Socio-demographic Factors Associated with Job Burnout among Frontline Employees: A Cross-sectional Study of Classified Hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

In today’s highly competitive business environment, providing exceptional customer service is the primary goal of any hospitality organisation. Hotel frontline employees play a vital part in the service delivery process to achieve this. However, job burnout is a persistent problem in the hotel sector due to the demanding nature of the work (for example, working long hours and rotating shifts). Hotel frontline employees have to deal with the challenging nature of their job. As a result, they are prone to job burnout, lowering their productivity. Therefore, it is essential to establish possible job burnout interventions among this important group of hotel staff. Nairobi City County has a well-established hospitality sector home to most of Kenya’s classified hotels. As a beginning point in pursuit of job burnout interventions, this study sought to compare job burnout levels in different populations of frontline employees defined by socio-demographic characteristics in all (from 2-star to 5-star) classified hotels using a cross-sectional online survey approach to test the model on 309 frontline employees. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the one-way analysis of variance. The prevalence rate of job burnout among frontline employees was 30.7%. Female and unmarried frontline employees exhibited higher levels of job burnout. Frontline employees with lower education reported higher feelings of job burnout and its facets. Frontline employees working in highly rated hotels, with less work experience and tenure, were prone to job burnout and its aspects. Frontline employees working in the restaurant department were more susceptible to burnout and its elements. The current study recommends that owners, managers, and operators of classified hotels in Nairobi City County design interventions anchored on various socio-demographic characteristics to address job burnout among frontline employees.