Recebido em 08.1 0.2020
Aprovado em 03.12 .2020
Avaliado pelo sistema double blind review Editor Científico: Marlusa de Sevilha Gosling
ISSN 2525- 8176
DOI: 10.29149/mtr.v6i1.6438
Career Opportunities in the Hotel Industry: The Perspective of Hotel Management Undergraduate Students from the City of São Paulo
Gabriel A. Kilson (gabrielkilson@outlook.com )
Lisbon School of Economics & Management, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
ABSTRACT
Attracting and retaining highly skilled employees might be a challenging mission in the hotel industry. Thus, this study aims to uncover how hotel management undergraduate students evaluate the hotel industry capacity to offer attractive career opportunities. Following a qualitative approach, 13 students from a college in São Paulo, Brazil, were selected based on a judgment sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at the college’s campus to collect the data. Through a thematic analysis, it was found that the course enabled students to develop a more realistic view of the work in hotels and broaden their professional horizons. Furthermore, although the students tended to evaluate functional benefits package as insufficient, they still consider this industry as an attractive career option.
Keywords: Employer Branding, Undergraduate Students, Hotel Industry, Career Opportunities.
INTRODUCTION
The demand for qualified professionals has been increasing (Ruchika & Prasad, 2019), and the tourism sector is not an exception (Araujo & Ramos, 2014). In the tourism sector, this competition is incredibly fierce when attracting professionals with a bachelor´s degree in Tourism and Hotel Management (Lin, Chiang & Wu, 2018). Employees with high qualification
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levels are more confident regarding their professional capabilities. Hence, they are not so concerned or “stuck” with an organization because they know that many companies would request their professional services (Yang, Wan & Wu, 2015). This way, many companies are now developing strategies to differentiate themselves as employers (Ruchika & Prasad, 2019).
Many tourism and hospitality undergraduate students do not beli eve that this sector offers them what they are pursuing in a professional career (Richardson, 2009; Kim & Park 2013; Le, Klieve & McDonald, 2018). Consequently, part of these professionals give up from entering in the tourism sector or only stay until they find a more appealing job, which generates a high employee turnover rate (Janta, Ladkin, Brown, & Lugosi, 2011; Le et al. , 2018).
Some of the main reasons for this high turnover rate are low wages, long working hours, lack of predictability on their schedule, as well as few professional growth opportunities (Richardson, 2009; Dreher, Rueckert & Hayde, 2010; Yang, Wan & Fu, 2012; Yao, Qiu & Wei, 2019). Unfortunately, the improvement in the human resources issues present in this sector seems to happen at a plodding pace (Baum, 2015).
Because it is required that hotel employees should take care of the hotel guests, attending to their necessities and requests in a hospitable manner, businesses in the hotel sector should offer hospitality not only to their guest s but also to their employees. The hotel managers aim should be to understand and attend the necessities and demands of their employees (Lu & Adler, 2009) in a safe environment and with dignity (King, 1995).
To win this talent hunting “battle”, organizations must adopt strategies to enhance their attractiveness to their current and potential employees by evolving into an “employer of choice” (Wilden, Gudergan & Lings, 2010). Therefore, for the human resources practices to improve and became distinct, organizations must invest in it(Joo & Mclean, 2006). To succeed in the tourism sector, companies need a qualified and motivated team (Catramby & Costa, 2004; Dreher et al., 2010; Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Mota & Anjos, 2012;
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Aranha & Rocha, 2014; Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Marques, Darn & Immamura, 2018; Yao et al., 2019; Frye, Kang, Huh, & Lee, 2020).
Employees can have a direct impact on an organization brand as they are considered the “face” of a company. The brand may be affected not only by the current employees but also by former and potential employees (Cascio & Graham, 2016). Thus, considering the relevance of the human resources quality and the difficulty faced by the tourism sector to attract and retain highly qualified employees, the objective of this study was to uncover how hotel management undergraduate students evaluate the hotel industry capacity to offer attractive career opportunities in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The employers may have some insights where they should direct their efforts to improve the employment attractiveness of this industry through an analysis of the student perspective.
A qualitative methodology was chosen for the present study following Marques et al. (2018) suggestion that qualitative studies should be developed in Brazil to contribute to the understating of its tourism reality. Also, recent studies focused on the perception of hospitality undergraduate students (Le et al., 2018) and employees (Frye et al., 2020) regarding work perspectives in this industry in which quantitative methods were used, revealed an opportunity to conduct qualitative researches in this area.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A not so attractive sector to work in
The professional options for a tourism undergraduate student are vast, including the lodging, restaurant, transport, leisure, and entertainment industries (Silveira, Medaglia & Nakatani, 2020). Besides that, due to this courses multidisciplinary composition, which include general subjects like economics, sociology, management, marketing, and statistics (Aranha & Rocha, 2014), the tourism professionals develop skills that are relevant for other industries (Baum, 2015), allowing them to work in other industries beyond the tourism sector.
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At the same time, the tourism sector is dominated, very often, by small companies, managed by inexperienced professionals that do not consider the qualification of their employees as a priority (Janta et al., 2011; Sogayar & Rejowski, 2011; Aranha & Rocha, 2014) contributing for its image of a low skill sector (Baum, 2015). Similarly, like many other industries from the service sector, the tourism sector in Brazil, generally, has employees with a low qualification level working in informal and temporary jobs (Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Marques et al., 2018).
Despite evaluating as positive the course relationship between theory and practice, most professionals with a degree in tourism find it challenging to get a desirable job in this area (Marques et al., 2018). Among the reasons for it are the lack of job promotion perspectives, many job opportunities do not require an academic degree, the area is not recognized and accepted by the market, and low wages (Aranha & Rocha, 2014; Marques et al., 2018). Professionals with a degree in tourism still receive low wages despite their growth in recent years (Silveira et al., 2020). Furthermore, the tourism sector poor image acts as a barrier to attract and retain qualified professionals (Dreher et al., 2010; Sogayar & Rejowski, 2011; Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Aranha & Rocha, 2014). This lack of qualified employees negatively affects the service quality and the image of the tourism sector jobs in Brazil (Araujo & Ramos, 2014).
According to Aranha and Rocha (2014), the tourism courses in Brazil are facing a crisis; many of the graduation courses have been discontinued. Because tourism professionals are not receiving the recognition they should, due to the importance of this area for the country development, it may explain this crisis. Questions like “What is studied in the tourism course?” and “What is the role of a tourism professional?” are common and contribute to a depreciation of the course relevance. Moreover, many professionals with a degree in tourism face difficulties to find a job. Also, most of the available positions are associated with low salaries and activities that any professional, with a minimum instruction degree could do.
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In a scenario where it is hard to find an attractive job, only few students in Brazil would be interested in applying for a tourism graduation course (Aranha & Rocha, 2014; Silveira et al., 2020). Supporting these findings, a study conducted by Kim and Park (2013) showed that after experiencing the work reality in the hotel industry through an internship program, hospitality and tourism management undergraduate students tended to evaluate professional aspects, like workload, wages, the balance between work and family life, and promotion prospects, worse than before the internship. Similarly, Brown, Thomas, and Bosselman (2015) concluded that students from the hospitality area, who recently started to work in the industry, do not have a realistic view about the work reality, including compensation, the balance between personal and work, and also the working conditions.
The urgency for a better human resource management
The tourism sector is known for its human resource management difficulties worldwide (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Baum, 2015), in which high employee turnover rates are a common issue (Yao et al., 2019; Frye et al. , 2020). These jobs are often only taken as an interim occupation, where employees remain until they find their desired job (Janta et al., 2011). Consequently, problems often arise during the recruitment and selection process for qualified and truly motivated professionals to work in the hotels (Le et al., 2018).
To set up a sustainable business, a hotel needs to develop its capability to attract, manage and retain their best human resources (Catramby & Costa, 2004; Dreher et al., 2010; Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Mota & Anjos, 2012; Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Marques et al., 2018; Yao et al., 2019). In an environment where the tourists are more demanding than ever, the tourism sector is unlikely to generate good results without qualified professionals (Aranha & Rocha, 2014).
Since the competition for qualified workers has increased in the tourism sector (Araujo & Ramos, 2014), especially for employees with bachelor ´s
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degree in Tourism and Hotel Management (Lin et al., 2018), it has become essential to improve the human resources practices in this area (Baum, 2015). In this context, companies must develop strategies so they turn themselves attractive to their current employees, and to future potential candidates emerging as an “employer of choice” (Wilden et al., 2010). Therefore, upper management, executives and other employees should consider that they provide an efficient and positive company service to both their external and internal clients (Yao et al., 2019).
It is essential to discuss and reverse this negative perception to attract and retain the best talents, such as the hotel management undergraduate students (Dreher et al., 2010). Employers must demonstrate a real interest in the employee learning, motivation, satisfaction, and identification with their work in the hotels (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Frye et al., 2020). They also should consider that the qualification obtained by a student through a graduation course represents a rich source of knowledge that may take a long time for an employee with only a technical course to develop on his/her own. Hence, the hotel management undergraduate students must be deemed as an essential source of competitive advantage in the hotel industry (Gandara, Luque & Paixão, 2004).
Rethinking the employment experience in the hotel industry
Brands are among the most valuable assets in a company, making their administration a crucial activity that must be expanded to the human resources area (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004; Cascio & Graham, 2016; Ruchika & Prasad, 2019). Created by Ambler and Barrow (1996), the employer brand’s concept designs a brand that all companies, conscious or not, have as employers. Depending on how the market perceives these companies positioning as employers, their brands may be positive or negative. Because of it, employers need to carefully manage their brands to create an image that truly represents the essence of their employment experience, allowing them to attract and retain the best talents. Employers that do not assume a
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proactive attitude to shape their brands incur a severe risk of having it shaped without them (Cascio & Graham, 2016).
The loyalty level, trust, awareness, and positive attitudes concerning the brand influence the employees’ performance, and consequently, the organization’s performance (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). Therefore, employer branding aim is to build a unique brand that differentiates a company, as an employer, from others (Biswas & Suar 2018; Ruchika & Prasad, 2019). To carry out the identity construction process, an organization should join marketing and human resources efforts and direct them to their current and potential employees (Edwards, 2009; Cascio & Graham, 2016) to increase its attractiveness and to improve its reputation as an employer (Sivertzen, Nilsen & Olafsen, 2013).
Empirical evidence from different studies demonstrated some of the many potential benefits that investments in the employment experience may generate for a company. During their internship, the social experien ce developed by students with their work colleagues plays a vital role by increasing their satisfaction related to the internship program and interest to work in this sector (Kim & Park, 2013). Another study suggests that employers might raise their employees’ satisfaction and organizational performance through internal marketing practices that take into consideration the employees specific needs due to their different cultural backgrounds (Huang & Rundle-Thiele, 2014). When the frontline employees identify themselves with the organization values, it tends to enhance the employees’ emotional engagement and their work dedication. This “values fit” is essential for successfully delivering a brand promise in the hospitality industry (Buil, Martínez & Matute, 20 16).
Moreover, companies in which their employees perceive the working conditions as favorable tend to have lower absenteeism rates (Stobbeleir et al., 2018). Generation Y employees tend to have a higher job satisfaction when they work in a company with a positive work environment, and empowerment culture, positive relationships with managers, and good
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salaries (Frye et al., 2020). Besides that, Tumasjan, Kunze, Bruch, and Welpe (2020) found that an effective employer branding strategy may benefit a company recruitment efficacy and higher positive affective climate of incumbent employees. This positive affective climate generates benefits for the organizational performance.
The hotel labor conditions and human resources practices must be revised and improved (Baum, 2015) to combat the high employee turnover rates (Yao et al., 2019; Frye et al., 2020). The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) will depend on how useful or relevant is the company benefits package that is offered to its current and potential consumers, in this case, the employees. The brand value is also affected by the differentiation degree concerning competitors EVP (Ambler & Barrow, 1996). Thereby, for an EVP be considered relevant and appreciated by its employees, companies need to segment the “professional market” (Moroko & Uncles, 2009; Wilden et al., 2010) and spot what type of benefits their employees desire, collecting qualitative and quantitative data (Cascio & Graham, 2016). Finally, employers need to create a proposal, including functional and symbolic benefits, with a unique value (Edwards, 2009; Bharwani & Butt, 2012), matching the requirements from those professionals that they want to attract and retain (Richardson, 2009; Wilden et al., 2010; Cascio & Graham, 2016; Ruchika & Prasad, 2019). This way,
“[…] hotels must treat jobs as products and try to effectively market the position to employees, creating a synergy between how an employee feels about the hotel and vice-versa. This is then reflected in the way that they disseminate their services to the customers” (Kaurav, Paul & Chowdhary, 2015, p. 326).
Then, the companies which desire to improve their human resources results and the general company performance must consider the employer branding a “best practice” strategic approach (Ruchika & Prasad, 2019; Tumasjan et al., 2020).
METHODOLOGY
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Qualitative research with a descriptive purpose was chosen to uncover how the hotel management undergraduate students assess the hotel industry’s capacity to offer attractive career opportunities in the city of São Paulo in Brazil. Qualitative researches allow the researcher to understand how people evaluate their experiences and give meaning to their reality. Therefore, the researcher gathers the data directly from the field to be able to understand the phenomenon through the perspective of those who are involved, covering the entire environmental context and, thus, contributing with revelations about people social behavior (Yin, 2016).
The selection of participants for this study was based on a judgment sample (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2016), aiming for a maximum variation of participants. The interviews were carried out until a point of data saturation was reached, that occurred after the 13th participant. Considering the descriptive character of this study and intending to get answers for the open questions, the data collection method used was the semi-structured interview. All interviews were taken following the same interview guide; some additional queries were added on each interview depending on the conversation flow. The interview guide was based on a 20-point questionnaire used by Richardson (2009), especially on the points “6. Good promotion prospects”, “10. A job where I can use my university degree”, “13. Reasonable workload” and “18. Good starting salary”. Table 1 displays the interview guide questions used in this study.
Table 1
Interview’s Guide
1. Students’ evaluation of the hotel industry as an employer
1.1. Nowadays, does the hotel industry offer you any attractive carrier opportunities?
1.2. Does the hotel industry’s job offer you any differential that few or no other industries would offer?
1.3. Does the hotel category affect in any way the attractiveness of this hotel as an employer?
1.5. Does the size of the company which manages the hotel affect in any way the attractiveness of this hotel as an employer?
2. Students’ evaluation of the hotel industry regarding its professional demands versus its benefits package
2.1. How do you evaluate the hotel industry’s job regarding the following aspects?
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2.1.1. Carer promotion opportu nities
2.1.2. Wages perspectives
2.1.3. Intellectual challenge’s degree 2.1.4. Work schedule and work rotas 2.1.5. Work the public’s image
3. University degree's influence on the students' expectations regarding the hotel industry career´s perspectives
3.1. Have your expectations regarding the work in the hotel industry changed after you started your graduation course?
3.2. How relevant do you think the knowledge and abilities acquired during your graduation course are for the hotel industry work?
3.3. In your opinion, do you think it is necessary to hold a university degree in hotel management to work in a hotel?
3.3.1. Which work positions do you think should only be taken by people that hold a university degree in hotel management?
3.4 After you have finished your graduation course, which are your professional expectations?
3.4.1. Do you think by holding this university degree, there will be any impact on your professional path in this industry?
4. Sociodemographic Data
Gender:
Age:
Professional Status: Education Level: Semester
Adapted from “Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Tourism and Hospitality as a Career Choice,” by S. Richardson, 2009, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(3), p. 386.
To guarantee that the students clearly understood all queries, and consequently, answers could be more precise, the interview guide questions were adapted and validated by a professor from the college. After this review, before the approval of the interview guide to field usage, it was submitted for a preliminary test. Also, all the interviews were conducted in Brazilian Portuguese, which was the students’ native language. The interviews lasted, on average, 30 minutes, and all were recorded and later transcribed. The interviews were taken in São Paulo, Brazil, between 31 May and 10 June 2019, at the college’s campus, in places chosen by the participants. The city of São Paulo was chosen because there are more than 400 hotels and 45,000 rooms, and it is visited by more than 19 million tourists annually (São Paulo Turismo, 2019). This way, the city of São Paulo presents the ideal context for this study since many hotels are competing for qualified professionals; therefore, it is essential to exist a distinct benefits package for their employees. In the city of São Paulo, there are fifteen institutions that offer
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superior courses in the hotel management area, with a total duration varying from 2 to 4 years (MEC, 2020). The selected students were from SENAC São Paulo, which is a college that offers a 4-year bachelor in hotel management course. The participants were numbered according to the order in which the interviews were taken. Table 2 shows all the sociodemographic data collected during the study.
Table 2
Participants’ Sociodemographic Data
Participant Genre Age
Professional Situation
Education Level
Semester
1
Female 20
Study & Work
High School & Technical
7th
2
Female 20 Study & Internship
High School & Technical
7th
3 Female 22 Study & Work High School 7th
4 Female 21 Study & Work High School 7th
5 Female 25 Study & Work High School 7th
6 Female 19 Study & Work High School 5th
7 Female 19 Study & Work High School 5th
8 Male 28 Studya High School 5th
9 Female 20 Studyb High School 5th
10 Female 21 Study & Internship High School 5th
11 Male 23 Study & Internship High School 5th
12 Female 20 Study & Internship High School 5th
13 Male 20 Study & Internship High School 5th
a,bEven though these students were currently not working, they had previous professional experiences in the hotel industry.
Usually, there are more female students in the tourism area courses (Barcia & Ricaurte-Quijano, 2016; Marques et al., 2018), sometimes representing more than 70% of the total students (Silveira et al., 2020). During the data collection for this study, it was also noted that the number of female students enrolled in the hotel management course was more significant than the number of males. By taking this proportion into account, it was selected more female students (10 out of 13) to take part in the present study.
The course has a 4-year total duration, and all participants were, at least, enrolled in the course’s third year. Also, all students had some
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professional experience in hotels or companies related to this area, which helps to reduce the gap between their expectations, and the reality regarding the work developed in the hotel industry, as suggested by Brown et al. (2015). Hence, all interviewees already had contact with the hotel management industry’s reality, and they were remarkably familiar with t he course; thus, they were suitable for the study’s objective.
Interview transcripts were analyzed through a thematic analysis with the assistance of a qualitative data analysis software, MAXQDA, which is a suitable method for studies that use interviews as a data collection method with deductive or inductive approaches (Saunders et al., 2016). This method aims to generate a rich and detailed analysis to allow data patterns to emerge. Later, these patterns would become themes. The themes represent the link between the data collected during the study and the investigation problem, answering, consequently, the initial study questions (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Saunders et al., 2016). According to Braun and Clarke (2006), there are six stages in this analysis’ method. The first stage is to become familiar with the data, followed by the steps where the initial codes are generated, themes are searched, and themes are re-evaluated. The last two stages are the themes definition and the presentation of the study contribu tion.
RESULTS
After the codification, the transcripts were re-analyzed so patterns could be identified in the interviewees' answers, to identify possible themes that might arise from the data. After the themes' refinement and the subthemes' creation, two main themes and nine subthemes were identified. The main themes were: "Bachelor's degree? A differential, but not essential" and "A potentially attractive industry". The Table 3 shows the relation between the main themes and their respective subthemes.
Table 3
Themes and Subthemes
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Theme Subtheme
Bachelor’s degree? A differential, but not essential
Changes in perspectives Theory and practice go hand in hand Bachelor’s degree as a differential
A potentially attractive industry
Heavy workload shifts Negative salary perspectives Hotel industry’s differential Work’s challenges Careers’ attractiveness Negative work’s image
Bachelor’s degree? A differential, but not essential
The students expanded their knowledge about the work activities in the hotel industry after started their undergraduate studies, allowing them to build a more realistic and broader image of this industry.
Changes in perspectives
When asked if the way they evaluate their career perspectives in the hotel industry had changed due to the graduation course, ten students mentioned that their perspectives broadened. According to them, their initial view regarding their possible professional careers inside a hotel was superficial; most of the time focused only on the hotel operational activities. Furthermore, 5 of the interviewees mentioned that now they are aware of the existence of other industries beyond the hotel industry that could offer attractive career opportunities. The multidisciplinary essence of tourism courses (Aranha & Rocha, 2014) and the tourism sector’s complex composition (Silveira et al., 2020) allows this area’s students to follow plenty of different professional paths (Baum, 2015). Regarding these new opportunities, one student mentioned:
"When I was researching about the hotel industry, I never thought that I would work as much as I do; and that the workload was much higher. On the other hand, I have never imagined that the hotel business involves so many different types of companies, as it does." (7).
Also, 7 out of the 13 interviewees claimed that the hotel management course gave them a more realistic perspective regarding the work in this
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industry, especially concerning the workload, work schedule, salary expectations, and career lattice opportunities. From these interviewees, the number 5 and 13 believed that their evaluation of the hotel industry as an employer became negative, which led them to lose interest in working in this area. Pessimistic changes related to career perspectives in the tourism sect or after experiencing work reality were also described by Kim and Park (2013) while comparing their professional perspectives before and after participating in internship programs. Because many hospitality students lack a realistic work view may explain it (Brown et al., 2015). This pessimist view was evident in the following interviewees' statement:
“Ah, before, I used to give more importance for this type of work, and now, I guess, I never want to work in a hotel in my life.” (5).
Only participant 8, who had previous professional experiences in this area before starting the course, mentioned that there were no changes in how he viewed this industry.
Theory and practice go hand in hand.
Eleven of the participants considered that the content taught throughout the course is compatible with the tasks performed or expected to be performed in hotels. One of the interviewees stated:
“I think that we learn a lot here and put in practice when we work. There are few things that I´ve learned there and saw later in the course; so, the course serves as a base.” (12).
Interviewees 7 and 9 were the only ones that evaluated the current course’s content as partially suitable. According to participant 7, many contents taught during the course are irrelevant as they are not applied at work afterward. Participant 9 answered that the course should have more practical classes related to the operational reception´s activities. In the following statement, participant 7 expressed her vision:
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“[…] I learned many things which I never used at work and I have never met anyone who used them. I think, in general, there are many things that you apply in the operational environment but others that are not so important.” (7).
Similar results were found in a study conducted with tourism students, in which they tended to evaluate as positive the balance between theory and practice and pointed out some specific subjects as not so relevant (Marques et al., 2018).
Bachelor´s degree as a differential
Even though almost all participants evaluated the course’s content to be compatible with the real tasks developed when working in hotels, only participants 6, 9, and 12 answered that it is necessary to have a bachelor’s degree to work in a hotel. In the following statement, interviewee 6 emphasized this need:
“Yes, of course, regardless of the position that you are going to have, I think that the college brings up the hospitality subject […] we see many people working in the hotel industry who don’t have a bachelor’s degree in hotel management […] I think that…the bachelor’s degree is, for sure, very important to work in a hotel.” (6).
While 5 participants claimed that a bachelor´s degree is only necessary for supervisor and management positions, the other 5 participants agreed that holding a degree is not essential to work in any hotel position. According to them, many professionals operate in this area and perform their tasks with competence, without holding any specific qualification in this area and many times, without having any university’s degree. These students believed the knowledge and abilities required to work in hotels could be acquired and developed with professional experience, as one of the interviewees stated:
“No. Actually, we see people working in hotels, and many do not have, specifically, a
hotel management degree. Even managers, generally, they end up shifting from another area. The operational team, too, they do not, as I mentioned, many times, they do not have any degree. Then, they manage to go to these areas, but I do not think so, the degree is not necessary.” (10).
Similarly, Gandara et al. (2004) interviewed tourism and hotel management courses’ coordinators regarding the importance of holding a graduation degree in these areas to work in the hotel industry in the city of
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Curitiba, and half of them answered that it was essential, while the other half said it was a critical condition. Due to the multidisciplinary composition of the tourism courses, including many general subjects related to the management, economics, and sociology areas, many professionals with different academic backgrounds may fulfill some of the positions in a hotel. Besides it, the tourism sector usually composes of many small companies managed by employers that do not see the qualification of their human resources as a priority (Janta et al., 2011; Sogayar & Rejowski, 2011; Aranha & Rocha, 2014). Moreover, there is a big offer of temporary job opportunities where it does not require any specific qualifications (Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Marques et al., 2018). At least in part, these characteristics of the tourism sector may explain why most students do not consider that holding a degree in hotel management is an essential aspect to work in the hotel industry. However, 12 out of the 13 interviewees answered that a bachelor’s degree in hotel management is essential for professional development in this area. The 12 interviewees considered that holding a bachelor’s degree would give them a higher professional status, resulting in preference during the selection process for employment opportunities or faster ascendance in the career ladder than other employees. One of the students shows this feeling in the following statement:
“[…] I think that the hotel industry needs several workers. It does not have to only search for professionals with a bachelor’s degree, but I think that the degree in hotel management helps, it gives better opportunities, it can…give you a promotion.” (3).
Again, the results obtained by Gandara et al. (2004) are similar to these; according to the coordinators interviewed, having a graduation course in hotel management or tourism increases the chance of a professional reaching higher positions in a hotel when compared to other employees without this qualification level.
After they began the course, it became clear that their hotel industry’s perspective as an employer has changed, especially regarding the everyday
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work’s reality in the hotels. Likewise, it also influenced how the students evaluate the hotel industry’s capacity to offer attractive career opportunities.
A potentially attractive industry
The tourism sector is known to demand quite a lot from its employees, while it does not offer many benefits in exchange (Baum, 2015). According to the students, it is necessary to evaluate the gap between the benefits package offered and the professional demands to reduce it. Despite this gap, according to the interviewees, the hotel industry still offers some unique benefits that attract and hold them in this industry.
Heavy workload shifts
When asked about how they evaluated the work shifts in hotels, all the students mentioned that “the six-on-one-off” shift’s schedule is the most common. It means six days of work and one day off, which can fall or not right after the 6th working day. They also mentioned that it is common to be required to work during weekends and holidays. When asked if this kind of shift would affect their personal life, 11 out of the 13 interviewees said that it significantly affects their personal life because it decreases the available time for leisure, family, friends, and special events. This situation led some of the students, like participants 6 and 13, to show no interest in positions with this type of work’s schedule:
“So, you work on Saturday and Sunday; for example, it is normal in the hotel business.
Then, currently, it is ok, I do not mind, but after I graduate, this is something that I have decided for my life, I want to work during business hours, I want to have a life more…with a fixed schedule. […] because I want to have a social life, I want to get married, to have kids […]” (6).
“To work six on one off, for example, I would not like to work on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, special holidays…I personally would not like to work. So, when I see that it
is six on one off, I think about not applying for it. It is a nuisance. I think my personal life would be affected.”(13).
To turn this long-hour shifts into hospitable and cheerful moments for their employees, hotel managers should offer a pleasant working environment by expanding their hospitality offer to their internal clients (King, 1995). It is
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achieved by offering, for example, a cozy, comfortable, safe, and well - furnished break room (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Frye et al., 20 20).
Negative salary perspectives
This negative general evaluation of the work shifts aggravates, even more, when participants talked about salary’s perspectives in this industry. All 13 interviewees negatively evaluated the wages offered by the industry during the initial phase of the career, and for operative jobs. Furthermore, 6 out of the 13 participants believed their salary’s perspectives would not improve as their career progress. The other 7 participants are of the opinion that wages only improve when management positions are reache d.
The students felt demotivated since they would have to face high work volume, work shifts “six-on-one-off”, low salary prospects and believed the hotel industry does not recognize the work developed in it. This discontentment feeling was shown very clearly by the following students’ statements:
“Disappointment. I think that the career in the hotel industry should be more valued and better paid considering what we go through, understand? Top hotels offer a
good wage, but most of the hotels pay low wages. […] Generally, the top hotels are American hotel chains.” (2).
“The worst. Terrible. […] So, we work a lot to receive so few. That is why there must be something that I like to do; otherwise, if I did not like what I do, I would have left a long time ago. Since I like it, I accept the wage I receive.” (12).
From these interviews excerpts, it is clear the students' dissatisfaction with the lack of balance between the work shift and salary and the professional demands from this industry like long working hours associated with an inconstant and unset schedule. Unfortunately, the hotel industry still tends to pay lower salaries than other sectors (Yao et al., 2019), and this tendency does not seem to have changed in the last years in Brazil. A longitudinal stud y conducted by Silveira et al. (2020) regarding, among other aspects, the salary perspectives in the tourism sector in Brazil, showed that even though there was an improvement in the wages since 2012, most of the professionals with a higher education still earn low wages. These negative wages perspectives
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associated with a significant workload shift contribute to a high level of work dissatisfaction and consequently make it hard for the employers to retain these qualified professionals (Klieve & McDonald, 2018; Le et al., 2018). However, even offering low wages and demanding a lot from their employees, the students still believe this industry can offer them unique benefits.
Hotel industry differential
When asked if a job in the hotel industry could offer any unique differential that few or no other works could offer, 11 out of 13 interviewees answered positively. The most referred differentials, mentioned by 7 participants, were the possibilities to have close contact with guests and to be able to provide a positive experience to them, as illustrated by participant 2:
“You must be passionate about it, either you love the hotel business or you hate it.
However, it is very gratifying when you are inside, and you do what you want. You have the guest’s feedback, get it? Because the principle is to offer the best for the guest.” (2).
Participants 5 and 7 believed this job offers them experiences that would help their personal development. Furthermore, participants 2 and 7 stated it offers them multicultural experiences, and participant 8 voiced that the nuclear differential is to be able to work in many different areas inside the hotel. In opposite, participants 4 and 9 said that the industry does not offer any unique benefit:
“No. I think that only the opportunities to travel. But I think for people who study tourism this would be better. But, I think that the opportunities are basically the same.” (4).
“No, I think that any type of segment, any type of career can be developed as much as in the hotel industry.” (9).
Reinforcing the results presented above, in their research with graduates about the hospitality industry’s turnover problems, Brown et al. (2015), among other reasons, found that professionals continued to work in this industry because they enjoyed working with people and to serve others, besides the
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excitement related to the hospitality itself. The authors proposed that, although these benefits, separately, may be found in other industries, having them combined in the same job may not be easily found in other professional areas. This way, for the best talents to be retained, managers should foster practices that reinforce the employees’ emotional attachment to their work (Yao et al., 2019).
Work´s challenges
When questioned about the work challenges offered by a hotel, six interviewees said that at the operational level, the activities, in general, were more physically than intellectually demanding. One of the students stated:
"I think that it challenges you…I think that being inside a hotel challenges you more physically than intellectually. I think…intellectually are the positions…the strategic positions, the planning positions that challenge you more intellectually because they suggest everything that will be executed by the operational." (3).
These responses were expected, considering that a great deal of the job opportunities in the tourism sector does not require the applicant to hold a bachelor´s degree and may be filled by many professionals without any specific qualification (Aranha & Rocha, 2014; Marques et al., 2018), reinforcing the image of a low qualified sector (Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Baum, 2015).
At the same time, working long hours per day and several days a week maintaining close contact with guests and colleagues can sometimes be challenging because regardless of the employees' opinions and feelings, its necessary to maintain professional behavior and deal with guests in a hospitable way. As a confirmation of this thought, 7 participants mentioned that the work in hotels is more emotionally than intellectually challenging. The students claimed that working in a hotel is a challenging and unpredictable task since they must always maintain a professional attitude, especially in front of the guests, as their main goal is to please them. This emotional challenge was described by participant 7:
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"I think that it is necessary for much emotional intelligence to work in the hotel business, especially with customer service. I work in the administrative area, but sometimes, I work in the reception, and I think that emotional intelligence is the main challenge because you work with all types of people." (7).
Taking into consideration the traditional goal of many hotels for customer satisfaction, in which the “customers are always right”, Yao et al. (2019) stated that before pleasing their guests, employers need to take care of their internal clients, including the employees emotional aspects, developing trustful and respectful relationships with them. This way, employers need to change from the traditional only customer-oriented satisfaction to an employee- oriented satisfaction, because by doing so, employees satisfaction related to work will increase, leading to a better-quality service for guests.
Careers attractiveness
When asked about the capacity of the hotel industry to provide attractive career opportunities, 11 interviewees agreed that this industry is capable of offering them the career opportunity they desire. By opposite, interviewee 13 was not sure if he had any interest in working in the industry, and participant 5 said that after having labored for one year in one of the leading luxury hotels in the city of São Paulo, she had no interest to work in hotels again. According to her, the financial return offered by hotels is not compatible with the daily workload demanded from each employee, especially compared with her current position in the restaurant industry. However, some hotel features influence the hotel industry capacity to offer attractive career opportunities. When asked if the hotel category affected its attractiveness as an employer, 8 participants mentioned that they had more interest in working in luxury hotels. Participant 13 believed that most of the employees preferred to work in luxury hotels, even though he had mentioned that the hotel category was not a relevant factor for himself. The main reasons that led most of the students to prefer working in luxury hotels are the possibility to offer a more elaborated and personalized experience to guests, to access a higher population’s social stratum, as well as the belief that working for well-known hotels offers them more prestige in their
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professional curriculums. This preference for luxury hotels is illustrated by interviewees 1 and 2:
“Yes. I think that they can offer a lot because the hotel in which I work is a 5-star hotel and many people in the hotel industry desire to work in [luxury hotel] ‘A’ because of the name and status on your CV, instead of working in a [budget hotel] ‘B’ […]” (1).
"Yes, it makes a difference. I also want to work in luxury hotels to get to know this area. It is rare to see someone who wants to work in budget hotels, but it happens. […]
luxury allows you to have access to people who are not from your social stratum, and this is impressive for me […]." (2).
The interviewee 11 also stated that the hotel attractiveness would be affected by its category depending on the desired job position because, in his opinion, some positions are only available in luxury hotels. Interviewee 10 was the only one who showed more interest in working in low-budget hotels. Interviewee 3 and 8 did not demonstrate any preference to work for a specific hotel’s category. These results indicate that employers prestige may be a strong differentiation for the hotels employer brands (Biswas & Suar, 2018). The prestige of a hotel employer brand might generate a pride feeling on their employees. Proud employees may share a positive work p erspective about their company, contributing to enhance the company employer brand and to become an “employer of choice”. Hence, employers must offer an employment experience that incentivizes this pride feeling on their employees (Buil et al, 2016; Frye et al., 2020). When questioned if the company size, which manages the hotel, would affect its attractiveness as an employer, five interviewees said that they had the preference to work for hotel chains. In this students perspective, the bigger the hotel chain, the more likely it would offer a better benefits’ package, for example, better wages, broader promotion opportunities, higher chance in working in other parts of the world, better infrastructures and it would potentially add prestige to the professional curriculum.
Interviewees 5 and 12 were the only ones that had shown more interest to work for independent hotels. The justification given by participant 5 was that hotels that are part of large hotel chains would have worse working conditions. According to interviewees 12, working in smaller companies would
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give her a more comfortable feeling. Interviewees 1, 8, 10, and 13 stated that the companies size would not affect its attractiveness as employers. This belief that hotel chains tend to offer better benefits, exposed by 5 of the interviewees, may be based on the fact that the tourism sector has many small companies, in which human resource management is not among the manager priorities (Janta et al., 2011; Sogayar & Rejowski, 2011; Aranha & Rocha, 2014)
Negative work’s image
The superficial vision of the hotel industry affects, quite often, how people evaluate the career perspectives in this industry. Most of this study participants, 9 out of the 13, believed that still exists a negative stigma surrounding the work developed in hotels, marked many times by a very shallow vision from outsiders. According to the students, this image drives many potential professionals away, including current and prospective hotel undergraduate´s students, as mentioned by one of them:
“Yes, many do not know, they are not familiar with this area. Such as ‘is there a faculty to work in a hotel?’”. (6).
These results complement the study conducted by Aranha and Rocha (2014), in which the authors discuss the crises faced by many tourism courses in Brazil due to the lack of this study area recognition and how it contributes to depreciate its image. It indicates that this negative work image is still highly disseminated (Baum, 2015). This stigma might be explained, in part, because, in general, most of the employees working in the tourism sector in Brazil have a low qualification, and many of them work in informal and temporary jobs (Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Marques et al., 2018) earning low salaries (Silveira et al., 2020). Hence, the hotel industry reveals an image that there is no need for a specific qualification to work in a hotel. Thus, employers need to reposition themselves on the “professional market” and offer a better employment experience to attract and retain the best talents, demonstrating that this
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industry might be an attractive career of choice for students pursuing a bachelor´s degree in hotel management.
DISCUSSION
The results reinforce the communications already presented by other researchers that the human resource practices in the tourism sector need to be revised (Le et al., 2018; Yao et al., 2019; Frye et al., 2020). The human resource management in the tourism sector “[…] in many countries and organizations, they entirely stalled with respect to key areas such as working conditions, remuneration, the status of work, diversity management and workplace relations” (Baum, 2015, p. 210).
Although there was an increase in the demand for highly skilled professionals (Ruchika & Prasad, 2019), including in the tourism sector (Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Lin et al., 2018), most of the participants do not think it is necessary to hold a bachelor´s degree to work in hotels, especially in operational positions. These students views are in line with the thoughts presented by Araujo e Ramos (2014) and Marques et al. (2018) that it is not necessary to have any specific qualifications to work in many of the job positions in the tourism sector in Brazil.
Even though the students tended to negatively evaluate the salaries and work schedule offered by the hotel industry, it was confirmed, through the results obtained, that this industry can offer, at least initially, attractive career opportunities. According to them, a career in the hotel industry can offer unique benefits responsible for its attractiveness, such as personal contact, self-development, and multicultural experiences, which results are in line with what was presented by Brown et al. (2015). Although these benefits are usually not included in the written contract, they help the organization to build a distinct employer brand because the work experience in any organization involves much more than what this formal contract agreement includes (Edwards, 2009). Thus, employers need to focus more on their employees (Yao et al., 2019) by demonstrating a genuine interest in listening
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and understanding their needs and expectations (Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Frye et al., 2020).
A hotel will hardly be capable of having a good performance if employees are not qualified, delighted, and motivated to work (Catramby & Costa, 2004; Dreher et al., 2010; Bharwani & Butt, 2012; Mota & Anjos, 2012; Aranha & Rocha, 2014; Araujo & Ramos, 2014; Marques et al., 2018; Yao et al. , 2019; Frye et al., 2020), as they are considered the face of a hotel (Cascio & Graham, 2016);
Through this study, it was also possible to explore the influences of the hotel category and size of the company which runs it has in its attractiveness capacity as an employer. It became evident that most of the students interviewed are more likely to be attracted to work in luxury hotels due to its symbolic benefits package, which includes high prestige pr ofessional experience, access to a higher social stratum, and the possibility to provide a more personalized and elaborated guest experience. Similarly, some of the interviewees showed more interest in working in hotel chains because they tend to believe these hotels have a more standardized and well- structured procedures, as well as a better functional benefits package than the independent hotels, such as better wages, promotion opportunities, and work infrastructure.
CONCLUSION
This paper aimed to understand how the hotel management undergraduate students evaluate the hotel industry capacity to provide attractive career opportunities. For attaining this, semi-structured interviews were taken with 13 undergraduate students from a college based in the city of São Paulo.
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For most of these participants, the hotel industry at least can provide attractive career opportunities at the beginning of their professional careers. Despite the low salaries and heavy work schedules characteristic of this industry, due to its unique symbolic benefits package that are intrinsically related to human contact, the students are still attracted to work in this industry.
At the same time, most of the students would prefer working in a luxury hotel as it would provide them some exclusive symbolic benefits, like prestige and the possibility of meeting higher social status persons. Then, it seems that luxury hotels, as employers, have an advantage when it comes to attracting students.
However, the hotel industry needs to revise many of its human resources practices to be able to improve and maintain its capability to attract and retain highly qualified employees.
Managerial implications
To balance the demands and benefits offered by the hotels to their employees, hotel managers must invest in the development of their recognition policies and apply them to their employees. Hotels should exert their hospitality management expertise in the management process of their employees work experience by giving them positive feedbacks, devel oping small company events to celebrate a goal accomplishment, or a special celebration, providing adequate infrastructure to rest and recreation, as well as tasty employees meals. These improvements can provide a cozier environment that may contribute to decreasing the employees turnover rate leading to better service quality performed in hotels.
However, it is important to emphasize these are merely guidelines or suggestions because each hotel and each employee team are unique. Therefore, each manager must develop an appropriate benefits package by considering their target market, in this case, their desired employees. So they attain this, managers must conduct studies with their employees before,
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during, and after the hiring process to understand what the employees expect from this professional relationship.
Finally, it seems that the stigma related to the work developed in hotels is still alive, especially among people out of this industry. Then, it is crucial, from an external marketing perspective, to promote, in a more comprehensive and positive manner, the career opportunities offered by this industry to the future undergraduate students. This promotion should mostly concentrate on the unique benefits package provided by the hotel industry, such as the high personal contact between the employees, and guests, self- development, and multicultural experiences. Through the industry increasing attractiveness as an employer, it will be possible to attract and retain more suitable and talented employees, contributing to improving the hotel performance.
Limitations and future research
The city of São Paulo specific socioeconomic characteristics may have influenced the students' professional expectations and the benefits packages offered by the hotels to their employees. These two aspects might have influenced the students' evaluation of the hotel industry capability to provide attractive career opportunities. Also, the present study focused only on city hotels and did not consider other different types of lodging, which can offer distinct career perspectives. Furthermore, since this is a qualitative study, with a judgment sampling, it is also impossible to generalize the results obtained to the rest of the population.
It will be worthwhile to develop further studies with hotel human resources managers to find out how they evaluate the challenges and benefits of hiring and retaining employees that hold a bachelor´s degree in hotel management. It is also suggested to conduct studies to explore further how the hotel category and the size of the company which manages it influence the hotel attractiveness as an employer.
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