Management competencies have gained wider importance in the business organizations today. In fact these competencies include the importance of skills, knowledge and the behavioural capacity to act appropriately. Therefore, competencies are the characteristics of an individual which underlie performance or behaviour at work. It recognizes the importance of operational skills, knowledge and personal characteristics and the linkages between possessing these and performing certain tasks and roles. Within various sectoral based industries, the development of management competencies has been raised and discussed by the major stake holders i.e. industry and educational institutions. Of the various employment industries, tourism and hospitality occupy a prominent position which requires the position of transferable generic skills in the areas of leadership, communication, strategic thinking and decision making. It is perhaps due to the fact that tourism industry is developing at the fast rate and has emerged as an important ingredient in the economy of many nations especially in the developing countries. These projections reveal that there will be large requirement of human resources in the tourism sector. Besides quantitatively, the quality human resources is equally important to deliver quality services, which requires professionalism and specialization in the different sectors. On the basis of the above it can be inferred that management competencies and manpower planning have important implications that enable the tourism professionals to perform desired functions effectively and efficiently.
Competency, higher education, Industry, Tourism education, etc
