Deciding To Stay: A Study in Hospitality Managerial Grit

Abstract

Contributing to a relatively new stream of literature connecting grit to organizational retention, this research note examined how internal employability perceptions interacted with a manager’s grittiness to predict professional mobility intentions (turnover and change career intentions). Retention is a salient concern within the U.S. hospitality industry given the high turnover rate and its subsequent impact on career trajectories of professionals. Based on an exploratory survey-based approach the results of this study suggests an association between grit and professional mobility, and that effect is moderated by the perceptions a hospitality manager holds regarding internal employability. Pointedly, when hospitality managers reported increasingly lower feelings of internal employability, grit played a significant role predicting professional mobility intentions; less gritty managers were more likely to intend to harbor turnover intentions and career change intentions, while their grittier counterparts were less likely to intend to leave.