Americans with Disabilities Act - People with Disabilities as an Asset to the Hospitality Industry - Research Paper Example

Disabilities and the ADA: Individuals with Disabilities are an Asset to the Hospitality Industry Introduction The signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 at the White House opened a new channel of hope for Americans living with disabilities. The Act had been inspired by the societal activism against exclusion of people with disabilities who were being denied their full rights due to their abnormal nature. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) work by prohibiting any form of discrimination to any person on the basis of their abnormality. The prohibition applies to all forms of employment available in the United States, ranging from Congress to public accommodation, telecommunications, Local and State government, and commercial facilities. For a person to be secured by the ADA, they must either have a form of disability or be related to a person who has a disability. According to the ADA, disability refers to a substantial limitation to an individual by any mental or physical impairment which renders them unable to normally execute their day to day activities. Of all the elements accounted for in the Act, employment is the most dominant one. Concisely, the Act dictates the provision of equal opportunities to person with disability. In its implementation, it requires employers with at least fifteen employees to have provided equal opportunities in terms of employment. Employment in this context refers to privileges of employment, social activities, hiring, recruitment, socialization, promotion, recruitment, and pay to mention but a few. One example of how it works is that employers should not inquire about a potential employee’s disability prior to hiring, and that their places of work should favor their mental and physical conditions. Any violations of the Act are filed within 6 months of the offense’s time with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which issues a right to sue letter (ADA, 2014). The hospitality industry is not an exception since its employment basis is bound by the ADA. In a nutshell, as long as a hospitality entity meets the criteria of having more than fifteen employees, it has to adhere to the outlined rules and regulations. This means that as along as an individual works under any of the three categories of hospitality; accommodation, travel and tourism, and restaurant and bars, they are protected by the ADA. If the employee is not incapacitated by their mental or physical to execute a particular role in the industry, it is illegal to deny them the opportunity to work, and is prosecutable by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). As such, workers in resorts, motels, hotels, nightclubs, restaurants, public houses, tour operators, flight attendants, and room attendants amongst others are protected by the ADA. The correlation between the hospitality industry and the regulations of the ADA is an important factor for human resource managers. It is important for them to ensure that they are within the ADA regulations lest they have their activities interfered by legal action. Additionally, it is important for human resource managers know what is expected of them so that they can comfortably accommodate employees with disabilities without violating their rights. The importance of this factor is twofold; first because it reduces friction with legal authorities, and second, it is proven that the persons with disability are beneficial to the hospitality industry. Collectively, adhering to them ensures a sustainable and growing hospitality industry whose development would be attributed to the human resources context. Apart from the human resource managers, it is also advantageous for other stakeholders and shareholders in the hospitality industry to know what the ADA is all about. The idea in this is that they can always tell whether their rights are being violated, or everything is in check as is demanded by the ADA. In the light of this, it would be possible to know what steps to take in seeking justice if they feel violated, and what steps they should take in acquiring their rights. For both the human resource and stakeholder, this topic would ensure their relevance in accordance with the ADA, thus reduce the emergence of conflicts between the two. If this is achieved, the hospitality industry would constantly grow. In as much as the ADA has been posing as a tool to counter against the oppression of Americans with disabilities in terms of employment, it has not achieved its intended maximum potential. The reason lies in that to this day, the persons with disabilities still encounter underutilization and under representation in the hospitality industry. For multiple reasons, human resource managers have been discriminating them, thus portraying the ADA as not sufficiently executing the mandates it was established for. This has resulted in the need to have more efforts being implemented in ensuring that the ADA is more effective in securing the rights of the persons with disabilities in the hospitality industry. This research study acknowledges that individuals with disabilities are an asset to the hospitality industry. While the ADA protects employees with disabilities, they are underutilized, and the hospitality industry needs to make a concerted effort to more. Literature review Donnelly and Joseph (2012) refer to the people with disabilities as the largest minority in the United States, numbering about fifty million. Of this number, about 11 percent of them have attained working age. The sad thing about the people with disabilities and the hospitality industry is that about 40 percent of them remain wholly unemployed in a rate which is almost half of the normal people. While these statistics might be disturbing enough, Donnelly and Joseph add that in the near future, this number is bound to increase due to factors such as legislative changes, demographics, technological advances, and medical advancements as well. More statistics reveal that as the American people continue to age, their rates of disability increase with the highest number of disabilities featuring in the age between twenty-one to sixty-four years. In the United States, the hospitality industry tries to incorporate equality in terms of employment for both normal and disabled persons. Food preparation alone accommodates an average eight percent while the service context harbors about nine percent. This number is still insufficient since the numbers should be an almost balance between both contexts of people and should be almost, if not fifty percent. However, the number of people with disabilities employed in the hospitality industry is bound to increase in the future. This information is relevant in that it provides the statistics regarding the employment rates between the normal and people with disabilities in the hospitality industry. Groschl (2011) supports Donnelly and Joseph (2012) in that the human resource managers in the hospitality industry strive to incorporate people with disabilities into their workforce. Additionally, they are attributed as being more loyal, highly motivated, and portraying greater creativity. He, however feels that enough has not been done with regards to integrating a justifiable number of people with disabilities into the hospitality industry. There are a few barriers which restrain the human resources managers from perceiving of the disabled persons as normal employable persons. One of the reasons provided is that they fear the high costs required in training and adjusting them to fit into their workforce. Again, they feel that these people are limited in terms of multitasking and executing cross-functional roles. On top of these, some disabilities challenge the viability of the disabled persons from working during night shifts (or shift works). In a study conducted on fifteen German hotels, which had employed a workforce comprising of about sixty percent of disabled persons, it was noted that integrative hotels attracted more clients, both able and the disabled. Multiple factors might have contributed to this observation such as a feeling of hospitality to the guests, motivation to the workers, visitors who expected to see the disabled persons working, and disabled clients visiting such hotels since they realized they would be best accommodated. A similar study conducted by Hernandez, McDonald, Divilbiss, Horin, Velcoff, and Donoso (2008) presents a better understanding of the causes of persons with disabilities lacking employment as well as the benefits associated with employing them. The findings from the study included; first, the lack of disability employment advocates and employment advocates is partially to blame for the situation. The studied human resource managers explained that if credible agencies and/or advocates could train the disabled people for specific jobs in the hospitality industry, they would be easily absorbed into their workforces. This expression by the human resource managers implies that if the disabled persons were only trained by some organizations, it would be easier for them to pick [disabled] persons specifically for available job openings. This also shows lack of communication or any form of connection between persons with disabilities and hospitality human resource managers. The sense that some persons with disabilities seek jobs without the proper training has resulted in the emergence of a bias culture amongst managers in the hospitality industry. The bias when the managers develop a fear that in employing the persons with disabilities, they are bound to increase their supervisory time, attract more absences, and these would collectively affect the productivity of their organizations. Such fears emanate from the nature of the persons which demands of managers to apply the additional efforts or facilities in accommodating them. In a nutshell, lack of experience and disability issues are factors that may lead to the managers’ bias in hiring persons with disabilities. To support that the hospitality industry has been underutilizing the persons with disabilities, Houtenville and Kalargyrou (2012) reveal that in a group of 1,000 participants interviewed in the study, a number well over 17 percent confessed to have been denied promotion even after proving to be effective employees. This supports the observation that even those persons with disabilities who successfully find jobs are not always satisfied. The reason is that majority of them are employed in semi-skilled or entry-level job positions such as laundry, food service, and clerical jobs. This means that these persons are unlikely to advance, while at their job places. The first potential reason for this observation is that due to the difficult of their acquiring of jobs, they feel satisfied with the jobs they find. The second reason is that the human resource managers do not entrust them with professional positions, or they feel that they cannot handle such roles. The issue of extra costs associated with employing persons with disabilities is a factor as to why managers may hesitate in hiring them. Unlike normal persons, such employees may require special software, lighting, interpreters of sign language, and stools for check out lanes amongst others. This is however not the case, according to Hernandez, McDonald, Divilbiss, horn, Velcoff, and Donoso (2008) who state that “despite managerial perceptions of high-cost accommodations, actual costs are usually low and reasonable”. Apart from these perceptions and causal factors of the disabled persons’ underutilization, these persons are actually beneficial to the hospitality industry. According to Kalargyrou (2014) the nature of disabled persons is not wholly demeaning to the hospitality industry. In fact, they tend to dominate as an important and rare asset the industry. One of the major advantages that they drag along is lowering the employees’ recruitment and retention. This is supported by the fact that as earlier highlighted, they are likelier to be satisfied with the jobs they land. Normal persons will skim from job to job in search of greener pastures and this not only becomes a costly affair to an organization, but also affects an organization’s performance due the gaps left by the employees. Again, organizations within the hospitality industry, which employed more persons with disabilities reported lower turnover rates. This sums up as more production and less expenses. Second, hiring the people with disabilities is beneficial in that when the normal persons are mingled with the disabled persons in the workplace, they motivate them to work harder and better. The occurrence emerges from the fact that they act as a challenge, forcing the normal workers to put their abilities to maximum use. A motivated workforce performs better, and is likely to be satisfied with their jobs. In a survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts, it was proven that in the United States, the general public (stakeholders and shareholders) are likelier to associate themselves with organizations which hire people with disabilities (Siperstein, Parker, & Drascher, 2013). This conclusion was arrived at after comparing the preferences of the public in perceiving companies employing the more disabled persons versus those that employed less. More business and favor is awarded to those that offered more opportunities to the persons with disabilities. Concisely, such companies enjoyed better brand names and reputations. The other advantage is that with the increasing labor demand in the hospitality industry, the persons with disabilities mediate as sufficient sources of this important labor. As the studies above have stated, persons with disabilities can perform equally or better than normal persons. As such, an organization which accommodates persons with disabilities will not suffer from the shrinking availability of labor. Again demographical factors such as an ageing population will mean that the hospitality industry will require fresh labor to replace the retiring persons. As such, the persons with disabilities who are overly willing to work come in as an exceedingly important source of labor (Bond, 2004). As the ADA dictates, it is a legal requirement that any business entity with a labor force exceeding fifteen employees should provide equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. In the light of these, employing such persons will mean that an entity in the hospitality context adhering to these regulations will not be subjected to legal actions. This in turn retains is reputation, saves is unnecessary fines, and finally ensures no interference with its production occurs. On the other hand, an obedient organization qualifies in all procurement processes, and is more eligible to acquire federal tenders. In general criteria applied during procurement and tendering processes is an evaluation of how adherent to regulations an organization is. This means that if an organization has met the ADA requirements in addition to all other legal requirements, it stands better chances of winning tenders and favor in procurement processes. Finally, the extra accommodation demands of disabled persons posess as an advantage to the hospitality industry. The main attribution to this demand is that innovation and technological advance is attained as the organizations seek to accommodate their unique employees. After succeeding in accommodating these employees, organizations gain better creativity, better product development, and innovation. This trend can be extended to its products and services. As is the case with all businesses, creativity, innovation, and product development are key determinants in gaining competitive advantage. Competitiveness not only enhances production, but also outshines the other competitors. The other significant result of the same is improved client attraction and service. This is because (as earlier stated) more Americans are likely to associate themselves with organizations which offer more opportunities for people with disabilities. Again, as Linkow, Barrington, Bruyere, Figueroa, Wright (2013) state, disabled customers are more attracted to accommodative hospitality organizations since they usually install systems which add to their comfort and feel of hospitality. If all these factors were to be collectively applied in the hospitality industry, the benefits of employing the persons with disabilities would dominate some more and be overly evident. Stakeholder analysis The good and bad of the relationship between persons with disabilities and the hospitality industry affect all the stakeholders who are associated with both contexts. The employers (human resource managers included) are likely to suffer from shortage of labor in the near future if they continue underutilizing the persons with disabilities. This is because the industry’s demand for labor is constantly increasing. Second, the employers remain vulnerable to ADA legal actions in the event that they are found guilty of not cooperating with the regulations in place. This would attract unnecessary expenditure, time wastage, and bad reputation of the affected hospitality entities. The good side (employing more disabled persons) would have advantageous results. First, the employers would have an additional source of stable labor. This means that if they employ these people, they would not have shortage of labor, and that the employees they hire are more productive and pose lesser channels of turnovers (Luecking, 2008). The dominant implication of employing the persons with disabilities is invention and innovation. Innovation and invention emerge from adjusting to the special demands offered by disabled persons. As they align to match their demands, the employees become competitive, attract more customers, and retain their workforces. The guests are the most important stakeholders in the hospitality industry according to Burnett and Baker (2007). From the literature review conducted herein, it has been concluded that clients are likely, or prefer to frequent hospitality elements which provide accommodative products and services specific to disabled persons. Accommodative here refers to adjusting the infrastructure, environment or way of working to accommodate persons with disabilities, both clients and employees. Normal guests (the normal) are likely to visit accommodative hotels, for instance to appreciate the efforts being portrayed by the disabled persons (Tantawy, Kim, & Pyo, 2005). Customers with disabilities are likely to visit such places because one, they find people who have challenges similar to theirs, thus feel more comfortable working in such an environment. The second reason is that the products and services are designed in manners specific to accommodate disabled persons. As such, it is much easier for disabled persons exist in such environments. On the pervasive side, that is when the disabled persons are overlooked, the opposite of all the above is likely to occur. This means that normal persons will not frequent such places termed as “unique”, and the disabled guests will not develop the interest to visit places which they lack any connection with. To some extent, showing concern to the persons with disabilities adds up to corporate social responsibility. In the contemporary business world, CSR is a key determinant of an organization’s performance owing to the relationship between the community’s support to the existence of a business entity. As evidenced from the above review, Americans prefer or favor organizations which consider the persons with disabilities, and are likely to support them. This is where suppliers, banks, the government, suppliers, and the community at large determine the direction taken by an organization. The government, for instance, awards tenders to entrepreneurs depending on criteria such as adherence to CSR demands, or legal regulations such as those set by the ADA. The same applies in securing procurements. The community plays an integral role in determining the survival of an organization in both the physical and organizational structures. In application for instance, if an organization does not support a particular community by employing its disabled persons, the community might turn against it. The power of the community is sufficient to push for the removal of an organization from their environment. As such, if an organization is wholly supportive to its surrounding community, it attracts more support from it. HR Strategic Planning Analysis The findings in this research suggest that the human resource managers should restructure their manner of executing roles so that it favors the people with disabilities. This would be important in that the observed underutilization of these unique persons can be effectively resolved. The first context of human resources that requires amendment is the recruitment process. This can be done such that instead of finding employees through the “usual” processes of advertising, HR managers can link with organizations which train persons with disabilities. From these organizations, HR managers can easily find any number of employees who are specifically trained for certain roles. In this way, the excuses offered by HR managers that finding these people is tedious or that they lack the skills would be overcome. The second amendment that could work for HR managers would be analyzing the nature of the disabled persons and hiring them to execute roles which they can easily execute while requiring minimal adjustments (Nickson, 2013). This is contrary to the process of generally hiring a workforce, then assigning them roles thereafter. This is what leads to the inability of some of them to perform, or the demand of costly adjustments as employers strive to fit them into the assigned positions. Retaining the persons with disabilities is a factor that has for long been ignored. During the training of HR managers, most programs do not consider this group of people. This is what leads to the cases of stereotyping by managers in the hospitality industry that disabled persons cannot perform like normal people, or that they cannot perform professional duties. One sure way of retaining these employees is through parallel awarding, that is, rather than judge them as per their disability, managers should rate the as per their abilities and skill. In short, rather than stereotype them and say “disabled persons cannot do so and so”, they should evaluate their professional skills and award them promotion if they deserve it. This is achievable through constant monitoring and evaluation of their employees. Closely related to the above is the creation of an environment in which the disabled persons comfortably fit in. Several measures can be implemented such as determining the strengths of the disabled persons and developing them, and also helping them to overcome their limitations. Since this measure is new approach in implementation, HR managers should provide regular trainings on the other employees on how to best incorporate the persons with disabilities in their workforce without perceiving of them as different. Finally, it would be more accommodative if HR managers would come up with work shifts which work best for persons with disabilities (Poria & Reichel, 2010). This is better put as; since these people are unable to perform shifts such as night working (or as per their disability), HR managers should implement work strategies which allow them to work without limiting or straining their abilities. For instance, if a person is visually impaired, they can be allowed to work only during the day. In short, their comfort and wellbeing while working should be a priority offered by HR managers. Conclusion Evidently, the collective human resources context in the hospitality industry can be termed as having underutilized the persons with disabilities. This is the observed case, despite the existence of regulative bodies such as the ADA, which seek to secure the employment of the people with disabilities. Evidence is herein presented by multiple cases in which HR managers do not perceive of them as able employees, deny them promotion, do not recruit them, and also limit the number of disabled persons employable in their hospitality entities. However, several scholars feel that the stereotyping attributed to these people is not justified, and that these people are equal, if not better than the average normal persons. Concisely, the hospitality industry has been unfair to the persons living with disabilities. In the light of these, recommendations are offered in a HR analysis that it should do more to reverse the observed underutilization of these people. The suggested approaches include offering equal opportunities, hiring without discriminating, evaluating them as per their skills, not stereotyping them, creating favorable working conditions, and finally offering accommodative training to both managers and employees. If these recommendations are implemented, the asset part of the people with disabilities would be evident, and better still, be applied in achieving maximum effectiveness of the hospitality context thus transform it to a better state than it is today. References ADA. Gov. (2014). “Information and Technical Assistance on the Americans with Disabilities ACt”. The United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Retrieved on 16 October, 2014 from http://www.ada.gov/ Bond, G. 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