Dissertation for MSc in Hospitality Management

 

Abstract

The main goal of this dissertation study is to assess the motivational and de-motivational factors that affect the employee to be part of the employee development program of the three hotels of Marriott Group. In addition, the study wad conducted to know if there is a significant relation between motivation and employee development.  To achieve the objective of the research, the researcher used mixed method approach with quantitative and qualitative method. To gather pertinent data the researcher formulated a survey-questionnaire to be answered by 200 respondents from the three hotels. In this research, only 136 employees have provided answers to the questionnaires given. The researcher also conducted an interview with three managers of each of the hotel. Further, the researcher also used relevant literature about motivation and employee development as well as adult learning and the importance of employee training. The main objective of the study has been achieved by identifying the motivational factors which include the interest and desire to learn new things, enhance job knowledge, reward from achievement, request by company, sense of achievement, opportunities to meet mote new friends, peers pressure from friends or colleagues and increase. The de-motivational factors that hinder the employee to join trainings and development include irrelevance of content to existing job, using non-working hours to attend training course, no interest in the content and no need to learn new things in current position. The research also revealed that the hotel industries of Marriott Group have been able to provide a conducive learning environment and atmosphere for the employees and they use various learning approach for the training and development of the employees and staffs of the hotels. Furthermore, the result also shows that motivation and employee development have a significant relationship. The study recommends that hotel industries must be able to ensure that employees are being motivated to learn for the sake of the company and the employee as well.

 

 

 

Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1    Background of the Study

Hospitality industries are service-oriented and people-oriented business.  For an industry that prides itself in being people-oriented (1990), manpower is a key component in the hospitality industry. In such a fast changing world, learning new knowledge and new techniques is essential in hotel industry, specifically in order to provide the best services and product to the customers.  Employee development in the hotel industry is therefore essential to the employee and also the organisation.  Knowing the motivational, de-motivational factors and the employee’s preferences can help the employer to develop a better employee development program for their employee, so that the employee can have development on their career, and the organisation can have improvement on services and can retain their employee also.  It is suggested that if hotel managers knew what motivated their staff members and had a better understanding of their needs, employee could be retained consequently (1997).

There are many different definitions of motivation.  Motivation has to do with a set of independent or dependent variable relationships that explain the direction, amplitude, and persistence of an individual’s behaviour, holding constant the effects of aptitude, skill and understanding of the task, and the constraints operating in the environment ( 1991).  It is the set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways (1998).  Motivation drives forces towards the satisfaction of certain needs and expectations.  However, different people might have different motivational factors the forces them to do different things.  Details will be mentioned in the following chapters.

In the following parts, Literature Review of Motivation theories, employee development and barriers of employee development will be studied.  Methodology of the research will be presented secondly, followed by the findings and analysis of the survey and interviews.  Finally, recommendations and conclusion will be given.

 

1.2    Research Objective

As employee development is so important to an organisation and understanding the motivational factors can assist in designing a better employee development program.  It is worthwhile to look into the issue and have a better understanding on employee’s needs.  The objective of this study is to:

 

Ø  Investigate the motivational and de-motivational preferences of hotel staff in three hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong.

 

Ø  Investigate the learning environment and learning methods and other preferences of hotel staff in the three hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong.

 

Ø  Examine relationship between motivation and employee development

 

Ø  Give recommendations for hotel managers for employee development by understanding employee’s motivators.

 

1.3    Research Questions

Primarily, the main goal of this paper is to assess the hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong in terms their employee development programs. Specifically, the researcher aims to answer the following queries:

Ø  Does hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong provides employee development program as part of their HR strategy?

Ø  What are the motivational and de-motivational preferences of hotel staff in three hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong?

Ø  What are the learning environment and learning methods and other preferences of hotel staff in the three hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong?

Ø  Is there a significant relationship between motivation and employee development?

 

1.4      Rationale of the Study

The importance and significance of having employees who are highly motivated are being considered by various organisations, especially in hospitality industries. In this regard, this study is significant for the hotels in Marriott Group in Hong Kong to ensure that their company adhere to the needs of their employees and to determine the ways on how to motivate their employees.  Furthermore, the purpose of the research is to help the management, students, and hospitality industries to be open minded in the importance of employee development and the value of employee motivation. The findings of the study will be able to benefit not only the hospitality industries but all other industries to identify the factors that would motivate the employees and to determine approaches for employee development. This means that the results of the study will be beneficial to the management system and business operations since the research will be able to support previous claims on the importance of having highly motivated employees to ensure quality and the adherence to the sustainable employee development.

 

 

Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1         HR in Hospitality Industry

 

Galliard (1998) described the hospitality industry as one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. The hospitality industry is a multi-billion dollar and growing enterprise comprised of hotels, inns, and lodging houses. Recent World Tourism Organization (WTO) statistics suggests that the international tourism industry is taking an optimistic position. In 2004, global tourism experienced a spectacular rebound in 2004 with a record of 760 million international tourist arrivals, an increase of 10% over the previous year. Tourism in 2004 was predominantly strong in Asia and the Pacific with approximately 154 million tourist arrivals, registering a 29% growth rate ( 2005).

            (1989) argued that service quality is considered a critical determinant of competitiveness. In the long term, what affects business performance mostly is the quality of service offered by organisations. In service industries, the service product attributes are inseparability of production and consumption, intangibility of service, perishability of service and heterogeneity of service (1994). All of these attributes make service quality variable. Because of these factors, the quality of service is not easy to standardize and control compared with its manufacturing counterpart. Thus, service providers have to rely heavily on the competence and ability of their staff to understand the requirements of the consumer and react in an appropriate manner to delivery excellent services ( 1994). It can be argued that the quality of service is affected by alignment of HR strategy with business strategy.

            Labor availability, new technologies, economic ups and downs, terrorism, security, and globalization, present an applied/real world focus on current trends which have substantial impact on management strategies with in the hospitality business through out the world (2005). Twenty-first century challenges the hospitality business include, changing demographics of the work force and consumers, emphasis on technology and quality management, legal requirements in lodging and restaurant management, entrepreneurship and restaurant development from concept to operation, impact of tourism on the global economy, and maximizing human resources and industry profits.

            When it comes to Hong Kong’s hospitality industry, HR becomes the most prominent factor determining the success of the sector. Aligning the HR strategy with business strategy in Hong Kong’s hospitality industry means restructuring the core composition of the industry by maintaining the procedures with successful models of HR. This act will not only enhance the productive capacity of the industry, but will also explore the new horizons of development. Utilizing existing HRM theory and practice, it contextualizes it to the tourism and hospitality industries by looking at the specific employment practices of these industries ( 2007). In order to meet the challenges, the first step a hospitality business strategy is to plan human resource planning (HRP) which systematically forecasts an organization’s future demand and supply of employees (1978).

            A number of recommendations were suggested regarding changes in the HR policies and practices in organizations in hotel industries all over the world. It is suggested that: HRM should be derived from the vision, mission statement and strategy and flow from the business plan of the organization; the attraction, retention and motivation of high caliber persons are key to success; Performance Management System (PMS) should incorporate a competencies based model in which achievements, behavior, professional growth and assessment of potential are the essential ingredients for measuring performance and career progression path; compensation policies in organizations should be revised to reflect the comparator norms and align closely with the market practices; and pro-active succession-planning programs should be introduced under which managerial jobs are internally posted and applicants are screened, interviewed, and short-listed ( 2003).

 

  2.2         Employee Development

While every organisation seems to invest in technology, there are other aspects that should be considered in attaining a holistic performance of their respective organisation. One aspect that needs as much, if not more attention and investment than technology is human capital management. An organisation’s human capital management philosophy must value the workforce as a key asset that will define an organisation’s character and performance capacity (2001). 

Basically, employees are increasingly demanding change, choice, flexibility, and variety in their work; suggesting that with the de-layering of organisations and empowerment of individual employees, the future for both the organisation and the individual lies not in promotion to successively higher levels of management, but rather in developing the value of the individual as human capital (1996). The value of human capital is enhanced by acquisition of higher performance potential such as new tasks, functions, and KSAPs (knowledge, skills, abilities, personal attributes) (1996).

On the other hand, Organisations must realise that in order for them to recruit, develop, and retain skill employees for future missions, they need to unleash their human resource employee relation’s imagination to create capability and flexibility to institutionalise a well-defined system to expedite the handling of disputes and grievances.   Therefore, it is imperative that human resource departments adopt a modern day progressive employee relation’s paradigm that embraces and enhances the recruitment, development, and retention of employees in concert with human capital strategic management planning initiatives.

The types and numbers of benefits to employees vary in many ways.  In some organisations, employees receive benefits such as, paid leave, health care, insurance, retirement benefits, and the like ( 1996).  However, in as much as organisations want to provide their employees different and necessary benefits, they just cannot fully provide them with all the benefits. The problem may be attributed to the lack of or the limited financial resources of organisations to fund such benefits, because of the impact on the “bottom line.”   Again, there should be a feedback system to be used in all organisations so that future growth and development is in good performance.

 

 

 

2.3         Definition of Motivation

Motives, as hypothetical constructs, drive people in doing something. They are construed as relatively general needs or desires that energize people to initiate purposeful activities. These are distinguished from related constructs such as goals and strategies. For instance, a person responds to hunger (motive) by going to a restaurant (strategy) in order to get food (goal) (2004). Existing literature presents a number of definitions of motivation but they have one thing in common which, in general, is the drive that causes one’s actions. Generally, Motivation is the part of the inner state of an individual that causes him or her to behave in a way that ensures the accomplishment of some goals.  It relates to the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organisation goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need (1997).  Simply, motivation is the prime determinant of behaviour at work and that high ability and high levels of job training will not result in high performance if the individual is completely demotivated or under motivated at work (1990).   (1992) defined motivation as “the direction and persistence of actions”. Motivation drives forces towards the satisfaction of certain needs and expectations. Motivation refers to the “determinants of goal-directed behavior” (1989).  (1975) defines an intrinsically motivated behavior as an action that cannot be attributed to external controls and has no recognizable reward in doing something except the activity itself.

 

Other authors define motivation as: “an influence, need, or desire that induces action” (1998); “the collection of causes that engage someone in an activity” (1996 ); “direction and intensity of one’s efforts” ( 2003); “the need to achieve in all attempted activities and to be self-evaluating” ( 2000); “an intervening process or an internal state of an organism that impels or drives it to action,  an energizer of behavior, the energizing elements of a motivational disposition often have a strong emotional tone to them”; something that initiates and sustains a person’s particular activity and it is considered as the tendency to return to and continue working on a task with sustained engagement; “an internal state that arouses, directs and maintains behavior” (2001); and “a theoretical construct used to explain the initiation, direction, intensity, persistent, and quality of behavior, especially goal-directed behavior” (1997 , 2004). Regardless of the person’s age, motivation plays an important role in a person’s will to achieve his goal or accomplish something. It may be a means to an end or something that a person wants to achieve as the outcome of his action or work.

There are many different definitions of motivation.  Motivation has to do with a set of independent or dependent variable relationships that explain the direction, amplitude, and persistence of an individual’s behaviour, holding constant the effects of aptitude, skill and understanding of the task, and the constraints operating in the environment (1991).  It is the set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways (1998).

 

 

We can define motivation as the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organisational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need.  Motivation can be properly thought of as a process whereby people take certain available resources – their time, talent, and energy- and distribute them as they choose.  ( 1986)

 

Motivation is the result of the interaction between the individual and the situation.  Individuals differ in motivational drive, but overall motivation varies from situation to situation, motivation varies both between individuals and within individuals at different times ( 1997).  It may treat motivation as a need-satisfying process, an unsatisfied need, creates tension that stimulates drives within an individual.  These drives generate a search behaviour to find particular goals that, if attains, will satisfy the need and reduce the tension (1997).

 

2.4         Motivational Theories for Learning

Motivation of learning also includes psychoanalytic theories which suggest various fundamental influences. In this research study, the consideration of psychoanalytic theory is also considered to help the researchers understood how intrinsic motivation can help students succeed in the teaching and learning process. The theory of motivation is based on behavioral science of psychology and it served as the foundation of Sigmund Freud’s concept of psychoanalysis.  (1990) suggested that all action or behavior is a result of internal, biological instincts that are classified into two categories: life (sexual) and death (aggression). Other theories has evolved from this concept include: expectancy theory (motivation depends on how much an individual wants something relative to other things, and the perceived effort-reward probability that they will get it), Fredrick Herzberg’s theory (long-term motivation can be achieved if people are given challenging work where they can assume responsibility), and the impact of teamwork theory (teamwork, like self-determination and autonomy, affects work performance and motivation). However, many of Freud’s students broke with him over this concept. For example, 1993) and  (1968) proposed that interpersonal and social relationships are fundamental,  (1989) proposed power, while  (1953, 1997) proposed temperament and search for soul or personal meaningfulness.

 

2.4.1 Humanistic theory

 

The next important theory that must be considered in this research study is the humanistic theory by Abraham Maslow. Abraham Maslow (1954) studied both behavioral psychologies and psychoanalytic theories. Maslow’s motivation theory states that people’s behavior is controlled by both internal factors like the desire for a sense of achievement and external factors like support, care or approval from others. He believed that rewards like these may help the most basic needs and that the higher needs are achieved by self-actualisation (2003). In the business industry, rewards can be helpful for employees for them to be motivated in all their tasks. Giving high appraisal to employees can be a form of giving rewards to motivate them. Such type of rewards is very common in the teaching and learning process, to encourage students to study hard and do their tasks efficiently.

 

Rewards are often associated to  (1962) hierarchy of needs arranged on a continuum from extrinsic to intrinsic (see Table 1). He emphasizes that humans have the unique ability to make decisions and exercise their free-will. These include needs for creative self expression, satisfaction of curiosity, and other exploratory or skill enhancing activities that appear to be intrinsically motivated. Therefore, the emergence of intrinsic motivation explains the idea that people are driven to respond to felt needs with the notion that they often engage in activities not because they feel the need to but because they want to do them ( 1994 ; 2004).

 

Maslow’s model suggests (See Figure 1) that higher needs may not be recognized unless lower needs are satisfied. In other words, once physiological needs are met, people’s attention can be directed to higher needs (2004). For instance, if the basic needs are satisfied, people can appreciate interpersonal relationships which later make a person motivated to love and eventually begin to develop self-esteem and then seek self-actualization.

 

 

 

Figure 1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Model

 

In the classroom setting, teachers should be cautious about delivering rewards along a continuum and in multiples.  (1998) argued that people may value both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations at the same time since multiple behaviors possibly operate on multiple motivational needs simultaneously. In the classroom, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory suggests that if the students tired or hungry in going to school, they are unlikely to be motivated in doing class activities. Similarly, students who suffer emotionally are unlikely to take the intellectual risks. Rejection, anxiety, confusion, and other emotional burden hinder them from becoming creative and effective with their assignments or school tasks. Rational people usually want everything to make things in order or organized just to make sure their basic needs are always met ( 1996). Indeed,  (2004) asserts that Maslow’s model serves as a useful reminder for educators and parents  regarding the importance of addressing students’ lower needs along with their higher needs that are associated more closely with school learning to ensure that they will be motivated in achieving success in the class.

 

 

 

 

Table 1 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

1. Physiological needs (sleep, thirst)

2. Safety needs (freedom from danger, anxiety, or psychological threat)

3. Love needs (acceptance from parents, teachers, peers)

4. Esteem needs (mastery experiences, confidence in one’s ability)

5. Needs for self-actualization (creative self-expression, satisfaction of curiosity)

 (2004). Motivating Students to Learn.

 

2.4.2 Social Learning Theory

 

Social learning theory can also be considered in this study about the investigation of the intrinsic motivation among multicultural students. This theory suggests that modeling and vicarious learning motivate a person’s behavior as a consequence of other people’s behavior ( 2001).  (1969) explicitly rejected operant conditioning in explaining children’s behavior due to Skinner’s dismissal of direct reinforcement because Bandura, in talking about the concept of social learning, believes that reward expectancy or anticipated future benefits increases a person’s interest in engaging into an activity. Students learn not because they are after the effects of their own actions but they do so because their learning helps them solve life’s problems and they are intrinsically motivated based on the things they see from others (1977).

 

Later, Bandura stresses that despite the absence of extrinsic rewards, social learning can serve as a provider of motivation. By looking at other’s capabilities, a person is more likely to reflect on his own capability in imitating or doing something. According to  (1991), motivational levels are maintained once the learner establishes preferred environmental and social conditions for learning. Factors contributing to motivation include a general sense of self-efficacy and self-control. The engagement level is defined as “the point of contact between the motivational condition of the learner entering the learning situation and the active processing work required by the new learning task” (1991). Thus, self-efficacy has been conceptualized to explain that people will succeed at a given level of any tasks if they believe that they are able to do it ( 1986; 1997).  (1998) further explain that a person’s behavior does not depend on future rewards. They are irrelevant because behavior itself tends to keep a person in engaging in any activities as long as they like or are determined to do them.

 

The concept of self-efficacy has been widely used in the motivation research paradigm in the last decade.  (2003) study used self-efficacy in the context of the three domains – cognitive, behavioral and emotional. It assessed the self-efficacy of students’ achievement in mathematics through different dimensions like cognition, motivation, self-regulation, resource management, and self-assertiveness that regulate human functioning.  The result found various implications on learning such as: (1) A positive correlation between self-efficacy and academic achievement. (2) Perceived self-efficacy impacts on cognition, motivation, emotions and behavior through control and self-regulation. (3) Cognitive self-efficacy has a causal influence on motivation. (4) Motivational self-efficacy influences goals, outcome expectations and attributions. (5) Underpinning motivation and self-regulated behavior are goal setting, which has been     reported as an important cognitive process which impacts on achievement outcomes. (6) Perception of self-efficacy enables participation in activities, more resilience, leading to further acquisition of competencies. (7) Behavioral self-efficacy impacts on goal setting, cognition, affect and choice of environment (2003).

 

Social learning is a means of explaining behavior without expecting any extrinsic reward can possibly be reinforced based on cognition and ability. Results from  (2002) study affirms that self-efficacy theory that “individuals with higher self-efficacy believe their failures are due to lack of effort and that those with lower self-efficacy believe failure is due to lack of ability” ().

 

2.5         Motivation and Individual Goals

Motivation theorists recognize the role of individual goal as an important factor that affect learners’ achievement and performance.  (2002) define goals as “the intention to engage in desired status (outcomes or events), and goal commitments are the frameworks that individuals use to persist in their quests to develop the ability to reach their goals (1996; 1996;  1999; 1999; 1997;  2002)” Students are motivated to perform either to avoiding failures or attain success ( 1951 ;1996). (1964) divided these two achievement goals into 3 goal categories such as mastery learning goal, performance goal, and goal theory but  (2000) added a fourth category, called the social goals, which focuses on students’ high grades and performance.

 

 (1974) suggested that development of achievement must be examined from the context of the individual and the cultural or ethnic group of which he/she is a member and this behavior depends on and varies from culture to culture. To his study low need for achievement may be due to erroneous as assumptions about motivational inferiority. Different cultures may hold differing orientations toward the concept of achievement and may base success upon goals that differ significantly from one another.

 

C(2003) pointed out that recent studies in the field of achievement goal have begun to explore mastery goals and performance goal within different learning contexts. Cross-cultural research in students Self-Efficacy also reveals the ethnicity as an important variable in determining Self-Efficacy (1999; 1999; 1999 , 2003). This indirectly guides us to examine the teacher practices in a culturally diverse classroom context.

 

(1979) examined the effect of external reward on interest and quality of task performance in individual of high and low intrinsic motivation. In this study they mainly clarify the conditions under which material rewards have a detrimental effect upon individual’s later interest in the rewarded task Also the effect of a reward for drawing was measured with 24 individuals. The individuals were first grouped as high or low in initial interest on the basis of observation of time spent drawing, and half the individual in each group were given an expected reward for drawing, while the other half received no reward. Time spent drawing and “quality” of drawing were measured 1 week and 7 weeks later.

 

The results revealed that high initial-interest individual who received a reward lost interest when observed a week later, while the low-interest rewarded individual gained interest. By 7 weeks both groups returned to their original levels. At the time of the reward, high-interest rewarded subjects drew more drawings, but of poorer quality, than did the unrewarded high-interest individual. Low-interest individual who were rewarded also drew more than their unrewarded counterparts, but quality was not affected.

 

 (1981), were conducted an experiment to examine the relationships between cognitive level, intrinsic motivation, and responses to extrinsic rewards and praise. In summary, rewards had the following effects When intrinsic motivation for an appropriately challenging task was initially high, rewards decreased motivation and produced smaller increases in classification performance, when intrinsic motivation for a difficult task was initially low, rewards had little effect on motivation and  led to greater increases in classification performance than did no rewards. The effects of verbal praise were very similar to those of extrinsic rewards but not as strong. There were no significant effects of praise on intrinsic motivation in any of the cognitive groups and only a slight suggestion that praise sometimes improved subsequent test performance. Nevertheless, these non-significant overall effects may have masked important individual differences m response to praise. Their hypothesis was that individual with an internal locus of control would view praise as a confirmation of their competence and would  therefore show an increase m intrinsic motivation following praise, while individual with an external locus of control would view praise as an external reward and would respond to it as if it were a reward.

 

In contrast  (2004) noted the importance of praise and they pointed out that Interpersonal communication research suggests that praise increases a person’s intrinsic motivation, and in turn increases the amount of attention and time the person devotes to the task, and thereby the amount of learning that occurs. For example by .(1982) found that when a student was criticized for not successfully completing an easy task, the student’s expectation and perception of his/her own ability increased, suggesting this study provides evidence that well-intentioned responses may have negative or inverse reactions. Therefore, that praise and blame may play a role in helping individuals evaluate their own ability and in shaping self-concept.

 

The results of A (1983) showed that praise and criticism are not only received differently but that the person who delivers either the praise or criticism is also evaluated differently.  In a meta-analysis,  (1994) concluded that using verbal praise (versus reward or no praise) increases intrinsic motivation. The reason given for the increase is praise’s “informational value” and that “verbal praise is seen as giving the individual more confidence in their ability to complete the task.” The increase remains even when the praise is removed ( 1971). The primary consequence of increased intrinsic motivation is increased learning. Together these studies provide a clear link between praise and increased intrinsic motivation, and improved learning.

 

 have pointed out that motivational orientations influence the study strategies students adopt and subsequently influence academic achievement. Intrinsic motivation, viz. challenge, curiosity and independent mastery, and achievement goals, viz. mastery goal, performance approach and avoidance goals, were examined for their correlation with learning strategies and achievement. The results showed that the three subscales of intrinsic motivation were all positively and significantly related with deep strategy but not with surface strategy. Performance approach goal and performance avoidance goal were significantly and positively related to both deep and surface strategy while mastery goal was significantly related with deep strategy only. Academic achievement was positively and significantly related with deep but not surface strategy. Results of multivariate analysis showed significant differences in gender and level of study for the three variables under study.

 

However one of the greatest challenges of the human resource management today is fostering intrinsic motivation in learners- encourage a love of and desire- for life long learning. Research that provides a frame work for designing instruction that stimulates and sustains curiosity may provide one giant step in that direction ( 1995)

 

2.5.1   Mastery Goals

 

Mastery goals are related to intrinsic motivation, persistence and task mastery. These goals orient the student to focus on competence and also on mastery of the task or content ( 1999;  2000;  2002). It is argued that students with mastery goal are most likely to be involved in both the task and the learning. Therefore it is considered that those goals are positively associated with learning and achieving, and theses goals are also known to “lead to persistence in the face of difficulty, challenge seeking and intrinsic motivation (2001) with intent on self-development. As a result  (2000) states that students with Mastery goals exhibit higher level of efficacy, assignment value, interest and positive affect.

 

2.5.2   Performance Goals

 

Individuals achieving their goals through mastery are thought of as motivated and persistent while those working on achievement by way of performance goals may be less motivated and less persistent ( 2002). Performance goals are arise when the student is focused on how his or her ability and competence levels relate to others. Therefore it can be seen that these students are more competitive than other students but theorists tend to relate performance goals to avoidance, lack of motivation, and energy toward mastering task ( 2001;  2002). This is because goal theories help human resource management to identify strategies that would encourage students to adopt learning goals and in avoiding creating the sorts of pressures that dispose students toward performance goals or work-avoidant goals. Students are able to concentrate on learning activities if the managements ensure that activities given are significant. Therefore, they should not be distracted with fear failure or resentment in doing their tasks.

  2.5.3   Goal Theory

 

 (1996) showed that people’s thoughts, feelings and actions in a given situation are determined jointly by their personal goals and their appraisal of contextual factors. Several other researchers (1989; 1994; 1998) have demonstrated that personal goals give meaning to people’s life and that progression towards these goals enhances performance and well being, ( 2003)

 

 (2003) pointed out in her opinion that, a successful motivational account of cross cultural differences in student motivation and the way they adapt to multiple learning environments must also take account of the students’ personal goals. The most important question she asks is, “How are these goals connected to their ideal self and to the many scripts that they have available in their repertoire?”

 

  2.5.4 Social Goal

 

Social goals which focus on relationships among people (1992; 1986;  1995). In the context of school learning, which involves operating in a relatively structured environment, students with mastery goals outperform students with either performance or social goals. However, in life success, it seems critical that individuals have all three types of goals in order to be very successful.

 

2.6         Adult Learning and Employee Development

After understanding the theories of motivation, learning theories and the meaning of learning and development is going to be discussed.  Hotel industry is a fast moving and challenging industry in Hong Kong.  More and more hotels are going to be developed and the competition is great.  In order to maintain and have continuous improvement on customer services and products, continuous learning is essential to all staff in hotel industry.

 

The Demands on the skill, knowledge, performance, responsibility and integrity of the manager have doubled in every generation during the past half century.  Things which in the twenties only a few pioneers in top management were aware of we now expect young men straight out of school to be able to do.  Daring innovations of yesterday – market research, product planning, human relations, or trend analysis, for instance – have become commonplace.”  That means all managers and employees in a  co-operation have to keep on learning and improvement their skills and knowledge on their job.  Expectations of customers and guests are keep on increasing and in order to satisfied their needs and keep the advantages in the market.  Continuous improvement is essential.  For an organisation to keep on moving and improve, the development of their most important resources, employees, cannot be neglected.

 

Employee development is so important to a company.  What is employee development?  (1986). said “The professional practice of employee development occurs primarily, though not exclusively, in the context of organisations.  The concept of “organisation” itself is bound up with other, related concepts such as “management” and, by association, with ideas to do with “goals”, “strategy” and “functions”.  Therefore, employee development is link with the organisational development.  Both the development of the employees and the organisation should be in the same direction and with common goals.  The mission and goals of the organisation should be well communicated to all employees in order to development them to be valuable assets to the company.

 

Development is different from education or training.   (1997) stated that education is defined as activities which aim to develop the knowledge, skills, moral values and understanding required in all aspects of life rather than knowledge and skills relating to only a limited field of activity.  While training is a planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behaviour through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities.  Its purpose, in the work situation, is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy the current and future need of the organisation (1997).

 

On the other hand,  (1997) mentioned that development people as part of an overall human resources strategy means the skilful provision and organisation of learning experience, primarily but no exclusively in the workplace, in order that business goals and organisational growth can be achieved.  Such development must be aligned with the organisation’s vision and longer term goals in order that, through enhancing the skills, knowledge, learning and innovative capability of people at every level, the organisation as well as the individual can prosper.

 

According to  (1997), “Employee Development is a process to help people acquire and maintain the competence and commitment that will improve performance, quality, customer service and long-term organisational progress, aid recruitment and retention, and stimulate and support continuous individual development, help to enhance the skill and knowledge base of the organisation and of individuals.”  She also stated that “Developing people is a critical process whose most powerful contributions to the business are to do with the productivity, performance, knowledge development and organisational progress.  Its greatest benefits for individuals are to do with personal competence, growth, adaptability and continuous employability.”

 

According to  (1989), “The term “development” is used to describe a range of processes and experiences including formal education and training courses, whether in-company or provided by external institutions; training on the job; and activities such as project work, secondment and job rotation.  The field which is covered excludes undergraduate courses in management and business studies, but embraces all developmental activities at postgraduate or post-experience level.”

 

There is some of the learning theories, such as “Behaviorism” and “Experiential Learning”, these theories stated how people learn.  Behaviorism theories were introduced by a number of psychologists such as John B Waston (1878-1958),  (1834-1936) and  (1904-1990).  They argued that “knowledge of the learning process could only be derived from the objective observation of behaviour, since there could be no way of describing the operation of internal mental processes in expirical scientific terms.”

 

Watson assumed that most of our behaviour is acquired through learning, which is to say that it is the result of environmental rather than biological influences.  Thus the study of learning and the conditions under which it occurs became the core project of behaviourism.  ( 1997)   Watson also propounded the two principles of frequency and recency to explain learning: the principle of frequency states that the more frequently we have made a given response to a given stimulus in the past, the more likely we are to make the response when presented with that stimulus again, the principle of recency states that the more recently we have made a given response to a given stimulus, the more likely we are to make it again.

 

Pavlov’s discovery of classical or Pavlovian conditioning came about incidentally while he was investigating the physiology of the digestive system.  Working with dogs as his experimental subjects, he was able to show that when the sound of a metronome was paired regularly with the presentation of food, the sound of the metronome alone would elicit salivation.  Pavlov referred to the food as the “unconditional” stimulus and the sound of the metronome as the “conditional” stimulus.

 

Skinner argues that organisms simply emit responses which are gradually shaped by their consequences.  When a response has a rewarding consequence, it is more likely to occur again, when it has a non-rewarding consequence, it is less likely to occur again ( 1997)

 

Besides “behaviourism”, one of the other learning theories is, “Experiential Learning”.  Kolb’s four-stage experiential learning cycle, demonstrating the relationship between learning and individual experience, in which learning is represented as a continuous pattern of experiences based on reflection, theory building, theory testing and new experience. The individual relies upon personal experience and reflection in order to constantly construct and then modify the various concepts, rules and principles necessary to guide behaviour in new situation.  ( 1974)

 

In connection, if employee development is so important for the company, what would be the methods to develop the employee?  According to (2002), historically, many workplace learning programs have been created using one of two design approaches: a drawn-out pedagogical design process, or a hodgepodge of information consolidated into a training binder.  To be effective, however, it is essential for a learning program to integrate and reflect the business objectives of the organisation.  A modularized, goal-focused learning approach enables organisations to create training programs that are flexible, extensible, scalable, measurable, and adaptable.   She also mentioned that “a flexible program design enables immediate skill achievement in shorter amounts of time.  Because the smaller learning units are related back to a common set of goals and objectives, they can maintain a continued focus even though the moments of learning are sporadic”.  Besides, “designing training based on a total organisational perspective creates an extensible program that enables people to realize the full value of the learning experience.  Specially, when the training program is completed, learners understand how the materials relate to their position and how to successfully the required workplace tasks.

 

For adult learning and development, there might be differences in the methods of learning as adults have their own thoughts and are different from individual.  Different methods might be used for different adults and employees.

 

The formal knowledge transmitted through the official agents of an organisation, that is, its teachers and trainers, is not the only knowledge which employees are obliged to learn in order to perform well at work.  The existence of the informal side of organisations has long been acknowledged in the literature.  In all formal organisations, groups develop their own practices, values, norms and social relations as their members live and work together.  In some organisations, these informal practices function to smooth the operation official procedures, and their significance becomes apparent when workers refuse to utilize them, as, for example, when they “work to rule”, thereby disrupting the achievement of organisational objectives.  There are both formal training and informal training for employee in an organisation.  For adult learning, informal training is an important part in employee development and is widely used in most of the organisation.  For example, mentoring and coaching system, on-the-job training, e-learning and experiential learning etc are the approaches that usually used in most of the organisation, especially in hotels.

 

Another major contextual influence on learning at work is the nature of the work role.  The issue of relevance to workplace learning is the role that training plays in the development of an occupational identification.  The development of a personal identification with the work role is not an inevitable result of workplace learning, but where the occupation requires extensive training, as in preparation for the professions and for craft work, the process of skill acquisition inevitably involves the taking of an occupational identity.  The work of Robin Snell suggested that organizational structures play a large part in determining the type of learning taking place within an organisation.  Despite the learning methods, there are still many other external factors that might affect the learning of an adult and their development.

 

Another term that was relatively new to adult learning is “open learning”.  According to  (1988), we prefer to define open learning as both a process which focuses on access to educational opportunities and a philosophy which makes learning more client and student cent red.  It is learning which allows the learner to choose how to learn, when to learn, where to learn and what to learn as far as possible within the resources constraints of any education and training provision, one example of open learning recently is e-learning, which is very popular for employee development nowadays.

 

2.7         Motivation in Relation with Employee Development

 

According to (1999), “ The first step involved in planning to further your education is an understanding your motivation to do so.  You may have decided to change careers or perhaps you have gone as far as you can in your career without a degree – or you may want to complete a degree program that was interrupted in the past.   Understanding your motivation will help you make decisions and keep you on track.  Motivation provides the energy for focus.  Focus concentrates your powers, efforts and attention to get you from here to your goal.”  Same as an organisation, it is important for an organisation to understand the motivation factors for their employees so that they can keep on the track to develop their employees to cope with the Organisational objectives.

 

Motivation is a very complicated theory and everyone in the world might have different things to motivate them.  Referring to  (2001), he mentioned that there is no single way for motivating all people.  The different levels of motivation with which the people come to the class are affected by many other factors – including the self confidence and self-esteem of the people, and the external drive to do well.”  He also mentioned that, “Motivation is usually separated into two different categories – intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.”  “Intrinsic motivation is determined by an interest in learning and mastery, curiosity and preference for challenge and leads to a mastery goal orientation.  Extrinsic motivation is determined by the external rewards – money, tokens, teacher/parent approval and leads to a performance goal orientation.  These two types of motivation will therefore influence the type of learning and the strategies that the student will use.” 

 

The approach adopted by  is similar to that advocated by another North American, Mezirow, who suggests that employees should participate freely in collaborative problem-solving, and engage in the continual re-negotiation of activities and priorities.  Mezirow also advocates that employees be encouraged to think critically and reflectively, to question what is taken for granted, including organisational norms and objectives, and be encouraged to engage in self-directed learning.  Marsick characterizes this type of approach to learning as a product of an organisational environment which encourages : reflection on practices; full and free dialogue about the meaning of goals, norms and values; concern for “setting” the problem as well as solving it; public enquiry and experimentation which leads to new approaches to action; reflection on learning ; enhancement of self-esteem and self-directedness; internal rather than external motivation; continuous informal learning on the job.

 

Research suggests that transfer and motivation are mutually supportive in creating an optimal learning environment.  If the learner perceives what he is learning to be relevant and transferable to other situations, he will find learning meaningful, and his motivation to acquire the skill or knowledge will increase.  Similarly, for transfer to take place, the learner must be motivated to do two things.  First, he must be able to recognize opportunities for transfer (Prawat, 1989) ;  second, he needs to possess the motivation to take advantage of these opportunities.  ( 1988)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

2.8         Motivation in Relation with Employee Development

Besides to know more about the motivator for employee development, to know more about the de-motivator of employee development is also essential.  To avoid the de-motivation of adult learning can enhance the development of the employee also.

 

According to (1990), in a number of competitive environments, many managers might prove resistant to changes in learning methods.  One reason for unwillingness to try new ways of learning may derive from what terms as “psychological-cultural blockage.  This term refers to a resistance on behalf of the individual which results from internalised values and beliefs about accepted ways of learning.”  He identifies a number of blockages, such as “managers who suffer distress but do not learn from it, instead focusing all their energies on blame or a desire for retribution; managers fear of perturbation, or the confusion which is often associated with learning through self-discovery; the organisation refusing to provide the manager with the time and emotional support necessary for him or her to reflect meaningfully on their learning experiences; lack of an appropriate “worldview” among managers which would enable them to take advantage of freebie learning opportunities.”

 

 (1990) identifies a number of organizational or structural blockages which also inhibit learning.  One reason why the organisation might not endorse new ways of thinking lies in the dissemination of management information.  The various levels of management usually require different types of information in order to perform their specific tasks.  For example, high-level managers do not need always need extremely detailed data in order to make long-term strategic decisions; whereas low-level manager usually rely upon the very minutiae of a potential scheme in order to make appropriate decisions.  As a result, each level of management seeks to protect their own parochial interests within separate spheres of competence.  Individuals who are well versed in the art of “office politics” can cover up common mistakes and thus avoid potentially embarrassing situations.  (1990)

  Chapter 3 Methodology

 

This chapter will discuss the methods and procedures used and done in the study: the research method, the respondent of the study, the data collection method, the validation of the instrument and the statistical treatment of data.

 

3.1                                      Research Method Used

            The mixed method approach will be used in this study to meet the objective of this dissertation. Mixed method is a research approach in which qualitative and quantitative techniques are used in a single study. Accordingly, a mixed methods purpose of statement needs to convey both qualitative and quantitative purpose of premises (2002).  In addition, mixed method of research takes a realistic, eclectic and common sense approach to the research study. Mixed method also utilizes both inductive and deductive methods collates qualitative and quantitative data, attempts to confirm and complement findings and attempts to have a balance approach to research.

For this study, primary research and secondary research will be used. Primary research will be conducted using the data that comes from the staffs and employees of three hotels in Marriott The researcher will also conduct focus interview to the three managers of the hotels in Marriott Group. The data will be analyzed and compiled for the correlation of the hypothesis. The data about the respondents’ perception about the motivators and de-motivator preferences of the employees as well as the link or relationship between employee development and motivation will then be presented by means of graphical representations and illustration and the difference would be highlighted. For this study, primary research and secondary research will be utilized. Primary research is conducted using questionnaire surveys that will be distributed to the employees of the hotels. Here, the questionnaires will be used to collect quantitative data and the interviews will be used to provide qualitative insights into the data collected. As stated above, this research will partially base its findings through quantitative research methods because this permits a flexible and iterative approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This study will also employ qualitative research method because it will try to find and build theories that will explain the relationship of one variable with another variable through qualitative elements in research. Through this method, qualitative elements that do not have standard measures such as behavior, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs about motivation and employee development will be analyzed.

A mixed method approach may also lead the researcher to modify or expand the data collection methods or the research design. This undertaking can happen when the use of mixed methods uncovers variations and irregularity that alert the researcher to the need for re-examining the data collection methods.

 

3.2                                      Data Collection

 

For this research design, the researcher gathered data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from social science journals; and make a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material related to the motivation, motivation theories and employee development  models and adult learning concepts.  Afterwards, the researcher will summarize all the information, make a conclusion based on the null hypotheses posited and provided insightful recommendations on relationship between the motivation and employee development. The quantitative and qualitative research techniques that will be employed in this present study are discussed in detail below.

 

3.3                                      Respondents of the Study

 

All of these participants were selected through random sampling. This sampling method is conducted where each member of a population has an equal opportunity to become part of the sample. As all members of the population have an equal chance of becoming a research participant, this is said to be the most efficient sampling procedure. In order to conduct this sampling strategy, the researcher defined the population first, listed down all the members of the population, and then selected members to make the sample. In this research studies, 200 employees were chosen to participate in the study. However, due to some reasons only 136 questionnaires have returned and used in the analysis of the study.

 

3.4                                      Research Instrument

From Part A to D of the questionnaire, the hotel employees are to evaluate each of the factors on a five-point response scale of 1= Very Unimportant / Strongly Disagree / Very Unlike to 5 = very important / Strongly agree / Very like on factors of motivation and de-motivation, learning style and learning environment.  In Part E, the preferred time range of training is evaluated.   It also provided an open-end question at the end, Part F, in order to find out any other factors and barriers that will affect their learning other than those factors stated above in the questionnaire and some other information on how they think about the training and learning opportunities provided by their company.  The motivational factors on learning were to a great extent similar to those identified in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs factors, in order to see any correlation between learning intent and the motivation factors and levels. “Self-actualization “, Self-esteem needs”, “ Love and Belongingness needs”, “ Safety needs and Physiological needs”.

 

The questionnaire consisted of demographic question in Part G, details sought included gender, department, position level, martial status, age, income level, education level and period working in the hotel.  It is advisable to obtain certain demographic data.  Such data will help to describe the sample characteristics.  Those personal data will be asked at the end of the questionnaire.  “Some people advocate asking for personal data at the end rather than at the beginning of the questionnaire.  Their reasoning may be that by the time the respondent reaches the end of the questionnaire he or she would have been convinced of the genuineness of the inquiry made by the researcher and help reduce respondent bias in case the respondent gets irritated by the personal nature of the questions” ( 2003).  Besides, a part of personal information was designed to be added in the questionnaire in order to obtain personal contact information so that hotel staff can be contacted to arrange personal interview randomly to obtain more related information and data.  However, this is optional to the hotel staff and they have the right to choose to fill in their personal data or not.

 

 

3.5                                      Gaining Consent

Securing permission and gaining the consent of the participants for this study is an important ethical consideration. In order to do so, the researcher relayed the aims of the research clearly among all selected participants. Each participant was asked to accomplish a consent form, stating in detail all the activities involved as well as the purpose of the study.

 

The reasons why they were selected as participants were also stated so as to enable the selected participants to connect the aims of the research with that of the participant qualifications. In the consent form, the researcher also discussed in detail all the treatments or procedures that will be done during the research process.

 

Building rapport and gaining the trust of the participants has been considered essential throughout the research process. These helped in ensuring the cooperation and willingness of the participants to give dependable and sufficient data that were relevant to the study.

 

Although the participants may initially give their consent for the research process, the researcher also gave the assurance that they are allowed to withdraw from the study even without providing any reason. By giving this freedom, the participants did not feel forced to participate in the process.

 

The possible risks that may be included in the research were also discussed to the participants to gain their consent. More importantly, the methods or mechanisms that are to be used to prevent these risks were also included. The researcher practiced openness and honesty all throughout the study to assure the research respondents that their security and safety is of utmost priority. All of these factors to gain the consent of the research participants were discussed in the most comprehensive manner based on their level of understanding.

 

3.6                                      Data Analysis

3.6.1        Data Analysis

 

In terms of data analysis, correlations tables and charts would be used.  Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage and mean score were used to analyze the data.  Tables were used to compare any differences of motivators between several demographics characteristic.

 

The respondents’ rating for each factor was added and divided by the total number  of respondents, a mean score for all items were calculated.  The highest mean score indicated the most important motivational items and so on.  By comparing the mean scores on motivational items between respondents in different demographic variables which acquired in Part G of the questionnaire, it can provide evidence to show any demographic differences may affect the staff’s perception on the importance of various learning related factors.

 

Frequencies may be used to provide statistic of the demographic variables such as gender, department, position level, martial status, age, income level,  educational level and period working in the hotel etc.

 

The survey results showed that hotel employees’ motivational factors on learning across departments are relatively similar.  Since no statistical analysis on the differences are carried out, it cannot be ascribe any significance to those differences; however, the table was used to illustrate the importance ranking of various motivators on learning by different departments.

 

3.6.2        Re-grouping

 

For easy to analysis, some of the respondents’ demographical data were regrouped.  Position level were regrouped from 3 groups to 2 groups, there were general staff and supervisors or above.  Age were regrouped from 5 groups to 3 groups, there were aged between 21-30, between 31-40 and 41 aged or above.  The monthly income level were also reclassified from 5 groups to 3 groups, there were $ 8,001 to ,000, ,001 to ,000 and ,001 or above.  In addition, educational level were regrouped from 3 groups to 2 groups, they were secondary school and tertiary or university.  The length of service in these companies were reclassified from 5 groups to 4 groups, they were under 1 year, 2-5 years, 6-9 years and more than 10 years.

3.6.3        Limitation

 

Four limitations of this study should be considered.  Because of the limited time and resources, the samples of the study only conducted to three particular hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong.  This affected the degree of representative of the study and hence, the results and findings cannot be generalized to the hotel industry in Hong Kong.

 

If the portion size of each demographics variables is not evenly distributed, the data values would be modified by recording in order to explain the results in a more meaningful way.  For example, age, income level, position level, educational level and length of service in organisations would be re-classified.  Thus, the outputs may not be the same as the original of questionnaire.

 

All data collected are valid on the date of collection and any subsequent changes cannot be accounted for or adjusted.  All data or information provided by the respondents was assumed to be true and correct.

 

 

3.7                                      Statistical Treatment of the Data

After the collection of information from questionnaire, and related studies, the researcher collated all the data.  The statistical analysis for the information from semi-structure questionnaire was conducted using Microsoft Excel where the data is tabulated, graphed, and evaluated.

 

 The testing of the level of significance was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and tabulated in the Excel files.  The SPSS is the standard software in conducting statistical analysis.

Percentage – to determine the magnitude of the responses to the questionnaire:

                                                            Where:  n = number of responses

                                                                          N = total number of respondents

 

 

Weighted Mean:

                                                Where: f – weight given to each response

                                                             x – Number of responses

                                                             xt – total number of responses

To evaluate the information gathered, the percentage analysis and mean analysis are used

 

Chapter 4 Findings & Results

            This part of the paper discusses the results of the analysis of the data gathered from the respondents of the study.  

4.1                                    Profile of Respondents

 

Of the 200 questionnaires distributed, 136 were returned, representing a 68% response rate.  Table 4.1 illustrates the profile of respondents.

 

Of the 136 respondents, 54.4% were male and 45.6% were female.  The Food & Beverage Department was with the highest response rate (30.9%) followed closely by the Housekeeping Department, accounts and Engineering Department, with 25.7%, 13.2% and 11%, respectively.  Then, the Front Office, Sales Department and Human Resources Department, account for 8.1%, 7.4% and 3.7%, respectively.

 

General staff accounted for 77.2% of respondents, with 22.8% supervisors and managers, 41.2% were single while 58.8% were married.  Furthermore, 41.9% of respondents were aged between 21-30, followed by those aged between 31-40 (31.6%) and aged 41 or above (26.5%).  18.4% were earned from HK,001 to HK,000, 51.5% were earned from HK,001 to HK,000 and only 30.1% were earned more than HK,001.  Most of the respondents completed secondary school education (80.9%) and 19.1% completed the tertiary or university level of education.  Finally, most of the respondents have been working in the Marriott Group for two to five years (41.2%), followed by six to nine years (24.3%), ten years or above (19.1%) and under one year (15.4%).

 

 

Table 4.1 Respondent’s profile  

 

 

Frequency

Percentage

Sex

Male

Female

 

74

62

 

54.4

45.6

 

Department

Account

Engineering

Food & Beverage

Front Office

Human Resources

Housekeeping

Sales

 

18

15

42

11

5

35

10

 

13.2

11

30.9

8.1

3.7

25.7

7.4

 

Position

General Staff

Supervisor

 

105

31

 

77.2

22.8

 

Martial Status

Single

Married

 

56

80

 

41.2

58.8

 

Age

21-30

31-40

> 41

 

57

43

36

 

41.9

31.6

26.5

 

Monthly Income

,000-,000

,000-,000

>,000

 

25

70

41

 

18.4

51.5

30.1

 

Education Level

Secondary School

Tertiary / University

 

110

26

 

80.9

19.1

 

Length of Service in this Company

Under 1 year

2-5 year

6-9 years

>10 years

 

21

56

33

26

 

15.4

41.2

24.3

19.1

4.2                                     Overall Ranking of Motivational Factors and De-motivation Factors

 

Hotel workers in this study rated “Interest and desire to learn new things” first among the eight motivational factor (M=4.43).  “Enhance job knowledge” and “Reward from achievement” were rated second (M=4.41), and “Request by company” was rated third (M=4.27).  The followed are “Sense of Achievement” and “Opportunities to meet more new friends” (M=4.12).  The least important motivational factors for the hotel workers were “Peers pressure from friends or colleagues” (M=3.79), and “increase the competency” (M=3.66).

 

Table 4.2a Overall mean rankings of motivational factors on employee development

 

Factor

Ranking

Mean Ranking

Interest and Desire to Learn New Things

Enhance Job Knowledge

Reward from Achievement

Request by Company

Sense of Achievement

Opportunities to Meet More New Friends

Peers Pressure from Friends or Colleagues

Increase the Competency

1

2

2

4

5

5

7

8

4.5

4.4

4.4

4.2

4.1

4.1

3.8

3.6

 

Interest and desire to learn new things are the first priority that the employee in the three hotels rated.  Unlike individual, adult learn in a very different way.  Adults have their own thought and will choose what they want and interest to learn and what not to.  For example, they prefer to learn something related to their work and can be beneficial to themselves in their current job and for their future development.  According to  (1988), “ e prefer to define open learning as both a process which focuses on access to educational opportunities and a philosophy which makes learning more client and student centred.  It is learning which allows the learner to choose how to learn, when to learn, where to learn and what to learn as far as possible within the resources constraints of any education and training provision.”  For example, having succession program for employee is one of the ways to motivate them to learn.   Provide cross-training or external training to develop the potential employee so that they will be ready for the next step and to be promoted to a higher position in the company in the future.  So that the company can retain the potential employees and at the same time, the employee can have a better development in their career.  That is a win-win situation and both the employee and company can be developed.

 

“Enhance job knowledge” and “reward from achievement” was rated as the second.  According to  (1997), “Employee Development is a process to help people acquire and maintain the competence and commitment that will improve performance, quality, customer service and long-term organisational progress, aid recruitment and retention, and stimulate and support continuous individual development, help to enhance the skill and knowledge base of the organisation and of individuals”.  Adults want to learn what are related to their job and work, or else, they may think that what they learn is useless to them.  Therefore, that may be are the reasons for why people in the three hotels find “enhance job knowledge”.  “Reward from Achievement “was rated as the second also.  According to the three-needs theory form (1985) has focused his efforts on three patterns of motivation: need for achievement, need for power and need for affiliation.  (1986).  Rewards and sense of achievement are also important factors for motivating employees’ development.  For example, a certificate of reward, being empowered to be a departmental trainer, or being a mentor for new employees.  Such things are one of the best motivators for employees to learn and further develop themselves.  Empowerment make employees feel that they are being respect and their good performances are being appreciated.  That will encourage them to learn more and have continuous improvement on their work.  According to Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, the psychologist Maslow organised human needs on five general levels.  There are physiological needs (food, water, shelter), safety needs (protection), social needs (belonging, acceptance), ego or esteem needs (achievement, appreciation) and self-fulfilment needs (need to realize one’s potential).  And “Reward from achievement” should be under the esteem need category that is in a higher level.

 

“Request by company” was rated as the forth one.  With the relatively high unemployment rate resulting from the economic downturn, some of the companies are shut down or have cut the headcount in order to save the cost.  The unemployment rate kept on rising dramatically from 2.2% in 1997 to 9.3% in 2005 (Hong Kong Census & Statistics Department).  Thus, “request by company” may be is one of the main concern area for the employee of the hotels to development themselves, particularly for Hong Kong people in these years.  It leads the employees to aware of the importance of being gainfully employed and keeping their job by developing themselves so as assist in developing the company.  They will do whatever the company wants them to in order to keep their job, include attending necessary training workshops.  Although the unemployment rate in Hong Kong is getting lower in 2005, the fears of unemployed and mass redundancy were still influencing the employee in the hotel industry.

 

“Sense of Achievement” and “Opportunities to meet more new friends” was rated as the fifth ones.  Being respected by the employer and peers and meeting more new friends are also important motivators for employees in hotel to learn.  However, they were not as important as those factors stated above.  Employees in hotel usually work for long hour’s everyday.  They usually work for ten to twelve hours per day and six days per week (except JW Marriott hotel that work only five days per week).  That means the employees may work in the hotel for 60 to 72 hours per week.  The relatively high living standards in Hong Kong and the weak social welfare system may be responsible for the high value that Hong Kong People place on good wages (1999).  The lack of social benefits makes people consider “Good wages”as important factors.  Therefore, they prefer to work over-time everyday to gain more money instead of development themselves.  Technically Hong Kong people can enjoy only “old aged pension”, called as “fruit pension” after retirement, and limited medical service.  For example, HK0 has to be paid for emergency service in hospital.  

 

Additionally, there was the relatively low wages in service-sector jobs (1995).  Therefore, employees in hotel will spend most of their time to work in the company in order to gain more money and keep their job.  Also, they have to work at shift hours.  It is difficult for them to schedule a time to meet their friends or even their own family members.  That may be is one of the reasons why they want to gain more opportunity to meet more friends to improve their social life.  Therefore, “Opportunities to meet more new friends are also one of the important motivators for them to learn.

 

“Peer pressure from friends and colleagues” is rated relatively lower.  Hong Kong hotel employees seem to prefer that employers and colleagues better not to interfere with their personal lives too much.  The reason behind may be the fear of “losing face” or protection of their social self.  Losing “face” is the ultimate social sanction and is a real dread affecting the nervous system and stronger than physical fear ( 1992).  They prefer making their own decisions by themselves and work independently.  Peers pressure might not be so important to be a motivator for them to have further development.

 

And the last one is “increase the competency”.  The reason why “increase the competency” was rated as the lowest may be is because employees in the hotels do not think that developing themselves by further study or attending training workshop can increase their competency.  In Hong Kong’s hotel industry, academic background is not as important as the working experience.   Employees in hotel do think that their technical skill and real working experience is much more important than attending training workshops to learn new things.  Also, we can see from the respondent’s profile that most of the employees in the hotels are of lower academic background, elder in age and with longer year of services.  That may be in also one of the reasons that they do not think learning to increase the competency is important to them.

 

Table 4.2b Overall mean rankings of de-motivational factors on employee development

 

Factor

Ranking

Mean Ranking

Irrelevant of Content to existing job

Using non-working hours to attend training course

No interest in the content

No need to learn new things in current position

1

2

3

4

4.2

4.0

3.8

3.6

 

“Irrelevant of content to existing job” was the first priority that the employee in the three hotels rated that de-motivated them on developing themselves most.  Employee in hotel does not want to spend time on something that is not relevant to their existing job, that means do not beneficial to their work.  Same as mentioned above, adult is different from individual, adult will choose something “useful” to learn and to develop themselves.

 

“Using non-working hours to attend training course” was rated as the second.  Employee in hotel always has long working hours.  They might have to work for ten to twelve hours a day and six days a week most of the time.  Therefore, using non-working hours to attend training course might be an important de-motivator for them as it might decrease their personal leisure time.   That might affect their personal life and they will have less time to spend with their family, friends or taking rest.  Also, most of the employees in hotel are doing the services and usually they felt both physically and mentally tired after long working hours.  They might prefer taking more rest in non-working hours instead of attending training courses to develop themselves.

 

“No interest in the content” was rated as the third one.  Interest is always important for adult learning.  If an adult have no interest on the topic or content, it is difficult to force an employee to learn.

 

Finally, “No need to learn new things in current position” was rated as the most not important de-motivational factor.  Most of the employee in the three hotels rated this factor as the lowest.  That proved that most of the employee in the hotels does think that they need to learn new things no matter what position they are now working at.  Both managerial and general grading staff thinks that they have the needs to learn new thing to cope with the fast moving industry.

 

 

4.3                                     Departmental Difference

Table 4.3 Departmental Difference

 

A/ C s

Eng

F & B

FO

HR

HSKP

Sales

Interest and desire to learn new things

1

2

1

2

1

3

1

Enhance Job Knowledge

2

4

2

1

2

1

3

Reward from achievement

3

3

4

5

3

4

2

Request by company

6

1

3

3

7

2

7

Sense of Achievement

4

6

5

4

5

6

5

Opportunities to meet more new friends

8

7

6

6

6

5

6

Peers pressure from friends of colleagues

7

5

7

8

4

7

4

Increase the competency

5

8

8

7

8

8

8

                                                                                                        

Referring to Table 3a, Accounts, Human Resources and Sales Department employees have similar motivational profiles on employee development and learning.  The first three factors for them were “interest and desire to learn new things”, “enhance job knowledge” and “Reward from achievement”.  Still, employees from Human Resources and Sales department considered “Peers pressure from friends or colleagues” more important than Accounts Department.  Instead of seeking new knowledge and development opportunities, Human Resources and Sales Department employees seems to value social needs with friends and co-workers more than the other departments.

 

Operational departments like Housekeeping Department, Food and Beverages Department, Engineering Department, and Front Office Department employees were quite close in some of their views of the motivational factors on employee development.  They all rated “Requested by company” as one of the top three priority motivational factors.  They tend to follow instructions of the company to attend training courses and learn new things instead of having interest and initiatives to develop themselves.  “Request by company” may reflect to the factor of job security to the employees.  They tend to follow instructions of the company because they are afraid that they may loss their job. 

 

“Interest and desire to learn new things”, “Enhance job knowledge”, “Reward from achievement” and “Request by company” are the first fourth priority for them.  Similarly, all operational departments rated the above fourth as top priorities including “Request by company” but those office staff did not rate this at the top.  They expressed the importance of “Request by company” could be attributed to the nature of the job, since they may face greater difficulties in switching to other industries.  Food & Beverages workers, Housekeeping workers, Engineering workers and Front Office workers were trained to have specific technical skills to serve the hotel customers.  However, those skills may not be useful when working in other industries.

 

  Table 4.3b Ranking of de-motivational factor for learning by department

 

 

A/Cs

Eng

F & B

FO

HR

HSKP

Sales

Irrelevant of content to existing job

1

1

1

1

2

1

1

Using non-working hours to attend training course

3

2

2

2

4

2

4

No interest in the content

2

4

3

3

1

4

2

No need to learn new thing in current position

4

3

4

4

3

3

3

 

According to table 3b, most of the departments in the three hotels, except Human Resources department, rated “Irrelevant of content to existing job” the most important de-motivator for learning and development.  This showed that the employees in hotels expect to learn what are related and relevant to their job.  They do not want to spend time to learn something useless to their existing job or cannot assist them on their career development.

 

Also, we can see from the result that most of the office employees rated “Using non-working hours to attend training course” lower than those operational employees.  For office employees, they do not mind to spend their own time to learning new things that are relevant to their existing job or they have interest at.  However, for those operational staff, they prefer learning on paid working hours.  That means the company will pay salary to them during their learning time.  They do not want to spend their own time to learn additional knowledge.  That may due to their long working hours and rotational working shifts which may cause physically tired.  They prefer spending more time on their personal and family life.  That also may reflect that the employees in operational departments do not have a balance of work and life.

 

All departments similarly rated “ No need to learn new thing in current position” lower.  This is not an important de-motivator for them.  That means they expect that they have the need to learn new things no matter what position they are at.  Especially in the fast moving hotel industry, continuous improvement is essential.  And referring to Herzberg’s Motivational Hygiene Theory, according to which demotivators (or “hygiene factor”) have to be reduced as well as motivators (or”incentives”) increased, to develop positive motivation (1966).  Therefore, hotels should try to reduce such demotivators, for example, using working hours to conduct training courses for their staff to learn, in order to motivate their staff to have further development so that is not only benefit the staff, but also the hotels.

 

 

4.4                                    Gender Differences

Besides departmental differences, gender differences were also studied.  Male rated “Sense of Achievement” and “Reward from Achievement” a relatively higher priority than female.  This indicated that male want more the “Feeling of success and achieved” in order to develop their career path and chase for learning opportunities in the organisation.  According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, it should be in the level of “Ego or esteem needs (achievement, appreciation).  However, female  rates “Request by company” and “opportunities to meet more new friends” relatively higher than the males.  It reflects that female think “Job Security” and “Social Relationship” is quite important and essential to them.  It is because since the Hong Kong Business world is male dominated in tradition male accounts for 74.8% in the labour force, while women only accounts for 49.5% in 1999 (Hong Kong Census & Statistics Department).  Female employees are still aware of the importance of gainfully employed and so, job security became a powerful tool to keep them further develop themselves by learning more.  Thus “Job Security” would be an important consideration when compared with “Sense of Achievement”.

 

4.5                                     Martial Status

 

There were 56 single employee and 80 married employee feedback on the survey.  It was revealed that the mean score of “Reward from achievement” were the major differences for single and married employees.  The mean of single employees were 4.8, but the mean of married employees were 4.0.  Single employees rate “Reward from achievement” relatively higher than married employees.  This indicated that single employees tended to spend more time on developing their career and chase for learning opportunities in the organisation, they are willing to spend lots of time to work overtime and to develop their career path.  However, married employees may be are more inclined to strike a balance between work and family life.  It is because married employees may bear a burden on the family, such as housework, education of individual and so forth.   Thus, they may not spend as much time in their career development and learning.

 

4.6                                     Preferred Learning Methods

 

Table 4.6a Overall Mean Rankings of Preferred Learning Methods

 

Learning Methods

Ranking

Mean Ranking

Mentoring

On-the-job Training

Classroom Learning

E-learning

Distance Learning

1

2

3

4

5

4.5

4.4

4.2

3.9

3.5

 

 

“Mentoring” was rated the highest among all learning methods.  In hotel industry, working experience is very important.  According to the Elsie Leung, Assistant Training Manager of New World Renaissance Hotel, “Working experience is always very important for working in the hotel industry. Specific skills were required for working in a hotel which cannot be learnt in hotel schools.  No matter how good is your academic results, you may not know how to handle complaints from the guest or how to serve guests in a good manner and attitude in the hotel.  On-the-job training and mentoring are effective learning methods in most of the hotel in Hong Kong.  Sharing of experience of the mentors with the mentees and coaching them when they are working or even after work can really hep the new joiners to learn faster.”

 

“On-the-job Training” was rated as the second.  In hotel industry, job knowledge cannot be learnt from books only.  On-the-job training therefore became one of the preferred learning methods of the hotel employees.  They prefer learning by trial and to have real working experience, rather than just listen or reading books.  For example, to learn how to open a bottle of wine, you can never learn how to open it if you have not really experience it before.  Thus, on-the-job training was one of the priority learning methods for the hotel employees.

 

The third one was the “Classroom Learning”.  Referring to Elsie Lau, “ There are many customer services training courses which are compulsory for all the employees in the hotel.  Also, there are some supervisory skills courses which are compulsory for all the employees who are supervisory grade or above.  Besides, there are also training on languages, technical skills for each specific department, first aid etc.  We do have external training courses also, depends on the needs of the department and employee.  For the internal courses, most of them are classroom training.  In order to be more efficient and effective, classroom training is one of the most proper ways of training in the hotel.  The capacity will be around 20 for each class.  Exercises will be done in the training workshop in order to ensure understanding of each employee.”

 

“E-learning” was rated as the forth one.  As the educational background and age range of the employee in the hotel were various, e-learning may not be a good method for most of the hotel employee to learn and develop themselves, some of the employee in the hotels are low educated and with lower skilled.  They even do not know how to operate the computer, for example, the housekeeping attendant and the dishwashers.  Some of them are of elder age and may not know how to do the e-learning. Therefore, it may not be a popular method of training in the hotel.  However, it may be a good method for those more educated office staff when compared.

 

And the one rated at the last is “Distance Learning”.  Distance Learning is a kind of learning that depends on the initiative of the employee very much.  However, the flexibility is much greater.  The hotel employee rated it as the last priority may because that they want to learn something “teach” by the other instead of learning by them.  They may think that the traditional or practical learning are the most proper ways of them to learn.

 

4.7                                     Preferred Learning Environment

 

Table 4.7a Overall mean rankings of preferred learning environment

 

Learning Environment

Ranking

Mean Ranking

Group

Individual

In working are / in company

Out of working area / Out of company

1

2

3

4

4.5

4.2

4.0

3.6

 

“Group Learning” was rated the highest among all learning environment.  The hotels employee preferred to learn in a Group rather that learning individually.  That might because they usually work in a team in their daily work.  Therefore, they also prefer to learn in a team instead.  That because a habit for them and they used to work and learn in a group.  However, it can be seen in the data that most of the operation staff preferred to learn in a group while the office staff preferred to learn individually more.

 

Table 4.7b Mean Score of preferred learning environment for office and operation staff

 

Learning Environment

Office

Operation

Group

Individual

In working area/ In Company

Out of working are / Out of company

4.1

4.5

3.5

4

4.9

3.9

4.5

3.2

 

 “Individual Learning” was rated the second among all learning environment.  However, most of the operational staff preferred to learning in a group while those office staff preferred to learn individually more.  That might due to the different working environment and habits for their work.  Usually, office staff works independently while operational staff works in a team more.  That might tend to the differences on their preferred learning environment

 

Learning “in working are / in company” were rated as the third.  And it is similar to the above findings.  There are some differences for the office and operation staff.  Seems most of the operational staff tends to choose to learn in their working area / in company.  While the office staff chooses to learn outside their working are / outside company.  That might because of the operational staff usually have physical movements all the times during their working while the office staff usually working in the office sitting on the chair most of the time.  They might want to go out to have some movements during their learning so that they can have a fresh mind to learn.  However, for those operational staff, they preferred to stay at the hotel for on-job training or classroom training instead of going out to have physical movements.

 

Finally, “Out of working area /out of company” were rated as the forth and usually the office staff rated it higher than the operational staff.  According to Elsie Leung, Assistant Training Manager of New World Renaissance Hotel, “sometimes we will organise some training workshop outside the hotel, for example, in the Gold Coast or in some outside training centres.  External training will be provided to our staff when necessary also.  For example, some managerial training, First aid training and training courses for specific skills like those of engineering.  However, most of the customer services and supervisory skills training will be conducted in the hotel.  As the number of participants is much more, so in order to make our staff more convenience when attending the training courses, we usually held in our own properties.  They like to attend the training course in their own property; usually they will enrol for the training workshop in their own properties if they have a choice.  But of course, in order to minimize the resources, we will co-run some training courses for the three hotels and the staff of the other two hotels might have to travel to the third hotel to attend the training workshop.”

 

4.8                                     Preferred Time Range

 

Table 4.8 Overall mean rankings of time range

 

Time range

Ranking

Mean Ranking

More than 3 days

3 days

1 day

2 days

Under 4 hours

1

2

3

4

4

4.6

4.5

4

3.5

2.5

 

 Followed by the “preferred time range” of the training and learning in the hotels.  Employees in the three hotels rated ”more than 3 days” as the highest.  From the result of the survey, seems they preferred to have long training to short training.  That may due to what they want to learn may not be learnt in a short time but need a long time to practice and exercise.

 

The second one was “3 days”.  Referring to Carrie Lau, Assistant Human Resources Manager of Renaissance Harbour View Hotel, ”The training courses for management staff will usually take a longer time.  Training Experts or professionals from America will come to Hong Kong to conduct training courses for our managers or directors.  Those training courses will last for three days or over three days usually.  And for those training courses for supervisors, that will usually last for one day to two days.  For those training for general staff, that will be usually half day training or whole day training.  But that really depends on what topic they are learning and whether exercises or role play have to be done.  But of course some employees want to have longer hours training as they can escape from work for several hours if they have to attend training courses.  And at the same time, some employee does not want to have long hours training because they think they preferred work to training.  It is interesting that some employees like training but some do not.”  That might because the employee in hotel usually will have 3 days training for managers, so that make them feel that is a “right” length of training or learning time.

 

“1 day” was rated as the third and “2 days” was rated as the forth.  And “Less than 4 hours” was rated as the fifth.  It can be seen from the result that seems the employees want to have longer training than short training.  Especially the mean score of “less than 4 hours” is relatively low.  They may think that if the time for them to learn is too short, it may not be effective and they cannot learn much in a short time.

 

4.9                                     Employee Development is Important to Employee or Company

 

Most of the employees in the three hotels feedback that they think that employee development are important to both the company and employee themselves.  Adler N.J. said, “ The professional practice of employee development occurs primarily, though not exclusively, in the context of organisation.  The concept of “organisation” itself is bound up with other, related concepts such as “management” and, by association, with ideas to do with “goals”, “strategy” and “functions”.  Therefore, employee development is link with the organisational development.  Both the development of the employees and the organisation should be in the same direction and with common goals.  The mission and goals of the organisation should be well communicated to all employees in order to develop them to be valuable assets to the company.  As employee and company should growth at the same time so that both of them can be benefits from it.  A company cannot improve without the growth of their employees and also, an employee cannot be growth without the support of the company.  However, some of the employees think that employee development is more important to the employee than to the company.  The reason for them is because the knowledge learnt is own by the employees themselves.  They will not be guaranteed to work in the same company for their whole life.  They may leave the company one day.  But what they have learnt will not be return to the company.  They will bring what they have learnt with them to the new company and transfer what they have learnt to the new company or the employees in the new company.  Therefore, they think that employee development is more beneficial to employee than to the company.

 

4.10       Barriers to Learning

 

Moreover, the employee also pointed that there are some barriers for their learning.  Most of the barriers they mentioned are “Time” and “Money”.   They have mentioned that as their work are very busy.  They do not have much spare time to learn, no mater internal training in the company or external courses.  They want to learn new things to improve themselves and increase their competitiveness.  However, they have to work for long hours and have to take care of their family also and do not have enough time for personal improvement or learning.  Also, money is another barrier for them to learn.  Although most of the internal training courses in hotel do not have to pay, most of the external training courses that related to their job are quite expensive.  The ranges are from thousands to then thousands and it is quite expensive for them.  As the salary range of the employee in hotel industry, especially for those general staff are not high.  The fees for external courses are unaffordable for them.

 

4.11       Result of the Interview

As mentioned, this study also conducted interview with three managers of the three hotels of the Marriott Group. The managers were asked various questions relevant to the objectives of the study. The three managers have agreed that lifelong learning is important for their employees. For the managers, they believed that lifelong learning is important for the development of the skills and potentials of the employees which can be used for the future needs of the hotel industry. Furthermore, the manager also agreed that lifelong learning is important because it enhances self-esteem, and confidence among employees to do their jobs effectively.

According to the interviewed managers, employee development aims on improving their performance which may lead to long-term productivity. The managers mentioned that the objective of the employee development is to provide them knowledge necessary for them to be able to perform their tasks. In addition, employee development in hotel industries also aims on enhancing the inherent capacity of their employees. Accordingly, development needs to be dealt with continuously enhancing employees’ abilities through learning to match the changes in the business industry. With employee development program, the performance of every employee in the company will naturally be improved to its maximum level. In addition, various skills may be absorbed by the employee being developed, which in turn makes them more independent, resourceful and flexible. There are various reasons why employee development must take place. These reasons are closely linked to the company’s sustainability and profitability. According to  (2002), training and development is being used to facilitate education.  In addition, training and development is also seen as a tool to retain human resources, improve corporate culture and design incentive programs for human resources ( 2002).

The managers who have been interviewed have all agreed that their hotels have a learning culture and atmosphere since the industries allow their employees to develop their skills for the sake of the company and individual performance.  The managers revealed that the motivators for their employees to learn includes their eagerness to enhance their knowledge about their jobs, the rewards that will follow if they would be able to do their job efficiently through their development and their self-fulfilment of learning new things beyond their knowledge. The managers who have been interviewed also revealed that one of the motivators of the employees is to be able to have a greater opportunity of developing their career through promotions.

One the other hand, the interview also revealed that the de-motivational factors among employees according to the managers include the irrelevant of the content of the learning process with their present job, using non-working hours to attend to training courses and the perception of the employees of being a know-it-all employee.  These factors are said to hinder the employees to be trained and developed. According to the managers, some employees think that learning things that are not relevant to their present work will only waste their time and effort. Furthermore, one manager mentioned that some of the employees thought that they know everything that they do not need that training courses provided by the hotel management.

The result of the interview shows that the three hotels of the Marriott group have their own training courses to develop their employees. However, the interview revealed that the training courses have also its commonness. One of the managers revealed that their training courses include workshop and seminar activities. In addition, they also conduct training courses in outdoor settings to enhance social interaction of the employees. The trainings in terms of workshops and seminars are considered as compulsory to ensure that all employees of the hotels are given equal opportunity to learn and to be developed. On one hand, outdoor trainings are given in a self-nominated basis, which means that the employee have the freedom to choose on whether they would join the outdoor development programs or not.

The managers revealed that the training courses sometimes last for a week or so or it is spontaneous especially for the employees who are subject for promotion. The managers also revealed that the hotel management encourage employees to have some external training to learn new things from other companies and eventually apply it to improve the competency of their respective hotels. The last question of the interview focuses on the importance of employee development. Herein, the managers revealed that employee development is beneficial for both the employee and the company. Consequently, training and development within the hotel industry are being conducted so that the company will be able to create a pool of employees that can efficiently do their jobs. Due to the changes in both the internal and external environment of the company, employees must be continuously and/or regularly trained to be able to adapt to the developments that will affect the company. Training and development also motivates a team by allowing them to become more efficient.  If a company is able to train and develop highly-competent employees then they will be able to fill positions needed for expansion ( 2003 ).

Since training can develop efficient employees and create rooms for expansion, this means that training can also result to lower employee turnover rates. If trainings can reduce turnover rates, this means that trainings can also reduce the cost of production. The saving that companies will be able to get from lower turn over rates can later be passed on to their customers. Hence, training and development for employees is said to benefit both the company and their employees.

 

 

 

Chapter 5 Recommendation

            This part of the paper provides the pertinent recommendation based on the analysis and findings of the survey and interview approach.

 

5.1            Recommendation: Three Motivational Factors

This study aims to assist the hotels’ managers to understanding more on the needs and motivational factors of their employees in employee development and learning so that they can have a better direction of designing the training programs for their employees.  According to  (1999), “The first step involved in planning to further your education is an understanding your motivation to do so.  You may have decided to change careers or perhaps you have gone as far as you can in your career without a degree – or you may want to complete a degree program that was interrupted in the past. 

 

Understanding your motivation will help you make decisions and keep you on track.  Motivation provides the energy for focus.  Focus concentrates your powers, efforts and attention to get you from here to your goal”.   Same as an organisation, it is important for an organisation to understand the motivation factors for their employees so that they can keep on the track to develop their employees to cope with the organisational objectives. 

 

The findings present a clearer direction for hoteliers in their design of training programs for staff with varying demographic backgrounds or in different departments.  That will make the employee development program in the hotels become more effective and both employee and company can be benefited.  There are three factors which were commonly considered to be essential by respondents.  Hotel management is advised to take these into consideration when designing employee development programs in order to increase the effectiveness.  They are interest and desire to learn new things, enhance job knowledge and reward form achievement.  In view of the results of the present study, some recommendations were made to fulfil the above three important motivators.

 

5.1.1 Interest and Desire to Learn New Things

 

Based on the analysis of the findings, the management of the hotel industries must be able to encourage the employees to have an interest and desire to learn new things. The employees may worry to lose their jobs because of the uncertainty and the outdated skills.  Thus, hotel managers should then emphasize on the use of training and development programs to motivate and provide an opportunity for the employees to upgrade their skills and knowledge.  For example, allow employees to go through several positions by undergoing the cross-training program, this could help employees to understand the relationship between different jobs and enrich their knowledge for different departments and positions. 

 

Additionally, hotel management could provide internal and external training opportunities for the employees.  For example, arranging on-the-job and off-the-job training, soliciting external training opportunities for staff and providing more generous education allowances could work to satisfy this need.  Such of things could help the employees to development their skills, knowledge and capacities so that staff could overcome the future changes.  The employees may feel more secure o their jobs and become competent in their jobs. 

 

Training employees to assume greater responsibilities than required by their present positions will better prepare them for promotion to higher level jobs when vacancies occur as a result of turnover ( 1988).  That will be a benefit for the company also as there will be successor for the vacancies may rise in the future.  Also, hotel employers may place more emphasis on career planning for hotel employees.  This has traditionally been a weakness in human resources management in the hotel industry in Hong Kong (1999).  Provide more opportunities for the employees to learn more new things that they are interested at rather than repeating reinforce old knowledge and skills will be one of the best motivator for employee development.

 

5.1.2 Enhance Job Knowledge

 

One of the important motivator of employee development in the hotels is enhance job knowledge.  Employee development program designed to the employees should be relevant to their existing job or career development in their future.  Same as mentioned above, learning new things for example, allow employees to go through several positions by undergoing the cross-training program, this could help employees to understand the relationship between different jobs and enrich their knowledge for different departments and positions.  Also, mentoring program which was used in hotel industry very often can be promoted as that will be a good employee development program for future successor.

 

5.1.3 Reward Form Achievement

Hotel managers should realize that their employees wish not only for wages, but also for respect and sense of achievement ( 1997).  Many found that praise and recognition are often more powerful and are more long-lasting than mere money (1998).  Providing employee with recognition programs would show the respect, appreciation of the employees’ improvement.

 

Recognition is one of the most powerful methods to motivate employees to learn.  There are many ways of recognition and reward.  For example, Certificate of Merits, reward by award such as Best Improvement employee of the Year, being sent out for external trainings by company or being  a departmental trainer in the company.

 

Specially, introducing mentor system could be recognition to motivate employees to learn.  A mentor system is designed to address the needs and concerns of the employees and help them make the transition to the new workplace a comfortable pleasant and rewarding experience ( 1991).  For example, mentors or department training coordinators should be appointed to take care of the new employees from their first day until they are both technically and socially confident enough to work on their own.    Such things could encourage employees to perform at their best ability, as well as encourage their continuous endeavours on their jobs.  Not only the new employee, the selected trainer will have a sense of achievement and felt being respect and appreciated on their hard work and good performance.  Such kind of empowerment provides employees with a sense of autonomy, authority and control together with the abilities, resources and discretion to make decision.  This will encourage the development of the employee.

 

5.2            Recommendation: Creating Effective Training and development Program

 

In attempting to create an effective training and development program that has the ability to motivate the employees, factors must first be taken into consideration. These factors are more connected with the suitability of the employees to undergo training.  They are also factors that will be able to help companies in designing the appropriate training module.  This part of the proposal will be presenting these factors in order to help the research in answering some of the questions posted earlier in the statement of the problem.

            Since training is basically motivation and transfer of information, the characteristics of the trainees is very important in ensuring the success of the training programs. According to  (2002), there are 8 factors that affects employee training.

Trainability

Cognitive ability

Basic Skills

Personality

Conscientiousness

Goal Orientation

Anxiety

Age

Employee training and development can start a chain reaction.  When the company is able to produce effective employees then their profitability will increase.  When this happens, they will also be able to compensate their employees based on their contribution to the company’s growth.  In turn, it will create a feeling of satisfaction that will motivate them to improve further their efficiency and then the cycle will once again begin (2005).

  5.3  Recommendation for Further Research

The study conducted for determining the motivational and de-motivation factors of the employees in three hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong. Further, the study also aims on identifying the significant relation between these motivation and employee development. For this research, the following future research recommendations are provided:

5.4  Future researchers using a similar topic may consider the use of a larger sample instead of just using 136 respondents of the company. This could be helpful in making the findings more applicable in general.

5.5  Other methods of research and data-gathering such as meta-analysis or correlation may be used in the future to determine the significant relation between motivation and employee development.

 

Chapter 6: Conclusion

 

In conclusion employee development is very important for both the employees and the organisation.  They should have a common goal and objective for development so that they can be both improved in the same direction and both parties can be benefited.  In order to have a successful employee development program in an organisation, understand the motivational factors and de-motivational factors of the employees are very important.

 

From the above survey, the motivators, de-motivators and learning preferences of the employees of the three hotels of Marriott Group in Hong Kong was studied.  They included, New World Renaissance Hotel, Renaissance Harbour View Hotel and JW Marriott Hotel.  Both quantitative method and qualitative method were used in the research and employee with different background was studied.  The result shown that the most important motivator for the employee to learn in the three hotels are “Interest and desire to learn new things” , “ Enhance job knowledge” and “Reward from achievement”.  And the most important de-motivators are “Irrelevant of content to existing job” and “Using non-working hours to attend training course” respectively.

 

Also, employees from different departments might have different motivational factors on the ranking for their learning and development.  We can see from the result that office and operational staff in the three hotels shown the differences on their motivational factors.

 

However, motivation is something difficult to understand and to be clearly distinguished.  Motivation of employee might change from time to time depends on different situation and environment.  Different employees might have different motivational factors depends on their history and educational background.  Each employee might have their own personal and specific motivational needs which are different from the others.  Employers should try to understand more on that when designing employee development program in an organisation so that it can be a more effective program that can be benefit to both the employee and the organisation.

            Based on the analysis of the study, it can be concluded that the three hotels of Marriott Group has been able to have a conducing learning environment for their employees who highly motivates the employees to join the training process. In addition, the analysis also revealed that the hotel industries have been able to use learning methods that makes it more appealing for the employees to be more motivated to learn new skills and develop their potentials. With the findings of the study, it can be concluded that motivation has a significant relationship with employee development.

            To be able to enhance motivation of employees to learn, the hotel management should be able to implement performance management system.  Accordingly, performance management is the principal set of practices by which control is manifested in organizations. Control here is defined as any process that is used to align the actions of individuals to the interests of the organization ( 1992). Under such a characterization, performance management is expected to regulate both motivation and ability (1990). By using performance management the company would be able to formulate objective setting, formal performance evaluation, and linkage between evaluation outcomes and development and rewards, in order to reinforce desired behaviour among their employees (1993). This system is cybernetic, with feedback from both employer and employee driving modifications at each point in the system.

There are three prominent views as to how performance management may be used to regulate performance in this company. These may be used through focusing either on behavior, or on skills, or on outputs. Monitoring behavior is largely concerned with articulating operating procedures which are initiated top-down through a centralized bureaucratic framework (1992). The intent is to monitor employee performance closely, with appraisal used chiefly as an auditing device to correct deviations from set norms ( 1992). A less rigid view of controlling behavior lies in the use of competency frameworks. Competencies can specify behaviors, skills, and knowledge which are deemed desirable for employees to exhibit, and criteria for their attainment are set by the organization, forming an important part of the evaluation process (1997).

Monitoring output is characterized by the use of performance targets which provide some discretion in how employees achieve them. This type of control allows employers to decentralize control and gives relatively objective criteria for evaluation. Employees, while not choosing the targets for required performance, are given discretion in how they achieve them. Since the effects of these three approaches overlap, it is usually the case that firms will employ elements of behavioral, skills, and output controls simultaneously ( 1992).

Furthermore, managing performance serves to bring together employee endeavours and consideration on significant tasks through the utilization of performance feedback, which consequently lends a hand to workers in lessening job blunders and diminishing the risks of learning by means of trial and error. Furthermore, where employees aspire for jobs that permit them to make good use of their expertise and capacities, performance management augments job task “fit” (skill variety) by means of the recognition of training and development requirements that are in agreement with personal and organisational goals.

 

 

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