CONFLICTS BETWEEN ENGINEERS AND TECHNICIANS: THE CASE OF SRI LANKAN HOTEL FACILITIES' MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENTS

Abstract

Conflicts between engineers and technicians in maintenance departments of hotels can be impacted on both individual and organizational performance either constructively or destructively. Generally, the destructive impacts of conflicts on organizational performance are severe than constructive impacts. Therefore, understanding the nature of the major conflicts between engineers and technicians in maintenance departments is significant to provide high- quality maintenance services within hotel facilities to deliver the best hospitality services to foreign and local guests. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the nature of existing major conflicts between engineers and technicians in the maintenance departments of Sri Lankan hotel facilities. A qualitative approach was adopted by using the case study research strategy (five nr of cases) and empirical data was collected via two expert interviews in each case, and document review within selected cases. Manual content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings of this study revealed that 13 existence major conflicts between engineers and technicians in maintenance departments of Sri Lankan hotel facilities were based on seven conflict categories with comparing the literature findings.