Knowledge, skills, and abilities for lodging management success.(Human Resources)

Training programs sponsored by lodging firms can also be tailored to improve knowledge of financial skills and prepare current managers to achieve success and go up in the career ladder. In addition, the findings from this research can help recruiters in developing effective screening tools and practices, as well as assist executive trainers with future training programs. Competencies identified under this study can be incorporated into future job descriptions and performance appraisal instruments.

Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, our study sheds new light on past beliefs regarding the KSA and lodging-management-success relationship. We posit that knowledge in financial management plays a significant role in managers' advancement and careers in the lodging industry. The research results reaffirm recent opinions that hospitality management requisites have changed over time, with increasing importance placed on competencies such as financial management and marketing. Our results agree with those of a recent Cornell Quarterly article, which suggested that the need for industry-technical expertise is decreasing even as nonindustry-specific knowledge becomes increasingly important. (20) Our results challenge the long-held beliefs and opinions of many that human resources--related skills represent the most important element of hospitality management success. Based on our findings, we propose that KSAs in such areas as human resources and information technology may represent basic skills for all managers and are perhaps most beneficial at lower levels of management. At the same time, knowledge in financial management can drive professional success to a greater degree as managers advance to higher ranks of responsibility.

We established that differences exist between executive opinion on KSAs considered important and actual competencies distinguishing senior-level executives from their subordinate middle-level managers. Therefore, we encourage the continuation of scholarly study and empirical testing of KSAs for hospitality management success. We recommend adopting management requisites from other professional fields that can be integrated into future hospitality research on lodging management success. We suggest this because a low percentage of the variance in success was explained by the four KSA predictors in this study. We also suggest an extensive investigation into a hierarchal structure of financial management competencies to establish knowledge relevancy for different management levels. Additional examination into marketing knowledge represents an intriguing topic of study, as knowledge in marketing was found to have a statistically significant influence on monetary success within the upper level-manager group. Replication studies applied to international managers would help to broaden the generalizability of research findings. Moreover, future research could be conducted to determine KSA success factors in other segments of the hospitality industry, including food service and clubs.

Endnotes

(1.) See: Richard F. Tas, "Teaching Future Managers," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 2 (August 1988), pp. 41-43; Judi Brownell, "Hospitality Managers' Communication Practices," International Journal of Hospitality Management, vol. 11, no. 2 (May 1992), pp. 111-28; David Jackson and John Humble, "Middle Managers: New Purpose, New Directions," Journal of Management Development, vol. 13, no. 3 (1994), pp. 15-21; Judi Brownell, "Women in Hospitality Management: General Managers' Perceptions of Factors Related to Career Development," International Journal of Hospitality Management, vol. 13, no. 2 (June 1994), pp. 101-17; and Deborah Breiter and Christine J. Clements, "Hospitality Management Curricula for the 21st Century," Hospitality & Tourism Educator, vol. 8, no. 1 (November 1996), pp. 57-60.

(2.) See: Allan Yen-Lun Su, Judy L. Miller, and Carol Shanklin, "Perceptions of Industry Professionals and Program Administrators About Accreditation Curriculum Standards for Hospitality Programs," Journal of Hospitality. & Tourism Education, vol. 9, no. 4 (1997/1998), pp. 36-40; and Robert H. Woods, Denny G. Rutherford, Raymond Schmidgall, and Michael Sciarini, "Hotel General Managers Focused on the Core Business," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 6 (December 1998), pp. 38-44.

(3.) Woods et al., "Hotel General Managers."

(4.) See: Brownell, "Women in Hospitality Management"; Breiter and Clements, "Hospitality Management Curricula"; Esther Okeiyi, Dori Finley, and Rose Tindall Postel, "Food and Beverage Management Competencies: Educator, Industry and Student Perspectives," Hospitality & Tourism Educator, vol. 6, no. 4 (Fall 1994), pp. 37-40; Charles G. Partlow and Mary B. Gregoire, "Is Graduate Hospitality Education Relevant?" Hospitality & Tourism Educator; vol. 6, no. 3 (Summer 1994), pp. 13-16; and Richard E Tas, Suzanne V. LaBrecque, and Howard R. Clayton, "Property-management Competencies for Management Trainees," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 3 (August 1996), pp. 9096. For research conducted in the United Kingdom, see: Tom Baum, "The U.S. and the U.K.: Comparing Expectations of Management Trainees," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 2 (August 1991), pp. 79-84. For research conducted in Taiwan, see: Jui-Fong Hsu and Susan R. Gregory, "Developing Future Hotel Managers in Taiwan: From an Industry Viewpoint," International Journal of Hospitality Management, vol. 14, nos. 3-4 (September-December 1995), pp. 261-59.

(5.) James Carper, "People, Trends and Ideas," Hotels, vol. 28, no. 4 (April 1994), pp. 21-22.

(6.) See: Suet al., "Perceptions of Industry Professionals," pp. 36-40; Woods et al., "Hotel General Managers," pp. 38-44; Kyoo Yup Chung, "Hotel Management Curriculum Reform Based on Required Competencies of Hotel Employees and Career Success in the Hotel Industry," Tourism Management, vol. 21, no. 5 (October 2000), pp. 473-87; Ardel A. Nelson and Lea Dopson, "Future of Hotel Education: Required Skills and Knowledge for Graduates of U.S. Hospitality Programs Beyond the Year 2000--Part One," Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, vol. 13, no. 5 (2001), pp. 58-64.

(7.) See: Linda Gorchels, Thani Jambulingam, and Timothy W. Aurand, "Executive Insights: International Marketing Managers: A Comparison of Japanese, German, and U.S. Perceptions," Journal of International Marketing, vol. 7, no. 1 (1999), pp. 97-105; Debra F. Cannon, "Career Dynamics of Hotel Sales and Marketing Professionals," Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, vol. 11, no. 4 (1999), pp. 40-44; Mervyn D. J. Wilson, Anna E. Murray, and Margaret A. Black, "Contract Catering: The Skills Required for the Next Millennium," International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 12, no. 1 (2000), pp. 75-78; Christine Kay and John Russett, "Hospitality-management Competencies: Identifying Managers' Essential Skills," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 2 (April 2000), pp. 52-63; Joe Perdue, Jack Ninemeier, and Robert Woods, "Competencies Required for Club Managers," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 2 (April 2000), pp. 79-85; Kemal Birdir and Thomas E. Pearson, "Research Chefs' Competencies: A Delphi Approach," International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 12, no. 3 (2000), pp. 205-09; and Bonnie J. Knutson and Raymond S. Schmidgall, "Challenges and Opportunities for Women: Achieving Success in Hospitality Financial Management," Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, vol. 13, nos. 3-4 (2001 ), pp. 45-54.

(8.) See: Cathy H. C. Hsu, "Computer Skills Needed and Demonstrated by Hospitality Management Graduates: Perceptions of Hotel Operators" Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, vol. 7, no. 2 (Spring 1995), pp. 25-29; Wonae Cho and Daniel J. Connolly, "U.S.-based Hospitality Programs: Looking to Keep Pace with Today's High-tech Industry Needs," International Journal of Hospitality Information Technology, vol. 1, no. 1 (1999), pp. 27-43; Deborah Breiter and Heidi Hoart, "Competencies in Food-service Information Technology Expected by the Food-service Industry of Graduates of Hospitality Bachelor's Degree Programs in the United States," Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, vol. 12, no. 2 (August 2000), pp. 11-17; and Keith H. Mandabach, Dawn VanLeeuwen, and Priscilla Bloomquist, "Hospitality Technology Education: Student Successes in Mastering the Hidden Curriculum," Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, vol. 13, no. 1 (2001), pp. 49-56.

(9.) See: Purdue University, Lodging, Restaurant and Tourism Index (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue, 2001). After 2003, this index became available through EBSCOhost service.

(10.) To determine whether managers' opinions regarding the importance of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) differ from managers' actual abilities, we used Friedman's rank test. The Friedman test is a nonparametric alternative test to a repeated measures analysis of variance. "The scores of each variable are ranked and the mean ranks of the variables are compared. The Friedman test statistic is approximately distributed as a chi-square distribution. The idea behind this statistic is that if there is no difference between groups, each subject's rankings would be random, and there would be no difference in the mean ranks across the variables." See: SPSS Base 10.0 Applications Guide (Chicago: SPSS Inc., 1999), pp. 240-41.

(11.) A t-test for equality of means found significant differences between upper-level and middle-level managers' self-appraisals of KSAs in financial management (t = 4.644; p < .05) and information technology (t = 2.475; p < .05).

(12.) A t-test for equality of means found significant differences between upper-level and middle-level managers' importance ratings of KSAs in financial management (t = 3.619; p < .05) and marketing (t = 2.073; p < .05).

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