This PhD by Publication explores hospitality undergraduates’ and graduates’ perceptions of careers in the international hospitality industry. The thesis is based on eight published articles; the first published in 1990 and the final one in 2018. The selected papers include conceptual and empirical work, and used a variety of research methods including questionnaires, interviews and case studies. This thesis argues that, although past studies recognised that many hospitality students chose not to follow a hospitality career after they graduated, they did not attempt to understand sufficiently when their career intentions changed or to explain why. My work posits that the high attrition rate of hospitality graduates can only be understood by taking an approach at three different levels (individual, organisational and societal) and incorporating the views of undergraduates, graduates and employers. It is argued that the experiences and changing attitudes of these actors need to be examined in a variety of organisational and cultural contexts. The overarching focus of my work is the concept of a career and I have made an original contribution to knowledge by examining hospitality undergraduates’ perceptions of the hospitality industry as a career identifying ways that their career constructions were shaped by factors at these three different levels. In addition to employing this multi-level analysis, my work has shown potential links between the different levels, which has enabled me to contribute to knowledge by creating a more expansive understanding of hospitality undergraduates’ career aspirations. My research encompassed undergraduates and graduates working in small firms, challenging the assumptions of the government and policy makers at that time and, it provided evidence regarding the suitability of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector for developing and utilising graduate skills. My work stressed that a critical concern was not whether an SME employed a graduate, but rather how a graduate was used. Moreover, my research questioned the suitability of some small tourism and hospitality firms as employers for graduates wishing to develop a career that was appropriate to their qualifications. Overall, this body of work contributes to a deeper understanding of undergraduates’ and graduates’ changing perceptions of careers in both small and large firms in the international hospitality industry. Moreover, it provides an analysis and explanation for the high attrition of hospitality graduates.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/jy79-6047
Jameson, Stephanie Margaret
Supervisors: Lugosi, Peter; Quinton, Sarah
Oxford Brookes Business SchoolOxford School of Hospitality Management
Year: 2023
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