Investigating Motivation of the Hotel Employees at the Operational Level: A Case Study of the Hotel Business in Samut Songkram Province, Thailand

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate motivation and behaviour of the employees at the operational level
towards the hotel operations in the hotel business of Samut Songkram Province, as well as examining the relationship
between behaviour and motivation of the employees at the operational level in performing the hotel operations in the
hotel business of Samut Songkram Province. The sample of this study was the employees at the operational level who
worked in the hotels located in Samut Songkhram Province with indefinite population size. A sample of 400 employees
was collected by the use of non-probability sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the data collecting tool with
reliability index of 0.902. The descriptive statistics including percentage, mean and standard deviation were used, whereas
the Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient and Chi-Square were used as the inferential statistics. The finding revealed that
the overall behaviour of the employees in performing the hotel operations was ranked at a high level, with each attribute
including understanding, involvement, organizational commitment and uniformity in and towards the hotel operations
presenting high score as well. The finding with respect to the employees’ overall motivation reported medium level, with
all attributes including career success, job characteristics, career growth and job security, and relationship with colleagues
presenting a medium level as well. In contrast, job welfares and incentives were ranked at a low level. The study found
out that there was a relationship between the employees’ motivation and behaviour in performing the hotel operations at
the significant level of 0.05.