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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452

12th International Strategic Management Conference, ISMC 2016, 28-30 October 2016, Antalya,
Turkey

Exploring Professional Competencies for Talent Management in

Hospitality and Food Sector in Turkey
Kerem U. Sabuncua, Gaye Karacaya*
a
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, 34367, Turkey

Abstract

This study is an exploratory research conducted for understanding talent management practices in hospitality and food sector in
Turkish business environment. The data of the study was collected via face-to-face interviews from employees working in the small
and medium sized companies in Turkish hospitality and food sector. The data obtained through in-depth interviews was analyzed
by content analysis. The main aim of the current study is identifying strategic talent attributes in Turkish hospitality and food sector
through a qualitative research. The outcomes of the current study will be utilized as the groundwork of a further quantitative
research in order to construct a professional competence scale for hospitality and food sector in Turkish business environment.

© 2016
© 2016TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by by
Published Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
Elsevier This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
Keywords: Talent management; Hospitality and food sector, Strategic competencies, Content analysis

1. Talent management
Talent management has been a popular concept both for businesses and academia since early 90s. On the subject
of strategic management, the importance of talent management practices derive from the fact that talented employees
have the strategic capabilities that can increase the productivity, efficiency and competitive advantage of organizations
in all industries. In order to comprehend talent management, firstly the term 'talent' should be thoroughly discovered.
According to Butter and colleagues (2015) the 'talent' concept incorporates various meanings; that is, having an ability,
intelligence, and capability in some profession that permit performing specific acts. In broad terms, 'talent' mainly
refers an individual's level of intelligence or capability that enable effortlessly and skillfully conduct an activity (Butter,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-212-293-1300 E-mail address: karacayaydin@itu.edu.tr

1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of ISMC 2016.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.11.055
444 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452

Valenzuela & Quintana, 2015). Although talent is commonly linked with an ability, it can also be developed through
exercise, practice and training. While talented employees have similar strategic effects on the performance and
competitiveness of companies in various sectors, the identification of strategic competencies that characterize 'who
the talented employees are' in each industry seems to be quite different. By conducting a qualitative research, the
current study aims to identify strategic competencies that describe the main attributes of talented employees in
hospitality and food sector within Turkish business environment.
The talent management concept initiated by the work of a group of McKinsey consultants who had highlighted the
idea of “war of talent” during 1990s. This original study showed the significant role of employees for companies'
outstanding performance that can strengthen their competitive advantages (Khilji, Tarique & Schuler, 2015). Since
then, not only the reality itself, but also the realization of such a reality of talent wars have intensified due to the lack
of skilled employees (Latukha, 2014). No matter how the general condition of the economy; i.e. good or bad, talent
management stays as a critical concern for all companies in all times.
Talent management process is related with identification, attracting, developing, rewarding and retaining employees
with critical attributes by which they can support sustainability of organizational success as well as organizational
development (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). According to Vaiman, Haslberger and Vance (2015) talent management
process includes the following set of activities:
x Classifying, identifying, choosing and recruiting talent from outside of company within employment
marketplace
x Classifying and identifying internal talent
x Training talented employees
x Retaining talented employees
Talent management is basically a process that involves utilizing, developing and managing employees who have
strategic capabilities that are important for the success of business. Talent management methods help to stimulate
newly joined employees to be energetic, motivated, long-term staff, and make this process to be the duty of all
managers from top to bottom rather than keeping it only as a duty of human resources departments (Lou, 2007). Human
resources departments function as support functions within organizations and perform various operations about
personnel. In terms of employee development practices human resources departments may primarily focus on training
future leaders rather than trying to train all employees at the same time with the same effort (Marchington, 2015). On
the other hand, as a philosophical approach, talent management involves focusing on all talented employees and trying
to develop all of them.
During talent management practices, information management becomes crucial. Information technology contribute
to talent management by supporting sustainability of operations, and so increase organizational performance (Benitez-
Amado, Llorens-Montes & Fernandez-Perez, 2015). Through the usage of information technology, a better data
management would result in making healthier decisions and so achieving better organizational performance (Russell
& Bennett, 2014). In this regard, the real value of talent management has still not been systematically discovered
(Festing, Schafer & Scullion, 2013).
Talent management practices are more common within big multinational companies. The lack of managerial and
professional talent have become one of the most important human resource management challenge for majority of
multinational companies (Latukha, 2014). At early times, talent management developed as only the concern of large
multinational enterprises, however it has been seen that talent management issues will not be limited to those large
MNEs or big local companies, but also has become crucial for all companies regardless of their size and level of
internationalization (Festing, Schafer & Scullion, 2013; Iles, Chuai & Preece, 2010).
Nowadays, the main focus of the researchers in the area is analyzing talent management practices in different
industry segments, by studying small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) as well as large MNEs (Sparrow &
Makram, 2015). By building on the main findings of previous research on talent management and its effects, this study
aims to explore the strategic talent competencies that would be effective for the performance of the companies within
Turkish hospitality and food sector.
 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452 445

1.1. Talent management outcomes

Talent management is related both with managerial function indicators that become obvious by employee work
outcomes, and with firm's financial and operational performance indicators (Cho, Woods, Jang & Erdem, 2006). For
instance, effects of talent management on employee work outcomes can be observed in employees' turnover, non-
attendance, and job satisfaction. On the other hand, talent management practices effect organizational outcomes like
productivity, product and service quality, company growth; as well as company's financial outcomes that become
obvious by ROA, ROE, and profitability figures; and also with capital market outcomes, i.e. stock price.
Employee turnover is one of the main employee outcomes of talent management. In the study of Walsh and Taylor
(2007), challenging work, learning oriented company relations, and effective reward system were found to be the most
important factors on employees' turnover intentions. Challenging work, learning, and awards affect general work
conditions, and those factors, in return, influence both organizations' and sectors' turnover rates. If a person thinks that
the job or job position does not fit with his/her talent, needs, and values; then he/she would enter into a negative mood
that also correlates with person's self-esteem (Feldman & Bolino, 1996). Moreover, leaders are the main drivers of
organizational success by being the sole strategic decision makers. In order to develop leaders within organizations
talent management practices become crucial. Branham claims that 20% of the staff can add value on 80% of the
business outcome based on the Pareto Principle (Iles, Chuai & Preece, 2010). Accordingly, in order to secure 80% of
total company outcome, we need to invest in to the most talented employees.

1.2. Talent management practices

There can be various talent management practices with different perspectives. Generally, the most common talent
management practice is developing talent pools by making succession plans for each defined job and position by
selecting employees according to their performance levels. Another perspective depends on humanistic and
demographic viewpoints (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). Since all talented employees have some kind of a specialty that
important for the success of the company, it is hard to classify and assign them into strict positions. Moreover, after
defining or creating the talented employees, it is much easier to make some development plans for those talented staff.
Aguinis and Bradley (2015) give the talent management practices in Chipotle Restaurants as one of the best examples
for identification and creating stars in organizations. Chipotle Restaurants focused on treating employees fairly, and
permitting staffs to promote based on their performance. Creating a fair and transparent promotion process becomes
the main driver of their success (Aguinis & Bradley, 2015). Promotions based on employee effort and performance
become highly beneficial for talent management programs.
Every staff in an organization conduct important operations that deserve payment; but in different amounts which
is related with complexity of the job and talent of employee. The best example for such an application cited by Bill
Gates, “A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of
software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer” (Aguinis & O'boyle, 2013). Some job
positions require more specific talents which are hard to find and develop. The management of strategic human
resources, that are top managers and high potential talented employees, has been accepted as a key role for the HR
function of the company, especially in the multinational companies (Iles, Chuai & Preece, 2010). Key positions of a
company should be fulfilled with key workers with talent. These talent management practices have been common in
developed countries and MNC’s. However, in developing countries such as India, Brazil, Turkey etc. and in small and
medium sized enterprises (SME’s) these practices have not been structured and commonly applied yet (Tymon,
Stumpf & Doh, 2010). Moreover, applications of talent management differ from region to region as well as
organization to organization. Talent management practices methodically selected and applied by multinational firms
mainly involve position planning and reposition management, HR planning and forecasting, staffing, training and
development, performance calculation, and rewarding elements; however these practices may not be directly
applicable for SME's (Schuler, Jackson & Tarique, 2011).
There are different methods to be applied for talent management. Companies can flexibly set their own talent
management priorities (Polat, 2011). In view of that, talent management need to be seen as a long term investment
changing with the specific conditions of the sector, region, and company.
446 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452

2. Hospitality and food sector

Among talent management research conducted within various sectors, the ones in hospitality sector are very few
in number. However, the dynamic structure of hospitality sector makes talent management practices to be important
for this sector. Fast changing business environment, including a tight labor market, intense competition, and varying
customer demands, has been a challenge for today’s hospitality firms (Cho, Woods, Jang & Erdem, 2006). In such a
competitive business environment, talent management practices becomes much more important.
Talent is basically considered with young people in the public’s mind. Research points to the age of the workers in
catering sector such that 30% of workers in catering sector are younger than 24 years old, this value is 13% for all
industries (Pratten, 2003). According to this research, it can be assumed that in hospitality/catering sector there is a
high potential of talents. On the other hand, today's young workers, i.e. Generation Y, are dynamic and get easily
bored which can be a reason for their higher turnover rates.
The dynamic structure of food and hospitality sector also increases the turnover rates in this sector. According to a
research, restaurant service and kitchenette areas have mostly high levels of labor turnover and the main reason of
such a high turnover rates employees' desire to have better payment (22%), and irregular or long working hours of the
jobs in the sector (17%) (Iomaire, 2008). Turnover is a problem which could be solved with talent management
practices. Similarly, based on a research in tourism and hospitality sector, senior managers had average 4.9 job changes
in the last 15 years by quitting jobs in every 3 years; while middle managers had average 3.9 job changes, with a job
change in almost every 4 years (Ayres, 2006). Especially high turnover rates in management positions can be
decreased by applying relevant talent management approaches.
Kitchen is a hard place to work with its unusual conditions compared with other places to work. Sector dynamics
are sometimes harsh such that there are strict discipline and rules in the kitchen, sex based stereotyping exist in the
sector, some kitchen locations have no access to fresh air, workers of kitchens usually have anti-social work
environment, and they earn really low compared to average wages in similar conditions at other sectors (Pratten,
2003). The motivation indicators of chefs in hospitality sector is parallel with Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs which are
payment, security, job satisfaction, personal development and growth, friendship, and relationships (Iomaire, 2008).
It is possible to say that talent management practices could help to satisfy those needs which would increase
employees' job satisfactions.
Working conditions of employees in hospitality sector is stressful, highly bureaucratic, unsociable, unstable, and
unpleasant (Chuang, Yin & Dellmann-Jenkins, 2009). If an employee finds a job position which is right for his/her
talents, needs, and attitudes; then the high stress derived from psychological and physiological requirements of the
sector would be felt less by that employee (Feldman & Bolino, 1996). Those psychological and physiological inputs
make the staff more stressful, generally unhappy, and inclination to change the work. According to a survey, chefs
think that the main reasons of their stress are: lack of feedback on performance with 46% of all, being undervalued
with a rate of 35%, insufficient management support with one over three of them, and lack of appropriate training also
lack of involvement in decision-making both with 13%; all of which are highly related with talent management
practices (Murray-Gibbons & Gibbons, 2007). High employee turnover and staff shortages in hospitality sector is a
worldwide problem (Iomaire, 2008). Both organizational and financial problems could be observed when there is a
high turnover rate, in this respect proper talent management practices may be a solution for decreasing turnover
problem in this sector.
Performance of a company is a data which gives information about future of the company and how much money
will it gain. Moreover, there are several factors that affect performance of companies in all sectors including hospitality
and food sector. Although the hospitality industry has unique feature of labor strength, only a few research studied the
effect of talent management practices on managerial performance of companies in this sector. Among these few
studies, the main outcomes of talent management practices in food and hospitality sectors include decreased turnover
rates, increased labor productivities, and increased profit margins (Cho, Woods, Jang & Erdem, 2006). In hospitality
sector, which faces continuously high level of turnover, salary alone does not motivate young managers (Walsh &
Taylor, 2007). Likewise, if the productivity is low, which is a problem, this will decrease profitability and may be
caused by high turnover. Similarly, if the profit margin is low this may be because of low productivity and high
turnover. In tourism and hospitality sector it is essential to create a combined HR program which involves defining
 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452 447

objectives, establishing a performance appraisal system and career planning process (Ayres, 2006). Career planning
is a key issue for talented people who are leaders or will be leaders in the future.
Among the most important employee attributes in hospitality and food sector is the talent of cooking. Best of Class
program which is designed by Wyndham aims to develop leaders in the food and beverage sector with respect to
innovation, quality, and service of culinary talent (Siguaw & Enz, 1999). By such kind of talent management practices
chefs can both perform their talent on the field and develop themselves which would increase their work motivations
. Based on research, training and good atmosphere motivates more than half of the workers in kitchens, also good
wages and top to down leadership motivates approximately one over three of them (Iomaire, 2008). Applications of
talent management is vital for developing chefs in an effective way, and so for increasing the performance of
restaurants and firms in the sector.
Based on previous research, it is seen that there is no common and structured practices of talent management within
hospitality and food sector in Turkish business environment. This can be attributed to two main reasons; firstly,
companies in hospitality and food sector in Turkey are generally small or medium sized enterprises; in other words,
cafes, hotel kitchens, pubs, and restaurants including local food restaurants, such as kebab houses, etc. Secondly, in
general there is no common usage of talent management practices in hospitality and food sector all around the world.

3. Methodology
In order to understand the effects, applications and possible improvement areas of talent management in hospitality
and food sector, the current study used a qualitative research methodology, i.e. in-depth interviews. The observations
obtained by these in-depth interviews were analyzed by content analyses. Content Analysis is a research method used
to analytically evaluate the background of all types of recorded communications (Camprubí & Coromina, 2016). The
main reason for adopting qualitative research methodology, i.e., in-depth interviews, is due to the fact that the current
study is at its exploratory phase. By conducting an exploratory study, the current research aims to understand the main
dynamics of the sector as well as the common applications of talent management practices at the hospitality and food
sector in Turkish business environment. Moreover, adopting qualitative research and analyzing obtained observations
through content analysis is commonly adopted by research in tourism and hospitality sector (Lin & Mao, 2015).
In order to collect data through in-depth interviews, as a first step areas for exploration and possible questions were
prepared to be asked during these in-depth interviews. The current research aims to explore four main areas of talent
management in hospitality and food sector at Turkish business environment. First area is, defining talent i.e., how
organizations define talent in hospitality and food sector at Turkish business environment. As a second area,
recruitment process was targeted for exploration. The third area was training and development of talented employees,
and as a last area effective strategies to retain talented employees were targeted for exploration and further
investigation.
The interviews were made at 12 companies with 17 employees, working either as service personnel, kitchen
personnel or as manager in hospitality and food sector in Istanbul/Turkey the details are given in Table-1 below.
The interviews mostly started by an opening question about the general atmosphere of the work environment at the
sector. After getting comments from employees on this topic, the researchers directs the conversations towards talent
management concept. The researchers gave a general information about talent management practices without naming
it as talent management. Afterwards, employees were encouraged to make comments about the conditions and
practices in their organizations as well as in the sector.

Table 1 Distribution of companies in terms of service points

Company Classification Number of Companies Number of Interviewees

Cafe/Bistro/Pub 4 6
Restaurants 5 7
Hotel Kitchens 3 4
Total 12 17
448 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452

Based on general classification at the sector, at the current study the classification of the companies were made in
three main categories based on their service point: Cafe/bistro/pub; Restaurant, and Hotel kitchen. Within
Cafe/bistro/pub category, the Café sub-category includes different sizes of cafés which are generally small and
boutique and very common in Istanbul area. They cook and serve their own foods like cookies, cakes or breakfast and
have less than ten employees. Within this category, another sub-category is bistro, which cook more lunch and dinner
alternatives compared to Cafes. For this study, at two different cafés and at two different bistros totally six interviews
were conducted. Restaurants could be observed in two sub-categories; one is local food restaurants which is generally
kebab houses which prepares Turkish kebabs for their customers. The other sub-category is the restaurants which
usually serve world cuisine. For the current research, totally seven interviews were conducted at five different
restaurants which have five to twenty-five employees. Among these five restaurants three of them were local food
restaurants, i.e. kebab houses, and the remaining two were restaurants with world cuisine. Hotel kitchen category is
one with has the largest number of employee with fifty to one hundred workers. Hotel kitchens could serve both to
the hotel in which it resides and to other organizations by their catering services. For instance, one of the restaurants
included to the current research is a hotel kitchen which serves in addition to the hotel to a football clubs for its catering
services of the stadium. For the current research, totally four interviews were conducted at three different restaurants
in Turkey. The companies included to the interview sample of the current research were selected by considering their
general representability of the total company distributions in terms of service areas in Turkish hospitality and food
sector.
In addition to the categorization of companies in terms of their service areas, companies at hospitability and food
sector can also be classified according to the number employees they have. Based on employment numbers, companies
having up to ten employees are named as micro companies; while the ones with eleven to fifty employees are
categorized as small companies; and companies with more than fifty employees are named as large companies
according to the SME definitions at Resmî Gazete (2012). Table-2 shows the distribution of companies included in
the current research according to their employment numbers. The companies included to the interview sample of the
current research were selected by considering general company profiles in terms of employment levels in Turkish
hospitality and food sector.

Table 2 Distribution of companies by the number of employees

Enterprise Size Micro Small Medium
Number of Employees <10 11 - 50 50 - 250
Number of Companies 5 4 3

3.1. Content analysis

After the interviews made with employees in hospitality and food sector in Turkey, a content analysis was
conducted by analyzing all the conversations obtained during these interviews. The results of the content analyses are
summarized at the Table-3.
In all interviews, there was a common flow of topics which were mentioned. The conversations generally started
with comments regarding the general conditions in the sector, which was followed by comments on
important/strategically important personnel, particularly "talent". The word talent was frequently mentioned just after
the general introduction given by the researchers. The interviewees defined talented employee at the hospitality and
food sector as; the one who “see the job as his or her own job”, “action before command”, “are clean and fast”.
According to the manuscripts depicted from these interviews, the common definitions of talent used for defining the
employees who are strategically important for the business includes these specific attributes. Most importantly, out of
17 interviews, 15 of the interviewees used exactly those descriptions while defining talent in this sector. When
analyzed in detail, it is seen that café, bistro and restaurant employees refer to “seeing the job as his/her own job”,
and “being clean and fast” as the main attributes of talented employees; on the other hand, hotel employees including
chefs, mostly mentioned “action before command”, “cleanness” and particularly "speed" as the most important
characteristic of a successful employee in the kitchen. “Time management” and "speed" related words were used by
11 of the interviewees. Another important point derived from the result of the analysis is that, “action before
command” and “know how to behave” were mentioned by 11 of interviewees, mostly by managers. “Cleanness” was
 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452 449

one of the most frequent words used together with kitchen and especially with cooking function. The importance given
to cleanness attribute in these interviews can be referred to the fact that in some cafés and bistros, service employees
may also be responsible from kitchen in addition to their role in service function. Because of its impact on consumer
satisfaction, health and workplace conditions, “cleanness” attribute was highlighted and so it had a high frequency at
the content analysis results. In addition to the above mentioned attributes, "being customer oriented" was mentioned
as another major feature of talented personal during these interviewees. Briefly, in Turkish hospitality and food sector,
talent in general terms defined as "having desire and motivation to take responsibility", "does not require guidance
and close control ", "being quick and dynamic", "being clean" and "being customer oriented".
The following conversations about effective employee behaviors at the sector highlighted that “experience” is one
of the most valuable assets for this sector, accordingly the importance of the experience was mentioned at 16 out of
17 interviews. The interviewees specifically mentioned that education is not a requirement for the sector in Turkey,
that is having a diploma from a chef school is not required for most of the jobs. In addition to experience, during
recruitment processes organizations also look for "willingness to work" since turnover rate in the sector is dramatically
high. However, having a degree or education related with the food and hospitality industry is not a common
requirement for recruitment. The common opinion in the sector is that education is not a necessity but motivation to
work is a must. In the hospitality and food sector, there is a huge difference in terms of level of education among
employees, such that while in some restaurants and hotel kitchens there are chefs with university degrees, in most of
the cafes, bistros and local restaurants the education level of employees are primary school or secondary school.
Accordingly, the complaints regarding education of employees are mostly mentioned by the interviewees working at
hotels. On the other hand, some cafés and bistros employ university students due to their low cost and their potential
to be an efficient front-line service staff. Since customers of cafes and bistros are mostly university students and white
collar workers, the education level of personnel becomes important especially when there is a possibility that
employees hired as chefs may also support service function in these micro and small enterprise.
In reference to the companies included to the interviews, during recruitment processes none of the companies uses
tests or elimination/selection methods. Only method used for recruitment is one to one interviews. Companies are
looking for talented employees to adopt to their organizations, but during selection processes they generally do not
ask for CV’s of candidates. Generally, companies at the hospitality and food sector use a two phase recruitment
process. At the first phase, they conduct one to one interviews with candidates. They generally ask and evaluate
candidates' previous work experiences at this phase. According to the content analysis results, sixteen out of seventeen
interviewees mentioned that evaluation of previous experience is an important step in recruitment processes in this
sector. At the second phase, companies mostly offer a trial period to candidates by which they try to evaluate and
identify the talented ones. Some of the food sector managers said that, talented worker is easy to recognize and they
claim that they can recognize the talented ones less than a half day period. Another view is that, trial should last around
one week and during this process they can observe candidates'' behaviors. Nearly all of the interviewees highlighted
that human relations has a crucial importance in food and hospitality sector so during assessments for recruitment this
aspect of candidates need to be evaluated. Kitchens are small and stressful work environments where kitchen staff
have opportunities to have chats, make arguments, as well as being friends. It is reasonable that, talented employees
should also have good communication skills in this sector. In addition to the above mentioned attributes, especially in
hotels, language skills are also important and companies are looking for talented employees to have competency of
foreign language. The view shared by the members of the sector is that finding talented employees is not easy due to
the tough working environment in the sector as well as demanding expectations of companies. According to the in-
depth interview results, it is clear that finding talent is hard for the companies in this sector.
One of the most important phases of talent management is training and development of talented employees. During
the interviews, it was mentioned that training and development opportunities offered by the entities in the sector are
not sufficient enough. Generally, there is not any professional training. In comparison to other sectors dominated by
multinational companies that implement talent management practices as a company strategy, in hospitality and food
sector the small size of companies and the difficulty of talent identification make the implementation of talent
management practices relatively hard. It is mostly on the job training such that experienced chefs train the new ones.
The content analyses results reveal some additional findings related with Turkish cultural context. Due to the
collectivist cultural norms and generally accepted communication styles, employees' attitude of losing the distance
450 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452

during their conversations with customers becomes one of the most important problems in Turkish service sector.
Especially in small and local restaurants, i.e. kebab restaurants, some of the employees address customers as sisters
or brothers, and do not pay attention to the required distance in their communications. Accordingly, some of the
managers at the sector are expecting stable behaviors from their employees, and they refer behaving in a polite manner
as one of the most important attributes of a talented employee. Another finding related with Turkish cultural context
is the general trend to support and protect fellow citizen in working environment. This trend functions as a barrier for
talent management. When managers favor employees from their own town by giving more opportunities to them, the
objective criteria for identifying and developing talent in the sector becomes unfunctional.
The last step of the talent management process is retaining talent in organization. This is challenging for the sector
because of harsh working conditions. All interviewees agreed that working conditions are hard in the sector,. The
hardest part is the long working hours which limits employee’s social life. Minimum working hours is ten hours per
day and in the hotels sometimes chefs have to work 24 hours. Without loving the job, it is really hard for employees
to work in this sector. One of the challenges is the negative environment of kitchens where torture and mobbing
becomes nearly normal part of the of the daily work atmosphere.. Another challenging issue is standing all day and
working without sitting down. This causes fatigue especially after long working hours. For retaining talented
personnel, extra payments, higher wages and offering special benefits are commonly used in the sector as mentioned
at twelve of seventeen interviews.

Table 3 Content analysis

Interview Number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Company Size: Micro Micro Micro Micro Micro Micro Micro Small Small
Café/Bistr Café/Bistr Café/Bistr Café/Bistr Café/Bistr Café/Bistr Restaura Restaura Restaura
Company Classification: o o o o o o nt nt nt
Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency
Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence
Items
Responsibility D 3 D 2 D 2 D 3 D 2 D 2 U 0 D 2 D 1
Experience D 1 D 2 D 2 U 0 D 2 D 2 D 2 D 1 D 2
Working hours D 2 D 3 D 2 D 1 D 1 D 1 D 2 D 1 U 0
Customer oriented D 4 D 3 D 2 D 2 D 2 D 1 U 0 D 1 U 0
Product knowledge and
D 1 U 0 D 1 D 2 D 1 D 1 U 0 D 1 D 2
capacity
Communication capacity D 3 D 4 U 0 D 1 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1
Know how to behave D 2 D 2 D 1 D 2 D 1 D 1 D 1 D 2 D 2
Speed D 2 D 1 D 2 D 2 D 2 U 0 U 0 D 2 U 0
Cleanness D 1 D 2 U 0 D 1 D 2 D 1 D 1 D 2 D 2
Trial before recruiting D 2 D 1 D 2 D 2 D 1 D 2 U 0 U 0 D 1
Action before command D 2 D 3 D 1 D 1 D 1 D 1 U 0 D 1 U 0
Extra payments D 1 D 2 D 2 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 2 D 1 U 0
Hard to find talent D 2 D 1 D 1 D 1 D 1 U 0 U 0 D 1 D 1
Team player U 0 D 1 D 1 D 1 D 1 U 0 U 0 D 1 D 2
Training capacity U 0 D 1 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 D 1
Stable characteristics U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0
Foreign language capacity U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0
Innovation and change U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 D 1
Mobbing/torture U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0
Honest and law-abiding D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1
Positive thinking U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0
 Kerem U. Sabuncu and Gaye Karacay / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 235 (2016) 443 – 452 451

Interview Number: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Company Size: Small Small Small Small Medium Medium Medium Medium
Restaura Restaura Restaura Restaura Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel
Company Classification: nt nt nt nt Kitchen Kitchen Kitchen Kitchen Total

Interviews
Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency

Frequency
Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence

Existence
Items
Responsibility D 1 D 1 D 2 D 1 D 3 D 3 D 2 U 0 15 30
Experience D 1 D 2 D 1 D 2 D 2 D 1 D 2 D 2 16 27
Working hours D 1 D 2 D 1 D 1 D 2 D 1 D 2 D 1 16 24
Customer oriented D 1 U 0 D 2 D 4 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 10 22
Product knowledge and
D 1 U 0 D 1 U 0 D 4 D 2 D 3 D 2
capacity 13 22
Communication capacity D 1 U 0 D 1 D 3 D 3 D 2 D 1 U 0 11 21
Know how to behave U 0 D 1 D 3 D 1 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 13 20
Speed D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 4 D 1 D 2 D 1 11 20
Cleanness D 2 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 2 U 0 D 1 D 2 12 19
Trial before recruiting D 1 D 2 D 2 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 3 11 19
Action before command D 1 D 1 D 3 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 11 16
Extra payments U 0 U 0 D 1 D 1 D 2 D 2 D 1 D 1 11 16
Hard to find talent D 1 D 1 U 0 D 2 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 11 13
Team player U 0 D 2 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 9 10
Training capacity U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 6 7
Stable characteristics U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 5 5
Foreign language capacity U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 D 1 D 1 U 0 4 4
Innovation and change U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 4 4
Mobbing/torture U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 D 1 U 0 D 1 4 4
Honest and law-abiding U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 2 2
Positive thinking U 0 U 0 U 0 D 1 U 0 U 0 U 0 U 0 2 2

The results of the content analyses results can be utilized to have a general idea regarding how talent is defined in
Turkish hospitality and food sector and also how talented employees can be identified based on the strategic talent
attributes derived by the current study. The outcomes of the current study can be utilized for constructing a
professional competence scale for hospitality and food sector.

4. Conclusion and future studies

The study aims to explore professional competencies in hospitality and food sector to be used for talent
management practices. The data obtained from in-depth interviews were analyzed by content analysis. Furthermore,
importance of talent management in the sector is highlighted through the findings of the study. The main aim of the
current study is identifying strategic talent attributes in Turkish hospitality and food sector through a qualitative
research. The outcomes of the current study will be utilized as the groundwork of a further quantitative research in
order to construct a professional competence scale for hospitality and food sector.

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