Robotic life of casino employees: exploring well-being dimensions in the gambling industry in Malaysia

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2022-0051
• Published date: 16 January 2023
• Date: 16 January 2023
• Pages: 512-529
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Kamelia Chaichi,Alexander Trupp,Mageswari Ranjanthran,K. Thirumaran

Robotic life of casino employees:

exploring well-being dimensions in

the gambling industry in Malaysia

Kamelia Chaichi

Business School, Queen Margaret University, Musselburgh, UK and

School of Hospitality and Service Management, Sunway University,

Bandar Sunway, Malaysia

Alexander Trupp

School of Hospitality and Service Management, Sunway University,

Bandar Sunway, Malaysia

Mageswari Ranjanthran

Sunway Business School, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia, and

K. Thirumaran

JCU Singapore Business School, James Cook University Australia-Singapore Campus,

Singapore, Singapore

Abstract

Purpose –Employee well-being in a casino work environment is crucial for the quality of work-life and

employees’performance. This study examines the dimensions of well-being at a casino in Malaysia to gain

deeper insights into employee challenges and motivational factors to arrive at practical mitigation efforts.

Design/methodology/approach –The study adopted a qualitative approach involving 14 semi-structured

interviews with casino employees in Malaysia. Interviews lasted 30 min to 2 h at a time when Covid-19 was

raging in 2021. Responses were analysed via a data-driven approach and coded using NVivo software to

delineate the contents into analytical categories of well-being dimensions.

Findings –The findings suggest that employees at the casino face challenges in achieving work-life balance.

Employee’s well-being suffers from insufficient break time, irregular working hours affecting family time,

managing customer temper tantrums and lack of emotional support systems and remunerations altered by the

pandemic. Women employees were particularly vulnerable.

Research limitations/implications –The findings suggest a need to create better working conditions and

address well-being with counselling support for stress management, a balanced approach by employers to the

“customer is always right”mantra, creating promising career pathways and supervisors to have better

oversight of workaholics. The research focused only on one casino and there was limited access to management

departments for an organizational perspective.

Originality/value –This study adds to the body of knowledge on employee well-being in thecontext of a casino.

It suggests hospitality and tourism organizations review their human resource practices that would ease the stresses

at the workplace and create support systems to promote employee well-being. Crucially, in a pandemic crisis, well-

being dimensions must be accommodating and integrative to employee sentiments, sensitivity and self-actualization.

Keywords Quality of work life, Well-being, Employee perspective, Covid-19, Motivations, Stress,

Support systems

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Most employees spend much of their life in workspaces, so the quality of work life (QWL)

influences one’s overall well-being and work performance (Kim et al., 2019). Scholars defined

EDI

42,4

512

The authors would like to thank the International Research Network Grant Scheme (IRNGS) of Sunway

University for funding parts of this research.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 21 February 2022

Revised 18 July 2022

19 December 2022

28 December 2022

Accepted 28 December 2022

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 4, 2023

pp. 512-529

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-02-2022-0051

employee well-being based on various indicators such as felt happiness, satisfaction

(Rasool et al., 2021), job security (Dawson et al., 2017), heavy work investment through work

engagement and workaholism (Shimazu et al., 2015), supportive organizational climate (Kim

et al., 2019) and employee empowerment (Krishnan, 2012). A related concept is QWL,

referring to an individual’s perception of their work and the broader working environment,

including physical features of the work environment, working hours, career opportunities

and work-life/family balance (Wan and Chan, 2013). In this study we will use the term

employee well-being relating broadly to the “overall quality of an employee’s experience and

functioning at work”(Grant et al., 2007, p. 52).

Knowing whatmakes employees appreciate their workand what they find challenging for

the hospitality and service sector industries is essential. Satisfied or happy employees are more

likelyto be retained,which is especiallyimportantfor an industry characterized bya shortage of

employeesand high turnoverrates (Stergiou and Farmaki, 2021). Employeesform a crucial part

of hospitality or leisure organizations for organizational success. Therefore, refining employee

well-being should be an important goal for any organization (Chan and Ao, 2019). Casino

employees’well-being is considered an asset for service delivery, resulting in better employee

performance and ultimately affecting customer retention and casino profitability (Prentice,

2018). A favourablerelationship between human resource (HR)practices and the well-beingof

employees isa win-win situation for both employees and managers (Salas Vallina et al., 2021).

Whilst the concepts of work well-being and QWL have been applied to various

organizational contexts (Diener, 2009;Rasool et al., 2021;Ryff, 1989), research into the

hospitality sector, particularly in the casino industry, is rare (Wan and Chan, 2013),

representing a research gap. Furthermore, Covid-19 brought about unprecedented and severe

impacts on all levels of the service and hospitality sector, which requires a re-evaluation ofthe

well-being of employees (Prentice et al., 2021). There is limited research on casino employees

due to the nature of the industry, which shields its employee data (Hsu, 2006). Previous

research on casino employees studied the effects of satisfaction and organizational

commitment on turnover intentions (Aho, 2020), job insecurity (Cheung et al., 2019),

employee gambling behaviour (Zeng et al., 2021), casino profitability (Prentice, 2018) and the

impact of sexual harassment (Tsai et al., 2022).

Most of the existing research on casino employees is quantitative (Youn et al., 2018;Zeng

et al., 2021) and recent studies suggest more qualitative research to gain deeper insights into

motivational factors for Casino employee satisfaction and well-being (Chan and Ao, 2019).

Moreover, to the authors’knowledge, no study has been conducted on Casino employee

well-being in Malaysia. Studies of casino-related research in Malaysia focused on customer

retention Prentice et al. (2012) and productive gambling businesses (Rathakrishnan and

George, 2021). This qualitative research explores the dimensions and influences of casino

employee well-being. There are three unique features to this work. First, addressing the

well-being of employees in a casino context which represents an under-researched setting due

to the industry shielding its employee data. Second, research concerning casinos is novel in

the regional context of a predominantly Muslim country such as Malaysia where Muslims are

forbidden to gamble. Third, the research was conducted during Covid-19 and contributes to

the emerging findings of employee well-being during the pandemic.

2. Literature review

2.1 Dimensions and influences of employee well-being

The last decades have seen a growing number of studies exploring employee well-being in

different organizational contexts (Danna and Griffin, 1999;Warhurst and Knox, 2022;Grote

and Guest, 2017;Ryan and Deci, 2001;Ryff,1989). Employee well-being demonstrated various

positive organizational outcomes, for instance, organizational performance, job satisfaction,

Robotic life

of casino

employees

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