Chapter 21: Hospitality Practitioner Satisfaction Factors to Interns and an Inte
Chapter 21: Hospitality Practitioner Satisfaction Factors to Interns and an Internship Program in Taiwan
Yi-Fan Tung
Yi-Fan Tung, Department of Leisure Industry and Health Promotion, National Ilan University
Abstract
This chapter aims to discover hospitality practitioner satisfaction factors affecting interns and internship programs in Taiwan. A qualitative approach is adopted using in-depth semi structured interviews. The study revealed three main hospitality practitioner satisfaction factors for interns that included work ethic, team work, and initiative. In addition, the three main hospitality practitioner satisfaction factors for internship programs emerged that included cooperation, duration and mentoring. The findings of this study will benefit interns, university internship programs and hotel practitioners.
Keywords: Hospitality practitioner, Satisfaction, Interns, Internship program
Introduction
Taiwan offers two types of universities, traditional general universities and more specialised universities of science and technology. According to Huang et al (2008: 3) the general university model follows the “orthodox-education system” combines academic research, undergraduate teaching, extension course and social service. The science and technology university system has a stronger focus on technical education and research in order to continue to ensure the continued sufficiency of manpower to meet the economy’s demands. Both types of universities offer tourism and hospitality programs and both recognize the importance of practical training for students. As a result, almost every university develops internship programs and requires students to finish them before graduation. Generally speaking, the duration of internships in most general universities is either two to three months of full time employment taken over the summer, or 320 hours of part-time employment taken over the course of a year. Internships in universities of science and technology are typically longer, lasting from six months to one year as a full-time employee.
Internship programs involve three parties: students, schools and industry partners. Successful internship programs benefit all three. However, these three parties may view the benefits differently, and have different expectations and perceptions (Beggs, Ross, & Goodwin, 2008; Beggs, Ross, & Knapp, 2006; Yiu & Law, 2012; Waryszak, 1999). The differences between expectations and perceptions could lead to a satisfying or dissatisfying experience (Lam & Ching, 2007). In order to fulfil the benefits of all, students, schools and industry partners’ expectations, perceptions and satisfactions toward internship need to be understood and taken consideration.
Some studies have explored and examined internship from students’ perspectives. Jenkins (2001) stated that students often perceive internship programs as poorly organized and unstructured, and complain about the quality of their experiences. Beggs et al. (2008) revealed that