Preparing Students to Fit Within the Hospitality Industry Culture: Does the Educational Background Make a Difference?

Abstract

Hospitality programs want to prepare their graduates to fit within the organizational culture of the industry. The mean scores of college seniors from hospitality programs were compared to seniors pursuing a degree in either business or liberal arts on the Hospitality Culture Scale. The hospitality students differed significantly from others with regard to Customer Relationships and Motivation. Hospitality students differed from business students when it came to Job Satisfaction and from liberal arts on the Risk Taker measure. The hospitality and business students varied from liberal arts students on the factors, Principles, Propitiousness, Leadership, and Accuracy, but not from each other.

KEYWORDS:

• cultural fit
• educational gaps
• cultural transmission
• hospitality culture