Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment: A Comparison of Tipped and Nontipped Restaurant Employees

Transcription

1 International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment: A Comparison of Tipped and Nontipped Restaurant Employees Catherine R. Curtis, Randall S. Upchurch & Denver E. Severt To cite this article: Catherine R. Curtis, Randall S. Upchurch & Denver E. Severt (2009) Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment: A Comparison of Tipped and Nontipped Restaurant Employees, International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 10:3, , DOI: / To link to this article: Published online: 05 Aug Submit your article to this journal Article views: View related articles Citing articles: 8 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

2 International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 10: , 2009 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: print/ online DOI: / Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment: A Comparison of Tipped and Nontipped Restaurant Employees WJHT International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, Vol. 10, No. 3, June 2009: pp Employee C. R. Curtis Motivation et al. and Organizational Commitment CATHERINE R. CURTIS Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA RANDALL S. UPCHURCH Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA DENVER E. SEVERT Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA This study explores motivational and organizational commitment factors of tipped and nontipped restaurant employees when differentiated by gender. The data collected from employees of a nationallyknown, branded restaurant chain was analyzed using the ANOVA procedure in an effort to determine if significant differences existed between the tipped and nontipped employees relative to their level of motivation and organizational commitment. The results show that limited differences do exist for certain motivational factors and organizational commitment factors when employees were differentiated by tipped versus nontipped employee status and by gender. The study concludes by offering management implications and suggestions for future research relative to implementing operational systems, policies, and procedures that attend to restaurant employee classification difference as well as gender preference. Received March 14, 2007; revisions received August 23, 2007; second revisions received January 13, 2008; accepted January 21, Address correspondence to Randall S. Upchurch, PhD, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida, 3100 Technology Parkway, Orlando, FL USA. rupchurc@mail.ucf.edu 253

3 254 C. R. Curtis et al. KEYWORDS commitment motivation, tipped employee, nontipped employee, INTRODUCTION The hospitality industry has faced many challenges throughout the years in terms of managing, retaining, and motivating its human capital (Enz, 2001). Unfortunately, service industry jobs have been touted to be high stress and low pay which are factors that work against employee motivation and organizational commitment (Stamper & Van Dyne, 2003). However, motivation and organizational commitment are factors that vary between individuals making it hard to measure, categorize, and generalize (Meyer, Bobocel, & Allen, 1991; Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979; Nicholson, 2003; Simons & Enz, 1995; Zacarelli, 1985). Employee motivation in the restaurant industry is vital to the future success of restaurant organizations because if recognized correctly, managers can avoid the high costs associated with turnover (Dermody, Young, & Taylor, 2004). Because competition is steady with other industries to attract and retain workers to meet the demand of consumers, restaurant employers stand to gain by achieving a better understanding of worker motivation. Enz (2001) suggests that the number one problem in the hospitality industry is the care and motivation of human capital. The high stress and low pay associated with service industry jobs work against employee motivation (Stamper & Van Dyne, 2003). However, others factors more along the lines of intrinsic factors also affect the employee motivation. Various academic researchers agree with this intrinsic approach by asserting that workplace motivation primarily emanates from within the individual (Nicholson, 2003; Simons & Enz, 1995, Zacarelli, 1985). Organizational commitment research in the hospitality industry has received interest in the academic arena concerning impacts upon operational output metrics as well as client interactions. Luthans (1998) noted that job design and managerial style influence the degree of employee commitment; Janssen (2004) found that employee empowerment is closely associated with organizational commitment and that commitment exists at both the individual and the organizational level; and Meyer and Allen (1991) noted that there are three types of organizational commitment: normative commitment, affective commitment, and continuance commitment. Normative commitment applies to the employee abiding by established organizational values; affective commitment refers to the degree to which the employee internalizes the values of the organization; and continuance commitment relates to the switching costs of maintaining membership or leaving the organization. Out of these three types of commitment, it appears that affective commitment has the strongest bearing to the hospitality industry due to the critical role

4 Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment 255 that employees play in the provision of hospitality services. This growing body of organizational commitment research aligns with the work by Schuler and Jackson (1999) in that service provision is strongly related to employee organizational commitment, employee turnover, and organizational output. Their findings indicate that human resource feedback systems, construction of learning or performance communities, and delegation of critical service functions to employees are critical to the provision of quality services. More importantly there is evidence that management can design and implement systems, policies and procedures that enhance worker satisfaction and commitment while improving organizational performance. Overall the previous research indicates that from an aggregate view the interaction of motivational factors and employee organizational commitment is very relevant and worthy of further study within the hospitality industry. BACKGROUND LITERATURE Motivation Research: Tipped Employees Literature on restaurant industry employees, both hourly tipped and nontipped restaurant employees, demonstrate that these frontline service agents perform a critical role in restaurant operations (Pettijohn, Pettijohn, & Taylor, 2004). Therefore, given the importance of their function to organizational output it is natural assumption that management should understand the presence or absence of unique differences of tipped and nontipped employees relative to their motivation and degree of organizational commitment. According to Azar (2003, p. 1084), tipping is a phenomenon that illustrates that economic behavior is often motivated by social norms and psychological reasons. This statement clearly reflects upon the economic, psychological, and sociological underpinnings associated with tipped service positions. In reference to the magnitude of tipped positions it has been noted that there are over 33 service professions that receive tips (Lynn, Zinkhan, & Harris, 1993), and that each year over 3 million people earn tipped income within the United States alone (Azar, 2003; Wessels, 1997). Azar (2003) claims that tipping has implications for economics and management in four ways: (a) it is a social norm tipping and thus has implications for social economics, (b) people tip because of feelings of embarrassment or unfairness signifying implications for behavioral economics, (c) tipping is a source of income for over 3 million people so tipping is connected with labor economics, and (d) suggests that tips are a form of consumer monitoring, an incentive for workers to provide good service, suggesting that companies should monitor the performance of tipped employees versus nontipped employees. Weaver (1988) states that hourly employees in the hotel industry are better in tune with their motivation needs as opposed to management. In addition, employees frequently perceive motivation programs as hot air.

5 256 C. R. Curtis et al. In response to those feelings, Weaver (1988) developed Theory M as an explanation of hourly employee motivation. The main postulate of this theory is that employees are strongly driven by the notion that they should be paid what they are worth (Weaver, 1988). According to Weaver (1988), raising minimum wage will not produce the same effect as the incentive because it is not the same as being paid for what you are worth. Weaver (1988) argues that if all tipped employees wages were tied to their output, the industry may be able to solve inherent motivation problems. Wong, Siu, and Tsang (1999) utilized Kovach s 10 job factors survey in the same manner ranking the 10 job motivating factors 1 10, with 1 as the most important and 10 as the least important. Wong, Siu, & Tsang (1999) divided the 10 job motivating factors into two variables: intrinsic and extrinsic variables. The intrinsic variables consisted of a feeling of involvement, supervisor s help with personal problems, interesting work, promotion or career development, supervisor s help with personal problems, and full appreciation of a job well done. The extrinsic variables are: job security, good wages, tactful discipline, and good working conditions (Wong et al., 1999). Simons and Enz (1995) also applied the same 10 job factors survey in the US and Canada surveying hotel workers, ranking the 10 job motivating factors 1 10 with 1 as the most important and 10 as the least important. Their studied revealed that different departments within a hotel respond to different motivators. They found significant differences in some demographic variables such as age but no significance in gender. Simons and Enz (1995) recommend asking an individual if you do not know their motivation. Wong et al. (1999) study illustrated some characteristics of employees in relation to motivation. More specifically, some gender differences in that females were more inclined to value recognition factors like: Appreciation and praise for a job well done, and feeling of being involved, and, interesting work. The intrinsic factors differed for females, unmarried employees, employees with higher education, and employees earning higher wages. Married workers also preferred more intrinsic factors. The researchers speculated reasons for this may include the desire to develop their career, and in turn demand better treatment from management (Wong et al., 1999). Furthermore, the study demonstrated differences in job factors between management and hourly employees, where job security was more important to managers (Kovach, 1995; Wong et al., 1999). Evidence showed that motivational preferences also differed by department (Simons & Enz, 1995; Wong et al., 1999). The researchers suggest that due to the popularity of the factors across all demographic levels: interesting work, and opportunities for advancement and promotion, and a feeling of being involved should be integrated into an employee motivation program along with providing quality training programs, encouraging employee participation, and redesigning current jobs (Wong et al., 1999).

6 Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment 257 On the other hand, the study by Charles and Marshall (1992) found that the respondents were high school graduates between the ages of 25 29, mostly female with high guest interaction in nonsupervisory roles. The top motivators for workers in this environment were: good wages, good working conditions, and appreciation for a job well done. However, the authors note that this study is not conclusive and should be performed in other Caribbean locations or other developing countries to test the reliability (Charles & Marshall, 1992). Furthermore, Simons and Enz (1995) found respondents reporting that good wages, job security, and opportunities for advancement and development were the most important to hospitality workers in the US and Canada (Simons & Enz, 1995). According to Simons & Enz, (1995), this study demonstrated that there were not any significant differences between females and males in the US and in Canada in motivational factors. However, the study demonstrated many differences between industrial workers and hospitality workers (Simons & Enz, 1995). The top three motivators for industrial workers were: interesting work, appreciation of work done, and the feeling of being in on things (Kovach, 1995; Simons & Enz, 1995). Simons and Enz (1995) offer explanations to the intrinsic variables mentioned foremost for the industrial workers. The assertion is that industrial workers are usually paid based on their skill level and as their skill level increases, their pay increases (Simons & Enz, 1995). The authors claim that the low wages associated with service sector jobs, job security, and opportunities for advancement may be the frustrations that current hotel workers are experiencing (Lo & Lamm, 2005; Simons & Enz, 1995). The existing literature testing theories on employee motivation has found contradictory results which maybe due to the geographic area and industry in which the study was performed. The contradictory results demonstrate the importance of continued investigation and examination of motivational factors within the hospitality industry. Organizational Commitment Research Many definitions exists for organizational commitment beginning with Becker (1960, p. 33) describing the concept of commitment as, consistent lines of activity. For the purpose of this study, organizational commitment is defined as relative strength of an individual s identification with and involvement in a particular organization (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979). Organization commitment has received much attention in social science literature and has been studied in the hospitality literature with various approaches and theories. This study approaches existing theories of organizational commitment divided into four categories: organization commitment defined by Mowday et al. (1979); based off of the prior work of Becker (1960); the development of side-bet theory from Meyer & Allen (1991); and

7 258 C. R. Curtis et al. social relationships and organizational commitment by Madsen, Miller, and John (2005), which has had various applications in the hospitality industry. McIntyre (2006) sampled from a variety of industries, including hospitality institutions. Results showed strong evidence that service climate was correlated with employee attitudes of job satisfaction, job involvement, and affective organizational commitment. At the individual analysis level the relationship between service climate and both job involvement and affective organizational commitment was accentuated for employees with higher levels of customer service orientation than for those with lower customer service orientation. Hsu (2003) surveyed employees from several hotels and restaurants responded and found a positive relationship between communication satisfaction and organizational commitment. Employee satisfaction and organizational commitment was strongly related to the degree to which goals and values were communicated to the employees. Fang (2001) surveyed 177 employees from four hospitality companies to examine how job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, self-efficacy, and overall job characteristics) and self-efficacy may independently and interactively influence organizational commitment. Predictive effects were found between skill variety and task significance exerted a strong influence upon the degree of employee organizational commitment. Lee (2000) conducted a study to identify the impact of interpersonal working relationships on hotel employees justice perceptions and the effects of those perceptions on employees work-related attitudes and behavior in the hospitality industry. This study also indicated empirical evidence of that the higher the degree of employee organizational commitment the lower the organization s turnover rate. It appears that the quality of interpersonal working relationships positively impacted employees perceptions of fairness and therefore their degree of commitment. Salazar (2000) postulated that the psychological dimensions of job satisfaction and employee commitment can differ according to race and gender. Data were collected at three different lodging properties located in the Southeastern US. The results of the study indicate that empowerment is related to employee organizational commitment. The implications for management are that human resource strategies should take into consideration gender and ethnic difference that influence the degree of an employee s organizational commitment. Cha (1996) indicated that there is a service orientation discrepancy between managers and employees. Employees saw themselves as more enthusiastic and less bureaucratic than managers and this service orientation was inversely correlated with employee organizational commitment. Hence the higher the level of service orientation the stronger the degree of the employee s organizational commitment. The implications for management center on designing training, communication, and motivational programs and other human resource management programs for employees.

8 Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment 259 STUDY PURPOSE Certainly the topic of employee motivation and organizational commitment has received exposure within the hospitality literature, but to date there has not been a single reported study that has profiled hourly tipped and nontipped restaurant workers motivations and organizational commitment relationship. For that reason, this article addresses this lack of information with hope that effective management strategies can be developed so as to cultivate motivational and organizational commitment needs associated with tipped and nontipped employees. STUDY HYPOTHESES This study sought to determine if significant differences exist between tipped and nontipped employees on a predetermined set of motivational and organizational commitment factors. The following four hypotheses are posed to test the presence of differences between tipped and nontipped employees and by gender. H1: There is no significant difference between tipped and nontipped employee mean ratings concerning Kovach s 12 motivational factors. H2: There is no significant difference between genders as measured by Kovach s 12 motivational factors. H3: There is no significant difference between tipped and nontipped employees as measured by Mowday, Steers, and Porter s 9 organizational commitment factors. H4: There is no significant difference between gender as measured by Mowday, Steers, and Porter s 9 organizational commitment factors. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Restaurant operators in particular employ two groups of employees, salaried and hourly employees. Salaried employees are not investigated in this study whereas the hourly employees are of interest to this study as further differentiated by tipped versus nontipped status. For the purpose of this study, nontipped hourly employees are defined as employees that depend on an hourly wage as their main source of income and generally do not receive any income from tips or gratuities. Conversely, tipped employees are defined as employees are those that depend on the receipt of tips as their main source of income.

9 260 C. R. Curtis et al. This study employed a convenience sampling process whereby 104 hourly tipped and nontipped employees from a single branded, national restaurant chain located in the metropolitan area of Orlando, Florida. In order not to interfere with service operations, the researcher administered the surveys to hourly tipped and nontipped employees during the late afternoon and prior to each restaurant s nightly dinner rush. This prevented the staff from performing their duties during peak business hours and controlled for differences in results due to time of the day and day of the week. Instrumentation The survey questionnaire instrument was comprised of demographic questions, twelve motivation questions based on a scale developed by Kovach (1995), and nine organizational commitment questions based on the work of Mowday et al. (1979). Both dependent measures (motivation and organizational commitment factors) were set to a 5-point Likert scale. The first portion of the survey collected demographic data about the participants. This was critical as gender, age, race, education level, marital status, job type and tenure, and tenure in the industry. The 12 motivational factor items included: a feeling of being involved, job security, supervisor s help with personal problems, good wages, interesting work, tactful discipline, promotion or career development, good working conditions, management/supervisor loyalty to employees, gratitude for a job well done, monetary incentives for a job well done, and public celebration for a job well done. These questions were answered in a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 representing from very unimportant to very important respectively. This was used to understand the motivations of hourly tipped or nontipped restaurant workers. The Cronbach Alpha measurement for the motivational scale was thus indicating strong rating reliability among the raters. The third section of the survey was comprised of the shortened organizational commitment OCQ inventory from Mowday et al. (1979). The nine statements were: 1. I would accept almost any job to keep working for this organization. 2. I find that my values and organization s values are very similar. 3. I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization. 4. This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance. 5. I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined. 6. I really care about the fate of this organization. 7. For me, this is the best of all possible organizations for which to work. 8. I know what is expected of me at my job. 9. I am able to do what I do best every day.

10 Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment 261 These questions were answered in a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The Cronbach Alpha reliability statistic for the organizational commitment scale was indicating strong internal consistency of measurement. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Demographic Profile of Respondents A total of 104 surveys were administered and collected on site. All 104 were used for analysis. The sample of respondents consisted of a slightly higher female percentage (56.3%). The majority of the respondents were white (68.9%), followed by Hispanics (13.6%). A large portion of the respondents (31.1%) were age 20 and younger, with another large segment between the ages of at (29.1%), displaying that 60.2% was age 25 and younger. The next highest portions were those aged 36 and older at making up 15.5%, followed by 31 35, making up 12.6% and making up 11.7%. Employees were 85.4% tipped and 14.6% were nontipped. Hypothesis Results Table 1 indicates that the null hypothesis of no significant difference between mean ratings for tipped versus nontipped employees on Kovach s motivational factors was rejected only for the factors of interesting work (p =.048), promotion or career development (p =.008), and gratitude for a job well done (p =.022) otherwise indicating general agreement regardless of tipped status on the remaining nine items. Table 2 demonstrates that null Hypothesis 2 was rejected on six of Kovach s motivational factors. In particular, job security (p =.027), interesting work (p =.035), promotion and career development (p =.032), and good working conditions (p =.005), gratitude for a job well done (p =.003), and monetary incentives for a job well done (p =.001) were all found to reflect significant differences between males and female mean ratings. An interesting note is that the mean ratings were higher for females than of their male counterparts thus implying that there are gender differences present which in turn indicates that operators can facilitate worker performance and satisfaction by concentrating on gender related motivational factors that serve to attract and enhance gender performance. This observation extends past the present findings but it does shed light on the possibility that attending to differing motivational factors can make a difference in worker and organizational performance which would agree with previous research (Enz, 2001; Hsu, 2000; Salazar, 2000; Simon & Enz, 1995). The null hypothesis testing for no difference between tipped and nontipped employees on the organizational commitment factors was not upheld

11 262 C. R. Curtis et al. TABLE 1 Employee Motivation ANOVA of Tipped versus Nontipped Employee motivation item (Name) Position Mean 1 Rank Std. dev. n F Sig. 2 Promotion or career Tipped * development Nontipped Gratitude for a job well done Tipped * Nontipped Good working conditions Tipped Nontipped Job security Tipped Nontipped A feeling of being involved Tipped Nontipped Interesting work Tipped * Nontipped Good wages Tipped Nontipped Supervisor loyalty to employees Tipped Nontipped Tactful discipline Tipped Nontipped Monetary incentives for a job Tipped well done Nontipped Supervisor s help with personal Tipped issues Public celebration for a job well done Nontipped Tipped Nontipped Note. Rank order is based on nontipped category on highest to lowest mean. Five-point Likert scale: 1 = very unimportant, 5 = very important. *p <.05. for all nine of the factors. This finding indicates there is no difference in the perceptions of the tipped versus nontipped employees, thus indicating general agreement on the level of commitment for both employee classifications (Table 3). In terms of the mean ratings the organizational commitment scale shows consistency of measurement between respondents on the items rated. More importantly this organizational commitment scale appears to have measured what it was intended to measure, meaning the degree of organizational commitment expressed by the individual. This finding holds great promise of using this tool within the broader hospitality industry which, of course, should be tested within other settings to prove this assumption. When the null hypothesis testing concerning no difference in the mean ratings was filtered by gender it was discovered that two of the nine factors were significant at the.05 probability level. This finding indicates that both females and males believed that their values were closely aligned with the organization s expressed values, and both genders were generally comfortable with their choice of this particular employer as their preferred organization

12 Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment 263 TABLE 2 Employee Motivation ANOVA and Gender Employee motivation variable Gender Mean Rank Std. dev. F Sig. Good working conditions Female * Male Job security Female * Male Supervisor loyalty to employees Female Male Gratitude for a job well done Female * Male Good wages Female Male Promotion or career development Female * Male Interesting work Female * Male A feeling of being involved Female Male Tactful discipline Female Male Monetary incentives for a job well done Female * Male Supervisor s help with personal problems Female Male Public celebration for a job well done Female Male Note. Rank order is based on female category from highest to lowest mean. Five-point Likert scale: 1 = very unimportant, 5 = very important. *p <.05. of choice (Table 4). The two variables that showed a significant difference pertained to the alignment of personal values with those expressed by the organization and the assessment that the respondent was pleased with their choice of this employer versus other possible employer options that were available. This finding indicates that the alignment of the females value system with that of the organization s value system carried a higher level of importance than it did for their male counterparts which has ramifications for hospitality operators in terms of worker satisfaction and perhaps performance output. A secondary and unintended finding relative to these organizational commitment items is that the organizational commitment scales showed a remarkable ability to assess the organizational climate for this restaurant sample. If this finding can be replicated in other restaurant settings then the instrument as developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter clearly shows great promise in assessing organizational commitment within the restaurant sector of the hospitality industry. The importance of this observation is that previous studies have already shown linkages between organizational commitment and performance indicators thus indicating that restaurant

13 264 C. R. Curtis et al. TABLE 3 Organizational Commitment by Tipped and Nontipped Status Organizational commitment variable I know what is expected of me at my job. I am able to do what I do best every day. I really care about the fate of this organization. I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization. I find that my values and organization s values are very similar. I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined. This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance. For me, this is the best of all possible organizations for which to work. I would accept almost any job to keep working for this organization. Tipped vs. nontipped Mean Rank Std. dev. F Sig. tipped nontipped tipped nontipped tipped nontipped tipped nontipped tipped nontipped tipped nontipped tipped nontipped tipped nontipped tipped nontipped Note. Rank order is based on nontipped category from highest to lowest mean. Scale: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Scale: 1 = Strongly disagree to 5=Strongly agree. Note: Rank order is based on nontipped category from highest to lowest mean. operators can therefore mold and modify their systems, practices, and policies to enhance worker performance and organizational output. Overall, the general agreement expressed indicates that this particular organization is very effective at communicating their goals, mission, and values out to their workforce and is also capable at cultivating their mission, goals, and values across employee classifications. CONCLUSIONS Employee motivation is vital to the success of organizations as noted by various researchers (Meyer et al., 1991; Mowday et al., 1979; Nicholson, 2003; Simons & Enz, 1995; Zacarelli, 1985). Some of the more salient concerns noted in this research is that a lack of employee motivation may cause organizational problems in turnover, retention, morale, and poor productivity. Certainly, restaurant operations are not unfamiliar with these human resource issues, however, many restaurants choose to accept these

14 Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment 265 TABLE 4 Organizational Commitment by Gender Organizational commitment variable Gender Mean Rank Std. dev. F Sig. I know what is expected of me at my job. Female Male I am able to do what I do best every day. Female Male I am proud to tell others that I am part of Female this organization. Male I really care about the fate of this Female organization. Male I find that my values and organization s Female * values are very similar. I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined. This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance. For me, this is the best of all possible organizations for which to work. I would accept almost any job to keep working for this organization. Note. Rank order is based on female category from highest to lowest mean. *p <.05. Male Female * Male Female Male Female Male Female Male issues as part of the business or utilize ineffective, archaic motivational techniques. Recognition of the problem of employee motivation is the first step a restaurant organization may choose to tackle the problem. Given the understanding that the restaurant is comprised of two different types of employee, the tipped employee and the nontipped employee, employers must understand that differing needs may exist for these employee groups, and if they do then varied systems, procedures, and polices might need to be deployed so as to positively impact employee and organizational performance factors. There have been numerous studies concerning employee motivation but this body of research did focus on differences between tipped and nontipped employees. Therefore the present study was performed to examine current restaurant front-of-the-house personnel s motivations and commitment as differentiated by tipped status. To better understand the motivation and organization commitment of current restaurant employees, this research focused on the front of the house motivations as a whole, the individual employment groups motivations, demographic impacts on motivation, and the relationship between employee motivation and organization commitment. In general, the top motivational factors for this group of employees showed that management loyalty to employees, good working conditions, job security, and good wages all top motivators. Less important to employees

15 266 C. R. Curtis et al. were supervisor s help with personal problems and public celebration for a job well done. Respondent differences were discovered between motivators between tipped and nontipped employees with nontipped employees reporting at a statistically significant difference much higher scores across the motivators of interesting work, possibility for promotion or career development, and gratitude for a job well done. One speculation given the nature of tipped jobs is that perhaps tipped employees, due to the practice of tipping are much more like subcontractors in that work interest, promotion room and gratitude may pale in comparison to excellent tips. Given the pay difference between tipped and nontipped hourly employees which is typically significant, we may venture a guess that intrinsic motivators are higher for nontipped than tipped and in the case of interesting work, chance for promotion and gratitude for a job well done, our premise is supported. Significant differences did not exist regarding the motivation factors of involvement, job security, supervisor s help with personal problems, good wages, tactful discipline, good working conditions, manager loyalty to employees, monetary incentives and public celebration for a job well done. It should not be overlooked that all these motivators were consistently ranked as more important to nontipped employees as well which implies a universal and accepted approach to employee motivation and to the deployment of work conditions that create the perception of a positive work environment. By viewing differences across position, the only significant difference between host, bartender, and server was in promotion or career development again offering support for the earlier deduction about suggesting that tipped employees including bartenders and servers may not be seeking or interested in promotion particularly given the relatively high pay of those positions as compared with hostess positions. Prior research reviewed for this study revealed that gender had a significant difference in wages in the Caribbean hotel worker study (Charles & Marshall, 1992), gender had no significance in the US and Canada hotel worker study (Simons & Enz, 1995), and in the Hong Kong hotel worker study differences were reported, females preferred interesting work, feeling of being involved, good working conditions and gratitude for a job well done, (Wong et al., 1999). The one-way analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact of gender and the employee motivation factors in this study of national chain restaurant hourly tipped and nontipped employees. For this study, results were mixed in that gender accounted for differences on 6 of the 12 motivational items and for 2 of the organizational commitment factors. The motivational factors encompassed work security, praise for a job well done, good working conditions, promotion or career development, and gratitude for a job well done, and the latter concerned the alignment of personal values with organizational values as well as comfort with their decision to choose their present employer.

16 Employee Motivation and Organizational Commitment 267 The results of this study provide a small snapshot of the employee motivation and organizational commitment of tipped and nontipped employees within one casual and branded restaurant location. Overall there was general agreement with the respondents when differentiated by tipped status or by gender thus indicating the existence of an organizational environment that focuses on systems, practices, and polices that promote worker commitment. Future Studies This is a single-site study with limited application due to that fact thereby indicating that additional studies within similar settings and varied settings are suggested with a larger sample bases to confirm these findings. Furthermore, additional studies need to be designed that focus on the intrinsic motivators of servers versus other front-of-the-house staff positions as well as between men and women regarding motivators within the restaurant sector. This would serve to confirm the ability of the present findings and scales (motivation and organizational commitment) to generalize to the broader industry as a whole. Studies could also be done across a broader range of restaurants with higher or lower service standards. Given the findings here, it is likely managers may decide to use different tactics to motivate tipped versus nontipped employees due to situational specifics within their organization. Finally, further exploration of the tipped organizational commitment and citizenship behaviors of employees would be interesting considering the sub-contracting nature of many tipped jobs particularly when we combine the fact that a large majority of the tipped employees income comes from tips paid by the consumer and not wages paid by the organization. REFERENCES Azar, O. (2003). The implications of tipping for economics and management. International Journal of Social Economics, 30, Becker, H. S. (1960). Notes on the concept of commitment. The American Journal of Sociology, 66(1), Cha, S.-B. (1996). Service orientation discrepancy between managers and employees and its impact on the affective reactions of employees: A case study of casual restaurant segment (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995). Worldcat Dissertations and Theses, 56(9), (AAT No ) Charles, K. R., & Marshall, L.H. (1992). Motivational preferences of Caribbean hotel workers. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 4(3), Dermody, M., Young, M., & Taylor, S. (2004). Identifying job motivation factors of restaurant servers: Insight for the development of effective recruitment and

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