An Analysis of Psychological Empowerment, Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment of Middle-Level Managers in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

This study is designed to investigate hotel and club middle-level managers’ perceptions of psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, organisational factors and job turnover intent in South East Queensland, Australia. Another key aspect of the study was to determine the reasons for the high levels of management turnover within the hospitality industry. This study uses as its theoretical base, management, empowerment, organisational behaviour and job satisfaction theories. The mixed method design in this study was a two-stage approach of qualitative and quantitative methods. The first phase of the research involved personal in depth semi-structured interviews and a pilot study of a small convenience sample of participants. Stage two consisted of a survey of hospitality managers working in large hotels and clubs in South East Queensland, Australia. The results of the survey provided demographic information about the participants. Further analysis of the data used descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, a one-way ANOVA, multiple regression and principal components analysis to obtain results regarding differences and relationships between the participants to answer the research question, sub research questions and hypotheses. Middle-level managers during the interview process revealed that they were only empowered to a certain monetary level and conditions such as long hours, weekend work as well as low pay contributed negatively to their satisfaction and commitment levels. The chance of promotion and advancement was rare and managers stated that this lead them to thinking about leaving their hotels or clubs.