Luận văn tốt nghiệp quản lý khách sạn enhancing employee engagement at jw marriott hanoi hotel

Enhacing the employee engagement at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel NATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL E BBA PROGRAM ENHANCING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AT JW MARRIOTT HANOI HOTEL Bachelor of Business Adm[.]

NATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY

BUSINESS SCHOOL E-BBA PROGRAM

ENHANCING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

AT JW MARRIOTT HANOI HOTEL

Bachelor of Business Administration in English (E-BBA) Thesis

Supervisor : Asof.Prof Le Thi My Linh Student : Tran Thi Dang Ngoc

HANOI, 2019

This thesis was conducted as the very last graduation requirement of theBachelor of Business Administration in English (E-BBA) program, BusinessSchool, National Economics University

First and foremost, I would like to thank all members of ManagementBoard of National Economics University and Business School, E-BBA program,who have been organizing one of the most amazing and interesting programs.Moreover, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all lectures of E-BBAprogram, who have taught me a lot more than just fact and figures but also shown

me their professional personal experiences and helpful feedbacks It means a lot

to me and my future career development Of equally important, I would like totake this opportunity to express my greatest gratitude and appreciation to myinstructor – Asof.Prof Le Thi My Linh I am deeply indebted for her guidance,support and specialize insightful guidance on conducting and finishing thisthesis Besides, I am grateful and would like to say thank to all the colleagues,supervisors and managers at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel for their support, guidanceand collaboration to help me finish this thesis Without their encouragement, Icould hardly ever complete my internship with considerable advantageous andprofessional condition for future growth and development Also, their feedbacks

on my work as well as their response to my survey are appreciated as they arenecessary for me to complete my thesis I also appreciate all the participants whowilling to spend their precious spare time and efforts to fulfill the survey,providing such valuable information for me to conduct the survey results in themost timely, effectivity and productivity manner Last but not least, I would love

to express my appreciation for my beloved family and friends who always beside

me and support me to complete this thesis Once again, I truly grateful having allyou guys in my life and honestly thank you all

Hanoi, January 2019Tran Thi Dang Ngoc

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2

ABBREVIATIONS 6

LIST OF TABLES 7

LIST OF FIGURES 9

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 12

1.1 Rationale 12

1.2 Research Objectives 13

1.3 Research question 14

1.4 Research scope 14

1.5 Research methodologies 15

1.5.1 Research process 15

1.5.2 Data collection 15

1.5.3 Questionnaire design 16

1.5.4 Data analysis 17

CHAPTER 2: THEORICAL BACKGROUND ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 19

2.1 Definition of employee engagement 19

2.2 Role of employee engagement 21

2.4 Key dimensions to analyze employee engagement 24

2.5 Factors affecting employee engagement 26

2.6 Diagram of research model 30

2.6.1 Explanation of each independent variable 31

2.6.2 Measurement of each independent variable 34

CHAPTER 3: CURRENT SITUATION OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AT JW MARRIOTT HANOI HOTEL 36

3.1 Overview about JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 36

3.1.1 About Marriott International, Inc.: 36

3.1.2 About JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel: 37

3.1.3 Services at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 37

3.1.4 Organizational structure at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 38

3.1.5 Business performance of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel from 2015 to 2018 .43

3.2 Current situation of employee engagement at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 45

3.2.1 Characteristics of survey sample 45

3.2.2 Evaluation the “Total rewards” factor (RW) affecting employee engagement level at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 52

3.2.3 Evaluation the “Management” factor (MA) affecting employee engagement level at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 53

3.2.4 Evaluation the “Job characteristics” factor (JC) affecting employee engagement level at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 54

3.2.5 Evaluation the “Working environment” factor (EN) affecting employee engagement level at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel 55

3.2.6 Comparing differences on employee engagement by characteristics 56

3.3 Measurement assessment 67

3.3.1 Reliability analysis 67

3.3.2 Exploratory factor analysis – EFA 72

3.3.3 Correlation analysis and Hypothesis testing 77

3.3.4 Regression analysis with independent variables 78

3.4 Findings summary 81

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION TO ENHANCE THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AT JW MARRIOTT HANOI HOTEL 83

4.1 Improving working environment 83

4.2 Improving the job characteristics 85

4.3 Enhancing the management system and process 86

4.4 Increasing the total rewards 87

CONCLUSION 88

LIST OF REFERENCES 89

APPENDICES 91

Appendix 1 Questionnaire 91

Appendix 2 SPSS Analysis results 93

Appendix 2.1 Description analysis 93

Appendix 2.2 Reliability test by Cronbach Alpha 94

Appendix 2.3 Exploratory factor analysis – EFA 97

Appendix 2.4 Regression analysis 101

Appendix 2.5 ANOVA test 102

Appendix 2.6 Correlation 107

Appendix 2.7 Descriptive statistic 108

ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Five-point Likert scale

Table 2.1: Findings on factors affecting the employee engagement of differentresearch

Table 2.2: Questionaire design for the study of employee engagement at JWMarriott Hanoi Hotel

Table 3.1: Detail information about JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel’s employees

Table 3.2: Gender distribution of survey sample

Table 3.3: Age of the respondents

Table 3.4: Working department of respondents

Table 3.5: Working level of respondents

Table 3.6: Average monthly income of respondents

Table 3.7: Working experience measured by working years of respondents

Table 3.8: Descriptive Statistics regarding “Total Rewards” factor

Table 3.9: Descriptive Statistics regarding “Management” factor

Table 3.10: Descriptive Statistics regarding “Job characteristics” factor

Table 3.11: Descriptive Statistics regarding “Working environment” factor

Table 3.12: Descriptive Statistics regarding “Employee engagement” factorTable 3.13: Summary of testing of homogeneity of variances & ANOVA -Gender

Table 3.14: Employee engagement different by gender

Table 3.15: Summary of testing of homogeneity of variances & ANOVA – Agegroup

Table 3.16: Employee engagement different by age group

Table 3.17: Summary of testing of homogeneity of variances & ANOVA –Working department

Table 3.18: Employee engagement different by working department

Table 3.19: Summary of testing of homogeneity of variances & ANOVA –Working level

Table 3.20: Employee engagement different by working level

Table: 3.21: Summary of testing of homogeneity of variances & ANOVA –Average monthly income

Table 3.22: Employee engagement different by average monthly income

Table 3.23: Summary of testing of homogeneity of variances & ANOVA – Year

of working experiences

Table 3.24: Employee engagement different by year of working experiencesTable 3.25: SPSS - Reliability test for the “Total rewards” factor

Table 3.26: SPSS - Reliability test for the “Management” factor

Table 3.27: SPSS - Reliability test for the “Job characteristics” factor

Table 3.28: SPSS - Reliability test for the “Working environment” factor

Table 3.29: SPSS - Reliability test for the “Employee engagement” factor

Table 3.30: KMO and Bartlett's Test – Independent variables

Table 3.31: Rotated Component Matrixa

Table 3.32: Total Variance Explained

Table 3.33: KMO and Bartlett's Test – Dependent variable

Table 3.34: Total Variance Explained

Table 3.35: Correlation analysis

Table 3.36: Model Summary

Table 3.37: ANOVAa

Table 3.38: Coefficientsa

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Research process

Figure 2.1: Research model of Employee Engagement at JW Marriott HanoiHotel

Figure 3.1: Organizational structure of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel

Figure 3.2: Income distribution (%) of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel from 2015 up todate

Figure 3.3: Hotel occupancy of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel over the year

Figure 3.4: TripAdvisor Ranking of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel and its food andbeverage outlets

Figure 3.5: Gender distribution of the survey sample (%)

Figure 3.6: Age of the respondents (%)

Figure 3.7: Working department of respondents (%)

Figure 3.8: Working level of respondents (%)

Figure 3.9: Average monthly income of respondents (%)

Figure 3.10: Working experience measured by working years of respondents (%)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In this globalization and modernization world, employees could, more orless, being considered as one of the most important parts that have the strongimpact on the overall success of the firm Employees should be valued andrespected as one of the priceless assets of any organization, and the employers,therefore, should manage to maintain all the good people with the company, forthe sake of the stable development of it in the year ahead

There are various studies, both locally and globally regarding this issue inorder to evaluate the factors affecting the employee engagement and thesignificance of these factors on the level of employee engagement However,these conducted studies have been lacking of knowledge as regards to thedifferent context of different industries, different companies and so forth Plus,there is no research regarding the employee engagement at JW Marriott HanoiHotel previously, hence, the author proposed to study more about this issue toinvestigate the current situation of the employee engagement at JW MarriottHanoi Hotel and furthermore, suggest some feasible solutions to improve it in thenear future

By using the quantitative research method with questionnaire survey, theresearch aims to have a deep insight view about the employees currently working

at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel and their perception of engagement to the hotel Byanalysing and reviewing from previous researches of different researchers aroundthe world, the author proposed to use the model comprise of four independentvariables that strongly affect the level of employee engagement at JW MarriottHanoi Hotel, given carefully consideration about the hotel namely: (1) Totalrewards (including intrinsic and extrinsic rewards), (2) Management, (3) Jobcharacteristics, (4) Working environment

The questionnaires designed consist of two parts, with 33 questions usingthe five-point Likert scale The survey forms were distributed to the employeesrandomly at the cafeteria for associate of the hotel during lunch break time undertheir permissions The total acceptable responses after eliminating all theinappropriate answers and not suitable form of responses is 159 All the collecteddata were then coded and used for further analysis using the Statistical Packagefor the Social Sciences version 20 (SPSS)

Below is the summary of the research findings:

 About the current situation of employee engagement at JW Marriott HanoiHotel: Generally, the employees at JW Marriot Hanoi Hotel are relativelyloyal and have the high level of engagement to the hotel in the few years

ahead, despite some existing problems that have negative effects andneeded to deal with as soon as possible According to the employees,

“Management” and “Working environment” are the two factors that theyconsidered important when it comes to measure the effect on theirengagement intention and satisfied them the most By contrast, “Rewards”and “Job characteristics” have lower mean value, suggesting that thesetwo factors are not appealing to the employees’engagement level

 The study also investigated the differences in the perception and the level

of engagement of employees given different gender, age group, job title,working department, average monthly income and years of experience Itcan be seen from the findings that the engagement level is equallyrepresented between two genders, however, when it comes to otherdemographic such as age group, job title, working department and averagemonthly income, the engagement level witnessed a slight difference

 Out of four mentioned independent variables, “Working environment”proven to have the strongest effect on the employee engagement at JWMarriott Hanoi Hotel “Job characteristics” followed closely at the slightlylower level, making it the second most factor affecting the engagement ofemployee in JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel These two factors, “Management”and “Rewards” are the least significant factors

Hence, the author proposed some applicable and relatable solutions to boost

up the employee engagement to the hotel in the few years ahead As the

“Working environment” affect the level of engagement the most, the authorproposed some applicable solution to improve the working environment such asimproving the physical working condition, focusing more on the cultural, corevalue of the hotel and paying more respect to improve the internal relationshipwithin the hotel Besides, the author also suggested to increase the task varietyand task identity to improve the “Job characteristics” factor, focus on thefriendliness and openness in the relationship between manager and employees toimprove “Management” factor, and practice both intrinsic and extrinsic reward inthe most timely manner to improve the “Reward” factor Despite the fact that thisstudy faced various limitation and challenges throughout the overall process,however, all in all, it still has some positive contribution to both the organizationand the employees of the hotel, regarding the deeper understanding about theemployee engagement issue and its effect

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

There is no disputing the fact that in this globalization and modernization worldnowadays, competitiveness among the market place could be seen from manydifferent perspectives, such as the differentiation of the products, theimprovement of the quality and the service, the betterment in management or theinnovation in technology, for instance Every business has long been searchingfor the key to unlock their development and accelerate their performance in order

to stand a better chance to, more or less, stand out from the crowd when it comes

to the public evaluation Out of the uncountable factors that could affect theperformance of the business, employee engagement definitely plays aconsiderable pivotal role It can be clearly seen that employee engagement couldboost the productivity of the employee at large as employees who dedicated andinvested their mental and physical abilities into their roles are shown to be moreproductive than others It is believed that the engagement of the employee is alsoone of the symptoms of success This may due to the fact that employees may beproud to work for the organization, be happy and enjoyable going to work everyday and feel valued naturally once they satisfy about their work as well as feelgood about their contribution Of equal importance, employee engagement couldobviously lift up the customer satisfaction as employees are the representativeimage of the business, the ones who directly communicate and provide theservice for the customers Customers are being treated to a much betterexperience while dealing with engaged employees, to some extent as according

to a survey, it is said that the more engaged employees are more inclined todedicate the effort that could be transformed into buzzing productivity levels, ahappier and more delightful workforce, and a more credible product pitch.Moreover, another point which worth mentioning is that the higher the employeeengagement, the more “best people” the business can retain and the better thebusiness culture at the same time Keeping them loyal to the company is ofimportance since it could be the enabler for the organization to perform better, tothrive and to succeed in the year ahead Regarding the hospitality industry, there

is no denying the fact that it also faces the dilemma of this irreversiblecompetitive trend and witnesses a considerable adverse effect from it Stayingaware of these challenges, JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel had made a considerablenumber of concerted efforts in order to provide the best working condition aswell as the ideal association program for the employees to improve their loyalty

and engagement to the company as a whole It places a premium on offering thefriendly and equally open-minded working environment for the employees,encouraging the involvement and interaction of the employees, and boosting theoverall performance of the hotel to continue to lead the hospitality industry inVietnam in the future However, together with other companies, JW MarriottHanoi Hotel still facing this first-world problem recently due to the fact that theretention rate is quite significant and the average year of commitment is quitelow, thus stressing human resources department as well as the board of managers

at large Therefore, conducting and caring out the research regarding “Enhancingthe employee engagement at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel” may prove to have someprofound effects Firstly, it could help the company to have an overview of theworkplace in many different viewpoints of the employees Secondly, it enablesthe company to dig deeper into finding the root cause of the current situations.And last but not least, it allows the company to figure out the more realistic andsustainable ways to cope with this problem, as well as to unlock the company tothrive and continue to develop successfully in the year ahead This topic ischosen in the hope that some facts and findings, recommendations and solutionsfrom the study would be a source of reference for JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel toimprove and develop to a greater extent in the future

1.2 Research Objectives

The key goal of the research is to identify the factors that affect the employeeengagement in JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel as well as to weigh these factors to seetheir influences in the workplace and thus proposing some improvementsolutions There are a number of issues need to be cover in order to reach thefinal goal namely:

 Investigate the current situation of the associate engagement in JWMarriott Hanoi Hotel and figure out the suitable framework to apply onthe case of it

 Identify the key factors that affect the employee engagement at JWMarriott Hanoi Hotel, in both positive and negative ways

 Compare the differences in employee engagement at JW Marriott HanoiHotel when it comes to different positions/departments and differentlevels of position

 Based on the research results, propose some of the suitable improvements

to increase the employee engagement in JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel

1.3 Research question

The research focuses mainly on analysing and answering the question that “How

do value identified factors influence the engagement of the employees to thecompany as well as how to improve the engagement on average in the year ahead

at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel” Hence, in order to figure out these questions, it is

of necessity to answer the following sub-questions:

Which factors are valued as important to the perception of the employees abouttheir engagement to the JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel?

As the matter of fact, there are a great numbers of research as regards to theemployee loyalty to the company which has already been done by differentauthors worldwide It is suggested that there is a wide range of driven factorsafter the work engagement of the employees such as career developmentopportunities, flexibility, equality, cultural diversity, level of transparency,recognition and the like Some of the basic factors would be chosen to examineand Cronbach’s alpha coefficient analysis will be applied in order to answer thisquestion

 What is the difference as regards to the level of employee engagement at

JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel when it comes to different positions/departmentsand different level of positions (Casual, Official, Supervisor/Manager)?

 Does the research model fit the population at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel toequate the reliability level of the result?

 How could the JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel improve the level of employeeengagement in the year ahead?

1.4 Research scope

 Research scope: Employees in every department within the hotel, whichare being categorized into three main sections namely: Front office –Rooms, Executive office and Food and Beverage outlets The employees

of each department would also be categorized in three groups which standfor three levels of position: Casual, Official, Supervisor/Manager

 Research time: from November 28th, 2018 to December 14th, 2018 forprimary data and from 2015 to 2018 for secondary data (HR Insightinformation, business performance and so forth)

1.5 Research methodologies

1.5.1 Research process

Figure 1.1: Research process

(Source: Research process designed by author, 2018)

1.5.2 Data collection

Regarding the primary data, the author proposed to use sample survey to gathernecessary information, which is the most convenient and sustainable way giventhe big sample survey size Besides, this kind of method is believed to be more

workable, compared to other methods, for example, in-depth interview andmailing questionnaires, as it saves time and it is way more effective The surveywill be given at the cafeteria during the break time in order to vary as manydepartments as possible And of equally important, the employees will also bewell-informed about the main purpose of this study and the significance of thereliability in their answer The survey scale ranges around 200 employeesworking in different departments within the hotel (Front office – Rooms, Backoffice, Food and Beverage Outlets) The covered time for distributing andcollecting back the survey form is from November 28th, 2018 to December 14th,

2018

Turning to the secondary data, the author chooses to gather more informationfrom the offline documents of the hotel, including annual reports, HR profile andother public information on the internet The main purpose of researching for thesecondary database is to deeply understand the structure, value, characteristics,work performance and other informations about the hotel The time span of thecollected data is from 2015 until now However, annual financial-related issuesare being imitated in estimated percentage according to the actual numbersbecause as the matter of fact, the actual numbers cannot be shown due to theconfidential policy of the JW Marriott International

1.5.3 Questionnaire design

This thesis was conducted using the self-administered survey method, whichmeans the attendants will answer the survey according to their impression andpersonal experiences The visible advantage of this kind of survey is the realistic

in the response of the employees, as they will answer based on their experiencesand the survey will be kept confidential In order to provide a clear guidance forsurvey participants, questions are being categorized into different parts Most ofthe questions in the survey are measured by the “Five-point Likert scale”, inwhich the point from 1 to 5 is used to rate their agreement towards the givenstatements More details regarding the score used in the “Five-point Likert scale”are being shown in the below table:

Table 1.1: Five-point Likert scale

Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

(Source: Five-point Likert scale)

The questionnaire is delivered to participants directly in paper version and

it consists of two (02) main parts, with Part 1 is the general information regardingthe demographic description of the respondents and Part 2 is the questions thathelp to illustrate those main factors affecting the employee engagement Thegeneral background information in the first section could help the author tocompare and conclude about any differences regarding different ages, gender,work levels and positions, for instance The questions in the survey was designedand modified based on the measurement scales adopted from previous worldwideauthors, of whon theories have been selected as refenrences in the belowtheoretical framework and from the “JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel annual associateengagement survey”

1.5.4 Data analysis

After collecting the data from both primary and secondary database, the author isgoing to analyse them in order to test the reliability of the research hypotheses.However, all the unqualified responses should be eliminated beforehand byscanning and checking manually in order to ensure the validation and precision

of this research The data will be analysed using the Statistical Package for theSocial Sciences (SPSS) software version 16.0 To be more specific, there are fourmain types of statistical procedures are being taken to serve the purpose of thisresearch namely:

Descriptive statistics: using descriptive statistic to calculate the mean andvariance regarding the demographic information of the respondents in order tohave a brief overview about the observed sample size

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA): illustrate the underlying structure of arelatively variety set of variables To be more specific, it will help the author toobserve the affecting factors through the sub-variables

Assessing the Reliability of chosen scales: using Cronbach’s alpha to determinethe reliability of the variables used The observed variables that could not reachthe certain guarantee level will be eliminated from the scale correspondingly.Specifically, for this research, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient obtained shouldequal at least 0.6 to satisfy the acceptable requirement (Hair et al, 1998)

Regression Analysis: using Statistical t and P-value to measure the impact offactors on each element of engagements Moreover, regression model can beused to find the coefficient of determination R square that can explain the extentwhich each factor affects the employee engagement

Besides, Microsoft Office Tools are also being utilized in performing tables andfigures

1.6 Research Structure

The thesis includes five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction: To give a brief overview about the thesis

Chapter 2: Theoretical background on employee engagement: Definition, roles,affecting factors and related theories regarding the employee engagement and thechoosen research model

Chapter 3: Current situation of employee engagement at JW Marriott HanoiHotel: To examine the model used in research and analyse the factors affectingthe employee engagement at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel which had beenmentioned

Chapter 4: Recommendation to enhancing employee engagement at JW MarriottHanoi Hotel

Chapter 5: Conclusions

CHAPTER 2: THEORICAL BACKGROUND ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

2.1 Definition of employee engagement

Employee engagement to the business has been mentioned in quite a number ofresearch, and employee-engagement-related issues have gained the greaterconcerns among the public recently (Kahn 1990, Baumruk 2004, Richman 2006and Shaw 2005, Frank et al 2004, Truss et al 2006 and so forth) However, thepresented challenges at the moment is the lack of a universal definition of theemployee engagement as it can be considered as a broad topic and each studyexplores it from a different perspective or with a different context

According to Cambridge dictionary, “engagement” is an arrangement to do

something or go somewhere at a fixed time, so this means that employeeengagement is the commitment of the employees to work for a company for acertain period of time Kahn (1990:694), on the other hand, defines employeeengagement as “the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their workroles in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically,cognitively, and emotionally during role performances” The cognitive factoraffects the employees by the way they perceive about the company and theworking environment The emotion aspect influences the feeling and the attitude

of the employees toward those factors And physical aspect allows them to showtheir physical energies to fulfill their roles at work Hence, to put it simple, Kahn(1990:694) suggested that the employee engagement could be seen in theperformance, both physically and psychologically, of the employees May et al(2004) did test for the reliability of Kahn’s model and the findings pointed outthat the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, availability and safety arepositively and closely linked to the employee engagement On the simplest andmost basic term, Truss et al (2006) believe that employee engagement couldnormally defined as the passion for work of the workers themselves, which isseem to cover both three dimensions of employee engagement which wasdiscussed by Kahn (1990)

Besides, there is mounting evidence that employee engagement could be theemotional and intellectual commitment to the company (Baumruk 2004,Richman 2006 and Shaw 2005) or the amount of effort taken in by employees fortheir positions (Frank et al 2004) Similarly, the findings of Hewitt Associates(2004), by developing an 18-item scale to measure the engagement of theemployee, suggested that engagement is the state that the employees are

emotionally and intellectually commited to the company or organization, or whenthey exhibit the three main behaviors which are say, stay and strive “Say” meansthat the employees speak positively about the company to other people, “Stay”means that they want to belong to the company, they show the strong desire to be

a part of the company whereas “Strive” means that they always push themselves

to their best to contribute to the success of the company

Another worth-mentioning definition was from the work of Schaufeli and Bakker(2004) as they viewed engagement as “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state ofmind that is characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption” To be morespecific, the employees are highly likely engaged with the company when theirmind set is positive and full of motivation, or in another words, they arepassionate about their jobs and energetic when performing the jobs Maslach andLeiter (1998) came up with the similar findings for the definition of engagement

in the company, as they stated that engagement is simply psychological state, anenergetic state of involvement with personally fulfilling activities that enhanceone’s sense of professional efficacy as an important component

Other feasible definition of engagement was by Fleming and Asplund(2007) in their “Human Sigma: Managing employee – Customer encounter”book as “the ability to capture the heads, hearts and souls of your employees toinstill an intrinsic desire and passion for excellence” It means that theyconsidered engaged employees are those people who feel closely connected interm of their emotion and spirit to the long-term vision, mission, core value andpurpose of the company Storey, Ulrich, Welbourne & Wright (2009) alsodefined employee engagement as a collectivity of positive attitudes and behaviorswhich enable high job performance of a kind which is in tune with theorganization’s mission Shuck and Wollard (2010), AON Hewitt (2012, 2013,2014) all pointed towards employee engagement is an incorporation ofpsychological and behavioral components of each employee

From another point of view, employee engagement can be considered to be built

by the combination of organizational or workplace commitment and itsorganizational citizenship behavior in the study of Saks (2006) A study byScottish Executive Social Research on this topic, which had the same findings,also discussed why the definition of employee engagement could be defined as atwo-way process between the company and the employees despite the fact thatorganizational commitment and citizen ship behavior are seen mainly from theindividual employee’s perspectives Cook (2008) had also been heavilyinfluenced by company commitment and OCB (Organizational citizenshipbehaviors) when it comes to define the meaning of employee engagement.Turning to the findings of Cook, employee engagement could be viewed as the

degree at which the employees think and concern about their company, thefeeling they have about the company, and their proactive to achieve the goals forcolleagues, customers and stakeholders of the company

Given the situation of this research, Cook’s findings are decided to be theresearch basis in this thesis, as they suitable and sustainable when it comes toapply to the characteristics of big company as JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel

2.2 Role of employee engagement

Generally speaking, employee engagement has positive consequences for the

company as it positively related to job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational citizenship behavior and negatively related to retention, according

to the findings of Padmakumar Ram and Gantasala V Prabhakar (2011)

Job satisfaction, to the perspective of Armstrong (2009), refers to behaviors,

attitudes and feelings that employe have regarding their job, their work, theirpositions It has been clarified clearly by Locke (1976) that job satisfaction is thestate of mind, arising when employee appraise their job position and closelyrelating to the betterment in employees’ health condition and postive work affect(Sonnentag 2003) It has also been found out by Schaufeli and Bakker (2004)that satisfied employees have a greater attachment to the company

Job involvement has been, on the other hand, defined as the level to which an

employee is identified psychologically with his work or the importance of work

in his total self-image, according to Lodahl and Kejner (1965) Or from anotherwork of Dunham (1984), it is said that there were three main components of jobinvolvement which are: (1) Conscious desire and choice to participate in work or

a job, (2) Degree to which an individual considers work or a job to be a centrallife interest, and (3) The degree to which a person considers work or a job to becentral to his/her self-concept Engagement also linked with the construct of jobinvolvement and flow of that job (Brown 1996, Csikszentmihalyi 1990)

Employee engagement is believed to have a significant effect on the task performance of the employees and organizational citizenship behavior,

according to the model of Shantz et al (2013) Bakker and Demerouti (2008)have presented four reasons that responsible for the better performance ofengaged employees compared to others First of all is emotions, as some research

in the past suggested that engagement is a positive, fulfilling, work-related state

of mind (Shaufeli and Bakker, 2004; Schaufeli et al., 2002) And certainty, happyemployees may be more responsible, more confidence, more optimistic and more

helpful at work as they could spread out their hapiness, joy and enthusiasm(Cropanzano and Wright, 2001) Secondly, Sonnentag (2003) stated that engagedemployee may have a better health condition and less likely to suffer fromheadaches, cardiovascular problems or stress and stomach aches, compared toothers (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004) Further more, engaged employee isbelieved to have the ability to mobilize resources better than others as they aremore productive and have more pleasant colleagues (Bakker and Demerouti,2007) Last but not least, an engaged employee could spread their vibes, theiremotions and share their mindset with other employees to improve theperformance as well as the culture of the company Besides, there is no denyingthe fact that employees who are appreciated and received more valuation andenriched jobs may try harder to perform better as they want to expressthemselves in the role which corresponding to the resources and recognition theyreceived from the company On the negative note, people who, in contrast, feellike their treatment from the company are unfavourable, unfair and the like, theyare highly likely to feel vengeful or discontended with their roles, their position,thus behaving in ways that retaliate against their company or even harm thebrand image of the company and so forth

Of equally important, there is a close link betweeen the engagement with the

company of the employee and their turnover intention “Employee turnover

intention” means that the intend of the employees to leave the company, based on

a number of reasons such as a poor relationship with colleagues, superiors or lack

of challenges and opportunities and so forth, for instance Without doubted, itmay pose a threat to the company financial issues as financial loss and their effort

in conducting an interview or planning for a training course if the employeesappear to have a turnover intention after being choosen and carefully training.Besides, it is suggested by Josh Bersin (Bersin by Deloitte) that there is a widerange of other factors that could be affected by losing an employee, for instancelost of productivity and training effort, as it normally took an existing employee acertain period of time to train and guide the new ones and their daily productivitywould decrease due to the time they have to teach the new employee Besides, itmay take about two to three months for the new employee to adapt and get use tothe daily, weekly and monthly tasks of that position or to reach to theproductivity level of an existing person Another point to add is that companyengagement would lost a great deal due to the high turnover rate and companyculture would be heavily affected, as other employees tend to disengaged,questioned and lost their productivities when their colleagues left spontaneously

2.3 How to enhancing the employee engagement?

It is, more or less, difficult for any companies when it comes to retain theexcellent people with them, or in other words, to improve the level of employeeengagement over time The world is moving forward faster and faster than ever,and every companies have to face the challenges of increasing the level ofemployee engagement, which including figure out the unique element that mostlikely influence the engagement rate in the operation country of that company(Cook 2008) This means that the cutural factor should be prioritize whenplanning a strategy or establishing a campaign regarding the issue of employeeengagement According to Cook (2008), there are four main elements that couldhelp to accelerate the employee engagement rate: Well-being, Information,

Fairness and Involvement “Well-being” refers to the performance of the

employee generally, both physically and emotionally If they can maintain apositive state of mind and a healthy body when they come to work, or in anotherword, a sound mind in a sound body, they can probably perform their task atmore ease and highly likely want to engrossed in their job at hand As opposed towhen they are not in a good mood for working, or when they feel under theweather at work, they will rather consider working as a burden than just their

simple daily responsibilities Regarding “Information” factor, it is obvious to see

that if the employees are being carefully informed and guided by theirsupervisors or managers of what they need to do, what are their mainresponsibilites at work, they would be much more grateful and willing to do thejob No denying the fact that there is a correlation between the amount ofknowledges that the employees could learn by doing the job and their level ofengagement to that place As the employees are being couraged to expose to newthings and being guided to achieve more goals in their career developmentprogress while performing their job, they will definitely love their job and willing

to work for the company Of equally important factor that should be taken in

consideration is “Fairness” in the workplace, regarding the differences in

gender, region, religion and the like Equality in every perspectives of workshould be the prerequisite element in every company, from job distribution, jobinvolvement, or benefits and promotions for instance It is an errorneous belief tohave the discrimination regarding the gender, whether male is being paid higherthan their female counterparts given the same amount of workload, or as regard

to the different in the region such as people in the city would stand a betterchance when it comes to promotion and the like Fairness should be ensured andemphasized in every situation in the workplace, for the sake and the right of theemployees as well as the image of the company Last but not least, the employeesshould be able to visibly see their “Involvement” in the process or the outcome

result of the whole organization Staying aware that their job performances willhave a closely link with others’ work or the overall result of the whole teamcould boost them to perform better and pay more attention to even the smallestdetails in their works Hence, in order to improve the employee engagement inthe year ahead, these factors must be tackled properly by either HumanResources Department or Direct Supervisors/ Managers of each Department

Besides, there is a list which suggested some helpful activities that couldimprove the employee engagement as well as retain the employees with thecompany was conducted by the HR Council of Community Foundations ofCanada in 2013 The list includes some main HR’s responsibilities (namely: (1)Strategic HR Planning, (2) Operational HR Planning, (3) Compensation andbenefits, (4) Developing HR Policies, (5) Employment Legislation andStandards, (6) Job descriptions, (7) Performance management, (8) Learning,Training and Development, (9) Workplace diversity, (10) Employee Recognition,(11) Work teams and group dynamics and (12) Staff-volunteer relations) andtheir relations with employee engagement Those elements are proved to have adirect effect on the level of employee engagement within the organization, hence,

in order to enhance the employee engagement, these twelve issues should betaken into consideration seriously and simultaneously

2.4 Key dimensions to analyze employee engagement

It is suggested that employee engagement could be seen from four main differentmental perspectives: cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, physicalengagement and advocacy

First and foremost, “cognitive engagement” refers to the degree which employeesinglemindedly focus on their tasks at hand This factor is to measure whether theemployees concentrate on their main responsibilities when they are at work ornot, or whether the employees are being distracted by the external factors fromthe outside environment or not Cognitively engaged employees are highly likely

to devote their greater attention doing their jobs and are absorbed into the job.The employee could be considered as having the high level of cognitiveengagement when they focus solely on their tasks during the working hourswithout minding doing other non-related works In contrast, low level ofcognitive engagement resulted in the low working productivity as the employeesare being distracted by external factors, for instance gossiping with theircolleagues, gluing their eyes on the phone, surfing their social media channelsand the like Besides, cognitive engagement also relates to the employees’

awareness to aligned with the strategy of the organization and deliver theappropriate optimal return to contribute towards the overall result of thecompany

The second factor that worth-mentioning when it comes to measure employeeengagement is their engagement in term of personal emotion It refers to theirfeeling whether they passion about their works or not, or whether they feelengrossed when they perform their tasks or not Moreover, it relates to theemotional commitment that the employees show to their companies and the goal

of the company as a whole, as they do care about their performances, their worksand its effects on the outcomes of the company Apart from working for themonthly paycheck, for appealing promotion in the year ahead or for the boss towitness, they work and contribute their silent concerted efforts on behalf of theoutput of their company Employees with high level of emotional engagement,for example, can work overtime without being asked if needed to complete thework of the whole team, or try their best to perform their works in the mosteffective and productive way even when they are not being supervised by theirmanagers Of equally important, emotional engagement also refers to the feeling

of trust and connect that the employees have towards the organization and theirco-workers

Turning to the third factor which is “physical engagement”, it is the level ofexertion that the employees put into their job when performing it To be morespecific, it can be considered as the degree to which the employees eager to learn,

to take more responsibilities for their own sake of learning and development, toput in more discretionary efforts Physically engaged workers show their positivewell-being and demonstrate extra efforts and vigors to complete their work.Apart from focusing on their main responsibilities, the employees with high level

of physical engagement may, for instance, figure out the new innovative way tocomplete the task, try to learn about new things and step out of their “comfortzone”

Finally, an engaged employee could be identified by the way they advocate theirworkplace No denying the fact that a great and fascinating working environmentwith supportive colleagues and managers can inspire employees to improve theirsincere and endure their advocate towards the company It is suggested that whenthe employees are engaged advocately, they will not hesitate to go an extra mile

to complete their main responsibilities in the best manner Besides, advocatedemployees would manage to complete their tasks at hand in the most efficiently,productivity and timely way and try to ensure the overall results of the companymeet the standard level at the same time Moreover, without doubted, thedynamic engaged employees who admire and adore their workplace

wholeheartedly would be the best speakers for its brand image They are willing

to recommend their workplace for their friends and family, either in term of greatcareer opportunities or potential business contracts

2.5 Factors affecting employee engagement

According to the findings of Padmakumar Ram and Gantasala V Prabhaka(2011), there are six factors in general that significantly affect the employeeengagement within every company or organization namely: (1) Jobcharacteristics, (2) Intrinsic and Extrinsic rewards, (3) Perceived organizationalsupport, (4) Perceived supervisor support, (5) Perceptions of procedural justice

and (6) Perception of distributive justice “Job characteristics” is, first and

foremost, the pivotal factor that has effect on working motivation as well asperformance and help to improve the job satisfaction among workers within theorganization The “Job characteristics theory” which was developed and verified

by J Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham even showed that there are five maindimensions of job characteristics affect the critical physical states of theemployees as well as the outcomes of their job performance namely: Skillvariety, Task identity, Task significance, Autonomy and Feedback First of all,about the “Skill variety”, the workers would definitely enjoy doing a job whichrequires a number of different tasks rather than doing monotonous and repetitivetasks as it requires a variety in skills that help to boost their creativity andproductivity Similarly with “Task Identity” and “Task significance”, if theworkers understand and find more meaning in their jobs as they identify thevisible outcomes of their works throughout the process, realise their involvement

in the work cycle, they would be willing to cooperate and be more responsible, tosome extent “Autonomy” is also important since it enables the employees toperform their tasks using their own knowledge, efforts and initiatives, thusmaking the employees to feel more at ease when they are working and increasingtheir engagement to the job and the company, more or less Last but not least,

“Feedback” from the supervisors and managers also contribute a great deal to themotivation and engagement of the employees If they received constant feedback

on their performance or being told by their managers that they are doing a goodjob, their future performance will definitely soar to a greater extentcorrespondingly to the improvement in their motivation Moving on the second

factor which is “Intrinsic and Extrinsic rewards”, it is obvious that reward has

proven its indispensable role in affecting and improving the employeeengagement within any organization Not only the extrinsic rewards as salary,benefits or other financial incentives which provide the physical safety that

matter, but the intrinsic rewards like earning respect, recognition and earninggrowing opportunities are equally important In fact, the average wage level can

be equal in many companies, but when it comes to earning appropriate respect,meritorious recognition or appealing developing opportunities, employers are notall times created equal A survey by the Society of Human Resource Managersimplied that the companies which having the good employee recognitionprograms and providing good career development guidance witnessed a two-thirds increase in the overall productivity of the employees, 50% increase in theemployee retention and nearly 60% return on the profit margins of the company

as a whole Also in this report, nearly half of employees proposed thatmanagement's recognition on their performance was extremely important to theirjob satisfaction, motivation and further job engagement Therefore, it is clearlyseen that apart from monetary rewards which can be effective in most of the case,recognition incentives are, to some extent, worthwhile and long lasting,contributing to fulfill a self-actualization need The next factor that affects the

level of engagement of each employee is the “Support from the organization”, where they dedicate to work for and “support from the supervisors or managers”, who they directly work with It is clear to see that there is a causal

link between these two kinds of support and the employee engagement as a lack

of social support would consistently relate to burnout and high turnover rate(Maslach et al 2001) The last two factors that also worth-mentioning are

“Perceptions of procedural justice” and “Perception of distributive justice”.

Distributive justice is about the content of fairness, what the final decisions are,what is the end achievement and the like, whereas procedural justice relates tothe process of fairness and how the decisions are made The higher theemployees perceive justice in the workplace, the more likely they feel obliged toactively show their fairness in their performances, as well as they show thegreater level of engagement

On the other research by Cook (2008), she has clarified five elements that havesignificant effect on the engagement of the employees including: (1) thecollaborative teamwork environment, (2) the reputation of the company, (3) theextent of challenging work, (4) the career advancement opportunities and (5) thesupervisor and managers Collaborative teamwork environment largely depends

on those people whom the employees are directly working with, for instance,their colleagues, supervisors or managers People can make different by theirinput on brainstorming, networking and decision-making process, or by how theycontribute their efforts to the group’s work If the employee could have thegolden chance to work with colleagues who willing to support them andsupervisors willing to guide them, to teach them, they will definitely please toengage to their positions in long-term In contrast, if their colleagues are

procrastinators who not willing to do their jobs, to support the whole team, theemployees are highly likely feel downhearted and no longer want to do that job,thus the level of engagement would decrease correspondingly The second factorthat Cook (2008) mentioned is the reputation of the company, whether thatcompany is considered a good employer in the job market or not The firstimpression is important as the employees are able to research about the companybefore applying or working for it Hence, it would be better if the company hasthe a reputation regarding its working environment as it can affect the level ofengagement of the employee in the long-term The extent of challenging work isalso one of the important factors when it comes to working for a position for along time It is similar to the issues of “Skill variety” in the “Job characteristics”element of the research by Padmakumar Ram and Gantasala V Prabhaka (2011).The more challenge and different the work is, the more productive and creativethe employee is, as they prefer doing different tasks to repeating them Besides,career advancement opportunities are, by far, one of the most vital andprerequisite factors when it comes to choose to work and to stay at any companyfor most of the employees As the job can be found and money can be earned inany company in the job market, however, the chance to have a wide range ofgood career advancement opportunities may be hard to find This is the thing thatalmost every employee is searching for on their career path, therefore, this may

be an important factor that affects the level of employee engagement, more orless And last but not least is the factor that related to the supervisors or managers

of the employees, who directly working and guiding them in their jobs Thisissue is also being mentioned by the research of Padmakumar Ram and Gantasala

V Prabhaka (2011) as “Perceived supervisor support”

Similarly, a research of Joel Elegbe (2010) also agreed on the factor ofchallenging work, working environment and potential career path when decidingwhich factors affect the employee engagement, apart from competitivecompensation The other more feasible research was conducted by ChryslerGroup implying the four main elements driven the employee engagement namely(1) company leaders, (2) supervisors, (3) human resources regulations andpractices and (4) business communication A survey at BellSouth also pointedout that work content, benefits, growth opportunities and business reputationcontribute greatly to the engagement at BellSouth, with work content is theextent of challenging work and benefits refer to the health and pension plans ofthis company

Slightly different from other research, Wolf (2012) concluded that there are twomain elements that affect the level of engagement: Job resources and jobdemand Job demand including job characteristics that, more or less, place eitherphysical or psychological strain on employees according to Bakker and

Demerouti & Verbeke, 2004 Job demand usually results in the stress, depressand higher level of burnout of the employees once it took them great effort toadapt and sustain Job resources, on the other hand, refer to the workingenvironment of the company They are to reduce job demands, contributes toachieve working goals and boosting personal growth Job resources could beview from physical, psychological, social or organizational aspects (Bakker 17 et

Padmakumar Ram and Gantasala V

Prabhaka (2011) (1) Job characteristics,(2) Intrinsic and Extrinsic rewards,

(3) Perceived organizational support,(4) Perceived supervisor support,(5) Perceptions of procedural justice(6) Perception of distributive justice

environment,(2) The reputation of the company,(3) The extent of challenging work,(4) Career advancement opportunities(5) Supervisor and managers

Joel Elegbe (2010) (1) Challenging work

(2) Sociable and encouring workingenvironment

(3) Competitive compensation(4) Potential career pathBellSouth Research (1) Reputation business

(2) Work content: the extent ofchallenging work

(3) Clear career path(4) Benefits: Health, pension

Complexity of work, monotonous workOverworked

Physical demandSupervisor relationshipsWork – Life balanceHarrasment/ bullying(2) Job resources (shortcut)Physical resources

InvolvementOpportunities for advancementRewards and benefits

EthnicsEqualityCommunication

(Source: Collected and listed by authors, 2018)

Regarding the characteristics of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel, after reviewing all thereference researches, the author categorizes these factors into four main keyelements namely: Rewards, Management, Job characteristics and WorkingEnvironment These four elements will be used in the model of research aboutthe employee engagement at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel of the author as the fourmain factors affect the employee engagement

2.6 Diagram of research model

After analysing various factors that significantly affect the employeeengagement, the author came to the decision of choosing four main factorsnamely: Total rewards, Management, Challenging job and Working environment

as already presented above These four main factors would affect the employeeengagement through four main types: cognitively, emotionally, physically andadvocacy and hence, leading to the turnover intention of the employees Thediagram below summarizes and gives the brief review about the model that theauthor chose to use in this research

Figure 2.1: Research model of Employee Engagement at JW Marriott Hanoi

Hotel

(Source: Research model designed by author, 2018)

2.6.1 Explanation of each independent variable

2.6.1.1 Total rewards

Total rewards including extrinsic and intrinsic rewards with extrinsic rewardsrefer to salary, benefits and other financial incentives given to employeephysically, whereas intrinsic rewards relate to the matter of psychological such asreceiving recognition, earning respect and having a visible growth opportunitiesaccording to the research of Padmakumar Ram and Gantasala V Prabhaka(2011) This study suggests that before accepting the job, extrinsic rewards couldplay a pivotal role, as it is one of the most appealing motivating factors.However, after settling down, motivation is highly likely driven by intrinsicrewards Besides, it is believed that a sense of engagement could come fromattractive external rewards and appropriate recognition program for theemployees as the engagement level of a person can vary according to theirperception regarding the benefits they received Employees who receiveappealing rewards perform much better and tend to stay longer when compared

to others because they feel obliged to exchange fairness by responding to ahigher level of engagement to the company, more or less By contrast, lack ofrewards, either extrinsic or intrinsic, could lead to a greater tendency of burnoutand a higher turnover rate Thus, the first hypothesis is the following statement:

H1 “Reward” has the positive impact on employee engagement

+H4 +H3 +H2 +H1

Employee engagement

Working environment Job characteristics Management Total rewards

2.6.1.2 Management

“Management” refers to all of the issues related to the relation betweenemployees and supervisors or managers who directly work with them includinginteraction (Cook,2008), relationship, communication (Wolf, 2012) andperceived supervisors’ support (Padmakumar Ram and Gantasala V Prabhaka,2011) No denying the fact that employees enjoy working with the managers whoare open and willing to teach them and guide them about new things They willhave more energy and be more productivity when they work with the helpful andopen-minded boss as they will not have to sustain the psychological strain orbeing stressout by working with grumpy and dictatorial ones On the one hand,they can obviously find the passion to work as they could broaden their horizonsevery day and gain more support from their boss, hence, enhancing theirtendency of long-term engagement to the company and improving the chance toretain good people with the company in the year ahead On the other hand,having bad relationship with supervisors and managers or having problem incommunication or mutual understanding with them can, undoubtedly, lower thelevel of engagement at large Hence, the second hypothesis is:

H2 “Management” has the positive impact on employee engagement.

2.6.1.3 Job characteristics

Generally, “Job characteristics” related five main elements namely skill variety,task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback as mentioned above byRichard Hackman and Greg Oldham According to the previous research, it isshowed that employees are eager to learn new things and enhance theirperformances by doing a collective of different challenging tasks instead ofrepeating their monotonous loop of tasks on a daily basis Plus, employees are,more or less, interested and inspired by a job which has a certain level of identityand significance To be more specific, if the employees can visibly see thesignificance of their jobs as well as the correlation between their performanceand the overall results of the company, they tend to take it more seriously andpay more attention when doing it, more or less Besides, if the employees havegreater level of autonomy, as they are able to perform their task at ease and areencouraged to implement any innovations or creations regarding their works,their level of job satisfaction as well as engagement would improve to a greater

extent And last but not least, as the employees value the feedback and instantcomments of their boss regarding their performances and involvements,

“Feedback” could be considered as one of the vital factors when it comes toevaluate the engagement of the employees Positive feedback could add upworking motivation for the employees and negative feedback could, on a positivenote, offer employees a chance to make later improvement in their progress Asthe matter of fact, there is a higher chance that the employee will engage to thejob in a longer term once they find their interests in doing it, based on the nature

of its characteristics through five main dimensions above, as opposed to whenthey lose their interests, they are higly likely quit the job after a short workingtime Therefore, the third hypothesis is:

H3 “Job characteristics” has the positive impact on employee engagement.

2.6.1.4 Working environment

Working environment refers to either physical condition and resources of theworkplace facilitate the operating process (Wolf, 2012) or psychological issuesregarding the perceived support from organization (Padmakumar Ram andGantasala V Prabhaka, 2011), collaborative teamwork environment (Cook,2008), sociable and encouraging working environment (Joel Elegbe, 2010) andequality (Wolf, 2012) A good working environment, either in physical orpsychological, could boost the level of job satisfaction for employees at large andhence, accelerating the employee engagement level to the greater extent.However, if the workplace could not ensure neither ideal physical norpsychological working state, it would be much harder to retain the employeeswith the company in the long-term These two factors should be companionparallel with each other in order to ensure the optimal results, because if thecompany can only match the need of employees in term of physical condition butnot psychological condition, employees may not feel fully satisfy and may notcommit to work in the future and vice versa Hence, the final hypothesis is:

H4 “Working environment” has the positive impact on employee engagement

Therefore, to sum up, the hypothesis and questions used in this study are beingpresented below:

H1 “Reward” has the positive impact on employee engagement

H2 “Management” has the positive impact on employee engagement.

H3 “Job characteristics” has the positive impact on employee engagement.

H4 “Working environment” has the positive impact on employee engagement

2.6.2 Measurement of each independent variable

Questionaire design as shown in the table below:

Table 2.2: Questionaire design for the study of employee engagement at JW

Marriott Hanoi Hotel

Total rewards

(Intrinsic and

extrinsic rewards)

The average wage is appealing RW1 Cook, 2008

I am satisfied with the annual salaryraise and service charge

Rewards, either intrinsic or extrinsic,

at this hotel is better than myprevious workplace

RW6

Management My supervisor/ manager acts

ethically with integrity

MA1

Engagementsurvey (ES) –

JW MarriottHanoi Hotel

My manager values employee as themost important part of the company

supervisor/manager is not a source MA6 Wolf, 2012

of stress for meJob characteristics My job is challenging enough and it

keeps on changing day by day JC1 Cook, 2008When I am at work, I usually feel

happy and time usually passesquickly

The requirements and descriptions ofthe job are suitable with myknowledges and skills

JC3

Author

I usually receive constant feedback

on my performance for furtherimprovement

The organization cutural is rich andimpressed

The respect and well-being of allpeople comes first at this hotel EN4

ES – JWMarriott HanoiHotel

The hotel delivers on the promises itmakes to its employees

EN5

My co-workers are friendly andhelpful, willing to help others inorder to achieve the mutual goal ofthe team

I feel a lot of loyalty to this hotel EE2 Author

I am going to endure my relationshipwith this hotel in the few years ahead

(Source: Collected and listed by author, 2018)

CHAPTER 3: CURRENT SITUATION OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AT JW MARRIOTT HANOI HOTEL

3.1 Overview about JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel

3.1.1 About Marriott International, Inc.:

Generally speaking, Marriott International, Inc is a leading internationallodging company with over 6,700 properties on nearly 130 countries andterritories, reporting fiscal year 2017 in revenues of more than $22 billion It wasfounded by J Willard and Alice Marriott and guided and developed by the familyleadership for roughly a century, with the company is headquartered outside ofWashington, D.C in Bethesda, Maryland

Began with an A&W root beer stand at first, the Founder J WillardMarriott and his wife, Alice, made a historic shift into the hospitality industry in1950s The first JW Marriott Hotel (named in honor of founder J WillardMarriott) opened in downtown Washington, D.C in 1984 From 1986 until 2011,Marriott began building many brands which are the innovative model in the late1980s From pioneering the extended-stay business to launching distinctivebrands geared toward the business traveler to increasing its presence overseas,Marriott International broke new ground in its quest to become the number-onehospitality company in the world

In Marriott, people believed that as they change and grow, the beliefs thatare most important to them stay the same—putting people first, pursuingexcellence, embracing change, acting with integrity and serving the world Beingpart of Marriott International means being part of a proud history and a thrivingculture By focusing on the belief and philosophy that "Take care of associatesand they will take care of the customers”, Marriott has long been a fascinatingworkplace for many people for over the last 80 years It always embarks ongiving associates the golden opporturnities to enhance their personal knowledgeand skills, improve on their weaknesses and develop their careers in the future.Without a shadow of a doubt, this “People-first” culture has helped Marriott toconsistently earn awards and recognition all over the world Besides, the branditself also place a premium on pursuing exellence and showing their dedication tothe customers through everything they do as they proud to say that they takepride in the details, every day, every destination worldwide No denying the fact

that the reputation for superior customer service of Marriott dates back to J.Willard Marriott’s original goal for his business: “good food and good service at

a fair price” Of equal importance, innovation and change have always been amajor part of the Marriott workplace Not only it enables the company toembrace change of the market trend to anticipate and serve the changing needs ofcustomers but it also helps them to shape the modern hospitality industry Theypromise to act with integrity as they consider the way they do business is equallyimportant as the business they do, thus holding themselves to uncompromisingethical and legal standards which extends to the day-to-day business conduct,employee policies, supply chain policies, environmental programs and practices,and commitment to human rights and social responsibility They believe thatdoing good in every direction guides the path to making a positive andsustainable impact wherever we do business

3.1.2 About JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel:

JW Marriott Hanoi is one of the biggest and most proverbial 5-star-hotel

in Hanoi, invested by Bitexco Group and located near the Vietnam NationalConvention Center and the Hanoi museum Launching on November, 2013,together with Renaissance Riverside Hotel in Hochiminh city, JW Marriott Hanoi

is the second hotel of Marriott International in Vietnam

Inspired by the image of the dragon and loads of beautiful coastline inVietnam, JW Marriott Hanoi is famous for its unique and creative design thatenables them to win in the "Development" category with the "The Best NewHotel Construction and Design in Asia-Pacific" award Together with theNational Convention Center, the hotel is supposed to promote the promotion andcommunication, aiming to increase cooperation to promote business activitiesand other related fields, thus helping the two companies expand their image andbranding, thereby improving business results and gaining deeper access tocustomers It is promised to be an ideal destination to meet the most demandingrequirements of both domestic and international guests

3.1.3 Services at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel

With a total of 3,600 square meters of meeting and conference space, JWMarriott Hanoi is the ideal venue for MICE (Meeting, Incentives, Conventionsand Exhibitions) events in Vietnam The hotel has a total of 17 meeting rooms,including 2 large conference rooms of 1,000 and 480 meters square with large

lobby area All conference services are conveniently located with separateentrance and parking area In addition to the facilities for work, the JW MarriottHanoi Hotel offers a great stay experience with 450 rooms including 55 suites.With the smallest room size of 48m2, luxurious wooden floor design,comfortable working space and 24/7 room service, JW Marriott Hanoi coulddefinitely meet every need of relaxation and work of customers Besides, one ofthe main attractions of the hotel for guests is restaurant and entertainmentservices as they have earned the fondness of the most discerning guest by the finedining options of French Grill, Crystal Jade Palace and JW Café There are eightrestaurants and bars (including JW Café, Crystal Jade Palace, French Grill,Lobby Lounge, Smack Dab, Akira Back, Cool Cat and Pool Bar), which areavailable to serve the different needs and purposes of guests In addition, one ofthe most effective means of relaxation is to visit Spa by JW and enjoy themassage therapists of Vietnam and Asia You can also visit the Fitness Centeropen 24/7 with state-of-the-art sporting facilities, splash pool and a luxurioussauna

Affirming the high quality of services and important contributions toVietnam's tourism industry right from the first day of opening, JW MarriottHanoi Hotel has been honored with such prestigious awards as "Leading Hotels

of the Year about MICE in Asia "by World Travel Awards," Best Design &Build Hotel "Asia-Pacific," Best Hotel in MICE in Vietnam " The Guide;International Hotel Awards with the highest scores in both categories: "BestHotel in Vietnam" and "Best Conference Hotel in Vietnam"; Traveler's ChoiceAward "Top Luxury Hotel in Asia & Top Hotel in Asia" by Trip Advisor and theworld's most prestigious travel website The "Award of Excellence" is rated bybooking.com, one of the world's leading reservation service providers and more

Coming to JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel, customers will be welcomed by thefriendly staff and dedicated service of the region, ensuring that customers willexperience a memorable experience

3.1.4 Organizational structure at JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel

Figure 3.1: Organizational structure of JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel

(Source: Human resource information – JW Marriott Hanoi Hotel) Finance department facilitates all the finance-involved fields of the hotel

including income, account receivable, account payable, cost control, purchasingand receiving This department will be in charge of various tasks namelyreceiving order from other departments, creating order guides and uploading thedetail informations on the system, searching for suitable and sustainable vendor

to cooperate with and so forth It is highly likely that all other departments have

to work with the finance team in order to have enough supplies for operation

As regards to Sale & Marketing Department, they help to handle the

datails of sale groups coming to JW Marriott Hotel for various different purposessuch as conference, wedding, meeting, year-end party and so forth They also

take full responsibility of advertising and maintaining public relations for thehotel as a whole

Event Department, on the other hand, handles all events that going on in

the hotel in dining rooms, conference rooms, ballrooms for example meetings,conferences, weddings, year-end parties and the like Event team responsible forlaying things out and keeping them to run smoothly throughout the process

To turn to the Human Resources department, there are several sections

that they cover before and after finding potential candidates Beforehand, theyhave to advertise, interview, select, hire or discharge, then after choosing thesuitable candidate, they have to cover the training course as well as inform thenew employees about the policies, employee relations, compensation and alsobenefits

Food and Beverage department may be the largest division in a hotel

given the large number of outlets that F&B operates is 10, including: Kitchen,

JW Café, Crystal Jade Palace, Executive Floor, Smack Dab, Akira Back, CoolCat Jazz Club, The Lounge, French Grill and Patisserie It is responsible for thegeneral restaurant and bar management including daily food and beveragepurchasing and receiving and menu setting They have to ensure the quality input

of the food and beverage for all the restaurants and bar involved, as well as thequantity of them in order to serve the needs for daily operation of these outlets

The department that is generally charged with retaining the asset is

Engineering, as their tasks are to upkeep and ensure the qualified condition of the

building system, heating, cooling or other miscellaneous supplies that areimportant to the operations of the office as well as the hotel

Turning to Rooms department, it consists of some major areas which are

front office, housekeeping and uniform services and out of these, the revenueproducer is the front office The principle guest representative of the front office

is the Guest Service Agent (GSA) This position will welcome guests, registersthem, assigns guest rooms and rates, check's them out, andaanswersia myriad ofquestions regarding the hotel and the surround community The Housekeepingdepartment is the largest in virtually all hotel properties Employees inhousekeeping are mainly room attendants These are the people who clean theguest rooms and, usually, the public spaces of the hotel The housemen areusually males who perform cleaning activities but who also perform manuallabor that the housekeepers may have difficulty with The uniformed servicesiof

a hotel consists of bell-staff, doorpersons, valet, and concierge At manyproperties many of these positions have been eliminated because of cost.However, at major properties you will still encounter member of the bell-staff