The impact of occupational stigma consciousness on occupational commitment amongst undergraduate tourism management students: The role of occupational self esteem as mediator and moderator

Research shows that tourism and hospitality management students who have received tourism management education either do not start working in the tourism sector after graduation or leave the sector after a few years work in the industry in Turkey. There are many reasons for low school to tourism sector transfer including poor human resources practices and working conditions unfavourable to employee commitment in the tourism sector (Baum, 2007; Kusluvan v.d. 2010; Price, 1994; Woods, 1999); incompatibility of the personality traits and values of individuals with the structural characteristics and requirements of the tourism sector (Chalkiti and Sigala, 2010; Davidson, Timo ve Wang, 2010; Kuşluvan and Kuşluvan, 2004; Kusluvan v.d. 2010); inability of schools to provide the students with the knowledge and skills required for working in the tourism sector (Holden, Jameson and Lashley, 2005); unrealistic and high expectations of students such as earning high income and becoming a manager right after the school (Lu and Adler, 2009), and overqualification of students in relation to jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector (Orr, Murray and McKenna, 1992). However, there has not been enough research on the concepts of occupational stigma consciousness and occupational self-esteem, which may affect occupational commitment in tourism. In order to fill this gap in the literature, this study was carried out to determine the effect of occupational stigma consciousness on occupational commitment of students who received tourism management education at undergraduate level and to test whether vocational self-esteem plays an moderator and mediator role between occupational stigma consciousness and occupational commitment. In the research, purposive sampling method, one of the non-random sampling methods, was chosen as the sampling method. Third and fourth year students, who had at least three months of on the job training or work experience, from two oldest tourism and hospitality management schools from four regions (Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean and Central Anatolia), where tourism is developed most, have been included in the sample. The data were collected face-to-face through a questionnaire with scales and demographic questions related to the research variables and analysed. According to the results of the research, it was determined that a significant proportion of the students had a high level of occupational stigma consciousness and low level of occupational self-esteem and occupational commitment towards the tourism management occupation. When the results of the research are examined, it is determined that occupational stigma consciousness negatively affects occupational commitment, but this effect is not statistically significant in the 95% confidence interval. On the other hand, occupational stigma consciousness affects occupational self-esteem very strongly. It was also revealed that occupational self-esteem positively affects occupational commitment. It was also found that occupational self-esteem plays a mediator role between occupational stigma consciousness and occupational commitment. This result means that occupational stigma consciousness related to the tourism management occupation negatively affects the occupational self-esteem of the students and decreases their occupational commitment and even supresses the positive effect of the occupational self-esteem on the occupational commitment. On the other hand, it was seen that occupational self-esteem does not play a moderator role between occupational stigma consciousness and occupational commitment. In other words, high or low occupational self-esteem does not change the impact of occupational stigma consciousness on occupational commitment. Keywords: Occupational Stigma Consciousness, Occupational Commitment, Occupational Self-Esteem, Tourism Management, Tourism Education, Students.