Sample Characteristics

4.1.1 Demographic Profile of Hotels

The first target population was the human resource managers in the five selected international tourist hotels in Taiwan (Table 4.1). The hotels were all international tourist hotels (100%). Two of the surveyed hotels (40%) were resort hotels and others were the city hotels (60%). Two-fifths of the surveyed hotels (40%) were located in Taipei city in northern Taiwan, and others were located in Nantou County in central Taiwan, Kaohsiung city in southern Taiwan and Hualien city in eastern Taiwan (60%). In terms of the size of the hotels, the majority (60%) of the surveyed hotels had more than 400 rooms, followed by 360 rooms and 71 rooms. The majority of surveyed hotels (80%) have been established less than 30 years with one (20%) established more than 40 years. The majority (60%) of the surveyed hotels has 200 to 300 employees and two of them (40%) have more than 500 employees. All of the surveyed hotels have more than 70 million in revenue (100%).

Table 4.1 Research Sample of Hotel (N=5) Location Taipei City Taipei City Nantou

County

(million) More than 70 More than 70 More than 70 More than 70 More than 70

4.1.2 Demographic Profile of Human Resource Managers

A total of five human resource managers completed the human resource manager’s questionnaire. The majority (40%) of human resource managers were 40 to 50 years old, with one being each of 20 to 30 years old, 30 to 40 years old and 50 to 60 years old (Table 4.2).

The majority of human resource managers were male (60%). Almost all (80%) possessed a college diploma or bachelors degree as their highest level of education. The HR managers or assistant managers had diverse educational backgrounds ranging from education, to hospitality and tourism, and even language as their major while in school; two managers did not report their major. All of them (100%) have different full time working experience in the hotel, one working for less than one year, one working for one to two years, one working for five to ten years, one working for 15 to 20 years, and one working for more than 20 years.

The majority of them were human resource managers in their hotels, while two respondents (40%) were human resource assistant managers. Among the five surveyed human resource

managers, three (60%) were also internal trainers while the other two (40%) were not internal trainers in their hotels.

Table 4.2 Demographic Profile of Human Resource Managers (N=5)

Participants 1 2 3 4 5

Major Education Hospitality

and tourism Language

4.1.3 Demographic Profile of Departmental Managers

As shown in Table 4.3, the majority (41%) of surveyed managers are 30 to 40 years old.

The division of male and female was almost equal with (50.8%) of the surveyed managers female and (49.2%) male. The majority (49.2%) of the surveyed managers reported bachelor’s degree or equivalent as their highest education level and close to one-fifth (18.0%) had a master’s degree or high school degree. About one third (32.8%) of the surveyed managers said general business as their major in the highest education level and another one third (31.1%) of the surveyed managers reported hospitality and tourism as their major in the highest education level. The rest of surveyed managers majored in electronics and physics.

Close to half (44.3%) of the surveyed managers had been working in the hotel more than 10 years. Less than 10% of the surveyed managers had working experience less than 1 year in the hotel. The majority (83.6%) of the surveyed managers were department heads. More than

half (57.4%) of the surveyed managers were not internal trainers and about one third (36.1%) of the surveyed managers were internal trainers in their hotels.

Table: 4.3 Demographic Profile of Departmental Managers (N=61)

Characteristics Frequency Percent (%)

Age

College diploma or equivalent 8 13.1

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent 31 49.2

Master’s degree 11 18.0

4.1.4 Demographic Profile of Trainers

More than 60% of trainers were between 30 to 50 years old, with 27.4% being 20 to 30 years old (Table 4.4). Half (50%) of the surveyed trainers were male and half (50%) of them were female. The majority (56.5%) of surveyed trainers reported bachelor’s degree as the highest level of education, followed by college diploma or equivalent (25.8%) and high school (12.9%). The majority (46.7%) of surveyed trainers reported general business as their major in school, followed by hospitality and tourism (37.1%). The rest of surveyed trainers majored in information or science and engineering.

Table 4.4 Demographic Profile of Trainers (N = 62)

Characteristics Frequency Percent (%)

Age

College diploma or equivalent 16 25.8

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent 35 56.5

Master’s degree 3 4.8

The majority (87.1%) of trainers came from business and industry, only 4 (6.5%) came from academic fields. More than 75% of trainers had limited experience on providing training courses; with less than 10 previous trainings provided, while 10 trainers (16.1%) had experience on providing training more than 20 times.

4.1.5 Demographic Profile of Trainees

The majority (53.1%) of surveyed trainees were between 20 to 30 years old, followed by 30 to 40 years old (22.7%) and 9.5% 20 years old or younger. Only 0.4% of trainees were over 60 years old (Table 4.5). Almost two-thirds (66.2%) of surveyed trainees were female and 33.8% of trainees were male.

In terms of the educational background, approximately 40% of surveyed trainees reported bachelors’ degree or equivalent as their highest level of education with 30.0%

college diploma or equivalent, and 24.1% high school. About one-third (36.8%) of surveyed trainees reported general business as their main major in school, followed by hospitality and tourism (36.0%), others (15.1%). There were numerous other majors include engineering, advertisement, electronics, and art. Close to two-thirds of (63.9%) surveyed trainees had worked nearly 1 to 5 years in the hotel, followed by 14.3% 5 to 10 years and 8.2 nearly hired.

Only 5.2% trainees had worked over 15 years in the hotel. The majority (79.1%) of surveyed trainees was full time workers and 12.3% were intern workers.

Table 4.5 Demographic Profile of Trainees (N = 497)

Characteristics Frequency Percent (%)

Age

College diploma or equivalent 149 30.0

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent 205 41.2

Master’s degree 14 2.8

Doctoral degree 1 0.2

Missing 8 1.6

Major

Hospitality and tourism 179 36.0

General Business 183 36.8

Education 11 2.2

Managers or vice manager 4 0.8

Department head 35 7.0

Full time worker 393 79.1

Intern worker 61 12.3

Others 4 0.8