EMPLOYEE PERCEPTIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN THE NAMIBIAN HOTEL INDUSTRY: A SERVQUAL APPROACH Chileshe Ng’andu Musaba MBA Graduate, Regent Business College, Namibia

This study assessed employee perceptions of service quality in the Namibian hotel industry using the SERVQUAL approach. The data for the study were collected from 77 employees drawn from two large hotels in Windhoek who were surveyed using a questionnaire covering five service quality dimensions of empathy, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and tangibles. Data were analyzed using gap score analysis and factor analysis. The gap score estimates revealed that on all the items, employee perceptions of quality service delivery in the hotels were lower than their expectations. The largest gap scores (-1.84 to -1.70) pointed to the presence of service gaps relating to: employers’ fair treatment and care of employees; employees as a valued resource; employee empowerment to respond to customers without consulting managers; and employees trained and inducted for efficiency and effectiveness. Factor analysis extracted four factors which accounted for 73% of the total variance. The first factor being the most important accounted for 50% of the variance and it included items from the reliability and assurance dimensions namely: employees’ comparable pay and benefits, flexible working hours, the use of employee feedback to improve service delivery, and training and inducting employees for efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. Based on the results management of hotels should address the employees’ concerns raised in gap analysis and factor analysis in their formulation of strategies to enhance and sustain quality service delivery in their hotels. © 2014 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved. International Journal of Asian Social Science ISSN(e): 2224-4441/ISSN(p): 2226-5139 journal homepage: http://www.aessweb.com/journals/5007 International Journal of Asian Social Science, 2014, 4(4): 533-543 © 2014 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved. 534