Women's Career Advancement in the Hospitality Industry - Article Example

In this research, perceptions of students form the dependent variable. The application of factor analysis helped in the determination of the dependent variable. Observably, gender and group formed the independent variable. The function of Quantitative analysis helped in the determination of this variable (Yan, 2007).

This research, (Yan, 2007) asserts that there exists covariance between external (opportunities, mobility, family support, personality, job knowledge, support and guidance, personal sacrifice, and educational qualifications) and character (hard work, attitude, effective communication, and problem-solving) exhibit considerable covariance. It is noteworthy that, the two factors (variables) account for 33.2% of the total variance. Exploratory factor analysis helped in the determining covariance between character and external factors. This analysis involved the use of factor extraction through principal axis factoring (PAF).

The population in this study comprises undergraduate and graduate students in the hospitality industry. Undergraduate students formed the first frame while graduate students formed the second frame. A sample of 128 students was used. This sample is credible because of the lesser number of students. (Yan, 2007).In this research questionnaire, a sampling technique was applied. The questionnaire consisted of open-ended questions. The survey conducted indicates that 128 respondents returned their survey. This represented an 85% retort rate.

Critique

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test is one of the analytical approaches applied in this research to test the factorability of the correlation matrices. Bivariate correlation is also an analytical approach obtainable using SPSS. Additionally, Mahalanobis distance was used to check for screen multicollinearity and multivariate outliers obtained through multiple regressions. This reveals the strength of the methodology of the research (Yan, 2007).

The analysis of this research reveals that significant differences between females and males on factors of family issues, equity, and advancement existed. However, no significant sex by group interaction in the insight of factors that aid and constrict women’s professional advancement. Moreover (Yan, 2007) asserts that the majority of interviewers (students) indicated that educational programs associated with the hospitality industry could give courses that will enhance awareness of the challenges in the hospitality industry. Additionally, the creation of forums to facilitate imparting of skills to women is a key component in women's career advancement riddle. These skills include communication, creativity, personality development, and problem-solving. This research exceptionally recommends that mentorship ability amongst women be acquired through such forums dominated by women speakers.

Observably, logistic regression is possible in this research because more than two sets of categorical dependent and continuous independent variables are correlated. For instance, perceptions of students form the dependent variable, which correlates with gender, and the group that forms the independent variable. The logistic regression idea enhances the prediction of future trends in the perception of women's empowerment and advancement. The study has successfully, applied exceptionally strong analytical techniques in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data (Yan, 2007).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this study (Yan, 2007) has revealed many factors that control women’s career progression. The key facilitators to women’s professional advancement include communication skills, hard work, attitude towards work, and crisis-solving skills. The main constraints in this study comprised job characteristics, childcare roles, lack of adequate support, and conflict with family responsibilities. Moreover, the findings indicate that there is an immense need for the involvement of the hospitality industry recruiters and educators in curriculum development and design, to give opinions and ideas. This can facilitate the creation of a curriculum aimed at bringing equity and organizational balance in the industry and help in satisfying the needs of the students.

The foremost threat to internal validity in this study is the size of the subject population, which was relatively small. This threat was adequately addressed by the use of exceptionally strong analytical methods such as the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and bivariate correlation in the analysis of the data. The generalizability of the study is narrow or small to the population; however, it is evident that an increase in the generalizability of the study in the future is possible only by using relatively larger samples and random sampling (Yan, 2007).