Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management & Dietetics / Carol W. Shanklin / The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting the decision process of
African American students regarding the choice of hospitality management as a career. The
significant influence of others, perception and awareness of the industry, resistance to
servitude, and personal background were explored in the context of Omi and Winantâs Racial
Formation Theory.
Focus groups were conducted with hospitality management and business students to
investigate the above constructs in-depth. Questionnaires were administered to students
enrolled in College of Businesses at 14 Historically Black Colleges and Universities who were
majoring in hospitality management or some aspect of business. The results of the focus
groups indicated that the students are aware that their race may determine what jobs they are
offered in the hospitality industry, how rapidly they will be promoted, how society views them
as individuals, and how society views an entire race when that particular race is found in low
level jobs in large numbers or perception of an industry, and the pay scale.
The students indicated that servitude is when one person has more power than someone
else or someone is in control. Hospitality students were more likely to support the idea that the
industry provides opportunities for advancements (Ï2 = 33.64, df = 3, p < .001) and offer
balanced pay in terms of race and ethnicity (Ï2 = 14.49, df = 3, p < .01). For each servitude
measure hospitality students were less likely to support notions of servitude in the hospitality
industry than non-hospitality students. Non-hospitality students had a strong association with
the idea that hospitality jobs are demeaning (Ï2 = 10.16, df = 3, p < .05) and include positions
that typically involved housekeeping and kitchen work (Ï2 = 28.72, df = 3, p < .001). In
general the data for African Americans revealed significant relationships between the outcome measure, career choice, and personal background (r = -.118, p < .05), awareness and
perception of the hospitality industry (r = .116, p < .05) and significance of others (r = .164, p <
.01) using two-tailed test.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/104 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Bradford, Berkita S. |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 669923 bytes, application/pdf |
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