1. Introduction
The hotel industry is a service and people-oriented
business. To be successful in a competitive market, it is
important that hotel managers know how their employees
feel at work and what they want. The amount of
e!ort that an employee expends toward accomplishing
the hotel's goals depends on whether the employee believes
that this e!ort will lead to the satisfaction of his
or her own needs and desires. In this context, the key
to facilitating motivation lies with managers' good
understanding of what their employees want from work
(Simons & Enz, 1995).
Hong Kong employees' morale in all industries ranks
the lowest of all workers in the world and has been going
downhill for the last 24 years (International Survey Research,
1995). The deterioration of employees' morale has
caused detrimental impacts on productivity, job satisfaction,
and commitment. The hospitality industry in Hong
Kong has been troubled with high turnover and employee
morale problems. The problems seem to be an inalienable feature of this industry worldwide (Woods,
1992).