Using ABCD model in motivating hotel employees

One of the main tasks of hotel managers is to motivate their employees. However, several studies conducted in hotel establishments have shown that the problem of low employee motivation has become an organizational pathology. Due to the impossibility of isolating employees from consumption and customers from production processes, low employee motivation does not only affect employee performance, it also affects hotel sales, customer satisfaction, costs and financial performance. In order to recommend solutions for this problem, ABCD model is used as a new drive based model of employee motivation that combines up-to-date information from different disciplines and motivation theories. EFA ve CFA analyses conducted on the data collected from 805 valid questionnairres from Antalya and İstanbul regions have shown that ABCD model performs quite well in terms of explaining employee motivation phenomena in hotel establisments. In the study, hotel managements are found to be insufficient in fullfilling their employees drive to acquire in terms of wages and salaries, career opportunities, rewarding frequency, commendation of the employees and social aids; drive to comprehend in terms of providing opportunities to participate courses not provided by the hotel, providing guidance and help to their employees in learning and improving themselves, informing employees about performance evaluation criterias, and providing accurate and timely information about the general situation of the company; drive to defend in terms of ensuring non-discrimination and equity. By focusing on these issues, it is been determined that managers can significantly increase the employees' work motivation. It is also been found that employees drive to bond is excessively stimulated and employees formed cliques to pursue their own goals rather than the companies'. Therefore the effort, resources and time spent on satisfying drive to bond is needed to be spent on to satisfying drive to acquire and defend. Key Words: Hotel Establisments, Employee Motivation, ABCD Model, Turkey