How to Manage Different Groups in Leisure Industries - Essay Example

How to Manage Different Groups in Leisure industries. Introduction Leisure industry comprises of companies related to amusement, recreation, entertainment, gaming, eateries, lodging, exhibitions etc. and has various sectors like capital, management, marketing, personnel, maintenance, energy and technology. It involves site analysis, site selection, and market research, pricing strategy, law, and finance, health and safety and risk management. Although all these aspects have their significance, the need to manage human resources is vital. Human resources This is one of the three factors mentioned by Certo - Specific goals; Limited resources and Co-ordination of people. People or the human resource is most complex in nature. Many management authors that effective management of people is the most important trait of a successful manager have underlined it. In leisure industry we find people who are the obvious elements like- mangers, employees and clients. Then there is another set of people who are indirectly related like the performers, spectators, technicians etc. There are various theories on who is more important and who is not. But regardless of the hierchy, everyone's coming together is most important. For example if a concert is to be organized, it would involve some managerial person to select the venue, a marketing person to promote the concert, a public relation officer to co-ordinate various agencies involved, a performer to deliver, some technicians to take care of the technical side, security personnel to manage the crowd etc. Management of Human Resources The people involved to run the Leisure industry can be at different levels and different status. All of them need to be handled differently. They are much different from the material resources. A material source actually becomes a resource only when a human resource makes it productive. For example, a microphone turns into a resource only when a singer uses it to perform. Therefore the management of human resources is very important and needs to be tackled at a different level. This is a complex task because unlike material resources, one can never be sure of the returns from the investment made on the Human Resource. Storey 1995, has defined Human Resource management as the distinctive approach to the employment management. He says the motive of correct employment management is to get a competitive advantage. For this it is important to have a strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce. It may require an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques. But the limiting factor of this theory is that it is focused on productivity and profit. For a long-term benefit, both for the organization and the employees, it is better to view the employees or the work force as capital and not as cost. When they are considered as cost, the focus is to get the maximum profit from their inputs. But when they are treated as capital then one has to invest more in them to increase their productivity. In a service-oriented industry like the leisure industry, this becomes even more significant as the product - pleasure- is intangible. The involvement of the customer is a must. Most importantly, the production and consumption of the product happens simultaneously. Like in a concert, the production, that is rendering of music, and consumption i.e. listening and enjoying the music, take place at the same time. Categories of Human Resources The leisure industry comprises of volunteers and paid workers. These two different type of people need to be handled in different manners. Then there is a segment in the paid workers that is referred to as professionals. For example- in a concert there could be some celebrity management experts to co-ordinate with the star performers. There could be marketing experts to help design the promotion of the event. Along with the professionals, there are some volunteers also. Volunteers Some people involved in the Leisure industry could be Volunteers. According to Stephen, 1991, these people are motivated by two underlying factors. Some like to lead and they are most likely to hold a managerial position and some like to nurture and serve on individual basis. They could be on the board of directors or teachers, coaches or counselors. The most important thing to keep in mind while dealing with them is to keep their egos intact as that is main motivating factor for them. They are driven by a cause and things like a pay-rise or pay-cut do not bother them. The absence of money compensation can be replaced by the recognition component. Recognition is another factor after money that makes people tick. They should be made aware that their contribution is appreciated. Professionals Professionals or consultants are the paid workers. What is special about them is their specialized knowledge. This makes them highly productive for the organization but at the same time in an organization there can be various professionals at different levels, like- a manger, an accountant, a bookkeeping clerk and lawyer. In a tour operator service, the job of the visa expert is more complex than the accountant of the company. Again the complexity of the accountant is more than the bookkeeping clerk. The director of the company has the most complex work. A model proposed by Forsyth and Danisiewicz 1985, explains when and how an occupation turns into profession. This happens when the services rendered by that particular occupation prove to be essential, exclusive and complex. When these three features occur in an occupation, it gains autonomy from the organization. Thus it gets the professional status. The status of the professionals also has a hierarchy. This largely depends on the length of training. Another factor here is the monopoly in the field of expertise and the knowledge differential between the client and the professional. In most of the cases, the professionals are regulated through a regulatory body. For example a travel agency may require an expert on the heritage sites or museums. If a regulatory body authorizes these professionals or consultants, the quality of the product (in this case, knowledge) delivered is ensured. Generally the government monitors these bodies. Professionals and consultants also engage in image building activities to convince the community that their services are complex and essential and exclusive. Part time workers Leisure industry also relies on some part time workers. Some times part -time workers are engaged to do some work that can be done in a few hours per day or per week. These are like office cleaning or canteen help at peak time. Sometimes part time workers are used to supplement the existing work force. Instead of giving them overtime, the part time workers are enrolled. These people work along with the existing permanent employees. In leisure industry some times the company may have some tour guides but may have an over load of tourists. Instead of making them work in double shifts, thy employ part time workers. Sometimes a few part-time workers replace a full time job. Using part time workers is helpful in the leisure industry as their business runs on seasons. The workload in off-season is much lesser than the peak season. By employing part time workers in the peak season, they can function in a more viable way. Some full time key position workers may manage the rest of the season. Some positions in the leisure industry are completely part time, for example the interpreter for the tourist from a particular country, or guides in a particular place of interest. This type of arrangement allows for more flexibility and more profitability than with all full time workers. With this strategy they can reduce the break time and leaves as compared to the permanent workers. The unionization is also reduced. But it has one disadvantage- commitment level may be low or absent. Since most of the part time job seekers do so because of their inability to commit to a full time job, their prime concern is elsewhere and they may drop the part time work any time the need arises. Temporary workers There is another category of staffing called the temporary or seasonal workers. This is applicable on the leisure industry as it is season oriented. For example travel industry may have more work in summer vacation. Or the event management group may have more work in the festive season. The trend of temporary staff is growing in the recent times. It has the advantage of commitment level over the part time workers. It also cuts the cost of full time salaries. It also has some tax benefits. Ultimately temporary workers help save 20%-40 % expenditure on permanent staff. Especially in the leisure industry temporary staffing is very cost effective. Free Lance workers Freelance workers are like contract workers and their job is a defined job with or without time specification. For example, a resort promoting company may hire a freelance writer to do a write up on the resort. The worker need not report to the workplace like a part time or temporary employee. His responsibility is to do the work and finish it within the specified time frame. An event management company may hire a compeer for conducting the show. Just like professionals, they have to be sure of their quality and commitment. This unreliability factor is present in both sides. The freelance worker is not sure of continuity or repetition of the assignment and the employer is not sure of perfect delivery of services. Because of this inter-dependent nature of work, once the trust factor is established between the two, there is an understanding between the two. Leisure industry is based on the entertainment component and has to rely heavily on freelance workers. If the uncertainty factor keeps looming over them the product quality suffers. With the development in technology, concepts like tele working are also coming up. A leisure industry like promoting a particular tour can engage some tele-callers to do telemarketing for them and pay them according to the business generated. Employee leasing is another concept, where a company leases an employee for a period of time and then returns him back to the leasing agency, also called professional employment organization. The employee's salary and benefits are paid by the leasing agency This trend started in 1980 and is growing because most of the organizations prefer to outsource the non-core functions like housekeeping. If a golf club wants to concentrate on organizing tournaments or increasing memberships, they can delegate lawn maintenance to another agency. Like other industries, Leisure industry has also adopted various methods to increase its productivity. Conclusion To get the optimum productivity level, it is important to work in tandem with all kinds of work force. Each type of employee classification has its own advantage or disadvantage. For example companies replace or supplement full time employees with part time workers. But if the newly acquired part time worker does not adapt to the work environment, his productivity is affected and the company does not get the estimated benefit. It is recommended to assign your part-time workers to a full-time employee. This helps in two ways. The employee feels that you are concerned about providing help to him and the new part-time worker gets a feel of being the part of the team. To encourage the part-timers they can be included in the training programs. They should be included in the meetings also. It increases their productivity and also enhances their commitment level. To give a feel of belonging, the lesser working hours can be compensated with keep-in-touch policy. The situation of the freelance worker is different. He is totally disassociated with the permanent employees. But the basic reason behind someone choosing to do free lance work is their preference to stay away from a formal workplace and time constraints. The freelancers enjoy greater autonomy. Their autonomy is not only restricted to the time factor but also in terms of careers. In absence of a clearly defined career path, they can rise on the pay scale or remain static or shift as per their choice. This definitely is subject to their competency. But the connectivity factor cannot be completely ruled out. Any human being or resource reacts to a personal message. With the communication technology, it can be very easily achieved and a rapport can be created among the two to override the uncertainty factor. The most important factor in getting the best out of people is the motivating factor. It has been defined by Hoy and Miskel(1982) as the "complex forces,drives,needs, tension states or other mechanisms that start and maintain voluntary activity toward the achievement of personal goals." When we are working with different kinds and categories of employees, finding the motivating factor and getting it re energized is the bottom line of man management in leisure industry, or in any other industry also. Leisure industry has to lay more emphasis on it because the nature of its product or service is entertainment or emotion related. The customers cannot receive full emotional fulfillment with a set of emotionally unfulfilled employees. Walt Disney had established a correct example by referring to the visitors as guests, referring to the workers as cast. This was a method to make the employees whether permanent or temporary feel like a character in a play and serve entertainment to the guests. The success of Disneyland reinforces this concept. The others in the Leisure Industry adopt similar methods. References Buhler, M.P.2002, Streetwise human resource management: all the information you need to manage your staff Chelladurai,P.,1999,Human Resource Management in Sports and Recreation Fraser, J. and Gold, M., 2001, Portfolio workers: autonomy and control amongst freelance translators Hoy, W. and Misckel, C.G., 1996, Education Administration: Theory, research and practice. Managing part time employees, retrieved 29 April 2007, Price, A., 2000, Principles of Human Resource Management: An active Learning approach Price water house coopers, Retrieved April 29, 2007, Sports and leisure management, Retrieved on 29 April 2007, Stephen, N.B., 1991, Market services and Productivity race. Storey, J., 1995, Human resources and change. Read More