Journal de recherche touristique et d'hôtellerie

Using the Delphi Technique to Develop a Conceptual Model for Employee Productivity in the Egyptian Hotel Industry

Karam Gomaa Mohamed Zaki, Eleri Jones, Mohamed AbdelwahabMorsy and Ashraf Elsayed Abdelmabood

Using the Delphi Technique to Develop a Conceptual Model for Employee Productivity in the Egyptian Hotel Industry

Employee Productivity (EP) in the hotel industry is a controversial issue but has attracted little attention because it is difficult to measure. EP has been mainly measured in the manufacturing sector rather than in the service sector, which is characterized by its: intangibility; heterogeneity; perishability; difficulty of separating production from consumption, these special characteristics sector pose particular challenges for measuring EP. This paper proposes a working definition for the concept of EP in hotels and develops a conceptual model to help hotel managers and supervisors measure and manage EP. The proposed conceptual model is based on non-financial measures and combines employee and customer measures. Customer measures (e.g. service quality) play a pivotal role in this conceptualization because it is considered a major goal in the hotel sector. Therefore, it would be erroneous not to consider customer inputs in any decision-making process related to EP.