1.1 Research Background
According to the report of UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization), in recent years, the tourism and hospitality has demonstrated to be an amazingly strong and resilient industry and they have been fundamental contributors to the recovery of global economy by benefiting billions of dollars in exports and generating millions of job (World Tourism Barometer, 2015). In fact, tourism and hospitality are ones of the fastest growing industries, they have tight link to other sectors and they both impact each other significantly. As a result, many countries have taken serious attention in developing tourism and hospitality, specifically hotel industry, based on available potentials as well as necessary investment, including Vietnam.
Vietnam has now become an ideal destination for international and domestic travelers.
The rich in 4 thousand-year history, tradition, culture as well as habits and customs helps tourism and hospitality develop rapidly. The image of peaceful, friendly country with massive number of unique features has also appealed tourists over the world (VNAT, 2015). Moreover, authority has now been aware of the importance of tourism and hospitality so many policies and regulations have been enacted aiming to boost these sectors. Potential in developing tourism and hospitality is very magnificent not only because of numerous beautiful sceneries across the country but also the evolution by leaps and bounds in economy, especially in infrastructure and transportation
Tourism and hospitality in Vietnam have achieved stable growth by continuously expanding markets and stimulating demands. According to the report of Vietnam National Administration Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (VNAT) released in 2015, international visitors to Vietnam in 2014 were nearly 7.9 million, increased 4% over 2013; and domestic visitors were 38.5 million, increased 10%. This report also shows in 2014, tourism contributed to GDP VND 230,000 billion (increase 15%), regardless of the complicated circumstances in region and over the world. Not only that, Vietnam has been honored several times in prestigious tourist surveys. Vietnam was ranked 20th on the Fodor’s Go List 2015 and also placed 17th on the list of 20 countries as the best travel destinations of the Telegraph Travel
Awards 2014 (Telegraph, 2014). Until 2014, Vietnam has possessed 18 world heritages, including cultural, national and mixed sites (VNAT, 2015).
To satisfy demand in tourism and hospitality, in Vietnam, the system of infrastructure, technique, service is constantly improving, in quantity as well as quality. Total number of accommodations across Vietnam is about 331,538 rooms. To be more specific, it includes of 66 five-star hotels (15,828 rooms), 181 four-star hotels (21,532 rooms) and 373 three-star hotels (26,684 rooms) (VNAT, 2015). Among that, there are 3 hotels that were voted as one of the Top 25 Best Service Hotels List (2014), this survey was held by Tripadvisor.com, a famous tourist website. Tourism and hospitality industry in Vietnam has helped to change the appearance in many places and improved the economy as well as the life of local people.
However, although the figures in statistics are very impressive but they still do not reflect exactly available potentials of hotel industry in Vietnam. There are many reasons lead to this situation, such as the lack in investment, infrastructure, transportation or inefficient policies and regulations (Tourism Review, 2014). Another important reason is human resource. Great potentials mean nothing if the workforce does not have enough competencies to transform them into advantages. As Amir (2013) claimed that employee is a blood stream of any business and prosperity or disaster of any organization rely on the performance of its employee. Main problem which occurs in the workplace is how to recruit skillful employees and how to retain them, especially in the highly competitive environment like hotel industry. Employees could be dissatisfied because of being assigned tasks without having the knowledge and skills relevant to them (Greenberger, 2002). This also directly impacts to organizational commitment. Training, job satisfaction and organizational commitment have been ones of the most popular topics in previous studies. Most of them claimed the positive relationship among these factors. Though the why and how question is still in question but these three factors are all very vital to the survival of any organization, especially in hotel industry.
There has been a great number of researches that explored the relationship among training, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, such as the works of Tett and Meyer (1993), Allen and Meyer (1997), Syed and Nadeem (2014), Ilhami Yucel (2012), Veronica and Dorothea (2015), Saimir and Jonida (2013), etc. Nevertheless, there is still much to learn about the relationship among these factors, especially in term of how they vary and influence on each
other. This study is another attempt which aims to investigate that relationship in context of five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam.
1.2 Problem Statement
The 21st is a century of revolution in socio-economy. This is the age of savvy travelers who are totally free in making decision and they are looking for the best quality and pricing from service providers (O’Neill & Mattila, 2004). As a result, every single hotel has to continuously enhance their quality of service and create the remarkable image for purpose surviving in contemporary economic environment. To obtain stable development, hotels must recruit qualified employees and equip them with knowledge by training. There have been many studies explored the importance of training in organization. McColl-Kennedy and White (1997) claimed the relationship between training and the quality of service that provides by staff. Janes (2005) found that training has an important role and helps hotel organization achieve a competitive edge.
In an era of high technology, knowledge is the most important property that must be conserved in order to remain competitive ability. Allen and Meyer (1997) suggested that there are many reasons that make individuals become committed to organizations, such as an effective attachment to the values of institutions, a perception of the costs encompassed if decide to leave or a feeling of obligation. Therefore, it is really important to understand how hotel employees satisfy and commit with organization, and to what extent factors impact on employee’s satisfaction and commitment.
Vietnam is a developing country and it has obtained many admirably splendid achievements. From an agricultural country, rely mostly on exports, by using power of whole nation and high determination, Vietnam is striving to become an industrial country. In order to obtain that target, skillful workforce is very important. It is obvious that human resources are now decisive factor to the success of any organization. However, the workforce in Vietnam is still not good enough, especially in advanced industry like hotel industry and Vietnamese hotel industry is suffering the shortage of qualified staff. According to the report of Vietnam National Administration Tourism (2014), hotel industry in Vietnam requires about 40,000 employees each year, but there are only 14,000 bachelors in hospitality graduated per year. In addition, hotel industry in Vietnam is highly competitive market, and also be the continuously changing
environment, then training is a compulsory process that guarantees organization is always on the right track.
1.3 Research Objectives
Previous studies have provided premise for this study to continue researching the relationship among quality of training, job satisfaction and organizational commitment in hotel industry in the context of five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam. Specifically, six objectives of this study are:
To discover current training conditions in the five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam.
To examine if Quality of Training has a positive influence on Organizational Commitment in five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam.
To examine if Quality of Training has a positive influence on Job Satisfaction in five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam.
To examine if Job Satisfaction has a positive influence on Organizational commitment in five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam.
To examine if Job Satisfaction has a mediating effect on the relationship between Quality of Training and Organizational Commitment.
To test if demographic variables such as Gender, Age and Education Background have a significant difference in Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction.
The reason to choose Hanoi as a place to conduct this study is because Hanoi is capital city of Vietnam and a symbol for whole country. The city is historical and cultural center as well as socio-political headquarter. Moreover, Hanoi has been an attractive destination for international investors and visitors for long period of time. Authority also organizes events and provides a platform for Hanoi to promote both its tourism and business opportunities.
1.4 Research Significance
This study provides an overview of training conditions of five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the relationship among quality of training, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It helps to improve the quality of workforce, work environment and bridges current
gaps. This paper also studies basic characteristics of training to help build up appropriate training programs as well as outline the measures to neutralize training on other factors.
Besides, this study provides references for operation and management in many fields. In business, managers might have orientation to build up appropriate strategy and improve revenue.
In society, authorities might correct education system and policy as well to improve the quality of labor force, make firm foundation for the development of organization exploiting available potentials. In research, this is the premise for deeper and more profound studies in the future.
1.5 Research Procedure
From research problems, a thorough review of literature is implemented to help develop preliminary measurement scale for analysis. Then, a pilot study is executed to help develop completed measurement scale before conducting full-scale field study. Data is collected and analyzed by some analyses such as descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, independent sample t-test and One-way ANOVA analysis to bring out the results, that help this study answer research problems, reach pre-determined objectives and make conclusions. The procedure of this study is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Research Procedure Literature Review Research Problem
Pilot Study
Field Study
Analysis
Descriptive Analysis
Reliability & Validity Analysis Correlation & Regression Analysis Independent Sample t-test
One-way ANOVA
Results & Discussions
Develop preliminary measurement
Develop completed measurement
Conclusions & Suggestions