Managing the Hospitality Work - Coursework Example

Managing the Hospitality Industry Introduction Hospitality industry deals with offering comfort, luxury and relaxation for its customers. The industry ranges from hotels, lodges, bars, casinos, restaurants, tours and travel, cruises, theme parks and even planning events such as conferences, seminars, weddings and corporate events among others (Riley, 1991). Presently, hospitality is a billion dollar industry as investors domestic and international, take advantage of the boom in the sector. The industry relies heavily on disposable income and patrons having leisure time, which they utilize in visiting the above-mentioned settings (Lucas, 2004). There has been an increased rate of competition within the industry as more and more individual invests in the industry and make use of modern technological solutions. With such a growing industry, having the right human resource working in the industry is fundamental to its sustainability and high performance. The human resource which forms the most valuable asset and entity in the sector, influences on production of quality products and services such as food and travel, efficient delivery of quality products and services, and understanding what the customers needs and expects(International Labour Organization, 2001). Moreover, ensuring the industry has good relationships with its customers and that the customers have a good time. Effective labour force helps boost usage, cut costs, satisfy customers and encourage customer loyalty, which leads to return purchase/ consumption (Gamio & Sneed, 1992). This report therefore, seeks to analyse the hospitality industry in the United Kingdom by explaining the nature of employment relationships and varying labour markets in the hospitality industry. This will consider the cultural diversification that exists in the global workplace while appreciating the social composition that extends beyond the ethnic composition. Hospitality industry in the United States The hospitality industry in the United Kingdom and in majority of global economies receive endorsements and support from the government institutions, since they are part of the avenues of acquiring foreign exchanges and revenues through tourism and other revenue- earning related activities. By use of technology, modern strategic management tools, infrastructures, and reliable workforces, hospitality industrialists in the UK have been able to improve their capacity of products and services on offer, and effectively and efficiently satisfy their customers. Moreover, they have been able to streamline their hospitality operations, thereby, improving on their profitability, and cut on the overheads (International Labour Organization, 2001). The state boasts of being among the leading economies in the hospitality industry globally, who are able to balance the benefits accrued from the sector and being able to fill in the labour gaps by embracing international workers, and offer proper occupational health and safety standards and good remunerations and benefits to its workers. In addition, managers within the hospitality industry in UK understand that employing and offering equal opportunities to employees from diverse cultural, social and religious backgrounds does make business sense (Gamio & Sneed, 1992). This is because diversity offers variance in terms of experience, skills, art and can be, used to promote unity in international relations (Failte Ireland). Moreover, the UK government is investing in establishing efficient and strategic dedication to hire, retain, appreciate and supporting heterogeneous blend of workforces in order to enhance the industry’s effectiveness and performance (Lucas, 2004). The nature of employment relationships and varying labour markets in the hospitality industry in UK The nature of employment relationships and the varying labour markets in the hospitality industry in the UK is similar to majority of economies across the world. This is because, more often than not, the demand in products and services offered by hospitality industry is seasonal, thus, the labour markets are usually unstable (Saee, 2006). This is, coupled with the delicate nature of hospitality products and services and the inseparable link between the patron and the service offering, establishing the just-in- time supply of products and services (Lucas, 2004). The hospitality labour markets and the nature of employment relationships is, influenced adversely by the shifts in political, social, cultural, economical, technological, environmental, and financial elements (International Labour Organization, 2001). This leads to a minimal nucleus of experienced and knowledgeable permanent labour force, which is, held up by an extensive scale of disposable casual workforce who are low skilled and treasured less, and whose services are, called for when demand increases (Riley, 1991). The overdependence on low skilled disposable labour force by hospitality managements in UK has been associated with the purpose to have more workers who need fewer wages and benefits, hence, lowering the costs of labour. With these issues pegged on the sector, the issue of cultural diversity in labour market and enhancing employment relationships cannot be, over emphasized (Failte Ireland). Cultural diversity in the hospitality industry has offered benefits and at the same time created inconsistencies as particular cultures and ethnic groups may feel left out in landing top-level management roles within the sector (Lucas, 2004). Keeping this is consideration, the UK and other developed economies are investing in encouraging its workforces to embrace cultural diversity, considering the industry handles international customers every hour of the day. This has initiated the need to incorporate cultural diversity within the sector’s organization culture and routinely offering training sessions on diversity. This will help promote productive occupational relations (International Labour Organization, 2001). Social composition that extends beyond the ethnic composition When dealing with culture diversity or social composition of the labour force in the UK, it entails incorporating the beliefs, values and philosophies of varied cultures into one consistent system. This means embracing what different people in different cultural backgrounds eat, dress, and believe in and the activities they involve themselves (Lucas, 2004). Social composition and culture diversity extends beyond the ethnicity of workers. That is, there is more to culture diversity than employees in the hospitality industry belonging to different ethnic grouping and race (Brislin, 2008). Culture diversity includes having employees from different social backgrounds, who have different manners of communicating, from different nationalities, with diverse ages, different accents, varied physical appearance, belonging to different religious affiliations speaking in different languages, dressing differently and being of either gender; male or female (Riley, 1991). Diversity of culture within a labour force helps the industry service a wider base of clients from all over the globe effectively and efficiently, and employees associate well with patrons who are as varied, as they are (Saee, 2006). The extent of cultural diversity and the social composition of the employment environment The extent of cultural diversity and the social composition of the employment environment in the UK have generated interests, and hospitality organizations are making headways into developing and implementing mechanisms and structures within the employment frameworks to promote culture diversity. Labour within the hospitality industry has been feminized and age-cantered. Currently, more than half of the work force population is young adult females (International Labour Organization, 2001). This has promoted the notion that hospitality industry require less skills, efforts and experience, thereby, low rewards. Accordingly, in the UK, the quality of skills and abilities is, influenced by cultural context where employment occurs. Customer relations employment is associated with low skills, good physical appearance and thereby is, offered to women at North West Europe, the same job in East and South Europe, men dominate it owing to the high regards it is given. The extent of culture diversity within the employment environment reveals employee disparity in terms of their age, gender, ethnicity, skills, experience, knowledge and backgrounds, which develops into perceived ideas, biasness, and stereotyping among workers and the management (Walker, et al., 2009). The attraction-selection –attrition theory suggests that workers with similar traits will attract, and the minorities that do not fit the trait are, considered foreign. In the categorization and social identity theory, it implies that the self-concept of a worker is, acquired from belonging to a grouping, and therefore, the worth and importance associated with the attachment is crucial (Gamio & Sneed, 1992). By encouraging and promoting culture diversity in the employment context, the UK hospitality industry has registered diverse benefits, which includes eradicating employee stereotyping by management hence justice and consistency in empowering all employees. This allows diverse employees becoming motivated; feels appreciated and hence exploit their potential in full, which results in high performance and customer satisfaction (Shane, 1996). Organizations in the industry that have implemented culture diversity programs, they have registered cohesive and healthy working relations between workers that attracts international guests who feel welcomed in new destinations that embrace people from diverse cultural backgrounds (Walker, et al., 2009). This means increased profitability. Through culture diversity training programs within UK’s hospitality organizations, workers are more participative, team- focused, are more accountable, and trust is, established among various organization structures (Lucas, 2004). Culture diversity in employment frameworks promotes equal opportunities and equity in employment, and helps develop a fertile ground for sharing, creativity, invention and entrepreneurship in the hospitality sector (Shane, 1996). How UK compare with other countries when operating in the global marketplace of today's business environment Labour market environments in the hospitality industry in economies globally over, are subject to influence by external elements to the industry including social status, literacy levels, gender, social cultural factors, age and ethnicity (Prof Angelo Nicolaides, 2010). The inclination to employ marginalized staff and enhanced gendered employment makeup within the industry is as explained by the labour market segmentation hypothesis, where the employment inflexibility is facilitated by social-cultural forces entrenched in modern society (Walker, et al., 2009). This feature is not only familiar in UK alone, but also in developed nations such as United States, Australia, China and South Africa among others. Although cultural alienation and hostility in workplaces have been common globally, UK is among those nations that have promoted appreciating and nurturing diverse cultures by being tolerant, respectful of differences, recognizes resemblance and works for inclusiveness. However, caution should be, practiced to ensure balance between the majority and minority groups. This will eliminates issues of majority feeling the minorities are being favoured over them which can result in resentment (International Labour Organization, 2001). In modern business environments, work situations deviant of culture diversity especially in the hospitality industry is doomed to fail. This is because diverse cultural working environments in the modern business world promote the sector or organization’s competitiveness due to enhanced innovation and information sharing as different people offer different new ideologies and concepts (Brislin, 2008). Diverse cultural working environments allow ease in solving challenges, since diverse workforce offer diverse aspects and opinions to tackling them, businesses are able to offer new and varied services to cater to diverse patrons, by relying on the different aspects brought on board by workforce, which is illustrative of international demographics (Prof Angelo Nicolaides, 2010). In UK, just as in the US, Asian nations and Australia among others, the business environments consist of customers and sellers from different cultural contexts and therefore, embracing diversity is not an option. Organizations that do so are able to build their brand image, ensure employee’s job satisfaction, which leads to low staff turnover and high retains and effective relations among workers, management and the clients (Shane, 1996). Despite the tremendous benefits culture adversity in workforce offers hospitality industry in the UK and other developed economies, there is reluctance to promote it. This is because of the increased costs to train workers and the management to embrace each other and teaching non-speaking English groups the language (Walker, et al., 2009). With culture diversity at work environments, there are more cases of conflicts arising from prejudice, superiority, and stereotyping. These cases if not addressed amicably lead to low morale, low job satisfaction hence poor performance (Brislin, 2008). There are chances of reversed unfairness where employee from majority group feels the minorities are favoured or treated better based on their minority position and not on merit. Conclusion Blending in social composition and culture diversity within employment in modern business environments is necessary to do, since it makes business sense. In the hospitality, industry in the UK the art of promoting and encouraging culture diversity plays a major role in promoting international relations, promoting cohesiveness among workers and works to enhance employment opportunities and equity among employees from diverse cultures. The extent of social composition ranges from ethnicity, age, race, nationality, social status, gender, language, accent, beliefs, and religious affiliations among others. Culture diversity in working environment within hospitality industry help promote innovation, invention, eradicating stereotyping, and allow for ease in interactions between employees and the customers who are as diverse and different as the employees. References Brislin, R.W. 2008. Working with cultural differences: dealing effectively with diversity in the workplace. Sidney: Greenwood Publishing Group. Failte Ireland. Culture diversity-strategy and implementation plan. Accessed on January 26th 2011 at http://www.failteireland.ie/Word_files/about_us/Cultural-Diversity-Strategy-and-Implementation-Pla Gamio, M.O., & Sneed, J. 1992. Cross-cultural training practices and needs in the hotel industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 15(3), pp. 13-26; doi: 10.1177/109634809201500303 International Labour Organization. 2001. Human Resource Development, Employment and Globalization in the Hotel, Catering and Tourism Sector. Geneva: ILO. Lucas, R. 2004. Employment relations in the hospitality and tourism industries. London: Routledge. Nicolaides, A. 2010. Cultural diversity training program, development for hospitality and tourism industry enterprises. International Research Symposium in Service Management. ISSN 1694-0938. (Accessed on January 26th 2011) at http://www.uom.ac.mu/sites/irssm/papers/Nicolaides%28a%29%20~%2041.pdf Riley, M. 1991. Human Resource Management: A Guide to Personnel Practice in the Hotel and Catering Industries. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Saee, J. 2006. Managerial competence within the hospitality and tourism service industries: global cultural contextual analysis. New York City: Taylor & Francis. Shane, C. B. 1996. Organizational trend analysis of the hospitality industry: preparing for change. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 8(7), pp. 20 – 32 Walker, J.R., Miller, J.E., & McBee, J. 2009. Supervision in the Hospitality Industry: Leading Human Resources. 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