Eric A. Brown

Are hospitality graduates making too many compromises? What they give up may lead to turnover

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to examine if differences between actual experiences of hospitality graduates and the perceived importance they placed on career factors can lead to turnover intent. The researchers surveyed hospitality graduates from the last 10 years about what they find important in selecting a career and what they are experiencing, or have experienced, in their career. Findings indicate as hospitality graduates rate certain factors more important, or experience factors less in their career, the differences become larger and their turnover intentions rise.

Winery Tasting-Room Employee Training: Putting Wine First in Oregon

ABSTRACT Oregon wineries have become increasingly reliant on tasting-room employees to increase wine distribution. Properly training tasting-room employees is essential to increasing sales of wine at wineries. In this study, the researchers explore the methods, techniques, and practices employed to train Oregon tasting-room employees. The results indicate managers perceive product knowledge as the most common form of training needed for tasting-room employees to succeed. Sales incentives were not consistent in the findings of the training programs. Three out of every four managers responded that job shadowing was the most popular form of training in their tasting rooms.

Former Team Sports Experiences: Development of Collaborative and Leadership Skills for Future Hospitality Managers

Some hospitality firms thrive, because they have effective functional teams (e.g., front of the office (FOH) within a hotel and back of the house (BOH) within a restaurant) in their respective hospitality organizations. Functional teams can be viewed as structured teams in hospitality milieus. For functional teams to succeed, proper leadership needs to be implemented to inspire and to motivate employees to work cohesively towards a common goal. The purpose of this study was to examine team sports’ impact on collaboration and leadership tactics among hospitality undergraduate students⎯our future hospitality managers and leaders within this diverse industry. The multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) 5X short-form instrument was utilized to examine a convenience sample of 170 undergraduate students’ leadership styles. The MLQ scoring key was used to determine that 64.1% of undergraduate students who participated in team sports developed successful leadership styles. Results also indicated that individuals with team sport experiences preferred to work in groups synonymous to hospitality firms.

Perceptions of Students in an Event Management Program of Annotation Systems and Their Influence on Student Learning

ABSTRACT Nota bene is a collaborative document annotation Web site on which students can read lecture notes and class material and ask or answer questions of other students online. Utilizing collaborative theories of learning and the technology acceptance model in this study, we examined use and perceptions of Web-based collaborative annotation software among event management students. A self-reported survey instrument was given to 206 event management students, and findings revealed significant relationships between learning climate and social interaction and between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were also related to learning satisfaction. In addition, learning satisfaction was related to behavioral intentions to use Nota bene. Implications for educators are discussed.

Hospitality Faculty Mentoring Program for Assistant Professors

ABSTRACT Assistant professors will be the staple of future hospitality programs within academia. Given that most tenure-track professors being older than age 50, colleges and universities acknowledge that attrition might have a significant impact on future academic learning environments. Many hospitality programs have devised current mentorship programs to assist tenure-track assistant professors during their maturation process to associate professor. The conundrum lies in knowing what constitutes an effective mentorship program, especially when there is no notable research on mentorship programs within the hospitality academy. A phenomenological study was used to explore the lived experiences of 8 tenure-track and tenured faculty members within the hospitality academy. Results indicated that leadership traits were synonymous with servant leadership, which prompts the need for a new model for mentoring hospitality faculty.

First-year hospitality students: an exploration into their background and the initial importance of career success aspects

ABSTRACT Students enter college each year with a variety of different backgrounds and experiences. This study explored first-year hospitality students in an attempt to better understand their background and the initial importance of career success factors. Regardless of entry-level status, students rated themselves positively on key industry useful skills. Students also showed differences in their perceptions of how recruiters may view the usefulness of these skills, though major differences did not occur based on the students’ work experience background.

Hospitality and tourism student and alumni perspectives: promotion expectations, academic and experience adjustments, and career growth

ABSTRACT Preparing qualified graduates for the tourism and hospitality industry who will stay and achieve promotional success is paramount. The objectives of this research project were to determine promotional advancement expectations and strategies to improve promotional opportunities. Two separate questionnaires, with both open and close-ended questions, were sent to upper classmen/women in hospitality and tourism programs and alumni of the same programs. In total, 717 (409 students and 308 alumni) completed the questionnaires. Chi-square tests were run to determine differences between student and alumni responses. To assist in analysis of open-ended responses, Atlas.ti was used. There was a statistically significant difference between students and alumni responses in regards to promotional expectations; students expected it to take a significantly longer time to receive a promotion to supervisor or manager than alumni. Overall, students and alumni indicated strategies such as more real-world-focused courses with hands-on experiences.

Employee satisfaction and turnover intention: A comparative analysis between front-of-house and back-of-house employees in casino-entertainment venues

ABSTRACT This study investigates job location and its relationship with employee turnover intention within the casino-entertainment industry. The researchers analyzed turnover intention at the supervisor and company level from the perspective of employees who hold front-of-house or back-of-house jobs in three Nevada casinos and their corporate office. The results of this research fill existing gaps in the academic literature related to turnover intention and provide beneficial implications for industry and academic practitioners. Organizations within the casino-entertainment industry may develop strategies related to the management of human capital that could provide fiscal and operational benefits.

What does it mean to follow? An exploration of a followership profile in hospitality and tourism

ABSTRACT Although leadership has received considerable attention from many scholars, much less research has focused on those who follow leaders; yet, followers contribute much to the success of an organization. This study explored the followership profiles of stakeholders in hospitality and tourism education. The findings summarize the followership dimensions of a sample of hospitality students, educators, and industry professionals. For each of the five followership dimensions the mean scores for industry professionals were rated higher when compared with students and educators, with courage to participate in transformation being the highest rated among all three groups. Implications for hospitality education are presented.