How willing/unwilling are luxury hotels' staff to be empowered? A case of East Malaysia

Empowerment is widely viewed as a dynamic concept to improve service quality and operational efficiency in the hospitality industry. The most effective approaches to empowering employees are not always clear. This paper contributes to the literature by seeking to understand the underlying factors that motivate and demotivate employees' willingness to become empowered. Qualitative data was collected through 22 semi-structured interviews with managers, supervisors and employees of four and five-star rated hotels in East Malaysia. In addition to the expected factors such as employees' acquired knowledge and psychological empowerment, employees' values and beliefs were also found to influence their willingness to become empowered. These findings are important in understanding employee perspectives of empowerment practices in operations contexts of East Malaysian luxury hotels.