Attesting to hotel employees' professionalism: views and perceptions of managers

Purpose The aim of this paper is to investigate and define employees' professionalism in the hotel industry. A professional employee has specific core competencies and personal attributes that improve the quality of service by resolving guest complaints, ensuring guest satisfaction and gaining a competitive advantage. In the hospitality industry, interaction with customers necessitates providing services of high standards that are characterised by professionalism. Design/methodology/approach This research deployed a quantitative methodology with self-administering questionnaires to hotel managers of 4-star and 5-star hotels. Findings The results of the study suggest that employees' professionalism in hotels includes skills combined with personality characteristics along with a passion for the profession. Thus, to attest to professionalism, managers must ensure that skills are adjusted to subject-specific knowledge and expertise while incorporating “social consciousness” as a constituent dimension of professionalism. Originality/value This study investigates the concept of professionalism as the main prerequisite for the delivery of exceptional hotel services and introduces the notion of “social consciousness” as an additional dimension of professionalism.