Abstract:
The demanding environment of luxury hotel kitchens, including long hours, intense
pressure and emotional labour, makes chefs especially vulnerable to low job
satisfaction and turnover. This study examines how a package of human resource
practices, known as High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS), affects job
satisfaction among chefs in five-star hotels in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Guided by the AMO
(Ability–Motivation–Opportunity) framework, the research focuses on five HPWS
dimensions: training, staffing, compensation, performance management, and
communication. A quantitative survey was administered using a structured self-report
questionnaire among the chefs in all five five-star hotels in Kandy. A total of 115
questionnaires were distributed, and following the data cleaning procedure, only valid
responses were included in the analyses. Participants were selected using simple
random sampling, and the data analysis was performed in SPSS employing
descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The
regression model was highly significant and explained a substantial portion of the
variance in job satisfaction (R² = 0.739, adjusted R² = 0.726), indicating that the five
HPWS dimensions together account for approximately 73.9% of the variance in
chefs’ job satisfaction. Compensation, communication, performance management,
and staffing indicated significant positive effects on job satisfaction (p < .05), while
training demonstrated a small negative and non-significant effect (p > .05).
Practically, the findings suggest that luxury hotels aiming to enhance chef retention
and service quality should prioritise fair, performance-linked compensation, clear and
timely communication, robust performance management, and adequate staffing
levels. In addition, training programmes should be critically redesigned to better align
with chefs’ needs. This study contributes empirical evidence from Sri Lanka’s luxury
hospitality sector, an under-researched context, by examining HPWS dimensions
specifically among chefs and identifying which HR practices most strongly predict
job satisfaction in high-pressure kitchen environments.
