Should I Stay or Should I Go? Linking Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy to Intention to Stay in the Hospitality Industry Based on Internship Experience

Chung-Jen Wang

doi:10.3390/su131910571

Abstract

Internships are increasingly being used in the hospitality industry, as these can provide students with opportunities to examine their abilities, interests, and career decisions in a workplace context, as well as help cultivate human resources within this sector. This study thus examines students’ career decision-making self-efficacy with regard to internships. Based on social cognitive theory and career decision-making self-efficacy theory, we developed the research constructs with a focus group interview and a review of the existing literature, and then verified their content validity and scale reliability. Using 782 student data from the hospitality management departments, we found the direct influence of career decision-making self-efficacy in relation to internships on the intention to stay in the hospitality industry. Most important of all, we also found the mediating roles of internship satisfaction and career commitment in the relationship between decision-making self-efficacy and intention to stay in the hospitality industry, as well as the moderating roles of intrinsic motivation in the relationships among career decision-making self-efficacy, internship satisfaction, career commitment, and intention to stay in the hospitality industry. The theoretical and practical implications of these results in the context of hospitality will be discussed.

Highlights

IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Internship satisfaction, career commitment, and intrinsic motivation were all positively related to intention to stay in the hospitality industry (r = 0.60, p < 0.01; r = 0.57, p < 0.01; r = 0.43, p < 0.01, respectively), while internship satisfaction was positively related to career commitment and intrinsic motivation (r = 0.64, p < 0.01; r = 0.56, p < 0.01, respectively)
The results revealed the indirect effect of career decision-making self-efficacy on intention to stay in the hospitality industry via the mediating roles of internship satisfaction and career commitment, which was verified by the Sobel tests

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Internships are gateways from the classroom to the real world, and provide inexperienced students with chances to examine their abilities, interests, and career decisions in a workplace context [1,2]. With regard to students in hospitality management departments, internships are essential for their university studies, and a reliable way to gain their first jobs. A successful internship can encourage students to focus their careers plans on the hospitality industry [3–5]. Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in their capabilities to mobilize the cognitive resources and motivation needed to achieve a certain action or carry out specific tasks [6–10].

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Discussion

Conclusion