Shaoping Qiu
Texas A&M University, USA
E-mail: qsp680504@tamu.edu
Larry Dooley
Texas A&M University, USA
E-mail: l-dooley@tamu.edu
Trupti Palkar
Texas A&M University, USA
E-mail: trupsworld@tamu.edu
Submission: 23/01/2017
Revision: 06/02/2017
Accept: 20/02/2017
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this
paper is to investigate the students’ perceptions of importance with reference
to influencing factors of their career options in the Hospitality Department of
a polytechnic college in Guangzhou City, China. A convenience sampling
technique was adopted in this study. The study result was derived from a survey
of 372 students. The questionnaire comprised items relating to factors
influencing students when they made their career decision. Descriptive
statistics, T-test, and a factor analysis were conducted using SPSS 21.0. It
was discovered that more students made their own career choice with less
influence from traditional values and family members. It was also shown there
was generally no statistically significant difference between male and female
students; however, a difference between freshmen and sophomore respondents was
found for some items. Additionally, this study identified five underlying
contributory factors. “Students self-efficacy and occupational aspiration” was
the most important factor to influence the students’ career decision, followed
by “tradition and cultural value”, “career guidance”, “support from parents”, and
“external consultation”. Finally, discussion of the findings and limitations of
this study were presented and possible suggestions were given for both
hospitality educators and professionals.
Keywords: career choice, hospitality
management students, Guangzhou
1. INTRODUCTION
China has experienced vigorous
economic expansion and prosperity for more than four decades. Tourism, as one
of the most important industry in China, has enjoyed tremendous growth and
maintained a sound momentum of steady development. In 2015, it was reported
China’s tourism witnessed a steady increase with a total of 133.8204 million inbound tourists by the end of that year
(CHINA INBOUND TOURISM in 2015, 2015). The fast growing tourism market has
galvanized hotel development (OKOROAFO; KOH; LIU; JIN, 2010). Most recent
statistics showed China had 11,180 star-rated hotels; business revenue of
star-rated hotels amounted to CNY 215 billion (CHINA TOURISM FACTS &
FIGURES 2014, n.d.).
Guangzhou, due to its close
proximity to Hong Kong, and with a population of more than 17 million people,
has spearheaded China's economy since the 1980s. This city has always remained
a magnet for hotel companies. In addition, serving as the host of Asian games
further stimulated the expansion of hotel industry development. There were reportedly 216 star hotels in
Guangzhou in 2015 (ZHAO, 2015). However, growth opportunities for the hotel
industry have given rise to numerous issues, the most critical of which is the
shortage of human resources in hotel workforce.
Obviously, more star hotels
require more qualified employees to perform hotel jobs. However, as the hotel
industry grows steadily, the problem of high turnover rates persists. Anecdotal
evidence suggests turnover among hotel employees could be as high as 40 percent
per year in China (WOLFINGTON; WOLFINGTON, 2012).
It stands to reason that
Guangzhou is no exception. In order to gain competitive advantage, hotels in
this city have come to realize it is of uttermost priority to establish a sound
human resources strategy. It is critical to attract and retain large numbers of
qualified employees to ensure their success in the fiercely competing industry.
Traditionally, there have
been many channels for hotels to recruit prospective employees. Hotel and
tourism management (HTM) undergraduate students are believed to be the best
source due to student quality and quantity. Although students are virtually
considered as talent reservoir for hotels at the time they matriculate into HTM
program, unfortunately, most of these students show no interest to stay in this
service industry after graduation (WONG; LIU, 2010).
Only a small percentage of
HTM graduate students elect to find employment in hotels; it is interesting to
note a large percentage of these working graduates choose to leave for jobs in
other industries shortly after working in hotels. Therefore, it is paramount to
address this aspect of human resource challenges in order to help hotels in
Guangzhou to attract and retain qualified HTM graduates.
2. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Both the hotel industry and
HTM institutions would suffer if HTM students show reluctance to work in the
hotel industry. For this reason, it is important to identify the reasons behind
this phenomenon and take some countermeasures to deal with the issue
theoretically and practically.
Although ample studies have
examined the factors affecting students’ career choice decision-making in the
USA and many other countries, there is a scarcity of research specifically
exploring the contributing factors associated with career choice of Chinese HTM
undergraduate students, much less the studies targeting HTM students in
Guangzhou city.
The purpose of this study
was to identify the factors which influence the career choice of HTM major
undergraduates in Guangzhou, and to examine how these contributing factors
affect students’ decision-making for their career. This study also made some
suggestions and recommendations for HTM educators and hotel industry managers.
3. CONCEPTUAL UNDERPININGS
Comprehensive understanding of how HTM undergraduate
students make decisions in choosing their future careers entails going back to
basic career development (CD) theories. Therefore, instead of reviewing
literature closely related to HTM students’ career choice, we first review
career development theories that could be most appropriate to function as a
conceptual framework to guide this exploratory study.
There are voluminous articles focusing generally on career
choice and development for young people. From the CD extant related literature,
Super’s Life-span, Life-space Theory (SUPER, 1990; SUPER; SAVICKAS; SUPER,
1996) and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (LENT, 2005; LENT; BROWN;
HACKETT, 2002) have been most relevantly used to guide the career choice and
development practice and research in the past few decades. These two theories
also served as an overarching framework to guide our study.
3.1.
Super’s
Life-span, Life-space Theory
This leading career developmental approach was credited to
Donald Super (1990) who recognizes the career development as a lifelong
process. According to Super (1990), career patterns are determined by
socioeconomic factors, cultures, abilities, personalities, values,
self-concepts, and the opportunities to which people are exposed.
Career choice and development is essentially a process
through which people can express themselves, implement and develop their
self-concepts, and ultimately obtain the career satisfaction through work
roles. Life span, life space, career maturity, self-concept are the most
highlighted constructs in Super’s theory.
Super (1990) suggests a series of developmental stages and
tasks are typically encountered during an individual’s life span: growth
(childhood), exploration (adolescence), establishment (early adulthood), and
maintenance (middle adulthood), as well as disengagement (late adulthood).
Super (1990) further proposes that a mini-cycle including
the same stages from growth to disengagement would likely occur within each of
the stages, particularly when a person makes a transition from one stage to the
next. Moreover, a mini-cycle of the stages would be experienced by adolescents
whenever they have to make expected or unexpected career transitions such as
loss of job or due to personal or socioeconomic circumstances (SAVICKAS, 2002).
Another essential construct is self-concept which Super
(1963) defines as a “picture of the self in some role, situation, or position,
performing some set of functions, or in some web of relationships” (p.18).
Later, Super (1990) expands this meaning and postulated that self-concept is a
product of complex interactions among a number of factors, including physical
and mental growth, personal experiences, and environmental characteristics and
stimulation.
Self-concept is formed through social, experiential,
interactive learning, and reflective self-awareness. An individual possesses
both objective and subjective self-concept to identify appropriate career
goals. Objectively, self-understanding could be built by comparing one’s self
with others. However subjectively speaking, people develop understanding
through focusing on their uniqueness emerging out of their life stories (NILES;
HARRIS-BOWLSBEY, 2005).
3.2.
Social
Cognitive Career Theory
Social
cognitive career theory (SCCT) (LENT, 2005; LENT et al., 2002) is considered
relevant theory to understand the factors influencing students’ career choice
in this study. SCCT emphasizes the cognitive-person constructs, such as
self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and personal goals, and highlights how
these constructs interact with personal inputs (e.g., gender, ethnicity,
ability and personality ) and contextual factors (e.g., family, culture,
gender-role socialization) to help shape the course of career development
Self-efficacy
is referred to as “a dynamic set of beliefs that are linked to particular
performance domains and activities” (LENT, 2005, p. 104). According to SCCT,
feelings of self-efficacy are emanated from four sources of information: (a)
Mastery experiences: personal performance and accomplishments; (b) Verbal
persuasion: feedback from important others on one’s interests and abilities;
(c) Vicarious experience; and (d) Physiological responses: states such as
anxiety, composure, and exhilaration, and overall affective reactions of liking
or disliking something. Self-efficacy is a predictor of career choice (BANDURA,
1986).
Outcome
expectations are defined as personal beliefs about the outcomes of performing a
specific behavior (LENT et al., 2002). According to Leung (2008), outcome
expectations are formed by the same information or learning experiences shaping
self-efficacy beliefs. They consist of beliefs about extrinsic reward related
to performing the target behavior, self-directed consequences, and task
performance outcome. This factor affects choice goal behavior and therefore is
also a determinant when individuals make a career decision (LENT et al., 2002).
Personal
goals refer to the determination to engage in a particular activity or to bring
about a particular outcome (LENT et al., 2002). Setting goals is critical for
persons in their career development in that goals function to organize and
guide behavior, sustain it over long periods of time, and increase the
likelihood that long-term goals will be reached.
Contextual
supports and barriers are also important to understand the career-related
choice behavior among undergraduate students. Lent, Brown and Hackett (2000)
categorize contextual cognitive factors into either distal supports and
barriers or proximal supports and barriers to career choices. They go on to
elucidate how undergraduate students are supposed to be surrounded by their
immediate environment influencing this choice, comprising friendships,
financial situation, and parental influence when they encounter career choice.
To
reiterate, it is deemed most relevant to use the CD theories aforementioned to
examine the contributory factors influencing students’ career choice making.
Notwithstanding, it should be noted that Super’s theory and SCCT are fundamentally
derived from a USA context, reflecting a European-American perspective.
The
applicability of career choice and development to specific discipline requires
a set of theoretical frameworks with global validity and credibility, as well
as culture-specific models that could be used to explain career development
issues and phenomenon at a local level. The next section will be devoted to
research method and examination of the factors that influence the HTM major
students’ career choice.
4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Based
on the purpose of this study, we propose the following research questions:
a) Are there differences
between students’ gender in terms of constructs concerning students’ career
choice?
b) Are there differences
between students’ grades in terms of constructs concerning students’ career
choice?
c) What are the main factors
influencing career choice of HTM students in Guangzhou?
5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The
instrument for this research was a self-administered questionnaire that sought
to probe the reasons why the student respondents chose a career in the
hospitality industry. Drawing on theoretical frameworks described above and
related studies conducted by Borchert (2002), Bui (2005), Chuang &
Dellmann-Jenkins (2010), Tay (1996), Wong and Liu (2010), and Zahari (2004),
along with the researchers’ own observations and interactions with the
students, we identified a list of thirty-four items to describe the factors
influencing students’ career choice.
The
questionnaire comprised two sections. The first asked the student respondents
to rate the degree of their attitudes (agree or disagree) towards the items.
For all scales in this section, a five-point Likert-type scale was adopted
where “five” represented the highest level of agreement, while “1” anchored at “strongly
disagree”. The second section sought to elicit socio-demographic data about
student respondents, such as gender, grade, age, and length of former
experience in hospitality industry.
5.1.
Data
Collection
The
survey of this research was undertaken in the Tourism Department at a
polytechnic college in Guangzhou. The questionnaires were distributed to
hospitality major freshman and sophomore students. The respondents were asked
to return the questionnaires immediately upon completion.
5.2.
The
Sample
A
convenience sampling technique was adopted for this study, and surveys were
administered to 383 freshman and sophomore students majoring in
hospitality. Participants were told
their participation in the study was voluntary. Among the 383 questionnaires
collected, 11 surveys had missing information and thus were discarded from
further analysis, generating a usable response rate of 97.1%. Of the total of
372 usable respondents, 292 were females (78.5%) and 80 males (21.5%). With
regards to age, since the sample is all Chinese first and second-year college
students whose age fell between 18 to 21 years-old, it was not used as an
independent variable in this study. Instead, it was deemed more appropriate to
use the grade of the sample. It was found the freshman and sophomore students
were almost evenly distributed with each numbering 193 (51.9%) and 179 (48.1%)
respectively. 281 respondents (75.5%) reported they had no experience in the
hospitality industry, 84 students recorded themselves as having less than one
year experience, whereas only 7 (1.9%) categorized their experience as more
than one year.
The
demographic characteristics of the sample were checked with the Tourism
Department of this polytechnic college, which indicated the profiles of our
sample matched the official records of student information. Additionally, the
mapping of the student residential locations developed by the Admission
Department of this college showed the vast majority of students are originally
from all parts of the Guangdong Province. Consequently, it could be possibly
claimed that the sample is representative of Guangzhou’s college students.
5.3.
Data
Analysis
Data collected was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) 21.0. First, simple descriptive statistics were derived for the
respondents including frequency, percentage, means, and standard deviations for
all items. Second, in order to ascertain if there were statistically
significant difference between ages and grades, T- tests were applied to
pinpoint the items that saliently existed differences. Lastly, factor analysis
was conducted to extract the contributing factors that affected students’
career choice.
6. FINDINGS
6.1.
Data
Reliability
Prior to undertaking further analysis of the data, statistical
reliability scores were computed for the scale. The Cronbach’s Alpha
coefficient was 0.88, while the split-half correlations were 0.80. The
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measures of sample adequacy were also calculated, with a value
of 0.88. All these scores excessed the cut-off rate of 0.70 recommended by
Nunnally (1978), indicating internal rigor for further analysis.
6.2.
The
Most Important Factors
The
first section of this survey dealt with the comparative importance of the
listed 34 items. Table 1 and 2 indicated the most and least important
contributory factors influencing students’ career choice by descending order of
mean scores, respectively. It was found that the most important factors when
making decisions about career choice were “making my own career choice” (3.94),
“family support” (3.65), and “discussion of career choice with classmates”
(3.62). “Aspiring to be a manager 5-10 years after graduation” was also thought
important, with a mean score of 3.59, followed by “good relationship with
hospitality industry” (3.51) and “respect of family wishes” (3.47).
With
reference to the least important factors, “parents force me to follow their
career choice they made” (1.91), “family business” (1.96), and “parents only
support the decision about my future career that they want me to pursue” (2.23)
were in the top three of this category. It was interesting to note that
“traditional values” was considered to be the least important factor and scored
low at a value of 2.42. It was noticeable that, for the items of “making my own
career choice” and “discussion of career choice with classmates”, the standard
deviation were much lower than for many others, indicating that there was
almost unanimous agreement with little extreme values on these items.
Table 1: The 11 Most Important Factors values on these items.
|
|
|||
|
Item |
N |
Mean |
Std. Deviation |
|
4. It
is me who makes my career choice. |
372 |
3.9409 |
.81875 |
|
10.
My family always supports my career decision |
372 |
3.6532 |
.85980 |
|
11. I
often discuss my career choice with my classmates. |
372 |
3.6210 |
.79343 |
|
28. I
aspire to become a manager five to ten years after graduation. |
372 |
3.5887 |
.90829 |
|
24. I
have and keep good personal relationships with people in hospitality. |
372 |
3.5134 |
.84505 |
|
8.
When I made my career decision, I feel the need to respect my family
members' wishes as to what career would be best for me. |
372 |
3.4677 |
.88200 |
|
25. I
know what abilities are required to be a good hospitality employee. |
372 |
3.4355 |
.83626 |
|
22. I
enjoy working with different people. |
372 |
3.3710 |
.94713 |
|
14. I
used career reference books to know more about myself and the hospitality
jobs I wanted to pursue. |
372 |
3.3629 |
.91999 |
|
29.
Working in hospitality industry can help me fulfill my self-actualization. |
372 |
3.3629 |
.86565 |
|
7. When
I make career choice, I asked instructors who had much hospitality industry
experience more than those who did not have. |
372 |
3.3441 |
.95443 |
Table 2: The 6 Least Important Factors
|
Item |
N |
Mean |
Std. Deviation |
|
20. People in hospitality industry influence me
to choose hospitality jobs. |
372 |
2.4758 |
.90340 |
|
32. I chose hospitality major because of
traditional values. |
372 |
2.4247 |
.89155 |
|
17. My parents expect me to choose an occupation
that is in line with the family tradition. |
372 |
2.3118 |
.91385 |
|
2. My parents only support the decision about my
future career that they want me to pursue. |
372 |
2.2285 |
.91348 |
|
12. I choose to work in hospitality industry
because of my family business. |
372 |
1.9597 |
.90282 |
|
3. My parents always force me to follow their
career choice they made for me. |
372 |
1.9140 |
.85190 |
6.3.
Gender
and Grade Statistical Differences
T-tests
were adopted to examine the differences between genders. For the most part,
there was no statistically significant difference between genders except for
four items, namely, parents forcing students to follow their career choice,
family business, running their own business, and parents only providing career
information they wanted students to pursue. Here, male students tended to score
these factors higher than their female counterparts. The largest mean
differences between males and females were parents forcing students to follow
their career choice (2.19 versus 1.84, p=0.001) and family business (2.20
versus 1.90, p=0.007). It can be noted that the respondents tended to express
their disagreements with the two statements.
With
reference to grades, it was found there were 14 items that showed a significant
difference between freshman and sophomore respondents. As a whole, freshman
respondents put more value on the scores of almost all items. First-year
students rated the influence of teachers and counselors in their career choice
at 3.06 (p=0.000), while sophomores scored at 2.66 (p= 0.000). This meant
students tended to value less the advice of teachers and counselors as they
stayed longer in school.
Again,
the group of freshmen felt the hospitality jobs more challenging and
interesting than sophomores (3.45 versus 3.00, p= 0.000). In addition, the
first year respondents tended to over-estimate the value of working with
different people and the role of the career reference book. However, there were
a few items possessing minus difference, the most significant of which was the
length of hospitality experience (2.46 versus 2.80, p=0.003).
6.4.
Factor
analysis
To
delineate the underlying constructs associated with influencing factors of
career choice, principal component analysis was used, in this instance, a
two-stage method was performed to extract common dimensions from the 34
variables. As mentioned above, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient and
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measures of sample adequacy were both calculated as 0.88,
and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was computed with a value of 3892.54,
p<0.001, implying that data were suitable for factor analysis.
The
Scree Test indicated nine main dimensions all possess an eigenvalue in excess
of 1.0. Therefore, a total of 34 items for factor analysis resulted in 9 main
extracted dimensions. However, it was found there were a few dimensions
comprising only one or two variables, and additionally, the factor loadings of
a few variables were distributed almost evenly on some extracted dimensions.
These
10 variables involved were not deemed to be reliable and were therefore
excluded from the further factor analysis. The results of the second stage
factor analysis were presented in table 3. This time, the remaining 24 items
for factor analysis resulted in 5 main extracted dimensions accounting for
52.8% of explained variance. Each dimension was named based on the common
characters of the items concerned.
(1) The
first dimension was named “students self-efficacy and occupational aspiration”,
which accounted for 16.6% of the variance (alpha coefficient=0.85).
(2) The
second was labeled “tradition and cultural value”, which explained 11.9% of the
total variance with an alpha coefficient of 0.72.
(3) With
a reliability alpha of 0.61, the third dimension was “career guidance” which
accounted for 8.5% of the total variance.
(4) The
fourth, labeled “support from parents”, had an alpha of 0.57 and accounted for
8.2% of the total variance.
(5) The
last dimension was named “external consultation”, explained 7.6% of the total
variance. The alpha coefficient equaled 0.51.
Table 3: Factor Analysis of Influencing Factorsa
|
|
Dimension |
||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
28. I aspire to become a
manager in hospitality industry five to ten years after graduation. |
.723 |
|
|
|
|
|
23. I think that I have
the abilities to work well in hospitality and climb up to higher position. |
.705 |
|
|
|
|
|
26. My personalities fit
the hospitality jobs. |
.671 |
|
|
|
|
|
29. Working in hospitality
industry can help me fulfill my self-actualization. |
.647 |
|
|
|
|
|
33. I feel comfortable
in hospitality industry which is characterized by hierarchical structure. |
.587 |
|
|
|
|
|
27. High level managers
in hospitality industry have high social status. |
.570 |
|
|
|
|
|
34. I chose hospitality
major because I like the atmosphere in hospitality industry where both
employees and staff are friendly to each other. |
.544 |
|
|
|
|
|
24. I have and keep good
personal relationships with people in hospitality industry. |
.527 |
|
|
|
|
|
25. I know what
abilities are required to be a good hospitality employee. |
.526 |
|
|
|
|
|
22. I enjoy working with
different people in hospitality industry. |
.501 |
|
|
|
|
|
32. I chose hospitality
major because of traditional values. |
|
.732 |
|
|
|
|
12. I choose to work in
hospitality industry because of my family business. |
|
.627 |
|
|
|
|
17. My parents expect me
to choose an occupation that is in line with the family tradition. |
|
.601 |
|
|
|
|
16. I took career or
psychological tests that told me hospitality jobs fitted me. |
|
.554 |
|
|
|
|
20. People in
hospitality industry influence me to choose hospitality jobs. |
|
.550 |
|
|
|
|
2. My parents only
support the decision about my future career that they want me to pursue. |
|
|
.798 |
|
|
|
3. My parents always
force me to follow their career choice they made for me. |
|
|
.701 |
|
|
|
18. My parents only
provide me information on the career they want me to pursue. |
|
|
.578 |
|
|
|
7. When I make career
choice, I asked instructors who had much hospitality industry experience
more than those who did not have. |
|
|
|
.696 |
|
|
6. College teachers and
counselors had the greatest influence in my career choice. |
|
|
|
.682 |
|
|
9. My teachers and
counselors told me what positions I would pursue in hospitality industry. |
|
|
|
.644 |
|
|
11. I often discuss my
career choice with my classmates. |
|
|
|
|
.647 |
|
31. My present or former
colleagues give me some advice on future choice in hospitality industry. |
|
|
|
|
.565 |
|
15. I had some
experience in hospitality industry |
|
|
|
|
.539 |
|
|
|||||
Note. Extraction Method: Principal Component
Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser
Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations.
7. DISCUSSION
Generally,
this study confirmed that Super’s Life-span, Life-space Theory and Social
Cognitive Career Theory were appropriate to inform this study. The
findings were also consistent with the
knowledge gleaned from the authors’ experience in both academic institutions
and the professional field in the hotel industry. The influencing factors
extracted from the data notably matched the key constructs in the above two
underpinning theories.
7.1.
Gender
and Grade Difference
First,
this study revealed no statistically significant differences existed between
male and female students with reference to what they thought important in
determining their career decision except for a few items. These findings were
not consistent with the conclusions suggested by some researchers who reported
a significant difference between different gender (ZAHARI, 2004; WONG; LIU,
2010). Even, with regard to family influence, the findings did not seem to
corroborate the traditional thinking that females were usually more likely to
accept parents’ opinions and follow parents’ ideas than were males (WONG; LIU,
2010).
With
reference to different grades, it was found there indeed existed a difference
between freshman and sophomore students in multiple items. As noted above,
first-year students rated as higher, the influence of teachers and counselors
in their career choice and were prone to feel the hospitality jobs more
challenging and interesting. This may seem justifiable given second-year
students were exposed more to the hospitality industry. With more experience in
relationship with industry, sophomore students tended to ask their industry
colleagues for help rather than their school teachers. And equally, with more familiarity
with the real working circumstance, this group often thought hospitality jobs
somewhat monotonous and backbreaking.
The
above findings about student gender and grade differences were in line with
Super’s (1990) claim that gender has little influence in determining students’
career choice; what matters is career salience which plays a significant role
in career maturity. According to Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2005), career
maturity is developed in response to the changing vocational opportunities and
evolving patterns of life-role participation, and would be accomplished
successfully through age and stage developmental tasks across the life span.
Factors such as time perspective, exploration, information, decision-making,
and reality orientation are regarded as underlying the concepts of career
maturity and career adaptability (HERR, 1997).
When
students first matriculate into college, their career landscapes are foggy and
most of the time they choose future career out of curiosity. The most important
determinants of future career choice are limited to people around them, such as
parents, fellow students, teachers, and friends. As they progress to become
sophomores in their career choice journey, they have multiple opportunities to
expose themselves to real hospitality context. Although still struggling to
explore the future career possibilities, they become more career-mature and
career-adaptable. Therefore, hospitality major students make their career
decision differently.
7.2.
Influencing
Factors
There
are many social, cultural, and psychological factors that may contribute to the
career choices of hotel students in Guangzhou. However, the current study
revealed five underlying contributory factors. “Students self-efficacy and
occupational aspiration” was the most important factor to influence the
students’ career decision, followed by “tradition and cultural value”, “career
guidance”, “support from parents”, and “external consultation”.
As
mentioned before, these five extracted influencing factors notably match the
main constructs in Super’s Life-span, Life-space Theory and Social Cognitive
Career Theory. The following sections would be devoted to discussing these five
factors, although, the order and contents presented might not necessarily be that
listed above.
7.2.1. Cultural Value
While
a large body of literature suggests people make career choices based on their
cultural value, this study revealed that tradition and cultural value were
eclipsing their importance in influencing students’ decision of future
occupation. Most respondents did not concur with the statement “I chose
hospitality major because of traditional values” (mean= 2.42).
There
are two possible reasons. One may be that college students in Guangzhou are
millennials who hold different values than other generations. However, it was
worthwhile to note the standard deviation for this item was relatively high
(0.89), meaning quite a few students thought their career choice was still
affected by tradition culture mostly relating to collectivism, deference
towards the elders, and family piety (KIM; ATKINSON; UMEMOTO, 2001).
Another
possible reason might be due to distinct Lingnan culture, Cantonese language,
and geographical location. Students in Guangzhou embrace different values and
characteristics than other parts of China, which will most likely implicitly
affect their career choice. Conventionally, Lingnan culture is characterized by
openness, assertiveness andentrepreneurship, which fosters the atmosphere of
starting and running one’s own businesses instead of working for others.
People
see this as evidence of career success when parents pass on their businesses to
their children (WONG, 2005). As a result, there should be no surprise for HTM
graduates in Guangzhou that, after gaining a certain amount of hotel or tourism
experience by working for a short period of time in the industry, they can
usually be seen establishing their own businesses, no matter small or large.
This example also shows the importance of family influence in career decision
of HTM students mentioned below.
7.2.2. Family
Another
traditional value, which is generally considered to exert a powerful influence
on the Chinese family, is filial piety which awards parents with absolute
authority to bring up their children exactly according to their dictates (WONG,
2007). It seemed justifiable to conclude
that HTM graduates in Guangzhou may show their willingness to turn to their
parents for advice, especially when they face career dilemmas. Indeed, the
results in Table 1 indicated that respecting family members' wishes when making
career decision ranked sixth among the most important factors (mean=3.47).
Nevertheless, people should be circumspect
when making the above conclusion. As aforementioned, students in Guangzhou may be
different from their counterparts in other parts of China. In addition, the
student viewpoint on career choice changes with the times. It was clearly shown
that although “My family always supports my career decision in working in
hospitality industry” (mean= 3.65), most of the students do not choose an
occupation in line with their family tradition.
Family
can no longer force them to follow a career choice their family made for them.
These, again, contradicted the findings of most scholars who revealed that
parents were clearly influential in young people’s career choice (FERREIRA;
SANTOS; FONSECA; HAASE, 2006; STAMBLER, 1998; WHISTON; KELLER, 2004).
A
possible reason may be that although students in Guangzhou asked their parents
for initial tuition and fees for attending college, there were ample
opportunities for them to find part-time jobs to earn money, which greatly
alleviated their parents’ burden to support their education. As they became
more independent and mature, students would ultimately tend to make their own
career choice accordingly.
7.2.3. School Activity and Career Guidance
Naturally,
school activity encompasses any career-related activities in which students
participate during their college education, including student internship, job
shadowing, seeking career guidance, meeting with industry leaders and mentors,
and any other career exposure that would enhance the students’ understanding of
industry, work ethic, career required skills, and responsibilities of the job.
It
may seem reasonable to hypothesize that early exposure to the industry would
affect career decision-making process of HTM students in Guangzhou, regardless
of being positively or negatively correlated. The study clearly indicated that
respondents tended to think their internship and part-time jobs help them
better understand the hospitality industry and influence their career choice,
and additionally, they would ask industry-background instructors for help when
making a career decision. Further, they often discuss their career choice with
classmates and used career reference books to know more about themselves and
the hospitality industry.
However,
paradoxically it was also observed from the researchers’ student- counseling
experience, after a one-year internship, some students would like to apply for
a position elsewhere. Hospitality jobs are perceived as monotonous, tedious,
and dreary. This observation was confirmed by the results of the T-test for
grade category, showing there existed a statistically significant difference
between two grade students in items “I find hospitality jobs interesting and
challenging” (t=4.64, p=0.000).
7.2.4. Student Self-efficacy
As
discussed previously, self- efficacy is defined as “people’s judgments of their
capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain
designated types of performances” (BANDURA, 1986, p. 391). For HTM students,
self-efficacy functions as a mediator to stimulate them up the career ladder to
achieve their ultimate goals (FELTZ; PAYMENT, 2005).
For
their parts, the confidence in their career-related capability can be increased
through successful internship experiences or encouragement from industry
managers and co-workers, which in turn, can serve as an effective motivator for
them to reinforce the intentions to stay in their chosen career (BANDURA,
1986). This research confirmed students with high level of self-efficacy may be
more likely to pursue a hospitality career, which would contribute to stronger
career intentions to the industry (CHUANG; DELLMANN-JENKINS, 2010).
Most
of them thought that “working in the hospitality industry can help me fulfill
my self-actualization” (mean=3.36) and “I think that I have the abilities to
work well in hospitality and climb up to higher position” (3.24).
However,
it is worth noting students with high self-efficacy in their future hotel
related career during their school time turn out to suffer most when they go
through an internship or after finishing this required stage. It is perceived
in the real industry environment, there seems little, if not no, space for them
to climb up along the hotel career ladder.
Additionally,
a stark contrast exists between what they expect and what the hotel work
actually is. Undoubtedly, both of these perceptions would dampen HTM students’
interests in staying in the hotel industry. Under such a circumstance, given
the robust economic momentum in Guangzhou, it is suggested students should be
encouraged to apply for higher positions at other newly built hotels after
certain years’ experiences.
Notwithstanding,
it could not be denied that there are many HTM students who aspire to work in
hotels and their ultimate goals are to assume more responsibility in
administrative positions, which requires us to discuss the role that student occupational
aspiration plays in career decision making.
7.2.5. Student Occupational Aspiration
Like
self-efficacy, occupational aspiration embraced by HTM students constitutes a
crucial element of their motivational structure and might offer invaluable
insights into the career decision-making. Indeed, the results of this study
revealed most of the students agreed with the statement “I aspire to become a
manager in hospitality industry five to ten years after graduation”
(mean=3.59). Actually, occupational aspirations have been regarded as
significant determinants of long-term career choices (HOLLAND; GOTTFREDSON;
BAKER, 1990; SCHOON; PARSONS, 2002).
Additionally,
it has been found that students with lower occupational aspirations tend to
severely constrain their future career opportunities (ROJEWSKI; HILL, 1998).
Furthermore, Patton and Creed (2007) suggest students who reported to aspire to
professional status occupations are more likely to achieve their professional
goals.
The
researchers’ previous in-depth conversations and observations with the students
revealed students aspiring to high-level management in the hotel industry had
staunch determinations to overcome any roadblock they would face in the future
careers and are most likely to stick to their aspirations to achieve personal
goals.
Yet
interestingly, no salient discrepancy can be observed between gender
occupational aspirations, although there was evidence to show the present
female and male ratio was 8:2 in Hospitality and Tourism College sampled. Furthermore,
both female and male proclaimed their ambitions were higher level
administrative and managerial positions, such as heads of department,
directors, and general managers as their ultimate goals, yet showed little
interest in low-echelon jobs.
To
conclude, the issue of factors undergirding student career choice has drawn
much attention among scholars, educators, industries, and many other interested
groups. It was cogently argued there are a rather multitude of intrinsic and
extrinsic factors influencing students’ career decision-making process.
However, it is impossible to give a comprehensive enumeration of all possible
constructs, only some major contributing factors have been examined. They are
cultural values, familial background, school activity and career guidance,
student self-efficacy, as well as student occupational aspiration.
8. LIMITATIONS
It
should be noted some limitations exist in this study. First, although it was
considered that a sample of 372 respondents in a single college represented the
whole profile of hospitality management students in Guangzhou, one should be
cautious about its generalizability to other higher institutions or other
cities, and by extension, the whole of China. As was noted previously, the
tradition and culture in Guangzhou are largely distinct from other parts of
China.
Second,
the data were restricted to those collected from the first and second-year
students, junior students were not included in this study. Thus, it was
uncertain whether there was any difference between this internship out-school
group and in-school students. Moreover, this study would gain more benefits and
insights if a longitudinal study and other sampling methods could be embraced.
Further, in this study, some participants provided unusable responses.
Therefore,
specific procedures should have been implemented to handle the nonresponse
errors (DOOLEY; LINDNER, 2003). Lastly, although we computed the Cronbach’s
Alpha coefficient and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measures of sample adequacy for the
instrument prior to further analysis, we did not test the validity of the
measurement such as content validity, criteria-related validity, and construct
validity.
Future
studies should take longitudinal study, test of validity, other sampling
techniques into consideration to gain more insights into college students’
career choice. Also, due to distinct language and culture, a comparison between
Guangzhou and other cities’ student perceptions of importance of influencing
factors in terms of their career choice intention might be another interesting
topic for future study.
9. SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
From
the discussion above, the following suggestions and recommendations are
provided which might be beneficial for both HTM institutions and the hotel
industry as a whole in Guangzhou, and most probably some might be applicable to
other HTM institutions in other parts of China.
First
and foremost, when it comes to considering factors influencing HTM students’
career choice, it is helpful for us to hold a systems perspective to take into
consideration all stakeholders, including students, parents, hotel industry,
schools, and many other social environmental entities. Predicated on this
holistic logic, it would be postulated that it is critical to continue to build
firm and stable ties between HTM schools and hotel companies.
Fortunately,
this practice has been enforced and enacted by governments to encourage the
work-to-study project. HTM schools and hotel companies are directed to form
strategic bonds which would allow them to cooperate on student matriculation,
curriculum development, career counseling, internship and externship, and
teacher selection.
Secondly,
it is nationally recognized that students facing career choice would benefit
from the advice and suggestions given by instructors with hotel-working
experience. For this reason, employing a certain percentage of teachers from
industry would constitute the competitive edge for educational institutions to
attract more students in HTM program. Moreover, HTM schools should host more
career-related activities for students to be exposed to real industry
environments. In this way, students could enhance their understanding of
industry, work ethic, career required skills, and responsibilities of hotel jobs.
The
third recommendation we would make is that HTM schools, students, and hotels
sign an agreement to ensure all parties involved both assume responsibilities
and enjoy benefits from this triadic relationship. In this way, students may
seamlessly and smoothly move into hotel profession to promote their
professional advancement and career aspirations, while schools accomplish their
mission of cultivating and nurturing the most capable students to meet the
requirements of the industry.
Simultaneously,
hotels could easily obtain a stable and secure repository of qualified
employees. Moreover, hotels and HTM schools could help students by means of
offering scholarships, grants, financial assistance, and even tuition waiver,
which could further galvanize students’ interest in joining the HTM program.
Lastly,
it is imperative for HTM managers to create welcoming working climates and
cultures and harmonious interpersonal relations to alleviate the degree of work
dullness, burn-out, and pressure existing in hotel positions. Furthermore, it
is recommended that compensation packages be periodically surveyed, so the
school graduates could maintain high self-efficacy to perform their job and
feel the hospitality industry can help them fulfill their self-actualization.
Additionally, it is suggested the hotels develop and provide clear career paths
for their employees in order for them to hone their management skills to
advance their careers.
10. CONCLUSION
In
this paper, we examined the students’ perceptions of importance with reference
to influencing factors of their career options in the Hospitality Department of
a polytechnic college in Guangzhou City, China. This study makes significant
theoretical and practical contributions to hospitality major students’ career
choice in Guangzhou City.
First,
we surprisingly found more students made their own career choice with less
influence from traditional values and their family members. Additionally, the results of this study
clearly showed there was no statistically significant difference between male
and female students; however, a difference between freshmen and sophomore
respondents was found for some items.
Further,
this study identified five underlying contributory factors influencing
students’ career choice. “Students self-efficacy and occupational aspiration”
was the most important factor to influence the students’ career decision,
followed by “tradition and cultural value”, “career guidance”, “support from
parents”, and “external consultation”.
Finally,
the suggestions and recommendations we made provide a guideline for both
hospitality educators and practitioners to follow. The ultimate goal is to help
hospitality industry to attract and retain qualified HTM graduates, thus
assisting hospitality educators and practitioners to address some pressing
human resource challenges.
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