A Study on Career Management Issues of Women Managers in Indian Hospitality Industry

During the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women who have entered the work place in both developed and developing countries (Davidson & Burke, 2004). The major contributing factor is the increasing amount of education women have pursued, coupled with increasing number of women undertaking professional studies. The hospitality industry overall faces a worldwide shortage of trained hospitality staff (Robinson, 2007) and it appears that employment in this sector is advantageous for talented and career oriented women.

With this background, this paper aims at providing a profile of women managers in Indian Hospitality Industry determining their positions and investigating the challenges faced by them throughout their career. The purpose of the study is to examine women manager's perception of factors that facilitate and constrain their career advancement and find out if there are any significant differences among them. Efforts are made to find out the barriers that may exist to women's career advancement and also to determine differences between men's and women's opinions regarding the essential competencies and behaviors required for advancement in the industry.

The existing literature on various career related aspects of women managers at different levels provided the theoretical backgroundfor the study. Using the random sampling method, a sample of 52 women managers from some of the leading hotels of India completed questionnaires on the study. The results show that even if these managers are able to enter into management cadre and move upwards, the difficulties faced in attaining high level positions are many. The different factors affected are gender issues, job characteristics, work life balance, family concerns, relationships at work, long work hours, mentoring, work environment and glass ceiling. Information provided by the respondents confirms that women in hospitality industry continue facing challenges in their career.