| Author: | Fang, Ching Ching Brenda |
| Title: | The effects of hospitality students' post-internship managerial competencies, work attitudes, and internship satisfaction on future career intentions in Taiwan |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Subject: | College students -- Taiwan -- Attitudes. Hotel management -- Study and teaching -- Taiwan. Career development -- Taiwan. Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xxi, 222 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the future career intention of hospitality students in order to attract and retain qualified workers in the hospitality industry and to address the problem of deficiency in the hospitality workforce. Since the late 2000s, the worldwide economic recession has resulted in a downturn in the world labor market. Unemployment has become a serious problem for many countries, and majority of them have suffered from serious recession. By contrast, the tourism and hospitality industry has thrived and remained robust. Nowadays, the tourism and hospitality business is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the world. It is an economic powerhouse and job creator as well. Alongside the booming of business in this field, the demand for manpower also increased. Although a majority of countries have high unemployment rates, the number of employees retained in the hospitality industry has been decreasing. The deficiency of workforce in the hospitality industry has not yet been addressed because of the considerable unemployment rate. With the heavy involvement of personalized service, the hospitality industry is considered to be a labor-intensive business and depends on a well-qualified workforce to operate and manage products and services. Thus, the factors that affect the career intentions of hospitality students are explored in this paper in order to attract and retain qualified workers and to address the problem of deficiency in the hospitality workforce. Based on intensive literature reviews, previous studies confirmed that the career intentions of hospitality students are significantly affected by (1) what the managerial competencies of students are and how these could be improved during internship, (2) perceptions of students on work attitude during internship, and (3) internship satisfaction of students. Previous research further confirmed that both post-internship managerial competency and work attitude have direct and indirect effects (mediated by internship satisfaction) on the career intention of hospitality students. Therefore, the following model was developed in this study: [diagram : see article file for the details of the abstract]. This conceptual model consists of seven hypotheses, which are as follows: (1) The post-internship managerial competencies of hospitality students have a positive effect on their internship satisfaction. (2) The work attitude of hospitality students has a positive effect on their internship satisfaction. (3) The internship satisfaction of hospitality students has a positive effect on their career intentions. (4) The post-internship managerial competencies of hospitality students have a positive effect on their career intentions. (5) The work attitude of hospitality students has a positive effect on their career intentions. (6) The post-internship managerial competencies of hospitality students have an indirect, positive effect on their career intentions, which is mediated by their internship satisfaction. (7) The work attitude of hospitality students has an indirect, positive effect on their career intentions, which is mediated by the internship satisfaction of students. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The measurement scale of this research was developed mainly from the results of focus group interviews and the literature review. A pilot test was conducted to assess the reliability of the measurements. A total of 433 valid questionnaires were collected. For the data analysis methods, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied. Moreover, the principles and procedures of structural equation modeling were used in the analysis of the hypothesis model. Amos 20, a statistic software package, was employed to test the proposed structural model. From the research results, the proposed structural model and all seven hypothesized relationships are fully supported. Therefore, all research objectives are achieved. The findings indicate that both work attitude and post-internship managerial competency have positive, direct effects on internship satisfaction and future career intention; internship satisfaction has positive, direct effects on future career intention and mediates the relationship between work attitude/post-internship managerial competency and future career intention. In short, all seven hypotheses are statistically validated. Thus, the proposed structural model has strong statistical ability to predict the determinants of the future career intention of hospitality potential workers. The theoretical contributions of the study are as follows. First, it contributes to the literature by developing the measurements for the constructs of work attitude, post-internship managerial competency, and internship satisfaction. The findings also serve as a foundation for future research. Second, arguments on the managerial competencies that hospitality students could obtain during the internship are few; particularly, none are made in an Asian setting. Therefore, this study is considered constructive because it addresses this research gap. Third, the research makes a unique contribution by identifying the determinants of internship satisfaction of hospitality students and their future career intention. Fourth, the findings enrich career knowledge by revealing the mediating effect of internship satisfaction. Fifth, the study contributes to the literature by developing and refining the measurement scales of post-internship managerial competency, work attitude, and internship satisfaction. Finally, the labor shortage ratio of the hospitality industry is extremely high, particularly in Taiwan. From the findings of this work, the factors that influence the future career intention of hospitality students have been thoroughly investigated. The more the needs of students are realized, the more can they be attracted into this industry. Therefore, the results of the study can be beneficial for encouraging students to join this field, which also helps address the labor shortage problem in this sector. In summary, this study not only explores the essential factors that affect the future career intentions of hospitality students and analyzes the contributions of these determinants to their career intentions but also proposes suggestions to attract more hospitality students into the hospitality industry. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b25570997.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 6.72 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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