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Employee Empowerment in Tourism During COVID

The document summarizes a study on the relationship between employee empowerment and satisfaction in the tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used interviews and questionnaires of managerial staff in the tourism industry. It found generally high levels of employee satisfaction, but noted communication as an important factor, especially during the pandemic. However, the study had limitations since it only included managerial staff and collected data over 4 months as the pandemic situation changed. It recommends future studies use a larger, more diverse sample including entry-level staff, and collect data over a shorter period.

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Mehereen Aub
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8 views3 pages

Employee Empowerment in Tourism During COVID

The document summarizes a study on the relationship between employee empowerment and satisfaction in the tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used interviews and questionnaires of managerial staff in the tourism industry. It found generally high levels of employee satisfaction, but noted communication as an important factor, especially during the pandemic. However, the study had limitations since it only included managerial staff and collected data over 4 months as the pandemic situation changed. It recommends future studies use a larger, more diverse sample including entry-level staff, and collect data over a shorter period.

Uploaded by

Mehereen Aub
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter 5

CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between employee empowerment
and satisfaction in Tourism Industry and the COVID-19 pandemic caused by coronavirus. A
literature review based on different scholars was analysed. The Tourism industry in Mauritius
prior to COVID-19 was examined as well as literature of how empowerment motivated staff
during the pandemic. The overall topic of employee empowerment in tourism industry was
investigated, as were prior research that revealed both internal and external factors influencing
employee satisfaction. The concept of employee empowerment meaning an employee could
participate in decisions relating to his employment and acquiring necessary job training to
achieve the objectives has a great importance and has been analysed in this study within the
Tourism Industry.
Employee empowerment plays an important role within an organisation. Providing proper
training to employees and modification of the environment such as work from home or during a
pandemic, exposition of targets and idea of innovation are the conceptions stressing this
importance. Interview questions and a survey questionnaire were also designed to assess the
current situation of managerial-level employee satisfaction in the context of the COVID-19
pandemic. Data was evaluated after interviews and questionnaires were performed with a sample
of managerial-level staff from tourism industry. The survey's quantitative findings support
positive-trending high levels of employee satisfaction. During the COVID-19 outbreak,
quantitative data from interviews provided insight into employees' perspectives of their job
satisfaction as employees of in tourism industry.
The literature review did not identify communication as an external factor affecting employee
satisfaction; however, numerous comments made by participants during interviews point to
communication as a factor that arose in importance to employee satisfaction, particularly during
the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, the excerpt theme of pay changes relates to the factor of
job insecurity, including subthemes of furloughs and pay cuts; participant comments support the
previous studies' conclusion of job insecurity as a factor affecting employee satisfaction, which
was identified during the literature review. This study's data gave in-depth insight into
managerial-level employees' perceptions of work satisfaction and the elements that influence
their employee satisfaction during the COVID-19 crisis.

Limitations
The study's limitations are mostly due to its small scale and scope. The sample size was limited,
consisting of managers, department heads, and supervisors. According to Santercole's 1993
study, there are variations in views of levels of employee satisfaction between managers and
employees. If this study included entry-level employees as participants, the conclusions would be
pushed towards a more negative view of employee satisfaction than the actual results. In contrast
to decision-making parties like as managers, entry-level employees usually lack this awareness
and power to change the elements that influence employee satisfaction, resulting in lower levels
of employee satisfaction. Furthermore, entry-level employees are more likely than managerial-
level employees to face furloughs, layoffs, or dramatic wage cutbacks. Pay and more significant
financial impacts as a result of the pandemic would have a higher influence on employee
satisfaction for lower-level employees who bore the majority of the burden of financial
adjustments to their pay (Wong et al., 2021).

The study's limitations in terms of pay include the focus on managerial employees; the vast
majority of participants were able to keep their jobs, even if they took a pay cut, in contrast to the
industry-wide trend of many entry-level and lower-level employees being furloughed indefinitely
or losing their jobs permanently. Many aspects of the pandemic have changed over time,
including government reactions, rules, and prohibitions, improved comfortability with pandemic
risks, and company responses and operational modifications. As the outbreak progressed, there
were waves of greater infection rates and commensurate levels of government restrictions and
directives. In the hospitality business, these rules or company-specific decisions often affect
capacity in hotels and restaurants, and as a result, sometimes changes in the number of
employees or amount of labour occur.

Furthermore, as time has gone, the general public's degree of comfort with the pandemic and the
risks associated with it, particularly the chance of infection, has shifted to become less alarming.
Factors limit the credibility of the results because the data was collected over a nearly four-
month period, resulting in a range of various perspectives over a protracted timeframe.

Recommendations for Future Studies


The small sample size is one of the most critical factors to be addressed in future studies that has
influenced the data. A larger and more diversified sample size would produce more meaningful
data that would be more reflective of luxury hotel staff as a whole. Participants that volunteered
to take part in the interview and survey process included only managers, department heads, and
supervisors. The addition of entry-level staff would considerably boost the data's likely relevance
to the whole workforce in the tourism business.
Another suggestion is to collect data over a much shorter period of time, such as two weeks.
Because of the shorter time frame, there is a significantly lower chance for shifting public
opinions, significant changes in government standards, and general changes in the scenario
surrounding the pandemic.
Companies and managers can use this research to reflect on the identified elements that effect
employee satisfaction and implement changes to their organization's reaction to the COVID-19
epidemic that have the potential to boost employee satisfaction. Beyond the framework of the
COVID-19 pandemic, practical advice includes considering external factors influencing
employee satisfaction and implementing appropriate modifications to boost overall employee
satisfaction. This research uncovered factors and themes that mangers thought impacted them
both favourably and adversely. The findings can assist inform future decisions on these
parameters in order to lessen the impact of unfavourable features while raising possibly good
elements.

Common questions

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Entry-level employees face higher job insecurity, with greater exposure to furloughs, layoffs, and pay cuts during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike managerial staff, they have less influence over decision-making which impacts their work situation negatively, leading to lower satisfaction .

The study's limitations include a small sample size focused on managerial-level employees, possibly not reflecting the broader experience of entry-level workers who faced more severe job insecurity. Additionally, data was collected over a lengthy period, which could result in a variation of perspectives due to changing pandemic circumstances .

Job insecurity in the tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by furloughs and pay cuts. This insecurity led to decreased satisfaction among employees, particularly for lower-level workers who were more heavily impacted by financial adjustments, such as layoffs and wage reductions .

The study's focus on managerial-level employees, who generally faced less severe financial impacts than entry-level employees, may skew results towards higher satisfaction levels than those experienced by the broader workforce. Entry-level workers bore the majority of job and wage insecurities during the pandemic, suggesting their satisfaction levels could be lower .

Employee empowerment in the tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic involves employees participating in decision-making and acquiring necessary job training to meet objectives. This empowerment is crucial as it motivates staff, leading to higher levels of employee satisfaction. The study highlights that empowerment helps employees adapt to changes in the work environment, such as transitioning to remote work or dealing with the consequences of the pandemic .

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of communication as a factor influencing employee satisfaction became apparent, despite initial literature not identifying it as external. Interview feedback indicated that communication significantly impacted employee satisfaction, as it was crucial for disseminating information and maintaining morale amidst disruptions .

The study identified internal factors such as empowerment and training opportunities, and highlighted external factors such as communication, job security, and pay stability as influencing employee satisfaction in the tourism industry. Contrarily, initially overlooked, communication was emphasized during the pandemic as crucial for employee morale .

Government regulations, which varied during the COVID-19 pandemic, affected the tourism industry's employment by influencing capacity restrictions in hotels and restaurants. As regulations and public comfort levels with pandemic risks shifted, so did the levels of employment and labor required, leading to changes in employee satisfaction .

Employee empowerment contributes to innovation within tourism companies by allowing staff to engage in decision-making and propose ideas, thereby fostering a proactive environment that supports the adaptation to new circumstances such as those presented by the pandemic .

Future studies should include a larger, more diversified sample including entry-level employees to better reflect the entire workforce's situation. They should also aim to collect data over a shorter period to reduce variability in public opinion and government responses, providing a clearer picture of employee satisfaction .

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