The HR Function in Ensuring Sustainability for Organizations Involved in the Hospitality Industry - Essay Example

The HR Function in Ensuring Sustainability for Organizations involved in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry Introduction Human resource generally is a term used to describe the people who constitute the workforce of an organization (Pfeffer, 1995). In addition, human resources is the name given to the function in an organization which entails recruitment of new employees as well as their management and the giving of direction for them to work towards the success of the organization (Pfeffer, 1995, and Boxall, 1998). The function is also responsible for employee motivation, communication, performance management, and administration as well as organization development. Besides, human resource focuses on planning for the future ventures as well as setting objectives involving people in the organization (Boxall, 1998). Most importantly, the function is responsible for managing people as well as the workplace environment and culture to ensure that employees contribute productively and effectively to the overall organization direction and the attainment of the organization’s goals and objectives. The hospitality and tourism industry has been long known for its poor employee management as well as the low application of human resource practices to ensure its success (Knox, and Walsh, 2005). According to recent studies however, the industry has been seen to adopt functionally supple work practices as well as embrace human resource management (Knox, and Walsh, 2005). This essay seeks to critically evaluate the contribution the human resource function can make to ensure sustainability on those organizations involved in the hospitality and tourism industry. The human resource function is responsible for over 80% success for those organizations that have embraced it fully (Pfeffer, 1995). The hospitality and tourism industry stands a chance to ensure its sustainability by embracing the human resource function. This is because the function is responsible for creating a sustainable competitive advantage through people (Pfeffer, 1995). To begin with, through embracing the human resource function, the industry will be able to attract as well as retain its employees. According to studies in the near past, employee attraction and retention has become increasingly of paramount in building the capabilities of the organization to make sure they have a sustained competitiveness (Boxall, 1998 and Guthrie, 2001). It is evident that the organizations that practice employee retention and attraction enjoy the opportunity of gaining leadership within their industry. The employee attraction and retention is a development of the human resource function. It is argued that a long-term investment in this will provide sustained advantage. The hospitality and tourism industry therefore can be able to maintain a competitive advantage as well as sustainability by practicing this human resource practice. In addition, this will significantly contribute to their growth in the global market (Guthrie, 2001). To achieve this, the industry needs to reconsider its organization structure, practices as well as employment systems to ensure they attract and maintain their employees who are seen as a unique resource to the success of many organizations. In addition, it is barely possible to attain a competitive advantage within the industry without considering the human resources who form the main firm’s knowledge base (Dunphy, and Griffiths, 1998). Therefore, the Hospitality and Tourism industry needs to ensure an effective staff recruitment. They need to apply the human resource function to help them select the most competent and skilful people (Guthrie, 2001). Furthermore, the organization needs to employ such measures as psychological as well as education in this process to ensure that the industry realizes sustainable competitiveness. With the human resource function of employee management and motivation, the industry will be able to upgrade its employee capabilities, knowledge, ability as well as skills. This is to ensure that their workers are in high demand in the wider employment market (Dunphy et al. 2003). The hospitality and tourism industry can achieve this by organizing seminars and training programs to ensure that their employees have the right skills for effective production. In addition, motivating their employees through improving their compensation package, this includes salary increments, end of year bonuses, and the provision of flexible working hours. Moreover, holiday offers as well as straightforward promotion schemes and career developments are of paramount (Dunphy et al., 2003). In addition, giving rewards to the employees who have performed well is a number one key to ensuring that the employees give their all in production of quality products and services and this contributes significantly to the industry’s sustainability (Fernie, and Metcalf, 1995). Moreover, this leads to good staff retention rates and as a result, it will increase the stability of the hospitality and tourism industry (Boxall, 1998). According to past researches, a comprehensive employee participation as well as involvement in employee relation, practices and policies significantly contributes to the competitive advantage of the organization that practices it (Boxall, 1998, Barney, 1991 and, Boxall and Steenveld, 1999). It is evident that employee participation as well as involvement in the running of an organization contributes to new ideas on products and services and because of this, a company is able to remain superior in the market due to the production of unique products and services (Pfeffer, 1995, and Huselid, 1995). It is anticipated that the hospitality and tourism industry will benefit from greater output, increased labour productivity, less absenteeism, lower labour turn over, as well as a flexible and improved workplace culture if they embraced a commitment to the human resource function. Besides, the function will also lead to improved trust relations between the employee and management. In particular, the employees will be trusted with making important decisions (Marchington, and Gemgulis, 2000). The employees should develop their skills as well as knowledge to decide on important issues regarding the management of their working activities, resulting to greater effectiveness and productivity (Guest, 1997 and Purcell et al., 2003). According to studies, this employee involvement should be encouraged at all levels of the organization processes, right from inception to implementation stage. As a result of this, the industry will ensure increased organization performance and as a result maintain their competitive advantage, Wood, 1998. Furthermore, it is apparent that this human resource function emphasizes teamwork, cooperation as well as clear communication within an organization, Barney, 1991. This could significantly contribute to the sustainability of the hospitality and tourism industry since the industry will be able to communicate any limitations and problems hindering their productivity as well as share ideas in such of potential solutions. Moreover, the industry will remain attractive to its tourism customers and stakeholders due to the generation of new ideas throughout its operations (Marchington, and Gemgulis, 2000). As a result, this will give them a significant position in the global market. Furthermore, the hospitality and tourism industry will be able to sufficiently plan for its future engagements that involve its employees. The most important aspect of this is that the industry should ensure that the staffs are just enough to help raise the value of the organization (Barney, 1991). The industry will be able to ensure that its staff members are not too many for this would make the industry stand to lose. Consequently, the human resource function will help the hospitality and tourism industry ensure that the staff members are not too small to be over worked for this will lead to de-motivation of the employees due to fatigue and as a result lead to poor performance (Guest, 1997 and Purcell et al., 2003). Besides, the industry will also have an effective planning of its future goals and objectives in relation to its employees. In addition, they will be able to clarify and ensure that their employees understand clearly the goals as well as their objectives. This will enable them have a general direction in which they are working towards (Guthrie, 2001). As a result the industry will have daily objectives that will streamline the activities being run within it to ensure that the work being done if efficient and effective. It is evident from past researches that a vast majority of organizations which have a clear direction are always more effective since their members are more result oriented rather than just working for the sake of it (Guthrie, 2001). It is anticipated that the hospitality and tourism industry will be no exemption. Another contribution of Human resource function to the hospitality and tourism industry is cultivating the right employee behaviour on behalf of the entire industry. According to studies, increased organization’s performance is directly linked to attaining a sustained competitive advantage through internal resources (Boxall and Steenveld, 1999). Apparently this can only be achieved if the available resources are imperfectly imitable, valuable, and imperfectly substitutable as well as rare for instance the human capital, Ulrich, 1998. Human capital refers to employees in terms of their skill, experience and knowledge, which have economic value to firms (Snell and Dean, 1992). It is evident that when the industry invests in the recruitment as well as the development of its staff to attain the desired level of knowledge and skill in their field they will be successful. However, the hospitality and tourism industry has to ensure that this attributes are in line with their goals and objectives to enhance sustainability in productivity (Knox, and Walsh, 2005). The human resource function will also significantly curtail the organizational culture of the hospitality and tourism industry. This culture includes the leadership style, symbols and language, routines and procedures, as well as the definition of success that describes the hospitality and tourism industry (Ogbonna and Harris, 2002). In addition, it is an exact compilation of norms and values that are to be shared by groups and people in the industry and that directs the way they interact with one other and with such people as stakeholders outside the industry. According to past studies, the need for organization culture has raised and it has become an essential pattern for the development of any organization as a result of increased competition, mergers, globalization, alliances and acquisitions, Wright et al, 1994. In addition, organizational culture is the most critical factor determining an organization effectiveness, capacity, and longevity in addition to contributing to the organizations brand promise and brand image (Ogbonna, and Harris, 2002). Positive organization cultures have been associated to augmented staff alignment, resulting in improved organizational effectiveness, amplified staff productivity, heightened agreement concerning strategic direction, and superior levels of staff commitment, Ulrich, 1997. Strong organization culture in a company can result to various benefits such as a shared understanding, facilitates open communication among staff and the management, strong sense of identification, mutual trust and cooperation, informal control mechanism and fewer disagreements resulting to efficient and effective decision-making processes (Boxall, 1998). It is apparent that the hospitality and tourism industry will benefit from amplified staff productivity, improved organizational effectiveness, open communication among its staff as well as mutual trust and cooperation resulting to the industry’s sustainability as well as a maintained competitive advantage. Conclusion This essay has encompassed an introduction to human resource as term used to describe the people who constitute the workforce of an organization. The essay has also discussed the contribution that the human resource function would have on the hospitality and tourism industry. As discussed above, the contributions include the ability of the industry to attract as well as retain employees, an organizational culture will be curtailed, and the industry will be able to plan for the future ventures as well as goals the goals and objectives concerning people. Besides the industry will be able to cultivate the right employee behaviour as well as ensure comprehensive employee participation. In addition, it will enhance involvement in employee relation, practices and policies within its organization. It is apparent that all this are aimed at achieving the industry’s competitive advantage as well as its sustainability. In conclusion, the general sustainability of increased performance work system is established on companies by recognizing the importance of staff satisfaction as well as commitment through the creation of an integrated staff consultation, workplace institutions, organizational change, and work as well as life policies, and comprehensive career development programs. Therefore, the hospitality and tourism industry should put this into consideration. References Barney, J. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage, Journal of Management, vol. 17, pp. 99 – 120. Boxall, P. 1998. Achieving competitive advantage through human resource strategy: Towards a theory of industry dynamics. Human Resource Management Review, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 265 – 88. Boxall, P. and Steenveld, M., 1999. Human resource strategy and competitive advantage: A longitudinal study of engineering consultancies. Journal of Management Studies, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 443 – 63. Dunphy, D. and Griffiths, A., 1998. 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