Competency Development of the Hotel Staff in Koh Samui, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

The purposes of the research were: 1) to develop the competencies of the hotel staff in Koh Samui, Surat Thani Province, 2) to compare the competencies of the hotel staff before and after training, and 3) to survey the satisfaction of the participants with the training course. The sample subjects of the study were fifty hotel staff in Koh Samui selected by purposive random sampling. The research instruments were 1) a training course, 2 pre-test and post-test, 3) a 5-point rating scale questionnaire, and 4) an open-ended questionnaire. The statistics used were the percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, and t-test was used for hypothesis testing. The findings revealed that: 1) the training helped to enhance the personnel' competencies on service mind, cross-cultural competency, human relations, team work, personality / emotion control and problem-solving., 2) the hotel staff’s post-test scores were higher than the pre-test scores with statistical significance at the .01 level., and 3) the participants confirmed that they were satisfied with the training program and gained more knowledge, competencies, and skills. Improving employees’ competencies is necessary and could improve the performance, job, and satisfaction of organization. Therefore, education and training for enhancing career and development of competencies should beprovided to hotel staff and the personnel in the tourism and service industries in order to improve organization development and gain competitive advantage.