Service climate, employee engagement, employee commitment and perceived service quality in selected hotels in Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe, Uganda

Abstract

This study was intended to establish the relationship between service climate, employee engagement, employee commitment and perceived service quality in Ugandan hotels. The study was as a result of the rising number of customer complaints by customers after they had been to various hotels thought to be a result of poor working conditions lack of employee commitment. A quantitative cross sectional design was adopted to collect data from 92 hotels from Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja. Frontline employees from these hotels were selected through purposive sampling. Frontline employees were used as respondents because according to Iverson, Mcleod & Erwin (1996), they are well placed to judge the quality of service that customers receive since they are in constant contact with the customers. The data obtained were tested for reliability and analyzed using SPSS 17 and the results presented as per research objectives. Results from the study indicated the existence of significantly positive relationships between the study variables service climate and employee commitment (r = .45, p ≤ .01), employee engagement and employee commitment (r = .58, p ≤ .01), employee commitment and perceived service quality (r = .42, p ≤ .01), service climate and perceived service quality (r = .52, p ≤ .01) and finally employee engagement and perceived service quality (r = .50, p ≤ .01). The study recommended that hotel management should work at improving the work environment for their employees say through providing employees with the necessary resources to do their work, improving the relationship between management and employees as well as ensure that all their employees are fully engaged for example through encouraging them to participate in building work engagement so as to attain maximum results.