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Pao Yue-kong Library, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong http://www.lib.polyu.edu.hk THE DETERMINANTS OF INTENTION TO WORK IN RESORTS IN THE MALDIVES SALIH, AHMED Ph.D. THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY 2013 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel and Tourism Management The Determinants of Intention To Work In Resorts In The Maldives SALIH, Ahmed A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it reproduces no material previously published or written, nor material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. ___________________________ SALIH, Ahmed i DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this thesis to my father – Mohamed Ali, whose work ethics set the standard for mastery, integrity and love in all he does. To my mum – Mariyam Wadheefa Ahmed, who always craves knowledge and wisdom, to my wife – Mahida Badheeu, children – Ash, Shaf and Mal, for their love, patience and enormous support and belief in me. (!ާޔްއިރުކުޝ) ii ABSTRACT Abstract of thesis entitled “The Determinants of Intention To Work In Resorts in The Maldives” submitted by SALIH, Ahmed for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in October 2012. Despite the increase in tourism research, (Ruhanen & Cooper, 2004) there remains limited research based on tourism and hospitality employment, particularly within the Island Microstates (IMS). Tourism literature often features the potential of tourism to create employment opportunities, whereby the focus is on employment within mass tourism destinations (McLaren, 1998; Robson, 2002). However, this is not the case regarding tourism employment in the IMS. Research is yet to be conducted on the impact of tourism employment opportunities on locals within these countries. The purpose of this research was to address this gap within research literature through the examination of reasons for lower levels of local participation in the resort labour market of the Republic of Maldives. Employment decision-making is a complicated process. There are motivational factors as well as inhibitors in the choice of particular industries in which to build a career. The understanding of both motivators and inhibitors is crucial to researchers and practitioners to encourage people to join a particular sector. This can also counteract the negative impact that inhibitors may have upon peoples’ employment choices. iii The Maldivian tourism industry provides half of all paid employment through creating opportunities in transport, construction, aviation, fisheries, cottage industries and employment in resorts, hotels, tourist accommodating vessels, guesthouses, picnic islands and marinas (Abdulsamad, 2004). However, due to various reasons, majority of these jobs are taken by foreigners. According to Scheyvens (2011), out of around 14000 jobs created by tourism, 6000 of these positions are filled by foreigners. Present government regulation allows tourist resorts to recruit 55% of their total workforce from foreign countries. While records of foreigners working in the tourism sector are maintained, there is no government agency monitoring the number of locals working in the industry. Hence, there is no modality to check on the number of locals working in the resorts. According to resort workers, in some resorts more than 80% of the employees are foreign workers. Quite often resort management reports that locals are not interested to work in resorts. This study aims to unravel reasons for the low level of local participation in the Maldivian resort labour market, a model was developed to create a theoretical base for the constructs: religious beliefs (RB), orientation to work (OW), perceived behavioural control (PBC), attitude (A) and intention (I). The study investigated effects of the above constructs on the intention to work within a resort, and achieved through employing structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. This was applied to data collected from potential employees within the Maldives. The theoretical framework was built upon a comprehensive literature review and discussions with academics and professionals in their field. The author’s personal professional experience as a senior official in the Maldivian Ministry of Tourism was iv also taken into consideration. There are several theories applied to examine decision- making research in a variety of contexts. However, no single unification theory was found within the literature review to explain individual decision-making processes. Therefore, the theory of planned behaviour was extended and applied to this study as it has already been successfully tested within the tourism and hospitality context. The extended model was put into operation on the working intentions of individuals within tourist resorts. This was achieved through employing quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis through data collected from working people in the Maldives. The sample of employees was limited to the capital Malè due to financial and time limitations. The total sample size amounted to 400, resulting in 354 suitable questionnaires. The survey instrument implemented was that of a structured telephone interview questionnaire. Constructs were measured using scales from previous research. Where construct scales were not available, such as religious beliefs, these scales were developed. Collected data was analysed through the application of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and LISREL. Descriptive statistics, initially computed for the constructs, were followed by discriminant validity testing. Finally, the proposed hypotheses were tested through the application of path analysis. The analysis results showed that religious belief had a significantly positive effect (.39) on attitude, religious belief also had a significantly positive effect (.44) on intention to work in resorts, orientation to work had a positive effect (.64) on attitude, also having a positive effect (.50) on intention to work in resorts. Perceived behavioural control had a positive effect (.58) on attitude and a positive effect (.79) on intention to work in resorts. The results showed that religious belief could explain 66.69% of the variance of data. v The statistical analysis of the model showed that statistically the model is powerful enough to predict the intention to work in resorts by locals. Results of this research have contributed to the knowledge enhancement of tourism employment. This is taken from the host’s (as a beneficiary) perspective. At the outset, it has provided a model to apply when undertaking research to examine the intention to work in resorts by locals. Secondly, by incorporating attitude into the model, it has contributed to the understanding of the attitude of locals in terms of their intention to work in resorts. Thirdly, perceived behavioural control and orientation to work was included as a predicator of the intention to work in resorts by locals. Fourth, it has contributed to understanding the influence of religious beliefs on the attitude of host communities, as well as their intention to work in resorts. Fifth, the study has significant implications toward the Maldivian Government Agencies. These agencies are vested with responsibility toward human resource development, human resource management, education management, as well as management of religious affairs. The Maldivian tourism industry operators can extract critical information from this study. The information could assist human resource managers as well as human resource planners in strategically developing programmes to attract locals to work within the resorts. Academics who decide to put this into operation must be careful in how they apply these constructs and calls for further research into their effects. Examination is required to identify how these constructs operate with other employment decisions, such as specific job attributes and scope. The current research was limited to examining the intentions to vi work in resorts of the Maldives. This was because it was part of a study toward a doctoral degree with the funding allocated for that purpose only. Further research should consider employment in areas with less contradiction of religious beliefs. Comparisons of religious

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