UNAIR NEWS – Turkey is the sixth tourist destination with most visitors globally. It makes tourism become the most crucial sector of Turkey’s economy. In overcoming Covid-19, Turkey adapted by carrying the Safe Tourism Certificate Program, which supports health protocol in the tourism business.
All those achievements cannot be separated from the job autonomy and psychological ownership of its workers. Assistant Professor Dr Duygu Bora, the head of the Tourist Guide Department at Cappadocia University, explained the importance of tourism workers’ independence in the School of Postgraduate Studies (UNAIR) guest lecture. The guest lecture was titled Job Autonomy, Psychological Ownership, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Hotel Businesses.
“Job Autonomy allows employees to determine the rhythm, procedure, and their job coordination. It pushes them to be creative,” said Duygu.
A company where their employee has high authority, Duygu continued, will produce more optimal and efficient output because the autonomy owned by the employee made them feel freer and appreciated when finishing their work.
The alumna of Mustafa Kemal University mentioned that autonomy made the employee feel more competent and able to complete their responsibilities. Therefore, work will not feel too heavy.
Creative, initiative, and responsive
Duygu said that workers’ creativity is needed, especially in the hospitality field. Employees should be expected to have initiative and responsiveness towards customers’ needs. Description of responsibilities sometimes unable to summarize what challenges will be faced by the workers when they meet customers. With creativity obtained from work freedom, issues in the future should be prevented. Orientation from the employee is customer satisfaction.
“The essence of this job autonomy is the psychological ownership. In this context, employees must know what is theirs, their role to success an industry,” stated Duygu.
“Psychological ownership is an extension of the self-concept,” added the Master’s graduate of the Nevşehir University. Psychological ownership is when someone expands their identity through something considered theirs. An employee should have psychological ownership of an organization or institution. The (sense of) ownership includes the institution’s purpose, reputation, procedure, culture, and the climate of the job. With the sense of ownership, an employee will feel more connected to fulfill their job purposes.
“An employee must know well about the detail of their job, and allocate time and energy for initiative and accepting critics and suggestions,” Duygy concluded. (*)
Author: Deanita Nurkhalisa
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
