Internationally Branded Hotels Knowledge Transfers to Ethiopian Hotel Professionals: The Case of Selected Five Star Hotels in Addis Ababa
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Date
2019
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The knowledge transferred by internationally branded hotels has a significant contribution to the
success of hotel professionals and the hotel industry. So hotel stakeholders and owners need to
have clear understandings of the relevance and contributions of this knowledge transfer by
internationally branded hotels.
Therefore, this study aims to explore the contribution of internationally branded hotels in
knowledge transferring to the Ethiopian hotel professionals in the case of Addis Ababa. The study
also discovers the types of experience that internationally branded hotels have been transferred to
Ethiopian hotel professionals, the techniques applied in this knowledge transfer that has been
applied by internationally branded hotels, and the contributions of transferred knowledge
towards the Ethiopian hotel professionals’ career development and life. The descriptive research
design and mixed research method were applied in the study. The data was gathered through
questionnaires from three hundred three (303) hotel employees, and the deep interview was
conducted with five (5) training managers within Five (5) internationally branded hotels. For the
quantitative and qualitative data gathering, the simple random sampling and purposive sampling
technique were applied respectively.
The finding of the study revealed that the internationally branded hotels were transferred
knowledge, skills, and technology usage in hotel operation to their respective Ethiopian hotel
professionals. These contributed to the growth in the career development of local hotel
professionals as well as a competitive advantage for those hotels in the industry. The study also
revealed that in transferring the knowledge, the main techniques applied by internationally
branded hotels were online and offline training. Within these techniques, the majority preferred
transferring knowledge was directly and indirectly through creating a partnership with different
institutes. Further, the study also revealed the availability of basic hospitality knowledge among
local hotel professionals, but the career development of these professionals was found at lower
levels due to the lack of sufficient trainings to knowledge transfer culture. Based on the findings
of the study, it is recommended that the hotels should have to create their own brand that enables
them to provide adequate training programs for employees that can be suitable to develop the
required skills at the working places. Hotels should give equal chances for employees to attend
the training program. Furthermore, hotels are expected to have their own training centers on
bases of international level standards in order to develop the capabilities of their employees.
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Keywords
Internationally Branded Hotel, Ethiopian Hotel professionals