Differences in career planning attitudes of hotel employees by gender and age

The aim of this study is to identify the career planning attitudes of hotel workers and to determine whether these attitudes vary in accordance with the gender and age of the workers. The data were attained from the hotel workers in the Taksim Talimhane region in Istanbul by benefitting from the survey technique, and 564 participants were reached. A statistical package program was used in the data analysis, and frequency, percentage, t-test, and factor analysis were applied. As a consequence of the analyzes conducted, the career planning attitude levels of the hotel workers have a high average. While the career planning attitudes of the hotel workers did not vary according to gender, a statistically significant difference was obtained in terms of age


Introduction
After the Industrial Revolution, vital changes were experienced with regard to the form and amount of production in business life (Saraç et al., 2019: 35).One of the most important justifications for these changes is the increase in the number of factories which were established to make production and the need for more skilled and wellequipped individuals for the business.As we approach the 21 st century, the increase in the share of service management in Gross National Product (GNP) has brought people to an even more important position in business life.Individuals who want to make progress in their occupation (Bayraktaroğlu, 2006: 137), acquire knowledge and skills (Erdoğmuş, 1999), and gain more wages, responsibilities, and status (Can et al., 2011: 17) have put emphasis on career planning to be able to shape their future.
At the present time, the fact that personal development is at the forefront and the competitive environment has escalated to much more advanced levels has led businesses to observe different criteria in terms of the employee qualifications that they would prefer to have within the body of the businesses.In particular, the abstract, simultaneous, and privacy features of the product that were presented in hotel businesses led the product to be offered to the tourists without being involved in the quality control process (Türkay and Saraç, 2019).For this reason, it is highly important to produce the highest quality product (Saraç, 2020).There is a need for employees who have interiorized the professional business life, who want to achieve success and rise in their business life, who are determined and volunteer, and who do their jobs by internalizing them.The fact that employees have these qualifications is directly proportional to the developed career planning attitudes.Henceforth, the primary aim of this study is to detect the level of career planning attitudes of hotel employees.
On the other hand, the career planning of individuals differs according to their gender.According to the Social Role Theory (SRT) of Eagly (1987), the attitudes of women and men differ with the impact of the community.The gender-based behavioural differences have also occurred in workplaces (Eagly et al., 1995).Women are relatively warmer, social relationship-oriented, and mature, whereas men are confident, effective, competent, independent and success-oriented characters (Langford and MacKinnon, 2000;Eagly and Koenig, 2006;Koenig et al., 2011).In this respect, it can be stated that men are individuals who attach more importance to their career planning.
Career planning of individuals also differs in accordance with age.Selection Optimization and Compensation (SOC) theory and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) are highly important in revealing the relationship between job characteristics that differ according to age and job satisfaction and motivation (Carstensen, 1995;Baltes et al., 1999).These theories contribute to understanding probable changes in person-career harmony (De Vos et al., 2020).According to the theories, individuals try to satisfy themselves both socially and emotionally as they get older rather than improve themselves (Cavanagh et al., 2020), and they value the respect and sincerity of their colleagues more (Linz, 2004).Accordingly, it can be stated that individuals who are relatively younger attach more importance to career planning than those who are relatively older.
In light of the above information, the secondary aim of the research is to identify whether the career planning attitudes of employees in hotel businesses differ according to their gender and age.When the literature is examined, the research which was conducted to detect whether the career planning attitudes of the employees in hotel businesses are tried to be determined (Kahyaoğlu, 2012;Gönül and Demir, 2020) and whether these attitudes differ according to age and gender (Kiliç and Öztürk, 2009;Demirdelen, 2013) is very few.Within this context, this research contributes to the expansion of the literature.
On the other hand, it has been considered that this study will present significant contributions to the applied field.Likewise, in globalizing business life, determining the career planning levels of the labour force in hotel businesses and determining whether they differ according to gender and age is extremely important in the plans, policies, and strategies to be developed for human resources.

Career concept
Career is derived from the words "carrierre" in French and "career" in English (Gürüz and Yaylacı, 2004: 184).There are a lot of definitions related to the concept of a career.According to the most commonly used definition among them, a career is to progress in any part of the occupation that was selected to gain dignity and status and to take more responsibility (Taştepe, 2001).Career includes the places where the individual is in his/her working life, his/her attitudes and behaviours related to these places, and the work he/she does.
The concept of career encompasses the effects and movements of individuals related to the occupation, as well as their attitudes towards these effects and movements.In this respect, it can be stated that a career is all the workrelated experiences that the person has acquired throughout his / her life (DeCenzo et al., 2016).Different people and the businesses for which individual works also have an influence on the career of the individual apart from the individual himself.Therefore, even though career choice is mostly made by the individual, it is largely affected by businesses and other external factors as well (Erdoğmuş, 2003).

Career planning
Career planning comprises an individual's accumulation of knowledge, his/her skills and abilities, or his/her planning for where they want to be in the future (Taşlıyan et al., 2011: 233).Career planning is defined as the process of choosing the tools that will enable the employees to set a course for themselves within the organization and to achieve the goals and objectives on the determined path (Balta Aydın, 2007).While planning their careers, individuals discover themselves and ascertain their purposes by determining environmental factors.In this context, whereas the individual plans his/her career, he/she plans his/her future, as well.On the other hand, organizations are in need of employees who are able to understand environmental factors, discover themselves and plan their future.In this regard, organizational career planning is the process of anticipating the requirement of the employees that the business will need in the future and providing that the development of personal careers of the employees develop and rise in the organization that is in parallel with the career planning of the organization (Werner and DeSimone 2006).In order for organizations to compete with other organizations in the sector, they need to make career planning in accordance with the future-oriented requirement of the employees.Henceforth, career planning studies gain importance for organizations to attain qualified employees and to keep these qualified employees in the organization (Soysal, 2004: 122).

Differences in career planning attitude by gender
Past studies in sociology demonstrate that men are able to express their emotions freely as they are self-focused and not interested in the social approval of others (Fisher & Dubé, 2005).On the other hand, these studies reveal that women are conditioned to control their emotional side with the concern of being seen as bad by others (Hochschild, 1983;Leary and Kowalski, 1990;Wharton, 1993;Schaubroeck and Jones, 2000).There are also studies examining the relationship between attitude differences by gender and career.According to the studies conducted on this axis, Maimunah and Roziah (2006) determined in their study that women have flexible, transferable skills, part-time and temporary working career models.Sullivan and Mainiero (2008) also identified that women adopt a relational attitude in their careers.According to the authors, women pay regard to the needs of their family members, friends, and colleagues in their career decisions.They try to redress the balance between their private and business lives and carry out both of them in cooperation.Conversely, men are target-oriented characters.They give priority to their business life, and their private and family lives are totally different (Cabrera, 2009).Based on these explanations, the following hypothesis has been developed.H1: Career planning attitudes of employees in hotel businesses differ according to gender.

Differences in career planning attitude by age
The physical and psychological activities of individuals change according to age (Reuter, 2010).One of these activities is occupation.The subjective importance of occupation features also varies depending upon age (Kooij et al., 2009(Kooij et al., : 1011;;Ng and Feldman, 2010;Grube and Hertel, 2012).On the other hand, young employees display behaviours to advance their learning and careers (Carstensen et al., 1999;Zaniboni et al., 2013).Also, older employees have higher internal motivation levels compared to their young colleagues (Ng and Feldman, 2010), and they provide more job satisfaction than internal factors and internal rewards (Kooij et al., 2007).In other words, it can be stated that age softens the relationship between job characteristics and work motivation, that older employees need intrinsically more challenging and satisfying jobs to maintain their motivation, and that the relationship between career opportunities and motivation decreases as employees get older (Boumans et al., 2011).Based on these explanations, the following hypothesis has been developed.H2: Career planning attitudes of employees in hotel businesses differ by age.

The qualification of the survey form
In this study, it was aimed to determine the career planning attitudes of hotel employees and to determine whether the planning behaviour varies according to gender and age.Quantitative data collection method was used in the research and survey technique was used to obtain the data.In the quantitative approach, the aim is to evaluate the application performed on the sample and make the differences between the variables and the cause-effect relationship of the evaluation objectively generalizable to the population (Gall et al., 1996).In this study, it was concluded that the most appropriate method for the research was the quantitative data collection method, since the number of subjects constituting the sample was large and a generalization purpose was pursued with the answers to these questions rather than seeking in-depth answers to the research questions.
The survey preferred for the research consists of two sections.In the first section, there is a scale consisting of 28 expressions.While determining the scale, researches related to career planning were examined, and it was convinced that the most appropriate scale to reach valid and reliable answers that are suitable for the aim of the research was the scale developed by Gümüş (2021) in his study."General managerial competence", "job safety", "lifestyle and entrepreneurship", "challenge", "dedication to the service", "independence", "technical functional competence" and "geographical security" attitudes were tried to be calculated with the scale in the career planning of hotel employees.The expressions in the survey were directed to the participants as "strongly disagree", "disagree", "neither agree nor disagree", "agree" and "completely agree" according to the five-point Likert scale.In the second section of the survey, there are questions about the demographic characteristics of the participants.The survey was prepared in Turkish as it was applied only to the domestic employees of the hotels in Istanbul.

Data collection and sampling
The population of the research consists of hotel employees.The most important reason is that creating career satisfaction in the employees is as significant as holding customer satisfaction.Because the satisfaction of the employees with their careers increases productivity with quality service and improves guest, business manager and employee relations (Demirdelen and Ulama, 2013: 67).Since it was not possible to reach all hotel employees in Turkey due to time and economic causes, the sampling method was utilized.Accordingly, the convenience sampling method was preferred.The most important reason why this method is preferred is the easy, fast and economical collection of data from the main mass (Aaker et al., 2007: 394;Malhotra, 2004: 321;Zikmund, 1997: 428).
Because in convenience sampling, everyone in a certain place is reached in a certain time period (Kozak, 2018: 106).In this respect, it has been considered that Istanbul is the most appropriate application area where data can be collected.Istanbul is the most outstanding destination for city hotel management in Turkey, and the career satisfaction of hotel employees should be provided (Saraç and Batman, 2021).This destination took place among the most visited provinces in the world by hosting its 13.4 million tourists (IHA, 2021).The data were attained by face-to-face technique from hotel employees in the Taksim Talimhane area and around Talimhane in Istanbul.564 samples were reached from Taksim Talimhane and its surroundings.This situation formed the opinion that the number of samples was adequate to represent the universe.Likewise, reaching a sample of ten times the number of statements in the survey is found sufficient to gain reliability (Kerlinger, 1978;Kline, 2011).The number of 290, which is ten times more than the 29 statements in the survey, was exceeded.Moreover, the reliability of the research was increased by reaching more than 384 participants who have the power to represent the unlimited universe (Sekaran, 2003: 294).

Data analysis
The data were obtained by survey technique between February 23, 2022, and July 18, 2022.600 participants were reached in total.Upon the conclusion that 36 of the surveys were invalid as a result of the observation, a total of 564 surveys were used in the analysis.The obtained data were analyzed with a statistical package program.In the distribution of the data, the values of kurtosis and skewness were taken as basis.Since the skewness value is between -,425 and -1,138 and the kurtosis value is between -,163 and 1,316, the normality assumption is provided (Kline, 2011).
Therefore, the t-test, which is one of the parametric tests, was used in the comparative analysis of the study.

Reliability and validity
Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the structural validity of the scale.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 1.Principal Competent Analysis (PCA), which is one of the factor analysis methods, and varimax, one of the orthogonal rotation types, were preferred for rotation.In order to be suitable for factor analysis, Kayser Mayer Olkin (KMO) value was examined, and the Bartlett test was conducted.KMO value is at a good level for factor analysis with 0.764.Likewise, in order to be able to conduct factor analysis on the data, the minimum KMO value should be 0.60 (Field, 2005: 640).According to the results of the Bartlett test, it is convenient for factor analysis to be performed with X2=8492,762, p<0.05 value (Keser and Bilir, 2019: 233).When factor loads are examined, they are all above 0.50 and are at a very good level compared to Hair et al. (1998: 385).Reliability test (Cronbach Alpha) was performed to determine the validity and reliability of the scale.In order to express that the scale is reliable, the Cronbach Alpha value must be 0.70 and above (Koçak, 2020: 414).Since the Cronbach Alpha values of all dimensions of the scale are above 0.70, it can be said that the scale is reliable..890I aim for a career that provides environments where I will constantly encounter difficult problems. .848 Dedication to the service I aim to have career goals that I can serve for the welfare of society.
.876 8.770 .812I aim to have a career goal where I can make real contributions to humanity.
.836 I aim for a career where I can use my skills for the benefit of others.
.779 Independence I aim for a career which is independent of rules, procedures, costumes and similar institutional restrictions..7777.653 .735I aim for a career that gives me the freedom to do and plan my job the way I know it.
.764 .796I aim to have career goals so that I can specialize in my field rather than being promoted to management at any level. .730

Geographical security
I aim for a career that doesn't require me to change cities. .8877.413 .827I would rather continue to work in my city rather than be promoted to a position in a different city.

Demographic characteristics of the participants
The demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 2

Career planning attitude levels of participants
The averages of hotel employees were examined to identify their career planning attitudes.According to the results attained, it was concluded that the career planning attitudes of the participants have a high level with an average of 3.8402 (Özdamar, 2003: 32).This situation demonstrates that employees in the globalizing business world and in hotel businesses, where people are extremely important, inclined to plan careers.

Comparison of career planning attitude levels of participants by gender
The differences in the levels of career planning attitudes of the participants by gender are presented in Table 3.According to the table, the career planning attitudes of hotel employees do not demonstrate a statistically significant difference by gender.In this respect, the H1 hypothesis "Career planning attitudes of employees in hotel businesses differ according to gender" was rejected.This situation forms an opinion that women and men employees in hotels have high levels of career planning attitudes in a globalized business environment.

Comparison of career planning attitude levels of participants by age
The differences in the levels of career planning attitudes of the participants by age are presented in Table 4.According to the table, the career planning attitudes of hotel employees demonstrate a statistically significant difference by age.In this respect, the H2 hypothesis "Career planning attitudes of employees in hotel businesses differ according to age" was accepted.According to the analysis conducted, According to the analysis, as the age of the employees in the hotel enterprises increases, the level of career planning attitudes decreases.This situation demonstrates that young people are more sensitive to career planning in globalized business life.

Conclusion and discussion
Meeting the products produced in hotel businesses with the customer without entering the quality control process makes it necessary to try to produce the product with an error close to zero (Saraç, 2020).This is only possible with employees with high job satisfaction and motivation who have gained full belonging to their job.Career planning attitudes are extremely important for employees to have these features (Bedük et al., 2019).In this respect, it was tried to identify the career planning attitude levels of the employees in the hotels, and this rate was found to be high, with an average of 3.84 in the study.In studies similar to this research, Gönül and Demir (2020) concluded that the levels of career planning attitudes of hotel employees were 4.11; Kahyaoğlu (2012) reached results that support this research by determining that they had an average of 3.84.
The hierarchical structures of hotel businesses are extremely important in increasing the attitudes of employees towards career planning.Likewise, even in any department in the hotel business, there are many career steps that employees can reach.On the other hand, the wide range of international chain hotels in Turkey's tourism market and the fact that these hotels offer employees high salaries, opportunities for progress, responsibilities, and the opportunity to work in different hotels in different provinces and countries are thought to be another important factor that enables employees working in hotels to make career plannings.
In the study, the career planning attitudes of hotel employees were gathered under six dimensions: "general managerial competence", "job safety", "lifestyle and entrepreneurship", "challenge", "dedication to the service", "independence", "technical functional competence" and "geographical security".In the comparative analysis conducted to identify whether the career plannings of hotel employees differ by their gender and age, no difference was found by gender, while a difference was found by age.According to the research, as the age increases, the career planning levels of the employees decrease.The results obtained by the studies of Kiliç and Öztürk (2009) support this research.According to the research of the authors, there is no difference in the career planning of employees by gender; however, a statistically significant difference was found by age.Demirdelen (2013), in his study on managers, determined that career planning attitude was lower in women.
According to the results attained from the studies, it may be suggested that hotels should not pay attention to the concept of men-women except for the physical power of the work in the employment and management of the labour force.Likewise, it has been observed that hotels have a population of employees who want to achieve success in their jobs regardless of gender.Researchers who want to conduct studies on this subject in the future may be advised to make career planning on employees working in summer resort hotels.Comparative analyzes can also be conducted according to country and city hotels.Additionally, it can be tested whether career planning differs from the different demographic characteristics of the employees.

Table 1 .
Factor analysis . According to Table 2, 56.7% of the participants are women, 57.4% are between the ages of 18-30, 64.4% are single, 22% are waiters, and 74.1% are undergraduate graduates.

Table 3 .
Comparison of career planning attitude levels of participants by gender

Table 4 .
Comparison of career planning attitude levels of participants by age