The mean score for the job security of the employee is 1.43 (sd = 0.738) indicating that the hotel is lacking the aspect of securing job for its employees. These figures depicts that the employees of the hotel have the stigma of expulsion or they don’t their jobs are secure. After a thorough evaluation I found that the corporations’ proposal of privatizing the unit is the main reason behind this episode. Some two years before the Hotel Corporation of India had proposed to privatize the Hotel; though the proposal was with held by the employee union through a stay-order from JandK High court. Also more recently the corporation has issued an order that curtails the service span of its employees from 60yrs to58yrs. Thus employees see the policies and plans of the Corporation more of an unpredictable stuff.

14 The mean score for compensation is found to be 1.44 (sd = 0.723). It implies that the employees are not satisfied with the compensation that the hotel is providing them for their efforts. This disappointment is because the Corporation has with-held a minimum of two successive pay commissions of the employees of the hotel resulting in marginalized salaries.

15 The mean score for the career advancement and positional satisfaction happened to be mere 1.60 (sd = 0.996) and 2.007 (sd=0.789) respectively. It reflects that there are no ample opportunities for the employees to grow and diversify. Employees seemed to be dissatisfied regarding promotion and performance appraisal policies of the hotel. Despite sincere efforts and loyal approach from the behalf of employees the hotel seems to be failure in justifying the positions and statuses of its employees.

16 The mean score for extent of flexibility of hotel duty roasters with respect to the family responsibilities of an employee happens to be 2.51(sd=1.147); indicating that there are high chances of work-life conflicts in the normal course.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS:

1 Looking at the above tables it can be seen that there is lack of fresh blood in the hotel CENTAUR. The hotel needs to recruit new and young faces that can boost life in the operations of the unit.

2 Also we see lack of female staff in the unit. I recommend a provision should be created for females in the recruitment policy of the hotel thereby paving way for attracting females to serve the hotel.

3 Now if we look at the professional aspect of the hotel; it seems far beyond than its immediate competitors in the market. I recommend young and professional blood like MTM and MTA pass outs should be recruited in the hotel to project the image of the unit in a very professional way.

4 Non seriousness of the staff regarding complaint handling is a serious issue. The hotel needs to go for awareness campaigns and workshops for its employees on the title issue.

5 The hotel should introduce incentive tours, partying, relaxing times, time-offs, LTCs, bonuses in its curriculum for its employees in order to make them feel satisfied and enjoy their work.

6 The hotel administration is recommended to create a lively and interactive work culture by introducing the element of challenge in the normal daily duty roasters. This could achieved adequate equipping of the establishment or department, and assigning challenging tasks that needs effort and concentration.

7 Looking at the above tables the variable ‘job security’ seems a matter of concern for the unit. The corporation (Hotel Corporation of India HCI) under the shade of which the hotel is functioning; needs to retrieve the demands of the employees of the Centaur Hotel. Privatization of the hotel is seen as a threat by the employees to their jobs .so the corporation needs to clearly communicate its strategies, plans and policies and their potential impacts on the employees. The corporation should prepare an interface of dialogue with the employee union of the hotel.

8 The HCI should come forward with some compensatory avenues for its employees in the condition privatization of the unit.

9 Now if we look at the compensation part the employees of the Centaur hotel look quite disappointed. Management should endeavor to have a man power plan or strategies, in terms of remuneration, fringe benefits, and reward / recognition schemes for staff members, training and development programs. This is to assist them in reducing dissatisfaction among staff members.

10 Employees seem bothersome about the positions they hold in the hotel. The Human Resource department should endeavor to employ the right people (people with the right physical and personality traits, skills) to do the job.

11 Employees of the hotel also seem disappointed with the recognition aspect the hotel is gearing. Effort should be made to incorporate staff members in decision making and goal setting processes. Management should create an effective feedback system so that employees can have a clear idea of what their contributions have produced.

12 As far as communication network in the unit is concerned; the hotel seems classic in its approach of endeavoring unanimous dialect. What needs to be done is to maintain this thread of motivation and inspiration.

13 The management should try as much as possible to create good and conducive work environment, by ensuring that policies and Administrative practices of the firm help to motivate and meet the needs of their employees and enhance job satisfaction.

14 Management should incorporate policies that increase the level of the team spirit of staff members, this will help improve the relationship between staff members, divide and rule tactics should not be used.

15 Job satisfaction has to do with how an individual feels about his/her job. The management can achieve this by showing its employee through actions and words, that they are not just interested in using staff members to achieve the organizational goals, but that they are interested in their lives as individuals, their families, challenges, aspirations etc. This in turn will be seen in how superiors relate with subordinates, how colleagues relate with each other, it will create a sense of been a part of a family.

16 Hospitality outfit is a home away from home, not just for guest, but for staff members also. Treating staff members with respect, courtesy, consideration will result in them genuinely treating customers the same way. Human beings do what they see, not just what they are told. Management by doing this will be showing leadership by example.

CONCLUSION:

Job satisfaction is a dynamic and interesting subject because it deals directly with the human being, his emotions, psychology, amongst other things. Different authors have given their different findings from researches and different views on the topic; this study has been interesting, demanding, enlightening and revealing. The study revealed that job satisfaction has a significant place in terms of workers productivity in the hospitality sector. The result deduced that Workers’ productivity is dependent on job satisfaction. The study identified factors that affect job satisfaction and strategies that can be used by management in increasing the level of job satisfaction. Factors like Number of working hours in a day, fringe benefits, employee recognition, relationship with colleagues and supervisors, compensation, working conditions, nature of job/task, job security, and communication within the hierarchical levels of the unit seems to have clear bearing on the job satisfaction.

LIMITATIONS:

There were certain limitations while conducting the study. These are summarized below:

1 The main obstacle while preparing this report was time. As the tenure of the Internship program was very short, it was not possible to highlight everything deeply.

2 Work pressure in the office was another limitation restricting this report from being more detailed or analytical.

3 The chance of biased response can’t be eliminated though all necessary steps were taken to avoid the same.

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Received on 16.05.2015 Modified on 17.06.2015

Asian J. Management; 6(3): July-Sept., 2015 page 220-228

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2015.00032.3

Number of questionnaire distributed	140
Number returned	130
Number not returned	10
Percentage of Number returned	92.85
Percentage of Number not returned	7.14
Total percentage	100