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

 
Key Words:
Creativity, hospitality, chefs, clubs, job satisfaction, turnover. 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
Skills shortages in hospitality are well documented globally (Ibrahim & Wason, 2002). It is acknowledged 
that the club industry has various manifestations, and no doubt sectoral idiosyncrasies, depending on location. Many 
private clubs throughout North America have long membership waiting lists (Ferreira & Gustafson, 2006), while 
Australian clubs have been described as the “poor cousins” (Weeks & Adams, 2006:177) of the domestic hospitality 
scene. Over half of Australia’s population are members of one or more of the nation’s 4,000 licensed clubs, which 
predominantly represent sporting, ethnic, working, social, recreation or community interests. Their main activity is 
the provision of hospitality services (e.g. gambling, meals, entertainment, and other social activities) to members.
(Hing, Breen & Weeks, 2002). Clubs too, have been affected by skills shortages, perhaps due to poor human 
resource management (Buultjens, 1996) or as a consequence of recruiting in a competitive market (Gustafson, 
2002). What is certain, though, is that foodservice is one of the club’s core products and to sustain this service a 
vibrant and replenishing pool of motivated chefs is paramount. General tourism and hospitality skills shortages are 
particularly acute for the occupation of cookery and have again been widely reported internationally (Pratten, 2003). 
Both (intraoccupational) turnover and (interoccupational) attrition have high reported rates. Annual Australian 
hospitality industry averages of 53% (HospitalityMagazine.com.au, 2006), though, are higher than the 
occupationally specific turnover rate of 20% (Deery, 2006) for chefs. Recent Australian figures suggest up to 65% 
of cookery entrants leave the occupation within 10 years (Casey, 2003).
 
TURNOVER 
Many studies have confirmed the relationship between job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and turnover, 
whether intraoccupational or interoccupational (Wright & Bonett, 1992). The theoretical framework establishing 
this relationship is largely attributed to Mobley’s (1977) ‘Intermediate linkages in the relationship between job 
satisfaction and employee turnover’, which hypothesizes that when an employee states an intention to quit, usually 
on the basis of work [dis]satisfaction, it is likely that the intention will be realised in fact. Turnover has been a 
topic of interest to some hospitality researchers. It has been argued that the hospitality industry is somewhat 
ambivalent to a ‘turnover culture’ of its workforce. Hospitality has been identified as an industry with some 
inherent problems regarding candidate attractiveness. Issues previously identified in the literature include low entry 
barriers, poor standards of training and ill-defined career paths (Wood, 1997). Moreover, this negativity seems to 
be exacerbated by perceived poor working conditions relative to pay, including the temporally and seasonally 
challenging nature of the work. 
For the occupation of cookery, the literature suggests, these trends equally hold true. While the extrinsic 
motivators of working conditions and pay seem to be the generally accepted catalysts for job [dis]satisfaction there 
is some evidence to suggest that occupationally specific intrinsic motivators may also impact on the job satisfaction 
of chefs. In particular researchers have commented that ‘creativity’ is a defining element of the chef’s occupational 
culture (e.g. Chivers, 1971; Fine, 1996; Cameron, 2001; Lee-Ross, 1999).