| Author: | Senbeto, Dagnachew Leta |
| Title: | The impact of organizational culture and employee innovative behavior in response to off-season in hotel : an approach-avoidance perspective in Ethiopia |
| Advisors: | Hon, Alice (SHTM) Law, Rob (SHTM) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Hotels -- Employees Organizational behavior Hotel management |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xiv, 268 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | A common and, perhaps, permanent feature of the tourism industry, seasonality in tourism remains an important issue and it is one of the most documented issues in the tourism literature. Generally, the cause and impact of seasonality has received considerable attention; however, there is limited work on its theoretical and conceptual development (Boffa & Succurro, 2012; Senbeto & Hon, 2019) since most studies have focused on case studies or practical issues. With regard to the cause of seasonality in tourism, natural and institutional factors have been broadly identified as the main causes in connection with push-pull factors that create high and low seasons. Climate and weather-related variables like temperature, sunlight, and rainfall are linked to natural seasonality factors while institutional factors represent human-related activities such as events, festivals, traveling and vacation tradition. The impacts of seasonality have been in doubt due to its positive and negative effects arising from sustainability and economic dimensions respectively. Few studies have argued that seasonality encourages sustainability, provides time for recovery, and minimizes overcrowding and overuse of resources (Butler, 2001; Koenig-Lewis & Bischoff, 2005; Matheison & Wall, 2006). However, a number of studies have asserted that seasonality reduces economic capability of destinations and tourism organizations. For example, off-season influences tourist flow, occupancy, tourism receipts, and investment (see Amelung et al., 2007; Getz & Nilsson, 2004; Pegg et al., 2012; Terry, 2016). Regarding response to seasonality, destinations at macro level and tourism organizations at micro level adopt different strategies to manage seasonality. Although a number of studies have investigated the cause and impact of seasonality, little is known about how tourism organizations or destinations respond to seasonality. In particular, how individual tourism businesses respond to seasonality needs further investigation (Fernández-Morales, Cisneros-MartÃnez, & McCabe, 2016). While hotels are motivated to tackle off-season market challenges, response to seasonality requires innovation in terms of changing the status quo both in thinking and action. Thus, some hotels innovatively respond to seasonality while others do not. In line with innovative response to seasonality, organizational culture plays a crucial role in determining firms' business plan in order to handle the seasonality issue (Amabile, et al., 2004; Hon & Leung, 2011). In response to the above-mentioned research gaps, this study develops a research model by integrating the approach-avoidance and regulatory focus theories with the aim of 1) examining 1) the impacts of several organizational cultures on employee innovative behavior in response to off-season; 2) analyzing the influence of employee situation-based responses on innovative behavior in response to off-season; and 3) assessing the mediating effects of employee openness and resistance to change on the relationship between innovative, collaborative, and traditional culture and innovative behavior in response to off-season. Using a multi-source data collected from both employees and managers from 48 hotels that ranged from 3 to 5-star ratings in Ethiopia, the results demonstrate that employee openness, innovative and collaborative cultures are positively related to innovative performance in response to off-season while employee resistance and traditional organizational culture are negatively related to innovative response to off-season. In addition, employee openness positively mediates the relationships of innovative and collaborative cultures on employee innovation whereas it negatively mediates the relationship between a traditional culture and innovative behavior. The study has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the study offers empirical perspectives on seasonality and response to it in a context underexplored in the literature. Also, the research model extends the theoretical underpinning of tourism seasonality research and the findings provide newer insights into the approach-avoidance and regulatory focus theories in seasonality. Further, the findings shed light on the impact of the approach-avoidance and regulatory focus theories with regard to how hotels respond to seasonality. The study offers practical contributions and suggestions for hotel managers, human resource practitioners, marketers, and policymakers. Based on the findings, human resource managers need to embrace a management approach in their recruitment and selection procedures. In addition, managers and marketers need to distinguish the nature of hotel's culture in the process of developing marketing plans, packages, and strategies to curb off-season impacts. Moreover, the study provides relevant information to policy makers in their efforts to create plans and business strategies to manage seasonality in the hotel context. Finally, the study is relevant to owners and prospective hotel investors as it highlights the need for them to consider seasonality as an essential aspect of their business operation. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 991022289509203411.pdf | For All Users | 1.87 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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