BUILDING PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY: A STUDY OF WOMEN EMPLOYEES IN QUEZON PROVINCE UNDER HOTEL INDUSTRY IN THREE GENERATIONS

Building professional identity in a workplace is very important. The hospitality industry allows you to develop yourself, professionally and as a person. Not only do you improve on the professional skills you already possess, but with time and commitment you learn others due to the variety of colleagues, clients and situations that will put you to the test. Various characteristics are required for working in a hotel. These range from soft skills such as organization, communicating or working in a team; to more technical competences such as serving, revenue management, accounting, and facilities management. Also, probably the most important matter is that you literally take care of people. This is debatable, but the experience tells that it takes empathy and commitment to put another person’s needs and desires ahead of your own while keeping a smile on your face. The study recognized the potential of each generation and their characteristics that helps in taking steps on how they can build a professional identity and ensure a positive environment for all one in which multiple perspectives and generations can thrive. Because as the workplace becomes more diverse, not only in terms of generation but also other attributes, it is important to take time to understand and provide opportunity for interaction with and between various groups. The more we can understand each other, the better we are able to work together. Specifically, this study investigates on; the characteristics of women employees in the Hotel Industry among the three generations; the challenges encountered by the women employees in terms of personal matter, family matter and work-related matter; the coping strategies of the employees regarding to challenges encountered; identities being employed by the women employees in Hotel Industry to enhance their work performance. A qualitative type of research method and phenomenological approach is employed in the study, and non-probability - purposive sampling is used in choosing the key informants.