Samer Al Sabi, Mousa Masadeh, Bashar Maaiah, Mukhles Al Ababneh
This paper draws on the perceptions of middle managers to identify what determines upper management’s decision in International Hotel Chains (IHC) to invest in out-of-country training (OCT). A model employing the presence of relationships between ‘attitudes’, ‘benefits and usefulness’, ‘barriers’ and ‘IHC’s decision’ to invest in OCT, was proposed and examined. A total of 261 middle managers from international hotel chains in Jordan were approached using a structured survey. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the dimensions for each construct. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the relationships among the four constructs of the study. The results showed direct relationship between attitudes and benefits/usefulness to IHC’s decision to invest in OCT, and demonstrated the mediating role of attitudes in the inverse relationship between barriers and IHC’s decision to invest in OCT.