Personal Needs Assessment Approach in Strategic Training and Affective Commitment

Abstract

This paper aims at determining the relationships between psychological contracts, job involvement, affectivecommitment, and three dimensions of personal needs assessment in strategic training (i.e. motivation to learn,perceived support, and training attitudes) in the Iranian hospitality industries. A questionnaire survey wasconducted among the full-time administrative employees of five-star hotels in the Isfahan region, which is animportant tourism destination especially for Europeans and Russians in Iran. This study highlights theimportance of strategic need assessment in training employees in order to foster their affective commitment.These findings have important practical and theoretical implications. Firstly, managers will not be able to fosteraffective commitment through human resource practices unless they recognize and appreciate which needs arevalued by employees. Secondly, managers must have a clear understanding of both the quantity and quality ofinformation desired by employees if they are to design high-commitment of strategic human resourcemanagement practices that meet the information needs of employees. Finally, the results provide evidence infavor of managerial interventions aimed at enhancing organizational commitment and, consequently, minimizingthe negative effects of an actual turnover in the hospitality industry.