A business information programme for non-financial managers in the hospitality industry : an e-learning approach

Abstract

The hospitality industry undoubtedly plays an important role in our financial, social and political dimension. Despite this important dimension, society tends to continuously discuss only how to improve the outer cosmetics of the subject rather the core element: its workforce. However, non-progressive development of the industry's entire workforce is a luxury no one any afford to forgo. It is useless having proficient technical staff and de-skilled non-financial managers who are ultimately the daily decision-makers. The e-learning business information programme was aimed at bridging the gap between non-financial managers' technical competencies and financial acumen. The programme was structured in three strata, namely: operational, tactical and strategic. The business information programme's aim was to help non-financial managers acquire core competencies in preparing, understanding and using business information. Seven stages were undertaken in the development of the business information programme framework. Initially the business information needs were identified. Once these needs were established the programme plan was formulated. Further to this, several meetings, before and after the programme was formulated, with Hotel Odrin's management accountant and training manager helped to establish the contents. An e-learning framework was selected as the platform on which the business information programme was undertaken. Once the initial stages were completed the business information programme was developed, concurrently with the evaluation of the six post-assessments. The last stage was the preparation for further training. Once the programme was initially embarked upon by twelve non-financial managers the painstaking task of evaluating the programme commenced. Data was collected from the post assessments and from the IT manager and analysed using a statistical package. A correlation exercise was undertaken from the data collected. The outcome from the post assessments shows an affirmative mean mark of 74. Discussions with participants and investigation of the results attained were the basis used for the discussion. Possible improvements to programme contents were identified together with a general discussion of the e-learning framework.