Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry Thesis

Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry - Thesis ExampleHowever, leisure time is ordinarily limited and thus valuable in our modern society and hence consumer expectation of the product or experience purchased in this time has subsequently go up vastly. Quality is of the essence, gone are the days of Fawlty Towers. People expect and demand so much more from their hospitality experience. Ideas, tastes and trends of hospitality are expanding, one archetype being the recent growth of boutique type hotels such(prenominal) as the Malmaison chain located in up market urban areas, modern contemporaneous urban chic culture were the emphasis is on luxury (Aggett 2007). Such an experience and its fictional character is thus very much dependant on the armed service provided by front line employees. Only those enterprises which can satisfy the customer will survive, achieve longevity and be successful in the ever increase intensely competitive hospitality market.Hospitality is characterised by the intangibles which can even be of increased value in comparison to the tangible physical products such as food and drink. Therefore, within the hospitality industry it is undoubtedly the performance of the front line service staff that will either enhance or diminish a customers experience and thus determine whether a hospitality venture sinks or swims.In order for staff to perform to such high gear standards and produce such quality they need to be committed to their organisation, to be empowered, to be given the appropriate skills, training, support, motivation and reward for their work and effort. A order that invests heavily in its human resources, selecting the appropriate people, providing opportunity and encouragement will achieve a loyal, motivated and proud workforce. It will provide the organisational culture necessary for long term success. This is very important for the hospitality industry to accredit, especially as typically the industry is c haracterised by a high labour turnover, casual, element time and migrant employees, and, certain labour shortages Finding chefs and waiting staff is one of the biggest problems facing employers, affecting all sectors of the hospitality industry. (Hospitality Training Foundation 2002, 9)Rowley and Purcell (2001) acknowledge a range of skill shortages and relate it to Poor management practices and weak HR policies. (Rowley and Purcell 2001)Investment in HRM and adoption of HRM practices, particularly loopy HRM (Lucas 1995) would only be advantageous to the hospitality industry.2 Aim of Research The aim of this paper is to establish if the UK hospitality has adopted the concept of HRM. The meaning of HRM will be found upon the pioneering work of British hospitality academic David Guest (1987, 1997, 1999) who devised a matrix to represent the scale of hard and soft HRM in operation. Guests writings epitomise soft HRM. Guest also provides a theory and model of HRM, of which the intent ion was To develop a set of testable propositions and finally to arrive at a set of prescriptive policies (Guest, 1987, 503).The central hypothesis of Guests theory is if an integrated set of HRM practices is applied with a view to achieving the normative goals of high commitment to the organisation plus high quality and flexibility, then higher worker performance will result (Guest, 1997, 265).To judge the extent of HRM application, focus will be on the