Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as part of the MSc in Hospitality and Tourism Management at the International Hellenic University. This study focuses on the nonfinancial rewards and motivation among the front office receptionists working in the 5- star hotels in Thessaloniki, Νorthern Greece. The specific objectives of this research were as they follow: to identify whether and to what extent the front office receptionists working in the 5-star hotels in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece receive non-financial rewards by their organizations, to identify how they evaluate the non-financial rewards provided by their hotels, to identify their current level of motivation at work, to identify, based on their perception, both the general impact of non-financial rewards, as well as the impact of specific non-financial rewards (work-life balance policies, feedback, promotion, training and development, recognition, conducive physical work environment, job autonomy) on employee motivation. The quantitative descriptive design was adopted in this study and the purposive sampling technique was used by the researcher to select the sample comprised of the total number (92) of the Front office receptionists from the 12 five-star hotels located in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. The researcher designed and used a structured Likert-scale questionnaire to collect the data from the respondents. The data obtained through the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics. The major findings of the study revealed that the receptionists of the selected 5-star hotels are moderately motivated, the conducive physical workplace is the mostly provided non-financial reward, while job autonomy is the less provided non-financial reward. Receptionists perceive that the non-financial rewards provided by their hotels are inadequate, do not match their efforts and they are neutral if the non-financial rewards are fairly distributed. Based on their perception the non-financial rewards have a strong impact on employee motivation, as well as they believe that job autonomy has a significant impact on employee motivation. Further discussion of the results and recommendations for future research are also highlighted in this study