Perceived career challenges and response strategies of women managers in Indian five-star hotels: a mixed-method study

This descriptive phenomenological study is designed to investigate and describe the lived career experiences of women managers in Indian five-star hotels. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews with 29 women managers of two five-star hotels in Delhi and one five-star hotel in Mumbai along with responses to open-ended questions from 158 women managers of 46 five-star hotels in the cities of Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, and Bangalore and analysed in lines of qualitative content analysis. The content analysis of the data yielded 13 themes related to career experiences of women managers that enabled and hindered their career progression. Findings revealed that women managers in five-star hotels are keen to ascend to leadership positions and they expect organisations to realise the promise of diversity to facilitate their career ambitions. They adjust their feelings of satisfaction and develop career strategies to reduce dissonance with their lack of ability to attain executive positions. The findings of this study may be useful for women who desire advancement to executive positions and to organisational leaders who wish to hire and promote the right person regardless of gender.