Tourism Management Perspectives 23 (2017) 68–74

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Tourism Management Perspectives

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tmp

Implementation of employee cross-training during perilous conditions

in hotels
Islam El-Bayoumi Salem ⁎, Mohamed Kamal Abdien
Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The main purpose of this study is to (1) scrutinize the extent of implementing cross-training in 5-star chain ho-
Received 21 December 2016 tels, (2) identify the relevant factors that should be considered to maximize the cross-training benefits, and (3)
Received in revised form 27 April 2017 investigate its effect on hotels' organizational performance. The population of this research comprises employees
Accepted 13 May 2017
in all five-star chain hotels in Egypt; 113 hotels. Results revealed that it is very principal for hotel department staff
to be cross-trained in different departments or within the various functions within the department. Results also
Keywords:
Cross-training
showed that an effective cross training technique can result in better job performance, employee retention and
Egypt service quality.
Job performance © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Employee retention
Service quality

1. Introduction in promoting teamwork inside organizations to achieve the operational

Most hotels in Egypt are suffering from perilous -conditions after the
Egyptian revolution in 25th of January 2011 and the subsequent politi-
cal and economic instability. Number of tourists has significantly de-
clined down from 14.7 million in 2010 to 9.8 million in 2011.
Moreover, Tourism in Egypt has been struggling since Russia, along
with other countries including the UK, suspended passenger flights to
Egypt in late 2015 due to security concerns following the deadly crash
of a Russian jet over the peninsula of Sinai on 31 October of that year.
Consequently, numbers of tourists have decreased to 9.1 million in
2015 (En.wikipedia, 2016). These changes have affected the hotel work-
force. Accordingly, hotels management should adopt suitable plans and
policies to better utilize their employees' capabilities and time.
Employees should be provided with equal opportunities for attend-
ing the training courses that improve their skills, see Al-Mzary, Al-rifai,
and Al-Momany (2015). Employees' Cross-Training (ECT) is essentially
needed to solve many problems in many of the current organizations
(Bokhorst, 2011; Olivella & Nembhard, 2016). In particular, ECT is very
valuable in service organizations with large workforce (Sila, 2014). By
adopting ECT, organizations can decrease the required number of em-
ployees for production or service (Danielson, 2000). Additionally, ECT
helps organizations avoid the loss of an employee due to any reasons.
Consequently, it keeps organization from decreased productivity, lost
revenue, and bad customer relations. This means that ECT contributes
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: islam.salem@alexu.edu.eg (I.E.-B. Salem),
mohamed_kamal260@yahoo.com (M.K. Abdien).
readiness (Maturi, 2013). In general, training- is considered as a type of
investment that will bring high return to organizations in the future and
will also support it to achieve competitive advantage (Ramya, 2016).
Accordingly, cross-trained employees are more valuable for organiza-
tions than specialized employees (Pinker & Shumsky, 2000). Many fac-
tors should be well considered before implementing ECT such as its cost,
objectives, expected benefits, expected reactions of employees and the
level of training, whether inter-departmental or within a specific area.
Therefore, proper planning of ECT will help attain the maximum bene-
fits and avoid any opposite effect (Abrams & Berge, 2010; Slomp &
Molleman, 2002).
Although cross training is vital, training employees to acquire a lot of
tasks may lead to their dissatisfaction and reduced performance
(Dunphy & Bryant, 1996). If this is the case, then employees should
not be cross-trained in several unneeded tasks. They should be just
cross-trained through specific predetermined tasks (Brusco & Johns,
1998; Slomp & Molleman, 2002). ECT may thus be implemented for
some or all employees, regarding some or several tasks (Olivella,
Corominas, & Pastor, 2013). Therefore, it is essential to implement ECT
in the most efficient way that meets and suits the needs, time and
changes of an organization (Jordan, Inman, & Blumenfeld, 2004). More-
over, since organizations differ concerning their needs and operational
circumstances, there is no unified ECT approach that can be adapted
to all organizations. Organizations have different priorities as to which
task and departments in which to implement ECT (Abrams & Berge,
2010; Easton & Brethen, 2014).
Several studies have studied the impact of ECT on other organiza-
tional variables. For examples, Morgan (2014) studied the impact of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2017.05.005
2211-9736/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 I.E.-B. Salem, M.K. Abdien / Tourism Management Perspectives 23 (2017) 68–74
ECT on performance. Chen and Tseng (2012) also studied the impact of
ECT on service quality, employee retention, job satisfaction, higher pay-
ment, promotion and job performance. In the current study, researchers
focus on the impact of ECT on job performance, employee retention and
service quality as being chief indicators for hotels' success and compet-
itiveness. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to investigate
the extent to which ECT is applied in five-star hotels in Egypt, and to de-
termine the effect of the current level of implementation of ECT on the
organizational performance of the hotel operations, measured in
terms of job performance, employee retention and service quality.
2. Conceptual background and hypotheses
2.1. Definition and importance of employee cross training
ECT is a strategy in which an employee is trained to get knowledge
about the tasks, duties and functions of other employees in his organiza-
tion (Abrams & Berge, 2010; Volpe, Cannon-Bowers, Salas, & Spector,
1996). It was also defined as an instructional technique to increase an
employee's knowledge and experience by providing him with guide-
lines and skills to do others' work (Salas, Nichols, & Driskell, 2007).
ECT is the employee's multi-functionality which refers to the possession
of many skills that enable him to do more than one task or job (Ahmad &
Schroeder, 2003; Huang, Kristal, & Schroeder, 2010). Thus, the basis for
ECT is to facilitate any employee to help or to replace other employee
who is not able to achieve the expected tasks (Starr, 2009). Moreover,
ECT is one of the main sources to provide flexible workforce to raise pro-
ductivity and provide a permanent service (Hallgren & Olhager, 2009).
In addition, ECT helps broaden employees' skills in order to be ready
to carry out tasks in the unexpected – perilous conditions (Abrams &
Berge, 2010). ECT is also used to minimize the negative consequences
of unplanned employee absence (Chen & Wallace, 2011; Inman,
Jordan, & Blumenfeld, 2004; Slomp & Molleman, 2002; Slomp &
Suresh, 2005). Furthermore, ECT is a vital strategy and very cost-effec-
tive technique that enables hotels to adopt with the continual discrep-
ancies in the demand for seasonal employees (Baum, 2006). Recently,
Olivella and Nembhard (2016) confirmed that employees should have
a suitable skill matrix to meet demand variation and other employees'
absence. Overall, management should depend on ECT to provide high
quality service- that is streamlined and minimizes customer waiting
(Whiting, & Donthu, N. and. Baker, A., 2011).
Moreover, ECT is an appropriate tool to avoid the employees' bore-
dom which may result from doing the same tasks every day without
any changes, and provide them with opportunities to do other tasks
than their routine ones (Ojambati, Akinbile, & Abiola-Falemu, 2012).
Due to the importance of ECT, it should be carefully included in hotels'
approaches to boost job performance and service quality. It should in-
volve both supervisory level and entry-level positions. “Housekeeping
should cross-train in Front Office and vice-versa; Front Office in Marketing,
Sales, Public Relations, Food & Beverage, Banquets, Security; Marketing &
Sales in Front Office, Food & Beverage, Purchasing; Food & Beverage Service
in the Culinary department and vice versa; Human Resources in different
departments and vice versa” (Belilos, 1999).
In general, ECT supports hospitality operations to deal with prob-
lematic environmental changes and the perilous conditions. It should
be adopted by many hotels to enhance the skills of employees and qual-
ify them for supervisory positions. In fact, all members of the organiza-
tion whether employees, managers or customers can benefit from
implementing ECT (Nicolaides, 2013). In sum, Chen and Tseng (2012)
summarized the following benefits of ECT:
• Minimizing relevant efforts and costs of dealing with cases of sudden
employees' vacancies or absences.
• Increasing the understanding of the roles and responsibilities of
others member in organization, which can help resolve guests' prob-
lems and needs immediately.
69
• Increasing employees' satisfaction by decreasing their boredom and
improving their experience and skills.
2.2. Types of employee cross training
Cannon-Bowers, Salas, Blickensderfer, and Bowers (1998) have de-
fined three types of ECT: positional clarification, positional modeling,
and positional (job) rotation. Positional clarification involves orally pro-
viding employees with information about their colleagues' tasks, either
through lecture or a manual. Positional modeling is a kind of practical
training that encourages organization members to learn through
allowing an employee to practice on others' roles, mainly by observing
their performance. Employees' behaviors are expected to emulate
what they have acquired through watching expert teams successfully
performing a task. Positional (job) rotation gives each employee the op-
portunity to get the experience of doing others' tasks through actual
participation in each task. This method involves hands-on training of
an employee for a specific period on other employees' roles.
Cannon-Bowers et al. (1998) stated that there are important differ-
ences among the three methods of ECT. They noted that positional rota-
tion requires more time and cost. Moreover, Cooke et al. (2003)
rotational ECT represents full training, and it is an actual practical train-
ing on other members' tasks of the organization, thus, they indicated
that the rotational style of ECT is more task-oriented as employees
have a real practical experience and knowledge. In contrast, Cooke et
al. (2003) stated that clarification is a simple style of ECT. This style fo-
cuses more on training employee to know the roles of other members
in the organization rather than how to perform the actual tasks neces-
sary for that roles. In general, Iravani, Van Oyen, and Sims (2005) indi-
cated that capacity balancing and variability buffering are two main
features of an effective ECT. Capacity balancing means that ECT enables
employees to allocate their effort among stations in the line to improve
their use. Variability buffering means that ECT can improve the organiza-
tion performance, not only through capacity balancing, but also by
diminishing the negative impact of changeability in the line.
2.3. Employee cross training and job performance
The objective of any organization is to develop and maintain good
job performance levels (Gavrea, Ilieş, & Stegerean, 2011). ECT is re-
quired to improve the overall job performance (JP) under the pressure
of work load (Davis, Kher, & Wagner, 2009). The knowledge and skills
that are gained from training lead to the development of an employee's
JP (Colquitt, LePine, & Noe, 2000). Moreover, a cross trained employee
will be well prepared for his/her future career (Olivella et al., 2013).
Thus, Chen (2010) assumed that implementation of ECT has an optimis-
tic and direct effect on employees' job satisfaction. Employees who are
able to get more knowledge and skills through ECT can achieve variable
tasks and demonstrate positive satisfaction toward their job (Sila, 2014;
Zumrah, Boyle, & Fein, 2013). Accordingly, organizations should keep a
part of the employees' time to increase their skills to improve its JP dur-
ing perilous conditions (Bokhorst, 2011; Sila, 2014).
Moreover, Ahmad and Schroeder (2003) found that ECT has an indi-
rect effect on JP through its effect on organizational commitment and
citizenship behaviors. In this context, employees can adopt “Altruism”,
which is the optional behavior of helping their colleagues complete a
job-related task (Organ, 1997; Werner, 2007). Employees who have
these behaviors usually aim at helping their colleagues with work-relat-
ed problem by providing them with the required information to do a
task or assisting them in completing their work (Chiboiwa, Chipunza,
& Samuel, 2011). Employee can also adopt “Conscientiousness”, that is
another optional behavior, through which they exceed their job descrip-
tion (Tayyab, 2005). Conscientiousness involves behaviors such as ar-
riving at work on time, working late on a big task, using time
intelligently and efficiently while at work, and using the organization's
70 I.E.-B. Salem, M.K. Abdien / Tourism Management Perspectives 23 (2017) 68–74
resources effectively, providing beneficial suggestions and carrying out
tasks that will positively add to organizational success and help the or-
ganization achieve its image (Organ, 1988; Tayyab, 2005). Accordingly,
the first hypothesis in this study is formulated as follows:
H1. ECT is significantly and positively associated with their JP.
2.4. Employee cross training and employee retention
All organizations struggle to retain their skilled employees to mini-
mize employee-turnover-related problems (Das & Baruah, 2013;
Samuel & Chipunza, 2009). In fact, employees' retention (ER) is consid-
ered as a great challenge that faces organizations nowadays
(Arunkumar & Parimala, 2012). Organizations should give more con-
cern to ER rather than to the effectiveness of hiring new employees,
since it is costlier to interview and train the new employees than to re-
tain the existing employees (Irshad, 2011). ER brings about many ad-
vantages for organizations, such as increasing innovation, keeping a
consistent and fast service for guests (Abbasi & Hollman, 2000) and
maintaining their competitiveness (Ongori, 2007). Hence, employees
must be viewed as invaluable asset of the organization that must be
considered with more concern and care (Das & Baruah, 2013; Ongori,
2007).
Managers can enhance the loyalty of their employees by adopting
non-financial strategies for increasing their motivation and satisfaction
(Lubna, Qazi, Syed, & Faisal, 2014). Thus, training and development are
important in retaining key employees to best utilize and improve their
skills and satisfy their career-related needs (Haider et al., 2015;
Kossivi1, B., Xu, M. and Kalgora, B., 2016). In addition, retention of
skilled employees is essential to the long-term health and success of
any organization (Janjhua, Chaudhary, & Sharma, 2016). In particular,
ER in hotels is not only affected by the employees' monetary remuner-
ation, but also with ECT. Although hotels may see training and ECT in
particular as costly, they should also view it as a future source of cost
savings and consequent profit if employees are retained and encour-
aged to develop their skills (Abuharris, 2013; Dewhurst, Dewhurst, &
Liveesey, 2007). Employees' training and development is one of the cre-
ative approaches to retain employees (Pritchard, 2007). When em-
ployees feel that their organizations give more concern to their
training and development, they are motivated to do more efforts to
keep the positive image of the organization (Davis et al., 2009). Particu-
larly, Chen and Tseng (2012) found that ECT positively influences ER.
ECT can be used as an effective motivational procedure to increases ER
during perilous conditions. In fact, ECT increases the knowledge of em-
ployee, prevents their feeling of boredom, and gives opportunities for
improving their future career and understanding the organization as a
whole (Arunkumar & Parimala, 2012). Accordingly, the second hypoth-
esis in this study is formulated as follows:
H2. ECT is significantly and positively associated with ER.
2.5. Employee cross training and service quality
Enhancing services quality (SQ) is an essential and profitable strate-
gy for realizing organizational success (Gunarathne, 2014). SQ is usually
seen as customers' general judgment of the service presented to them
(Kandampully, Juwaheer, & Hu, 2011). Multi-skilled employees can im-
prove the SQ by supporting teamwork and interdepartmental coopera-
tion and reducing the departmental limitations. In addition, ECT
improves employees' job experiences through increasing their capabil-
ity to carry out more critical tasks, duties and responsibilities (Kelliher &
Riley, 2002). Thus, the hotel sector needs employees who are cross-
trained during perilous conditions, as they are more suitable to cope
with the changeable needs of customers in relation to -SQ (Baum,
2006). It is believed that such improved employees' job experiences
can enhance their awareness and proficiency, and the performance of
hotels as a whole (Crick & Spencer, 2011; Tracy, Way, & Tews, 2008).
More importantly, ECT allows employees to identify service-related
problems, make accurate decision, and find actual, workable solutions
(Tracy et al., 2008). Chen and Tseng (2012) found that employees
who are cross-trained generate higher levels of SQ than non-cross-
trained employees. Moreover, if ECT is implemented effectively, it will
empower employees and motivate them to offer excellent SQ
(Nicolaides, 2013). Employees who have multi-skills and whole-direct-
ed knowledge of the organization can demonstrate improved quality of
service to their customers (Zumrah et al., 2013). “Customer-oriented and
competent employees capable of handling incidentals and special requests
and anticipating customer needs may help guarantee reliable and individ-
ualized service” (Arroyo-López, Cárcamo-Solís, Álvarez-Castañón, &
Guzmán-López, 2017). Accordingly, the third hypothesis in this study
is formulated as follows:
H3. ECT is significantly and positively associated with SQ.
3. Methodology and data collection
3.1. Sample frame
The target population for the research is all 5-star chain-affiliated
hotels in Egypt, utilizing the census method (Salem, 2015; Salem &
Čavlek, 2016). Chain hotels were nominated in this research since
they have the privilege of their chain's accumulated worldwide experi-
ence, standardization in operating procedures, ongoing training, period-
ical measuring and scanning of employees' performance, ideas and
opinions, and scheduled programs for employees' satisfaction. First
line employees in the departments of front office, housekeeping, restau-
rants, and kitchens are selected to be the target survey respondents in
this study. These departments are characterized by demanding opera-
tional, guest-contact kind of tasks, in addition to high intensive labor.
The surveying tool has been a respondent-administered questionnaire,
provided in both English and Arabic versions to consider varying em-
ployees' educational abilities and backgrounds. After contacting these
hotels, 700 survey questionnaires were distributed in March 2016,
among which 462 questionnaires were answered and gathered. After
review, 35 inadequately-responded questionnaires were omitted.
Therefore, 427 valid surveys were involved in the data analysis, which
means high response rate (61%).
Table 1
Measures of the study.
Constructs Authors Examples of measurement items
Cross training Cannon-Bowers I have a clear knowledge about the overall
et al. (1998) department's structure.
I have the chance to observe directly the duties
of each employee.
I know each worker's specific tasks and how
those tasks interact through direct, hand-on
practice.
Job Podsakoff et al. I help other employees with their work when
performance (1990) they have been absent.
I exhibit punctuality arriving at work on time
in the morning and after lunch breaks.
I demonstrate expertise in all job-related tasks.
Employee Connolly and I see myself working for this hotel three years
retention Connolly (2005) from now.
I am proud to be part of this hotel.
I am committed to staying with this hotel.
Service quality Hill and I perform the service right the first time.
Alexander When a customer has a problem, I always
(2006) show a sincere interest in solving it.
 I.E.-B. Salem, M.K. Abdien / Tourism Management Perspectives 23 (2017) 68–74 71

Table 2 27 years (37.2%) and those between 32 and 37 years (32.1%). Most re-
Reliability and validity analysis. spondents were college-graduated (56.4%) and the rest (43.6%) second-
Scale mean Scale Corrected Squared Cronbach's ary-school graduates. Many areas of the hotel were represented in this
if item variance if item-total multiple alpha if item study as 37.7% of respondents work in front office, 28.3% work in kitch-
deleted item deleted correlation correlation deleted en, 24.4% work in restaurant and 9.6% work in housekeeping.
ER 12.1076 4.897 0.559 0.343 0.856 The main objective of this study was to investigate if employees are
SQ 11.8190 5.127 0.780 0.793 0.719 cross-trained in hotels. Thus, the first question was “have you been
ECT 12.0522 6.425 0.565 0.423 0.818
cross-trained before in other departments?”. The results showed that
JP 11.7170 5.740 0.807 0.814 0.728
only 26% of the participants have been cross-trained, while 74% of
them were not. Results also indicated the departments in which em-
3.2. Measures ployees have been cross-trained; 10.9% of them had training in front of-
fice, 33.3% had training in housekeeping, 9% in restaurant, 13.5% in
A multiple-item method was used to design the survey question- kitchen, and 33.3% trained in other areas (Fig. 1).
naire (Table 1). All the statements were required to be valued on a 5- Data in Table 4 indicates that 17% of front office department em-
point Likert scale extending from strongly disagree (1) to strongly ployees had training in the housekeeping department, 12% of them
agree (5). Employee cross training (ECT) was operationalized based were trained in other various departments, while 71% of these em-
on many studies such as Cannon-Bowers et al. (1998) who defined ployees had no ECT. It is also obvious that female employees were not
three types of cross-training: positional clarification, positional model- cross-trained at all. Moreover, employees who have college education
ing, and positional (job) rotation. Job performance (JP) was divided were more cross-trained than employees with lower educational level.
into three dimensions; task performance, altruism and consciousness, In addition, 15% of housekeeping department employees had train-
and were measured by the scale of Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Bommer, ing in front office department, whereas 85% of them had no ECT at all.
and Fetter (1990). Employees' retention (ER) was measured by Again, only males in this department are cross-trained, and those who
adopting the scale of Connolly and Connolly (2005), and Service quality have higher educational level.
(SQ) was measured using the scale of Hill and Alexander (2006). Moreover, concerning the food and beverage department, as indicat-
ed in Table 4, 10% of restaurants' employees had training in housekeep-
ing department, 14% of them trained in kitchen and 6% are trained in
4. Results
front office department. The rest, 70%, were not cross trained. Like in
previous cases, it is clear that majority of cross-trained employees had
4.1. Reliability and validity analysis
higher educational level.
Finally, 8% of kitchen employees had training in restaurant, while
Cronbach's alpha was utilized to scrutinize the reliability. For the en-
15% of them were trained in other departments, and the rest, 77%, has
tire questionnaire, the alpha value was 0.84. Per Sekaran (2003) &
no cross-training. Again, females were not cross-trained at all.
Spector (1992), a proper level of internal consistency and reliability is
Table 5 presents mean values of the study variables. Variables vary
higher than 0.7. Cronbach's alpha values for the individual constructs
slightly in their existence in the hotels. JP was the most realized, while
(see Table 2) were N 0.7 as well. To attain validity, many actions have
ER was the least attained. In addition, there were minor differences
been tracked. Such actions, as suggested by Remenyi, Williams, and
among the types of ECT, where positional clarification has been more fre-
Money (1998), include (a) revising a large part of relevant literature
quently applied than other types. Also, there were minor differences
to carefully identify concepts, ideas, relationships, and issues under
among the types of JP; conscientiousness was less considered than
study; (b) evolving the survey from existing related studies; and (c)
other types. Moreover, the results in Table 6 showed that the variables
pre-testing the survey properly with managerial and academic experts
of the study varied according to the demographic data. For example,
to evaluate whether individual items appear to be the appropriate mea-
ECT, SQ and JP are higher for male employees, while females enjoyed
sures of their respective constructs. All recommendations and com-
a higher level of ER.
ments concerning structure, wording, and questions were considered
in the final draft of the survey.
4.3. Testing hypotheses
To test common method variance (CMV), Harman's single factor test
has been used. In Table 3, it is observed that maximum percent of vari-
To test the research hypotheses, correlation coefficients have been
ance is 48.3 (b50%). Since the variance percentage is b50%, thus there is
attained and interpreted in terms of P-values and consequent signifi-
no common method bias (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff,
cance, as presented in Table 7. The statistical test revealed a significant
2003).
and positive correlation between ECT and JP in five-star hotels, with
above average positive correlation (0.633) and high significance (P b
4.2. Descriptive results 0.01). Therefore, the first hypothesis is supported in this study. More-
over, it was noted that Positional Clarification correlate with JP more
Demographic data indicated that most respondents were males than Positional Modeling and Positional Rotation. In relation to ER, the
(86.7%). The age of majority of the respondents was between 22 and statistical test revealed a significant (P b 0.01) and positive correlation

Table 3
Testing common method variancea.

Component Initial eigenvalues Extraction sums of squared loadings

Total % of variance Cumulative % Total % of variance Cumulative %

1 17.899 48.375 48.375 17.899 48.375 48.375

2 4.200 11.350 59.725
3 3.132 8.464 68.189
35 0.016 0.044 99.991
36 0.003 0.009 100.000
37 3.730E-15 1.008E-14 100.000
a
Extraction method: principal component analysis.
72 I.E.-B. Salem, M.K. Abdien / Tourism Management Perspectives 23 (2017) 68–74

Table 5
Descriptive Statistics of the study variables.

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. deviation

ECT 427 2.00 5.00 3.84 0.791

Positional clarification 427 1.75 5.00 3.93 0.850
Positional modeling 427 1.50 5.00 3.78 0.882
Positional rotation 427 1.25 5.00 3.81 0.947
JP 427 1.27 5.00 4.18 0.771
Altruism 427 1.20 5.00 4.16 0.792
Conscientiousness 427 1.00 5.00 4.09 0.807
Task performance 427 1.00 5.00 4.28 0.899
ER 427 1.00 5.00 3.79 1.20
SQ 427 1.00 5.00 4.07 0.937
Fig. 1. The current ECT in hotels. Valid N 427

between ECT and ER in five-star hotels, with a positive correlation of

0.388. Therefore, hypothesis H2 is also supported. Again, Positional Clar- importance of ECT in Egyptian hotels in order to deal more effectively
ification correlates with ER more than Positional Modeling and Positional and efficiently with perilous conditions in hotels. Moreover, Brusco
Rotation. Finally, regarding SQ, ECT correlates significantly (P b 0.01) and Johns (1998) and Slomp and Molleman (2002) suggested that em-
and positively (0.507) with SQ in five-star hotels. Therefore, hypothesis ployees should not be cross-trained in all tasks or operations of the or-
H3 is supported. Besides, it is noticeably found, for one more time, that ganization. They should be only trained in an appropriate number of
Positional Clarification correlates with SQ more than Positional Modeling tasks as it is essential to implement ECT in the most efficient way that
and Positional Rotation. suits with the time and changes of an organization (Jordan et al.,
2004). Moreover, Olivella et al. (2013) indicated that ECT can be imple-
5. Discussion mented for some or all the employees regarding some or all the tasks.
The study findings indicated that cross trained employees have
Based on the available relevant literature, this study investigated the more altruism practices, such as doing other employees' work when
importance of considering pertinent factors to the implementation of they are absent, volunteering to do things not formally required by
ECT, such as cost, objectives, expected benefits, expected reactions of their job description, and helping others when their work load in-
employees, and the level of training, whether interdepartmental or creases. Cross-trained employees also show conscientiousness practices,
else within specific areas. Therefore, the sound planning of ECT would exhibiting attendance at work beyond the norm, such as taking fewer
thus lead to the maximum benefits, while avoid any possible drawbacks days off than most individuals or fewer than allowed, and not taking un-
(Abrams & Berge, 2010; Slomp & Molleman, 2002). In addition, this necessary time off work and extra breaks. Cross-trained employees
study shed light on three types of ECT that may be adopted in hotels; have as well proven to have task performance practices, including dem-
namely, positional clarification, positional modeling, and positional onstrating expertise in all job-related tasks, managing more responsibil-
(job) rotation (Cannon-Bowers et al., 1998; Cooke et al., 2003), each ity than typically assigned, and performing well in the overall job by
of those is used to suit a specific operational and organizational need. carrying out tasks exactly as expected.
This study indicated that the policy of implementing ECT is not totally Also, ECT was found to correlate to ER. This result is agreed with
adopted for all employees in Egyptian five-star hotels, as only 26% of re- other previous studies, such as Arunkumar and Parimala (2012) and
spondents were cross trained. The study thus emphasizes the Chen and Tseng (2012). ECT makes employees more pleased to be
part of their hotel, more committed to their jobs, and more interested
Table 4 in their tasks. Furthermore, ECT helps increase SQ (Chen & Tseng,
Cross training among departments. 2012). Cross-trained employees can improve SQ by supporting team-
work inside or outside their departments, increasing their own ability
Department Educational Gender Cross training Number of
level employees to solve problems and discover any service defects as soon as possible,
Yes or Where?
being ready to offer excellent service from the first time, and utilizing
no?
their ECT based broadened jobs' knowledge to provide prompt solutions
Front office Secondary Male Yes Housekeeping 18 for customer complaints and service-quality-related problems (Crick &
school No 14
College Male Yes Housekeeping 9
Spencer, 2011; Tracy et al., 2008).
Others 19 Finally, this study found that male employees were more cross-
No 79 trained than females in Egyptian five-star hotels. From the researchers'
Female No 22 point of view, this may due to that males are more interesting to devel-
Housekeeping Secondary Male No 23
op their experience and future career than females because they usually
school Female No 6
College Male Yes Front office 6 are the main source of families' income. Also, many females leave work
Female No 6 due to their social and family-related conditions, so they do not get the
Restaurant Secondary Male No 21
school Female Yes Housekeeping 5
Kitchen 6 Table 6
College Male Yes Front office 6 Variables of the study according to the respondents' gender.
Housekeeping 5
Gender N Mean Std. deviation
Kitchen 9
No 46 ECT Male 370 3.8 0.8
Female No 6 Female 57 3.6 0.50
Kitchen Secondary Male Yes Restaurant 10 ER Male 370 3.7 1.2
school Others 9 Female 57 4.0 0.55
No 74 SQ Male 370 4.1 0.96
College Male Yes Others 9 Female 57 3.8 0.67
No 19 JP Male 370 4.2 0.81
Female 57 3.9 0.32
 I.E.-B. Salem, M.K. Abdien / Tourism Management Perspectives 23 (2017) 68–74 73

Table 7
Correlations among ECT, JP, ER, and SQ.

Altruism Conscientiousness Task performance JP ER SQ

Positional clarification Pearson correlation 0.608a 0.590a 0.587a 0.642a 0.501a 0.570a
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Positional modeling Pearson correlation 0.584a 0.378a 0.445a 0.504a 0.319a 0.409a
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Positional rotation Pearson correlation 0.683a 0.392a 0.443a 0.542a 0.226a 0.379a
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
ECT Pearson correlation 0.707a 0.508a 0.552a 0.633a 0.388a 0.507a
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
a
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

opportunity, or even do not need, to develop their skills. Furthermore,
results showed that ECT mainly takes place within the same depart-
ment. That is, housekeeping staff have been basically cross-trained in
front office and vice versa, and, similarly, kitchen employees were
cross trained in restaurants, so that they could replace or else help
each other in times of crises and operational pressures.
These results call for giving more care to involve more employees
and tasks in cross-training programs. One of survey-targeted hotels'
human resources managers emphasized the importance of adopting
-ECT, as he ensured that he witnessed a case where the number of
checking-in guests was more than housekeeping staff's ability to pre-
pare all needed guestrooms due to staff shortage at that time. However,
front office staff solved the problem by carrying out the tasks of house-
keeping department as they were cross-trained before to do that.
6. Conclusion and implications
6.2. Limitations and future research
This study has some limitations. Because of the chosen research ap-
proach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, re-
searchers are encouraged to compare the results with different hotel
category (independent vs. chain-affiliated hotels), and other hotel
grades other than five-star hotels. Other departments should be also in-
volved in future studies as this study only involved employees working
in front office, housekeeping, restaurants, kitchens. Moreover, this study
only investigated the influence of ECT on JP, ER and SQ. Hence, future
studies should investigate the ECT's influence on other organizational
and operational variables such as employee satisfaction and profitabili-
ty. Moreover, future researches should study the relevant factors that
should be considered to maximize the ECT benefits and balance both
employee satisfaction and service quality in the hotel operations in
Egypt.

This study highlights the importance of ECT for the hospitality indus-
try as it can be applied optimally as a problem-solving technique during
low seasons of business, crises times, employees' shortage, and others.
ECT allows organizations to keep the required production and perfor-
mance level by a smaller number of employees. The results of this
study revealed that only 26% of hotels' staff was cross-trained. Accord-
ingly, it is recommended that hotel management invest resources to im-
plement effective ECT, which can be useful during perilous conditions in
Hotels. These perilous times may include sudden internal and external
changes, discrepancies in the demand for seasonal employees, un-
planned employee absences and high levels of customer crowding on
frontline service employees. ECT can solve all these potential problems
as well as keep effective job performance and service quality.
6.1. Implications
The study findings have identified many practical implications to the
hotel management in Egypt. First, hotel management should adopt an
effective and clear ECT policy instead of messy implementation. Second,
hotel management should consider many factors before pushing ECT,
such as the training cost, the expected benefits, level of ECT (inter de-
partmental or within a specific area or department), how much of the
personnel to train, how to reconfigure changes in workflow, and man-
aging employee reaction. Third, ECT can deliver a high level of JP by in-
creasing the employees' altruism, conscientiousness and task
performance practices. Fourth, hotel management can use ECT to en-
courage ER as employees are more satisfied with their jobs and work-
places. Fifth, ECT was seen to help management improve SQ, since
cross-trained employees can better resolve operational problems and
adapt to dynamic situations when a customer has a complaint, as they
have knowledge to answer most customers' inquiries. Finally, hotels
management should involve more female employees in cross-training
program.
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Islam El-Bayoumi Salem is a lecturer at the Faculty of Tour-
ism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Egypt. He prepared
his Doctorate Degree in the area of hospitality leadership
and organizational behavior. He contributed in organizing
various conferences, organized by the faculty of tourism
and hotels. Area of interests are Hospitality marketing, Hos-
pitality management, Hospitality leadership, Organizational
behaviors, and customer behaviors. He was a visiting assis-
tant professor to Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb
University, Croatia from 01-09-2014 until 01-03-2015. He
also was a visiting academic staff to Faculty of Economics
and Business, Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM),
Spain in October 2015. Furthermore, he was a visiting staff
to Porto University, Portugal in November 2016. Recently,
he is a visiting assistant professor to Faculty of Economics
and Business, Zagreb University, Croatia 2017.
Mohamed Kamal Abdien is a lecturer at the Faculty of Tour-
ism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Egypt. He prepared
his Doctorate Degree in the area of hospitality human re-
sources and organizational behavior. He contributed in orga-
nizing various conferences, organized by the faculty of
tourism and hotels. Area of interests are Human Resources,
Employees behaviors, and customer behaviors. He is a visit-
ing assistant professor to Faculty of Economics and Business
in University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Palma de Mallorca,
Spain from 01-09-2016 until 01-03-2017.