original scientific article	UDC 338.482:37(497.4)
received: 2014-01-10
THE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL AND THE FIRM SIZE OF TOURISM ORGANIZATIONS IN SLOVENIA
Marjan TKALČIČ
University of Primorska, Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica, Obala 11a, 6320 Portorož, Slovenia University of Maribor, Faculty of Tourism, Cesta prvih borcev 36, 8250 Brežice, Slovenia
marjan.tkalcic@turistica.si
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to find out the influences of the size-related structure of Slovenian tourism organizations on their educational structure and the influence of business volume of Slovenian tourism organizations on their educational structure. Based on our empiric quantitative research, conducted as a questionnaire-based survey, some characteristics of the sample organizations and respondents were explained using the descriptive method. For the comparison, the evaluation and the interpretation of the individual causal relations, we have applied the correlational-explanatory method. We reveal an interesting correlation between the 'Educational level of organization' and 'Size-related structure of organization, but we have not identified any influence of change business volume on the educational structure of tourism organizations in Slovenia. In our case it is clear that the small organizations are better employers for workers with higher education compared to large organizations.
Key words: human resources management, educational level of tourism organization, Slovenian tourism
il livello di istruzione e la dimensione delle organizzazioni del
turismo in slovenia
SINTESI
Il contributo fornito da questo articolo e quello di scoprire l'influenza delle dimensioni delle organizzazioni turi-stiche slovene sulla loro struttura educativa e l'influenza del volume d'affari delle organizzazioni turistiche slovene sulla loro struttura educativa. Sulla base della nostra ricerca quantitativa empirica, condotta tramite un'indagine basata su questionari, alcune caratteristiche delle organizzazioni del campione sono stati spiegati con il metodo de-scrittivo. Per la valutazione e l'interpretazione delle singole relazioni causali abbiamo applicato il metodo correlazio-nale-esplicativo. Sveliamo un'interessante correlazione tra il 'livello educativo delle organizzazioni'e 'la dimensione dell'organizzazione', ma non abbiamo individuato alcuna influenza del volume d'affari sulla struttura educativa delle organizzazioni turistiche in Slovenia. Nel nostro caso e evidente che le organizzazioni di piccole dimensioni sono datori di lavoro migliori per i lavoratori con un livello di educazione superiore rispetto alle grandi organizzazioni.
Parole chiave: gestione delle risorse umane, livello di istruzione delle organizzazioni del turismo, turismo sloveno
1. INTRODUCTION
For the countries in transition, the globalisation era requires certain adjustments and modernisations in the sphere of tourism in order to keep pace with (i) the changes in political and economic systems, as well as expectations and needs of citizens on one hand, and (ii) the need for compliance with European standards on the other hand. Tkalčič (2012) argued that tourism must cope with the need to adapt the hospitality capacities and innovate new activities to respond to the new trends of global economy. Although tourism as an industry and social phenomenon has gone through an extreme expansion worldwide, we can concurrently point to the mismatch of tourism services in its widest sense. The quality of services in tourism is largely determined by human resources.
The concurrent processes of globalisation (interdependence in the world) and individualization (personal uniqueness) impose the requirement for a complex (comprehensive) and individualized product, which is all the more true for the tourism industry. According to Tkalčič (2012), the demand for new skills and knowledge is on the rise, in particular the needs for conceptual and integral know-how for various fields and levels. Apart from the knowledge related to high technology, business and organizational aspects, the focus has shifted to social and communication skills. On that basis we can presume that in the future, the level of complexity of tourism professions will be increasing and the expected educational /qualification profile will rise also in the operational segment of the staff (also corresponding to a higher average educational profile of tourists - especially of more demanding, individuals).
The system of tourism higher education in Slovenia is changing rapidly. In last two decades, Slovenia gained several colleges and faculties for tourism and hospitality studies. Ovsenik, (2013) stressed that the educational system within the field of tourism struggles to provide the industry with the qualified personnell needed. It became obvious that education is one of the fundamental factors of a Slovenian tourism industry. Sanchez Canizares and Lopez-Guzman Guzman (2010) argued that there is no doubt that the human factor is a differentiating element in the tourist services which plays a fundamental role in the achievement of the adequate levels of service quality.
According to statistics, the majority of tourism services are offered by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which are commonly concentrated in tourism areas or dispersed around other parts of the country (www. statistischedaten.de). Such a morphology can be found in all European countries and it has a strong impact on ownership structure (self-employed), educational profile and skills of the employees in tourism. Slow, gradual but on-going changes have occurred in the structure and management of tourism trade lately. On the level of structural organization there is a visible growth of
large companies, particularly in catering industry. An important change is found in the management segment, where tourism companies tend to merge through voluntary mergers or by concession agreements. The trend of fragmentation of the hospitality industry in individual countries is quite apparent and attributable to the need for a well spread-out corporate network over the entire territory of the country. Hand in hand with this development goes the trend of managerial flow and organizational sharing among tourism organizations (companies) and within individual organization (company) as well. Largely, these new trends contribute to a diverse supply of jobs in tourism, which is characteristic for the service sector, in particular for services offered to individuals directly. The data perceived in individual EU Member States announce the trends that are already present on both sides - demand and supply - on the labour market in tourism industry. An underlying trend on the demand side of the labour market has been towards diversity and stratification. The concept of holidays, mode of consumption and behaviour, demand and motivation for travelling point to notable differences among present-day tourists. Tkalčič (2011) argued that due to a rising number of knowledgeable, well-informed and refined tourists on the one hand, and the stratified market on the other, service providers have to appropriately customize their approach to tourists, quality, choice and range of offered services.
The Development Plan and Directives of Slovene Tourism for the term 2007-2011 (Uran et al., 2006) reveals that tourism provides 54,000 jobs and employs 6.4% of the whole workforce who create 10% of the export of goods and services in the Republic of Slovenia (EUR 1.6 billion in 2005). The qualification structure of the employed workers in Slovenian tourism is unfavourable, there is an explicit lack of staff with higher (university or college) education. It is vital to enable the further professional growth of current employees with a scheme for continuing training programmes. Tourism is an opportunity for progress for less-developed regions, as well as for regions with a strong depopulation process. "Tourism is an economic activity capable of generating growth and employment in the EU, while contributing to development and economic and social integration, particularly of rural and mountain areas, coastal regions and islands, outlying and outermost regions or those undergoing convergence. With some 1.8 million businesses, primarily SMEs, employing approximately 5.2% of the total workforce (approximately 9.7 million jobs, with a significant proportion of young people), the European tourism industry generates over 5% of EU GDP, a figure which is steadily rising. Tourism therefore represents the third largest socioeconomic activity in the EU after the trade and distribution and construction sectors. Taking into account the sectors linked to it, tourism's contribution to GDP is even greater; it is estimated to generate over 10 % of the European Union's GDP and provide
approximately 12% of all jobs. In this regard, observing the trend over the last ten years, growth in employment in the tourism sector has almost always been more pronounced than in the rest of the economy." (European Commission, 2010)
The quality of services in tourism is largely determined by human resources. According to Ovsenik and Ambrož (2006), management in tourism is a key element that has a vital influence on changing and streamlining the concepts and values, as well as on monitoring the career growth and satisfaction of employees. Bukovec (2006) hold that effectiveness of an organizational system and its quality cannot be achieved without a continual organizational development and a comprehensive focus on the creative potential of human resources and guidance thereof. Understanding of what the term "human resources" and its management encompasses, Baum (2007) reveals that "this ambiguity includes the consequences of changes that have taken place at a functional level as the traditionally accepted concept of personnel management has given way to a broader functional application in human resource management, operating as part of a company's wider business and strategic environment."
Tourism as a highly labour-intensive economic sector has a relevant bearing on the labour market. It offers jobs to people of a variety of profiles and talents (Page and Connell, 2006). Nieves and Haller (2014) argued that a higher level of knowledge, skills and experience gives individuals greater ability to acquire and apply new and valuable knowledge, thus encouraging the renewal of a firm's resource base. According to Jenkins (in Potokar and Jug, 2003), tourism is seen as a catalyst of development that generates an increasing demand for a variety of services. That means new jobs. As the author highlights, tourism creates more jobs per unit of investment than other economic sectors.
Nemec Rudež (2010) argued that "knowledge management plays an important role in making Slovenian hotel companies competitive in the European single market where the competitiveness is very strong. Knowledge management is required to achieve the requested service quality and success in the Slovenian hotel industry after the accession to the EU." The importance of staff level of education for the tourism industry has been indicated by several researchers (Williams and DeMicco, 1998; O'Mahony and Sillitoe, 2001; Jay-awardena, 2001; Knowles et al., 2003; Littlejohn and Watson, 2004; Ovsenik and Ambrož, 2006; Connolly and McGing, 2006). According to Sanchez Canizares
and Lopez-Guzman Guzman (2010) the education of human resources has to be considered a valuable asset, which may generate commitment and good services for the clients, but only when it is well implemented and managed. Otherwise, skills and talent, which belong to individuals and not to the organization, may disappear with the high turnover of highly qualified professionals.
The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between (i) the level of education in tourism organizations and their size on one hand and (ii) their business volume on the other hand. We were particularly interested in the next two hypotheses:
H1: Educational level and size-related structure of tourism organization are in characteristic correlation.
H2: The educational level of tourism organization and its volume of business are in characteristic correlation.
The implications of the correlations of the educational level in tourism organizations with their size and business volume have not been extensively addressed in the existing literature. We checked (browsed) scientific articles on next sources: JSTOR1 1 ScienceDirect2 Emerald 3Sage 4EBSCOHost5 SpringerLink6 Wiley Oline7. We did not found any article in connection with the main purpose of our research, but we found some general (business and management) oriented articles. This confirms the originality of our research result. Bouchard and Basso (2011) examine that SMEs adopt entrepreneurial postures when they compete in hostile or turbulent environments. Bahadir, Bharadwaj and Parzen (2009) stressed that large organizations are more formal and standardized, probably because their size enables them to take a more pioneering, innovating and risk-taking approach. These characteristics are inversely related to innovation and creativity. Bigger organisations depend on organizational learning processes less than smaller ones, usually they have more resources to invest in organizational learning (Jimenez-Jimenez and Sanz-Valle, 2011). The influence of learning orientation on organizational learning is greater in SMEs than in large organizations (Real, Roldan and Leal, 2014).
2. METHOD
Based on our empiric quantitative research conducted as a questionnaire-based survey, some characteristics of the sample organizations and respondents were explained with the descriptive method. For the comparison, evaluation and interpretation of individual causal relations, we applied the correlational-explanatory me-
1	http://www.jstor.org/
2	http://www.sciencedirect.com/
3	http://www.emeraldinsight.com/
4	http://online.sagepub.com/
5	http://ebscohost.com/
6	http://www.springerlink.com/1
7	http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
thod. The data contributed by the questionnaire were processed in accordance with statistical methods. The statistical processing was performed by the software Sta-tistica of the manufacturer StatSoft and Microsoft Office Excel 2003. The data of attributive type are shown in the form of frequencies and percentages of responses (frequency distribution - hereafter referred to as f. d.). The component analysis was applied for deriving the correlations between the variables and contingency tables for displaying the correlations. The strength of the correlation was tested using the contingency coefficient (CC) (derived from the Chi-square statistic and yielding equal statistic characteristics as Chi-square). The hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square statistics. The degrees of freedom are displayed in the contingency tables. The data in the form of rangs were normalized as a test. The processing of the normalized data did not differ essentially from the analysis of the non-normalized values.
The questionnaire-based survey "The Impact of Top Management in Tourist Organizations on Education for Tourism" was comprised in the form of the responses from 161 tourism organizations ranging from the hospitality industry, tourism and travel agencies, other business or trade related to tourism, and organizations of the public sector related to tourism. The sample used in our research is representative for the target case study in tourism, which is an explicitly multidisciplinary activity. Tourism represents not only the conventional or core activities in tourism trade (such as hospitality industry and travel agency which are covered by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, but also numerous economic activities directly related to tourism (spas and natural resorts, gaming, meetings industry, providers of sport-related services, entertainment organizers, economic interest associations for tourism) and public institutions or services (local tourism and organizations for the promotion of tourism and civil societies for tourism). In other words, we can affirm that we have included in our sample of respondents and organizations in which they are employed, both the conventional activities of tourism trade and also the more propulsive players in the Slovenian tourism economy; the latter have already announced, also supported by the results of our research, a more promising and professional attitude to new knowledge that is indispensable for an increased added value of the tourism products of Slovenia and beyond.
The data in this article were taken from a doctoral dissertation research entitled "Impact of tourism organization's management on the tourism education - example of Slovenia" (Tkalčič, 2009) at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences Kranj, University of Maribor. We used the list of organizations from the database of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry - the Association of Catering and Tourism, and the Slovenian Chamber of Crafts - Section for Catering and Tourism, and the partner lists of the Slovenian Tourist Board
(participating in the Slovenian Incoming Workshop). The respondents entered their responses or chose the appropriate answers in the questionnaire by themselves. We handed out 240 copies of the questionnaire and 161 were returned to us.
3. RESEARCH OUTCOMES 3.1 Respondent Characteristics
More than two thirds of the population surveyed has had up to five years of service, and less than one in four has had longer working experience - from 6 to 20 years. The share of respondents with more than twenty years of work experience is negligible. The results show that the young segment of respondents was the highest, which is typical of the age structure in tourism industry offering a lot of first-job opportunities due to its labour-intensive profile and higher fluctuation rates. The number of respondents who did not answer this question was negligible. We also obtained similar results to the question on their service period in tourism trade. The service period in a concrete tourism organization is low: more than one half of respondents had been employed there for 2 years or less. Although tourism is a dynamic activity and the work is demanding, the advanced tourism countries show a tendency for people to remain in their workplaces for a longer period for two reasons: remuneration and the communicative character of the jobs.
Slightly more than one half of the surveyed population (55%) works in operational workplaces and is concerned with implementation; nearly three in ten respondents (29%) are executives, and only one in ten has a managerial position. The results reflect the classic pyramidal structure of our tourism organizations, with the least staff in managerial, slightly more in executive positions and the majority of staff in operational jobs. Compared with the situation in the Slovenian tourism economy, these data show that we have captured a slightly broader sample in the segment of executive and managerial staff, which is favourable for the needs of our research.
3.2 Tourism Organization Characteristics
More than one third of tourism organizations from our research (Table 1) are classified in hospitality sub-sector and less than one in five are tourism/travel agencies. In other words: more than one half of tourism organizations involved in our survey represents the core tourism business (hospitality industry and tourism/travel agencies). Economic activities directly related to tourism (spas and natural resorts, gaming, meetings industry, providers of sport-related services, entertainment organizers, economic interest associations for tourism) are represented with one of fourth of our sample and less than one in five are tourism organizations from public
Table 1: The sphere of activities of organizations
Sphere of activities of organizations	f.	fi%
Hospitality industry	59	36,6
Tourism/travel agency	26	16,2
Eco^omioaaC^t^f^e^shae^t^^-/ related to tourism	40	24,8
Public sphere	28	17,4
No answer	8	5,0
Z	161	100,0
Source: Author's research
(AcaltoL^risei c^rg^anizations and organizations for the promotion of tourism and civil societies for tourism).
According to the size-related structure of organiza-tic^r^s irom \a^n^ch sCa
of t^etfc^i^i^l	hm he^v^t^to
re^t^c^n els hh alt wa^^^-^^c^wrc
venian tourism sector consisting of a number of small (^r^ n^^at^c^riz (ico i^hiwc1; I ess ^v^d |y f^i^e (Ve/o+12yo^3 S^/o) o^e^e^ ^(^mvahncl o%^^p^r^dsnts ro-ming from organizations with up to twenty employees, ;ecvc^;^ha^(yee^ ^^ se^;^11 org^r^^^e^ss. C^i^fi f|ftvc^et all	eame i^t^ornmm^uo^-
c^^iS n ^t^iO^is (ee leVne ihw eoua^^m ind us^Cre^l coVh 2S to 100 employees, and only 14% (9%+5%) from large tvuriae^ indL^sO^1^) e^creea^^n t CO n+^ieW)^^^^. nhme ^ev +ne ir^ ^(^i^i" c/s^e^onaOTO at 28% did not provide an answer to this question. The size-related structure of organizations from which our r^vhooda^r^t^^^ifiT^e cefrea-hended to the structure of organizations in Slovenian tourism trade, in which small
entities prevail; large organizations are few in number and their profile usually reflects a diversified scope of e^s^r^^a^^ihr^uOo^i^ jt^^S aSe^d 1otVcii c^chre t^^^eness (e.g. transportation, trade, etc.).
/^c^ch^dmn to ts^e c^^.afroas ts11 e e	m ore
tl+va or^e hvCre^i^c^nOehO, s^t^vt^c^^+ovhucCian (3 E^^d	O^^j^f^	l^^j^ivsnare
(more than one fourth) of employees with elementary ^c^.c^c^1 or	i+^lncve 1rin^0^^tno ss^^r+ (^11 ^r^inloye-
esn ^Oh hš^h^e^f ^(^cahc^i^j^i E^r^d ainnnr edecat^c^n ^more than one fifth) which is more than the Slovenian tourism
(^xpi1/1 Ci^f^ high
j^h^^ec^e a^mpio^v^ w ios (lignesov(^£^i^c^l^al on^dSher 1^iducont^n ic ohir ^(^sc^E^c^ ^ i sS a e^^i^^t^en^ ^s^m 3I0 wOich was used in the research of SORS (SORS include only Caac^(^nlO3 ^ndi^^vr^ ^n.c^o vot ot^fe1^L^dst^c^Coch w to-L^rlcm wr S^ioi foc^ o ^^^encn h	VOo cct^ also
explain the high share of employees with higher education with the high share (near 60% of our sample) of organizations which are dynamic in their physical growth and development (Figure 2). In other words, we can
No answer 201 and more employees 101 -200 employees 51 - 100 employees 21-50 employees 11 - 20 employees 1 - 10 employees
5%

□ 9
% %
11%
^ 12%
□ 28
%
: 26%
10 15 20 25 30
Source: Author's research
Figure 1: Respcnv^Ts shnre w'rth regorWo seeeireSated stsTc^oe oO orTnhwaStvns
0t
5
0
Table 2: The educational level in organizations in comparison with size-related structure of organizations of our respondents
		Size-related structure of organizations							
		1-10	%	11-50	%	50 <	%	1	%
Educational level	Elementary or below	9	5.1	228	26.0	2348	26.4	2585	26.0
	Secondary education	63	35.6	472	53.9	4636	52.1	5171	51.9
	Higher vocational education	35	19.8	67	7.7	841	9.4	943	9.5
	Higher education	70	39.5	109	12.4	1081	12.1	1260	12.6
	1	177	100.0	876	100.0	8906	100.0	9959	100.0
Source: Author's research
affirm that we hav^is ir^clucle^d in c^Ljr san-^idletlie rr^ot^en propulsive players lir !s^c3vr^r^inn toun^m ncnne^rr^i/; the latter have ^IrevCm^nnnrunc^^d, sunp^(^rten Vrn the results of o ur cnsear^li, emore fi^tmmlsinai^ncl sional attitude too e^ S;v c^i^^ige tScet^^ ^r^id^p^r^nsi^lsl is for an increased added value of the tourist products of Slovenia and b^^^ot^cl1
Small enternria^^w|t|mie!^staan 10	at^^ o
special case. The^(5	f^rr^pj^oy a nf^j^l + 21 s share
of employees that donO have at least secondary education. The employees in ^n^all eir^t^e^rirvs ^rn educated. The r^i^son for^h^^ clistribution lies iet^ fact that these companies usually deal with demanding development and pr^rmntiica;rl ar^|i|s^it|e^ (leyclrl^urrsmc^r^gnn^-zations, develor^m	on)ng^(^^s OTas^rcin^n^rr uten
that usually requl^(^ l'sigh^r/ rmillnd	.
In the case of nc^rnrn vmanlzati^nm ^ith 51emnlh^^es and more, we s^r^nnoSiA tn^E^t ^hnre is ^ typlnaieg^piyt yees' education^l sVueiru,o^m^ne^c^ant^or ^i^t^g^ toLsiPm organizations,	eh^	Cnn^^ l^S^c^r^iSL^c^;^^
tion while other segments of employees have secondary education or a
3.3 The correlation b^^sweyn r^ter^dc^(^l^tinny| irva| of organizationViEl^Or ^ei rnizet^(^laSem	nS
riiinnis^ia^iun'
Depending on tlie Sr^p^ ^f nih^ l^L^(^<^tllt^nncil^ sa^ ito-troduced a metrics for the calculation of the educational level in a tourism or^;anization,\A^I"i^cl^v^ill hc^lp us ^o identify the relations between the educational level Jincl other parameters.
By grouping data and using the assessment of education at different levels we assessed the education level in a company as follows. The educationial profi^65 (^f a company is a set of emp^c^^/e^ with the nsrresponding educational levels (e.g. a company has an employee with less than secondaryschc^o^ 11 with secondary school, none with vocat^or^s^l h^igh school and 2 with high school or c^c^re, whyh yie^c^;;^e profile (1, 11, 0, 2)) an individu;al\^kh lece t^C^Ein the secosdary school weighs one point, with secondary school 1.90 points,
isiyCser oiocatiopifi ocClmoi ^i1. s)oisit!r ;^nsl 1iisiis st^0loo| os evorv s1101!! peoints. TIoz ^dhc^c;imnnl lye^i e coroipsn2 tSles c wnl)Ji"ir^d nvvtlaitJe c^f tree pointe ytoar^hr i^nitSo esl^t;ntlonsrl Ifsnels o^ ledlviidfia1 ^rsisllr^yi^ns| FIoo exom-rcli^, I;0^ s;om|^^nti SlSliC;si tit^ fctoi'iii^ (F, 11, S1. FycSll^s itl empiiccs,),^!) isnP CC^s rcdocntlloxal 1(511x1 is
oC^SO^ttSP^1.1^11it|9-yOlnl11-c2•Si09a = 1iSS5i tsr	0
deOn^ 'S sls^cr^soS nomopny eeseytllot^al lentis: UUU ^ ^ oOtOOt< Ci9Si UC o [1i;1 ot 0ZO< 1.11], watos C^|lloroStt(lV•<|^.O^C^ rSlsS=s [st .see ^ Osti r<||1
When calculating the educational level of a company we used weights with which we calculated the contribution of each employee to the company's educational level. To the best of our knowledge, there is no related work on defining such weights. Hence we devised the following mechanism for determining the weights. The basic unit was the level "less than secondary school". A rough comparison of the amount of knowledge acquired in secondary school is 1.9 times the knowledge acquired in elementary school. Following this pattern, the ratio of knowledge between secondary school and vocational high school is 1.63 yielding the weight 3.11 and the high school weight 4.09. We acknowledge that such a methodology is questionable. However the statistical analysis confirmed that the cho-senapproachmakessense.
The educational level of an organization (ELO) and the mentioned clusters were used to investigate the relations between the educational structure of organizations and otherparameters.
We were in particular interested in the correlation between the 'Educational level of organization' (ELO) and 'Size-related structure of organization' (number of employees) which was checked by Chi-square test in the ContingencyTable3.
To satisfy the requirements of the test we appointed new classes of Educational level C1, [C2, C3, C4] and of Size-related structure [1-20], [>20]. The new contingency tableisTable4.
Table 3: The correlation between the ^Educational level of organization' and ^Size-related structure of organization'
		Size-related structure							
		no data	1-10	11-20	21-50	51-100	101-200	200 <	I
	no data	34	0	0	0	0	0	0	34
	C1 Elemen. or below	0	2	4	9	3	7	3	28
Educational	C2 Second. education	0	22	15	8	12	7	5	69
level	C3 Higher vocat.educ.	0	10	2	3	2	1	0	18
	C4 Higher education	0	11	1	0	0	0	0	12
	I	34	45	22	20	17	15	8	161
Source: Author's research
The calculated value of Chi-square statistics is =	and the calculated p-value p=0,00017, reve-
a^ls tilsat there is a characteristic correlation between both these groups ('Educational level' and 'Size-related structure'). The strength of correlation was tested by contingency coefficient C = 0,317. Thus it affirms the H^/f^ot h esis 1: "Educational level and size-related structure of tourism organization are in characteristic corre-btion".
T'alble The correlation between the ^Educational level of ornanization' and ^Size-related structure of organi-TiTt ion'- new classes
	1-20	>20
toi	6	22
C2,C3,C4	61	38
Source: Author's research
3.4 The correlation between the 'Educational level of tourism organization' and 'Volume of business of tourism organization'
According to the data from Figure 2 our sample of tourism organizations surveyed obviously comprises a group of organizations that is dynamic in its physical growth and development (almost three out of five). Almost three out of ten respondents answered that their organization is working in the same volume and only one out of ten respondents answered that their organization is working in decrease volume. In comparison with world trends of tourism growth we pick out the suitable group of tourism organizations.
We were in particular interested in the correlation between the 'Educational level of organization' (ELO) and 'Volume of business of tourism organization' which was checked by the Chi-square test in the Contingency Table 5.
7;
16: 10%
46; 29%
92; 57%
□	In the Toms vTlums c IifcsoTS vTlums
□	DsfcsoTS vTlums
□	NT OlTWSC
Source: Author's research
F'gure 2: Volume of business of tourism organization
Table 5: The correlation between the ^Educational level of tourism organization' and ^Volume of business of tourism organization'
VOLUME EDUCATION	No data	B1 In the same volume	B2 Increase volume	B3 Decrease volume	I
No data	6	10	17	1	34
C1 Element. or below	0	5	16	7	28
C2 Second. education	0	18	43	8	69
C3 Higher vocat.educ.	0	10	7	1	18
C4 Higher education	1	3	8	0	12
I	7	46	91	17	161
Source: Author's research
To satisfy the requirements of the test we appointed new classes of Educational level C1, [C2, C3, C4] and of 'Volume of business B1, B2, B3. The new contingency table is Table 6.
The calculated value of Chi-square statistics is = 5,752 , which is less than the critical value with a significant grade 0,05 (z^),o5;i = 5,991). We therefore conclude that there is no significant correlation between the 'Educational level of organization' and 'Volume of business of tourism organization', which was also confirmed by the p-value p=0,056. Thus we reject the Hypothesis 2: "The educational level of tourism organization and its volume of business are in characteristic correlation".
With the Chi-square test we compared the relation between the educational structure and the business volume of an organization independently on the merging of clusters. We have not performed the inter-class comparison but just the comparison between the two characteristics.
4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
More than two thirds of the population surveyed has had up to five years of service, and less than one in four has had longer working experience - from 6 to 20 years. We also obtained similar results to the question on their service period in tourism trade. These results notice on the problem which was accentuated by Sanchez Canizares and Lopez-Guzman Guzman (2010): "the commitment should not be just from the workers toward the organization but the organization must also make an effort toward quality-management
^ otherwise, skills and talent, which belong to individuals and not to the organization, may disappear with the high turnover of highly qualified professionals." The results of our research (high fluctuation of workforce in Slovenia) have confirmed also the finding of Nemec Rudež (2005) that the Slovenian tourism management has a rather low awareness of the know-how dedicated to tourism trade and is still hesitant about the eligibility of investing in knowledge and HR development. These results also indicate that Slovenian tourism management is still far from insight into what Nordström and Ridder-stral (2001) meant by "vital competitive advantage of an organization is its ability for learning and implementing the knowledge obtained into practice as soon as possible" and Burke (2002, p. 15, 16) in his "from idea to learning society".
Our sample of tourism organizations surveyed obviously comprises a group of organizations that is dynamic in its physical growth and development. But it is still lagging behind in terms of qualitative growth, which is confirmed with low educational level of organizations included in our research especially in comparison of the graduate employees' rate between hospitality in Slovenia, Spain and Portugal. The graduate employees' rate in hospitality of these tree countries is: Spain-Andalusia 39.1% (Sanchez Canizares & Lopez-Guzman Guzman, 2010); Spain-Balearic Islands 15-17% (Ramos et al, 2004); Portugal-Algarve region 14% (Lopez-Guzman Guzman et al. 2009); Slovenia 9.27% (SORS, 2012); Slovenia (hospitality and tourism) 12.6% (our research). The result of our research is higher from that one of SORS because the SORS include only hospitality indus-
Table 6: The correlation between the ^Educational level of tourism organization' and ^Volume of business of tourism organization' - new classes
	B1	B2	B3
C1	5	16	7
C2,C3,C4	31	58	9
Source: Author's research
try and do not other subsectors of tourism which are for our research crucial.
We reveal interesting correlation between the 'Educational level of organization' and 'Size-related structure of organization'. The calculated value of Chi-square statistics reveals that there is a characteristic correlation between both these groups, thus it affirms the Hypothesis 1: "Educational level and size-related structure of organization are in characteristic correlation". In our case it is clear that are small organizations better employers for workers with higher education than large organizations. In small enterprises there is a dominant share of higher educated employees while the share of employees that don't have at least secondary education is negligible. The reason for this distribution lies in the fact that these companies usually deal with demanding development and promotional activities (local tourism
organizations, development agencies, congress organizers etc.) that usually require highly skilled employees.
Throw results of our research we can not confirm the Hypothesis 2: "The educational level of tourism organization and its volume of business are in characteristic correlation". There is no significant correlation between these two variables, increasing or decreasing volume of business has no influence on the educational structure of tourism organizations in Slovenia.
In the future study it will be necessarily to analyse the influence of the level of education in Slovenian tourism organizations on:
(i)	Overall job satisfaction of workers which has directly influences on the clients' satisfaction in tourism organizations and destinations;
(ii)	Organizational commitment of workers which influences the worker into acting according to the organization's targets.
stopnja izbrazbe in velikost turističnih organizacij v sloveniji
Marjan TKALČIČ
Univerza na Primorskem, Fakulteta za turistične študije - Turistica, Obala 11a, 6320 Portorož, Slovenija Univerza v Mariboru, Fakulteta za turizem, Cesta prvih borcev 36, 8250 Brežice, Slovenija
marjan.tkalcic@turistica.si
POVZETEK
V članku predstavljamo vpliv velikosti slovenskih turističnih organizacij na njihovo izobrazbeno strukturo in vpliv obsega poslovanja slovenskih turističnih organizacij na njihovo izobrazbeno strukturo. Na podlagi empirične kvantitativne raziskave, ki smo jo izvedli v obliki vprašalnikov, smo s pomočjo deskriptivne metode pojasnili lastnosti vzorca turističnih organizacij. Interpretacija vzročnih razmerij je bila izvedena s pomočjo korelacijsko pojasnjevalne metode. Ugotovili smo korelacijo med Izobrazbeno strukturo organizacije' in 'velikostjo organizacije', nismo pa ugotovili vpliva na spremembo obsega poslovanja s strani izobrazbene strukture v turističnih organizacijah v Sloveniji. V našem primeru smo ugotovili, da so majhna podjetja boljši delodajalci za delavce z visoko izobrazbo v primerjavi z velikimi podjetji.
Ključne besede: upravljanje človeških virov, izobrazbena struktura turističnih organizacij, slovenski turizem
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