Seasonal Employee Retention in the Hospitality Industry: A Case of Antalya

A careful investigation of the hospitality literature shows that the majority of management studies have generally focused on full-time hotel employees, but any research has not specifically focused on management of seasonal employees. Hence, there is a necessity for a new research model to retain seasonal employees in the industry by increasing of the supervisors‟ management understandings, qualities, and policies in managing their organizations effectively and efficiently. This multilevel study investigates the effects of perceived supervisor support on seasonal hotel employees‟ turnover intention by focusing on the mediator influence of work engagement and the moderator influence of authentic leadership. Data were collected from a sample of seasonal workers working at 5-star hotel facilities in Antalya. Having utilized time-lagged data from 305 seasonal employees who came from 57 work groups in twenty-five 5-star hotel organizations in Turkey, Hierarchical Regression Analysis, Hayes‟ Mediation Analysis, and Hierarchical Linear Modelling were conducted to investigate the hypothesized relationships. In line with the social exchange theory, the results demonstrate that supervisor support is a key to boosting seasonal employees‟ work engagement. Supervisor support perceived by seasonal employees and authentic leadership also reduced intention to leave the organization. In addition, based on the social identity theory, hierarchical linear modelling displayed that authentic leadership moderates the negative influences of perceived supervisor support on employee turnover intention. Due to high turnover rate, having engaged seasonal employees who prefer the same hotel organization for the next season is a key for keeping high service quality standards and organizational success eventually. This research presents how seasonal employees can be reengaged and retained through supervisor support as well as the moderating role of authentic leadership. This study makes a considerable contribution to the academic world as to a growing challenge that has crucial influences on both organizations and society at large.