This study identified the hospitality-management competencies considered essential for success in today's F&B, front-desk, and sales departments, and the degree to which those skills and talents are actually used by entry-and mid-level managers. Specifically, it recorded three types of essential competencies (ECs): those that are necessary for any of the six job positions studied, those that are necessary for more than one job position but not all of them, and those that are used only by a specific type of manager doing a specific job (e.g., a mid-level F&B manager). The skills identified as essential for all the managers studied included: recognizing customer problems; portraying enthusiasm; maintaining professional and ethical standards; cultivating a climate of trust; and adapting creatively to change. By contrast, the skills that were among those identified with a single job description included: managing individual employee performance; setting goals to carry out the organization's mission and objectives; knowing about selling techniques; and mastering forecasting reports. When asked whether the ECs are actually being used effectively, managers' superiors generally reported that the managers were performing adequately in each competency and domain area.

Relevance in Management programs has become a major issue for colleges and universities. The literature posits that proactive educational institutions need to retool and refocus their programs to be consistent with business organizations which have been transformed by technology and global commerce. This study addresses the reliability of contemporary perceptions and postulates expressed in the literature related to effectively managing knowledge-work professionals. A literature search of knowledge-worker writings was collected and perceptions were extracted for further evaluation. These extracted attributes were set into a thirty-five item questionnaire and administered to three demographic groups including: (a) knowledge-workers, (b) knowledge-worker managers, and (c) knowledge worker educators. Results indicate that if such a validated perception-based program were offered it would raise fulfillment of needs for knowledge-workers, managers, and educators and offer a unique, identifiable program related to teaching and researching related to this new management paradigm.