Management principles in hospitality and tourism: freshmen students' preferences.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in "Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism" in March 2007, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1300/J171v06n02_05.Research into implicit leadership theories has revealed that people’s conceptualizations of good and bad leadership, based on their experiences, have impacts on how they perceive leadership. This paper presents results from a study of 148 freshman Hospitality and Tourism Management students’ preferences of management principles. It focuses on dichotomy principles in three dimensions, how tasks are defined (Functionalism vs. Idealism), how decisions are reached (Conflict vs. Harmony), and how organizational resources are utilized (Organic vs. Mechanic). The main findings were that there were large differences in the students’ preferences and four characteristic groups were identified, though explaining the differences by mainly demographic variables was problematic. The findings and their implications are discussed with regard to industrial and educational implications and further research

The effects of performance appraisal in the Norwegian municipal health services: a case study

Introduction: Previous research in performance appraisal (PA) indicates that variation exists in learning and job motivation from performance appraisal between occupational groups. This research evaluates the potential effect of job motivation, learning and self-assessment through performance appraisals for health personnel. Case description: This article focuses on goal-setting, feedback, participation and training in performance appraisals in municipal health services in Norway; and job motivation, learning and self-assessment of performance are the dependent factors. Questionnaires were distributed to a representative sample of 600 health personnel from the Norwegian municipal health service, with a response rate of 62%. Factor analysis and regression analysis were run in SPSS 12. Discussion and evaluation: The study suggests that respondents learn from performance appraisal. Nurses experienced some higher job motivation from performance appraisal than auxiliary nurses. All subordinates perceived higher job motivation after performance appraisal than managers. Conclusion: Useful feedback, active participation and higher education are fundamental elements of discussion in performance appraisal, as well as the role of increasing employees’ job motivation. In this study, nurses’ job motivation seems to be more effected by PA, than for auxiliary nurses. Both nurses and auxiliary nurses indicate that there is a learning effect from PA. This study may be of interest to health researchers and managers in municipal health services.publishedVersio

Worry and its correlates onboard cruise ships

The present study examined job-specific worry, as well as possible predictors of such worry, namelyjob-specific self-efficacy and supervisor dispositionism. 133 non-supervising crew members at differentdepartments onboard upmarket cruise ships filled in a questionnaire during one of their journeys. Findings show that employees report moderate amounts of job-specific worry and the galley crew reports significantlygreater amounts of worry than the other departments. Results also indicate that cruise ship crews worrysomewhat more than workers in the land based service sector. Furthermore it was found that supervisordispositionism, i.e. supervisors with fixed mindsets, was related to greater amounts of worry among thecrew. Surprisingly, job-specific self-efficacy was unrelated to job-specific worry.publishedVersio

Worry and its correlates onboard cruise ships

The present study examined job-specific worry, as well as possible predictors of such worry, namelyjob-specific self-efficacy and supervisor dispositionism. 133 non-supervising crew members at differentdepartments onboard upmarket cruise ships filled in a questionnaire during one of their journeys. Findings show that employees report moderate amounts of job-specific worry and the galley crew reports significantlygreater amounts of worry than the other departments. Results also indicate that cruise ship crews worrysomewhat more than workers in the land based service sector. Furthermore it was found that supervisordispositionism, i.e. supervisors with fixed mindsets, was related to greater amounts of worry among thecrew. Surprisingly, job-specific self-efficacy was unrelated to job-specific worry

Frontline Service Employees’ Profiles: Exploring Individual Differences in Perceptions of and Reactions to Workplace Incivility

Employee turnover is a big issue in the service industry, which can be significantly affected by job stressors including workplace incivility. This exploratory study aims to identify the frontline service employees’ profiles exploring to what extent individuals may have different perceptions of incivility and social supports at work and showing different reactions (job outcomes). In a cross-sectional study, 291 completed questionnaires from a sample of Norwegian frontline service employees were subjected to correlation analysis, K-means clustering, and post hoc ANOVA analysis with Bonferroni correction. Cluster analysis revealed three distinct clusters of employees with different profiles, which indicated that those who perceived the highest level of workplace incivility and the lowest level of social supports at work showed the highest turnover intention compared to that of others. Moreover, employees with longer tenure and the highest perception of social supports at work coped better with workplace incivility and showed the lowest turnover intention.publishedVersio

Editorial: strategy in hospitality management.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism on 26th November 2008, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15022250802532435Doing research in strategy is exciting but perhaps also one of the most difficult things to do. It is exciting because strategy concerns considering the overall situation and development of companies and industries in a changing environment. Difficult because it leads to multidimensional models where it is neither clear which variables should be included or excluded, or what causality, if any, there is between the chosen variables. A glimpse into the most relevant scientific electronic base (‘‘Hospitality & Tourism Complete’’, 2008) in search of hospitality strategy publications, gives 1451 hits1 for the last 10 years. However, only 163 of these were filed as ‘‘peer reviewed’’. This information reveals mainly two things: First, the urge to announce and give opinions about strategic issues is high with close to 150 publications each year. However, the number of peer-reviewed publications is less than 17 per year, and without any other knowledge about why and how such peer-reviewed papers become published, it is easy to conclude that less than 17 academic contributions each year from hundreds of hospitality schools and research centres is a very small amount

“I hope it won’t happen to me!” Hospitality and tourism students’ fear of difficult moral situations as managers

This is an electronic copy of an article; made available from Tourism management. Marnburg, E. (2006) ‘‘I hope it won’t happen to me!’’ Hospitality and tourism students’ fear of difficult moral situations as managers. Tourism Management , 27(4), pp. 561–57. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026151770500018X. Copyright 2006, with permission from Elsevier.In order to organize ethical education for future managers in the hospitality and tourism industry, an interesting study is to look into how students conceptualize the moral ordeals they think they will meet in their future management positions. Hospitality and Tourism students at the Norwegian School of Hotel Management, Stavanger University, were given a group assignment to write stories (narratives) about managers who were confronted with ethical dilemmas—a situation they could face as future managers. In order to make an explorative study of the narratives, an analytical categorization model based on former research in business ethics was constructed. This model focuses on what types of ethical dilemmas are described, who is involved in the situation, situational factors, individual attributes, and who is to blame for the dilemma appearance. Most of the dilemmas described in the histories were general business ethical issues and the students focused mainly on problems between superiors and subordinates within the organizations. The analyses revealed that the students have a sound conception of how moral dilemmas were elicited and of social reactions within the organization. The students also showed a high degree of self-insight and were generally skeptical of top management's decisions or lack thereof. However, the analyses also revealed that the students’ implicit theories about management included harsh expectations from the organizations and that individualistic and lone managers had to bear all the problems on their shoulders. Possible implications of the findings are discussed in relation to professional practice, education and future research

Women in the boardroom: how do female directors of corporate boards perceive boardroom dynamics?

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1461-9.This study investigated how female directors of corporate boards of directors (BoD) experience boardroom dynamics. The study represents an initial research trend that moves from a unilateral focus on financial outcomes of female representation in BoDs toward stronger attention on the social dynamics in the boardroom. Drawing on social identity theory, the study proposed that female directors often constitute an out-group within the BoD, preventing them from experiencing positive board dynamics. More specifically, the study explored the extent to which female directors do experience less justice, lower cohesion, and higher levels of conflicts within the BoD than their male counterparts do. Moreover, we assumed that female directors with nontraditional educational backgrounds would be particularly likely to experience negative boardroom dynamics whereas female chairpersons of BoDs would perceive boardroom dynamics more positively than other female directors. The sample consisted of 491 directors from 149 BoDs. Our findings revealed that there were generally few differences in the way female and male directors experienced boardroom dynamics and female chairpersons of BoDs did not perceive the dynamics differently than other female directors. Female directors with nontraditional educational backgrounds perceived the boardroom dynamics somewhat more negatively than other female directors, but the differences were not statistically significant. The conclusions from this study are that there are reasons to believe that female directors are welcomed into boardrooms, not perceived as outgroups, and BoDs are able to benefit from the female directors’ experience and skills