An Analysis of Compensation Patterns and Job Satisfaction Issues of Resort Recreation Professionals

Abstract

Attracting and retaining qualified staff is a major challenge for managers. The costs of employee turnover can be very high. They include separation costs, recruitment and placement costs, training costs, and lost knowledge (Curtis & Wright, 2001). The turnover rate in the hospitality industry is approximately 20 times the national average. While the rest of the U.S. experiences about a three percent rate in annual turnover, the hospitality industry hovers above 60 percent (Engel, 2012), with studies referring to a “turnover culture” in the hospitality industry (e.g., Iverson & Deery, 1997; Tiyce, Hing, & Cairncross, 2013; Yang, 2010). An understanding of the relationship between perceived job characteristics and job satisfaction is essential to human resource management. According to the job characteristics theory, enrichment and the resultant motivating potential of jobs is determined by core job dimensions (Parks & Holdnak, 2002). When these core dimensions are highly evident in jobs they trigger three critical psychological states in individuals: experienced meaningfulness, sense of responsibility, and knowledge of actual work results (Nogradi, Yardley, & Kanters, 1993). Moreover, a better understanding of the factors other than wages and hours that affect job and career satisfaction for this group could assist in attracting and retaining employees in other areas of the recreation and hospitality industries (Parks & Holdnak, 2002). Literature