Job satisfaction of tourism and corporate employees at a South African golf estate

Abstract

Golf tourism is an important segment of the overall tourism market, generating substantial economic growth and job creation. The national objective to "provide excellent people development and decent work within the tourism sector" is a high priority of South African Tourism. Generally, the tourism industry is not regarded as a provider of decent work. The consequences of not providing decent work cannot be ignored as it could negatively impact on both employees and golf tourists alike. Internal job satisfaction can be defined as satisfaction with the type of job employees perform and could thus differ substantially between corporate and tourism employees based on the fact that the jobs are different by nature. The purpose of the research was to measure the internal job satisfaction and overall job satisfaction of corporate and tourism employees employed at a reputable golf estate in South Africa. A newly developed index based on the literature review conducted was used to gather quantitative data from 92 employees. Overall, all the employees were satisfied with their jobs. The corporate employees were, however, significantly more satisfied than the tourism employees. Goal determination, feedback, recognition and creativity were identified as the variables (which loaded onto the one factor solution) with which the tourism employees were least satisfied.