Developing self-efficacy: does switching to a hospitality major matter?

ABSTRACT

Many undergraduate hospitality students matriculated into this major from a previous major. The issue was that myriad of hospitality students chose this major because they were either undecided or unhappy with their current major. Some researchers suggest that happiness has a positive impact on confidence, and hospitality industry leaders touted confidence and/or self-efficacy as sought after soft skills. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of students who switched into a HTM major due to the development of self-efficacy. A confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to examine the foundation of confidence for the maturation of self-efficacy when undergraduate students matriculated from a prior major to a HTM major. Also, students’ attitudes of those who switched into a HTM major were examined to test the development of self-efficacy. Findings suggested that undergraduate students who entered into hospitality majors from previous majors developed self-efficacy and improved soft skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-efficacy
• hospitality students
• education
• soft skills
• switch majors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.