Investigating Motivation of the Hotel Employees at the Operational Level: A Case Study of the Hotel Business in Samut Songkram Province, Thailand

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate motivation and behaviour of the employees at the operational leveltowards the hotel operations in the hotel business of Samut Songkram Province, as well as examining the relationshipbetween behaviour and motivation of the employees at the operational level in performing the hotel operations in thehotel business of Samut Songkram Province. The sample of this study was the employees at the operational level whoworked in the hotels located in Samut Songkhram Province with indefinite population size. A sample of 400 employeeswas collected by the use of non-probability sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the data collecting tool withreliability index of 0.902. The descriptive statistics including percentage, mean and standard deviation were used, whereasthe Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient and Chi-Square were used as the inferential statistics. The finding revealed thatthe overall behaviour of the employees in performing the hotel operations was ranked at a high level, with each attributeincluding understanding, involvement, organizational commitment and uniformity in and towards the hotel operationspresenting high score as well. The finding with respect to the employees’ overall motivation reported medium level, withall attributes including career success, job characteristics, career growth and job security, and relationship with colleaguespresenting a medium level as well. In contrast, job welfares and incentives were ranked at a low level. The study foundout that there was a relationship between the employees’ motivation and behaviour in performing the hotel operations atthe significant level of 0.05.