Hospitality management graduates’ perceptions of career factor importance and career factor experience

The purpose of this research was to examine the perceived importance and perceived experiences of career factors for hospitality management graduates and to examine differences in perceptions of hospitality graduates who left the hospitality industry with those who stayed. In addition, differences in perceptions between hospitality graduates and hiring managers were examined. Compared to those who had left the industry, hospitality graduates working in the hospitality industry indicated 11 factors were more important to them. Examples of these factors included having a career where graduates use their degree and a career with good promotion prospects. Graduates who left the hospitality industry indicated it was more important to have a career where they could contribute to society as compared to graduates that stayed in the industry. Hiring managers perceived their organizations offered more in a career than the graduates expected or deemed important which contradicts the findings from the graduates.     

Investigating the effects of self-efficacy on foodservice industry employees’ career commitment

Compared to workers in other kinds of occupations, such as technology services, foodservice industry workers face much higher psychological pressure with relatively lower pay. In an ideal foodservice industry, the human factor should not be neglected. With a relatively high turnover rate, understanding the psychological needs and conditions of foodservice industry workers would be helpful for the organizations and management to allow them to react properly and effectively. Previous research indicates that career commitment is the factor which most affects turnover rate. Researchers have discussed numerous motivation factors affecting career commitment, but they have not examined the relative contributions of self-system, i.e. individuals exercising control over their thoughts, feelings and actions. Among the beliefs with which an individual evaluates the control s/he has over his/her actions and environment, self-efficacy beliefs are the most influential arbiter of human activity. This empirical study examines the relationship between self-efficacy and career commitment in the foodservice sector. ANOVA of survey data from 1025 foodservice employees supported the relationship between self-efficacy and career commitment. A chi-square test found that high self-efficacy degrees indicate a higher level of career commitment. Our findings suggest that the higher an employees’ self-efficacy, the higher their career commitment will be.     

旅游专业本科生择业标准及其对旅行社的就业认知

旅游专业学生在本行业就业率低的问题一直困扰着旅游学术界、教育界和旅游行业,不少学者从不同角度研究并试图解决这一问题,但却很少从学生择业标准的角度去考虑.文章运用并检验里查得森(Richardson)择业影响因素量表,测量旅游专业本科生的择业标准及其对旅行社的就业认知,结果表明:学生认为旅行社不具备其择业时最看重的因素(“融洽的同事关系”、“喜欢的工作”、“良好的晋升机会”);并且学生认为旅行社具备的主要就业因素是其择业时最不看重的(“出国旅行的机会”、“专业对口”、“职业流动性”);学生认为旅行社存在超工作时间、超工作量、晋升机制不合理、起薪不理想等行业不规范现状,但学生也认为旅行社具有锻造高技能、有责任感人才的就业优势.根据学生择业标准与旅行社的就业认知IPA分析结果,文章提出了相应的对策来改善旅游本科生行业就业率低的问题.     

Hotel career management in China: Developing a measurement scale

This study aims to develop a measurement scale for organizational career management (OCM) in China's hotel industry. The scale development procedure includes four steps: developing initial items, implementing purifying measures, data collection, and assessing the reliability and validity of the proposed measurement scale. Both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) are used to test the reliability and validity of the measurement scale thus developed. The development process results in a reliable and valid scale for hotel career management incorporating three dimensions: (1) career appraisal and advice, (2) a career development program, and (3) career training. Given the scarcity of research on career management in China, the measurement scale developed in this study will serve as a foundation for future research. The findings of this study may help to stimulate further empirical research on the relationship between hotel career management and employees’ career commitment and career satisfaction.     

All people are created equal? Racial discrimination and its impact on hospitality career satisfaction

Drawing on self-determination theory, this paper investigated the level of racial discrimination in the hospitality industry and examined its effects on hospitality career satisfaction. Based on a sample of 179 hospitality students who were working in the industry, the study showed that racial discrimination is prevalent in the hospitality industry such that people of color suffer from a higher level of discrimination than Whites people. However, there is no difference in racial discrimination among racial/ethnic minority groups. Structural equation modeling results also showed that a high level of racial discrimination results in a lower level of hospitality career satisfaction. Overall, the results suggested that people of color have a lower level of career satisfaction via the mediating roles of racial discrimination and basic needs satisfaction. Results have theoretical and practical implications related to racial discrimination, as well as diversity management and education.     

The importance of career goal in relation to academic performance: a case study of hospitality management students

ABSTRACT

Hospitality management programs have commonly offered exclusive learning opportunities to talented students in order to keep “brains” in the industry. While academic performance indices are often used to identify “brains” in the education sector, scant research has empirically examined whether “brains” are intended to stay in the industry. This study surveyed 304 hospitality management students and examined the relationships between their career-goal related factors and academic performance. Findings indicate that career goal and positive job valence toward the hospitality industry are significantly related to academic performance. The results of this study contribute to the limited literature on the relationship between career goal and academic performance.     

Still pounding on the glass ceiling: A study of female leaders in hospitality,travel, and tourism management

Today, U.S. females represent the majority in both the hospitality and tourism management classroom and the work environment. However, the proverbial “glass ceiling” continues to exist, and evidence of career advancement obstacles remain salient in the hospitality, travel, and tourism management workplace. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of successful female industry leaders in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry, as well as their perceptions as to how they were able to overcome gender barriers and disparities. Findings offer participant reported “top issues” facing female leaders in the workplace, as well as strategies for overcoming these issues.     

Attitudes of Malaysian Tourism and Hospitality Students' towards a Career in the Industry

This study explored Malaysian undergraduate tourism and hospitality students' views of the industry as a career choice. Four hundred and twenty-nine tourism and hospitality students, from three Malaysian institutions completed a questionnaire rating the importance of 20 factors in influencing their choice of career, and then the extent to which they believed tourism and hospitality as a career offers these factors. All of the 20 factors tested have been identified as being significantly different. From the results, it is clear that students generally do not believe that a career in tourism and hospitality will offer them the factors that they find important.     

Undergraduates’ perceptions of tourism and hospitality as a career choice

This study explored undergraduate tourism and hospitality student's views of the industry as a career choice. Three hundred and seventy-nine tourism and hospitality students, from eight Australian institutions, completed a questionnaire rating the importance of 20 factors in influencing their choice of career, and then the extent to which they believed tourism and hospitality, as a career, offers these factors. A number of factors have been identified as being significantly different. From the results it is clear that students generally do not believe that a career in tourism and hospitality will offer them the factors that they find important.     

Are they leaving or staying: A qualitative analysis of turnover issues for Generation Y hospitality employees with a hospitality education

This research examines Generation Y hospitality employees with respect to why they would leave, or have left, the hospitality industry, what would cause them to return if they had left, and the perceived positive and negative career related traits of the hospitality industry. This research confirms Generation Y employees desire an exciting and challenging career, but also indicates they may be thinking more long-term in their career than typical Generation Y employees. Discussion and implications include how the results are useful for hospitality graduates, hospitality educators, and industry professionals.     

Silk and steel: A gendered approach to career and life by upper echelon women executives in the hospitality and tourism industry in China

This qualitative study represents one of the early attempts to uncover the lived experience of thriving of top female leaders in the tourism and hospitality industry in China. Based on the narratives of 21 women executives in the hospitality and tourism industry in China, this study reveals that upper echelon (top management) females thrive by taking a gendered approach to life and career in a cultural environment with a strong Confucian tradition. This research systematically explored the unique gendered orientations and strategies these women executives used to achieve optimal functioning, as manifested in their thriving in both life and career. They acknowledge gender differences, embrace female qualities rather than deny them, and leverage these qualities to their advantage. The study findings offer significant theoretical and practical implications by illuminating a thriving perspective of the career advancement of women.     

Mentoring for gender equality: Supporting female leaders in the hospitality industry

The hospitality industry struggles with problems with staff motivation, commitment and retention, whilst also having an entrenched glass ceiling that limits career opportunities for many women. Mentoring is a useful function to support and develop staff, and may be particularly important for helping women overcome gendered barriers to progression. This paper reports on a year-long qualitative study of a women’s mentoring programme in the hospitality industry in the UK. Drawing on data from 71 interviews with a sample of 13 mentors and 14 mentees, the findings illustrate the persistent gendered obstacles women experience as they try and negotiate careers in masculinist hospitality organisations. The mentoring programme offers individual support for the mentees, and also begins to challenge gendered discourses of success in hospitality careers, illustrating that mentoring has an important role to play in both career development and in confronting gender inequality in the hospitality industry.     

From hotel career management to employees’ career satisfaction: The mediating effect of career competency

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between perceived hotel career management, career competency, and career satisfaction. It also aims to examine the mediating processes through which hotel career management contribute to employees’ career satisfaction. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) show that career competency mediates the effects of three dimensions of hotel career management (career appraisal, career development, and career training) on career satisfaction. The article concludes with implications for theory development and management practice.     

Career Identity and its Relation to Career Anchors and Career Satisfaction: The Case of Convention and Exhibition Industry Professionals in Asia

This paper explores career identity and its relation to career anchors and career satisfaction, key demographic and job variables, specific to convention and exhibition (C&E) industry professionals in Asia. It reviews the key literature relating to career identity and career anchors, which is followed by a discussion of findings of an online survey of C&E industry professionals in Asia. Study results indicate that the majority of C&E professionals displayed a strong cognitive and affective identification with their career in the C&E industry. However, career identity varied significantly with the time respondents had been in the industry, job seniority and age. In terms of career anchors, the lifestyle anchor was found to be the most dominant career anchor, followed by challenge and autonomy. Examining the relation between career anchors with career identity revealed that the lifestyle anchor was more important to respondents with a weak career identity, whereas the challenge anchor was more important to respondents with a strong career identity. Managerial implications of the study findings and suggestions for future research are provided.     

The Hospitality Culture Scale: A measure organizational culture and personal attributes

The hospitality industry has a unique and specific culture when compared to other industries. Because of this, not everyone will want to make this industry a career, as evidenced by the high turnover. Yet, the hospitality industry needs to attract and keep motivated and dedicated employees. This study set out to discover attributes that are unique to hospitality organizations as well as the characteristics and values of a person who would be successful in a work environment that exhibited this culture. This includes determining if a person is a match to the culture of the hospitality industry. In order to identify the variables of hospitality culture, an extensive review of the literature and a panel of industry experts were consulted. The items identified from both groups were used to establish the constructs for a scale, which is called the Hospitality Culture Scale. Seven hundred and forty one hospitality professionals rated the attributes. Principal component analysis determined the final factors for the organizational culture and personal attributes. These constructs included: management principles, customer relationships, job variety, job satisfaction, principles, propitiousness, leadership, risk taker, accuracy, and composure.     

Ethics, trust and expectations regarding the treatment of disabled staff within a tourism/hospitality industry context

Whilst it has long been recognized that disabled employees can be the recipients of discrimination in the workplace, occasioned by many factors including physical appearance, relatively little is known regarding the ethical conceptualizations, trust responses and also problem-solving architecture that potential employees bring to such contexts, particularly in service industries such as tourism/hospitality. This study has examined discrimination shown to a disabled hospitality industry employee within an ethical framework, investigating personal ethical beliefs, individual ethical influences upon behaviour and also perceived management problem-solving response influences in the face of disability discrimination. The study has been conducted among a sample of university management students in a major Australian tourism destination, many of whom on graduation would seek employment within the tourism/hospitality industry.Three personal ethical belief types were identified: equity or procedural justice, competence and integrity, with both competence and integrity ethics being regarded as of higher value than equity. Major individual ethical influences included one's own values and also those of the ambient society; the most highly rated perceived management response involved the protection of company image whereas the least expected involved a management perspective focusing on justice of all people involved in the ethical dilemma.The competence ethical belief was found to predict the individual who would be influenced by a legal perspective; the justice for all management perspective was employed as a measure of respondent trust in management, with analyses revealing that the competence ethical belief, the career and societal influences and also gender being found associated with lower levels of trust in management's willingness to respond to disability discrimination in a just manner. The protection of company image as a management response, employed as a measure of mistrust, was associated with integrity personal ethical values, and also with career, societal and own ethical influences upon responses to an incident of disability discrimination. Implications for future research in this domain together with implications for the tourism/hospitality industry are examined.     

Am I choosing the right career? The implications of COVID-19 on the occupational attitudes of hospitality management students

The hospitality industry is under threat from COVID-19 and the possibility of future crises remains very real. To improve understanding of how such a crisis impacts the attractiveness of pursuing a career in the hospitality industry, this study examines the effects of negative emotions invoked by COVID-19 on hospitality management students’ occupational attitudes. Using a sample of 425 students, we find that in addition to diminishing their occupational identification and in turn, job choice intentions, that the effects of these negative emotions are channeled through three salient motivational pathways, namely self-efficacy, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and passion. Thus, the study not only advances theory by providing a more nuanced conceptualization of the effects of negative emotions on occupational attitudes but it identifies important leverage points that can be harnessed to help mitigate the harmful emotional effects of a crisis, such as COVID-19, important and timely contributions that the authors hope will benefit aspiring hospitality industry talent and help restore the attractiveness of careers in the hospitality industry. Future research directions and implications to theory and practice are discussed.     

Supervisory hotel employee perceptions of management careers and professional development requirements

Attracting and developing top flight management personnel for hotel companies is a continuing challenge. In many instances, such organizations fail to capitalize on the benefits of drawing such management recruits from within the ranks of their existing supervisory staff. This resource represents a potentially valuable source of condidates with a solid appreciation of how the company operates. However, this approach to management staffing is not without its own particular barriers. While many supervisory staff may have interest in management positions, they frequently are hesitant about making such career shifts. This hesitancy may be related to such factors as limited awareness of management opportunities and job requirements; perceived inability to perform such work; actual qualitative and technical characteristics of the job; and a lack of encouragement from within the organization. This paper provides insights into some of the critical factors necessary for attracting and developing supervisors for management positions. This is accomplished by surveying hotel supervisors with respect to their perceptions of management work in the hotel industry. By identifying these perspectives, the report suggests how hotel organizations may be able to modify their current in-house management recruiting systems so as to attract and nurture top flight supervisory personnel for management careers.     

Student career prospect and industry commitment: The roles of industry attitude,perceived social status,and salary expectations

This study examines the effects of students' perceptions of the nature and social status of work in the tourism and hospitality industries, and of their salary expectations, on their attitudes toward career prospects and employment intention. Results based on a sample of tourism and hospitality students in a major Asia Pacific travel destination indicated that the perceived nature of the work had no significant relationship with career prospects; however, nature of the work was a significant factor contributing to the perceived social status of the industry. In addition, social status had an effect on the students' perceptions of the career prospects, and perceived career prospects was a significant determinant to students' commitment to the industry. The author further explores the moderating effect of salary expectation and discusses theoretical and practical implications of the results. Findings of this study provide a fuller understanding of industry commitment and its antecedents.     

Coping Strategies Used by Lodging Managers to Balance Work and Personal Lives: An Exploratory Study

The hospitality industry offers services to consumers around the clock, every day of the year. Lodging managers, in particular, are required to work long hours in a highly unpredictable and stressful environment. Consequently, a successful career in hotel management leaves little time for outside activities which often leads managers to leave such positions or the industry altogether. The purpose of this study is to explore the coping strategies used by lodging managers who have a successful balance between their work and personal lives. Eight coping strategies are identified by interviewing 15 lodging managers.