Career paths of hotel general managers in Turkey

Abstract

This article investigates the career paths of hotel general managers (HGMs) in a developing country, namely Turkey. Based on an in-depth literature review, a questionnaire was developed and data were collected from 168 HGMs in Turkey. Compared to previous studies, this study found a higher percentage of female HGMs working in hotels. According to the research findings, almost half of the respondents received formal education in hospitality and tourism. The participating respondents most frequently reached the HGM position through working in the front office department and the food and beverage department. Honesty, interpersonal skills, and loyalty were found to be the top three characteristics that helped the participants become HGMs. In terms of required skills, communication, human relations, taking initiatives, and the ability to formulate plans were the top four skills for the participants in their career development. Finally, learning a foreign language, having a college degree, and developing long-term career goals were the top three personal development strategies. This is one of the first studies investigating HGMs career paths in a developing country and it offers specific theoretical and practical implications on this important topic.

Sustainable human resource management as a driver in tourism policy and planning: a serious sin of omission?

“…(Baum 2013). This contextualisation of the tourism sector in this paper also gives particular nuances to, for example, career choices and destinations (Kong et al, 2012) and the role that training for the sector plays in launching diverse careers and providing portable and transferable skills which have application across a wider range of sectors (Okumus et al, 2016). Dinica (2009, 583-4) highlights the major role that government and related public agencies play in creating and supporting such joined-up thinking in policy formation, noting the competencies across a wide range of areas that impinge on tourism "such as spatial planning, infrastructural development, fiscal policies, transport policies, labour policies and water management".…”

The career paths of general managers in Dubai’s luxury hotel sector

“…Furthermore, international assignments do not always guarantee increased compensation, benefits, or promotion (Benson & Pattie, 2008), and can reduce time for personal development (Buecker et al, 2016). Having connections in the FIGURE 2: leadership-competency model for the lodging industry (Chung-Herrera et al, 2003) industry seemed to also have a great effect on managers' careers, especially having a mentor (Garavan et al, 2006;Gebbels, 2019;okumus et al, 2016). Gebbels (2019) also mentioned that factors like cultural, economic, or political environments can influence the career choices of individuals.…”

“…New trends and challenges impacting the hospitality industry only a small number of Gms emerged from sales and marketing, accounting and finance, and human resources (ladkin, 2002;ladkin & Juwaheer, 2000;ladkin & Riley, 1996;li et al, 2007;Nebel et al, 1995;okumus et al, 2016). This is predicted to change considering new industry trends regarding better talent acquisition and commitment, optimising efficiency and maintaining a firm's brand image (Davidson et al, 2011).…”

Quantitative Assessment of Career Growth of Chinese Army

“…And the promotion of technical position is overlapped with professional ability development in Weng and Hu's (2009) definition. Different from previous study which mainly focused on the promotion of managerial position [9], this study will involve the promotion of technical position and regard the promotion of technical position as the speed of job features change in current organization. Therefore, integrating the definition of Graen et al (1997) and Weng, et al (2009), career growth within military organization is defined as a two-dimension concept [7,8].…”

“…Career growth in previous studies is measured by two sets of criteria. The first set of criteria includes employees' remuneration growth, the speed of promotion through technical and management positions and the growth in numbers of subordinates [2][3][9][10]. All of these indicators reflect the context of development related to current job features.…”