Melvin R. Weber

An Exploratory Study Identifying Soft Skill Competencies in Entry-Level Managers

The identification of competencies needed by hospitality managers has been investigated since the 1980s. In all of the competency research related to hospitality management, essential competencies include skills that can be classified as soft skills, yet a comprehensive list of these soft skills has not been identified. The purpose of this project is to have industry professionals rate the importance of soft skill competencies found in literature, and then reduce this list of competencies by completing a factor analysis. This study serves as the beginning for a comprehensive study of soft skills needed in entry-level hospitality management positions.

An Exploratory Analysis of Soft Skill Competencies Needed for the Hospitality Industry

The identification of competencies needed by hospitality managers has been investigated since the 1980s. In all of the competency research related to management, essential competencies include skills that can be classified as soft skills. The purpose of this project was to have human resource professionals rate the importance of soft skill competencies found in literature and to determine the relative importance of the seven categories of soft skill competencies. The study combined new data with existing data to complete an exploratory factor analysis. This exploratory study found a five-component tool that had similarities to other models found in the literature review but also had unique differences to the prior research.

Assessing Teaching Effectiveness in a Basic Food Laboratory Setting: Pilot Testing the Instrument

This is the fourth phase of a research project to develop a student evaluation tool (SET) to evaluate teaching effectiveness in a basic food laboratory. This phase tested the instrument among students enrolled in basic food laboratories at 4-year universities. Students were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of their instructor using the SET that had been developed in the three previous phases of this research project. The goal was to ensure the SET was valid and reliable. A factor analysis was completed to determine the major areas of the SET. The factor analysis yielded three factors comparable to those identified by the Delphi Panel (from Phase 1). Results also indicate the SET was preferred by the students over the one currently used by their universities.

North Carolina human resource professionals' perceptions of soft skill competencies.

The identification of competencies needed by hospitality managers has been investigated since the 1980s. In all of the competency research related to management, essential competencies include skills that can be classified as soft skills. The purpose of the authors in this project is to have human resource professionals rate the importance of soft skill competencies found in literature, and to determine the relative importance of the seven categories of soft skill competencies. Of the 116 soft skill competencies assessed in this study, the majority of them were deemed important, with means greater than 4.0 (on a 5 point Likert-type scale). This is an on-going comprehensive study of soft skills in entry-level management positions.

The Relationship Between Personality and Student Learning

This exploratory study examines the relationship between personality and classroom performance. The personality measure is True Colors, the testing is measured by results on a paper-and-pencil test in a senior-level human resource management course at a large southeastern U.S. university, and the performance assessment is grades on written assignments. The link between personality and testing is contentious, with some researchers stating a definitive link between the two and other authors stating no link between the two components. Results of the data analysis suggest that the Blue, Gold, and Orange colors of the True Colors personality traits influence student learning in the classroom. By understanding the relationship between a student’s personality and his or her success in the classroom, an instructor can enhance student learning.

Using Hospitality Coursework and Internships to Develop Student Leadership Abilities

There is continual interest in developing leadership in today’s college level students. This is evident in the increasing number of leadership courses in the college curriculum. One of the more popular student leadership models is the student leadership practices inventory (SLPI). This study compares Kouzes and Posner’s national means with those of two groups of hospitality leadership students from a major university in the southeastern part of the United States. Findings indicated higher means for each of the five components of the SLPI for students completing a senior level internship program when compared to lower-class hospitality management students and to national norms. These findings led to the recommendation of designing internship experiences to develop leadership skills in hospitality management students.

Assessing Teaching Effectiveness in a Basic Food Laboratory Setting: Phases 2 and 3, Educator and Student Responses

To ensure a consistently high standard of teaching effectiveness in the delivery of instruction, universities employ various evaluation methods. The student evaluation tool (SET) has become the most commonly used measure of teaching effectiveness in a classroom environment. Most food laboratory instructors insist that these criteria are not appropriate when measuring teaching effectiveness in food laboratory settings. A SET previously developed for a basic foods laboratory was used to collect feedback from hospitality educators and students. Also, the researchers wanted to examine the data for significant differences between these two groups. The two groups did view many items of the SET differently, and the factor analysis showed the student section of the SET to be the difference. The study findings can assist educators with improving performance by incorporating student feedback to enhance teaching methods and delivery in a basic food laboratory.

Using Personality Profiles to Help Educators Understand Ever-Changing Hospitality Students

Since the early 1920s when Carl Jung initially suggested that people are different in fundamental ways even though they have the same multitude of instincts, several types of personality assessment have developed. This study explores the relationships between new and previously published personality types of hospitality students using three personality inventories. The purposes of this study are to (1) report Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Keirsey Temperament Sorter profiles, and True Color profiles of a group of hospitality leadership students, (2) compare the True Color profiles of current hospitality leadership students with those reported by Crews, Bodenhamer, and Weaver in 2010, and (3) compare the MBTI and Keirsey Temperament Sorter profiles of current students with those reported by Horton, Clark, and Welpott in 2005. Data were collected from 217 hospitality leadership students in a senior-level hospitality human resource management course at a southeastern U.S. university. Results of the chi-square tests revealed significant differences between the two groups in the profiles of the MBTI and Keirsey Temperament Types. The results also showed that the two groups differ in two of the four True Color profiles. By understanding the transformation of hospitality students, educators can adapt and create a better learning environment for their students and ultimately enhance student knowledge, skills, and abilities in a more effective and efficient manner.

Antecedents of Cultural Intelligence among American Hospitality Students: Moderating Effect of Ethnocentrism

ABSTRACT As interactions and markets become increasingly global, hospitality firms must retain culturally-intelligent managers and hospitality education must nurture its students so they are qualified to meet this demand. This study examines the relationship between the cultural intelligence (CQ) of American hospitality students and its possible antecedents: cross-cultural academic training, foreign language skills, daily intercultural social contact, and international travel. Using hierarchical regression analysis of data from 938 American college students enrolled in hospitality programs in the United States, our study demonstrated that these variables generally predict CQ with a few exceptions. Results of multi-group analysis further showed that student ethnocentrism moderates the relationships between the antecedents and CQ. Theoretical and managerial implications of the results and directions for future research are discussed.

A sociocultural perspective on expatriation willingness: The mediating role of cultural intelligence

ABSTRACT As expatriates’ lack of motivation to work overseas and firms’ ineffective screening and selection criteria for expatriates cause expatriation failures, identifying and recruiting candidates who are willing to accept future expatriate assignments has become an important strategic imperative among hospitality practitioners and educators. The purpose of this study is to identify antecedents of hospitality students’ expatriation willingness and demonstrate how the antecedents develop expatriation willingness. From a sociocultural perspective based on job resources-demands theory and selfefficacy theory, we hypothesized international travel experience, intercultural social contact in daily life, and cultural intelligence (CQ) are positively related to expatriation willingness. We also hypothesized CQ to mediate the direct relationship between international travel experience and expatriation willingness and between daily intercultural social contact and expatriation willingness. Results of structural equation modeling of the data from 370 students supported all the hypotheses in this study. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.