Integrated resort employee competencies: a Macau perspective

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to develop an employee competency model for integrated resorts (IRs) in Macau through insights gleaned from IR professionals and to investigate whether any differences emerge in competency perception between IR professionals and college and high school students. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method approach was adopted to answer the research questions. The Delphi approach was used, and four IR experts were invited to refine components of the IR competency for the survey questionnaire. Quantitative data were collected from 596 IR professionals and college/high school students. Fisher’s least significant difference test was used to test the competency gaps between groups. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 respondents to gather their comments on the survey results. Findings The IR competency model consists of 15 critical competencies. A strong work ethic and customer service orientation were ranked as important attributes of employee competency among the four target groups. A mismatch in IR competency perceptions emerged among IR managers, employees and students. Practical implications The IR competencies can serve as a pragmatic reference for IRs in terms of employee recruitment and training. This model can also serve as a guideline to ensure the alignment between IR industry needs and the course offerings in higher education institutions in Macau. Originality/value The IR competencies contribute to resolving human capital issue challenging Macau’s IRs and provide insights for Macau’s IR stakeholders to improve the IR workforce development.

International Internships, Language Competency, and Employability: Perceptions of and Gaps Between Students and Industry Stakeholders

“…Regarding other employability dimensions, there was a general pattern of agreement as well, although a closer analysis reveals some differences in perspectives. For example, practitioners deemed stress management and industry-specific professional knowledge to be critical areas wherein interns should put more effort, a result similar to that found in Qenani et al (2014) and Lou et al (2019). Conversely, interns perceived their stress management abilities to be somewhat higher than what practitioners perceived, whereas they thought their professional knowledge was lower.…”

Managers from heaven: how do hospitality employees describe good managers?

“…The hospitality industry workforce is continually shifting, which creates a necessity to regularly update the understanding of good managerial characteristics. Strong work ethic and customer service orientation have been identified as crucial managerial characteristics in recent times (Lou et al, 2019). Suh et al (2012) combined the findings of previous research conducted in terms of good managerial characteristics and concluded six categories of characteristics.…”

“…The hospitality industry workforce is continually shifting, which creates a necessity to regularly update the understanding of good managerial characteristics. Strong work ethic and customer service orientation have been identified as crucial managerial characteristics in recent times (Lou et al , 2019).…”

Competency Management in Bureaucratic Organizations: Evidence from the Polish Public Administration

“…In line with the NPM approach, the specificities of the job and tasks dictate the employees' competencies. The literature on sectoral competency management mainly describes how to build employee competency frameworks and development programmes to align them with organizational needs (Lou et al ., 2019). Our findings on sectoral practices revealed the reverse mechanism, which leads to competency management failure.…”