Professional-development Needs in Ital

Abstract

This study reports on the perceived importance of the professional needs of the Italian hotel industry's managing owners (MOs) and general managers (GMs). A survey was used to (1) determine the hotel-management skills that need improvement, (2) assess which of those skill areas can be improved through training, and (3) identify the specific training courses that are actually of interest to those managers. When asked which of their professional skills needed the most improvement, the MO and GM groups both cited marketing and human-resources expertise, followed by financial and administrative-management knowledge. Moreover, more than 80 percent of the MOs and GMs considered human resources and marketing the most useful skill areas that could actually be taught in professional-development courses. A series of open-ended questions also revealed the managers' perceived shortcomings regarding employee relations-in particular, recruitment, selection, training, and motivation. When asked about which courses they might actually attend, managing customer satisfaction was ranked first followed by publicity and promotion. Leadership and motivation came in third, followed by strategic marketing and maximizing hotel sales. As for a training program's cost, GMs are willing to spend more money than are the MOs. GMs prefer that training take place on weekdays while the MOs preferred weekend programs.