مدلی برای بهبود عملکرد راهنمایان گردشگری (مورد مطالعه: شهر تهران) (مقاله علمی وزارت علوم)
درجه علمی: نشریه علمی (وزارت علوم)
آرشیو
چکیده
عملکرد راهنمایان حرفه ای عامل کلیدی موفقیت تجربه گردشگری است؛ بنابراین بهبود آن یکی از دغدغه های سازمان های گردشگری تلقی می شود که با شناسایی و توجه به ابعاد عملکرد و عوامل مؤثر در آن، عملکرد راهنمایان گردشگری ارتقا خواهد یافت. پژوهش پیش رو، با هدف ارائه مدل بهبود عملکرد راهنمایان گردشگری شهر تهران انجام پذیرفت. رویکرد پژوهش، ترکیبی (کیفی_کمّی) است. از روش فراترکیب استفاده و به انجام مصاحبه ها با ده نفر خبره در حوزه راهنمایی گردشگری در شهر تهران پرداخته شد که با روش گلوله برفی برگزیده شدند. به منظور تجزیه وتحلیل داده ها، از روش تحلیل محتوا استفاده شد. به منظور اعتباریابی مدل مفهومی، از روش مدل معادلات ساختاری با نرم افزار Smart PLS استفاده شد. بدین ترتیب، پرسش نامه ای پیمایشی در طیف لیکرت پنج گزینه ای در اختیار 196 نفر از راهنمایان تورهای ورودی شهر تهران قرار گرفت که به صورت قضاوتی انتخاب شدند. طبق یافته های پژوهش، عملکرد راهنمایان شامل دو بعد وظیفه ای و شهروندی است. محیط کار و محیط های سیاسی و قانونی، اقتصادی، اجتماعی و فنّاوری به عنوان عوامل محیطی، انگیزش و مدیریت عملکرد به منزله عوامل سازمانی و نیز شایستگی ها و عوامل روان شناختی به مثابه عوامل فردی مؤثر در عملکرد راهنمایان گردشگری شناخته شدند. در پی ارائه مدل پژوهش براساس دیدگاهی یکپارچه ، ابعاد عملکرد و عوامل مؤثر در آن آشکار شدند که برای بهبود عملکرد راهنمایان، مورد توجه ویژه ای قرار خواهند گرفت.A Model for Improving the Performance of Tourist Guides (Case Study: Tehran City)
The performance of professional guides plays the key role in the tourism experience success; therefore, its improvement is considered as one of the tourism organizations concerns, and by identifying and paying attention to the performance dimensions and factors affecting it, the performance of tourist guides will be improved. The present study was conducted by presenting the performance improvement model of tourist guides in Tehran. The research approach is mixed (qualitative-quantitative). Meta synthesis method was used and interviews were conducted with 10 experts in the field of tourism guidance in Tehran, who were selected by the snowball method. In order to analyze the data, content analysis method was used. In order to validate the conceptual model, the structural equation model method with Smart PLS software was used; thus, a 5-option Likert scale survey questionnaire was given to 196 tour guides in Tehran city, who were selected by judgment. According to the findings, the guides performance includes two dimensions of task and citizenship. Work environment and political and legal, economic, social and technological environments were recognized as environmental factors, and motivation and performance management were recognized as organizational factors, and competencies and psychological factors as individual factors affecting the performance of tourist guides. Following the presentation of the research model based on an integrated perspective, the dimensions of performance and the factors affecting it were revealed, which will be given special attention to improve the performance of guides.
Keywords: Performance Improvement, Tourist Guides Performance, Tourist Guides
1. Introduction
A tourist guide is one of the employees who are key elements in providing tourism services and direct communication with tourists, because they play a significant role in creating tourist satisfaction. Since the tour guides undertake several tasks and roles, their effective performance is considered as vital factor in the tourism industry. Nowadays, the performance of tour guides is influenced by many factors that can be divided into three categories of environmental, organizational and individual factors. In addition, many challenges and problems affect the performance of guides and thus the satisfaction of tourists; Therefore, improving performance in order to overcome these issues and problems is very important. Despite the importance of improving the tour guides performance, this issue wasn’t considered important by researchers; Therefore, in the current research, the dimensions of the tour guides performance and the factors affecting it have been identified in an integrated manner under the category of environmental, organizational and individual factors and the model of improving the tourist guides performance was presented. The purpose of this model is to pay special attention to the dimensions and affecting factors in order to improve the performance of tour guides; Therefore, the researcher is trying to get an answer to the main question of the research, which has been raised as follows: What is the improvement model of the tourist guides performance in Tehran?
2. Literature Review
In recent years, there is increasing attention of researchers to the issue of the tourist guides performance; Thus, tourist guiding is one of the concepts that has deep roots in the tourism industry; Because the interest in guiding in tourist destinations has increased and also the importance of guiding in the deeper knowledge of tourists about the visited places has increased (Kassawnh et al., 2019, p. 2). A tour guide is considered a person who bridges the gap between the host's destination and the guest's wishes (Khornjamnong, 2017).
Performance comes from the word “job performance or real performance”, which means work performance or real achievement by the employee (Utin & Yosepha, 2019, p. 71). Regarding the performance of tour guides, two attribute-based and multidimensional approaches have been proposed (Al-Okaily, 2022, p. 4).
Black and Weiler (2005), to improve guidance practice, pointed to a wide range of mechanisms which including the implementation of codes of conduct, excellence awards, training, professional certification and licensing (Black, 2007, p. 321). In order to improve performance, a series of factors affecting performance have been proposed; In this regard, factors such as self-efficacy and social capability can be considered (Wuryanti & Setiawan, 2017). In fact, the effective factors on performance and its improvement can be divided into three categories: organizational, individual and environmental factors.
2.1. Environmental factors:
the state of the workplace as well as environmental characteristics affect the satisfactory performance of work by employees (Alefari, 2020, p.7). The work environment can be divided into physical and non-physical environment (Nazwirman, 2019, p. 26).
2.2. Organizational factors:
In relation to organizational factors, we can mention the education factor. Training leads to the improvement of knowledge and skills of employees; Therefore, they are able to successfully face daily work-related challenges, and as a result, this will lead to improved job performance (Diamantidis & Chatzoglou, 2019, p. 173). Meanwhile, in order to improve the performance of guides, it is necessary for tourism companies to pay attention to the topic of guide training (Kabii et al., 2017, p. 245).
2.3. Individual factors:
hiring people with various skills is considered a valuable asset for the company (Diamantidis & Chatzoglou, 2019, p.174). In addition to skills, if employees do not have job satisfaction and motivation to perform their tasks and duties, the organization cannot achieve success (Dobre, 2013, p.53).
3. Methodology
The type of the research based on the objective is developmental-applied. The research approach is mixed. In the qualitative phase, firstly, the dimensions and components of performance as well as the factors affecting it have been extracted using the meta-synthesis method. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. After that, interviews were held from December to February 1402 with experts in the field of tourism guidance in Tehran. In this stage, the snowball sampling method was used. The texts of the interviews were also analyzed using the method of qualitative content analysis and open coding. In the quantitative stage, the structural equation model method was used using Smart PLS software. A 5-option Likert scale survey questionnaire was given to 196 tour guides in Tehran city, who were selected by judgment. The mentioned sample volume was calculated according to Cochran's formula, and finally 163 questionnaires were collected.
3. Results
The research model obtained from the qualitative phase was presented in which, the dimensions and components of tourist guides performance include (50) primary codes, (12) concepts and two categories of task performance and citizenship performance; Environmental factors affecting the performance of tourist guides include (54) primary codes, (16) concepts and five categories of work environment, political and legal environment, economic environment, social environment and technology environment . On the other hand, the organizational factors affecting the performance of tourist guides have (31) primary codes, (7) concepts and two categories of motivation and performance management, as well as individual factors, including (33) primary codes, (9) concepts and two categories of abilities and competencies as well as psychological factors. The results of third-order factor analysis show the dimensions of tourist guides performance, environmental factors, organizational factors, and individual factors, according to which, all factor loadings are higher than (0.4). According to the path coefficients, the variables of the structural model of the research including environmental factors, organizational factors and individual factors have positive relationships with the variable of tourist guides performance. In addition, according to the presented path coefficients, among the factors affecting the performance of tourist guides, the variable "individual factors" with the path coefficient (0.561) has the most influence. Due to the t-statistics are higher than 1.96, it can be concluded that the relationships presented in the structural model of the current research are significant at the 95% confidence level; Therefore, the fit of the structural model is considered appropriate.
4. Conclusion
The present study, by presenting a model with an integrated perspective, tried to change the traditional method of examining factors affecting the performance of tour guides in such a way that those factors are comprehensively examined and also focus on performance dimensions. As a result, such a model will help organizations to achieve the success of improving the performance of guides and as a result, their unique contribution to the success of the tourism industry will increase. The improvement model of the tourist guides performance in Tehran includes the performance of tourist guides as well as factors affecting that performance, which should be given special attention in order to improve performance, so that the factors affecting the performance of guides are divided into environmental, organizational and individual factors. Task performance and citizenship performance are known as dimensions of performance of tourist guides. The components of task performance are: knowledge mastery and knowledge donating, leadership, management and communication. On the other hand, citizenship performance includes components such as helping, empathy, reliability, self-development, initiative, compliance, adaptability and environmental citizenship behavior. Environmental factors affecting the performance of tourist guides in Tehran are: work environment, political and legal environment, economic environment, social environment and technology environment. Organizational factors include a series of activities related to incentive and performance management such as planning, evaluation and feedback. Individual factors affecting the performance of tourist guides include a series of abilities and competencies, including physical and psychological wellbeing, knowledge, intelligence, skills and experience, personality traits and self-efficacy, as well as a set of psychological factors.
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