Minorities’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment in hospitality industry

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to explore whether organisational diversity is associated with minority employee attitudes (i.e. job satisfaction and organisational commitment) in Taiwan and to illustrate if macro-structural inquiry is applicable in the Asian context. Design/methodology/approach This paper utilised a quantitative methodology which consisted of a self-administered survey developed using relevant information from the existing literature. A total of 305 valid surveys were received from the 22 participating Taiwanese hotels and the target population was composed of hotel employees from all departments within the hotels. Descriptive data analysis using SPSS were performed to analyse the data. Findings The findings illustrate that ethnic diversity levels in hotels predict more of the variation in employee attitudes than the remaining types of organisational diversity. In organisations with high and medium levels of organisational diversity, indigenous employees reported significantly higher levels of job satisfaction than did non-indigenous employees; female employees ranked organisational commitment significantly higher than male employees. Research limitations/implications The paper is limited in its findings and explanations to a group of employees in Taiwanese context, and the research findings may not be applicable to all Asian countries. However, this paper displays considerable evidence of the positive impacts in a North-East Asian setting of organisational diversity suggested by literature derived from a Western context. Additionally, the current research did not investigate the impact of diversity policies on employee attitudes. The future research could examine whether equal opportunity and affirmative action are achievable in attracting or retaining ethnic and other minority employees. Practical implications One implication is that organisations should have human resource management policies and training programs (e.g. conflict resolution, problem-solving and team capacity building) that recognise natural differences in groups to capture the positive consequences of heterogeneity. In other words, conflict among diverse employees in the organisation should be managed to enhance the positive effect of diversity on performance. Originality value The results of the research provide evidence for managing diversity by increasing levels of heterogeneity in the workforce. This paper also argues that organisations need to incorporate equal opportunity requirements, training and education programs into policy and strategic initiatives. This paper displays considerable evidence of the positive impacts in a North-East Asian setting of organisational diversity suggested by literature derived from a Western context.