Using Hospitality Coursework and Internships to Develop Student Leadership Abilities

Abstract

There is continual interest in developing leadership in today’s college level students. This is evident in the increasing number of leadership courses in the college curriculum. One of the more popular student leadership models is the student leadership practices inventory (SLPI). This study compares Kouzes and Posner’s national means with those of two groups of hospitality leadership students from a major university in the southeastern part of the United States. Findings indicated higher means for each of the five components of the SLPI for students completing a senior level internship program when compared to lower-class hospitality management students and to national norms. These findings led to the recommendation of designing internship experiences to develop leadership skills in hospitality management students.