A RESEARCH ON AWARENESS OF HOTEL EMPLOYEES ON JOB DESCRIPTION

Year 2020, , 115 - 139, 30.04.2020

Oğuz Türkay , Murat Eren

https://doi.org/10.22139/jobs.686750

Abstract

Job description and job requirements guide the employee by determining how to do his job. Therefore, it is an effective application on employee performance and hotel performance. There are different studies that express the effects of adequate and clear job definitions on the working and business life. For example, Tuna (2007) found that the turnover rate is higher in hotels without a job description. Akinci (2002) suggests that applications such as job definition will increase transparency within the organization. Örücü and Boz (2014) also indicate that the job description will lead to an intention to leave the job if they are not fully known by beginners. Although there are similar studies in the relevant literature that demonstrate the importance of job description, there has been no study that identifies the awareness of hotel employees about job descriptions. Hsiung and Tsai (2009) also note the lack of research, particularly on different knowledge and thoughts about the job descriptions of managers and employees.
In this study, it is aimed to understand the employee awareness on job descriptions from different perspectives. In the evaluation of the level of awareness; Whether they know the concept of job description, their knowledge of what their job description is, his opinion on what his business expects from him, his knowledge of what his job requirements are, his satisfaction level of his work, his favourite features of his work, the characteristics of his work that are most unpleasant to him and his most critical contribution to his business have been questioned. Data were obtained through a form that included eight open-ended questions and questions to obtain participant characteristics such as gender, education status, task and hotel type. The process of obtaining data of the research was tried to be carried out in accordance with the principles of the qualitative method, and a mixed method was followed during the analysis phase. Both qualitative expressions were discussed and numerical analyses were performed through categories formed by categorizing these expressions. Purposive sampling has been adopted and a variety of participants have been reached through the city and hotel department. The forms were filled face-to-face with the staffs of hotels in important hotel agglomerations in Istanbul and Sakarya who accepted the participation. In total, data were obtained from 166 people.
65.1% of the participants are men. 54.8% are undergraduate and 25.3% are high school graduates. Their average age is 29.78. These features are consistent with the general characteristics of tourism workers in Turkey. The most intense participation was demonstrated by 5-star hotel employees (38.6%). This is followed by 4-star hotel employees (16.3%) and 3-star hotel employees (14.5%). The most intense participation was from the Front Office (64.5%), and the most intense participation among the front office employees was from the receptionists (47.0%). The participation of food&beverage and housekeeping departments is 14.5% for each. The most intense participation from food&beverage departments was from waiters (6.6%); in housekeeping, it is at the level of room cleaning staff (4.2%). Apart from these three departments, there is 3.6% general management and 3.0% accounting and other department employees.
51.8% of the participants know the meaning of the concept of job description and can make positive clear definitions for this concept. The rate of participants, which we can understand that they do not know the meaning of the concept from the ambiguity in their expressions, is 40.4%. 1.2% of the participants clearly state that they do not know the concept. In this regard, it can be said that approximately 42% of the participants do not know the concept of job definition. The rate of those who know their own job definition and can express it appropriately is 40.4%. Nobody who knows but has problems in expressing has been found. The proportion of respondents who were judged not to know the question about the job description in an unrelated manner and with ambiguous expressions is 56.6%. 1 person who clearly states that he does not know corresponds to 0.6% of the total. Chi-square analysis was used to determine whether there is a relationship between knowing the job description concept and knowing his/her own job description. The results of the analysis reveal that a judgment will be true that those who don’t know the meaning of the concept of job description don’t know their own job descriptions. In this case, the possibility of missing information about the job description in the enterprises becomes stronger, but it is understood that a significant number of employees do not have a request from the enterprise in this regard. The differentiations in the participants' knowledge on the meaning of job description concept and their knowledge of their own job description produced by gender, education, type of enterprise and department were found negative as results of chi-square test (p> 0.05). Therefore, awareness level is independent of these variables.
Employees perceive the expectations of the business from them as the most customer oriented expectations (44.6%). The second place comes with task-responsibility oriented expectations (30.7%). Performance oriented explanations (19.3%) and working environment (4.8%) are other expectation dimensions.
The most perceived by the participants about the job requirements of the task they perform; communication (14.5%), communication and foreign language (12.7%) and knowledge and experience (6.6%). On the other hand, 83.1% of the participants stated that they were satisfied with their job. It is a rate of 9.6% dissatisfied and 7.2% declaring that it is partially satisfied.
Communication (49.4%), working environment (13.3%) and both communication and working environment (8.4%) are their favourite features related to their jobs. The most disliked feature is that of dealing with negative attitudes of customers (25.9%), working conditions / shifts (18.1%) and density (12%).
The responses of the participants to the question about the critical role they have performed for the enterprise are classified in three main categories. These; Internal processes and routine follow-up (42.8%), their contribution to customer satisfaction (41.6%) and producing solutions (6.6%). A chi-square analysis was conducted on the relationship between the critical role that the participants performed for the enterprise and the situation of knowing the concept of job description, the status of knowing their own job description, the perception of the enterprises’ expectations and the satisfaction with the job, but no significant results were obtained.
The findings reveal that a significant proportion of hotel employees do not know the concept of job description (42%), while more do not know their job description (57%). It was also determined that there is a relationship between not knowing the concept of job description and not knowing its own job description. This may reveal a business management / HRM management approach that does not dwell on the job description rather than an employee profile that has the problem of making sense of the job description in hotels.
This negative result in terms of job description has also been tested with answers within the scope of the company's expectations from the employee. The majority of the participants expressed something consistent about the expectations of the business from them. However, the expectation statements still do not contain information about job descriptions. On the other hand, expectation statements are mostly customer oriented. It was emphasized that the company has expectations about customer satisfaction and response to the requests of the customer. Knowing the business expectations despite the unknown job descriptions reveals the effectiveness of some generally accepted performance standards in the work processes. On this issue, attention should be drawn to the different sides of the coin: Firstly; statements appear to reveal general judgments about hotel and / or working life. This reveals the ambiguity about contract standards between enterprise and employee and the standards of service/labour exchange. In other words, even if the hotel employee does not know his/her job description, he is in general but superficial awareness about the satisfaction of the customer and devoted work required in the service process as a general judgment, and this awareness guides his relationship with his work. Second, it also suggests that customer satisfaction has evolved into awareness or understanding that is widely adopted in hotels. This situation can be interpreted as a positive situation for hotel management as a service industry. Finally, it can be interpreted as the clues of a perception that very high standards were expected from employees.
Besides the lack of knowledge about job descriptions, definitions based on general (not related to the task process) information on expectations may be based on the difficulty of adopting these standards by employees as well as standardizing the service process.
It has been determined that communication possibility is the most favourite working environment feature for hotel employees, and customers' unsuitable approaches, shift work and intensity are the most antipathetic elements. Despite the lack of knowledge on job description, the majority of employees are satisfied with their jobs. It can be said that they think positively about business processes and promotion and sees a future in their business. In this case, it can be suggested that HRM teams should be more informative about job descriptions, and department managers should direct their teams through job descriptions. The positive attitude of the employees and the flexibility of the hotel service processes may not turn the low level of awareness into an important problem. However, it is considered that informing employees about their job descriptions can enable them to act more clearly and work more comfortably during the service process. 

Keywords

Job description, job specifications, job satisfaction, hotel employee

OTEL ÇALIŞANLARININ İŞ TANIMLARI KONUSUNDAKİ FARKINDALIKLARI ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Abstract

Amaç: Otel çalışanlarının yeterli ve net iş tanımları ile yönlendirilmeleri İKY bölümlerinin verimliliğini artırmakta, çalışanın ve işletmenin performansına etki etmektedir. Bu çalışma otel işgörenlerinin iş tanımlarını bilme durumlarını çok boyutlu bir perspektiften incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.
Yöntem: Nitel yönteme uygun olarak, açık uçlu sorulardan oluşan bir form aracılığıyla 166 çalışandan veri elde edilmiştir. Analiz aşamasında karma yönteme uygun davranılmıştır.
Bulgular: Otel çalışanlarının önemli bir kısmının iş tanımı kavramını bilmediği, daha büyük kısmının ise kendi iş tanımını da bilmediği tespit edilmiştir. İş tanımı kavramını bilmeyenlerle kendi iş tanımını bilmeyenler önemli oranda aynı kişilerdir. Dolayısıyla, iş tanımını bilmeme hem kişisel hem de işletmelerde İKY uygulamalarının eksikliği ile ilgili olabilir. Çalışanlar, işletmelerinin kendilerinden beklentilerini müşteri odaklı bir bakışla anlamlandırmaktadır. En kritik iş gereklilikleri olarak iletişim becerisi ve yabancı dil öne çıkmaktadır. İşlerinin en sevilen yanı olarak iletişim ve en sevilmeyen yanı olarak müşterinin olumsuz tutumları beyan edilmektedir. İşletmeleri için oynadıkları en kritik roller ise müşteri memnuniyeti sağlamak ve iç süreçler-rutinin takibi olarak algılanmaktadır.
Sonuç: Otel İKY yetkililerinin iş tanımları konusundaki belirsizliği gidermesi gerekmektedir. İş tanımları netleştirilmeli, çalışanların kendi iş tanımlarını bilmesi sağlanmalıdır. İKY süreçlerinin hayata geçirilmesinde otellerdeki iş yoğunluğunun engelleyici özelliği ile baş edilmeye çalışılmalı ve bu kapsamda çözümler geliştirilmelidir. 

Keywords

İş tanımı, iş gereklilikleri, iş tatmini, otel çalışanları

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