A correlational study of Malaysian hoteliers' self-ratings of guest interaction skills and occupational self-efficacy before and after gamification experiences

Abstract

English is widely used in the hospitality industry. With rising standards of workplace English language requirements, the demands for good oral proficiency have become a major challenge to employees. This is evident from previous researches on issues and difficulties faced by hospitality staff during guest-host exchanges. While existing researches indicate that Malaysia’s hotel industry faces similar challenges, there have been only few investigations on employees’ interaction skills and self-efficacy. Malaysian hoteliers’ perceptions of their own guest interaction skills and their relationship to occupational self-efficacy, have yet to be reported too. This study aimed to investigate Malaysian hoteliers’ perception of their own guest interaction skills and occupational self-efficacy, as well as the relationship between the two, before and after gamification experiences. A survey was administered on 173 hoteliers from a hotel in Selangor, Malaysia and from a descriptive analysis done, it was revealed that all 173 respondents had below moderate to moderate perception of their guest interaction skills and occupational self-efficacy. 12 of the total respondents were then randomly selected to attend ESP classes with gamification as part of a one-group pretest-posttest quasi–experimental research. Analyses on the sample’s ratings of their own guest interaction skills and occupational self-efficacy after gamification showed that there were positive correlations with a significant difference in how they perceive their guest interaction skills and occupational self-efficacy. The hoteliers were also found to self-rate their occupational self-efficacy higher than their guest interaction skills. The findings of this study convey to both ESP instructors and hotel managers that gamification should be used in classrooms and in-house trainings as it has positive influences on how hoteliers perceive their own abilities to perform their jobs and interact with their guests.

Key words: ESP, Guest Interaction Skills, Occupational Self-Efficacy, Gamification