An investigation into the nature of the financial work undertaken by general managers in the Donegal hotel industry

Abstract

Overview The hotel industry represents an important part of the wider tourism and hospitality industry in Ireland. Although it takes more than one person to effectively manage a hotel, the person with the overall responsibility for running the business is the general manager of the hotel. Hotel financial experience has become mandatory for general managers in the modern day hotel industry, but there are concerns over the nature of the financial work undertaken by general managers and where these skills were attained.

Purpose This paper explores the actual nature of the financial work undertaken by general managers in Irish hotels, and more specifically in the County Donegal region. It specifically focuses on the financial work carried out by general managers, determining where financial skills and competencies were attained, discovers what financial work is outsourced by hotels and investigates the areas where general managers lack financial expertise.

Findings General managers were found to undertake a wide range of financial tasks as part of their job. Financial work was deemed to be important to the work of hotel general managers, although concerns were raised over the possession of these financial skills, particularly accountancy related skills among general managers. A combination of qualifications and work experience were identified as the most common methods used for attaining financial skills. Accountancy was discovered to be highly suitable for outsourcing, but suffered from low implementation rates in Donegal hotels.

Future research Further research is required to analyse the usefulness of the material taught during courses in order to evaluate how closely aligned these courses are to the required industry standards for the work of hotel general managers. Another subject that would merit further research would be the whole area of delegation of financial work to lower level managers