Proceedings of 23rd International Business Research Conference
18 - 20 November, 2013, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-36-8
Research on the Critical Factors Influencing Employees' Job
Satisfaction in the Japanese Hospitality Industry
Young Choi*
The level of each company in the hospitality industry is greatly influenced by the
skills of its employees. This is because employees are the most important factor for
creating and providing service. In particular, in the hospitality industry, for example,
the hotel business and taxi services, customers in many cases experience face-toface service by employees. This study aimed to determine whether there is any
difference in the degree of employees’ job satisfaction based on their work content
and the level of their responsibility and authority.
A questionnaire survey was conducted in March 2012. Employees of the hotel
industry, tourist facilities, and the traffic (taxi) industry throughout Japan were
requested to participate via the internet. A total of 517 samples were collected. The
survey items sought responses regarding the degree of employees' job satisfaction
and whether they were conscious of wanting to change their job. Responses were
also sought about what proportion of their work content they considered important.
The entire sample was divided into “hotel and ryokan industry employee group” and
“traffic (taxi) industry employee group.” These two groups were then divided into
subgroups based on job specifications. The sample of hotel and ryokan employees
was divided into three subgroups: managers, receptionists, and back-office
personnel. Next, the group of traffic (taxi) industry employees was also divided into
three subgroups: managers, drivers, and back-office personnel. The difference
between managers and regular employees was noted and clarified. Furthermore,
we were interested in the difference between employees who were in charge of the
work that involved direct contact with customers and those who were in charge of
back-office operations. Our research also focused on analyzing the difference
between male and female employees. By understanding the difference between
these groups, we could find the important factors that affected the job satisfaction in
each group of employees. One-way analysis of variance was used to clarify the
difference in the average value between the groups. The Bayesian Network method
was used to describe the structures of the degree of job satisfaction within each
group.
This study concluded that those who were in charge as managers generally tended
to have a low level of satisfaction with their job. Such a tendency was seen in both
those beginning as managers as well as middle-level managers. In contrast, it was
found that officials who were responsible for administrative affairs had a high
degree of job satisfaction compared with other groups. Results showed that,
compared with the female employee group, the male employee group on the whole
had higher job satisfaction. Results showing these same tendencies were obtained
in both the hotel industry and traffic (taxi) industry employee groups.
Key words: Employees’ job satisfaction, Japanese hospitality industry
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*Dr. Young Choi, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shizuoka Eiwa Gakuin University, Japan.
Email : young.choi@shizuoka-eiwa.ac.jp