Insights for management among non-gaming industries: Employees´ dissonance in a casino dominant economy

According to Locke (1969) , job satisfaction is the “pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job as achieving or facilitating one's job values” (p. 316). If employees had higher satisfaction, they performed better and had lower turnover intention in both Chinese and Western societies ( Cai & Zhou, 2009; Pitts, 2009 ).

In addition, Smith, Kendall, and Hulin (1969) identified that there were five aspects of job satisfaction, i.e., pay, promotion, coworkers, supervisors, and the work itself. In this study, only employees’ satisfaction with the work itself was ed because the research focused on the employees’ satisfaction about their jobs, which were not offered by the gaming industry. Thus, work satisfaction in this study referred to job satisfaction at work only.

In Allen and Meyer's (1990) construct validation study on commitment it was specified that there are three facets of commitment – affective, continuance, and normative. Affective commitment reflects employees’ emotional attachment to the organization, i.e., they want to stay in the organization. Continuance commitment reflects employees’ motivation to remain with an organization because they feel that they have to . Normative commitment indicates a sense of moral obligation in which employees remain with an organization because they feel they ought to . In this study, it mainly focuses on whether employees want to stay in the organization in non-gaming industries (excluding the public sector). Kuok and Taormina (2015) discovered workers in casinos were well paid so they have to stay, but they actually do not want to stay in casinos. On the other hand, workers in non-gaming industries were less likely to be paid well than workers in casinos, so it is much more critical for the management in non-gaming industries to understand whether their employees “want to” rather than “have to” stay in the current organizations.

Rousseau's (1997) study showed that changes in the psychological contract between employers and employees have resulted in decreased employee commitment to their organizations. Furthermore, the rapid (upwards) changes in organization development lead to low unemployment rate, like Macau, whose economy have expanded rapidly due to the end of the monopoly of license for operating casinos since 2002. Until 2015, the unemployment rate was 1.8% ( Macau Statistics & Census Service, 2015b ), which was much lower than what Sharma (1997) suggested – there was difficulty for the employers to recruit and retain qualified workers when the unemployment rate is lower than 3% in a city.

In addition, job changing rate in Macau has been increasing since 2006 ( Macau Statistics & Census Service, 2015b ), further suggesting the difficulty for organizations in Macau in ion, recruitment, and retention. Therefore, affective commitment is a critical organizational variable that can help clarify the impact of organizational development in Macau, that is, whether the employees really want to stay in their current organization.

Moreover, a report from Macau Statistics and Census Service (2015b) pointed out that Macau workers among all industries changed their job due to dissatisfaction at work, suggesting that there is dissatisfaction at work for both gaming and non-gaming industries. Interestingly, a study on gambling attitudes of Chinese residents working in places related to gaming ( Taormina, 2009 ) somehow contradicts the norms of Chinese culture, i.e., the Chinese culture does not advocate them to work in casinos. Thus, according to the Chinese culture, people tend to be willing to stay in the companies in non-gaming industries. On the other hand, casino workers were found to have low affective commitment ( Kuok & Taormina, 2015 ), that may reveal workers in non-gaming industries are more likely to want to stay in their current organizations than those in the gaming industry. Thus, H 1: affective commitment is significantly higher than work satisfaction among workers in non-gaming industries.

The social exchange theory assumed that people participate in exchange behavior because they thought their reward would justify their cost. For many years, organizational theorists implied employment as the exchange of employees’ effort and loyalty for the organization's provision of material and socio-emotional benefits ( Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974 ). For example, employees who perceived they were well treated by the organizations were more likely to become affectively committed to the organization ( Meyer & Allen, 1997 ). By adopting the social exchange theory to this study, an organizational variable was assessed, namely, management ethics, which is about employees’ perception of managerial ethical decisions and behaviors at work. If there were unethical conduct within the management, employees would not be satisfied at work and committed to the company. Furthermore, another socio-emotional variable, family emotional support, was supposed to strengthen the employees’ effort at work. If they were supported to work in the current organizations by their family, employees would be satisfied at work and committed to their current working place.

Ethics was considered as “standards of conduct that guide people's decisions and behavior” ( Greenberg & Baron, 2008 , p. 47), that is, the moral value shared by most people in the same culture. Leva, Cavico, and Mujtaba (2010) named this kind of ethic in the business setting as business ethics, which was considered “as part of the general field of ethics in the interaction of ethics and business” (p. 1).

Greenberg and Baron (2008) stated that business ethics was very critical to organizations because it could maximize organizational benefits, like the increasing in financial performance and decreasing in operating costs. However, limited research has focused on employees’ perspective ( Viswesvaran & Deshpande, 1996 ), i.e., how employees perceive the ethics shared within the organization and management. In addition, employees’ perception of high ethical standards from management predicted satisfaction at work ( Sparr & Sonnentag, 2008 ), while organizations valued business ethics highly, as it helped to recruit and retain better employees ( Greenberg & Baron, 2008 ), and they would want to stay in the organizations. Thus, H 2: the more positive employees perceive management ethics, the more (a) work satisfaction and (b) affective commitment they have.

It was defined as the personal relationships in family that are perceived as close, confiding, and satisfying ( Slavin & Rainer, 1990). Karsan and Kruse (2011) mentioned work is a critical aspect in life, and a goal for achievement and advancement. It suggested that work interact with other aspects of life, like family. Thus, work-family conflict acted as stressors for working people, and decreased organizational commitment ( Allen, 2001 ). However, studies found that employees who received emotional support from family could minimize the stressful effects at work ( Williams & Alliger, 1994 ). The relationship between work and family would influence employees’ work attitudes and behavior ( Wayne, Randel, & Stevens 2006 ). Adams, King, and King (1996) suggested that the more family emotional support employees received, the higher work satisfaction they had. Thus, H 3: the more family emotional support employees perceive, the less (a) work satisfaction and (b) affective commitment they have.

Moreover, according to the equity theory of motivation ( Adam, 1965 ), employees compared their job inputs and outcomes with those of others, then they responded to get a balance when they perceived inequities, and distributive justice could be a key factor to be related to satisfaction at work and commitment to the organizations. Thus, people who perceive what they can receive (outcomes) based on their effort and performance (inputs) are satisfied at work and enjoy working in the current organizations.

Folger and Konovsky (1989) captured that “distributive justice refers to the perceived fairness of the amounts of compensation employees receive” (p. 115). Howard (1999) recommended that raising distributive justice helped to increase organizational commitment. Furthermore, distributive justice was found to be a strong positive predictor of employees’ commitment toward organizations ( McFarlan & Sweeney, 1992) and work satisfaction (Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ). Therefore, people were dissatisfied about their organization when there was a discrepancy between the outcome they wanted and received, as well as a sense of receiving less compared to others. This could generate a psychological imbalance. Thus, H 4: the more distributive justice the employees perceive, the more (a) work satisfaction and (b) affective commitment they have.

In addition, some internal factors could change employees’ perception of their inputs and outcomes, like their personality, a dynamic concept describing the growth, and the development of a person's whole psychological system ( Robbins & Judge, 2014 ). This also related to the development at work. For example, workers who are high in conscientiousness are prone to paying more attention to details, then they are less likely to perceive that they give more inputs than others ( McCrae & Costa, 1986 ). On the other hand, workers who are high in neuroticism worry about things going wrong all the time, thus they are usually aware of the differences between their inputs/outputs and others’ ( McCrae & Costa, 1986 ). Also, previous studies found that conscientiousness and neuroticism, which were the main two out of the five factors in the theory of personality, were significant predictors of work satisfaction ( Taormina & Kuok, 2009) and commitment (Taormina & Bauer, 2000 ) in Chinese societies. Thus, only these two factors of personality were ed in this study.

This was characterized by being careful and responsible, and was associated with self-discipline and a sense of competence ( McCrae & Costa, 1986 ). Conscientious workers were characterized as being organized and hardworking ( Barrick & Mount, 1991 ). In addition, conscientiousness was found to be positive correlated to job satisfaction in both Asian and Western societies ( Bruk-Lee, Khoury, Nixon, Goh, & Spector, 2009; Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ) as well as commitment (Taormina & Bauer, 2000). Thus, H 5: the higher conscientiousness employees report, the more (a) work satisfaction and (b) affective commitment they have.

This referred to the factor of personality that describes people who were frequently affected by negative affect, such as nervousness, anxiety, doubt, and worry. Also, people who scored high on neuroticism were likely to be tense, temperamental, and emotionally unstable ( McCrae & Costa, 1986 ). Neuroticism was found to be a negative predictor of work satisfaction ( DeNeve & Cooper, 1998 ). Employees who were emotionally unstable might worry about the conditions at work, and even suspected they might lose their job, so it was hard for them to satisfy ones’ work and to form emotional attachment to their organizations ( Kuok & Taormina, 2015; Taormina & Bauer, 2000; Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ). Thus, H 6: the higher neuroticism employees report, the less (a) work satisfaction and (b) affective commitment they have.

This study found out that the employees’ work satisfaction in the non-gaming industries was low, while their affective commitment was at an average level. These results were different from previous findings in the relevant field of gaming industry ( Kuok & Taormina, 2015; Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ). For work satisfaction, the finding in this study in non-gaming industries was similar to the previous finding in the gaming industry ( Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ), i.e, a low level of satisfaction at work. For affective commitment, the finding in this study in non-gaming industries was different from the previous finding in the gaming industry ( Kuok & Taormina, 2015 ), i.e., workers in non-gaming industries had a fair level of affective commitment while Kuok and Taormina (2015) reported workers in gaming industry had very low level of affective commitment. This might reveal a possibility that employees in non-gaming industries were committed to the organizations but were dissatisfied at work. In addition, the existing discrepancy between employees’ work satisfaction and affective commitment could a type of cognitive dissonance among employees in non-gaming industries ( Festinger, 1957 ), that is, they could not enjoy at work in the organizations they wanted to stay in. Therefore, it is critical for the management to solve this dilemma, thus to understand the factors influencing employees’ work satisfaction and commitment in non-gaming industries.

Distributive justice was the strongest positive predicator of both work satisfaction and commitment; this implied that employees were more satisfied at work if management provided their employees a satisfied outcome under a distributive justice system ( McFarlan & Sweeney, 1992 ), while they were likely to want to stay in their companies when they perceived fairness of the amounts of compensation.

Another positive predictor was management ethics, suggesting that if management valued and shared the ethical standards of conduct to guide employees’ decisions and behaviors ( Greenberg & Baron, 2008 ), they were more satisfied at work and want to stay at their organizations.

Interestingly, family emotional support was another positive predictor of both work satisfaction and commitment; this revealed that emotional support from the social context, namely family, could increase their satisfaction at work and their likelihood to commit to their organizations emotionally.

Personality factors conscientiousness and neuroticism were positive and negative predictors of work satisfaction respectively, suggesting that employees who were careful, responsible, and with self-discipline were more satisfied at work ( Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ), while employees who were nervous, anxious, and worry were less satisfied at work.

The results of this study provided some insights for society and management in non-gaming industries. If management advocated to a sense of “justice” for distributing work within the company, by sharing and executing the ethical standards of conduct to guide employees’ decisions and behaviors in business setting, their employees would be less likely to experience uncertainty and ambiguity when they encountered questions and problems. When there were limited standards and guidelines for the employees to follow, once they experienced something extraordinary, they tended to hesitate and avoid to deal with the problems, or used their own ways to handle the situation or to make their own decisions for the questions. This could generate an atmosphere of ambiguity within the organization, when some employees avoided to take the uncertain responsibility and others in the organization had to take additional responsibility to ensure the problems were solved. It was an usual phenomenon of lack of distributive justice, i.e., some worked less than usual, while others worked more than expected.

Unlike casino relevant organizations (the worldwide ones), they are more likely to be organized with internal standard inherently and possess more resources. Large proportion of companies in non-gaming industries adopted the operation as“family-firm team” ( Heyden, Blondel, & Carlock, 2005 ), which was inherently unfair to the content of decisions and outcomes ( KPMG International, 2016 ). Thus, distributive justice was particularly critical to these organizations as it minimized employees’ stressors and encouraged more solutions to be considered ( Van der Heyden, Blondel, & Carlock, 2005 ). According to the equity theory (see Adam, 1965 ), employees were more likely to be satisfied at work when management provided their employees pay, rewards, and allocation (their outcomes) under a distributive justice system, i.e., based on their effort and performance (their inputs).

Last but not least, emotional support from family could strengthen their satisfaction at work among non-gaming industries. In terms of socioeconomic status, as working in casinos could offer one of the highest salaries among the industries ( Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ), employees in non-gaming industries might not have the competitive salary and have fewer opportunities to work in worldwide organizations by comparing to working in casinos, i.e., a lower socioeconomic status within society. Thus, support and understanding from family for employees to work in non-gaming industries are particularly important because they are not in the fields favored by the society, which have been dominated by casinos. They are more satisfied at work if they perceive no pressure from family, who expect to earn a higher salary. Then they are more likely to experience their work solely based on their wills rather than their social expectation: striving for more money ( Luk et al., 2010).

Although it is not realistic for the management in non-gaming industries to provide competitive salary increment as casinos, one of the possible implications is to provide a sense of support not only to their employees, but also to their employees’ nuclear family. For example, establishing small-scale gathering among colleagues and their family members monthly or quarterly, as well as offering special privileges and discount for using their services and purchasing products respectively. Unlike worldwide companies, they could have flexibility in HR practices, skills, and behaviors (see Wright & Snell, 1998 ), that could help a sense of belonging, like a group of family members as working is not only for money. This enables their employees’ family understand more about the nature of their work and organizations, then they can perceive their family members’ current companies are caring and promising. Thus, they are more supportive to their family members’ work and appreciate their working in their current organizations rather than pressuring them to work for money. As a result, employees can experience their work according to their wills, which encourages work satisfaction in return.

This study was mainly focused on organizational behaviors among employees in private organizations in a city positioned as a world center of tourism and leisure. These findings were more relevant to the management in the fields of tourism, hospitality, recreation, and customer service. Moreover, the relative limited number of respondents and the method of using systematic sampling might lead to less precision.

In future studies, it will be very interesting to investigate employees’ attitudes and behaviors in the public sector, as the organizational culture and values can be different from those in private companies.

Regarding the objectives of this study, the findings suggested their employees formed emotional attachment to their organizations but they were not satisfied at work. Furthermore, a significant discrepancy between work satisfaction and commitment was found.

In addition, these findings provided a clear picture of employee's organizational behaviors in a casino dominant economy, and implied that there were variations in the employees’ attitudes and behaviors between gaming and non-gaming industries by comparing to previous studies ( Kuok & Taormina, 2015; Taormina & Kuok, 2009 ). Unlike working in casinos, employees in non-gaming industries had a fair level of affective commitment, i.e., they enjoyed and wanted to work for their current organizations. However, their work satisfaction level was low, which could be a form of cognitive dissonance ( Festinger, 1957 ). Therefore, it is necessary for management in non-gaming industries to solve these conflicts to retain their employees, i.e., how the management in non-gaming industries could reduce their employees’ dissonance. So, according to the findings in this study, understanding how to increase their satisfaction at work could be the key to solve this existing dilemma in the field.

The authors of this article declare no conflict of interest.