Professional and Organisational Commitment in the Hospitality Sector

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine whether two different work commitment profiles influence service quality in the hospitality sector in Slovenia and Serbia and how the implications of the differences can be used in the tourism and hospitality industry. Combining a qualitative and quantitative approach, two new instruments were developed for this study. The first instrument was created on the basis of short, structured interviews with employees. Two factors explaining the two different commitment profiles were determined with statistical analysis and with the method of clustering, four dimensions of commitment profiles forming were extracted. The second instrument was developed on the basis of existing evaluation forms for employees in the tourism industry and interviews with leading and middle managers of hotels. The findings of the study show that there is a small proportion of professionallyoriented employees in the tourism sector, and the difference among employees is evident in the ranking of working values. These results could be useful for managers in planning and organising their human resources and also in planning further development of their companies’ human resource policies. The original contribution of the article is the ranking of working values and the perception of quality work by employees in the hospitality sector. The study also reveals new evidence on different types of commitment profiles. Keywords: tourism, hospitality, organisational commitment, professional commitment, human resources management