How Much You Know About Your Employees?
-An Employee Survey of Hotel Industry in Macau
Chan Ka Wai*
Hotel industry is one of the major industries in Macau in terms of the annual revenue and employment importance to the economy. As the opening of the gambling market of Macau leads to significant inflow of foreign investments, hotel business is heading a blooming future hand in hand with the gambling and tourist industries. This is a study conducted in the hotels of Macau to examine employees' attitude towards their jobs, their supervisors, their supervisor-subordinate communication relationships and their job values in a comprehensive way. Results of this survey would make a contribution for hotel managers in Macau to have a better understanding about the attitudes of their employees in these areas so as to make better management.
Managers of all the fourteen 4 and 5-star hotels in Macau were approached by the researcher with regard to this study. After three months of contact and discussions, seven, that is 50% of the total number of 4 and 5-star hotels in Macau, agreed to participate in the study. The General Managers decided the date and the time for conducting the questionnaires in their hotels. All the employees who were available at that particular time were encouraged to participate. Questionnaires were distributed by the researcher and completed questionnaires were also collected directly by the researcher at the site.
Totally 1,049 questionnaires were administered to the employees from the seven hotels which contributes amounts to 24% of employees in the 4 and 5 star hotels and 16% of the total employees in the hotel industry in Macau. Because of the inconsistencies and incompleteness of some of the questionnaires, only 841 questionnaires were used for analysis. Employees were asked to evaluate their communication satisfaction and supervisor satisfaction towards the supervisor in their own department whom they have most interaction with. Among the 841 subjects, 54.2% were male and 44.7% were females. Average age was 26 with 45.9% were between 21-30 years old. 64.4% were from Mainland China while 20% were local people from Macau. 60.9% of them had a secondary education level and 6.3% held a Bachelor degree or higher.
1. Measurements
1.1 Measures of Communication Satisfaction
A 29-item questionnaire about communication was developed to survey subordinates' perspectives on their communication relationship with their supervisors. The first 23 items assess communication content, or the sorts of functions played by managerial communication, and the second 6 items explore communication style, or the manner in which the content was conveyed. Respondents indicated, on a Likert 5-points scale, how much they agree with each of the 29 statements concerning the communication behaviours occurring during their supervisor-subordinate interaction.
The 23 "content" items were intended to measure six dimensions of supervisor-subordinate communication:
a. supervisor's openness (5 items) in receiving different opinions
b. subordinate's openness (4 items) in expressing their own opinions
c. information (7 items) released to subordinates
d. feedback (3 items) provided to subordinates about their performance
e. supervisor's concern for subordinates' (3 items) well being, and
f. language understanding (1 item) between supervisor and subordinate.
Questions were drawn from the suggestions based on Huseman, Hatfield and Gatewood's (1978) typology of superior-subordinate communication with extra questions added by the researcher to match the specific work environment of Macau.
The six "style" items asked the subordinates to rate their supervisors' communication style including 1. "come on strong" when communicating with them; 2. quick to express disagreement; 3. communicate actively; 4. listen carefully; 5. criticise subordinates in front of others and, 6. make fun of others. These items are primarily based on the dimensions of "communication style" constructed by Morton and Miller (1975).
1.2 Measures of Satisfaction with Supervisor
The researcher based on the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) of 1984 developed a 13-item questionnaire measuring satisfaction with supervisor in this study. The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) developed by Smith, Kendall and Hulin (1969) involved 72 items relating to five dimensions of job satisfaction: work, supervision, pay, promotion and workers. The 72 items were reduced to 30 by Wheeless, Wheeless and Howard in 1984. Only the items for supervision were used as references in this study. Respondents indicated, on a Likert 5-points scale, how much they agree with each of the 13 statements concerning their perspectives of their supervisors from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The researcher attempts to measure the employee satisfaction of the supervisor based on five dimensions: 1. Subordinate perception of the trust between supervisor and subordinate; 2. Subordinate perception of the supervisor's fairness; 3. Subordinate perception of the supervisor's friendliness; 4. Subordinate perception of the supervisor's competence and lastly; 5. Total employee satisfaction with the supervisor (the sum of the above four variables).
1.3 Measures of Job Satisfaction
15 items of the questionnaires were used to assess subordinates' job satisfaction in terms of work (6 items), pay (2 items), promotion (3 items) and coworkers(3 items)and overall job satisfaction (1 item) based on the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) of 1984.1 Respondents were asked to rate each item in a 5 point Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
1.4 Measures of Job Values
"What do you value most in your job?" is the question being asked. Subjects are required to choose 3 out of the 16 items they value most in their jobs and rank them accordingly. The 16 items include new things to learn, promotional opportunities, pay, little job pressure, job nature, good supervisor relationship, good colleague relationship, feedback on performance, participation in decision making, autonomy, working environment, work hours, benefits, holidays, sense of achievement and job security.
2.Results and Discussion
2.1 Communication Satisfaction
Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, plus the internal consistency reliability of the multi-item scales for the seven dimensions of communication content and communication style involved in supervisor-subordinate communication satisfaction.
Table1 Descriptive Statistics of Communication Variables
┌──────────────────┬────┬───────┬───────┐
│ │ Mean │Std.Deviation │ Reliabilitv │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Openness of Supervisor │ 3.19 │ 0.81 │ 0.85 │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Openness of Subordinate │ 3.73 │ 0.60 │ 0.63 │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Information Release to Subordinates │ 3.42 │ 0.71 │ 0.87 │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Feedback │ 3.51 │ 0.89 │ 0.51 │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Concern for Subordinates │ 3.25 │ 0.86 │ 0.81 │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Language Understanding │ 3.95 │ 0.87 │ Nil(1 item) │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Communication Stvle │ 3.31 │ 0.76 │ 0.79 │
├──────────────────┼────┼───────┼───────┤
│Total Communication Satisfaction │ │ │ │
│(Sum of the 7 dimensions) │ 3.52 │ 0.94 │ 0.90 │
└──────────────────┴────┴───────┴───────┘
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The highest mean among the seven dimensions of communication satisfaction is language understanding (3.95). This indicates that, despite different nationalities between supervisors and subordinates, most subordinates perceived no language problem when communicating with supervisors. The second highest mean is from openness in subordinates (3.73). Subordinates generally perceived themselves open in expressing their opinions to supervisors. Conversely, openness in supervisors turned out to have the smallest mean among all dimensions (3.19). This result suggests that based on subordinates' perspectives, while they believed they were honest in expressing their ideas to supervisors, supervisors did not seem to be very willing to accept different ideas from subordinates. The second and the third lowest means are from concern for subordinates (3.25) and communication style (3.31) respectively. Among the seven dimensions in communication, the result implies that subordinates would like their supervisors to be more willing in accepting their ideas, to show more concern for their well being and have a more positive "style" when communicating with them.
Table 2 Descriptive Statistics of Communication Style Variables
Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the six communication styles.The two highest means are from the first and the last statements. That is, most subordinates perceived that their supervisors seldom make fun of them or "come on strong" when communicating with them. The lowest means are from the statements "My supervisor never criticises my work in front of others" and "My supervisor is never quick to disagree with me." This indicates clearly that supervisors should be more considerate when criticising their subordinates.Besides, it shows that attentiveness and patient listening is required within the communication mode of supervisor to subordinate, if successful, productive interchange is to occur.
2.2 Satisfaction with Supervisor
Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics of satisfaction with supervisor variables including trust, fairness, friendliness and competence. Among the four variables, competence had the highest mean of 3.5 while fairness had the lowest mean of 3.2. This indicates employee in hotel industry generally perceive their supervisors not fair enough.
Table 3 Descriptive Statistics of Satisfaction to Supervisor Variables
2.3 Job Satisfaction
Table 4 presents the mean, standard deviation, and the reliability of the five dimensions of employee job satisfaction, together with the total and the overall job satisfaction. The total job satisfaction is the sum of the five dimensions while the overall job satisfaction is one item asking about the employee's overall satisfaction towards the job. Among the five dimensions of job satisfaction, coworkers received the highest mean of 3.46, followed by work (3.38) and supervision (3.375). Notice that all the items scored less than 4 - the level indicating satisfaction of the item. This suggests that although coworkers,when compared with other dimensions of job satisfaction, received the highest satisfaction, employees were still not on the level of satisfaction in all the dimensions of the job. Pay and Promotion received the lowest scores of 2.32 and 2.96 respectively, which indicates employees were not happy about their pay and promotion opportunities. Very interestingly, despite the low scores in all the dimensions, overall job satisfaction is as high as 3.46, which is even higher than the total job satisfaction (3.29). This could be easily understood when we consider the economic situation in Macau at this time with so many people being laid off or losing their jobs, employees generally feel satisfy when having a job, despite the dissatisfactions in certain job dimensions.
Table 4 Descriptive Statistics of Employee Job Satisfaction
┌────────────────┬─────┬─────┬────────┐
│ │ Mean │ S.D. │ Reliabilitv │
├────────────────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Work │ 3.38 │ 0.76 │ 0.57 │
├────────────────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Supervision │ 3.38 │ 0.73 │ 0.90 │
├────────────────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Pav │ 2，32 │ 0.84 │ 0.66 │
├────────────────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Promotion │ 2.96 │ 0.85 │ 0.69 │
├────────────────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Coworkers │ 3.47 │ 0.69 │ 0.80 │
├────────────────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Total Job Satisfaction │ │ │ │
│(Ssm of the above 5 dimensions) │ 3.29 │ 0.59 │ 0.92 │
├────────────────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Overall Job Satisfaction │ │ │ │
│(1 item only) │ 3.46 │ 0.93 │ - │
└────────────────┴─────┴─────┴────────┘
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2.4 Job Values
Table 5 shows the items with more than 10 percent of the most important item for the job, the 2nd most important item for the job and the 3rd most important item for the job. Obviously, "Good Pay" is considered as the most important thing employees value in their jobs. Other important items include "New things to learn" and "Job Stability". Notice that "Good relationships with supervisor and colleagues" are having higher percentage than "Fringe benefits". Employee generally value harmony relationships with people at work even more than flexible working hours, holidays or other fringe benefits.
Table5 Frequency and Percentage Statistics for the Most Important Item,the 2nd Most Important Item and the 3rd Most Important Item for the Job
┌───────────────────┬──────┬─────┐
│A.The most important item for job │ Frequency │ Percent │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│1.Good Pav │ 211 │ 25.1 │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│2.New things to learn │ 162 │ 19.3 │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│3.Job Stabilitv │ 106 │ 12.6 │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│B.The 2nd most important item for job │ │ │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│1.Good Pav │ 119 │ 14.1 │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│2.Good supervisor relationship │ 101 │ 12.0 │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│3.Good relationship with colleagues │ 93 │ 11.1 │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│C.The 3rd most important item for job │ │ │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│1.Good relationship with colleagues │ 123 │ 14.6 │
├───────────────────┼──────┼─────┤
│2.Fringe benefits │ 87 │ 10.3 │
└───────────────────┴──────┴─────┘
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3.Conclusion
This study examines employees' attitudes towards four major areas: 1.job satisfaction; 2. supervisor satisfaction; 3. supervisor-subordinate communication; and 4.job values. One immediate conclusion is that for employee in hotel industry of Macau, attitudes towards job, supervisor and supervisor-subordinate communication are all below satisfaction. While the mid-point of scale is 3, data of the results are ranged from 2.32 (satisfaction to pay) to 3.95 (language understanding). This is to say generally employees in this industry are not happy with the present work situation and significant improvements particularly on these areas are necessary.
As shown in the result of job value, "Good pay" is still the most important thing for employee, however, on the other hand, their satisfaction on this item turned out to be the lowest (2.32) compared to all other items. This could be the result of the economy recession which leads to many pay cut or layoffs in Macau.Consequently, we can see that "New things to learn" and "Job Stability" are two most important items following "Good Pay". As "Good supervisor relationship" appeared to be the 2nd place in the 2nd most important item for the job, it shows that employees do care about supervisor-subordinate relationship in their job. For maintaining a better relationship with subordinates, supervisors should show more concern in behavior to their subordinates and to listen to their ideas. Besides, the styles supervisors use in communicating with subordinates are also critical for good relationships. Result shows that most supervisors criticize their subordinates in front of others and also quick to disagree with subordinates. Attentiveness and patient listening are definitely areas for improvement for hotel managers. On the other hand, this study shows that employees in hotel industry of Macau generally perceive their supervisors not being very fair in managing subordinates and there is lack of trust in their relationships. Like other kinds of relationships such as love or friendship,supervisor-subordinate relationship requires input of mutual respect and concern to be maintained. Studies have shown that good supervisors are considered to be sensitive to the needs and feelings of subordinates.2 It is believed that employee, who perceives a feeling of care from his supervisor in addition to the simple working relationship among them, is likely to achieve higher in job satisfaction and job performance.
This study provides valuable information for hotel managers in Macau use as reference about what their employees think in different areas of their work. For better improvement in organizational management, knowing your employee is the first step!
Notes:
1 Wheeless, L.R., Wheeless, V.E., and Howard, R.D., "The Relationships of Communication with Supervisor and Decision-participation to Employee Job Satisfaction", Communication Quarterly, 1984, Vol. 32, pp. 222-232.
2 Reddings, W.C., Communication within the Organization: An Interpretive Review of Theory and Research, New York: Industrial Communications Council, 1972.
References:
1. Huseman, R.C., Hatfield, J.D., & Gatewood, R.D., A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing the Communication-Productivity Relationship. Paper presented at the 38th meeting of the Academy of Management, San Francisco,1978.
2. Morton, R. & Miller, L. "Dyadic Perception of Communicator Style",Communication Research, Vol. 2, 1975, pp. 50-67.
3. Smith, P.C., Kendall, L.M., & Hulin, C.L., The Measurement of Job Satisfaction in Work and Retirement, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969.
* Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau
