Background and purpose: The importance of soft-skills that managers can use to promote job satisfaction of employees is well known. Previous research has shown several different ways how managers can influence job satisfaction of employees, mostly in the form of external factors. Very little research is available on internal factors. This led us to the following research question: How managers’ competencies influence job satisfaction of employees?
Design/Methodology/Approach: We have performed a pencil-paper survey among employees in the hotel industry sector. The questionnaire asked respondents to evaluate the competencies of their supervisors; later, we asked respondents to evaluate what influences their job satisfaction, and, in the final part, we collected some demographical data.
Results: The results show a weak, but still detectable, positive correlation between the competencies of managers and job satisfaction of employees in the factor that we have labelled “work itself”. We have not found any correlation between the competencies of managers and job satisfaction of employees with regard to working conditions or possibilities of career development.
Conclusion: The competency of managers has an influence on job satisfaction of employees with regard to work itself. Although correlations that we have found are weak, they do exist, and have to be taken into account when it comes to discussing job satisfaction of employees. Managers who understand this core competency and promote it onwards to their employees will influence the job satisfaction of employees through this competency.
