This study uses ethnographic portraits of hotel school managers to identify specific soft skills lacking in Cambodian hospitality students and to examine the complex obstacles that the managers face when providing soft skills education. In Cambodia, 30% of the population lives under the poverty line (“UNICEF Cambodia Statistics,” n.d.). Meanwhile, the service and hospitality sector has grown to represent 39% of the country’s real GDP share (“Growth in service sector brings more challenges,” n.d.), making it an attractive industry for young workers to find employment and improve livelihoods. However, the World Bank identifies that there is a gap in young Cambodian workers’ skills, especially soft skills (Brixi, Van Adams, D’Amico, & Krauss, 2012). The qualitative portraiture method is used in the study to lend a more detailed perspective on school challenges since the existing literature on the soft skills deficiency in Cambodia is largely quantitative in nature. For this portraiture study, managers from the Don Bosco Hotel School, the largest hotel school in Cambodia, were chosen as protagonists. The findings reveal that the main soft skills lacking in students are: responsibility, self-assessment, honesty, self-confidence, teamwork, and culture sensitization. The findings also show that major obstacles hotel school managers faced when educating students in soft skills are: high staff turnover, lack of role models, short duration of training programs, lack of nutrition, problems with students’ families, and a shortage of external exchange opportunities. By humanizing the dialogue beyond quantitative statistics, a richer and more meaningful ecosystem of information can emerge. With greater contextual understanding, stakeholders in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors can create more sustainable changes for Cambodian hospitality soft skills training. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This research study investigated the impact of mobile technology on operational success of the hospitality industry SMMEs in South Africa under the prevailing socio-economic conditions.

Franchise businesses are popular both in practice and, as a result, in academic study. In particular, much research has been devoted to franchise business survivability. This thesis discovers and examines key determinants that have influences on franchise business survivability in Indonesian franchise businesses in the restaurant and retail sectors. This research produces a franchise business survivability model that is based on previous research and theories. The researcher performs confirmatory factor analysis structural equation modelling (CFA-SEM) to test and analyse the relationships between the five key determinants which are: trust; commitment; dispute risk management; relationship satisfaction; and franchise business survivability. Based on the empirical analysis, the research reveals that trust and commitment as key determinants do not have significant influences on relationship satisfaction. The other key determinant, dispute risk management, has a significant influence on relationship satisfaction. This research also reveals that relationship satisfaction has significant influence on franchise business survivability. This study made a contribution to knowledge by building a salient model of key determinants to enhance business survivability within the context of Indonesian franchise businesses in the restaurant and retail sectors. Furthermore, this thesis also closes some gaps in previous research into franchise business survivability. Another unique contribution made by this research is that the author looked at the issue of survivability from both perspectives of franchisors and franchisees, whilst previous research has predominantly performed analysis from the perspective of only one of the partners in franchise business arrangements. Therefore, it provides a holistic analysis on key determinants that have influences in enhancing franchise business survivability in the Indonesian restaurant and retail sectors.

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This study is an investigation into women receptionists' experience in the provision of accommodation in the contemporary hospitality industry. It uses a phenomenological and interpretative inquiry to 'illumine' this experience and offer plausible insights. The guiding research questions are: What is the experience of hospitality reception practice like? What sense do receptionists make of their experience? What is the significance of the experience in the light of sociological discourses? What are the implications of their experience for practice and professional development? / The experience of hospitality reception practice is given through an 'expressive' based phenomenological approach that portrays the experience through narrative, poetry and metaphor. The portrayal composed of reflective accounts of ten episodes of practices that are typical of hospitality reception work. The personal episodes are situated within different social, cultural, personal and occupational settings. These accounts of the practice are then interpreted for meanings, juxtaposed to unravel themes and discussed for their significance and implications. The discussion of significance involves examining the themes through the discourses of culture, feminist theory, power and labour relations, consumerism and notions about the home environment. The themes are then considered in terms of implications for practice and professional development. / The study shows the conversional nature of hospitality reception work, which invites 'strangers' to become 'guests'. This means to carry out practices which invite these strangers to be compliant, disarmed, integrated, valued, pampered and enriched guests. There are also other conversional challenges, such as inviting prudent guests to be generous spenders, travellers to be vacationers, and visitors to be tourists. Receptionists and guests also often expect to form meaningful personal connections with each other which can enrich their experience further. / Receptionist is the human face of the company. As the go-between for management and guests there is an element of being the meat in the sandwich. Reception work has also been interpreted as jujitsu of control and power. The context of the work has been described as highly pressured, uncertain, chaotic, stressful and challenging in which the work is experienced in peaks and valleys. The requirement for receptionists to perform a fine balancing act, where they are expected to juggle, synthesise and accommodate many tasks is also illuminated. The seamless multiplex relations of receptionists and the effect of competing priorities are also highlighted. One of the important elements in the experience is the way in which the industry, by employing well-presented, young attractive women receptionists has implicitly sexualised the interaction, exposing receptionists to a risk of sexual harassment. Another significant element in the experience is management's lack of support for and appreciation of receptionists who are the 'flak catchers' of the organisation. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2007.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of South Australia, 1999

Thesis (MEd) -- University of South Australia, 1998

Thesis (M. Bus.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MEd) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2005. / Also held in print (166 leaves, 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection (T 641.507 EMM)

Thesis (MIHM) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2004. / Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Roberts. Also held in print (87 leaves, 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 647.95 SHA)