THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT OF EMPLOYEES IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF FIVE- STAR- HOTELS IN BANGKOK A Research Study Presented at the International Conference on Society and University (ICSU) 2009: Role for Community Strengthening By DR.SUKHUMPONG CHANNUWONG

DEAN OF GRADUATE SCHOOL STAMFORD INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Education Background: B.A. (Social Science) M.A. (Organizational Administration) D.B.A. (Management), Argosy University, California Campus, U.S.A.

Background of the problem Hospitality/service Economic recession Morale of employees Organizational success

Purpose of the study To analyze the demographic profiles of respondents in terms of gender, age, marital status, educational level, monthly income, position, and period of employment To study the organizational commitment of employees of the selected five-star-hotels. To find a difference of organizational commitment of respondents when analyzed by demographic profile in the following areas: job dedication, acceptance and practice in the rule and regulation of organization, organizational reputation maintenance, and the need for being member of organization.

Literature Review Salancik (1993) mentioned that organizational commitment is an individual behavior presented in the way that responds to the needs of organization.

Literature Review Buchanan (1994) defined an organizational commitment as a close relationship or commitment that managers have with organization. Organizational commitment is a complicated attitude related to psychologies: (a) The personal feeling related to being a part of organization, and (b) The feeling of having participation in activities of organization or psychological commitment.

Research Methodology The descriptive statistics which consists of mean, and standard deviation, and inferential statistics which consists of T-test, and One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), were used in this study. The populations and samples were 180 employees. There were 174 respondents out of 180.

Mean Value Organizational Commitment (rank from highest to lowest) 1. Organizational reputation maintenance, Mean 3.95 = Highly committed 2. Job dedication, Mean 3.88 = Highly committed 3. Need for being member of the organization, Mean 3.61 = Highly committed 4. Acceptance and practice in the rules and regulations of the organization, Mean 3.49, = Highly committed Total Mean 3.73 = Highly committed

Conclusions from the Study A tremendous influx of women into labor work force Employees receive monthly income between 10, ,000 Baht Single Bachelor’s Degree becomes the basic requirement Employees prefer to perform routine jobs more than new challenging jobs Employees place great importance on organizational reputation maintenance

Recommendations Establish acceptable rules and regulations Find new strategies to improve work performance Think outside the box

THE END THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENDANCE