Cornell Study Explores Employee Excellence April 09, 2008 Clear expectations and rewards paramount within hotel sector
By Jeanie Casison
When it comes to providing hotel service excellence, work climate has more weight than job satisfaction according to a new Cornell University study, "Questioning Conventional Wisdom: Is a Happy Employee a Good Employee or Do Other Attitudes Matter More?" Conducted by Cornell University School of Hotel Administration Professors Michael Sturman and Sean Way, the study is based on their survey of food and beverage department employees working across 40 hotel properties in Asia.
"Work climate, or service climate, is a measure of how well employees understand what they are expected to do to provide good service, and how that good service is rewarded by the organization. It is more important for employees to do a good job than just simply if they like what they are doing or not," says Sturman.
According to Sturman, the best thing hotel managers can do to help drive solid service performance is to effectively communicate job expectations to their employees, and to make it clear that their positive behavior is rewarded.
"Service climate is about the shared perceptions of the practices, procedures and behaviors that are rewarded, supported and expected by the organization with regard to customer service," Sturman says. "Incentive programs can be a very strong communication about what is indeed rewarded and supported."
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