What It Takes to Be a Manager

nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A MANAGER: THE CASE OF MALAYSIAN FIVESTAR RESORT HOTELS Rozila Ahmad ([email  protected] edu. my) Noor Azimin Zainol ([email  protected] edu. my) Universiti Utara Malaysia Sintok, 06010 Kedah ABSTRACT This article investigates the requirement for managerial posts in five-star resort hotels in Malaysia. Despite the growth of hotel industry in Malaysia, academic literature especially qualitative empirical study focusing on the human capital needs of the industry in the country is scarce.Different from other industries, in the hotel industry a Bachelor’s Degree hardly guarantees the attainment of management position. Based on interviews with 42 hotel employees including 19 managers from six hotels, this article suggests that work experience and leadership skill is crucial for hotel managers to perform their job. Other requirements are knowledge, education and Engli sh proficiency. This suggestion is supported by the employees’ profile. The implications are discussed, emphasizing the need to consider increasing hotel students’ work experience in the industry and enhancing their leadership skill.Keywords: human resource management, hotel industry, career, leadership, education, communication INTRODUCTION There is a shortage of skilled workers in Malaysia due to its rapidly growing economy (Business Monitor International Ltd. , 2010). Tourism is among the main contributor for the economic growth and its alignment with hotel industry has created many job opportunities to the local population. Based on the statistics by Malaysian Association of Hotels (2011a) from 2007 to 2010 the number of tourist arrival has increased from 20. 9 million to 23. million and this was followed by the increment in the number of hotels and motels from 1567 to 2005. This has led to the continuous growth of public and private institutions offering hotel man agement courses to fill the workforce needs of these hotels. Despite the increasing number of hotel graduates, hotels are still facing worker shortages (Malaysian Association of Hotels, 2011b). As in developed countries, Malaysian hotels are having problems in attracting and retaining skilled and knowledgeable workers (Patah, Zain, Abdullah & Radzi, 2009; Cheng & Brown, 1998).On one hand, the shortage of skilled workers in Malaysian hotels is caused by the unattractive work atmosphere of the industry. On the other hand it is caused by Malaysian workforce inferiority to attain management position. Similar to the developed countries, Hotels in Malaysia are facing problems in attracting and retaining skilled and knowledgeable workers due to low salary, rigid job traits and conventional style of top-down operation (Ahmad, Solnet & Scott, 2010; Yamashita & Uenoyama, 2006; Davidson, Guilding & Timo, 2006).However, such problem is less prevalent in Multi National Corporation (MNC) due to t heir strategic human resource management practices that managed to attract and retain skilled workers from competing hotels (Ahmad et al. , 2010). MNC are required to involved more locals in middle and top management position. However, after three decades of growth foreign international hotel managers still dominate the Malaysian hotel industry and this could be due to the decreased level of human capital among the Malaysian workforce (Lazzeretti & Petrillo, 2006).Numerous academic literatures in Malaysia have discussed on how the industry can retain their skilled employees. However, literature on how academicians can increase their students’ employability for 2040 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING management position is scarce despite the indication of Malaysian workforce inferiority to attain management position. This deficiency in the literature gives rise to the research question of this article. The research ques tion of this article is, â€Å"What are the requirements for managerial post in Malaysian five-star hotels? Although articles on required skills for managerial post or similar articles from other countries can serve as a guide, such articles based on empirical study in Malaysia is beneficial to provide a more specific information. Furthermore, to maximize the foreign exchange revenue and the employment of the local population, local colleges and universities need to increase their graduates’ employability. Prior to that, the students must be equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities required for managerial post.The purpose of this article is to investigate and highlight what are the knowledge, skills and abilities required by the local graduates to attain management position in Malaysia. This article makes theoretical and practical contribution. It increases the number of academic literatures concerning human resource issues in the Malaysian hotels. It investigates t he practitioners’ perception of what is required for management post. By including non-management employees’ perception, it provides comprehensive information of the requirements.This article will benefit the hotel industry in the long term. With the aim to reduce skilled workers shortage and hotel graduates' unemployment, it coordinates industry demand with academic institutions supply. LITERATURE REVIEW Skilled Workers Shortages Since 1970 there has been a rapid growth of tourism industry in Malaysia (Goldsmith & Zahari, 1994). To cater tourists’ needs the supply of hotel and motel rooms has been increased to 158,480 in 2010 (Malaysian Association of Hotels, 2011). The rapid expansion of the hotel industry has exaggerated the demand for employment of competent people.This resulted in skilled workers shortages (Malaysian Association of Hotels, 2011; Business Monitor International Ltd. , 2010). Based on Malaysian Association of Hotels Workforce Survey reports, i n 2008 there was a shortage of 2113 workers in the hotel industry. To mitigate the problem hotels employed foreign workers to work in all the departments except finance and human resources. This has reduced workforce shortages to 1146 in year 2009. In both years Food and Beverage (restaurant) department faced the highest worker shortages while the housekeeping department employed the highest number of foreign workers.The high percentage of foreign employees in housekeeping (10%), stewarding (9%), and food and beverage (restaurant) (5%) is understandable because Malaysian could earn more doing other jobs such as rubber tapping. Furthermore, the Malaysian Muslims are forbidden from serving liquor and this makes occupation in food and beverage (restaurant) department less favourable to them. However, the employment of foreign workers for top management posts (6%), executives (3%), and other posts in sports and recreation (5%) and front office and reservation (2%) is disturbing.It sugge sts that Malaysian workforce (including hotel management graduates) is not skilled enough for these posts. Existing literature lends some support to this suggestion. Hospitality Education in Malaysia The employment of foreign workers to mitigate skilled workforce shortages is acceptable in the past but now it is a dilemma. Such practice may lessen the benefits (such as employment opportunities for the locals and foreign exchange revenue) gained from tourism activities.In 1994 colleges did not have the capacity to produce sufficient number of graduates to meet the increasing demand for skilled workers because there were only ten private schools and colleges and two public institutions (Goldsmith & Zahari, 1994). To date, there is at least 61 private colleges and universities, five public universities, five polytechnics and six community 2041 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING colleges (Ministry of Higher Education, 2011). Some of these colleges and universities have a number of branches.Despite the rapid growth in the hotel education sector, shortage of skilled workers in the industry still persists. In Malaysia, local graduates’ Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management hardly guarantees the attainment of management position. This is different from other countries. Besides recruiting management employees internally, hotels also recruit graduates straight from the university (Mullen, 2007; Yamashita & Uenoyama, 2006). Therefore, the attainment of a managerial position is either through hard work by starting from an entry level position or by a ‘fast track’ through having an academic qualification (Mullen, 2007).Hence, there are managers who have never graduated from the university. They started their career as non-managerial employees and by being among the best performers they have been promoted to a managerial position. While internal promotion is common in Malaysia, direct recru itment from the local university for management posts is rare. Hotels, especially MNC prefers to recruit by advertising through the internet, newspaper and â€Å"words of mouth† in addition to establishing links with government agencies and related associations (Ahmad, 2010).Fresh graduates are perceived to be incapable of handling management duties. Reduced human resource capital in Malaysia is among the reasons for skilled workers shortage in the hotel industry. Human resource capital is at a lower standard than the 1980s because the level of English proficiency and service orientation is lower among the young workforce (Lazzeretti & Petrillo, 2006). Different from their juniors, the senior workforce’ early education was in English (Lazzeretti & Petrillo, 2006; Hanapiah, 2002). Thus, their English proficiency is better. They are looked upon as those who can epresent the organization because of their ability to communicate and deal in English language (Hanapiah, 2002) . The importance of English proficiency is more obvious in MNC hotels whose customers and managers usually communicate in English. Besides English proficiency, other requirement for hotel management post is education, skills and knowledge (technical, human resources, finance and marketing), personality (dedication, creativity, sociability, adaptability and ambitious), leadership quality and work experience (Jayawardena, 2000; Hanapiah, 2002).However, recent academic literature on these skills within the context of Malaysian hotel industry is scarce. There are a number of hotel management literatures from developed countries which discussed about management skills with implications for educational institutions. Kay and Moncarz (2004) stressed on the importance of knowledge in financial management and human resource management competencies. They suggest educational institutions provide proper coverage of financial management course. Likewise, they encouraged the industry to recruit gr aduates from hospitality programs with strong financial management curriculum.Their opinion has deviated from earlier research on management skills that suggested leadership and interpersonal skill as the most significant skills for hotel managers. However, the significance of leadership skill has continuously been supported by recent academic literatures (Boone & Peborde, 2008; Brownell, 2006). According to Boone and Peborde (2008), there are five fundamental leadership skills and these are establishing credibility, managing time, being proactive, empowering others to act and networking.Based on their article, credibility concerns on constituents’ trust and confidence of their manager, being proactive is knowing and executing what needs to be done for the organization’s benefit, empowerment includes enabling self leadership, providing choice, developing competence and confidence and fostering accountability and networking is developing personal contacts to get valuabl e support, feedback, insight, information and resources. They argued that leadership is not a charisma that one may or may not possess; it consists of attitudes, behaviours and skill that can be adopted, learned and mproved through practice. Therefore, they 2042 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING suggest college students and early career workers to master the fundamental leadership skills to build a strong leadership base. Hotel management students should be properly tooled with the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to attain management position and then, face and handle the industry’s challenges (Kay & Moncarz, 2004; Boone & Peborde, 2008; Brownell, 2006).Prior to that, it is beneficial to investigate what are the knowledge, skills and abilities required to attain management position within the context of the local hotel industry. With the aim to equip Malaysian students with the necessary knowledge, skills an d abilities, the skills required for management position in Malaysian five-star hotels are assessed in detail. METHODOLOGY The methodological approach used in this study is framed within qualitative research. Respondents were contacted through e-mails and phone calls to request for an interview.A personal interview method was used for data collection which was carried out in May and June 2008. Interviews were conducted according to the respondents’ schedule and availability and at their preferred location. It is important to provide a relaxed environment during the interview to encourage the respondents to openly and fully discuss the topics (Cooper & Schindler, 2003). The interviews were unstructured to give respondents the opportunity to provide more information. The interview started with informing respondents the purpose of the research and their right to withdraw from the research at any time to ensure they were comfortable.To ensure confidentiality, develop trust and en courage the respondents to provide full information, names were coded. M1 refers to the first managerial employee interviewed while NM2 refers to the second non-managerial employee interviewed. Interviews were recorded on tape with the respondents’ permission. Taping the interview allows the researcher to concentrate on the discussion and listen to the interview as often as needed. Repeatedly listening to a taped interview enables the researcher to capture the essence and meanings of words, which facilitates quality analysis of data. ANALYSISThe data collected was analysed using content analysis. To capture the emotion, content analysis of transcripts was conducted manually and respondents’ answers were quoted in the findings. A software program was not used to analyse the data because relying on computers can â€Å"run the risk of trivializing the meaning of texts† (Krippendorff, 2004). â€Å"Content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and v alid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use† (Krippendorff, 2004, p. 18). Qualitative content analysis allows a researcher to discover what the text reveals.All interviews were transcribed. The transcripts were read multiple times to understand the context of each statement and to enable the researchers to become immersed in the data The sample size for the study was 42 respondents, 19 managerial employees and 23 non-managerial employees. All respondents were from six Malaysian five-star resort hotels that employ more than 300 fulltime employees and have been in business for at least 12 years. All respondents had more than one year’s working experience with the hotel industry to ensure that they had the capability to provide the in-depth information required.Twenty-one respondents were employees of three MNC hotels. Four of the hotels employed expatriates for general manager post. Foreign workers were employed for management and nonmanagement post. The respondents’ profile is described in Table 1. An exploration of respondents’ views on requirement for managerial post was sought. 2043 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING Table 1: Respondents Profile Respondents Post Work Experience Education MNC M1 HR Director 20 years Non Hotel Diploma v M2 Chief Security 16 years Non Hotel Diploma v M3 HR Officer 17 years SPM M4 HR Manager 18 years Hotel Diploma M5 Senior Security Officer 19 years STPM M6 Security Officer 11 years SPM M7 Assistant Front Office Manager 10 years Non-Hotel Diploma M8 Training Manager 10 years Hotel Diploma M9 Landscape Executive 9 years Primary School M10 HR Officer 15 years Hotel Diploma v M11 Assistant Pastry Chef 20 years A Level v M12 Assistant Chief Engineer 17 years Non Hotel Certificate v M13 Executive Housekeeper 19 years SPM v M14 Executive Housekeeper 16 years Hotel Certificate v M15 Executive Chef 15 years SPM v M16 HR Manager 20 years Non Hotel Degree v M17 Executive Housekeeper 18 yearsHotel Certificate M18 Food and Beverage Manager 21 years SPM M19 Personnel Manager 10 years Non Hotel Diploma NM1 Housekeeping Supervisor 17 years SRP v NM2 F Captain 12 years Non Hotel Certificate v NM3 F Captain 9 years SPM v NM4 F Cashier 8 years SPM v NM5 Recreation Coordinator 14 years SPM NM6 Senior life guard 18 years SPM NM7 Account Clerk 18 years SPM NM8 Driver 15 years SPM NM9 Accounts Supervisor 12 years STPM NM10 Hostess 6 years SPM NM11 Commis/ Cook 14 years SPM NM12 Laundry Supervisor 13 years SPM NM13 Receptionist 12 years Hotel Diploma v NM14 Public Area Supervisor 8 years Islamic School NM15 Laundry Supervisor 5 years SPM v NM16 Driver 11 years Primary School v NM17 Room Attendant 9 years STPM v NM18 Housekeeping Coordinator 15 years SPM v NM19 Technician 13 years SPM v NM20 Public Area Supervisor 14 years Primary School NM21 Landscape Supervisor 9 years Non Hotel Certificate NM22 Housekee ping Supervisor 15 years SRP 2044 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING NM23 Food and Beverage Supervisor 7 years Islamic School FINDINGS To answer the research question, respondents were asked to describe the requirements for a hotel managerial post.The requirements mentioned by respondents were positive attitude, leadership skill, communication skill, interpersonal skill, self-motivation, determination, emotional intelligence, knowledge, experience, education and English proficiency. Experience was most frequently mentioned followed by leadership skills, knowledge and education. Table 2 summarised respondents’ views of the requirements for a managerial post in the hotel industry. Work experience was the most frequently mentioned criterion. Majority of the respondents perceived it to be the most important criterion to attain managerial post.Unlike other industries, those people with education but without experience are l east likely to be in managerial positions. This assertion is supported by the examples below: In the hotel industry, an applicant for a managerial position requires more than a degree. Most of the university send students here for three to six months industrial training. But that isn’t enough. That is not good enough. You can be a manager in some hotel, but how are you going to make decision†¦ If you don’t have enough experience and you make the wrong decision, you’ll become the laughing stock to your staff. You have pioneer staff in the hotel.You have supervisors who will question you back. If you work in the government sector or any other sectors, that’s a different story. In hotel industry, you really need the experience. (M7) The importance of having work experience in the hotel industry was mentioned by most of the respondents. According to the respondents, even those with a diploma must start from the entry-level position, and from there it dep ends on their performance. While M17 clearly stated that work experience is more important than education, NM4 gave example of problems faced by new managers without working experience.Even the managers started at the entry-level like us. Then, they learned and learned. High education without work experience is not good enough (for managerial position). From what I’ve seen, fresh graduates who started at management level have difficulty to organise things. (NM4) The next criterion most frequently mentioned was leadership. Some managerial respondents highlighted the importance of leadership qualities. The managerial respondents stated that managers who seek excellence from employees should have leadership qualities. Those with leadership qualities are respected by their subordinates.They are able to make subordinates embrace the organization’s culture and they manage to get things done and obtain good results. 2045 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOM IC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING Table 2: Requirement for Managerial Position Respondents Leadership M1 v Knowledge Experience Education English Proficiency v v v v v v v M5 v v M6 v M7 v M8 v M9 v M2 M3 v v M4 M10 v M11 v M12 v v v v v v v v M13 M14 v v v v v v v M15 M16 v M17 v M18 v NM1 v v v v v v v v NM2 v v v M19 v v v NM3 v v NM4 v v NM5 v v NM6 v v NM7 v v v v NM8 NM9 v v v NM11 v NM13 v NM14 v v NM15 v v NM16 v v v NM12 v v NM10 v v v NM17 NM18 v NM19 v NM20 v NM21 v v v NM22 v v v NM23 v v v 2046 v v nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING A leader’s personal characteristics mentioned by respondents were determination, positive attitude, selfmotivation, emotional intelligence and efficiency. In addition, they felt that managers should be smart, creative and credible. M1 stated the followings: 1. A leader has positive attitude, emotional intelligence, self motivation and determination. . Managers must have lea dership quality to spread the organization’s culture to all their subordinates. 3. Leaders guide their subordinates and makes them realised the importance of satisfying guests which leads to customer loyalty in addition to employees’ loyalty. Therefore, the organization will attain long term profitability. 4. â€Å"We train them, we guide them, we coach them, and if there’s derailment, we put them back on the track†. The influence of a great leader is evident in some of the non-managerial employees and given below is an example.I enjoy my work because I got the chance to meet the guests†¦ My former general manager used to say â€Å"You must take good care of the guest because if you don’t, they will go to other hotels. When this hotel is out of business where can you work? † He advised us to make the guests happy and to do what we should do. It is not difficult at all. When the guests come, I open the door for them, greet them†¦ th ey are like kings and we must treat them well. (NM8) The importance of knowledge was also frequently mentioned by the respondents. Knowledge is gained from experience, education and training:We must be knowledgeable in all aspects; the department that we’re handling and the departments that are related to us. We must at least have the basic knowledge of the functions of front office, maintenance, food and beverage and kitchen. Another thing is how to manage human. This is important. If you want to be a good manager, you must know how to manage your subordinates. (M18) According to M11, those who have worked in many places, including overseas, are knowledgeable and they bring in new ideas. M15 stated that it is also important that managers know the current issues in the hotel industry.Other knowledge listed by the respondents as important included â€Å"how to do paper works† (NM21) and â€Å"how to communicate with colleagues† (NM15). Although education is not t he most important requirement for a hotel managerial post, it is compulsory in order to be promoted to a higher-level management position. In some five-star hotels, employees are required to have at least a university certificate in order to be promoted to a management position in addition to other requirements. In other five-star hotels having a university diploma is a necessity.Now we require at least a diploma. In the past there were not many hotel schools. Only those who are rich can afford to study overseas to learn about hotel management and hotel industry. But now, even Malaysia has Hotel Management School. However, for me, education is secondary because in hotel industry you need experienced people. Experience comes first. (M18) Of the 19 managerial employees interviewed, five managers had a certificate (including STPM and A Level) seven managers had a diploma and one manager had a degree. Seven of these managers were MNC hotel employees.Based on the respondents’ prof ile, even those without college or university certificate had the opportunity to be managers in MNC hotels. At present, only those with certificates are appointed as managers. 2047 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING Another requirement mentioned by respondents was English proficiency. Out of 42 respondents, only eight mention about the importance of English proficiency. According to the respondents, to be a manager they must be able to communicate in English.While the inability to communicate in English will disqualify them for managerial positions, fluency in English is an advantage for them to further develop their careers. M18 stated that English proficiency is important because majority of their guests are foreigners. Interest to work in the industry is another important criterion that is rarely mentioned in the literature. According to a managerial respondent, students’ interest to work in the industry is importan t because it might affect the quality of their work.Whenever students come and work in the hotel industry, I ask them â€Å"are you here because of your father, or you yourself want to come here†. If someone says, â€Å"I don’t like hotel work, my father asks me to come here†, I will say, â€Å"Pack up your bags and go home†. Seriously, if you want to work in hotel industry, you must have the interest. If not, you will waste money, time and effort to do something that you don’t like. So you better don’t do it. Make your decision now, do you want to be a hotelier or not? Honestly, the quality of workers now is very different compared to the last fifteen years. Now there are so many opportunities.So the quality is not there anymore. (M18) Communication skill and interpersonal skill was also listed by the respondents as one of the necessary skills. However, it was mentioned by very few respondents and not much was said about the two skills. Maj ority of the respondents mentioned about the importance of having work experience. Although it is clear that work experience is more important compared to education, this finding does not suggest that work experience is more important compared to other skills such as leadership and interpersonal skill. The objective of this study was to investigate what are the equirements for managerial post and not to rank the skills’ importance. DISCUSSION Based on the literature review and the findings of this study, the requirement for managerial post in Malaysian five-star hotels is work experience, leadership skill, knowledge, education, English language proficiency, communication skill, interpersonal skill and interest to be a hotelier. The significance of most of these skills for managerial success has been mentioned in existing literature. However, the significance of work experience and English language proficiency is more pronounced in the Malaysian context.This study found that h aving work experience is a necessity for graduates’ employment for managerial post. Knowledge and leadership skill are developed through education and work experience. While management theories and basic technical skills can be taught by academic institutions, leadership skills such as analytical and conceptual thinking, relationship building, and self control requires experience in the field (Brownell, 2006). Furthermore, work experience enhanced students’ technical skill. Technical skill efficiency is important for the first level managers due to their proximity with the non-managerial employees (Daft, 1998).Therefore, a partnership with the industry through industrial training is crucial to develop students’ leadership skill which is necessary to foster high-performing organisation (Brownell, 2006). Sending students for industrial training is a normal practice for hotel schools. However, it was perceived insufficient by the hotel managers. Therefore, it is be neficial to lengthen the industrial training period and to encourage students to do part-time at hotels. Part-time employees are employed during peak season when there is abundant of task to be completed.Therefore, besides earning some money, students can gain experience and enhanced the required skills. 2048 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING Different from developed countries, education is perceived as secondary to work experience in Malaysian five-star hotels. However, the importance of education keeps increasing due to the increasing number of hotel management schools and hotel management graduates. The findings of this study reveal that currently even those without higher education could attain management position in MNC five-star hotels.However, these managers have had many years of working experience and have gone through a number of supervisory and management trainings conducted by the hotels. Even the local independe nt and chain hotels provide continuous training to their employees (Ahmad et al. , 2010). Due to the social and demographic changes, at present more educated individual is required for management post. Thus, only those with sufficient work experience and academic qualification could attain management position while others have to start from entrylevel position.To encourage hotels to recruit management candidates straight from the university like in the developed countries, local universities need to produce graduates who have sufficient work experience and are capable to handle management duties. The importance of English proficiency for graduates’ employment and career development especially in the hotel industry is prevalent in Malaysia (Hanapiah, 2002). Although English proficiency was mentioned by few respondents, it does not suggest that it is not as important as other skills. Furthermore, none of the respondents stated that it is less important compared to other skills. In fact, they stated that it is significant for the labour market employability and workforce advancement. The importance of English language proficiency has been highlighted in existing academic literatures (Lazzeretti & Petrillo, 2006; Hanapiah, 2002; Brownell, 2006). Due to the importance, Malaysian five-star resort hotels have been providing English language training to their employees (Ahmad et al. , 2010). Academic institutions can produce graduates who are fluent in English by using the language as the medium of instruction.Other than that, it is beneficial to interview students during their admission process to assess their personal characteristics and English proficiency (Brownell, 2006). Selecting the right candidates for the industry can make producing quality graduates easier for the academic institutions. Interest in the field is another factor to qualify candidates for management post. Unlike other professions such as architecture and engineering, it is difficult to fi nd students whose ambition is to be a hotelier or hotel employees. Academic institutions play an important role to develop students’ interest.Such interest can be developed by inviting successful guest speakers from the industry to share their experience and provide information of their job and how much they earn. However, the interest built can be destroyed overnight if the students encounter negative experience such as workplace bullying during their industrial training or part-time employment in the industry (Patah, Abdullah, Naba, Zahari and Radzi, 2010). Therefore, practitioners have to ensure that their employees can be a role model to the students and not someone they want to avoid.On the other hand, students should be groomed to face the challenges at the workplace. LIMITATION AND CONTRIBUTION OF THE RESEARCH This study lists the requirements for managerial posts but it does not rank the requirements based on their importance. Although it states that work experience i s more important compared to education, such statement is made based on respondents’ words. The qualitative nature of this study does not allow for ranking. Skills listed in the findings came from respondents’ mind. Respondents were not given any list of skills for them to rate and rank.Therefore it is imprecise to suggest that work experience is more important compared to leadership skill just because more respondents mentioned work experience as the requirement for managerial position. This article contributes to the hotel management literature by explaining about the requirements for the attainment of management post in Malaysian five-star hotels and provides suggestions on how to develop and enhance the skills needed in the industry. The suggestion is based on practitioners’ view that is supported by 2049 nd nd 2 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING he previous literature. This article can serve as a guide to t he academicians, the university and colleges’ students and to those in early career positions in the hotel industry. CONCLUSION It is essential for the industry and the academic institutions to have a partnership and unity of effort to mitigate the issue of skilled employees’ shortages. The academicians need to realize the importance of producing skilled workforce compatible with the industry human capital needs and the industry need to provide a more favourable workplace that graduates may perceived as an avenue to build their career.Increased unemployment of hotel management graduates coupled with increased dependency on foreign workers does not benefit the country, the industry and the academic institutions. 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