The criteria for selecting general managers for five star hotels in Beijing
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publisher
Prince of Songkla University
School
School of Management
RAS ID
10159
Abstract
This paper examines the selection criteria of General Managers for five star hotels in Beijing and the Western influence on Beijing‘s hotel industry. What impact do the preference and expectation for internal and external customers, and the hotel market have on selecting a suitable General Manager? Is knowledge of Chinese culture a key criterion of the job selection for this higher management position as posited by Feng and Pearson (1999)? The findings contradict the notion that in order to be successful as an international assignee in the case of hotel management, knowledge of the local culture is a prerequisite specifically in the China context. This, therefore, have implications for the appointment of General Managers in the future. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, a convenience sample of General Managers was examined. The findings indicate that the majority of General Managers of topend hotels in Beijing are expatriates which allude to a tacit cultural expectation or bias of the local hotel industry stakeholders. This has significant ramifications on the recruitment practices in the Chinese hotel industry specifically and the wider human resources practices in general. It also impacts on hospitality management education and training, and perceptions of hotel management amongst Asians, in the Asian context.
Comments
Ogle, A.W., Grainger, S.J., Dong,X. (2010). The criteria for selecting general managers for five star hotels in Beijing. In Proceedings of the 8th APacCHRIE Conference 2010. (pp. 74 - 82). Conference website available here.