Determinants of employee happiness in hotel businesses: An explorative sequential mixed method study

In this research , it is aimed to determine the determinants of happiness of employees in the hotel businesses. In the research, exploratory sequential mixed methods were used. First, qualitative research was conducted to determine the determinants of employee happiness. In this context, interviews were conducted with employees (n=30) working in five-star hotels operating in the province of Antalya. Convenience sampling method was used to determine the participants. Qualitative findings highlighted negative factors as predictors of employee happiness. In this context, workload, workplace gossip, customer incivility, poor human capital, job stress, job insecurity, lack of participation in decisions, work-family conflit, abusive supervision, social loafing, pay dissatisfaction, coworker incivility and poor HRM practices were identified as the determinants of employee happiness. In addition, within the scope of qualitative research, employees were asked about what hotel businesses and managers should do to increase happiness. Within this scope, 9 themes were revealed. These themes are: pay, equal distribution of workload, clan culture, organizational justice, family-friendly work culture, job insecurity, social and additional opportunities, participation in decisions, and coworkers. Secondly, quantitative research was conducted. In this context, research hypotheses were developed and tested by using qualitative findings and existing literature. The population of the quantitative research consists of the employees of the five-star hotels operating in the province of Antalya. Convenience sampling method was used in the researh . The sample of the study consists of 394 hotel employees. Quantitative findings showed that job insecurity, lack of participation in decisions and coworker incivility negatively and significantly affect employee happiness. Considering that there are not enough comprehensive studies on the determinants of employee happiness, it is expected that the findings obtained with mixed methods in this study will contribute to the literature Keywords: Employee Happiness, Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method, Hotel Industry