Organizational alignment and employee job satisfaction in an EB-5 hotel

Abstract

The hospitality industry of the United States continues to thrive and grow each year with millions of tourists and business visitors. Florida, and specifically Orlando are leaders in U.S. tourist destinations. The industry’s growth has been stimulated by foreign direct investment, including the EB-5 visa program, which in 2016 contributed almost $4 billion of inward capital investment. The hospitality industry receives one of the largest portions of total EB-5 investment, about 31%. Florida ranks 2nd to New York among a handful of other states that receive the most EB-5 investment. Because more and more hospitality organizations are financed by EB-5 immigrant investors, learn how this EB-5 ownership may influence hotel performance is important but understudied question. The purpose of this research is to explore organizational alignment of EB- 5 hotel. A case study method was employed to examine one EB-5 hotel in Orlando, Florida as part of a larger inquiry into how EB-5 ownership affects employee job satisfaction in the hospitality industry. The research results suggest that while both organizational alignment and employee job satisfaction of the studied EB-5 hotel are higher than the same metrics of some non-EB-5 hotels, employee turnover rate in EB-5 hotel was significantly high. Also, findings outline the uniqueness of organizational alignment of EB-5 hospitality. Importantly, this is the first analysis of its kind, and its results offer a foundation for future research. The findings of this case study benefit researchers, politicians, and practitioners.

Keywords

• employment-based fifth preference category visa program
• eb-5
• organizational alignment
• service-profit chain model
• employee job satisfaction