Employees ’ satisfaction in travel agencies

This paper concisely deals with the current issue in the tourism sector, which is the satisfaction of the staff. This paper will result in the synthesis of theory and research on the satisfaction of human resources at travel agencies in Novi Sad. The primary aim of this study is to determine the current state and extent of employee satisfaction in certain key segments of business success. The basic method in this study is random sampling, and the analysis of results was obtained from the collected data. SPSS program version 17.0. was used for data processing; 107 respondents were involved. The results obtained from this method, that is statistical methods and secondary publications confirmed the hypotheses presented in the paper.


INTRODUCTION
In this paper, the problem of employee satisfaction has a special place and significance.Satisfied staff at tourist agencies as well as in other organizations are considered to be the primary development resources.The success of the tourist agency is not only measured by the achieved profit but also by meeting interests of internal and external groups; or to be more precise, that of the owner of the agency, employees, and of course customers.However, there is not a precisely defined formalized way to determine the satisfaction level of employees.As employee satisfaction is an important factor in the development of organization and human resources, many tourism organizations conduct surveys to determine the satisfaction of their employees because dissatisfaction may cause more frequent absenteeism from work due to illness, inefficiency, frequent injuries and staff turnover.
For the purposes of this paper a survey was conducted, where the respondents evaluated the specific determinants of satisfaction, and overall data processing was done in the programming system Statistical Package for Social Sciences -SPSS, version 17.0.The specific sample included 23 travel agencies in Novi Sad.The statistical analysis determined the relationships between all variables in order to prove or refute specific hypotheses that will be mentioned, concerning the satisfaction of employees.
The study also highlighted the key aspects of disadvantages, that is, the segments representing the direct cause of employee dissatisfaction, which is then reflected in the business.This research can be a starting point for other more detailed research in this field with the aim to take corrective measures in business operations, and therefore to achieve higher profits and better competitive position in the tourism market.Employees are not only a positive activity from the human perspective but also a pure business activity and probably the most profitable investment which has long been not only the issue of individuals but a matter of people and the wider society (Gajić et al., 2011).It is known that many companies in one form or the other in educating the previously established human resources spend more than 10% of the total salaries of all employees only on their management team (Gajić et al., 2010).There are some studies in the world that indicate the degree of employee satisfaction: across America, 45% of workers say they are either satisfied or extremely satisfied with their job.Only 20% are very passionate about their jobs, 33% believe they have reached a dead end in their work, 21% are eager to change careers (Chen, 2008).Older workers are the most satisfied and the most engaged in their work.Younger workers are the most distressed and they feel the least amount of loyalty to their employers (Clark, 1998).

LITERATURE REVIEW
Employee satisfaction is a particular trend dealing with a number of scientific disciplines, from which derives the enormous importance of this component in the development of tourism and tourism agencies in an increasingly competitive market.Employee satisfaction represents a component of the success of each company (Kovach, 1995).It is very important to examine employee job satisfaction in a strategic human resource management.Researching with a model of job satisfaction in the Research and Development (R&D) industry should consist of work related factors such getting pay for overtime, giving employees more authority, getting promotion in the workplace, employees' participation in decision-making processes and sensitivity of management towards problems at work (Oraman et al., 2011;Lam and Chen, 2012).Employees who are not satisfied will not perform their job properly, and thus the company will face direct damage.Moreover, job satisfaction is considered as a strong predictor of overall well-being (Diaz-Serrano and Cabral Vieira, 2005;Agarwal and Ferrett, 2001), as well as a good predictor of intentions or decisions of employees to leave a job (Gaziouglu and Tansel, 2002).Organisations have significant effects on the people who work for them and some of those effects are reflected in how people feel about their work (Yee et al., 2010).More satisfied workers are less likely to leave their employer.Employee satisfaction directly or indirectly affects their behaviour (absenteeism, quit intentions, productivity), and can refer to the following factors: assistants, job content, superiors, working conditions, promotion, training, recognition, status, success, responsibility, security and the possibility of development (Yee et al., 2008;Judge and Church, 2000).Job satisfaction includes multidimensional psycho-logical responses to one's job, and that such responses have cognitive (evaluative), affective (emotional), and behavioral components (Grehart, 2005).Social attitudes are generally weak predictors or specific behaviors, but job attitudes are generally reliably and moderately related to relevant job behaviors.When work interfers with family obligations, individuals with higher levels of promotion focus have lower job satisfaction; when family demands interfere with work tasks, employees with greater degrees of chronic prevention focus feel less satisfied with their jobs (Zhao and Namasivayam, 2011;Kim and Brymer, 2011).Employees facing less work-family conflicts tend to be positive towards to their daily life and job; therefore it is important to test the moderating effects of workfamily conflict on the relationship between life and job satisfaction (Qu and Zhao, 2012).
One of the clearest definitions of job satisfaction was given by Locke (1976), who emphasized that satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from appraisal of one's job or job experiences.According to Locke's (1976) (Judge and Church, 2000).In general, employee satisfaction depends on employees' expectations and the extent to which they are achieved.Therefore, satisfaction is measured by the difference between the level of employees' aspiration and their achievements.The same assignment and salaries do not result in the same level of employee satisfaction, but employees' expectations are quite different (Kafetsios and Zampetakis, 2008).The reason why this is a burning issue in most research is the prevailing attitude that a satisfied employee is the same as a productive one.The more individuals get from their work, the more they will be satisfied (Gajić, 2009).Therefore, the size of the reward is not the only thing that matters, but also whether the employees have obtained the reward they appreciate for their contribution.More precisely, workers with low salaries may not always be unhappy if their salary is not the most important factor of satisfaction (Kaiser, 2002;Chi and Gursoy, 2009).Often, employees' expectations should be taken into consideration.The overall satisfaction is affected by satisfaction discrepancy or deviation in terms of certain aspects of the job, and not by the amount of satisfaction in these aspects (Brief and Weiss, 2002).As for the satisfaction of employees in the tourism industry, it is more overt and important than in other activities because tourism belongs to the tertiary industry that is characterized by the simultaneity of production and consumption.Thai is by direct interaction between employees or service providers, and tourists or service recipients (Gaziglou and Tanseel, 2002).The surveys conducted in the 1980s in developed countries show that the satisfaction of employees is between 50 and 70% with a tendency to decline in the last decade of the century probably due to the efforts of employers to increase productivity through heavier workloads and shorter deadlines and due to employees' impression that they have less control over their work (Green and Tsitsianis, 2005).
Recent research from 2010 in the given European countries show the following results for specific determinants of employee satisfaction (Figure 1).Using the same 10-point scale, the average level of satisfaction concerning employment status stands at 7.3 points, while the average satisfaction level for both annual leave and working time reaches 6.9 points.Lower satisfaction levels have been reported for the following aspects: flexible hours (6.6 points), break during working hours (6.4 points), salary (6.2 points), collective agreement (5.8 points) and social benefits (4.2 points).Also of interest are comparative research data for 2005 and 2010, which was done in Spain.These are just some of the scores for the determinants of satisfaction and scale of 1 to 10 (2005/2010) is also used: comradeship (7.8/7.9);physical work (7.2/7.3);appraisal by superior (6.9/6.9);participation in decision making (6.7/6.6);stress at work (5.6/5.4);monotony (5.0/4.7).According to the survey results, Spanish workers generally show reasonable levels of satisfaction with their job (Ramon, 2011).Employees in the public sector in these European countries enjoy more social benefits than those working in the private sector (Alonso and Galdon, 2007).
In the public sector, workers receive benefits for education and training (42.4%), education for relatives (34.3%) and healthcare (30.9%).On the other hand, in the private sector, the most frequently granted benefits to workers include those for transport (21.9%), food (19.8%) and education (19.7%).Concerning training and career development, workers assessed the level of usefulness of their academic education for their everyday work, on average, at 5.7 points on a scale ranging from 0 to 10. Almost five out of 10 workers (48.3%) believe that their academic education is useful or very useful for their work.Meanwhile, the average level of usefulness of training provided by the company is reported at 7.6 points, and 77.4% of employees consider that the training offered by their companies is useful or very useful for developing their work tasks.As was the case for the physical work factors, the results for the psychosocial work factors reveal both signs of worsening and improvement in the working environment between 2005 and 2010 (Figure 2).On the positive side, there was a significantly increase in social support from both colleagues and superiors.On the more negative side, there was a significant increase in workers experiencing bullying, violence or threats.There was also an increase in emotional demands similar to the development identified in the 2005 study.In addition, there was a significant decrease in people experiencing meaning in their job.In terms of minor changes, slightly fewer workers experienced reward, predictability and decision latitude, while no significant development occurred in skill discretion (Tables 1 and 2).
The most significant change in employees' opinions on issues such as trust in organizational hierarchy and the possibility of voicing their opinions to supervisors happened between 2005 and 2007.Between 2007 and 2010, the level of positive opinions on the former issue remained stable while there was a slight decrease in the latter.For these aspects, where only 2007 and 2010 data are accessible, employees became more critical.These aspects included the perceived fair treatment of employees by managerial staff or employees' access to information on management plans.Only the level of positive responses to the question of availability of information on the enterprise's condition increased by nearly 10% points.The extant operations management literature has extensively investigated the associations among quality, customer satisfaction, and firm profitability.However, the influence of employee attributes on these performance dimensions has rarely been examined (Yee et al., 2008).Little or no attention has been paid to the role of tourism industry employees particularly those in hotels and travel agencies, in the success of quality management programmes (Sharpley and Forster, 2003;Karatepe and Kilic, 2007); as well as the relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, and the impact of both on a hospitality company's financial performance utilizing service-profit-chain framework as the theoretical base (Chi and Gursoy, 2009).Hotel career management contributes positively to career satisfaction.Career competency mediates the relationship between career management and career satisfaction (Kong et al., 2012).Hotels experience many positive implications from managers who behave ethically.Subordinate job satisfaction improves with ethical leadership (Brymer, 2011;Larsen et al., 2011).Emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment are found to have direct relationships with job satisfaction; both affect the level of depersonalization (Ng et al., 2011).Many studies have found that it is very important to examine the relationship among polychronicity, job satisfaction, and turnover intention as well as the importance of job facets perceived by employees (Lam et al., 2001;Alarcon, 2011, Alexander et al., 2011, Jang and George, 2011;Namasivayam, 2011).Cultural distance perspective helps explain expatriate job satisfaction.Expatriates show lower job satisfaction under host-country supervisors (Froese and Peltokorpi, 2011), and this is very important for the employees in tourist industry.Based on previous research by domestic and foreign authors and the available literature, it can be concluded that employee satisfaction at travel agencies is not fully investigated despite the fact that the degree of employee satisfaction directly affects the customer satisfaction in tourism.A large number of foreign authors do research on tourist market and the degree of satisfaction of tourists; whereas a much smaller number of authors investigate the level of employee satisfaction in the tourist industry, especially in tourist agencies.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND HYPOTHESES
Overall, job satisfaction is defined as an attitude towards the job in general, and scales for measuring job satisfaction often contain items that express love for work, a sense of fulfilment or enjoyment, as well as statements of creativity, challenge, scope of work, difficulty of work and the like.In addition to measuring the general attitude towards job, it is possible to measure the satisfaction with individual components, such as scope of work, management, rewarding, working conditions, and it is undertaken in the case where it is necessary to get a better insight into the factors causing satisfaction.Today, the survey is the most commonly used method because the questionnaire has certain advantages due to its formal aspects: provides anonymity, and data collection can be standardized.Reliability of the questionnaire is a current issue in this type of research, and in theory there are several methods for estimating the reliability coefficient based on statistical analysis of data obtained in tests.The most common is the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient, which can be classified in the methods of an internal consistency (measures the properties of all items of the questionnaire).It was used in this study.Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient was calculated and its reliability threshold is α> 0.70.The values of alpha coefficient for the questionnaire in this study are acceptable, exceeding the threshold (Gajić, 2010).The survey was conducted in 23 tourist agencies in Novi Sad in May 2011.There were 250 questionnaires distributed in total, out of which only 107 were complete and then analysed.However, due to poor turnout of the questionnaires and the real difficulties in accessing the facilities, the obtained results were only indicative and they should serve as a good example and possible starting point for a representative survey.Nonetheless, many similar studies included even smaller sample.Theorists believe that about 50 respondents of the representative sample can achieve the desired results of the research.
The primary objectives of this survey were to: 1. determine the demographic structure of employees at Novi Sad tourist agencies on the basis of the questionnaire created for the purpose of this research; 2. identify the extent of employee satisfaction among staff at tourist agencies; 3. determine the parameters of employee motivation at travel agencies and enable the possible influence on bigger productivity and business competitiveness.
The questionnaire contains 45 precisely and clearly formulated questions; it was divided into three parts, with the responses given in the form of Likert scale (point 1 is complete disappointment and point 5 is full satisfaction).The first part dealt with the demographic structure of the sample.The second part of the questionnaire related to the basic parameters of employee satisfaction of staff in travel agencies in Novi Sad, whereas the third part of the questionnaire dealt with the parameters of motivation of employees in the workplace.All the collected data and analyses are processed in the SPSS package, version 17.0.Two main groups of statistical analysis were used: descriptive statistics (the method used to describe a group of respondents, i.e. survey sample, and the parameters such as frequency or median are obtained) and statistical conclusion method (a method of making certain conclusions and hypothesis testing).In statistical practice, there are two types of tests: parametric (data from interval scale which are normally distributed) and non-parametric tests (used for phenomena that cannot be measured quantitatively, but are presented by frequency and ranges).In this study, parametric test was applied because the data used in the analysis are from the interval scale and are normally distributed.In order to describe the phenomenon more thoroughly, the measures of variation or deviation from the central action are used.The most reliable measure of variability is the standard deviation (σ), which shows the average value of deviation from the mean (there is always a positive value or zero).It is obtained as the square root of the average sum of squared deviation.On the basis of previously set goals and objectives, the main hypothesis of this research is: H-Generally observing staff employed in travel agencies Novi Sad are mainly pleased with all offered segment or determinants that affect their business.
Sub-hypotheses are as follows: h1 -Communication between superiors and their subordinates is satisfactory h2 -Working space and business conditions meet the needs of employees h3 -organization at work meet the expected criteria of employees h4 -employees at travel agencies are paid enough, although the position at the travel agency is not always the equivalent of knowledge and education of the employees H5 -employment at the travel agency does not provide security h6 -there are attitudes that employment at travel agencies is humiliating, without any signs of pride among employees.
The employees at tourist agencies are not respected by their superiors, and also further education and promotion are not guaranteed.Data processing goes three stages: review, coding and tabulation.Within the review stage, the questionnaire is checked and it is determined whether each question is answered and whether the answers are complete and uniform.In the coding, the questions are classified in order to obtain their basic structure.The groups of data are labelled with a sign representing the established code.In the process of tabulation, the distribution of frequencies, that is showing different values or properties of one variable in the first column with the corresponding frequencies in the second column, is determined by the distribution of frequencies.The periods of frequencies provide insight into the number of units within each value, characteristic or a group of characteristics.Then there is a content analysis beginning with the formation of the system of categories with which the content of the answers is classified.Simultaneously, the direction of attitudes is determined for every category.After the data processing, there is the data analysis where the following analytical and statistical techniques are used, such as chi-square, proportions, standard deviation, ratings, arithmetic mean, percentage and correlation.The reporting of results is carried out numerically using the number series, average, rankings, tables and charts.Now, here is a report on the obtained results where each segment of the report contains its structure based on the appropriate segment of respondents.In each segment, there is the representation of the distribution of answers to each question and for all tested demographic characteristics of employees.Thus, the overall level of satisfaction for all employees is determined.

RESEARCH RESULTS
Out of the total 250 questionnaires, 107 contained full answers and therefore analysed.As can be seen in Table 3, most employees in the survey are men (50.5%), whereas there are 49.5% women.Out of 107 respondents who were included in the analysis, 51.4% are aged between 30 and 49, and most of them were married (45.8%).As far as education level is concerned, there are 39.5% who have high education and 35.5% graduated from university.Then 46.7% have work experience lasting between five and ten years, with the average salary of 300 euros (50.5%), and the least have the salary above 600 euros (10.3%).

DISCUSSION
The studies about employee satisfaction show that the most important among all the opinions of employees is the attitude towards their work.This attitude is called job satisfaction, and we can define it as "cognitive, affective and evaluative reaction of individuals to their jobs.Job satisfaction is one of the most researched topics in the field of human behaviour in organizations.The reason for this is certainly the generally accepted belief that a satisfied worker is a productive employee and that the success of the organization cannot be achieved with dissatisfied employees.
The survey was so designed that the questions are grouped into three parts.The first group consists of the main segments of employee satisfaction (20 questions in total).The second part of questions was related to the determinants on which respondents could provide yes or no questions and included the subjective opinion of employees about their attitude to the job in terms of security for their future, and their opinion about a job as an equivalent to education, and finally the general opinion about whether they are proud of their job or not.The results of the survey analysis will be included in the next few paragraphs.
Logically, the better working conditions are the greater employee satisfaction is.It is higher not only because they feel comfortable, but also because better working conditions provide better opportunity for improved job performance and success at work.People are often dissatisfied with the poor working conditions, and the main reason for that is not the fact they personally find them unpleasant but because poor working conditions are an obstacle to achieving anticipated performance.Obviously, the available equipment is not a problem, since 38.3% of the respondents were satisfied and only 2.8% belongs to a group of the dissatisfied with this segment (σ 0.841).Work environment meets the average criteria, which is seen by the average data where 54.2% of employees are very satisfied, and then they are satisfied with physical working conditions (temperature, lighting), where 35.5% are satisfied, whereas only 2.8% are dissatisfied (σ 0.831).Another segment that is far from critical includes interpersonal relationships (the quality of relationships with associates) which are, excluding some individual cases, at a very high level of communication with 39.3% satisfied (σ 0.884).Likewise cooperation among employees is developed, because the percentage of those satisfied and those without complaints accounts for 50.5%, whereas there are only 5.6% dissatisfied (σ 0.742).The employees had the opportunity to express their attitude to the satisfaction with their superiors, with only 4.7% dissatisfied and 45.8% satisfied (σ 0.765).The subjective satisfaction with the employer is associated with job satisfaction, salary, relationship with colleagues at work, increased security for staying in the workplace and reduced desire to work more for a higher salary.There are 29.9%(σ 0.756) respondents who stated that they are predominantly satisfied with safety at work; in other words, they positively commented on relationships and a sense of safety at work.The social atmosphere is an important factor for job satisfaction.The employees are more satisfied with their job if they work with colleagues with they have good personal relationships with and if there is a pleasant social atmosphere.Within this factor there is a relationship between employees and their direct superior.Some research suggests that this is absolutely true for all our companies.In any domestic company, the most important aspects of the job are those from which is expected the most, and they are actually related to the social environment: good relationship with colleagues, good relationship with the superior, the absence of conflict, socializing with colleagues after work and the like.Along with this segment there is the need for good organization at work, and the respondents had a positive attitude to this issue, which can be seen from the data in Tables 4 and 5, where 50.5% (σ 0.765) of them were satisfied.About 43% are satisfied with well-defined rules and business procedures, and 48.6% were satisfied with work ethic, culture and similar values (σ 0.885).For conducted activities employees have more available time, which is seen in the results of the survey, where 20.6% stated they are mostly satisfied, while 55.1% of them were satisfied with the fixed-time basis.However, less satisfaction was expressed in terms of flexibility of taking annual leave (16.8% were mostly satisfied, whereas 11.2% were very dissatisfied).Nearly 27% were very satisfied with the reputation of the organization, while the monthly salary is a more sensitive issue, where 39.3% declared they are satisfied, whereas 14% said that they are very dissatisfied with their salary (σ 1.180).In general the more employees earn the more satisfied with their work they are.However, it must be noted that the perceived fairness of the reward system is a more important factor than just salary.That was evident in all the surveys that were conducted in local companies.Workers were more satisfied if they perceive that the reward system is fair and provides equal treatment to all employees.More is expected from the fair reward system than from the salary itself.As far as their objective assessment of performance, 8.4% were very satisfied, whereas there were 25.2% (σ 0.779) satisfied with the purpose of work.The respondents at the travel agencies gave a positive opinion regarding autonomy in performing some tasks (49.5% satisfied, and only 12.1% dissatisfied) and the possibility to propose innovations to improve the efficiency of work, where 48.6% were satisfied and only 5.6% dissatisfied.Relatively positive answers are given for the choice of their own method to solve a problem -43% satisfied (σ 0.929).Some research in the USA showed that employees are more satisfied if the organization is more decentralized and has given them greater participation in the decision-making process.This argument seems logical, but we have in mind the possibility of cultural limit.Namely, decentralization can be a source of satisfaction of employees only if they assume and expect that power should be as evenly distributed as possible in their organization.It is, however, only the case in national cultures having a low so-called power distance.In cultures with high power distance, employees do not expect and does not favour their inclusion in the decision-making process, and decentralization will probably have no impact on their satisfaction.The research in our companies showed that another characteristic of the organizational structure is a source of employee satisfaction -transparency and stability.The employees of our companies are more satisfied if the organizational structure is clear, familiar and stable.This can be correlated with another characteristic of our national culture-avoiding uncertainty.Our workers do not like change, uncertainty, ambiguity so it is logical to expect from the structure to spare them these situations.The second part of the survey contained some questions to which employees could provide yes or no answers.Surprisingly, a large number of employees are proud of their job in the travel agency because the hypothesis of the research was that the position in tourism is often underrated and thus the employees are insufficiently respected by end users (potential tourists).Likewise there are often many highlyeducated people at travel agencies performing the operations for which the secondary-school education sufficient (a holiday package operator).43.9% of them said that the salaries are equivalent to their skills and competences, and 75.7% of them were proud of their job.However, 54 respondents out of the total number said that their position provides them the safe future, whereas 53 of them declared that their future in this business is uncertain.
From the above, we may conclude that almost about half of the respondents, regardless of their satisfaction with salary, interpersonal relationship and the basic parameters of motivation; still feel insecure about their employment.The reason can be found in the relatively unstable political and economic situation in Serbia.This is further evidence supporting the fact of how external factors may affect employee satisfaction.When asked the question whether job satisfaction is connected with their satisfaction with private life, 69.2% replied affirmatively, whereas 29% provided a negative answer.
As far as the third part of the survey is concerned, the analysis included several segments, which are related to motivation at work.Satisfaction with opportunities for education and further education and promotion were assessed positively, with 47.7% satisfied and 7.5% dissatisfied (σ 0.917).The results of the survey can show the evidence how much support the superiors provide to the employees (52.3% satisfied).Here is also the issue of how the superiors recognize their abilities -only 0.9% were very dissatisfied and 51.4% were satisfied (σ 0.798), while the number of the satisfied with regard to respecting their ideas stands at around 49.5% (σ 0.853).All these segments are interrelated, which can be seen through the data on what employees think how their job is interesting (48.6% satisfied), and how they can express their creativity at work, where 55.1% were satisfied (σ 0.867).The respondents also expressed a positive opinion regarding the possibility of showing their ability at work, where 43 of them said that they were satisfied.
According to the data, it is possible to learn to what extent employees are satisfied with regard to ways of stimulating the employees by the organization, where 45 out of 107 stated they are satisfied.

Conclusion
Empirical studies have shown that relationship between employee satisfaction and productivity is not as clear as it might at first appear.In addition, the pleasure does not affect only productivity but also some other phenomena in the organization, such as absenteeism and fluctuation.Job satisfaction is, therefore, a complex attitude involving certain assumptions and beliefs about the job (cognitive component), feelings toward the job (affective component) and evaluation (evaluative component).The paper presents the data of the survey in a concise way conducted by the authors in 23 travel agencies in Novi Sad.Out of the 250 questionnaires that were distributed, 107 were analysed and on the basis of the data we obtained key answers to the questions about which factors the employees are most or least satisfied.The SPSS method was used in the data processing, and along with a combination of statistics and some secondary publications we got the confirmation of the hypotheses.What contributes to employee satisfaction with their job?The research has shown that all factors can be grouped into two categories: basic factors of job satisfaction and motivation factors.In this paper the determinants of satisfaction are grouped into three sections of the questionnaire, where the respondents were allowed to make assessment using points from 1 to 5. The survey found that the respondents were quite satisfied with their job and therefore we confirmed the hypotheses given in the paper.The employee satisfaction is affected by a range of different factors listed in the tables of the survey research.The results of the survey indicate specific tasks and guidance as well as problems and obstacles that need to be addressed.
From the above, it is concluded that the employees at travel agencies in Novi Sad are relatively satisfied with their job (55.1% felt that their job is creative and 48.6% felt that their job is varied and interesting), interpersonal relationship (35.5% very satisfied with relations with their closest associates, and even 50.5 % satisfied with communication with their superiors) and the level of salary (39.3% of respondents said they were satisfied, and 8% said they were very satisfied); therefore, this study confirmed the initial hypothesis and sub-hypotheses.Surprisingly, some sub-hypotheses were rejected.It is widely known that the employees at travel agencies believe that their job is not equivalent to their education and knowledge, and that their job that does not provide them with a certain security and pride.The survey, however, led to completely different attitudes for all given segments.Namely, sub-hypotheses 4, 5 and 6 were completely rejected.
From Table 2 it can be seen that the highest values of standard deviations were seen in the issue relating to the flexible use of annual leave (1.206), satisfaction with salaries (1.180) as well as stimulation by the organization (1.158).As tourism is an activity characterized by a marked seasonality, it is not surprising that the highest standard deviation was with the question referring to the flexible use of annual leave, but it is a problem that is common for all the employees in the tourism industry, not only for employees at travel agencies.The answer to the question why the large discrepancies are in the questions relating to the satisfaction with salaries could be found in different responses of those holding managerial and nonmanagerial position (the equivalent is a salary), and in the length of employment and experience of the respondents.The high value of standard deviation in the analysis of responses to the question about satisfaction with stimulation by their organizations may be found in different methods and levels of incentives, which vary from agency to agency.The actual results of the survey findings are of strategic and tactical importance for the holders of tourism policy at the regional and local level and are formulated to be applicable in the modern tourist practice.
value-percept model, job satisfaction may be expressed by the formula: S = (Vˏ -P) x Vỉ Satisfaction = (want -have) x importance S= satisfaction; Vˏ = value content (amount wanted); P = perceived amount of the value provided by the job, Vỉ = the importance of the value to the individual.This model predicts that discrepancies between what is desired and what is received are dissatisfying only if the job is important to the individual
There is trust between supervisors and employees 57.1 67.3 67.4 Supervisors listen to employees and take their ideas into consideration 44.8 68.5 65.2 Supervisors treat employees fairly and reward them accordingly -67.4 60.9 Employees are informed about the enterprise's condition -49.5 59.1 Employees are informed about the management's plans downloaded from the EWCS, 2005-2010; European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions).

Table 3 .
Demographic data of the respondents.
Source: research by authors.

Table 4 .
Research survey data for primary determinants of employee satisfaction (N=107).

Table 5 .
The results of the survey of employee satisfaction (motivation factors, N=107).