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

 
2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
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between supervisors and their direct reports; and exploring outcomes with regard to job satisfaction, turnover, 
performance, and productivity.
This study did not report the opinions of hospital food service supervisors and employees who were not 
literate in English or Spanish. In order to include all opinions and compile a representative sample, additional 
versions of the survey need to be developed. Other interview techniques could be used to survey illiterate 
participants. This study also excluded the opinions of those who chose not to participate and those who work only 
on the weekend. Those individuals may have had a completely different opinion about motivating factors.
There were ties in rankings of motivating factors between supervisors and employees. To avoid ties, it will 
be necessary to obtain a larger sample includes weekend shift employees and other language versions of the survey. 
In the future, this survey could be administered in other food service domains such as commercial restaurants. Also, 
differences based on demographic variables could be further explored with respect to their influence on ranking of 
motivating factors. It would be interesting to see if there is a difference in rankings based on gender, age, or 
ethnicity. Understanding the effect of demographic diversity on motivation could further aid supervisors in 
selecting the appropriate motivation techniques for their personnel.
In conclusion, this study found a significant difference in how hourly hospital food service employees and 
their supervisors rank factors that motivate hourly food service employees. Because the effect size of the difference 
was low, results may indicate that hospital food service supervisors are more sensitive to employee needs than in 
other industries. Hourly hospital food service employees ranked “good wages,” “good working conditions,” “full 
appreciation of work done,” and “promotion and growth in the organization” among the top three most important 
motivating factors. Given the size of the workforce in hospitality, such empirical evidence may ultimately serve to 
improve employee retention, satisfaction, and productivity.