The impact of organisational culture on job stress and burnout in graded hospitality establishments in the Freestate province

Abstract

Job stress and burnout can have a detrimental effect on the health of employees and their job performance. This is especially applicable to the hospitality industry which is a service-intensive industry where customer needs and wants are the most important focus. Organisational culture being defined as the social glue that helps bring the organisation together is seen in this case as the proper mechanism that managers could use to deal with the detrimental effects of job stress and burnout. This study assessed the impact of organisational culture on job stress and burnout in graded hospitality establishments in the Free State Province. The two main economic areas of the Free State, namely Bloemfontein and Clarence, were included in the study. A structured questionnaire was administered to all staff members in 46 graded accommodation establishments, and a total number of 227 questionnaires were collected for data analysis. The questionnaire consisted of a demographic section, an organisational culture section (based on the Competing Value Framework), a job stress section (based on Spielberger’s Job Stress Survey) and a burnout section (based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory). Data were interpreted using both descriptive and inferential statistics (including factor analysis and t-tests). The findings indicate that graded hospitality establishments had a predominantly Rational Culture, which points to strong external positioning and competitiveness. The Rational Culture is externally focused and does not adequately consider the needs of internal constituents – notably the employees. The cultural values associated with the Rational Culture are thus not as conducive in moderating job stress and burnout as the Group and Developmental Cultures. Appropriate recommendations are proposed in mitigating the effect of job stress and burnout in the hospitality industry.