The skills profile of the hospitality supervisor in South Africa

Abstract The hospitality industry in South Africa is faced with challenges such as increased competitionnationally and internationally -economic recession, downsizing, the need to work smarter and not necessarily harder, but most of all, the challenge of managing diversity. The aim of this study was to determine the skills profile of the supervisor according to their own experience. A survey research approach was followed and research was conducted through self-administrated questionnaires that was based on competencies (core performance dimensions) related to the managerial aspects of a supervisor, namely -managing others (operational). Convenience sampling, comprising a population of hospitality supervisors working in hotels in South Africa was used. Six major hotel chains participated in this study. Responses were received from 141 hospitality supervisors. The researcher relied on descriptive and inferential statistical procedures to analyse the quantitative data. Results show that the performance dimension Guest and relationship is ranked as the most important performance dimension/attribute. This is not surprising as the responsibilities of the hospitality supervisor include a guest-focused culture

Perceptions of employers on the employability of hospitality graduates in Gauteng Province, South Africa.

The hospitality industry is a service industry; therefore, the role of personal service by employees is irreplaceable. There are frequent and intense face-to-face interactions or encounters between the service providers and customers. It is therefore important to have the right employees with the necessary skills and competence. The ability of graduates to develop proactively, adapt and repackage their capabilities is an essential aspect of employability. The study on which this article reports, investigated hospitality employers’ perspective of the skills, attributes or qualities they deem necessary to make a graduate employable. Employers of hospitality graduates represent the diverse stakeholders in the industry such as for example private enterprises (hotels, guest houses, lodges, restaurants) and public organisations (hospitals, correctional services, schools and the military). Therefore, a qualitative research design was deployed with semi-structured interviews to get in-depth data about their views on the subject matter. Data analysis was done with the use of a QDA software programme, ATLAS.ti. The interviews were transcribed and coded. Different themes emerged from the coded interviews and the themes were presented in the form of a network diagram. The findings about aspects that are essential are discussed