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Hospitality Leadership Through Learning
Faculty & Research

Retaining Management Talent: What Hospitality Professionals Want from Their Jobs

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Vol 5 No 1
By:  Kate Walsh Ph.D. and Masako S. Taylor Ph.D.

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Executive Summary: One of the primary challenges that the hospitality industry continues to face is high levels of turnover. With an eye toward finding ways for the industry to reduce unwanted turnover, we examine turnover intentions of one the most critical groups of employees: namely, management staff. Using a sample of 401 graduates of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (with graduation dates of 1987 through 2002), this study identifies the job features that enhance managers' commitment levels to their organizations and to the industry generally, as well as reduce their likelihood of leaving both. A key finding of this study is that these hospitality professionals are actively managing their careers. To that end, they are looking for challenging jobs that offer growth opportunities, competent leadership, and fair compensation. Foremost among those factors is the chance to gain career growth through increasingly challenging assignments. While a substantial number of respondents were motivated by external factors, such as compensation, most of the respondents find the greatest motivation from the internal aspects of the job, including the opportunity for personal and career growth and the chance to make a contribution to the organization. To the degree that those desired jobs features are in place, hospitality managers' commitment levels will rise. Managers' commitment to performing challenging work especially reduces their likelihood of leaving their companies and the industry.

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About Kate Walsh Ph.D.

Kate Walsh is an Associate Professor of Management at the School of Hotel Administration. She received her Ph.D. from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and her M.P.S. degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Fairfield University. Dr. Walsh’s primary research is in the area of services management. She also conducts research examining the role of strategic human resource initiatives on organizational performance. In addition to contributing to numerous books, her articles are appearing or have appeared in such outlets as Journal of Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management Review, Organization Science, Trends in Organizational Behavior, Research in Management Consulting, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Learning Organization, International Journal of Hospitality Management and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. Dr. Walsh’s pervious work experience includes the Director of Training and Development for Nikko Hotels International, Corporate Training Manager for the former Bristol Hotels and Senior Auditor for Loews Corp. Dr. Walsh is also a Certified Public Accountant.

For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=95