A Study of the Geographic Origin, Education, and Experience of Hotel General Managers. RHI 590 Individual Project

A thorough review of research focused on general managers (GMs) of hotels, reveals that there is a void in the information concerning many aspects of the backgrounds of those GMs in the U.S. hotels offering the highest levels of service. As GMs represent the pinnacle of the operational hotel manager career path, it is desirable to learn more about who these successful individuals are and to try to assess the characteristics that have led to their success. This research focused on a few of the more obvious shortfalls of data related to these GMs, namely their geographic origin, specific details about their formal education, and a look at the non-managerial and managerial experience they obtained on their rise to the top. The GMs of 280 three-, four-, and five-star rated hotels, located in the 48 contiguous states and the DC area of America, were surveyed for the study. The survey instrument was a postal questionnaire with nine questions. The first two questions collected information about the GM's country of birth and present citizenship. The second two questions concerned the level of education attained and collected specific data about the colleges attended, areas of study pursued, and the degrees received. The final five questions collected information from the GMs regarding the non- managerial experience they received before beginning their hospitality management career and the departmental management experience they received before their first GM position.