An Effective Developmental Tool in Mentoring in the Hotel Industry.

This chapter examines the effectiveness of mentoring as a developmental tool for the hotel industry. In order to have a greater understanding of the process of developing effective mentoring programs in the hospitality environment, an inductive approach was utilized to conduct this exploratory research. The use of qualitative methodology helped determine the underlying reasons, opinions and motivations behind the use of certain best practices. Data was collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews that involved 10 hoteliers, including managerial personnel responsible for the training and development of associates. The data analysis was done using thematic analysis to identify, analyze and report meaningful patterns within the data.

The analysis of data collected through qualitative interviews provided this research with the ability of contributing to both theory and hospitality practice. Five themes were identified: the role of the mentor, the role of a mentee, the essential factors required for effective mentoring programs, ideal mentoring approaches in the hotel industry, and the benefits of mentoring. To conclude, this study has suggested a model for developing effective formal mentoring programs for hoteliers.