The Influence Of Job Characteristics On The Motivation Of Millennial Hospitality Employees

Abstract

Increased digitalisation has not only transformed the world of work, but also impacted numerous organisational factors such as organisational structure and culture, and job satisfaction and motivation. Various industries, none so than the hospitality industry, must continuously search for and implement new ways of operating to meet both employee and customer expectations. Customers in the hospitality industry are increasingly expecting exceptional service and convenient processes. The hospitality industry is characterised by numerous challenges, for example, long working hours, often poor compensation and a lack of job flexibility, all of which make the retention of staff a major issue in this labour-intensive industry. As millennials currently constitute more than 50% of the global employment rate they can be regarded as the future leaders of business and industry. It is thus paramount to retain millennial hospitality employees. To address this challenge, the study investigated the influence of job characteristics on the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. A structured questionnaire was administered through QuestionPro and 96 millennial hospitality employees responded to the survey questions. Due to the nation-wide impact of Covid-19, snowball sampling was used as a way of attracting and reaching out to respondents. The questionnaire included two sections: (1) items measuring job characteristics, based on the job characteristics model of Oldham and Hackman; and (2) items measuring motivation, based on Hertzberg’s two-factor theory. Partial least squares structured equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the relationship between the variables of job characteristics and motivation. The results revealed significant positive relationships between skills variety, task significance, and feedback towards motivation. However, no significant relationships were found between autonomy and task identity towards motivation. Due to the labour-intensive nature of the industry the study proposes that prospective employees including hospitality management students need to have realistic expectations about working in this industry. Areas of further research and limitations of the study are also indicated.