Determinants of women’s participation in decision-making positions in the hotel industry: a case Offour star hotels in Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish the determinants of women’s participation in decisionmaking positions in the hotel industry the case of four star hotels in Mombasa, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to establish the influence of personal factors, institutional factors, social cultural factors and professional factors on women in participating in decision making in the hotel industry.The study used descriptive survey design. The target population are the employees of four star hotels in Mombasa, Kenya who comprises of 390 management staff. They included senior, middle and low level managers in various departments. The study employed stratified random sampling technique in coming up with a sample size of 193 respondents from a total of 390 in the specific department in four star hotels in Mombasa, Kenya. From each stratum, simple random sampling was used to select the respondents for the questionnaires. Semistructured questionnaires were used to collect primary data from the managers. The questionnaire was administered using a drop and pick later method. The quantitative data in this research was analyzed by descriptive statistics using statistical package for social sciences SPPS (V. 21.0). The qualitative data took an exploratory/conceptual content analysis process. In addition the study used Karl Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis to assess the relationship between the variables. The data was then, presented using tables and figures. The study found that working hours, corporate culture and corporate policies affect women participation in decision making in the hotel industry. Social gender roles and stereotypes, societal norms and attitudes, ideals and aspirations, employee coping with the specific hours worked and number of female in management also affect women participation in decision making. There is a positive correlation between the factors and the women’s participation in decision-making positions in the hotel industry. This study concludes that socio-cultural factors has the highest effect on women’s participation in decision-making positions in the hotel industry. The study recommends that the top management should allow more women take up decision making positions in political, economic and social spheres of life within the workplace which acts as a limiting factor to women participation in decision making in the hotel industry in Kenya. Finally, women should be more aggressive and assertive in their roles in the hotel industry so as to compete with their male counterparts.