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2-1995
Cathy A. Enz
Cornell University, cae4@cornell.edu
Recommended Citation
Simons, T., & Enz, C. A. (1995). Motivating hotel employees: Beyond the carrot and the stick [Electronic version]. Cornell Hotel and
Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 36(1), 20-27. Retrieved [insert date], from Cornell University, School of Hospitality
Administration site: http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles/477/
This Article or Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Hotel Administration Collection at The Scholarly Commons. It has
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Motivating Hotel Employees: Beyond the Carrot and the Stick
Abstract
Although motivation must come from within, outside incentives can encourage employees to do a good job.
Managers who know what their employees want can design the work environment to complement those
desires.
Keywords
motivation, hotel industry, incentives
Disciplines
Hospitality Administration and Management | Human Resources Management
Comments
Required Publisher Statement
Cornell University. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
into making mistakes while trying to To illustrate this complexity, found that employees consistently
motivate employees. For example, imagine attempting to get various preferred the rewards of interesting
hotels sometimes offer incentives hotel employees to attend an op work and appreciation jwgr job
that cost more than they are worth to tional meeting. Tell the general security or good wages! These 40
employees. Employee-of-the-month manager that you will give her a free years of studies shaped the belief
plaques may be a productive incen lunch if she attends and you are held by many motivational programs
tive for one department, while in unlikely to make much headway, but that money doesnt matter. He also
another they may only breed compe tell her she might learn a few new found that age and income level
tition or cynicism. Managers cannot time-management skills and you made a significant difference in
force their employees to be moti might gain her interest. On the workers reward preferences.3A
vated, but, if they know what their other hand, mention new time- study of 225 employees at seven
employees want from work, they can management skills to the folks at the Caribbean hotels found that em
create a coordinated work environ loading dock and they are likely to ployees ranked good wages and
ment, including coaching, skill de laugh, but offer them a free lunch good working conditions as the
velopment, and rewards, that helps and you might get their attention. first and second most preferred re
employees motivate themselves. This example is exaggerated, but the wards. This study also repeated an
Motivation is the force that im fact remains that different payoffs are earlier finding that employee age
pels people to choose a particular meaningful to different people. Effi influences reward preference.4A
job, to stay with that job, and to try cient management entails linking study of Las Vegas casino dealers
hard. Early approaches to motivation meaningful rewards to the level and found that the highest ranked re
focused on different human needs, direction of effort you seek. The wards were good wages and job
including the need for food and question then becomes, What re security.5
shelter, the need for social contact, wards are meaningful to which The idea that employees may
and the need for creative expression. people? prefer interesting work over good
Such approaches suggest that the The amount of effort an em wages is intriguing, but the early
tension of an unsatisfied need pro ployee expends toward accomplish studies were based on workers in
vides motivation, as people exert ing the hotels goals depends on manufacturing industries. It seems
effort in the hope that they will whether the employee believes that likely that hospitality workers pref
satisfy that need. Other approaches this effort will lead to the satisfac erences would differ from those of
to motivation, however, have paid tion of his or her own needs and manufacturing workers in important
increasing attention to volition; that desires. When a need or desire is ways. The Caribbean study revealed
is, to rational choice processes and unsatisfied, a person experiences a possible gap between service-
to long-term, goal-directed activi tension that drives her or him to worker motivations and those of
ties.1Recent theories consider that satisfy the need. People work hard industrial employees, but it focused
employees make choices based on to satisfy their needs and desires, and on employees in an underdeveloped
the results they value, the methods in this way they reduce their ten economy. Caribbean hospitality
they see as realistic, their long-term sion.2 From this straightforward workers may have fewer employ
goals, and their sense of justice and approach to motivating employees, ment alternatives than would North
fairness. Humans are not simply the key to facilitating motivation lies American hospitality workers and
need-based creatureswe interpret with managers accurately under they have a different cultural back
work situations based on the context standing what their employees want ground, which might invalidate the
of our lives, our perceived likeli from their work. Using that knowl studys applicability to a North
hood of success, our cultural values, edge, a manager can more effec
and the level of satisfaction that we tively channel employee effort to 3 Kenneth Kovach, What Motivates Employ
have already achieved. ward organizational goals. ees? Workers and Supervisors Give Different
Answers, Business Horizons, Sept.Oct. 1987,
When Kenneth Kovach exam pp. 58-65.
1 See: Frank Landy and Wendy Becker, ined studies carried out between 4 Kwame Charles and Lincoln Marshall,
Motivation Theory Reconsidered, Research in
Organizational Behavior, Vol. 9 (1987), pp. 1-39;
1946 and 1986, in which thousands Motivational Preferences of Caribbean Hotel
Workers: An Exploratory Study, International
and Ruth Kanfer, Motivation Theory and of industrial employees were asked Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,
Industrial/Organizational Psychology, in to rank ten job-reward factors, he Vol. 4, No. 3 (1992), pp. 25-29.
5 Richard Darder, Six Steps to Creating a
Handbook of Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, second edition, ed. M.D. Positive Motivational Working Environment,
Dunnette,Vol. 1 (Palo Alto: Consulting 2 Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality International Gaming and Wagering Business, Vol. 15
Psychologists Press, 1990), pp. 75170. (New York: Harper, 1954). (March 1994), pp. 1718.
Fphruarv 1QQ5 91
American setting. ferent ages motivated by different
The study of casino job factors?
dealers examined Are workers in different depart
workers in a single ments motivated by different job
job within a particu factors?
lar hospitality-indus What can a manager do with this
try niche. This level information?
of focus said little
about employees in The Study Method
other departments, To learn what hotel employees want
let alone other set from work, we asked them to rank
tings. The present ten work factors. To understand
survey, on the other how hotel workers might differ in
hand, looks at a rep motivation from other workers, we
resentative cross applied the set of work factors that
section of hotel em were used in the studies examined
ployees throughout by Kovach. We provided the hotel
the United States and workers with the following list of
Canada. Further ten work-related factors:
more, we specifically good wages,
ask the question of tactful discipline,
whether employees job security,
in different depart interesting work,
ments within a hotel feeling of being in on things,
are motivated by sympathetic help with personal
different rewards. problems,
Information is the opportunities for advancement
key to effective moti and development,
vation management. good working conditions,
To gather this moti personal loyalty to employees,
vation information, and
we recently con appreciation for
ducted a survey that accomplishments.
asked employees in We asked workers to rank the ten
12 U.S. and Cana factors, from l=what you want
dian hotels what they most from your job or organization
want from work. to 10what you want least from
This article reports your job or organization. Only one
what we found and factor was permitted to be ranked
addresses the follow number one, number two, etc.
ing questions: A total of 278 employees from
What motivates twelve different hotels located in the
hotel workers? United States and Canada partici
Do hotel workers pated in our study. Employees from
want different things the hotels voluntarily participated
from their jobs and and were representative of the vari
employers than do ous departments in each hotel. Dur
workers in other ing a six-month period in 1993, two
industries? research associates administered the
Are men and surveys on-site at the 12 hotels. The
women motivated by typical employee surveyed was a
different job factors? full-time employee, 32 years old,
Are workers of dif who had worked in the hotel for
22 IURImLL h o t e l a n d r e s t a u r a n t a d m in is t r a t io n q u a r t e r l y
H U M A N R E S O U R C E S
Fo h rn a n / IQ Q fJ m M
intangible factors ahead of good
wages and job security as things they
wanted from their jobs. This surpris
ing outcome makes sense given that
factory jobs tend to offer high wages
Hospitality Industrial relative to worker skill levels. Those
Workers Workers studies suggest thatfor factory
Work Factor <30 30+ <30 30+ managersthe development of
Good wages 1 1 1 5.5 interesting jobs represents the moti
Security 6 2 2 4 vational key to happy, productive
Opportunity 2 4 3 8 employees who come to work on
Good working conditions 4 3 7 5.5 time and dont quit.8
Interesting work 3 5 4 1 Hotel workers differed substan
Appreciation 5 6 5 2 tially from industrial workers in the
Loyalty to employees 8 7 9 7 rankings they ascribed to different
Feeling of being in on things 7 9 6 3 job factors. This difference indicates
Tactful discipline 9 8 8 10 the need for different managerial
Sympathetic personal help 10 10 10 9 strategies for motivating hotel work
ers, relative to those used for indus
trial workers. Hotel employees
Note: Rankings for industrial workers over age 30 were computed by ranking
numeric averages for the age groups 31-40, 41-50, and over 50. Due to ranked good wages first, which may
uncertainty about the number of respondents in each category, this combination be a result of the relatively low
of scores results only in an approximation. wages of service-sector jobs.
Douglas MacGregor, an early man
agement theorist, once said, Man
does not live by bread alone, except
where there is little bread.9 It is
likely that the top-three ranked de
sireswages, security, and opportu
nityrepresent frustrations experi
enced by hotel workers. Hotels that
create ways for employees to make
more money and assume permanent
jobs through high performance may
be able to improve workers motiva
tion and productivity.
Motivation for Different Age Groups
Are the differences between the
responses of hotel workers and other
workers based wholly on hotel
workers frustration? A further ex
planation can be drawn by compar
ing young hospitality employees to
those in manufacturing industries.
Industrial workers were, on average,
approximately 40 years old, while
the hotel workers we surveyed were,
on average, about 32 years old.
8 Kovach, p. 58.
9 Saul Gellerman, Motivation in the Real World
(New York: Penguin, 1992), p. 154.
Ffihruarv 1995 25
F&B Rooms, House Accounting, Sales, Back of Human
Work Factor Servers Front desk keeping Control Marketing House F&B Resources
Good wages 1 1 2 1 2 1 3
Security 3 4 1 4.5 4 5 6
Opportunity 2 2 5 2 1 4 1
Good working conditions 4 5.5 3 4.5 5 2 4
Interesting work 6 5.5 4 3 3 3 2
Appreciation 5 3 6 6 6 6 5
Loyalty to employees 7 7 7 8 8 7 7
Feeling of being in on things 9 8 8 7 7 8 8
Tactful discipline 8 9 9 9 9 9 9
Sympathetic personal help 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
back-of-the-house F&B, and hu sents a decrease in promotion op and through a diminution of per
man-resources employees are shown portunity and thus a decrease in a sonal loyalty. Many managers
in Exhibit 4. The top-three job potentially crucial motivating factor would gain practical productivity
factors for F&B servers were good for marketing and human-resources benefits from a reexamination of
wages, developmental opportuni personnel. their attitudes toward all major
ties, and job security Front-office Employees in the housekeeping employee groups.
workers gave similar emphasis to area and in back-of-the-house F&B
wages and opportunity, but placed showed very different profiles from What Can You Do?
appreciation in the third spot, fol the others, although good wages When trying to motivate workers,
lowed by job security. While both were still important. For house managers often forget that the de
servers and front-office workers keeping employees, however, sire to do the job must come from
face high volumes of customer money was second to job security, within the employee and not from
contact and emotionally trying and their third priority was work the supervisor. The manager can set
situations, servers receive acknowl ing conditions. Housekeeping staff the stage for motivation to happen,
edgment in the form of tips while did not take great stock in advance but cannot force motivation to
front-office workers do not. A pro ment opportunities, and focused occur. The level of effort and the
gram of customer-comment cards, instead on a secure job with good direction of that effort are set by
perhaps linked to a system of re working conditions. For back-of- workers, based on their perceptions
wards, might provide a greater the-house F&B employees, good of the most rational way to satisfy
sense of appreciation for front- wages ranked first, followed by their personal desires. What manag
office employees and thus serve good working conditions and inter ers can do is to take employee de
as a potent motivator. esting work. While young manage sires into account to create an envi
Accounting staff show a similar ment hopefuls may be willing to ronment where high effort, prop
profile to F&B and front-office tolerate difficult conditions, long erly channeled, will give employees
workers, but interesting work is hours, and yelling bosses, those some measure of satisfaction. For
ranked third. This emphasis makes same job characteristics might at many hospitality employees, this
sense in light of those employees tack the very core of an older, less optimum motivational environment
required training and the nature of promotion-seeking room attendant may involve some form of cash
their work. The sales and marketing or steward. Workers in these two incentive and potential for advance
staff looked a lot like the accoun departments seem to be motivated ment. For others, it will focus on
tants, except for the fact that op differently than those in other de security and good working condi
portunities for advancement were partments. They might view pro tions. In most cases, a positive,
reported as first in importance, motion as highly unlikely, and so respectful work environment has
edging out wages as the first prior focus on having a well-paying, rea the potential to facilitate employee
ity. This pattern may simply suggest sonably pleasant, and secure job. A retention and generally also to set
that sales and marketing are better reward system that offers improve the stage for excellent performance,
compensated and that this need has ments in these job factors could be particularly in back-of-the-house
been diminished. Human-resources an extremely potent motivational areas. Useful insight can also
workers placed opportunity and tool for these groups of employees. emerge from considering the age
interesting work in the number one Related to the issue of room- and department affiliation of
and two spots, with wages ranked attendants or stewards work envi different employees.
third. While opportunities for ad ronment is the scorn that people in Still, it is essential to recognize
vancement ranked among the top these jobs often feel from their that the general patterns explained
three factors for all departments superiors. Ambitious young manag here might not hold for a given
except for back-of-the-house F&B ers often have difficulty under individual. If you really want to
and housekeeping, they were standing the job context of older facilitate the motivation of a par
ranked first by human-resources or less ambitious workers. If man ticular individual, we recommend
and sales and marketing employees. agers exhibit disdain or a lack of that you ask them what they want,
This reported importance should respect for those people, that nega then set up a path for them to
be kept in mind as companies trim tive attitude will then decrease satisfy that desirea path that
middle-management layers to opti employee motivation, both through includes providing your hotel
mize corporate efficiency. The ab an unnecessary decrease in the with extraordinary effort and
sence of those middle layers repre quality of the working conditions service. CQ