Career change in a small island tourism destination: evidence from former hospitality managers
Journal
International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration
Date Issued
December 17, 2020
Author(s)
DOI
10.1080/15256480.2020.1862017
Abstract
Recent decades have revealed labor turnover to be the Achilles’
heel of the hospitality industry. This has led interested members
of the academic community to investigate the topic from an
array of perspectives. Managerial career change, which shares
certain theoretical attributes with the phenomenon of turnover,
has heretofore been inexplicably overlooked by academia,
despite its strong operational and strategic implications. By
espousing a qualitative methodology, namely grounded theory,
this study builds on existing theoretical capital and investigates
the factors contributing to managerial career change, which is
defined as a manager’s voluntary decision to exit the hospitality
industry and seek employment in other segments of the economy.
Ten in-depth interviews with individuals who had invested
in hospitality degrees, so as to take on management-level positions,
but subsequently decided to pursue other careers, have
provided insight on the factors contributing to such decisions.
Our findings should be of interest to industry stakeholders, as
they may assist in further theorizing the social process leading
to managerial career change.
heel of the hospitality industry. This has led interested members
of the academic community to investigate the topic from an
array of perspectives. Managerial career change, which shares
certain theoretical attributes with the phenomenon of turnover,
has heretofore been inexplicably overlooked by academia,
despite its strong operational and strategic implications. By
espousing a qualitative methodology, namely grounded theory,
this study builds on existing theoretical capital and investigates
the factors contributing to managerial career change, which is
defined as a manager’s voluntary decision to exit the hospitality
industry and seek employment in other segments of the economy.
Ten in-depth interviews with individuals who had invested
in hospitality degrees, so as to take on management-level positions,
but subsequently decided to pursue other careers, have
provided insight on the factors contributing to such decisions.
Our findings should be of interest to industry stakeholders, as
they may assist in further theorizing the social process leading
to managerial career change.