An organisation's ability to exploit information and communication technologies (ICTs) depends on the ICT training of its employees, which is conditioned by the strategies implemented by managers. These business strategies may be influenced by the manager's gender. In this study, the manager's gender is used as a factor to determine the level of commitment to ICT training of tourism managers in the Spanish region of Extremadura. The study also examines their satisfaction with the ICT training they have received, their preferences regarding training providers, and their perceptions regarding how well ICT knowledge supply meets demand in this region. Online questionnaire data from a sample of 238 tourist lodgings were collected. Inferential statistical analysis was applied. The results suggest that the values for the majority of the ICT training variables considered in this study do not differ between companies managed by men and women.
TopIntroduction
The term human capital, which emerged in the mid-20th century, can be defined as the set of experiences and knowledge acquired throughout life through education and training (Becker, 1964; Schultz, 1961). Laroche et al. (1999) broadened this concept by arguing that social attributes, personality and other innate characteristics of individuals also determine their productivity (De la Fuente et al., 2004). Accordingly, innate human capital refers to an individual’s natural talent endowed by genetic inheritance, whereas acquired human capital refers to the competencies that an individual develops from the accumulation of experience and from formal or informal education (Schultz, 1993). As part of acquired human capital, education is especially relevant in providing individuals with competent skills (Kasa et al., 2020). Thus, the continuous training of individuals, specifically employees, has become increasingly important over the years (Akther & Rahman, 2021; Jaworski et al., 2018), given the key role of human capital in the development of organisations.
The growing complexity of the environment in which organisations compete forces them to adapt to an era largely defined by technological advances (Kuo et al., 2010). In this environment, the information and communication technology (ICT) training of the members of an organisation is essential because having strong ICT skills is critical to make the most of what ICTs can offer (Yeo & Grant, 2019; Zhang & Lee, 2007). Therefore, training the members of an organisation in this area is vital because it contributes positively to productivity (Dearden et al., 2006). Such training may depend on, amongst other factors, the manager’s gender for the following reasons. First, technology education tends to be different between women and men. Specifically, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are generally perceived to be the domain of men. As a result, women tend to be less interested in such degrees, which leads to lower female representation in STEM education (Sáinz et al., 2016; Yeo & Grant, 2019). The origin of this lower propensity lies in the predominant gender roles in society (Hetherington, 1965). Second, each gender is associated with a different leadership style that may result in action plans with different approaches (Eagly & Johnson, 1990; Walker et al., 1996). Women’s attitude tends to be one of concern for others (Beji et al., 2020), with female managers expected to focus on the welfare of their employees (Feng et al., 2020; Mallin & Michelon, 2011) and, consequently, on their training. However, a review of the literature reveals only one study of the influence of women’s presence on the board of directors on employee training (Tran, 2020). This lack of studies highlights the need to investigate this relationship further. Moreover, the cited study revealed a negative relationship.