Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
This section describes the methodological procedure used to analyze empirically the level of influence that 
satisfaction exercises over the organizational commitment of employees of 3, 4 and 5-star hotel establishments on 
the island of Gran Canaria
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. Gran Canaria is one of the seven islands that make up the Canaries. Along with the rest 
of the Canary Islands, it is a major European tourist destination. The population of the island is around 800.000 
people, and the number of foreign tourists that visit it every year is close to 3 millions (mainly Britons and 
Germans). The starting universe comprised a total of 6,745 employees. The fieldwork was carried out in April and 
May 2004. A personal survey was conducted by means of a semi-structured questionnaire to gather the data, and 
804 completed questionnaires were obtained. After the data base was refined, a final sample of 760 correctly 
completed questionnaires remained, with an assumed sample error of 3.6%.
The organizational commitment of employees was measured on a 6-item dichotomic scale on which the respondents 
indicated whether they agreed or disagreed with the statements. The items included statements regarding pride at 
working in the hotel, the possibility of recommending the hotel as a place to work, and the wish to leave the 
company (Currivan, 1999; Kim et al., 2005). From that information, a variable was constructed that represented, 
from an overall point of view, the employees’ level of commitment to their organizations. Thus, that variable was 
the arithmetical sum of those six items, with a minimum value of 0 and a maximum of 6. With regard to job 
satisfaction in its various dimensions, a scale was prepared that included the items most commonly used in the 
empirical works that were reviewed (Currivan, 1999; Tansky and Cohen, 2001; Robbins, 2003). However, the 
number of items was limited due to restrictions on questionnaire length. More specifically, questions were asked 
about satisfaction with: the physical conditions of the workplace (4 items), the reward system (8 items), relations 
with superiors (5 items) and colleagues (4 items), and corporate HR policies (5 items). All items were measured by 
means of a 5-point Likert scale on which the respondents indicated their level of satisfaction (5) or dissatisfaction 
(1) related to a series of statements about each aspect. Finally, the questionnaire contained a series of questions to 
obtain other data about employees in order to identify significant differences regarding their level of satisfaction 
with the previously mentioned dimensions. More specifically, the control variables included the department in 
which the employee works, his/her current job situation, the length of service in the post, as well as the level of 
education, age and sex. 
To analyze the dimensionality of the scales to measure the previously mentioned five facets of job 
satisfaction, a principal components analysis with 
varimax
rotation was applied. Prior to the application of this 
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Given the difficulty of obtaining the exact number of workers forming our research universe, it was necessary to estimate those numbers by 
using several sources of information.

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