Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine which personality traits would predict the success of general managers in the service-oriented hotel industry. It evaluated the differences in personality traits between high and low performing managers in a geographical division of a major international hotel chain. Thirty-one male participants responded to the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, a multi-dimensional personality inventory. T-tests indicated that the high and low performing managers differed the most on three personality variables: ascendance, emotional stability, and objectivity. Comptrollers scored consistently with the low-performing general managers; thus based on these results, they are likely to be poor candidates for promotion into top management. The three personality traits found to be the best predictors in this study are comparable to three of the “Big 5” personality factors that have previously been linked to job performance. The combined prediction of these three subscales accounted for 65% of the variance between the high and low performing groups. The original Guilford-Zimmerman contains 300 questions; thus a shortened version of this instrument tailored for the hotel industry that assesses only these three traits could be developed. This method would be a practical and useful means of predicting which candidates would best be suited for top management in the hospitality industry.
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