An Exploratory Study on the Antecedents of Occupational Commitment among Hospitality Educators in Hong Kong.

Abstract

In recent years, the growth in hospitality management programmes and the demand for hospitality educators in Hong Kong has increased dramatically. The hospitality industry, educational institutions and hospitality students also have high expectations of hospitality educators. Due to an increased need to recruit and retain qualified hospitality educators, this research seeks to understand the occupational commitment of hospitality educators in Hong Kong. Occupational commitment is an important indicator of a number of factors. It is found that occupational commitment is closely related to work-related stress, job satisfaction and occupational retention (Jamal, 1990; Borg et al., 1991; Jepson and Forrest, 2006; Klassen and Chiu, 2010). However, there is lack of research investigating the occupational commitment or its antecedents of hospitality educators. Therefore the study aims to gain an insight into the occupational commitment of hospitality educators in Hong Kong. This research identifies the key antecedents affecting occupational commitment and investigates which of these antecedents influence the occupational commitment of hospitality educators in Hong Kong. It also explores the reasons why hospitality educators are committed to hospitality education profession in Hong Kong. The research presented in this paper is one element of wider study. For this part, a qualitative research method and purposive sampling is adopted. Four focus groups comprised of twenty hospitality educators currently working in Hong Kong have been conducted. The results found that the flexibility of hospitality education work, non-shift work pattern, the self-actualization needs in education, career opportunities and occupational image are the key antecedents of occupational commitment of hospitality educators in Hong Kong.