Does perception of hospitality employment change post internship?

Abstract

Remarkably, exposures to hospitality workplaces through internships have been found to rather dissuade students from envisaging hospitality career. However, knowledge of this phenomenon remains inconclusive. Consequently, this study explored the effect of internship work experience on undergraduate students’ commitment and perception of the nature of hospitality work using before-and-after design. A convenience sample of 171 hospitality management students in a Ghanaian technical university completed paper- and-pencil questionnaires, and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The majority of the students indicated positive perceptions of hospitality employment and were accordingly willing to work in hospitality-related jobs after graduation. Contrary to the commonly held view, commitment, attitude, and perceptions of hospitality work do not undergo significant reconsiderations post-internships.