Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2019 25 ISSN 2094-1358 Career Advancement of Women in Hospitality Industry Jeane D. Asinas, Loriza May O. Axalan, Vivien Joycee Juanites, Leimarie Rose N. Magnaye, Jonathan M. Manalo, Cyrus A. Solo & Jennie Margaret M. Apritado College of International Tourism and Hospitality Management Lyceum of the Philippines University, Batangas City, Philippines ABSTRACT This study aimed to assess the career advancement of women in various position in hospitality industry. The study used adopted/modified questionnaire. The respondents are women employees on various position like front desk staff, food and beverage staff and housekeeping staff in lodging/inn business in Batangas Province that are considered to be under the category of 3-star hotel. Statistical tools such as weighted mean, independent sample t-test and analysis of variance were used. Based on the result, respondents often experience career advance provided by the lodging industry. They also often experience barriers that hinders their career advancement with regards to mentoring support, training and development, work-life balance and networking. However, it is recommended that hospitality industry must provide more trainings and formal education for women employees for their career development and growth. Keywords: Career Advancement, Hospitality Industry INTRODUCTION National Certificate from TESDA pushes the assessment and certification of middle-level skilled workers the contribution of hospitality industry, particularly the tourism sector has been one of the important matters in the global and national economy. It brought opportunity to large number of work force in trying to build its advantage to income and socio-economic aspect of the population. Further, since the industry tend to have more services and job roles, it is in need of high number of manpower but when the population of male are exhausted already, the industry is acquiring female workers to fill in with the tasks (Agbodo-Otinpong, 2015). The presence of women in the industry is making the provision of services more complex because of their passive nature where they are able to address the caring needs of the customers. Women are so reliant and are able to provide details in the decision making and problem-solving aspect when it comes to service quality and doing clerical works. They are useful in the industry to make reports, do feminine job roles and provide comfort with no malice with the customers (Bhatnagar, 2014). However, their presence also posts threats because female are starting to understand their counterparts’ participation in the hospitality industry. And because of this, women are making more competency initiatives to increase their performance and function as part of the industry. In return, psychological misbehavior were subconsciously affecting the productivity and performance of most female workers. Gender sensitivity and inequality issues are usually present within the work environment that intends to harm the job role of women in the hospitality industry (Deng, 2017).
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Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2019
25
ISSN 2094-1358
Career Advancement of Women in Hospitality Industry
Jeane D. Asinas, Loriza May O. Axalan, Vivien Joycee Juanites, Leimarie Rose N. Magnaye,
Jonathan M. Manalo, Cyrus A. Solo & Jennie Margaret M. Apritado
College of International Tourism and Hospitality Management
Lyceum of the Philippines University, Batangas City, Philippines
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to assess the career advancement of women in various position in hospitality
industry. The study used adopted/modified questionnaire. The respondents are women employees on
various position like front desk staff, food and beverage staff and housekeeping staff in lodging/inn
business in Batangas Province that are considered to be under the category of 3-star hotel. Statistical tools
such as weighted mean, independent sample t-test and analysis of variance were used. Based on the result,
respondents often experience career advance provided by the lodging industry. They also often experience
barriers that hinders their career advancement with regards to mentoring support, training and development,
work-life balance and networking. However, it is recommended that hospitality industry must provide more
trainings and formal education for women employees for their career development and growth.
Keywords: Career Advancement, Hospitality Industry
INTRODUCTION
National Certificate from TESDA pushes the assessment and certification of middle-level skilled
workers the contribution of hospitality industry, particularly the tourism sector has been one of the
important matters in the global and national economy. It brought opportunity to large number of work force
in trying to build its advantage to income and socio-economic aspect of the population. Further, since the
industry tend to have more services and job roles, it is in need of high number of manpower but when the
population of male are exhausted already, the industry is acquiring female workers to fill in with the tasks
(Agbodo-Otinpong, 2015).
The presence of women in the industry is making the provision of services more complex because
of their passive nature where they are able to address the caring needs of the customers. Women are so
reliant and are able to provide details in the decision making and problem-solving aspect when it comes to
service quality and doing clerical works. They are useful in the industry to make reports, do feminine job
roles and provide comfort with no malice with the customers (Bhatnagar, 2014).
However, their presence also posts threats because female are starting to understand their
counterparts’ participation in the hospitality industry. And because of this, women are making more
competency initiatives to increase their performance and function as part of the industry. In return,
psychological misbehavior were subconsciously affecting the productivity and performance of most female
workers. Gender sensitivity and inequality issues are usually present within the work environment that
intends to harm the job role of women in the hospitality industry (Deng, 2017).
Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2019
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ISSN 2094-1358
More over, other factors can also affect how female are viewed within the employment and work
environment since they have different roles outside their organization. It is part of the culture that women
are the one who is supposed to take care of her family. This practice has been part of any civilization and is
still viewed as the main role of women. At some point, women are not recruited due to being married and
having kids or they could not perform their tasks since they need to address other problems like schooling
of kids and health or safety of the family (Dy, 2015).
Work-life balance, networking, mentoring support, and training and development are the primary
factors that hinders career advancement of women. Although the use of organizational work-life programs
has been shown to reduce work-family conflict, nevertheless female employees continue to receive less
facility and support from their organizations that is necessary to differentiate between work and non-work
related roles and avoid conflict of both roles. (Yet Mee, 2013)
As of today, women in hospitality are usually in the lowest rank or entry level point since the
belief that they could not be as competent compared to their male counterparts is drastically affecting the
women’s career growth. In return, the hospitality education is doing its best to initiate more complex
competency advantage for women. (Gavin, 2016)
One of the facets of hospitality that this study would like to tackle is the lodging industry which
has been neglected in the development and sustainability of the industry. There are negative perception that
has been surrounding the lodging industry and treated to have the lowest competitiveness in the hospitality
services.
This study aims to assess the career advancement of women within the lodging industry. This will
help the CITHM to allow them to find more programs that could increase the opportunity for women to be
part of the industry. Further, the faculty will benefit from this study since they could use this as basis for
educating students on the importance of women in the hospitality industry. The students will understand the
complex role of women and men in the industry and will start to realize not to practice gender inequality in
the workplace. The hospitality industry will be able to address the problem that has been pestering the
quality of service they intend to provide. The women employees will be able to understand their situation
and how the factors affecting them can alleviate to enhance their career growth. The researchers will be
able to use their knowledge and practice analyzing the situation through the conduction of this study.
Lastly, the future researchers may use this study as their reference in the future when they want to align
their study to recruitment and career advancement of women.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study aimed to assess the career advancement of women in hospitality industry. Specifically
it aimed to; describes the profile of the respondents in terms of age, civil status, educational attainment and
length of service; assesses the women’s career advancement; determines the barriers that hinder career
advancement in terms of work life balance, networking, mentoring support, and training and development;
to tests the significant difference on the barriers that hinder career advancement when grouped according to
profile variable; analyses the relationship between women career advancement and barriers that hinder
career advancement; and based on the results, make a proposed action plan.
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ISSN 2094-1358
METHODS
Research Design
The design of the study was descriptive method to assess the career advancement of women in
hospitality industry wherein the researchers analysed their subject study through the use of statistics and
figures to lower the risk for biased and control the statements of a group. According to Calderon and
Gonzales (2017) that this kind of research allows the study to be a fact-finding technique where it would
address the problems and issues that is happening at a certain and specific time event. More so, quantitative
approach could lead to discovery of how the present condition affects a sample size number of the
population.
Participants of the Study
The participants of the study were 194 selected women employees on various positions like front
desk staff, food and beverage staff, and housekeeping staff in lodging/inn businesses in Batangas province
that are considered to be under the category of 3-star hotel.
Instrument
The instrument is an adapted questionnaire from Yet-Mee (2013) which was partially modified to
fit the situation of current study. The questionnaire is composed of three major parts. The initial part of the
questionnaire described the profile of the respondents in terms of age, civil status, educational attainment
and length of service. The second part assess the women career advancement and the third part determines
the barriers that hinder career advancement in terms of work life balance, networking, mentoring support,
and training and development.
To interpret the results, the following likert scale was used:
Option Range Verbal Interpretation
4 3.50-4.00 Always
3 2.50-3.49 Often
2 1.50-2.49 Sometimes
1 1.00-1.49 Never
Procedure
The researchers made a letter addressed to the dean of College of International Tourism and
Hospitality Management (CITHM), Mrs. Ma. Fe L. Menez, asking permission to conduct the study. When
it was approved, the researchers went to different lodging establishment in Batangas province with a letter
asking permission to distribute questionnaire among female employees. The researchers were given enough
time to answer the questionnaire and queries in case there are statements which are unclear to them. It was
retrieved immediately and submitted to the statistician for data analysis.
Data Analysis
To interpret the results, the researchers used statistical tools supported by SPSS v. 20.
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Percentage and frequency was used to identify profile of the respondents in terms of age, civil
status, educational attainment and length of service. Weighted Mean was used to assess the women career
advancement and the barriers that hinder career advancement in terms of work life balance, networking,
mentoring support, and training and development. Independent Sample t-test and Analysis of Variance was
used to test the significant difference on the barriers that hinder career advancement when grouped
according to profile variable; and Pearson – Product Moment Correlation to analyze the relationship
between women career advancement and barriers that hinder career advancement.
Ethical Consideration
The study considered different ethical behaviours during data gathering such as informing the
respondents all about the objectives and importance of their participation. This makes sure that the
participants of the study are informed of the objectives and purpose of the study. The researchers sought
permission from the respondents before they answer the questionnaire. All queries were answered and
addressed by the researchers during the conduction of the study The researchers made sure that their
respondents are comfortable at all times by providing pens/pencils, chairs and enough time to allow them to
answer the questionnaire.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1. Percentage Distribution of the Respondent’s Profile
Profile Variables Frequency Percentage (%)
Age 18 – 29 years old 104 53.6
30 – 39 years old 70 36.1
40 – 49 years old 16 8.2
50 – 59 years old 4 2.1
Civil Status Single 113 58.2
Married 72 37.1
Widow / Widower 6 3.1
Legally Separated 3 1.5
Educational Attainment High school Graduate 81 41.8
College Graduate 109 56.2
Master’s Degree 4 2.1
Length of Service below 1 year 52 26.8
1 – 3 years 88 45.4
4 – 6 years 37 19.1
7 – 9 years 6 3.1
10 years and above 11 5.7
Table 1 presents the percentage distribution of respondents’ profile in terms of age, civil status,
educational attainment and length of service. In terms of their age, it shows that majority of the respondents
are 18 – 29 years old which got the highest frequency of 104 or 53.6 percent. This shows that most of the
respondents belong to the age bracket of 18-29 years old which means they are within young adult age.
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This age tends to be matured to handle customer service and were allowed by the government to be
employed. They are considered to be accountable persons who understand the legal system, law, rules and
regulation applied in lodging industries which guides them to efficiently do their tasks. According to Al
Hrout, and Mohammed (2014), human resource consider age as factor to hire applicants. The age is
considered so that they would know if a person is accountable and are not minor. Also, management would
prefer to hire people who are matured and can patiently handle the customers as they seek for services and
products.
With regards to their civil status, it shows that majority are single which got the highest frequency
of 113 or 58.2 percent This means that most of the respondents are single where they could attend the
shifting of schedules at ease. When a person is single, they are in advantage to be employed since they have
no other obligations that could affect their performance and productivity. As stated by Anapen (2016),
people who are single can be hired immediately since they could comply when the management request for
overtime and complicated shift of schedules. Especially in industry where accommodation is provided for
24/7, they would need employees who can cope with the changes of duty scheduling.
The profile educational attainment shows that majority of the respondents are college graduate
which got the highest frequency of 109 or 56.2 percent. Their length of service shows that majority of them
have been part of the lodging industry for 1 – 3 years which got the highest frequency of 88 or 45.4 percent
This implies that lodging industry are hiring college graduate to assure that their personnel have
sufficient competency in providing accommodation and services to their guests. Hospitality industry is
starting to understand the advantage of hiring personnel who are degree holder compared to others who did
not finish education. The customer’s demand is starting to change across time and the hospitality must cope
with such demand by employing people who are competent enough to do more tasks with accountability
and credibility. Bagos, Ani, Balladores, and Espeleta, (2015) study were able to prove the importance of
degree holder as a requirement for job hiring and selection. The need for more competent workers would
help attain customer satisfaction because professional workers could be developed when they are able to
finish their studies.
Table 2. Women Career Advancement
Indicators WM VI Rank
1. Sufficient opportunities exist in my organization for women to advance into senior
management position
3.45 Often 1
2. In my organization, there are equal career development opportunities for men and women 3.32 Often 4
3. According to the way my organization operates, a woman can become a senior manager in
the future
3.40 Often 2
4. Women and men are respected equally in my organization 3.39 Often 3
5. In my organization, the number of women penetrating the hierarchy and achieving senior
positions is steadily increasing
3.23 Often 6
6. In my organization, women are primarily encouraged to apply to managerial roles 3.27 Often 5
7. The men network in my organization limits women's opportunities for promotion to senior
position
2.99 Often 8
8. In my organization, women have to perform better than their male counterparts to be
promoted to the same position
3.08 Often 7
Composite Mean 3.27 Often
Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2019