HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR THE HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM INDUSTRIES
To order this title, and for more information, click here
By Dennis Nickson, Scottish Hotel School,University of Strathclyde
Description Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries takes an integrated look at HRM policies and practices
in the tourism and hospitality industries. Utilising existing human resource management (HRM) theory and practice, it contextualises
it to the tourism and hospitality industries by looking at the specific employment practices of these industries, such as how to manage
tour reps or working in the airline industry.
It initially sets the scene with a broad review of the evidence of HRM practice within
the tourism and hospitality industries. Having identified the broader picture, the text then begin to focus much more explicitly on a
variety of HR policies and practices such as: – Recruitment and selection: the effects of ICT, skills required specific for the industry
and the nature of advertising – Legislation and equal opportunities: illegal discrimination and managing diversity – Staff health and
welfare: violence in the workplace, working time directives, smoking and alcohol and drug misuse – Remuneration strategies in the industry:
the ?cafeteria award? approach, minimum wage and tipping
Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries
will be illustrated throughout with both examples of best practice for prescriptive teaching and discussion, and international case studies
to exercise problem solving techniques and contextualise learning. It incorporates a user friendly layout and includes pedagogic features
such as: chapter outlines and objectives, HRM in practice – boxed examples, reflective review questions, web links? discussion questions
and further reading.
Accompanying the text are online supplementary lecturer materials including downloadable figures from the book,
PowerPoint slides, further cases and extra exercises and points for discussion.
Audience
Primary: Level 2/3 undergraduate students studying for hospitality and tourism degrees and introductory postgraduate modules on HRM
Secondary: Practitioners.
Contents Chapter 1 – The nature of HRM in hospitality and tourism (approximate length 8,000 words)
This introductory chapter will initially set
the scene by considering the nature of hospitality and tourism in a general sense, before moving to the more specific nature of HRM practices.
The initial scene setting will be concerned with mapping the nature and scope of the hospitality and tourism industries in considering
issues such as their heterogeneity and the type of labour markets that hospitality and tourism organisations tend to draw on. Much of
this information will provide invaluable contextual material for the more specific chapters later in the text on issues such as labour
markets, recruitment and selection and remuneration, all key HRM challenges. Having introduced the reader to the nature of the sector
the remainder of Chapter 1 will explore in more detail the nature of HRM in hospitality and tourism. Beginning with established theory
which considers the nature of HRM generally and issues such as the dichotomous nature of debates as to whether HRM is best understood
as being ?hard?/?soft? or ?best fit?/?best practice? the chapter will move on and consider the application of such debates in hospitality
and tourism. Much of this chapter will draw on and extend the work of Nickson et al (2002) which offered an overview of the extent to
which employment in hospitality, in particular, could be seen as either ?best practice? or ?best fit?.
Chapter 2 – Organisational culture
and the search for service quality (approximate length 5,000 words)
This chapter is not commonly found in HRM for hospitality and tourism
textbooks, but it is suggested as being crucial in understanding the underlying reasons for a number of HR strategies employed by hospitality
and tourism organisations. The intent of this chapter will be to briefly review how organisations in the hospitality and tourism industries
attempt to use organisational culture as a unifying device to attempt to ensure the employees? ?buy in? to the idea of initiatives concerned
with aspects such as service quality and empowerment. The basis for much of this discussion will be the excellent recent overview of
organisational culture in the hospitality industry by Ogbonna and Harris (2002). They use the notions of optimists, pessimists and realists
to assess the debate about the manageability of culture. In adopting a realist position, based on their own empirical evidence, Ogbonna
and Harris argue that individual organisational cultures have to be examined within their particular contexts. This point allows for
a pragmatic view on the way in which organisational culture can be utilised in support of organisational strategies, even if that simply
means behavioural compliance and appropriate emotional displays in tourism and hospitality organisations.
Chapter 3 – Labour markets
(approximate length 5,000 words)
Chapter three will be the final chapter that attempts to fully understand the broader context in which
organisations are developing their HR strategies. The chapter will briefly review the nature of labour markets, both at an abstract and
actual level. Using the idea of different levels of labour market analysis the chapter will consider the following aspects: – Transnational
labour markets, for example the role of the EU and MNCs in increasing labour mobility. – National labour markets, for example the impact
of recent legislation and particularly attempts to create a more flexible and employer friendly labour market in recent years. – Local
labour markets – all of the above levels of analysis are broadly defined as the external labour market – Sectoral labour market concentrating
specifically on the nature of hospitality and tourism labour markets. – Internal labour market, with a particular focus on how hospitality
and tourism organisations are increasingly seeking to enhance the flexibility of their labour through functional and numerical flexibility.
Chapter 4 – Recruitment and selection (approximate length 10,000 words)
This chapter will consider recruitment and selection as distinct,
yet complementary aspects. Having firstly recognised the potential costs of poor decisions in the recruitment and selection process the
chapter will go on to offer a step by step review of the process. Initially the chapter will focus on recruitment in considering aspects
such as job descriptions, person specifications and increasingly the idea of competencies. This section will be particularly cognisant
of the type of skills which hospitality and tourism organisations are seeking, particularly in their front line staff. Recruitment methods
will also be considered, before we examine the nature of recruitment advertising. Attention will then turn to selection and the extent
to which hospitality and tourism organisations are attempting to develop a more sophisticated approach to selection. In particular this
section of the chapter will seek to examine the extent to which organisations are moving beyond simply relying on the employment interview
and utilising other aspects such as psychometric testing. Within this discussion though there will also be consideration of good practice
in areas like employment interviewing
Chapter 4 – Equal Opportunities (approximate length 8,000 words)
The chapter will begin by considering
the seemingly increasing commitment by organisations to the notion of equal opportunity. Whilst a number of organisations make a rhetorical
commitment to equality, there is a need for a more critical review to assess the extent to which this is translated into action. Within
this context the chapter will develop the discussion by considering the moral, business and legal cases for equality. Moving from this
general discussion the chapter will specifically consider gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual and religious orientation and offenders.
Much of this discussion will be framed around extant legislation in these areas. Having considered the ?traditional? equality agenda
the chapter will then go on to consider the notion of managing diversity. Many have argued that this concept adopts a more strategic
and business-oriented view of equality and in that sense is much more in tune with prevailing, strategic HR thinking. The chapter will
critically review this proposition by considering whether the concept of managing diversity is really that different from the equal opportunities
agenda.
Chapter 5 – Training and development (approximate length 8,000 words)
This chapter will again develop the review of training
and development by recognising the different levels of analysis that can be used to understand training. The chapter will initially review
a number of initiatives emanating from the national/governmental level and the role of government in setting the framework in which organisations
are developing their training strategies. For example, the emergence of Investors in People (IiP) and the extent to which hospitality
and tourism organisations have sought IiP accreditation. Similarly, there will also be a review of the importance of industry level initiatives
and the role of national training organisations and more recently the newly emergent sector skills council for hospitality and tourism.
Relatedly, the chapter will also offer a discussion as to why hospitality and tourism organisations have historically offered low levels
of training and the extent to which this situation may be changing. Having established the broader context in which hospitality and tourism
organisations are developing training the chapter will then review more specific and practical issues concerned with the implementation
of training at the organisational level. Initially the chapter will recognise different reasons for why organisations might train, for
example the need to socialise employees?. Here the chapter will use a systematic nine-step approach to consider training from the initial
assessment of training needs to doing the training and then assessing the training at the end of the process. Throughout this discussion
there will be an attempt to relate some of the issues raised back to the earlier analysis of the skills and competencies, which hospitality
and tourism organisations are seeking in their managerial and front line staff.
Chapter 6 – Staff health and welfare (approximate length
10,000 words)
To frame the discussion on issues concerned with health and welfare the chapter will initially utilise the framework from
Goss (1994), which outlines different welfare rationales. These rationales are also closely related to the earlier discussed notion of
whether organisations should develop HR policies based on moral, business or legal grounds. The latter aspect in particular will be a
key feature of the chapter in relation to a number of pieces of legislation that have emerged in recent years concerned with welfare,
and particularly health and safety. Having established the broader context the chapter will then go on and examine a number of aspects
of health and welfare polices in more detail including:
– Absenteeism – this discussion will provide the broad context in which to consider
a number of the other issues. Specifically, it will recognise the enormous costs to British employers of high levels of absenteeism and
why they increasingly are looking to develop proactive policies to address such concerns. – Alcohol and drug misuse – generally there
is an increasing interest in alcohol and drug misuse from personnel practitioners and this has a particular resonance in hospitality
and tourism. For example, three of the top ten occupations that suffer from high mortality rates from alcoholism are located in hospitality.
– HIV/AIDS – this is a key environmental issue facing all organisations generally, though again there is arguably a greater challenge
facing tourism and hospitality organisations. – Sexual harassment – this section will consider why sexual harassment is a particular
problem in hospitality and tourism and the extent to which organisations may be complicit in potentially creating the conditions which
may lead to harassment. For example, the way employees are portrayed in advertising. – Smoking – this section will concentrate on the
voluntary code of conduct introduced to regulate the hospitality industry, in particular. Much of this material has already previously
been written as a book chapter. – Stress – will consider the need for organisations to become increasingly proactive in addressing staff
and why tourism and hospitality may be particularly stressful industries to work in. For example, challenging customer interactions over
a prolonged period of time. – Working time – like several other European Union Directives, the Working Time Directive had a disproportionate
impact on tourism and hospitality in areas like the provision of paid holidays. This and other aspects will be considered in this section.
Chapter 7 – Employee relations, involvement and participation (approximate length 7,500 words)
This chapter will firstly consider the
seminal notion of the ?effort-reward bargain? and how this has traditionally denoted a role for trade unions and collective bargaining.
However, the chapter will recognise that this description of how organisations and employees? reach agreement on how labour is exchanged
for rewards has limited utility for understanding hospitality and tourism organisations. Instead, the chapter will recognise the utility
of employee relations as denoting a different approach to managing the potential tension between employers and employees. Having appreciated
the need to recast the relationship between employer and employee in hospitality and tourism, the chapter will consider the different
perspectives concerned with how to manage the potential tension emerging from each side seeking different things from the employment
relationship. The perspectives that will be introduced in the chapter are the unitarist, pluralist and Marxist views of the employment
relationship. The fundamental point to emerge from this discussion, the possibility of competing views on the employment relationship,
will then frame a more explicit review of the notions of employee involvement and participation. For the former aspect, issues such as
communication, attitude surveys and suggestion schemes will be considered. For the latter aspect more representative mechanisms will
be assessed, most obviously developments such as European Works Councils. The chapter will seek to make the point that most people agree
that employees? should have some kind of ?voice? in organisational decision making, yet the nature and extent of that influence will
vary depending on what kind of schemes are in operation within the organisation. The chapter will also consider why trade unions have
failed to make any significant impact in tourism and hospitality and the possibility of whether this situation may change in the future.
Chapter 8 – Performance management (approximate length 7,000 words)
This chapter will begin with a review of the broader aspect of
performance management systems and the way in which these have become ever more sophisticated in recent years. From this broad review
the chapter will then go on to focus much more explicitly on the idea of appraisal. Initially, it will consider why organisations seek
to appraise their employees? performance. Equally though it will recognise why managers, in particular, find appraisal problematic. Understanding
of these issues provide a useful context in which to then go on and look rather more prescriptively at how to develop a ?good? appraisal
system. The latter point will also provide a useful introduction to further developments in appraisal, such as 360-degree appraisal.
Running through this chapter will be the particular issue of the size of the organisation and the utility, or otherwise, in developing
a formal appraisal system within smaller organisations, which tend to predominate in hospitality and tourism.
Chapter 9 ?Remuneration
strategies in hospitality and tourism (approximate length 10,000 words)
This chapter will initially consider the terminological debate
about differing approaches to rewarding employees. In particular, it will recognise that a number of organisations are now seeking a
more strategic and holistic approach to reward strategies as evidenced by talk of reward management strategies, which are often premised
on a ?cafeteria approach? – where employees? ?pick and mix? from a range of benefits on offer to them. Following this discussion the
chapter will then utilise a useful overarching framework from Torrington and Hall (1998) to consider the differing perspectives on pay
and rewards from employers and employees?. The chapter will then seek to apply these broader debates to the hospitality and tourism industries
using the notion of Mars and Mitchell?s (1984) total rewards system. The work of Mars and Mitchell allows for consideration of important
aspects of HRM, such as basic pay and the debate surrounding the national minimum wage (NMW). The NMW is particularly important and will
be accorded a relatively lengthy discussion reflecting its disproportionate impact on hospitality and tourism organisations, for example
the high number of employees who benefited from the introduction of the NMW. The chapter will then consider the unique socio-economic
aspects of the tipping phenomenon. Finally, it will consider a range of other benefits available to organisations, for example performance
related pay, and the extent to which hospitality and tourism organisations offer such incentives to employees.
Chapter 10 – Disciplinary
and grievance procedures (approximate length 5,500 words)
The starting point for this chapter will be the recognition that many accept
the need for clearly understood procedures in the employment relationship. The chapter will suggest that this point is particularly true
with regard to grievance and disciplinary procedures. These notions will be considered as distinct, but complementary, aspects of organisations
and the chapter will be developed within a broad framework of how best to create a sense of organisational justice in dealing with grievances
or disciplinary matters, including dismissal. The chapter will then have a detailed account of both aspects of grievance and disciplinary
matters considering broad principles as well as more specific managerial aspects, such as how best to conduct a disciplinary interview.
Chapter 11 – Review of HRM in tourism and hospitality and areas for future research (approximate length 5,000 words)
This chapter will
be a final summary chapter pulling together the book?s many themes, including offering some informed personal commentary on where the
author stands on the question of HRM in hospitality and tourism. It will also briefly review the state of play with regard to research
in the field of HRM for hospitality and tourism and suggest some future directions for research.
Books and book related electronic products are priced in US dollars (USD), euro (EUR), and Great Britain Pounds (GBP). USD prices apply to the Americas and Asia Pacific. EUR prices apply in Europe and the Middle East. GBP prices apply to the UK and all other countries.
Home | Elsevier Sites | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Feedback | Site Map | A Reed Elsevier Company