An exploratory research of employee engagement in the hospitality sector in Lebanon

Abstract

With the current financial and economic difficulties that Lebanon is facing, the hospitality industry plays a great role and has a huge impact on the countrys economy as a result, it struggles to perform during difficult times. The goal of this study is to conduct a research about employee engagement in the Lebanese hospitality sector in order to discover how the hotels operating in Lebanon conceptualize the idea of employee engagement, what challenges do they face, and how can the engagement be improved. The nature of the conducted research is exploratory, and a qualitative method is used by collecting data through semi-structured interviews with Human Resources (HR) managers. The research starts with a historical introduction, then reviews the academic literature related with the area of the study. It is then followed by the research methodologies used by the researchers, then the data analysis of the findings, and finally the conclusion in addition to the limitations faced, and recommendations for future research. Considering the small purposive sample that was chosen, the findings show that the idea of employee engagement was basically understood by all the interviewed hotels and were fully aware of the benefits that it provides. The findings also outlined the various factors that the hotels associated with employee engagement, some of the challenges that are being faced, and the improvements being done to achieve the benefits of having engaged employees.