Improving perceptions of employment conditions: an exploratory study of employee engagement in Chinese economy hotels

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were employee engagement constructs embedded within a mandatory standard employee job satisfaction checklist given annually to Chinese hotel workers. Data were obtained from 13,573 employees working at 882 Chinese economy hotels. An exploratory factor analysis discovered four employee engagement constructs, namely: organizational commitment, perceptions of employee conditions, coworker relations, and supervisor-employee relations. Among these, perceptions of employment conditions and supervisor-employee relations were highly correlated. Subsequent hierarchical regression analyses revealed a model that strongly explained the variance in perceived employment conditions. These findings produced a meaningful way for hotel companies to gain a better understanding of how to improve employee engagement and improve employees’ working conditions.

Keywords:

• Employee engagement
• organizational commitment
• perception of employment conditions
• coworker relations
• supervisor–employee relations