Ethical, Career, Organizational, and Service Values As Predictors of Hospitality Traineeship Interest

The personal values held by individuals can have a powerful influence over behavior in the workplace. Such values exert a critical effect not only upon the vocational success of employees, but also upon the financial achievements of the enterprise within which they work. Human values within the workplace may be understood as comprising four domains: personal ethics, career values, organizational values, and service quality values. Each type of value, moreover, has been found to be a potent determinant of workplace problem solving. This study has sought to examine predictive associations between a range of ethical, career, organizational, and service quality values, and responses to future employment interest in the form of a hospitality industry traineeship. Findings suggest that hospitality industry traineeship employment was regarded as highly desirable; ethical values were among the most highly rated among the value precept types. Service quality values were found to be predictive of many of the traineeship employment responses, whereas ethical values predicted the most committed hospitality industry traineeship employment response. Ethical values also emerged as being associated with the employment acquisition response most likely to involve face-to-face interaction within the actual work context. Neither career nor organizational values emerged as salient in the prediction of hospitality industry traineeship interest. These results hold implications for both employers and for educational institutions. While findings in regard to personal ethics and service quality values might be looked upon as positive dispositions within prospective employees, a need was revealed for tourism/hospitality human resource managers to promote an awareness of the importance of dispositions that would lead to career enhancement and constructive organizational citizenship values. Educational providers might also participate in this process, facilitating within each individual the development of these work values, through an educational style that encourages a reflective, analytical, and problem-solving perspective.