The U.S. and the U.K.

Abstract

In 1988, Richard Tas analyzed the competencies required of college graduates entering management training programs in the U.S. This article reports on the replication of that study in the U.K. and compares those results with Tas's. Both studies give high ratings to human-relations competencies. Other priorities involve technical, financial, and business-planning competencies. These industry needs, it seems, are influenced by similar cultural and structural factors. The main discrepancy between the two studies involves legislation and regulation. U.K. hoteliers cited competency in those areas as more important than did their U.S. counterparts. The studies point to the desirability of an internationally transferable "core" curriculum for hotel-management programs.