The Effects of Employee Learning, Knowledge, Benefits, and Satisfaction on Employee Performance and Career Growth in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

The service industry is considered one of the fastest growing industries in the world, especially in the context of developing countries with economies which rely on tourism sectors as the drivers for economic growth. The development of human resources can directly support the expansion of this industry. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationships among factors at the employee level, including employee learning and knowledge. Furthermore, this study aimed to analyze the relationships among several determinants (e.g., employee satisfaction) and the influence of those relationships on employee performance and the growth of human resources careers in the context of the hospitality industry. Data were collected from 608 employees in three sectors of the service industry: airlines, hotels, and spas. The results indicated that employee learning, employee knowledge, and employee satisfaction were influential factors for employee performance. In addition, employee benefits and employee creativity showed significant effects on employee satisfaction. Furthermore, employee performance showed a significant positive effect on career growth. The implications of the current research for practitioners are also provided, and directions for further research are discussed in greater detail.

1. Introduction

The development of many parts of the economy relies on learning and knowledge [1]. Driven by competition and the pursuit of business growth, service companies strive for new knowledge, assets, and novel competitive advantages in order to outperform their business rivals. Tourism is a leading support sector of the economies of many developing countries, including Thailand. When the tourism industry expands, the number of customers using service firms continues to increase. All organizations rely heavily on employee productivity and performance, which lead to higher profits and growth. Thus, it is very important for companies to seek ways to improve employee performance. One of the areas in which only a few researchers have conducted studies is that of employee learning and knowledge [2]. Moreover, employee learning and knowledge is the basic core competency for new product and service development [3]. The importance of new product and service development in the hospitality industry is substantially acknowledged by many top managers in hotels and airlines [4]. Therefore, by enhancing and improving the level of employee knowledge within service firms, managers could deliver higher quality products and services in the future. This practice would result in managers gaining greater market shares and maintaining growth in their businesses.

The hospitality industry is a service-based industry, in which people play crucial roles in delivering customer satisfaction. As the service industry evolves, many changes occur within its environment, including new trends of customer behaviors, new demands for better products and services, and new ways of using and providing these services. Therefore, employees in the hospitality industry need to be well aware of such changes.

Herein, the relationships between learning, knowledge, benefits, performance, satisfaction, and career growth were investigated and analyzed. The findings of this study are expected to demonstrate clearer relationships among these factors in order to provide practical guidelines for the managers of service firms. The academic contributions and practical implications of the research results can provide a significant basis for the development of service research. Furthermore, the novelty of this study is to systemize the relationship of all of the proposed factors in order to investigate in the context of the hospitality industry.

In order to assist employees and organizations in better providing greater products and services, the purpose of this research was to uncover the relationships and influences of employee learning, employee knowledge, employee benefits, employee satisfaction, and their effects on employee performance.

Two research objectives were investigated, as follows:

• To measure the effects of employee learning, employee knowledge, employee benefits, and employee satisfaction on employee performance.
• To test the relationship between employee performance and career growth.

2. Conceptual Background

2.1. Employee Learning and Knowledge

Employee learning can be defined as the continuous process occurring to employees during their work on assigned tasks and responsibilities in the employee job descriptions and beyond [5,6,7]. In order to perform any task successfully, one must acquire sufficient knowledge of the relevant responsibilities necessary to undertake the activities that are needed to finish the task. Knowledge is known as one of the valuable intangible assets within organizations. Learning organizations are those in which all of the employees routinely acquire, create and share knowledge among the members of the organization [8]. Therefore, an employee’s knowledge is one of the key factors in building up their core competencies to achieve their goals. Employee knowledge is one of the most vital parts of the service industry, because the knowledge of service operations is related to a company’s customers, products, services, operational procedures, competitors, and job associates [9]. A knowledge-based view of the firm states that knowledge is the most precious asset and an important resource of a firm. Knowledge is also necessary for a business to maintain its competitive advantage, and is the main driver of an organization’s importance [10,11,12].

Therefore, an employee with a higher degree of learning is expected to have a higher degree of knowledge.

Hypothesis 1 (H1):

There is a relationship between employee learning and employee knowledge in the Thai hospitality industry.

Prottas [13] said that employee attitudes were more related to employee perceptions than to the actual practices reported by their human resource managers and staff, that they perceived their organization as being supportive, and that they were more likely to praise the practices that their human resource managers denied rather than underreport them. Learning is the way to increase the level of knowledge, and to acquire new and necessary information which can be useful for employees in performing their tasks more effectively and meeting job requirements when working within organizations. Studies on employee knowledge-sharing behavior have provided an important dimension of learning practices in organizations, and empirical research has found that knowledge-sharing behaviors can positively affect firm innovation [14]. In addition, learning is the process of gaining knowledge and meeting practices [15]. Individuals can learn from each other within the same organization, or can learn from other sources, such as other organizations. The importance of learning in the context of the hotel service industry regarding the relationship with employee motivation is that, as opportunities decrease, employees lower their work motivation [16]. In addition, there is evidence that when employees learn that their opportunities might decline, their work motivation is also reduced. This finding indicates that the effects of learning in organizations can play important roles for employees in many dimensions. Therefore, Gjelsvik [16] summarized that organizations with long-term planning and long-term employment for their employees can support effective learning environments, which can lead to more effective employee learning in the long run. Coetzer and Perry [17] studied the factors influencing employee learning in small businesses in order to identify the key factors influencing employee learning from the perspective of the owners/managers. The authors concluded that the key factors prompting worker learning could be characterized by four main themes, namely, factors in the external business environment, factors in the work environment, learning the potential of the work itself, and the learning orientations of workers. Lancaster and Di Milia [18] suggested that for organizations to confidently influence employees’ learning, they should pay attention to three key issues, namely, providing high-quality relevant development programs, ensuring that the course content is associated with the organization’s approach and the employee’s responsibility, and guaranteeing senior administration obligations through all aspects of the worker’s expansion process. Lyons and Bandura [19] conducted research on using performance templates for manager and employee learning in action, and found that, in general, within the learning and performance approach, performance templates offer an influential and practical tool for both manager and employee learning, as well as for consistent performance improvement. The approach has many applications, although recent research has relied mostly on its use within sales organizations.

2.2. Employee Creativity

The importance of employee creativity has been emphasized in several research studies in a wide variety of organizations [20]. Creativity can be a source of new ideas and knowledge. Past research studies have shown that employee creativity contributes substantially to the strengths of an organization in terms of innovation and effectiveness [21]. Creativity can be defined as the construction of new and valuable ideas offered by one person or a group of persons or employees [22]. In addition, in order to foster creativity, organizations, especially individuals in top management positions, can be involved in providing support and encouragement to their employees to be creative, as they have all the resources and incentives necessary to help employees become more creative in the workplace [21]. Moreover, from the perspective of employee creativity and employee performance or outcomes [23], employee creativity plays an important role on the level of individual outcomes or work performance. In addition, the creativity of employees can also lead to career satisfaction and the growth of each employee. Regarding newcomers within organizations, employee creativity can help new employees cope effectively with their new work environment and focus much faster on their new work goals.

A proactive personality, including the intention to learn and to seek individual knowledge, affects employee creativity [24] and leads to greater employee performance. Imran [25] researched knowledge processes and firm performance based on the abilities of employees, and found that employee creativity partially mediates positive firm performance. Moreover, a knowledge-intensive culture has a strengthening effect on the relationship between knowledge processes and employee creativity [26]. In addition, the characteristics of employees and those of their work environment influence the degree of innovation of each person. Other relevant influential factors include more participation in work, personal drive, and commitment [27]; these authors also showed that employees commonly consider ways to develop their working environments, thereby demonstrating that workers tend to think about the betterment of their working atmospheres. The next step in this process is workers thinking about how they can take action to do something about this betterment. Furthermore, employee creativity can help improve job satisfaction, because these employees can find new ways of managing things [26,28]. Furthermore, employee benefits and employee creativity were found to have effects on employee satisfaction [29,30]. Additionally, employee learning and employee creativity were found to have this association [31,32]. Furthermore, employee creativity was positively related to employee satisfaction [29,30].

For this reason, a higher degree of employee learning is hypothesized to result in a higher level of creativity for the employees.

Hypothesis 2 (H2):

There is a relationship between employee learning and employee creativity in the Thai hospitality industry.

In addition, a higher degree of creativity for employees is anticipated to result in a higher level of satisfaction among them.

Hypothesis 3 (H3):

There is a relationship between employee creativity and employee satisfaction in the Thai hospitality industry.

2.3. Employee Benefits

Employee benefits are one of the most studied topics in human resources research. According to economic theory, employee benefits, especially performance-based compensation, can be influential incentives for an employee to put more effort into finishing their work and delivering greater performance [33]. Dulebohn [34] studied five benefit topics—namely, employer-sponsored benefits, benefits satisfaction, pensions, health care, and work-family benefits—and found that employee benefits can influence how employees perform in organizations. Despite the limited research in the areas of human resource management and employee benefits [34], employee benefits are an important issue for both managers and subordinates in any organization. Employee benefits can be considered as total rewards, including tangibles (e.g., bonus, salary, and stock options) and intangibles (e.g., social status, valued job design and work/life balance) [35,36,37,38]. McGaughey [39] conducted a study to provide practitioners and researchers with guidance and ideas for benchmarking employee benefits in companies that provide professional services.

A previous study investigated the motivating factors of hotel employees, and found that intrinsic motivation factors were more influential than extrinsic motivation factors when working in a hotel [40]. This study was based on expectancy theory. The findings of this study highlighted the importance of understanding employees’ motivation in working and achieving their goals while also contributing to their organization.

Hence, employees receiving greater benefits should lead to a higher degree of satisfaction.

Hypothesis 4 (H4):

There is a relationship between employee benefits and employee satisfaction in the Thai hospitality industry.

2.4. Employee Satisfaction and Employee Performance

Many studies have indicated the positive effects of employee satisfaction on individual level outcomes, such as employee performance and commitment [41,42], as well as at the organizational level [43]. Schneider [44] stated that there are many outcomes of employee satisfaction, including feeling empowered and being a good team member. In previous research, employee satisfaction has been found to have impacts on employee performance and firm performance [43]. The results of assigned tasks can represent the performance of each employee. However, there are still many dimensions related to the evaluation of the performance of each employee. Both quantitative and qualitative methods may be applied in order to measure employee performance. Employee performance can be categorized into three dimensions: employee in-role performance (EIRP), employee extra-role performance toward customers (ERPC), and employee extra-role performance toward the organization (ERPO) [45]. This perspective fits well within service organizations in which the expectations of customers can be endless, and employees often have to perform duties beyond those in their job descriptions in order to meet those expectations and deliver customer satisfaction. Improving employee performance is a vital issue in business management, and learning more about the influential drivers of employee performance is crucial for both managers and researchers [46]. Sahoo and Mishra [47] said that performance management is a continuous process of managing the performances of people in order to obtain the desired results. High-performing organizations require effective performance-management systems to promote and develop the values, principles, and competencies that are needed to sustain optimal outcomes. When workers undertake organizational-citizenship behavior, they become more engaged and fulfilled in their work. This outcome enhances both their performance and their personal and work lives [48]. Additionally, Sarkar’s [49] ideology suggested that every employee wishes to contribute to the best of his or her ability, and that, in case they falter, they are also the ones who know how to get out of the situation. Sarangi and Shah [50] conducted research on the tools that can help to motivate employees and boost performance. As one such engagement initiative, gamification has caught the attention of human resource (HR) specialists with one difference, i.e., it offers opportunities to organizations to keep their ambitious, competitive, and highly-networked workforce more engaged.

Based on the reviews above, greater degrees of learning, benefits, knowledge, and satisfaction for hospitality employees are expected to influence their performances.

Hypothesis 5 (H5):

There is a relationship between employee benefits and employee performance in the Thai hospitality industry.

Hypothesis 6 (H6):

There is a relationship between employee learning and employee performance in the Thai hospitality industry.

Hypothesis 7 (H7):

There is a relationship between employee knowledge and employee performance in the Thai hospitality industry.

Hypothesis 8 (H8):

There is a relationship between employee satisfaction and employee performance in the Thai hospitality industry.

2.5. Career Growth

Career growth can be considered the long-term goal of employees working in any organization. Weng [51] defined career growth as a trend of positive outcomes of a person’s career in the future, including long-term career success. Career growth is also referred to as the extent to which the current job or career can offer a positive opportunity for a person to achieve his/her goals [52]. Several studies have suggested a relationship between employee performance and career growth [53,54,55,56].

Therefore, a higher degree of performance among employees is expected to increase their potential career growth.

Hypothesis 9 (H9):

There is a relationship between employee performance and career growth in the Thai hospitality industry.

3. Methodology

Participants, Pilot Study, and Survey Instrument Development

The population in this study consisted of employees working in the leading hospitality companies in Thailand, including hotels, airlines, and spas. All three sectors were included in the current study. We started the research process with in-depth interviews with human resource managers from these three types of hospitality companies. The data from the interviews were used to revise the questionnaires for the further survey research. After the in-depth interviews with hospitality professionals who represented the three types of companies, we used open-ended questions to determine the key definitions of the study, including employee knowledge, employee learning, and all of the other key factors. In order to further develop the questionnaires, the definitions used in the literature were verified as having similar key definitions in the Thai context.

The survey instruments were developed based on the previous literature, and the questions were verified using the feedback from the in-depth interviews with the hospitality executives. For the literature and scales for each construct in this study, critical past research works were used to develop the survey instruments. There are seven parts, representing seven constructs in the survey instrument. A seven-point Likert scale ranging from one (strongly disagree) to seven (strongly agree) was used in the questionnaire.

As a part of the development of the survey instruments, the authors attempted to contact the executives, such as the CEOs and general managers, of three five-star hotels, three full-service airlines, and three leading spa companies in Thailand. Of the nine executives, six executives agreed to be interviewed in order to validate the constructs of the study. The results of the in-depth interviews with hospitality professionals, which included two general managers of hotels, two chief executive officers of spa companies, and two vice presidents of airlines, validated the concepts used and redefined some of the questions in the questionnaires.

The authors contacted the leading hospitality firms in order to acquire their permission to collect the data and survey their employees. With the permission of the human resources managers (HR managers) of these firms, the questionnaires were sent, and the employees were informed about their right to participate or not to participate in the survey. All of the selected hospitality firms had their main operations in Thailand. In order to distribute the questionnaires, the authors contacted the human resources managers of four airline companies, five five-star hotel chains, and ten spa companies; out of those, three airlines, four hotel chains, and eight spa companies agreed to participate in the research study. The authors collected data from major tourism destination provinces, such as Chiang Mai and Phuket.

The current study applied convenience sampling. From the 750 questionnaires that were distributed, 608 questionnaires were complete and usable, representing an 81.07% response rate. In order to collect the data from the three sectors, the number of the sample was divided into the three groups of hospitality businesses. The largest group of hospitality businesses was hotels, followed by airlines and spas, respectively. Regarding the number of each survey to distribute to each location, the authors also consulted with the human resource managers of each location. The number of questionnaires distributed to each location was also based on the willingness to help distribute the questionnaires of the human resource managers of each location. Hotel businesses covered the largest number of hospitality businesses in Thailand. In total, there were 320 questionnaires for hotels (four hotels with 80 questionnaires for each hotel), followed by 240 questionnaires for airlines (three airlines with 80 for each airline) and eight spa companies with 190 questionnaires, approximately 24 questionnaires for each spa business. Five spa companies agreed to distribute 20 questionnaires, and three spa services agreed to distribute 30 questionnaires.

Since these hospitality firms accepted and agreed to support the data collection, the questionnaires were handed to the human resource managers, and they helped distribute them within their own locations, as they agreed to participate in this survey, and help with data collection was also a part of the agreement. The data collection period for all of the locations was three weeks. Then, the researchers followed up with the human resource managers in order to pick up the questionnaires to complete the data collection process.

Regarding the level and types of employees, three types of employees were categorized and stated in the questionnaires: those at the top management level (e.g., Hotel General Manager, Senior Manager), the middle management level (e.g., managers or assistant managers of departments, such as marketing and sales), and the operational levels (e.g., flight attendant, front officers, or spa therapist); the details of the employees are shown in

Table 1. Respondents (n = 608).

Characteristics	Frequency	Percent (%)
Sex
Male	208	34.20
Female	400	65.80
Age
21–30	228	37.50
31–40	242	39.80
41–50	114	18.80
51 and over	24	3.90
Education
High school	183	30.10
Bachelor’s degree	356	58.60
Master’s degree or higher	69	11.30
Type of Industry
Airline	184	30.30
Spa	163	26.80
Hotel	261	42.90
Managerial Positions
Top management	11	1.80
Middle level management	58	9.50
Operation staff	539	88.70
Years in Current Position	mean = 6.60 years (min = 1 year/max = 47 years)
Years in Current Organization	mean = 7.61 years (min = 1 year/max = 30 years)

.

4. Results and Discussion

In many research studies, demographic factors are used as control variables. In this study, the authors also included several demographic factors to test their relationships with other factors, such as employee creativity and employee learning. The findings of the roles of these demographic factors could be highly useful when the authors give suggestions and recommendations for managerial implications. Many demographic factors have been studied, including age, income, education, gender and marital status [34].

As shown in Table 1, the majority of the respondents were female (400 employees, or 65.80%). The largest age group was that from 31 to 40 years old, which accounted for 242 employees, or 39.80% of all respondents. Most of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree (356 employees or 58.60%), followed by a high school diploma (183 employees or 30.10%). In total, 539 of the respondents (88.70%) worked at the operational level, 9.50% (58 persons) were in middle-level management, and 1.80% (11 persons) were in top management. The average tenure in their current position was 6.60 years, and the mean tenure in their current organization was 7.61 years.

The Conceptual Framework

This study focuses on the relationships among the variables shown in Figure 1. The researchers attempted to conduct a cross-business study of the hospitality industry.

For the measurement model, the authors performed validity tests on the data in order to ensure that the collected data were proper for the structural equation modeling technique. Thus, the authors of this study reported the following fit indices: Comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.983, Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.054, Normal fit index (NFI) = 0.973, Incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.983 and Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) = 0.981. These indices indicated a good model fit.

According to Hair [57], convergent validity refers to the ability of some measures to be highly correlated with different measures of similar constructs. Anderson and Gerbing [58] suggested that good convergent validity exists when the standardized factor loadings of each item exceed 0.60. In addition, the range of the factor loadings are shown from the lowest to the highest values for each construct in

Table 2. Item loadings of related factors.

Factor	Number of Items	Range of Factor Loadings	CR	AVE	AVE Squared	Cronbach’s Alpha
EL	EL1–EL6	0.665–0.779	0.95	0.66	0.812	0.886
EB	EB1–EB7	0.690–0.870	0.92	0.63	0.794	0.923
EK	EK1–EK9	0.709–0.883	0.94	0.65	0.806	0.912
EC	EC1–EC10	0.750–0.870	0.95	0.67	0.819	0.935
EP	EP1–EP6	0.657–0.774	0.86	0.51	0.714	0.895
ES	ES1–ES7	0.780–0.830	0.93	0.65	0.806	0.932
CG	CG1–CG4	0.770–0.840	0.88	0.64	0.800	0.875

Note: EL = Employee Learning, EB = Employee Benefits, EK = Employee Knowledge, EC = Employee Creativity, EP = Employee Performance, ES = Employee Satisfaction, and CG = Career Growth.

. The lowest factor loading was 0.657, and the highest value was 0.883. Furthermore, the details of each item are provided in Appendix A.

Cronbach’s alpha indicated that all of the factors were reliable, with the alpha value being greater than the acceptable criterion of 0.80. Therefore, these factors can be further analyzed with respect to both their convergent and discriminant validity. As shown in Table 2, when testing the reliability coefficients, all of the constructs exceeded the recommended Cronbach’s alpha criterion of 0.70–0.95 [59,60]. From all of the constructs, the lowest Cronbach’s alpha was 0.875, which was above the minimum acceptable value, thereby showing that the constructs are reliable.

Regarding the structural model testing, the fit indices, including CFI, NFI, NNFI, and IFI, were higher than the cut-off point of 0.900, and the RMSEA was below 0.08, thereby showing the acceptable fit of the proposed model [47], as shown in

Table 3. Correlation coefficient matrix and the square roots of the AVEs.

Items	EL	EB	EK	EC	EP	ES	CG
EL	0.812
EB	0.539	0.794
EK	0.766	0.506	0.806
EC	0.795	0.518	0.731	0.819
EP	0.700	0.492	0.691	0.697	0.714
ES	0.688	0.529	0.664	0.728	0.694	0.806
CG	0.433	0.468	0.314	0.401	0.589	0.591	0.800

and

Table 4. The model fit indices (structural model).

Fit Index	Model Value	Criterion
Normed Fit Index (NFI)	0.969	>0.900
Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI)	0.977	>0.900
Comparative Fit Index (CFI)	0.979	>0.900
Fit Index (IFI)	0.979	>0.900
Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)	0.060	<0.08

. In addition, the values of the AVEs were greater than 0.50, and had factor loadings greater than 0.6, thereby demonstrating a good level of convergent validity [57,58,61]. Furthermore, based on the results from the discriminant validity tests, the square roots of the AVEs were above the squared correlation of each relationship between the constructs, thereby showing a good level of discriminant validity [62].

From Figure 2, employee knowledge had the highest positive effect on employee performance, followed by employee learning and employee satisfaction, while employee benefits had no relationship with employee performance. The details of the hypothesis testing can be summarized as follows.

Hypothesis 1 (H1):

Based on this hypothesis, the ability to learn and access to learning for the employees should be related to their knowledge. H1 showed that employee learning had a positive effect on employee knowledge at a 95% confidence interval.

Hypothesis 2 (H2):

Employee creativity should be enhanced by the learning process of the employees. H2 confirmed that there was a positive relationship between employee learning and employee creativity.

Hypothesis 3 (H3):

Employees who can usually create new and valuable ideas should be able to find alternatives or methods for their satisfaction. H6 indicated that employee creativity had a positive influence on employee satisfaction. The employees who were more creative appeared to be more satisfied with their work.

Hypothesis 4 (H4):

The benefits provided by the hospitality firms should lead to the satisfaction of the employees. H4 indicated a positive relationship between employee benefits and employee satisfaction.

Hypothesis 5 (H5):

This hypothesis was to test whether the employee benefits had a significant relationship with the performance of the employees of hospitality firms. H5 demonstrated that employee benefits had no influence on employee performance.

Hypothesis 6 (H6):

The more the employees learn, the better the performance they should deliver. H3 revealed that employee learning had a positive influence on employee performance.

Hypothesis 7 (H7):

Knowledge should be the basic component to support the employees to perform well in their works. H7 showed that employee knowledge had a significant effect on employee performance.

Hypothesis 8 (H8):

Employees who were satisfied with their work were expected to deliver high performance in their works. H8 confirmed that employee satisfaction positively influenced employee performance.

Hypothesis 9 (H9):

H9 revealed that employee performance had a significant positive effect on career growth.

The summary of the hypothesis testing is shown in

Table 5. Summary of hypothesis tests.

Hypothesis	Relationship	Acceptance
H1	EL → EK	YES
H2	EL → EC	YES
H3	EC → ES	YES
H4	EB → ES	YES
H5	EB → EP	NO
H6	EL → EP	YES
H7	EK → EP	YES
H8	ES → EP	YES
H9	EP→ CG	YES

below.

5. Conclusions and Research Implications

This study achieved its two objectives. For the first objective, the authors tested the effects of employee benefits, employee satisfaction, and employee knowledge on employee performance; the results indicated that employee learning, satisfaction, and knowledge had positive influences on performance, while employee benefits had no effect on employee performance. Regarding the second objective, employee performance had a positive effect on career growth, which was confirmed by the findings of the current study.

This research has a few limitations. First, this was a cross-sectional investigation, and thus could not be used to explain the trends among the factors. Second, the authors selected three major tourism destination cities to explore these constructs, and the degree of generalization may be limited. Furthermore, the study covered employee performance in three types of hospitality firms (e.g., hotels, airlines and spas), and there are many other types of hospitality firms, in which there will be some differences in the working conditions and environments. Therefore, the implications may not be applicable to hospitality businesses beyond these three types of firms.

For future research in this area, creativity is known to be a complex concept, and there are many more dimensions to be explored [63]. Future research studies should focus more on the relationship between employee learning, employee benefits, and employee creativity, as well as their effects on employee performance. Future research could also be directed toward areas which focus on a wider range of hospitality businesses, such as restaurants. Moreover, in the case of a multisector study, future researchers should attempt to distribute the data equally in order to truly represent each industry appropriately.