The Relationship among Quality of Training, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Five-Star Hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam

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College of Management

I-Shou University

Master Thesis

The Relationship among Quality of Training,

Job Satisfaction and Organizational

Commitment in Five-Star Hotels in Hanoi,

Vietnam

Advisor: Dr. Grace Chun-Lun Chien

Co-Advisor: Dr. Tai-chi Wu

Graduate Student: Ngoc Minh, Nguyen

January 2016

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my chief advisor, Dr. Grace Chun-Lun Chien, Department of Hospitality Management, I-Shou University, for her kindness and dedicatedly guidance during my study journey in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She always supports and encourages me with all her generosity and carefulness. I am very grateful for her of sharing knowledge and time with me so that I can complete my thesis on time. She has taught me many things. The time of being her student is really memorable. In addition, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my co-advisor, Dr. Tai-Chi Wu of I-Shou University, and the other two committee members, Dr. Hei-di Chang of I-Shou University and Dr. Sophie Cheng of Southern Taiwan University of Technology & Science for their precious advices and valuable comments and suggestions.

Other than that, I would also like to dedicate this achievement to my dear family, father, mother, two elder sisters, and three small angels, who always believe in me, support tirelessly, and give me the great power to reach my dream. Family is my concrete rear to continuously head on and never step back. Without family, I am nothing but grain of sand. I do not hesitate to say that I love them so much for million times.

To my love, Nguyen Ngoc Mai, I want to say thank to her for being a part of my life. She is always by my side to cheer me up and to help me overcome difficulties and take challenges. She definitely is my greatest happiness, in the past two years, now and forever.

I really appreciate the assistance from friends, especially “the dumb” Le Thi Thuy Trang and “little pig” Tran Khanh Linh for the time being stood by me, helped me to deal with problems. I will never forget them, for sure.

It is not easy to come to this far, I really perceive the meaning of sentence “no pain no gain” and I am very happy to obtain this achievement. Lastly but not the least, I just want to say to everyone in my life: Thank you!

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Abstract

Hotel industry is nowadays one of the world’s fastest growing industries and has been fundamental contributors to the recovery of global economy. Human resource has become a key factor for the success of any organization, especially in hotel industry. To help shed the light about the relationship among Quality of Training, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment, this study studied these factors in context of Vietnamese hotel industry. This study utilized quantitative method with full-scale survey targeted to 360 employees from 12 five-star hotels located in Hanoi, Vietnam. As a result, 301 copies of questionnaire were collected back and then the data were analyzed by SPSS, through several stages such as descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, independent sample t-test and One-way ANOVA analysis. This study has shown that 100% of five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam have training programs and demonstrated the positive relationships among Quality of Training, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment as well as the mediating effect of Job Satisfaction on the relationship between Quality of Training and Organizational Commitment. In addition, this study has shown that Male employees have higher level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment than Female. Also, employees in the range of 40-49 years old and employees who have low level of Education Background are likely to be more satisfied and committed toward organization. Based on that, this study came up with some suggestions in business, society and in research.

Keyword: training; job satisfaction; organizational commitment; hotel industry; five-star hotel;

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List of Tables

Table 3.1. Result of validity and reliability analyses ………... 24

Table 3.2. Procedures of testing mediating effect ………....… 27

Table 4.1. Descriptive Statistics of Participant’s Demographic Information ………... 30

Table 4.1. Descriptive Statistics of Participant’s Demographic Information (cont.) …………... 31

Table 4.2. Descriptive Statistics of Current Training Conditions ……… 33

Table 4.3. Reliability Statistics ………. 34

Table 4.4. Exploratory Factor Analysis of Quality of Training ...……… 35

Table 4.5. Exploratory Factor Analysis of Job Satisfaction ...……….. 37

Table 4.6. Exploratory Factor Analysis of Organizational Commitment ………. 38

Table 4.7. Correlation Coefficient Analysis ………. 39

Table 4.8. Regression analysis of relationship between sub-factors of Quality of Training and Organizational Commitment ……… 41

Table 4.9. Regression analysis of relationship between Quality of Training and Organizational Commitment ………. 41

Table 4.10. Regression analysis of relationship between Quality of Training and Job Satisfaction ………...… 42

Table 4.11. Regression analysis of relationship between sub-factors of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment ……… 43

Table 4.12. Regression analysis of relationship between Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment ………. 44

Table 4.13. Regression analysis of relationship between Training of Quality and Organizational Commitment with mediating effect of Job Satisfaction ………...… 45

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Table 4.14. The different between Male and Female in Organizational Commitment ………… 46 Table 4.15. The different between Male and Female in Job Satisfaction ……… 47 Table 4.16. One-way ANOVA between Organizational Commitment and Demographic

Variables ………... 48 Table 4.17. One-way ANOVA between Intrinsic Satisfaction and Demographic Variables ...… 50 Table 4.18. One-way ANOVA between Extrinsic Satisfaction and Demographic Variables ….. 51 Table 5.1. Research Summary ……….. 52

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List of Figures

Figure 1 Research Procedure ... 6

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Hotel Industry

Hotel industry is a broad industry that aims to customer satisfaction and relies on disposable income and leisure time. Park and Gagon (2006) identified hotel industry essentially focuses on providing a variety of activities and they may be categorized into integration of room, food and beverage services. Hotel industry has a long history, from simple form like modest inns in ancient times to modern, luxury hotel today. Along with the development of society, travel is no longer a pleasure of wealthy class only but common for everyone. It has amazingly developing pace because of the increase in demand of humanity. The modern life causes more stress and makes people living under high pressure, so leisure activities are very important for recovering energy. In addition, with the support of financial abundance, high technology, human tend to experience and discover new things so traveling to other places is on the top of the list. Travel is now basic demand of human being and most people are willing spending money for this (Nikolaos, 2003). It is obvious that hotel industry is now an integral part in any economy and helps to change the appearance of many countries. Recently, although the world has been suffering the economic crisis but this sector still sheds a light in the doom picture and increases the overall impact, the same in case of Vietnam.

Basically, hotel industry is intensively advanced and mostly relies on human resources. It needs the involvement of staff from all departments to operate, from departments directly deal with customers like Front Office, Housekeeping, Food and Beverages to back-office departments such as Management, Accounting or R&D. How efficient their works are directly impacts on overall performance (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2009). Nevertheless, the labor market now is undergoing a significant deficiency in qualified staff (Woods, 2006). Training in organization, therefore, plays a vital role in the every organization.

In hotel industry, there is an important concept called Hotel Ratings. It is used to classify hotel according to their quality and it also helps travelers perceive what service can be expected in accommodation. There is a variety of rating systems used by different institutions around the

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world. Such as Star Ratings system launched by Forbes Travel Guide or Diamond Ratings system by The AAA and their affiliated bodies. Some countries just use their own standard and they are totally different from others. There have been efforts at unifying the classification systems to create an internationally recognized and reliable standard, but they have all failed. Therefore, there is no international classification which has been adopted so far.

In Vietnam, Star Ratings system is popularly used, but it does have some problems alongside. Firstly, Star Ratings is kind of complicated and difficult to adopt, whereas Vietnamese hotel industry is lacking of centralization, synchronization and professionalism. Secondly, because of the lack in national-level management, many hotels just make their rating themselves, without any qualified certificate, legal and authentic document. It makes all involved sides confuse, especially customers. Finally, because a large number of hotels in Vietnam is private business, their scale is quite small and medium, hence, this standard is disadvantageous to them whose quality of accommodation could fall into one class but the lack of a particular item, such as elevator would prevent it from gaining a higher class.

2.2 Training in Hotel Industry

Training in Hotel Industry is not new concept and it is still developing. This part depicts theory of training, how to categorize kinds of training and measure the effectiveness of training. At the end, the overview of training in Vietnam is presented.

2.2.1 The Theories of Training

Training can be defined as a process of learning that involves the acquisition of knowledge, concepts, rules, sharpening of skills, or changing attitudes and behaviors to enhance the performance of staffs (Naukrihub, 2013). As far as Mcclelland’s opinion (2002), training, basically, is an activity that aims to change people behavior. From any aspect, training always mentions to the change, change is objective and process also. In hotel industry, business leaders soon recognize that relying only on human resources from education system is not enough, but the existence of training programs is very imperative, because training is critical to improve employees’ skill, organizational performance and survival (Schuler, 2001).

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In modern hotel business, the most important factor is competencies of people, or so-called the employees’ qualities. They are skill, knowledge and mindsets that can impact on hotel’s development and survival. In a recent study, James Malitoni and Jarvis Baluti (2014) found that the training programs improve employee’s knowledge, skill and behavior. Training aims to enrich employees’ knowledge, instructs them how to apply what they learned to reality, improves employees’ behavior and motivates their working spirit. By training, employees can improve their technical as well as problem solving skill, so they will get confidence and motivation, have an orientation in career to make work become simpler and more interesting. Also, training inspires workers by granting them all necessary information and helping them to understand how important their jobs are. On the other hand, training makes an opportunity to gather people in institution then helps everyone to be more united. When organizations train their employees, by forming and providing collectively unanimous atmosphere, the team spirit collaboration may be built among employees and with management team (Train, 2009). Therefore, training is essential in many ways.

Training can be seen as a key element in human resources practices and policies (Nickson, 2007). An organization needs adequate training programs if it wants to be competitive. Training is an operational and integrated function that assists in shaping a unique workforce by sculpting employees’ skills and developing professional qualities (Collins, 2007). Especially, working in hotel industry requires employees not only have deep knowledge in academic theory, but also practice in different circumstances, turn up with initiatives, be ready to diverse problems and know how to sort them out.

According to the research of Joseph Kennedy (2009), to be effective, training should follow the following guidelines:

 Training should be stuck to the organization’s culture and goals.  Training should be perceived by trainees as important part of work.  Training should be relevant to the demand of the trainees.

 Training should be attached to the workplace.

 Training should be applied but based on learning principles.  Training should be supported and reinforce.

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Moreover, evaluating the effectiveness of training programs is very important. There are many approaches that have been developed to evaluate training programs. Of these, Kirkpatrick Four Levels of Evaluation created by Donald Kirkpatrick is arguably the most widely adopted method (Kirkpatrick 1978, 1994). Four levels of evaluation are:

 Reaction evaluation - a measure of satisfaction about how the trainees feel, their personal reactions to the training, e.g. Do the trainees like training? How do they think of training?  Learning evaluation - a measure of learning about how much the knowledge or

intellectual capability of trainees are increased after the training.

 Behavior evaluation - a measure of behavior about in what extent the trainees apply and change their behavior, this can be immediately or lately depending on the situation

 Results evaluation: a measure of results about the impact on the business from improving performance of the trainees.

2.2.2 Types of Training

There are many ways to categorize training, by location, targeted group or by objective. This study focuses on sorting training by objective. According to the study of John (2007), training can be divided into:

 Apprentice training: To provide general information of organization and basic skills in work. Apprentice training can build up relationships among trainees. It also helps trainees to develop the good behavior and attitude in work.

 Certification training: Employee would get professional certificate after this kind of training. By using theoretical and practical test, it aims to motivate employees when they pass the tests, and improve their skills as well.

 Simulation training: To improve the way works get done and enhance the efficiency by simulating practical situation and this kind of training exists habitually.

 On-the-job training: To train employees the best way to complete the tasks in the most effective way. In this kind of training, employees would be taught about rules, principles, manners and techniques.

 Language training: Depending on departments, tasks or positions, language requirements are also different.

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 Hotel services and administration training: Focus on a specific subject of administration and services, such as customer service, communication skills, public and guest relations, sales and marketing, etc.

 Cross training: To enhance the relationship between different departments and ensure the knowledge sharing inside organization.

2.2.3 Training in Vietnam

In Vietnam, authority has determined education as a top priority because human resources are recognized as the most important factor to accelerate the industrialization and modernization process as well as play a basic role in social development and rapid, sustainable economic growth (MPI, 2001). Vietnam has currently about 284 institutions in the field of tourism and hospitality, including 62 universities, 80 colleges, 117 secondary training schools, 2 training companies and 23 vocational training centers.

Training is identified as the most efficient tool to level up the competitiveness of Vietnam, both in micro and macro economy (Quang, Van der Heijden & Rowley, 2010). There have been many projects launched for employee training, such as a seven-day training course that aimed to improve fundamental functions (World Bank, 1997), a five-day training course trained about business regulations and laws, strategies, etc. (Judge & Levine, 1997), or a fourteen-days course focused on consulting and marketing (Gross & Weintraub, 2005). Another program called High Impact Tourism Training (HITT) was sponsored by the EU in 2011 to seven countries in Asia and Africa, including Vietnam. The most recent project is ESRT – Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development, which aimed to strengthen organizational and human capacity as well as protect and enhance the natural and cultural resources of the country (Vietnam Responsible Tourism Program, 2013).

However, regardless of these efforts, the result is still modest. Contemporary workforce in hotel industry has not met the requirement, although the number is continuing to growth, the quality is very low. Filling this gap is not easy, because it relates to whole education systems and managerial mechanism. This is why doing this study makes important significance.

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2.3 Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction has been defined in various ways and studied from long time ago. According to Hackman and Oldham (1975, 250-279), it is “the degree to which the employee is satisfied and happy with his job”. It is also defined as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state, resulting from the perception of fulfilling or allowing the fulfillment of one’s job” (McPhee & Townsend, 1992, 117-121). Job satisfaction is linked with good performance, high values of work, high level of motivation or low rate of absenteeism, turnover and burnout (Syed & Nadeem, 2014). Therefore, if employee is dissatisfied to work, his or her performance will decrease and he or she will tend to leave organization.

Robbins and Judge (2013) found that when discuss about employee, people usually mention to job satisfaction. It has been a considerable matter for behavioral researchers because an employee who is more satisfied usually holds positive feeling about job than an employee who is dissatisfied. According to study of Arvey, Abraham, Bouchard and Segal (1989), there are two aspects of satisfaction, which in turn called intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. The intrinsic satisfaction focuses on reflecting personal feeling, ability, award, achievement, chance to do things for other people, etc. The extrinsic satisfaction concerns the way policies of company are administered, the quality of working condition, etc. The intrinsic or extrinsic orientation work values relate to job satisfaction (George & Jones, 2008).

There are plenty of factors that might affect to individual satisfaction, such as gender, age, personality, traits, or even education background, experience, etc. These factors are demonstrated to be strongest ones that affect to the degree of employee’s job satisfaction (Ilhami, 2012). The work of Ilhami (2012) showed the difference in job satisfaction among different groups of gender, age, education background, tenure, tasks. Based on that, this paper tries to test the difference in job satisfaction among different groups of gender, age and education background in context of five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam. Moreover, an employee who has high extrovert personality tends to have high level in job satisfaction comparing to employee who is low on the same traits (George & Jones, 2008). Researchers have also pointed out that job satisfaction can have high impact on employee’s attitude and view toward their assignment. The most important factors for understanding job satisfaction are the value and belief because they are

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well-established. These expectations could lead to individual's commitment to organization, and an employee who has commitment to organization would have good behaviors as well as attitudes towards the organization's objectives, hence, he or she would have high desire to remain membership with organization in the long time.

2.4 Organizational Commitment

The success of any organization does not depend solely on how competent its employees are but also which degree of their commitment to organization (Beukhof et. al., 1998; Thornhill et. al., 1996). Organizational commitment has been demonstrated to be beneficial for both employee and organization through enhancing the loyalty, job safety, promotion, compensation and reward (Rowden, 2000).

Mowday, Porter and Steers (1979, 43-77) defined organizational commitment as “a strong belief in the values and goals of organization and a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization”. In addition, their study also considered organizational commitment as “an affective attachment to an organization and desire of an individual to stay in the organization”. Literally, organizational commitment is about employees’ identification and their involvement with organization. It is beyond passive loyalty and encompasses an active relationship in which employees are willing to contribute to organization (Mowday et al., 1982). The most popularly accepted concept is that organizational commitment indicates employee who is dedicated to organization, wants to continue a membership with organization or is not likely to leave. In other words, committed employee is more likely to reach the requirements of their tasks and stay with the organization than uncommitted employee (Allen & Meyer, 1997). Thus, organizational commitment is a psychological state that creates the relationship between an individual and an organizational (Allen & Meyer, 1990).

According to Allen and Meyer (1991), construct of organizational commitment includes of three main elements: desires, needs, and obligations. Employee who has higher level of organizational commitment is less likely to leave the organization and has a better relationship with colleagues and customers, he or she is more flexible, learns more quickly, and works more effectively (Mowday, 1998). It is claimed that committed employee is willing to participate to

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three elements: (1) a belief in values and goals of organization; (2) a desire to make attempts for organization; and (3) a strong willingness to stay with organization (Porter, et al., 1974).

Allen and Meyer (1996) developed a three-component model of organizational commitment that is wide accepted by many scholars. This model proposed organizational commitment essentially is a combination of (1) affective commitment, which is concerned about to the employees’ emotional attach to, identify with, and involve in; (2) continuance commitment, which refers to the commitment based on the associated costs if employees decide to leave organization; and (3) normative commitment, which mentions to the personal feelings of obligation to stay with the organization. To be specific, affective commitment occurs when employees desire to stay; continuance commitment occurs when employees feel need to stay; and normative commitment occurs when employee feel have to stay.

Moreover, according to the studies of Saimir and Jonida (2013), Veronica and Dorothea (2015), there are considerable differences in Organizational Commitment between male and female, ages and different levels of education background. To be specific, male employees tend to have higher level of commitment than female and employees who are more matured do not possess much intent to leave organization. In addition, employees who have lower educational degree usually stay with organization longer than other groups. In context of this study, the difference in Organizational Commitment between different groups of gender, age and education background would be tested.

2.5 The Relationship among Quality of Training,

Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction

2.5.1 The Relationship between Quality of Training and

Organizational Commitment

People always play irreplaceable role in every institution, even in the era of advanced technology. Furthermore, hotel industry is a service–oriented business in which the success of the business is determined by the interaction between employees and customers. According to the study of Samuel and Chipunza (2009), retaining skillful employees is vital to the survival of any

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organization by sustaining competitive advantages. Researchers and managers have recognized the importance of recruitment and retention and have considered qualified employees as the most valuable assets. Therefore, employee training is important avenues to explore (Youngsoo & Duncan, 2009).

Retaining employee by training is one of the most availably effective tools. Kauffman (2010) argued that to improve employees’ commitment, it is critical to use grass-root employee involvement system like training programs. The opportunity of gaining access to training programs is a critical factor of the development of organizational culture and has a positive relationship with organizational commitment (Rajib, 2015). Recent studies have shown that employees nowadays have a desire to obtain new skills, especially technical skills, because acquiring new skills provides the job security much more than seniority (Chaminade, 2007). Contemporary employees are looking for organizations which provide training programs and development opportunities. It results in affective commitment because the employees will be more committed to organization if their goals are similar to organization’s goals (Coetzee & Schreuder, 2013). This affective commitment often urges employee to stay with the organization. Therefore it is very important to provide employees comprehensive training programs and keep track on their level of job satisfaction.

The relationship between training and organizational commitment has only recently drawn attention from business managers and researchers. In study about the relationship between Training and Organizational Commitment among nurses in New Zealand and United States, Bartlett (2001) found staffs believe that the opportunity for learning is more important in identifying level of organizational commitment than financial benefits. In addition, the study of Rajib (2015) suggested that perception of employees concerning various training activities has a strong positive impact on the level of commitment toward organization. An employee who believes in positive outcomes obtained from participating to training programs tends to be more motivated and work more efficiently (Tharenou, 2001).

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2.5.2 The Relationship between Quality of Training and Job

Satisfaction

Previous studies have claimed the need for comprehensive training programs to improve employees’ satisfaction and guarantee customers’ satisfaction and loyalty (Selin, 1998). A comprehensive training program is very important because entrepreneurs may overestimate the quality of services they provide (Reichel et al., 2000). It means they are too confident about their outputs but they forget how important the inputs are. The input mentioning here is human resources, the workforce - key factor of any organization in any industry. Therefore, understanding the relationship between training and job satisfaction is imperative to explore the relationship between organization and employee because both elements give benefit to the organization.

A study conducted by Siebern-Thomas (2005) found that job satisfaction tends to be higher where there is access to training. This matter was also be claimed by studies of Kauffman (2010) and Samuel and Chipunza (2009). According to that, nowadays, employees are very dynamic and flexible because they have many options to choose in work (Kauffman, 2010). Once they are dissatisfied with their present company they will immediately move to the different organizations, where have better work condition, benefit and compensation. The responsibility therefore belongs to managers and administrators who have to ensure that they can preserve and maintain their best employees. A good manager is one who knows exactly how to attract qualified employees and retain them. Obviously, in such an aggressively contemporary economy, organization will lose the competitive advantages if they lose their skillful employees to competitors. This will directly impact to the survival of organization.

Employee’s job satisfaction or even their commitment to organization can be achieved by providing them a comprehensive training program. According to the study of Vasudevan (2014), both employer and employee are tending to have better knowledge as well as understanding in recognizing the importance of training that can lead to employee’s commitment and satisfaction. Consequently, if training programs are not developed properly, it might expose the weakness and threat to organizational commitment that can lead to a failure of organizational.

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2.5.3 The Relationship between Organizational Commitment and

Job Satisfaction

In this contemporarily complicated and aggressive economy, organizations are trying to build up and develop job satisfaction and organizational commitment of their employees in order to retain competent employee and maintain competitive edge. The relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been studied extensively since these two factors are very imperative to business (Veronica and Dorothea, 2015; Ilhami Yucel, 2012; Syed and Nadeem, 2014). Basically, job satisfaction is distinguished quite clearly from organizational commitment. Mowday et al. (1979, 43-77) supposed that organizational commitment is “more global” and “it reflects a general affective response to the organization as a whole” whilst job satisfaction “focuses on one’s response either to one’s job or to certain aspects of one’s job”. Moreover, there is no need for job satisfaction and organizational commitment to occur at the same time. It is absolutely possible that an individual might have high level of job satisfaction without having intent to stay in organizational. In other side, a committed individual might dislike what he or she is doing.

Previous researches have indicated that there is a high correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. These findings suggested employers that, to improve organizational commitment of employee, they need to improve their satisfaction first. The result of previous studies all showed that job satisfaction is positively related to organizational commitment. Williams and Hazer (1986) showed that job satisfaction is an antecedent to organizational commitment and Jernigan et al. (2002) found that job satisfaction is a causal factor of organizational commitment. Ilhami (2012) found that high levels of job satisfaction results in higher extent of organizational commitment. Satisfied employees are more likely committed to the organization and also have stronger belief in achieving collective objectives.

In other direction, organizational commitment appears when an employee has positive feelings at work, such as job satisfaction, trust in management, or attractive remuneration and rewards (Meyer et al., 2002). Study of Meyer and companion also indicated that job satisfaction directly relates to organizational commitment. Job satisfaction is linked with the positive response to the workplace, whilst organizational commitment is more consistent and stable

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(Reed, Kratchman, & Strawser 1994). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are two very relevant working attitudes, which mean that there are some overlaps of them and there is a mutual effect on other variables.

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Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

“There is no right or wrong method. There is only method that is appropriate to your research topic and the model with which is working” (Silverman, 2005). The selection of an appropriate research approach is vital to the success of any study, because it determines where the research begins, how the research proceeds, and what type of research techniques is needed (Blaikie, 1993). This chapter explains the research methodology utilized in this study, how it is conducted, includes of research design, research framework, population and sample selection, design of instrument, data collection and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

The research design holds significant role to the success of a study as it addresses the way data is collected and analyzed. This study was conducted from October to December, 2015. This paper utilized quantitative method to collect, analyze data. Quantitative methodology allows researcher to deal with the problems or concepts which need to be studied, then generate hypotheses that would be tested (Nahid, 2003). Quantitative research aims to quantify the collected data for analyzing then come up with final result. By using this method, it is easy to have a clear and scientific perspective about targeted objects. The instrument used in this study is survey questionnaire that is developed based on results from previous studies. To guarantee the reliability and validity of measurement scales, a pilot study is conducted before full-scale field study. During the implementation of study, some changes are made to improve the preciseness and effectiveness in final result.

3.2 Research Framework

Purpose of this study is to declare the relationship among quality of training, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, provide suggestions to the firms as how they can make best use of training programs. This topic have been profoundly studied all over the world and obtained similar results. The most relevant studies can be presented are studies of Syed and Nadeem (2014), Ilhami Yucel (2012), Veronica and Dorothea (2015), Saimir and Jonida (2013),

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H1

etc. Be inspired by these studies, a theoretical framework is formulated to depict the relationship among quality of training, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2 Research Framework

The relationship between Quality of Training and Organizational Commitment has been studied thoroughly and extensively by previous studies, such as the works of Bartlett (2001); Tharenou (2001). As a result, Hypothesis One (H1) is formulated as below:

H1 - Quality of Training has a significant and positive influence Organizational Commitment in five-star hotels.

Quality of Training has been claimed to have influence on Job Satisfaction in the works of Siebern-Thomas (2005); Kauffman (2010) and Samuel and Chipunza (2009). Based on their works, Hypothesis Two (H2) is formulated as below:

H2 – Quality of Training has a significant and positive influence on Job Satisfaction in five-star hotels.

Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment have been found having direct relationship to each other. From the result of studies of Meyer et al. (2002); Jernigan et al. (2002); Ilhami (2012), Hypothesis Three (H3) is formulated as below:

H4 H4 Organizational Commitment Quality of Training Job Satisfaction

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H3 – Job Satisfaction has a significant and positive influence on Organizational Commitment in five-star hotels.

Since H1, H2, H3 are formulated for testing, there is a need to further test if Job Satisfaction has a mediating effect on the relationship of Quality of Training and Organizational Commitment. As a result, Hypothesis Four (H4) is formulated as below:

H4 – Job Satisfaction has a mediating effect on the relationship between Quality of Training and Organizational Commitment.

According to Chapter one, the 6th research objectives is to test if demographic variables, specifically Gender, Age and Education Background have a significant difference on Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction. Thus, Hypothesis Five (H5) is to test if there is a significant difference in Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction among different groups of Gender, Age and Education Background. Three sub-hypotheses are formulated as below:

H5A – There is a significant difference in Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction between Male and Female employees.

H5B – There is a significant difference in Organizational Commitment among different groups of Age and Education Background.

H5C – There is a significant difference in Job Satisfaction among different groups of Age and Education Background.

3.3 Population and Sample Selection

To help this study implement smoothly, detailed information about five stars hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam is collected from Statistical Report of Vietnam National Administration Tourism (2015), as shown in Appendix A – The List of five-star hotels. There are 12 five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam in total. The population of this study is all full-time employees from all departments of five-star hotels located in Hanoi, Vietnam, part-time employees are not qualified to participate to this survey.

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Convenience sampling technique is used in this study. Convenience sampling is a special sampling method that implements data collection from samples which are conveniently available to participate (Donald & Pamela, 2014). In study of Determining appropriate sample size in survey research, James, Joe and Chadwick (2001) claimed that the determination of sample size is important task for any study. The formula used for calculating sample size is presented as below:

∗ N ∗ P ∗ 1 P

∗ 1 ∗ ∗ 1

Where: n = sample size; z = z-score N = population size

P = population proportion; ME = desired Margin of Error

The number of employees in 12 five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam is approximately 2000. In order to get pre-determined objectives, the appropriate sample size for this study is determined by 360 employees. Therefore, it is better to obtain at least 30 employees from each target hotel which was invited to participate to the survey.

3.4 Design of Instrument

In this research, the primary data is collected on independent variable (Quality of Training) and dependent variables (Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment). A structured questionnaire is designed aiming to investigate the relationship among the Quality of Training, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment (see Appendix B). The content of questionnaire is made as short and clear as possible to ensure that it takes respondents not more than 15 minutes to answer.

The first part of questionnaire aims to discover current training conditions in the five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam. This part includes of 6 items to get information about the frequency, orientation, compulsiveness, place and subjects of training. The second part is to investigate employees’ perception about Quality of Training. Quality of Training is measured by Questionnaire for Quality of Training scale developed by Candice (2001) that includes of 22 items. This measurement scale was used to measure perceived quality of training in hospitality industry so it is suitable in case of this study. The third part is about Job Satisfaction measured by

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20 items from questionnaire developed by Arvey, Abraham, Bouchard and Segal (1989). This measurement scale shows the transcendence in measuring the components of job satisfaction and has some common points with objectives of this study. The fourth part is a 12-item measure of organizational commitment developed by Allen and Meyer (1996). This measurement scale has been used popularly because of its quality, such as in the study of Ilhami (2012), Vasudevan (2014), etc. Five-point Likert Scale is used in this study. Participants will be asked to choose the level of agreement from 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree in these three parts. The last two parts are about Background Information of participants and their hotel, such as gender, age, department, position, experience, educational background, number of rooms, number of employees, etc.

The presentation of questionnaires is designed simply but professionally, with introduction in front cover followed by 4 pages of questions. The instructions are also put in the top of each part to help participants complete the survey conveniently.

3.5 Data Collection

Questionnaires were distributed directly to employees with the help of volunteers. The volunteers went to five-star hotels, asked permission to distribute questionnaire and then made a face-to-face contact with participants during their break time. Employees were invited to participate anonymously and got a small gift as a compensation for their time. Volunteers helped instruct participants take a survey and took questionnaire back afterward. In stage of data collection, a pilot study was conducted following by full-scale field study.

3.5.1 Pilot Study

To help guarantee the reliability and validity of survey, a pilot study was conducted to check the validity and reliability in the first week of November, 2015. The pilot study helps confirm if the study is ready for comprehensive implementation and it serves as a test to determine if there is any necessary adjustment or adaptation to the study. It also reveals unexpected challenges that would appear and how to handle them. According to Orodho (2004), pilot study addresses several questions, such as: what are questions supposed? Are they relevant to the objectives of study? Do the respondents interpret all the questions the same way?

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In case of this study, pilot study was divided into two stages. Firstly, 7 copies of questionnaire were sent to 7 experts, 3 people were experience staffs and managers working in hotel industry and 4 people were working in academic field. They were all invited to participate via email beforehand. The form of Cover Letter is presented in Appendix C. In this stage, the format and content of questionnaire were amended according to advices from experts. About format, experts suggested to change the design to make questionnaire more professional and good looking. About contents, some questions were excluded from original questionnaire, such as “Training incorporated humor”, “The training realistically mirrored my job”, “Training was developed by people who once did my job”, “Trainer candidly related his/her work experience” in part of Quality of Training; “I am able to keep busy all the time”, “I have change to be somebody in the community”, “I have chance to work alone on the job”, “I have chance to do different things from time to time”, “I have chance to do things for others” in part of Job Satisfaction. The reasons for this change were these questions were not appropriate, there were some problems in conveying idea or translation, etc. Some errors in spelling and grammar were also corrected.

In second stage, 50 copies of questionnaire were directly distributed to 50 employees (12% of sample size) and collected afterward. Data collected from this stage were input to SPSS to test validity and reliability. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was utilized to test validity, with Varimax rotation and Kaiser – Meyer – Olkin (KMO) value is 0.5 in minimum as suggested by Hair et al. (2006). Then, the items were qualified would be tested for their reliability by using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient. The result of this stage is presented in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1. Result of validity and reliability analyses

KMO Cronback’s Alpha

Quality of Training 0.727 0.930

Job Satisfaction 0.850 0.940

Organizational Commitment 0.810 0.951

As shown in Table 3.1, all three scales meet the requirement of validity and reliability. As a result, the measurement scales were appropriate for full-scale field study. However, there were still some minor problems in this stage. Many surveyed employees lacked of knowledge and

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information about their organization. Information such as number of employees, number of rooms, type of hotel or ownership was missing. The reason for this problem was the ambiguity in open communication and the gaps in the company regulations.

3.5.2 Field Study

After accomplishing Pilot Study, Field Study was conducted from the third week of November to the first week of December, 2015. Revised questionnaire after the stage of Pilot Study was used (see Appendix D). Because this study is conducted in Vietnam hotel industry, so that questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese. In process of translation, matters of spelling and grammar were considered thoroughly to avoid misunderstanding, (see Appendix E).

There were totally 360 copies of questionnaire that were distributed, with 30 copies for 30 random staffs in each hotel. As a result, all 360 copies were collected and sent back to Taiwan by express delivery. 301 copies of questionnaire were valid, occupied 83.61% and 59 copies were invalid, occupied 16.39%. Reasons for this difference were that some questionnaires were not completed, participants made some mistakes in filling questionnaire, such as choosing more than one option, forgetting to complete all question, etc. Nevertheless, the amount of 301 questionnaires is sufficient to execute data analysis and bring out appropriate result.

3.6 Data Analysis

After the stage of data collection, the process of data analysis is executed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The process of statistical analysis includes of several stages: descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, independent sample t-test analysis and One-way ANOVA. From result of these stages, this study achieves research objectives, comes up with conclusions and proposes suggestions for current situation.

3.6.1 Descriptive Analysis

Descriptive analysis is used to provide demographic information of participants. In this stage, information regarding the participant’s such as gender, age, department, position, work experience, education are gathered and analyzed. In addition, information about current training

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conditions is provided. These descriptive analyses include means and standard deviations. Beside the mean, standard deviation, descriptive analysis is employed to illustrate minimum and maximum scores of each variable to help providing more information about the factors.

3.6.2 Reliability and Validity Analysis

In this study, the internal consistency analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha) is used to check the reliability of each research factors. According to study of Hair et al. (2006), if the value of Cronbach’s alpha is greater than 0.7, it means the factor has high reliability and if alpha smaller than 0.3 implies that the factor has low reliability. Any factor with the value of Cronbach’s alpha equal or less than 0.7 are deleted from further analyses. After that, Exploratory Factors Analysis (EFA) is applied to extract the factor dimension and test the constructive validity of each dimension.

3.6.3 Regression and Correlation Analysis

Correlation analysis is a statistical method used to measure the association between two variables and quantitate the strength of their relationship. Two variables are seen having correlation if they vary together, then these variables can be used to analyze correlation coefficient. In this study, Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis is used to explore the association among Quality of Training, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment.

Regression uses collected data to define a mathematical equation which can be used to predict the value of one variable based on the value of one or more other variables and can therefore be used to elaborate the relationship between them (O’Brien, 1981). In this study, regression analysis is used to analyze the relationship among Quality of Training, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment.

Mediator variable helps to explain how or why a predictor variable impacts on outcome variable (Baron & Kenny, 1986). To test the mediating effects proposed in hypotheses 4, the method suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986) is employed. Baron and Kenny (1986) proposed a four-step model to test the mediating effect. This model is presented in Table 3.2.

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Table 3.2. Procedures of testing mediating effect

Analysis Visual Depiction

Step 1

(Hypothesis 1)

Simple regression analysis with A predicting B (path c).

B = β0 + β 1A + e

A B Step 2

(Hypothesis 2)

simple regression analysis with A predicting M (path a)

M = β 0 + β 1A + e

A M Step 3

(Hypothesis 3)

simple regression analysis with M predicting B (path b)

B = β 0 + β 1M + e

M B Step 4

(Hypothesis 4)

multiple regression analysis with A and M predicting B (path c’)

B = β 0 + β 1A + β 2M + e

A M B A: independent variable B: dependent variable M: mediating variable

The purpose of Steps 1-3 is to establish that zero-order relationships among the variables exist. If one or more of these relationships are non-significant, it is concluded that mediation is not possible or likely. If there are significant relationships from Steps 1 through 3, Step 4 will be process. In model of Step 4, some forms of mediation are supported if the effect of M (path b) remains significant after controlling for A. If A is no longer significant when M is controlled, the conclusion is full mediation. If A is still significant (both A and M significantly predict B), the result is partial mediation.

3.6.4 Independent Sample t-test Analysis

Independent Sample t-test is used to test the difference in investigated variables between Male and Female employees. The hypothesis is formulated as follows:

Null H: There is no difference between the investigated groups Alt H: There is a difference between the investigated groups

If the observed significance (sig.) value is larger than .05, it is not enough to reject Null H, null H should be accepted. If observed significance value is less than .05, it is sufficient to reject Null H and accept Alt H, there is a difference between the investigated groups.

c’ b

a c

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3.6.5 One-way ANOVA Analysis

One-way ANOVA analysis is used to test differences in the evaluation of target groups by investigating two variables: age and education background. If there is existence of any difference among groups, it would be analyzed deeper by using Post Hoc Test to test specific groups and investigate the difference assessment with method tested Scheffe if the case of variance among groups are equally.

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Chapter 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Descriptive Analysis

4.1.1 Descriptive Analysis of Participant’s Information

The information of participants is analyzed and presented in Table 4.1. According to result gained from SPSS, about Gender, 42.2% of participant is Male, and 57.8% is female. In aspect of Age, the majority of hotel employees in five-star hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam is from 20 to 29 years old with 60.1%, following by the range of 30 to 39 years old (17%), more than 50 years old (14.3%) and 40 to 49 years old (8.6%). Participants who took part in this study are from various departments, Front Office (23.6%), Sales & Marketing (16.3%), Banquet (15.9%), Management Office (14.3%), Restaurant (13.6%), House Keeping (9.0%), Engineering (6.3%) and other departments (1%).

In term of position, it is quite hard to describe because in context of Vietnam, employees prefer calling themselves as staff, and their manager as boss. Consequently, even managers who are responsible for one particular department call themselves as staff, because they are hired and paid salary for their works. There is only few participants specified their position in organization. This is one problem detected during this study and is suggested for future research, the detail will be presented in next chapter.

About Hotel Working Experience, almost half of participants have 1 to 3 years of experience, with 49.2%, followed by the range of under 1 year (15.2%), 4 to 6 years (13.6%), 6 to 10 years (10%) and more than 10 years (12%). Time in current position is quite similar with the largest percentage is 1 to 3 years (46.5%), the range of more than 3 years occupies 26.6%, 3 to 12 months is 20.9% and the smallest is less than 3 months with only 6.0%.

The last aspect is Education Background, half of participants are from University and College (52.5%), High School is about 23.9%, Postgraduate occupies 21.6% and the rest from other educational institutions, such as vocational school, affiliated programs, etc.

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Table 4.1. Descriptive Statistics of Participant’s Demographic Information

Demographic N=301 Frequency Percent (%) Gender Male 127 42.2 Female 174 57.8 Total 301 100 Age 20-29 181 60.1 30-39 51 17 40-49 26 8.6 More than 50 43 14.3 Total 301 100

Department Front Office 71 23.6

Sales & Marketing 49 16.3

Banquet 48 15.9 Management Office 43 14.3 Restaurant 41 13.6 House Keeping 27 9.0 Engineering 19 6.3 Other 3 1.0 Total 301 100 Position Staff 247 82.1 Manager 16 5.3 Receptionist 16 5.3 Bellman 11 3.7 Housekeeper 9 3.0 Chef 1 .3 Waiter 1 .3 Total 301 100