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Employee empowerment in international tourist hotels in Taiwan: A cultural perspective. LAI, Jackson. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19937/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19937/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. Uaming and information Service® I Adttttft Centre, City Carpus Sheffield S1 1WD \ 101 963 642 4 REFERENCE ProQuest Number: 10697243 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10697243 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Employee Empowerment in International Tourist Hotels in Taiwan: A Cultural Perspective Jackson Lai A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2009 Abstract Empowerment in the hospitality industry is often regarded as a means to improve service quality and customer satisfaction by involving frontline employees with a focus on the employee-guest encounter. Because of the notion of empowerment many international hotel chains companies try to adopt and implement empowerment and transfer empowerment management practice to their hotels worldwide. However empowerment theory has barely addressed the implications of applying empowerment in a cross-cultural context (Klidas, 2001). This thesis explores in what way and to what extent national cultural value orientations influence individual behaviours for empowerment policy and practice through cases studies of three international tourist hotels in Taiwan. The study’s approach involved developing a conceptual framework of issues related to employee empowerment implementation. The investigation is based on the way that individual employees and managers give their personal views and experiences with regard to empowerment and look at the causes of any gaps between the empowerment rhetoric and practice. Relevant primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The study adopted an inductive approach to evaluate the implication of the research’s empirical findings to understand better national cultural value orientations influence individual behaviours. The results highlight the Taiwanese cultural value of group harmony orientation influence individual behaviour that may affect people’s perception of relationship between managers and employees and how business should be operated challenging empowerment implementation. The contribution of this research is to our understanding of national cultural values have an impact on empowerment implementation and to the theory of the cultural relativity of empowerment. To my family: my parents, Lai, Yung-Chen and Lee, Hui-Ju, for giving life, unconditional love and support, as well as my elder sisters, Lai, Shu-Cliiao and her family, for giving me strength to study the world; Lai, Ming-Yi and Lai, Yi-Chun and their families, for educating me about the entertaining side o f the world. Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Director of Studies, Dr. Emma Martin, who provided constant guidance, invaluable and thorough feedback, and encouragement throughout this study. I am also grateful to my co-supervisors, Prof. Stephen Ball and Dr. Kevin Nield, for their input and suggestions throughout the course of this research. It has been a long journey and I have learned different approaches to research from all of you. I am appreciative of your patience and for all your assistance. I am also very grateful to many others, too numerous to mention for their cooperation, participation and information in the fieldwork in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Thanks are extended to all the administration staff at the Faculty of Organisation and Management for their management skills during the course here at Sheffield Hallam University, as well as Prof. John Mcauley for the funding of my fieldwork and conference. I personally wish to give special thanks to Ian Lewis, Richard Layboum, Kris Dawson, and David Murat for their time in proofreading my work during the revision of the thesis. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Oratai Krutwaysho for sharing her experience and offering friendship. I would like to thank all my friends and colleagues in the UK as they have made my time at SHU and in the UK enjoyable and memorable. Special thanks also go to my good friends in Taiwan: Ivy Yang, Leo Chen and Molly Kuo who have been there for me when I needed support and assistance. Last, but not least, I express my gratitude, indebtedness and wholehearted love to my family, parents and three elder sisters, especially my mother and my eldest sister for their unfailing support and encouragement to pursue my interests. I really appreciate every member of my family for their concern and having confidence in me. I deeply thank Lazaro Wolf for being in my life concerning and caring me when I fell low water. You were more than anything else which gave me strength and kept my spirits high. Contents Page Abstract i Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii List of Figures xi List of Tables xii Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 1.2 Background: the concept of empowerment ..............................................................2 1.3 The research issues....................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Study aim and objectives .............................................................................................5 1.5 Taiwan case study ........................ 5 1.5.1 Taiwanese hotel industry ..................................................................................7 1.5.2 Taiwanese/Chinese culture............................................................................ 10 1.6 Overall research methodology .....................................................................11 1.7 Outline of this present study ..................................................................................... 11 1.8 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................12 Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................ 13 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................. 13 2.2 Empowerment Studies ............................................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Definitions and Meanings of Empowerment ..............................................14 2.2.2 The Notion of Empowerment .......................................................................15 2.2.3 Psychological Empowerment ........................................................................ 18 2.2.4 An Integrated Conceptual Approach to Empowerment ............................20 2.3 Empowerment Implementation .................................................................................22 2.3.1 The Change of Leadership ............................................................................ 24 2.3.2 To Achieve Employee Empowerment ......................................................... 28 2.4 Negative Consequences of Empowerment .............................................................34 2.5 Culture and Empowerment .......................... 36 2.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................38 Chapter 3 Culture....................................................................................................................39 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................39 3.2 Culture defined............................................................................................................39 3.2.1 Organisational culture ................................................................................... 40 3.2.2 National culture ...............................................................................................42 3.3 Hofestede and national culture ................................................................................. 44 3.3.1 Criticisms of the Hofstede Cultural Framework ........................................45 3.3.2. Early studies ...................................................................................................48