Employment experiences of Polish migrant workers in the UK hospitality sector

The research explores the experiences of Polish migrant workers in the UK hospitality sector. It reports quantitative and qualitative empirical data on the migrants’ reasons for entering the hospitality workforce and their subsequent employment experiences. The findings reveal the main motive for entering employment in hospitality is for self development as migrants wish to use and learn foreign languages, gain work experience and receive other benefits that the sector provides. These self development opportunities are viewed as a means to improve career prospects in the UK or upon return to Poland. Once in the sector, positive experiences associated with hospitality employment include opportunities to meet people and work in a lively environment. Negative aspects relate to working conditions, low pay, physically demanding jobs, discrimination and management behaviour. The research suggests that certain practices and working conditions in the sector pose an obstacle to the long-term commitment of migrant workers. Suggestions for the management of migrant human resources are outlined.     

Recruiting the Best

Abstract

This study investigates which workplace opportunities or offerings most influence hospitality studentss' likelihood of choosing and recommending a particular hospitality company. Data collected from hospitality management indicates that, consistent with previous research, Career Development and a Positive Work Environment continue to be important factors in influencing studentss' choice of employment. New for this study is the Quality of Life issue, a significant factor for this generation of hospitality management students. The study findings provide further recommendations for hospitality recruiters to attract and retain entry-level managers.     

Designing a Hospitality Ethics Course Content from the Students' Perspective

ABSTRACT

In managing a curriculum, it is important to solicit students' perspective to ensure that it is relevant to their interest and needs. Therefore, in an attempt to develop content for a hospitality ethics course, this study conducts a questionnaire survey with 520 hospitality students to help identify the importance of 39 ethical issues in the hospitality industry. As suggested by Thomas, Clermont, and Maimbolwa-Sinyangwe (1984) and DuFrene, Elliott-Howard, and Daniel (1990), if an ethical issue is judged to be important, it can serve as a topic around which part of the course is to be developed. The top three most important issues are found to be “Disposal of hazardous waste,” “Acceptance of bribes or gifts by employees” and “Sexual harassment on the job.”     

The first space hotel employees: Human resources challenges in a post-terrestrial paradigm

ABSTRACT

This article discusses some of the issues regarding the first employees to work in a space hotel. As space hotels initially will be vastly different to existing hotels on Earth, it is important to question what human resource challenges this will raise for hospitality workers and providers. To assist reflection on this issue, the notions of space tourism and space tourist are explored, and a definition of a space hotel is included to create product and service boundaries. Plausible futures methodology is used to create five main human resource considerations and concludes by suggesting this sector is largely unexplored.     

The Effects of Year-Round Schools on the Hospitality Industry's Seasonal Labor Force in the State of Tennessee

Abstract

The hospitality industry in Tennessee employs 181,300 people as seasonal workers; fifty-three percent of those workers come from the school system. The loss of seasonal workers with the implementation of year-round schools will drastically increase the current labor shortage. An alternative labor pool needs to be identified and the issue of year-round schools must be addressed.     

A Highlight of Tourism and Hospitality Education Issues in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This paper was written to explore the opinions of the hospitality human resource managers in Taiwan about current tourism and hospitality education provisions. Major issues regarding tourism and hospitality education in Taiwan were identified. Based on the research findings, a number of conclusions were drawn and specific suggestions for the future of the tourism and hospitality education in Taiwan were proposed.     

Educators' Perceptions of Business Ethics in Hospitality

ABSTRACT

Business ethics has become a popular topic in both the academic arena and the business setting within the hospitality industry. This research investigates the perceptions of hospitality educators regarding business ethics in contemporary hospitality programs and the hospitality industry (Damitio & Schmidgall, 1993; Dunfee & Donaldson, 1999). This study provides some pivotal educational findings as to how hospitality educators perceive the preparation of hospitality students relative to business ethics. There are three distinctive findings. Female educators have a significantly higher level of agreement toward statements about business ethics in the hospitality industry than do male educators. Educators whose own level of education was a doctorate degree were significantly less concerned about ethics education than educators whose own level of education was a two-year college degree or a master's degree. And, educators who were employed in institutions offering graduate degrees were significantly less concerned about ethics education than educators who were employed in institutions offering undergraduate degrees. In addition to those three significant findings, this study also showed that educators perceive that organizations should not only practice business ethics with customers but also with employees. Additionally, this study showed that educators are concerned about multinational companies (MNC) and students' ability to understand ethical issues while operating businesses in foreign countries. Educators are also concerned about the strong influence of business organizational leadership and management on business ethical practices.     

Is digital technology the magic bullet for performing work at home? Lessons learned for post COVID-19 recovery in hospitality management

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly brought about a number of disruptions to when and where work is undertaken for hospitality employees. The rapid spread of COVID-19 forced many hospitality managers to use digital technologies to perform work from home, termed digital work connectivity. Yet little is known about how hospitality employees cope with it. The purpose of this study is to investigate an important yet underspecified issue as to how digital work connectivity can be detrimental for employees’ work behavior.Design/methodology/approachWe test our hypotheses using multi-wave and multi-source data collected from 467 middle managerial-level hospitality employees in China.FindingsThe findings show that digital work connectivity can lead to self-control depletion, which in turn is associated with disengagement from work. Further, the findings show that relational energy is an important resource that can buffer the detrimental effects of digital work connectivity on hospitality employees.Practical implicationsThe association of digital work connectivity with employee withdrawal behavior highlights the urgent need for hospitality enterprises to have clear guidelines that regulate technology use at home for work purposes.Social implicationsOur research shows that the absence of clear guidelines in relation to the use of digital technology for work at home risks producing unintended consequences for both hospitality employees and their enterprises.Originality/valueOur research draws from recent advances in resource allocation theories of self-control and adopts a more nuanced approach to uncover a counterintuitive reality that while people use digital technology to remain connected with work, doing so can actually contribute to their withdrawal behavior.     

Managing Workforce Diversity

Abstract

As hospitality firms become increasingly characterized by diversity with respect to their workforce, attracting, retaining, and using diverse people effectively have become a priority. Diversity management is considered vital to ensuring success in today's unpredictable hospitality markets. To suggest strategies for management of diversity, the current study explores the definitions used in dealing with diversity, clarifies diversity-related concepts, and discusses the benefits of effective diversity management. It is contended that hospitality firms that want fresh ideas, strong growth, a positive firm image, and an enhanced ability to hire qualified workers should be proactive with regard to workforce diversity. This study also suggests effective diversity management strategies, including the use of diversity management paradigms and development of a learning organization. Finally, the challenges hospitality firms are facing are discussed.     

Service Quality in Tourism Research

Abstract

This paper reviews the recent development of service quality research. It relates the key issues and approaches to the tourism and hospitality sectors. It identifies the need for further research into the meaning and management of service quality in tourism and hospitality.     

A Study of Occupational Stressors Perceived by Hospitality and Tourism Teachers in Taiwan's Vocational Schools

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential occupational stressors for vocational school hospitality and tourism teachers in Taiwan. Data were collected via a questionnaire mailed to 649 hospitality and tourism teachers in 105 vocational schools. The response rate was 74 percent. Factor analysis was employed to identify the underlying dimensions of perceived occupational stressors, resulting in five factors: extra work besides teaching; teaching and counseling; academics and licenses; international and personal issues; and administration and contests. MANOVA and ANOVA tests were used to identify if there were differences in perceived occupational stressors by socio-demographic characteristics and organization-related attributes. The results indicated that sociodemographic characteristics and organization-related attributes played significant roles in perceived occupational stressors identified by vocational school hospitality and tourism teachers. Practical implications were suggested for vocational school hospitality and tourism teachers.     

Retaining students as employees: Owner operated small hospitality businesses in a university town in New Zealand

This study provides insight into employee retention issues in owner-operated small hospitality businesses in a university town. The study found that even though employee retention represents a managerial issue for the small hospitality businesses, it is not of significant importance to them. The restaurant managers/owners did employ various retention strategies for providing a good organizational culture but still accepted the transient nature of the student workforce. The findings suggest employee retention strategies to keep student employees while they study in the town's university. The paper also recommends the need for small hospitality businesses to work closely with hospitality education institutions to form a closer link between study and part-time employment, for example through internship, to alleviate the inherent problems of the transient nature of the student workforce. The paper provides the first major study in the New Zealand context, providing new insights into understanding employee retention among student workers in small hospitality businesses.     

Job Competency Expectations for Hospitality and Tourism Employees

ABSTRACT

This article presents the findings of a central Florida study of hospitality and tourism management practitioners. It reports the findings of practitioner perceptions of desired knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It further demonstrates the overall impressions of practitioners concerning levels of preparation for entry-level positions in the industry. Finally, the authors present conclusions and suggestions for central Florida collaborative initiatives aimed at improving the preparation of individuals from secondary and tertiary institutions for successful entry into hospitality and tourism industry employment.     

Tourism and Hospitality Higher Education in Israel

SUMMARY

This paper presents the past and present of higher education in tourism and hospitality management in Israel.

The paper discusses the growth of higher education in hospitality and tourism through local initiatives and by franchising and extensions from foreign institutions. The nature of the higher education system in Israel and the accreditation processes of local academic programs is discussed. The case of Ben-Gurion University is introduced to illustrate the development of an academic programinhospitality and tourism management.

The paper also compares the current state of the available academic programs to the year of 2000, at the eve of the Palestinian uprising. The paper analyses the complex relations between the Israeli hospitality industry and the higher education programs, as well as the challenges of future graduate programs and industry-academe relationships.     

Predictors of Service Effort

ABSTRACT

Improving service quality will continue to be a vital goal for hospitality and tourism organizations in the new millennium. As service worker performance directly impacts customer's evaluation of quality, further investigation of methods of improving performance are necessary. Service effort is a construct that has received little attention in the literature, but may be a significant factor in linking employee attitudes and customer perceptions of service quality. This exploratory study tested three popular managerial constructs to determine the extent to which they predict service effort. Using data from 331 service workers from two cruise line operations organizations, motivation, organizational commitment and job satisfaction were regressed against service effort. Results indicate that organizational commitment was the greatest predictor of service effort, followed by motivation. One dimension of job satisfaction (satisfaction with company), failed to yield a significant relationship with service effort, while satisfaction with supervisor yielded a slightly negative coefficient. Implications for hospitality and tourism managers and organizations are discussed.     

The Impact of Hotel Social Events on Employee Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Employee satisfaction is an important factor in the hospitality industry. This study offers a technique to gauge employee satisfaction and demonstrates its use in an actual setting. A case study of the Mercure Mirage Eilat Hotel evaluated employee's satisfaction, before and after organizational social event, revealing that satisfaction improved after the social event. The findings also demonstrate that the composition of satisfaction altered. Prior to the organizational activity, monetary compensation was of prime importance; following the organizational activity, social issues gained significant importance in forming employee satisfaction.     

Toward a Definition of Entry-Level Job Competencies

ABSTRACT

This article reports the findings of a study conducted in the central Florida metropolitan statistical area (MSA) to determine practising managers' perceptions of expected entry-level hospitality worker competencies. Preliminary phases of the study yielded the construction of an instrument used to determine the importance of certain knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes of newly hired workers. The information provided by the respondents is used to draw conclusions and provide implications for a more comprehensive understanding of hospitality worker competencies. Finally, the article considers future investigations in the areas of composite employee profiles, motivational preferences, and benchmarking.     

Cross-Cultural Impact and Learning Needs for Expatriate Hotel Employees in Taiwan Lodging Industry

Abstract

This study investigated specific cross-cultural issues affecting expatriate hotel employees in Taiwan's lodging industry to determine if Cross-Cultural Training (CCT) might help expatriate hotel employees adjust to a new culture and a new business environment. The most formidable task in the human resource area facing many global firms is the development of a cadre of employees and executives who have a deep understanding of the global market environment and the capability to transfer this knowledge into determined action (Pucik, Tichy, & Barnet, 1992). Employees who are expatriates in the hospitality industry are now more important than ever, as more hotel chains are seeking expansion opportunities into overseas markets. However, individuals who are sent overseas without adequate training often fail, and there are significant costs associated with this failure (Li, 1995).

The purpose of CCT is to increase the probability of an individual's adjustment into another culture (Cushner & Brislin, 1995). However, CCT could still be a valuable tool to help expatriates cope with culture shock even though the importance of expatriates being involved in CCT might not be as important as generally thought. Considering the cost, there may be other alternatives to facilitate expatriate adjustment. There does exist an inevitable trend of globalization. Developing coordination, training, and acculturation takes time, effort, and money. Clearly more research is warranted relative to expatriation in the hospitality industry.