Linda Shea

Changing Competencies of Hospitality Leaders: A 25-Year review

Significant changes in the competitive environment of business and education, along with changes in the macro-environment, point to the need for curriculum reform in hospitality management. Determining relevant competencies and skill sets has helped human resource managers over the years to improve hiring and selection practices, in developing strategies to retain managers, and in career planning initiatives. This study is a review of competencies that have been emphasized by hospitality industry leaders for success in the field over the years, and reports similarities as well as key changes in skills demanded of students graduating from hospitality management programs.

Internet diffusion of an e-complaint: a content analysis of unsolicited responses.

SUMMARY “Yours Is A Very Bad Hotel,” a customer complaint in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, earned a degree of notoriety when it spread worldwide via the Internet even though it was not intended for public distribution. While none were solicited, its authors received over 4,000 e-mail responses to their e-complaint. This paper presents a content analysis of 1,000 of those responses. The results of the content analysis yielded interesting patterns of diffusion that have implications for hospitality practitioners and academics. The findings include geographic diffusion within and outside the U.S. as well as diffusion through professional groups and organizations over time. Patterns with respect to gender, employment sector, affective response, intention to communicate with other individuals and groups, and intentions for further usage of the complaints are also presented. Comparisons to theories of diffusion of innovations were also undertaken.

A Content Analysis for Postpurchase Evaluation Using Customer Comment Logbooks

This article presents a content analysis of guest comment logbooks recorded over a 15-month period. The procedure is illustrated using a case study of a resort hotel located in the Caribbean. The data were classified by resort attributes, purpose of the visit, resort activities and features, and overall evaluative statements. The categorization results yielded some interesting and useful information that can be translated into marketing and managerial guidelines in such areas as segmentation, positioning, relationship building, development of promotional and sales materials, human resources, organizational culture, and operational practices.

Investigating the Key Routes to Customers’ Delightful Moments in the Hotel Context

Based on increased interest in “customer delight,” this study identifies specific customer-described delightful experiences and explores factors that influence guests’ delightful experiences in the context of the lodging industry. Utilizing the critical incident technique (CIT), two broad groups of factors are emerged—tangibles (i.e., property related) and intangibles (i.e., service related). Within these two groups, five categories are identified as factors of guests’ delightful experiences: service-related tangibles, property-related tangibles, professional services, friendly services, and unexpected services. Consistent with previous studies, results from this study show loyalty is strongly represented when customers have delightful experiences. Implications for industry and academia, as well as directions for future research are discussed.

A Theory of Lodging: Exploring Hotel Guest Behavior:

When staying as a guest in a hotel, we are well aware of the short-term nature of the planned experience. Our sense of commitment is somewhat different from the choices we made when provisioning our home. It may be that, similar to tourism perspectives, when we leave home we think of ourselves no longer as a resident but rather a traveler. Everything we do is of a temporary nature. This suggests that the individual has a separate set of behaviors that are used when staying in a hotel. Whatever we experienced or did in that visited place is left behind. It is freeing in the sense that it limits our impact, our responsibility, and usually minimizes the consequences of our actions. Does this difference in perspective and behavior present the opportunity to develop a theory of lodging?

Faculty Salaries in the US: The 2006 Survey of Hospitality and Tourism Educators

Abstract A survey of hospitality and tourism management educators conducted in 2006 by the professional organization of hospitality and tourism educators (CHRIE) yielded salary data for colleges and universities located in the United States. Results illustrate salary differences by geographic location, by type of school (two-year, four-year and graduate degree granting institutions), and by faculty rank (lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and full professors).

Trends in the Gaming Industry and their Curricular Implications

The different social and economic conditions of the 21st century are generating permanent changes in the gaming industry that impact what information educators use in the teaching of casino management. These influencing conditions may be observed in at least seven different dimensions: the physical structures; human resources; capital investment and ownership; public policy; Internet; and culture. Many of these are significant for either size or volume, or for the large degree of acceptance and integration into daily lifestyles. It is these seven dimensions that educators are encouraged to incorporate into their future designs of gaming curricula.

Performance Strategies: Establishing Minimum Competencies

Compensation packages for hospitality educators are typically based upon performance, and often do include a merit component in addition to an across-the-board cost of living increase to reward productivity. Various configurations of deans, department heads and personnel committees are required to assess “meritorious behavior” or accomplishments of individual faculty members. This paper presents a process and identifies components considered to establish minimum standards of performance.

Dining Behaviors: Considering A Foodservice Theory Of In-Home, Local Community, And Eating While Traveling:

The often-repeated layout of restaurants adopted by the majority of foodservice firms appears to represent the best practice for restaurant design and is viewed as the most common operational model in the field. What appears to vary, though, are the observed patterns of human behavior regarding dining when it occurs in different venues. These venues include in-home dining, “eating out” in local community restaurants, and dining while traveling. Some diners may behave differently depending on the setting, making novel choices about food selections. Do these differences in behavior present the opportunity to develop a theory of dining?

Compensation Analysis: The 2008 ICHRIE Salary Study

Salary data are reported from a survey of hospitality educator compensation sponsored by International CHRIE. As with the 2008 ICHRIE study, data were collected from many regions of the world (all results presented in US