Hotel Managers’ qualification and experience 1 Current management qualification and experience

Formal hotel managers’ qualification

The qualification degrees introduced in chapter three are the formal training ways to become a hotel manager. However, in reality there are many other ways in which the management staff has achieved such posts. Very often training can rely on family tradition. Many hotel managers continue running their father’s businesses and can execute this profession with the experience they gathered along the years. This happens very often in SMEs in any developing country. According to the research data, 16% of the interviewed hotel managers did not received any formal training and have developed their work only through experience. This question had one of the highest percentages of missing values, 6%, which can be interpreted as not wanting to recognize the lack of a qualification degree. In some cases it was argued to be confidential information. Most of the missing values correspond to the 2-star-category what is very logical since the hotels within this category is a family-run business and managers did not receive formal training.

The degree “Qualification” (Q) appears also often in the 2-star-category but not in the rest. In the 3-star-category the most common degree is

Technicien (T). According to this table, it can be proved that the higher the hotel category the more qualified managers are to be found. So the degree Technicien Specialisé (TS) appears first in the 4-star category. In the highest category the management posts are occupied by qualified personnel at the university or at any private institution offering MBAs. The occurrence of qualified hotel managers by means of a Master degree is higher than those by the university. From these data it can be deduced that specific postgraduate studies are often demanded, especially to have access to management posts in hotels of higher categories.

Forty percent of the qualified hotel managers received their training in other country than in Morocco. This figure expresses how well foreign training is regarded in Morocco. Graduates in Morocco tend to go to other countries, mostly to France, Belgium, Canada and Germany, to complete their studies under the belief that a better post can be so obtained. Those hotel managers trained in foreign countries are working in a 4- or a 5-star hotel. In the same way, it can be stated that the training by foreign institutions in Morocco is very successful, and many families, who can afford it, prefer their children to be trained at a international private school than at a local

14% 16% 18% 8% 16% 14% 8% 6% missing values bac experience MBA Q T TS university

public one. Over 50% of the hotel managers received their training at a private institution.

Previous management experience

As far as experience is concerned, it is interesting to note if the hotel managers have previously worked in the hotel industry or not. Ten percent of the interviewees had previous management experience but not in the sector. Usually they had worked as sales and marketing managers for an export company. This figure indicates that many managers have not actually received any specific management training in the hotel industry. The demand for specific training in hotel management is therefore latent.

It is interesting to note that 25% of the interviewees working on a national hotel had previously worked in an international hotel. They all agreed that the further training that they received at these international chains, the more it helped them develop its current post. This phenomenon will be later explained in more detail.

In most 2-star hotels, 90%, the current hotel managers do not have experience working in other hotels. They started working there as they were young, mostly due to family reasons, and after 15 years (average working experience at hotel) they still work at the same hotel. This lack of mobility has been often mentioned as a reason preventing the sector professionalism from developing. The missing experience at other hotels causes a lack of knowledge about international standards. Normally these hotels are not very competitive and their managers do not know how the competitors are doing, but this situation is quite acceptable if it is considered that this is the reason why there are different categories and they belong to the 2-star one.

4.2.2 Relevance given to formal training

According to the interviews, 30% thought that training is actually not very important or even useless. Although the Government is making many efforts to promote vocational training, there is still a very high percentage undervaluing the role of formal training. This opinion was mainly expressed in the lowest categories, obviously in the 4- and 5-star hotels the relevance

given to training was essential and are precisely in those categories were also further training is promoted.

Another interesting remark is that those interviewees trained in a foreign country are actually those placing more importance into the received formal training to develop later on properly the professio n. Often Moroccan mentality means a constraint to the further training, in the case where hotel managers were trained in a Western country the fact of undervaluing training was overcome.

It can also be observed that the lowest categories place more importance to experience and less to further training. The highest categories consider training to be as important as experience also for professionals with many years of experience. The 4- and 5-star hotels consider further training to be essential in the profession to keep motivation and competitiveness, especially in new technologies like on-line booking. According to the professionals’ opinion intercultural management should continuously be refreshed. However, managers in 2- and 3-star hotels believe that training does not bring anything to the daily activities and only through experience problems arising in management can be solved. They also fear that well trained personnel can damage the hotel structure, normally a familiar one, and therefore training is not considered to be good within the hotel. This belief is unfortunately well spread in the lowest population class and still in the well trained managers of 3- and 4-star hotels. The comment “our staff does not need to know too much” has often turned up.

Furthermore, 18% interviewees consider that a good quality service and qualified staff do not necessarily have to be a distinctive feature of the hotel. Currently tourism suffers a temporary crisis due to the fear of traveling in an Arab country after the events occurred on the 11th September. Many think that in this time no training can be given since they should economize their resources while others believe it is the right time to invest in training and rethink the strategies to improve enterprise competitiveness.

4.2.3 Further training received at hotels

Further training takes mostly place up the 3-star-category. Only the staff from one 2-star hotel has received further training. However it is right at this level where further training is supposedly most needed since less qualified managers work there. Unfortunately it is also at this level where resources are more limited. Furthermore they are mostly lacking of information regarding further training finance possibilities and consider further training as inaccessible. Some of the 2-star hotel managers have attended private courses where they have acquired some notions in management, accounting and foreign languages due mainly to pure personal interest in improving their skills.

Many of the interviewed 2-star hotel manager did not really know what further training exactly is and could not therefore correctly answer why it takes place or not at the hotel. However lack of personal availability and financial resources were indicated as the most usual reasons why further training does not play any role at the hotel management policy. Many argued also that their personal is already well trained or that they are simply not interested in it. It can be a bit contradictory if we take into account that they are the level where less qualified personal is to be found. In some cases they show a great interest to know how they could organize further training.

3-star hotels start showing more implication in further training, around 30%. They recognize the benefits from it but they still have constraints regarding its financing. Here the lack of information about the finance possibilities offered by the OFPPT becomes clear, as well as the lack of support given by other public institutions and professional associations. At this level a very interesting phenomenon appears, many hotel managers were previously trained by international hotel chain where they earlier were working. Later they ran a national hotel with the knowledge acquired in this previous experience. It can be stated that here knowledge transfer occurs. A very small percentage makes use of the public OFPPT offer, only a 4%. A higher percentage combined their chain resources with the OFPPT public

financing but, in any case, the private initiative is the most usual one. Most hotels prefer to make use of the services provided by consulting enterprises offering further training in this field. The great majority represent those who have not received any further training corresponding in most cases to 2 and 3-star hotels.

National hotels do not usually offer further training courses to their staff due to financial reasons or mainly to the lacking importance given to further training within the hotel policy. Only two of the national hotels interviewed offer training possibilities to their staff. These two hotels El Kandara and La Corniche have obtained a long experience over the years organizing hotel management training courses as further training financed by the OFPPT. They do not have someone responsible for training and they need therefore to take private consultancy advice regarding the hotel management training needs at the hotel but usually are well informed about the training offer of the OFPPT. These examples are very interesting since they prove that it is possible to offer further training based on national resources in Morocco and that lack of financial resources and information do not always justify the missing training at national hotels.