Exploring Employee Retention Strategies in the U.S. Hotel Industry

• Main Author: Nwabuzor, Nathaniel
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: ScholarWorks 2018
• Subjects: Finance and Financial Management
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5388; https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6667&context=dissertations

Organizational managers and business leaders struggle to retain hotel employees. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore the strategies that hotel managers use to improve employee retention and reduce turnover. The conceptual framework for this study was Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory. The 4 cases were 4 different hotels in the midAtlantic region of the United States. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 4 purposefully selected hotel managers (1 from each hotel) and document review. Data analysis consisted of compiling the data, coding for emergent and apriori codes, disassembling the data into common codes, reassembling the data into themes, interpreting the meaning, and reporting the themes. Five themes emerged from the data: driving forces for motivating employees, management strategies for retaining employees, strategies for improving workers' job performance, strategies for promoting employment commitment to the organization, and strategies for reducing turnover costs and encouraging job satisfaction in the hotel industry. Implications for positive social change include improving employee retention strategies that can lead to improved working relationships between the organization and its employees. Improved employee retention can lead to an improved organizational image among employees and other stakeholders within the community, which can contribute to the growth of local community.