Introduction
The number of women found in the hospitality industry has been increasing largely over the years. This can be attributed to the fact that the hospitality industry has a viable environment for career building and development of individuals, women included.
The estimated value of the hospitality industry is $4 trillion in the world distributed to over fifteen different sectors that includes hotels, tours and travel, bars and restaurants, casinos and cruise ships (Entrepreneur, 1999).
This accounts for around 10.7% of the world’s GDP. The industry has also created employment opportunities to around 225 million people in the world. As a result, women have ventured into this industry, most of them succeeding in having a successful career.
Despite their hard efforts in trying to shape their careers, women have not been able to attain the top managerial positions in the industry such as being general managers or CEOs. Most women in the hospitality industry have a strong skills and credentials which have aided them to advance into middle level management but they have not helped them to reach the top managerial positions.
This research will therefore focus on the factors why women have not succeeded in attaining the top managerial positions in the hotel industry and it will try to come up with possible solutions and recommendations to the problem.
Background
Many scholars and researchers believe that the hospitality industry, particularly the hotel industry needs more women in hotel management. However, there have been limited number of researches which have been conducted pertaining this issue (Blanck and David, 2000, p. 68). The number of women joining the industry has been increasing with time.
A survey conducted in the department of hospitality at the Michigan State University showed that the ratio of men to women has reversed over the last ten years from 60:40 to 40:60 (Entrepreneur, 1999). Therefore, as the number of women in the management ranks continues to increase there is an urgent need for them to be considered for the top executive positions.
Rise in career positions within any given organization is a joint task between individual and the organization he/she is working with. Women have employed a combination of several strategies to rise to the top, the most important being to reach beyond expectations, gaining in-line experience, being involved in many projects and working in several organizations.
Although women have got all these credentials, they normally tend to stagnate at a certain point in their careers beyond which they cannot rise anymore. This can be attributed to glass ceilings.
Glass ceiling are invisible barriers which contribute to the failure of women from rising to top executive positions in any organization (David, 1998). Glass ceilings are composed of various factors which may be social, economical, educational or political in nature.
According to Entrepreneur (1999), men feel that women have to spend more time in the corporate world so that they can earn more skills and experience which may earn them promotions to the executive positions. This statement sounds discriminatory in the sense that men feel like they are superior to women thus keep the top positions for themselves.
If given a chance, women can rise to these executive positions and succeed both in their careers and in attaining the goals and objectives which have been set by the management. Companies and organizations therefore have to come up with policies and strategies which aim at utilizing and maximizing the full potential of women. Women should therefore be seen as equals of men hence the aspect of women discrimination should be excluded from all organizations.
The absence of women in top managerial position is not as a result of absence of talent and skills. As a matter of fact women are more than willing to work and meet challenges in the hospitality industry. As stated in the works of Gomez and Moore (2009) women have an untapped talent which he refers to as the “secret talent” which many organizations should utilize in these times of stiff competition, expansion, formation of new alliances and development of new products (p. 197). Women can therefore prosper if they are given a chance.
Research Objectives
The main aim of this study is to determine if women in the hotel industry have a chance to rise to general manager or CEO positions. The objectives of this study therefore will be:
- To determine if women can attain top executive positions in the hotel industry.
- To determine the factors which hinder the advancement of women to key positions.
- To determine the impacts of education and skills in the career advancement of women in the hotel industry.
Research Hypothesis
A research hyothesis is a core statement of the study which is used to define the main aim of the experiment (Shuttleworth 2008). The research hypothesis will formulated by using the process of inductive reasoning where normal observations are use to formulate the hypothesis. The research hypothesis for this study will be:
Null hypothesis: Women can rise to general manager position in the hotel industry.
Alternate hypothesis: Women cannot rise to general manager position in the hospitality industry.
Limitations
- The time span for carrying the study is short and therefore the study may not capture the topic in detail.
- There could be little relevant secondary data to supplement the primary data.
Methods
I will conduct this research in The Montcalm Hotel in London because it is a busy five star hotel providing an ideal condition for the study. To collect the relevant information needed for this research, it will be necessary to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data also called secondary data mainly forms the literature review of the study.
Secondary data will be attained by reviewing works which have been done in the field of trying to empower women form jounals, magazines, research papers and books.
Quantitative data, also called primary is the data which has been collected on the area of study and It is used to suppliment the secondary data. In the case of this study, questionnaires and interviews will be used to collect this vital information.
Random sampling technique will be applied in determining which individuals will be interviewed. This will help us to obtain first hand information that will help to explore the research objectives and gain statistical data which is necessary for data analysis.
For accurate analysis of the statistical data a computer programme called SPSS 16.0 will be used for descriptive data analysis. After analyzing all research findings the final conclusions and recommendations will be written. All the parts of work will be put together and formatted in order to present the final report for the dissertation. Further research can be conducted on the recommendations which will be raised.
References
Blanck, P. D. and David, P. (2000) Employment, Disability, and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Issues in Law, Public Policy, and Research. Psychological Issues. Chicago. Northwestern University Press.
David, M. E. (1998) Negotiating the Glass Ceiling: Careers of Senior Women in the Academic World. Routhledge, Cambridge.
Entrepreneur. (1999) Dimensions of the Glass Ceiling in the Hospitality Industry. Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly. Web
Gomez, P. and Moore, R. (2009) Board Members and Management Consultants: Redefining the Boundaries of Consulting and Corporate Governance. Research in Management Consulting. London. Rickmoore Publishers
Shuttleworth, M. (2008) Research hypothesis. Experiment Resources. Web.