Peinan Bai

HTM 301
9/23/2014
Service Leadership Competency Interview Form
DATE OF INTERVIEW

9/19/2014

TIME OF INTERVIEW

16:54pm -17:25pm

INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS

Teresa OBannon

JOB TITLE

Community Engagement Manager

ORGANIZATION

Hostelling International USA- San Diego

TENURE

1.5 years

BRIEF BACKGROUND
Teresa OBannon is currently working at Hostelling International USA- San Diego area
as community engagement manager. She graduated from University of TennesseeKnoxville in 1998, the major of Tourism and Hospitality Management. After that, in
2001, she got her Ph.D. degree from Washington State University. She has very high
education and knowledge on education administration; meanwhile she is interested in
participating in community engagement and tourism development.

Interview Questions
Question 1a:
What are some of the most challenging issues facing hospitality and tourism
organizations these days? How do they pose problems for managers working in
these organizations?
She said that the first issue she just noticed is that there are so many international visitors
in down town San Diego, and usually there are millions of international visitors in Los
Angeles and San Francisco, and she think that those international visitors are really
important. Another issue is that due to the financially hard time, people are barely willing
to spend money on traveling.
The hardest problem for her in the organization is to explain well about what the
hostelling is, because if people knowing hostelling well, they will choose it since
hostelling is much cheaper that hotel.
Question 1b:
What are the biggest changes your managers will face in the next few years?
For the hospitality as a whole, she thought that many people from China and India are
getting ready to take trip, and they need to catch that market and trying to attract people
to travel in San Diego. Meanwhile, they need people who know different languages to
serve the customers.
Question 2a.
Has the manner in which you manage employees in service areas changed over the
past few years? How has this caused a challenge for line managers?
Today they need to work with the millennials (generally they are 18 to 25 years old), and
they have different working strategies than her generation. Therefore, they need to take a
different approach to get them involved. As a result, she states that different generation in
the workforce need to be considered.
Question 2b.
How has the shift in employee needs impacted your management staff?
She took workshop to learn how to work with the younger employees. She can set
manage for the prospective. In hospitality, it always important to be positive, and
sometimes the younger generation need encouragement to keep their smile on.
Question 3a:
Numberwise The financial skills is really important, such as good understanding of
financial systems on the computer, different software for different types of work,
excellent records, and planning ahead in income.
Planning She thinks that it is important to have work wise knowledge. Because they
plan so much for job and management, but usually they forget to take care of themselves
well. And if they do not care about themselves, they wont be healthy and happy for
work.

Strategic Decision-Making She need to look both the pros and cons before decision
making. Its not always about the cheaper option, it always about how to get the best
results.
Superior Technical Service She personally do not use many technical service
especially for scheduling things. She only uses the net-book and Google calendars, and
then shares the calendar with the employees, so that the co-workers could where she is
and when she is available.
Question 3b:
Interpersonal Communication This is the most important part for a successful
manager. If you are not able to communicate with the other people and making
connections, you will never going to get ahead, and you will never have employees will
be willing to do what you need them to do.
Networked This one is also very important because you need to meet people and get
knowledge from them, and learning experience from them.
Coaching/Training For the training, time and patience is the most important thing.
Superior Expressive Service Since the hospitality is service industry, the most
effective way is to show your positive energythe smile. Meanwhile, keep in mind that
customer is always the first, and interact with customers and know them is also a good
way.
Question 3c:
Professionalism Personally, she ask the employees to go training, and she also try to
model the behaviors in professionalism, and customer service.
Time Management/Priorities Prepare check list or to-do list before started planning.
Be sure to have a specific schedule about all you are going to do for the days and months.
Self Development She suggested that to enhance self development, be participate to as
many activities and events as you can, and communicate with people in certain area or
industry to get more experience and knowledge.
Spirit of Optimism This competency is relatively important because keeping positive
emotion on work is hard. Therefore, it is important for people to well-organized their life,
and at the same time take good care of own situation.