There is a small but significant body of literature related to the relationship between culture and commitment. Employee commitment is found to have a positive impact on service levels in the hospitality industry (Cohen 1993; 1999; 2003; 2006; Chung & Schneider 2002). Because of the intensive use of labour in areas of customer contact, many hotels try to understand the motivations of their employees in terms of increasing employee commitment to the organisation and customer service (Davidson 2003; Papis 2006).
Moreover, increasing globalisation of tourism causes many businesses to attempt to expand overseas into different markets and different cultures. This expansion includes recruitment of employees from different cultures particularly in regard to their language skills. This in turn can lead to increased diversity of cultures in an organisation. Lee et al. (2001) conclude that culture is a significant antecedent of commitment. Employees from different cultures could create different ranges of positive or negative outcomes in terms of commitment. According to Myer et al. (2002), culture differences exist in the correlation between antecedents and components of commitment...
Cohen (1999) studies the relationship between forms of commitment and work outcomes in a comparison of Jewish and Arab cultures. This study collected data from nurses in three Israeli hospitals. The results of this study predict the effects of commitment on work outcomes and non-work outcomes, but do not explicitly measure
50 culture, other than to select the samples from different cultures. There are five types of commitment that are assessed in this study including organisational commitment, occupational commitment, job involvement, group commitment and work involvement from Porter et al. (1974) and their organisational commitment questionnaire (OCQ). Work outcomes are indicated by turnover intentions, absenteeism, organisational citizenship behaviours and life satisfaction. The conclusions relate the culture of the employees to their different life environments whereby the Arabs are hypothesised to be more committed because of their poorer economic circumstances, and greater need to maintain their employment, and not to their individual cultural heritage.
Clugston et al. (2000) study the influence of individual level culture on employee commitment to an organisation, the employee supervisor and workgroup. This study collects data from employees in a tax collection public agency. It is unknown whether any of the employees had direct customer relationships or contacts. In order to measure culture, Clugston et al. use the cultural scale from Dorfman and Howell (1988), which in turn is adapted from Hofstede‘s (1980) scale. The three component model of organisational commitment by Meyer and Allen (1991) is also used in this study. The instrument is modified to suit the three foci of organisation, supervisor and workgroup. The results of this study confirm that culture is an antecedent to commitment in the three levels.
Later in 2007, Cohen examines the relationship between commitment and culture among five different Jewish religious groups of Israeli teachers. This study identifies the relationship between five forms of commitment (organisational commitment, occupational commitment, job involvement, group commitment and work involvement) and cultural values. The five groups of Israeli teachers form sub cultures made up of Secular Jews, Orthodox Jews, Kibbutz teachers, Druze and Arabs. In order to measure organisational commitment, this study uses the three-component model by Meyer and Allen (1984); to measure organisational commitment and occupational commitment it uses an instrument developed by Blau (1985). Job involvement and work involvement use scales developed by Kanungo (1979; 1982). Group commitment uses a measurement developed by Randall and Cote (1991). Cohen (2007) applies the cultural dimension scale from Dorfman and Howell (1988) to measure cultural values. This
51 scale was adapted from Hofstede‘s (1980) typology of cultural dimensions. Later Clugston (2000) applies this scale to measure the cultural dimensions of the individual including Hofstede‘s five dimensions of individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity versus femininity. The results of this study find a strong impact of culture on commitment in several forms. However, this study only examines the relationship between cultural value and commitment in cultural subgroups in one country, and is limited by the religious basis of the cultural distinction. Whilst religion is a cultural value or belief, it is questionable whether it alone defines the existence of cultural groups.
North and Hort (2002) studies cross-cultural influences on employee commitment in the hotel Industry. This study aims to examine the diversity of cultures in the Asia Pacific region by using the cultural dimensions of Trompnaars & Hampden-Turner, a measurement scale developed in the USA. The objective is to determine whether the USA work commitment scale could be transferred to Asia. The data is collected from Australian, Malaysian and Thai hotel employees from focus interview groups, although the sample size was very small. The result of this study finds that the measurement scale for USA work commitment is not appropriate to the Malaysian and Thai employees, who have a strong relationship with co-workers, customers and their supervisors. On the other hand, Australia was found to be different to the two Asian countries being far more individually focused. The study does suggest a more extensive further study will be conducted in the future, but it remains unpublished to date.
As mentioned above, there are few studies exploring the relationship between human culture and employee commitment in a cross cultural context. Also, there are few studies in the hospitality sector, and a lack of examination of cultural values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours and their interrelationships. None of the studies examine detailed culture based relationships and employee commitment in terms of organisational commitment, career commitment and commitment to customers in the hospitality sector and only one study makes any comparison between Asian and Western environments.
52 Furthermore, in the study of employee culture within tourism, the relationship is referred to as the comparison between the hosts and guests where employees play a significant role as hosts and influence guest perceptions. Differences in the cultural backgrounds of hosts and guest can lead to increasing positive and negative feelings towards each other. The relationship between hosts and guests is significant for the tourism/hospitality service sector and the link to employee commitment in the workplace is not fully examined in the current literature. Therefore, this study addresses a little researched area within the host-guest study of tourism.