Antecedents of Career Salience in Five Star Rated Hotels in Nairobi City County Kenya

Abstract

The study aimed to establish antecedents of career salience in the five star rated hotels industry in Kenya. The study specifically focused on organizational culture, leadership styles, work life balance and family association as antecedents of career salience in 5 Star Hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya. This study was guided by organizational culture theory, capacity theory, role theory, theory x and theory y and ego-identity theory. The research was causal and followed a cross-sectional survey as the main objective was to establish the antecedents of career salience in five star rated hotels in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The total population for this study was 4,965 employees and managers of five star rated hotels in Nairobi City County. This study adopted stratified sampling because the population of interest was heterogeneous in nature. The study used the model proposed by Naing,Winn and Rusli, (2006) to arrive at a sample size of 196 respondents. The study used structured questionnaires as the main instruments for collecting primary data from respondents and in some instances document analysis was used as source of secondary data. The researcher used drop and pick method while administering questionnaires to the respondents. The data was analyzed qualitatively through content analysis and quantitatively using SPSS to obtain descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Data entered in SPSS was verified and missing data was deleted. Assumptions underlying the multivariate analysis were conducted using descriptive and correlation analysis. The study hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression analysis. The results were presented using charts and tables. This study revealed that organisational culture, leadership styles and work life balance significantly influenced career salience in five star rated hotels in Kenya. Family association was found to insignificantly influence career salience in five star rated hotels in Kenya. Based on the findings, this study concluded that to ensure career salience various elements must be considered. The study recommended that five star rated hotels and other organisations should conduct an assessment on the organisational culture. The organisations should work on their weakness in terms of organisational culture that promotes teamwork, responsibility and self-belonging. The study recommends five star rated hotels and other organisation in general should ensure they have good leaders and leadership styles that can get the best out of their employees. Good leadership will increase employee engagement and influence their productivity. The study recommends that companies should have adequate work life balance policy that include leave days, provision for maternity leave that would go a long way in ensuring people continues with their normal life besides work. The study recommends that family members must be careful when providing career advice to their children and relations. This study contributes to policy and management by encouraging policy makers to identify the gaps in the current systems and put in place remedial measures that may ensure better and effective selection and retention of highly performing individuals in the hotel industry. With regard to managerial contribution, it provides guidelines for managers to be able to evaluate whether it is necessary to invest in employees to enhance the firm’s performance. Given that this is not a terminal study, further studies should focus on other factors that explain the remaining 56.7% of the variation in career salience. Similarly, further studies should focus on the factors influencing career salience but in different sector such banking specifically among millennial employees.