Critical managerial skills in the accommodation sector: The voice of the industry
Abstract
Dynamic labour structures within the tourism industry require employees to be adept and prepared for industry demands to deliver quality products. In South Africa, the role of tertiary institutions is to equip future tourism employees with these abilities; however, employers feel that graduates cannot fulfil industry’s demand, which creates challenges for students and tertiary institutions. As such, this research aimed to determine the managerial skills required by the accommodation sector in South Africa.
The study’s findings reflect industry role players’ viewpoints regarding new graduates and their employability and may be utilised to improve current tourism management qualifications at tertiary education institutions.
Downloads
References
Allen, Judy. 2004. Marketing your event planning business: A creative approach to gaining the competitive advantage. Ontario: John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd.
Ayres, Helen. 2006. “Education and opportunities as influences on career development: findings from a preliminary study in Eastern Australian Tourism.” Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 5(1): 19‒28.
Bagri, S. C., Suresh Babu, and Mohit Kukreti. 2010. “Human resource practices in hotels: A study from the tourist state of Uttrakhand, India.” Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality and Tourism 9(3): 286‒299.
Barthorpe, Stephen and Melanie Hall. 2000. “A collaborative approach to placement preparation and career planning for university students: A case study.” Journal of Vocational Education and Training 51(2): 165‒175.
Baum, Tom. 2002. “Skills and training for the hospitality sector: A review of issues.” Journal Of Vocational Education and Training 54(3): 343‒364.
Baum, Tom and Edith Szivas. 2008. “HRD in tourism: A role for the government?” Tourism Management 29: 783‒794.
Berndt, Adele and Danie Petzer. 2011. Marketing Research. Cape Town: Pearson Education South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
Connolly, Pauline and Geraldine McGing. 2006. “Graduate education and hospitality management in Ireland.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 18(1): 50‒59.
Craig-Smith, Stephen J. and Peiyi Ding. 2007. “Tourism degree education in Australia and its relevance to China.” Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism 7(1): 45‒67.
Dale, Crispin and Neil Robinson. 2001. “The theming of tourism education: A three-domain approach.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 13(1): 30‒34.
Dwyer, Larry, Deborah Edwards, Nina Mistilis, Carolina Roman, and Noel Scott. 2009. “Destination and enterprise management for a tourism future.” Tourism Management 30: 63‒74.
Ewan, Michelle. 2012. “Research area: Tera-Scale.” http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/Tera-scale/1421.htm. (Accessed 27 April 2014).
George, Richard. 2007. Managing tourism in South Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
George, Richard. 2013. Marketing tourism in South Africa. 4th Edition. Cape Town: Oxford.
Harkison, Tracy, Jill Poulston, and Jung-Hee Ginny Kim. 2011. “Hospitality graduates and managers: the big divide.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 23(3): 377‒392.
Hernandez-March, Julio, Mónica Martín del Peso, and Santiago Leguey. 2009. “Graduates’ skills and higher education: The employers perspective.” Tertiary Education and Management 15: 1‒16.
Iatagan, Mariana, Christina Dinu, and Anna Maria Stoica. 2010. “Continuous training of human resources – a solution to crisis going out.” Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences 2: 5139‒5146.
Jacob, Seibu Mary, Lee Miin Huui, and Su Sueh Ing. 2006. “Employer satisfaction with graduate skills – A case study from Malaysian business enterprises.” International Conference on Business and Information (BAI 2006), 12‒14 July Singapore, Vol. 6231(1): 6231.
Jennings, Gaile, Michael Scantlebury, and Kara Wolfe. 2009. “Tertiary travel and tourism education: Using action research cycles to provide information on pedagogical applications associated with reflexivity, team-based learning and communities of practice.” Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism 9(3‒4): 193‒215.
Jeou-Shyan, Horng, Chih-Hsing L. Hsuan Hsu, Liu Lin, Tsai Chang-Yen. 2011. “Competency analysis of top managers in the Taiwanese hotel industry.” International Journal of Hospitality Management 30: 1044‒1054.
Johanson, Misty, Richard Ghiselli, Linda Shea, and Chris Roberts. 2010. “Revealing key competencies of hospitality graduates demanded by industry: A 25 year review.” International CHRIE conference refereed, track 5: 1‒10.
Lamb, Charles W., Joseph F. Hair, Carl McDaniel, C. Boshoff, N. Terblanche, R. Elliott, and H. B. Klopper. 2012. Marketing. 4th Edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Lamminmaki, Dawne. 2008. “Accounting and the management of outsourcing: An empirical study in the hotel industry.” Management Accounting Research 19: 163‒181.
Lillicrap, Dennis and John Cousins. 2006. Food and beverage service. 7th Edition. London: Hodder Arnold.
Machado, Evelio F., Marcos T. Zambrano, and Nancy Montes de Oca. 2015. “Epistemic evaluation of the training and managerial competence development process.” Propositos y Representaciones 3(2): 179‒225.
Mayaka, Melphon and John S. Akama. 2007. “Systems approach to tourism training and education: The Kenyan case study.” Tourism Management 28: 298‒306.
Morgan, Michael. 2004. “From production line to drama school: Higher education for the future of tourism.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 16(2): 91‒99.
Mulder, Martin, Tanja Weigel, and Kate Collins. 2007. “The concept of competence in the development of vocational education and training in selected EU member states: a critical analysis.” Journal of Vocational Education and Training 59: 67‒88.
Naidoo, Vikash. 2006. “International education: A tertiary-level industry update.” Journal of Research in International Education 5(3): 323‒345.
O’Neill, Martin and Steven Charters. 2000. “Service quality at the cellar door: Implications for Western Australia’s developing wine tourism industry.” Managing Service Quality 10(2): 112‒122.
Pallant, Julie. 2010. SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS. 4th Edition. England: Open University Press.
Peacock, Nicola and Adele Ladkin. 2002. “Exploring relationships between higher education and industry: A case study of a university and the local tourism industry.” Industry and Higher Education 16(6): 393‒401.
Richie, Brent W. 2003. Managing educational tourism. London: Channel View Publications.
Saayman, Melville. 2006. Marketing tourism products and destinations: Getting back to basics. 2nd Edition. Potchefstroom: Leisure C Publications.
Saayman, Melville, and Susan Geldenhuys. 2003. “An analysis of skills required for selected sectors of the tourism industry.” SA Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation 25(1): 83‒95.
Slabbert, Elmarie and Melville Saayman. 2003. Guesthouse management in South Africa. 2nd Edition. Potchefstroom: Institute for tourism and leisure studies.
Statistics South Africa. 2009. “Key findings, quarterly labour force survey.” http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/statsdownload.asp?PPN=P0211&SCH=4503. (Accessed: 17 March 2017).
STATS SA see Statistics South Africa.
Thekiso, Thabo Abel. 2011. “Management performance measurement business school educated managers in the North-West and Vaal Triangle areas.” Masters dissertation, North-West University.
Thrane, Christer. 2010. “Education and earnings in the tourism industry – the role of sheepskin effects.” Tourism Economics 16(3): 549‒563.
Tsaur, Sheng-Hshiung and Yi-Chun Lin. 2003. “Promoting service quality in tourist hotels: The role of HRM practices and service behaviour.” Tourism Management 24: 471‒481.
Van der Merwe, Peet. 1999. “A training analysis of the tourism industry in the North-West province.” Masters dissertation, Potchefstoomse Universiteit vir Christelike Hoër Onderwys.
Wessels, Walter, Engelina du Plessis, and Elmarie Slabbert. 2017. “Key competencies and characteristics of accommodation managers.” SA Journal of Human Resource Management 15(0). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.887.
Wong, Jia. 2008. “Is tourism education meeting the needs of the tourism industry: An Australian case study.” Masters dissertation, University of Canberra.
Zehrer, Anita and Claudia Mössenlechner. 2009. “Key competencies of tourism graduates: The employers’ point of view.” Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism 9(3‒4): 266‒287.
Ziegler, Jackie, Philip Dearden, and Rick Rollins. 2012. “But are tourists satisfied? Importance-performance analysis of the whale shark tourism industry in Isla Holbox, Mexico.” Tourism Management 33: 692‒701.
Copyright (c) 2021 Walter Wessels, Engelina Du Plessis, Elmarie Slabbert
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
