Human Resources - Critically Appraise the Historical

Human Resources - Critically appraise the historical development and future direction of Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry

Personnel Management & Human Resource Management

Links of Corporate Strategy and Human Resource Management -- An Analysis

Image-Hospitality Industry

Organizational Behavior

Trends in Hospitality Management

Human Resourcing strategies in Hospitality Industry

Personnel Management & Human Resource Management

The practices of people management have received additional importance due to the present emphasis on the renewed interest in human resources. Traditionally, there has always been a dividing line between operational managers and personnel managers who are now called human resource managers. In the United States the function of personnel management has been a recognized function since the National Cash Register Company had opened their personnel office in the 1890s. The American personnel managers have always closely identified themselves with the objectives of the organization and this may be considered as a unitary tradition. With this tradition, it was natural that Human Resources Management emerged in a very smooth manner. Some of us had however felt that personnel management also insisted on being called as human resources management by some companies was not really a relevant management function and served only to throttle the natural flair, initiative and creativity of the people. (The Independent, 12 May, 1994).

It was felt by some that the personnel management staff should give up their dual-purpose roles and assume full management positions. There were others who were of the opinion that if the importance of human resources is to be considered price worthy, and if it was really of fundamental importance to the success of business, then it ought to be left to the operational personnel managers. The major decisions of human resources then will ultimately have to be carried through by the top managers, while it was the line management who ought to have the effects of those decisions made. These types of considerations place human resource management on an important strategic position in business rather than a simple operational matter, and the decisions of personnel managers as providing matters of great interest to senior executives. In many large organizations, the role of the personnel managers have been reviewed the low position of the personnel managers has been reappraised. It is now felt that the people are an organizations greatest resource, and hence the function of the personnel manager cannot be regarded as just being peripheral to the interest of the organization, if it controls the people of the organization. This has led to the adoption of human resources management in some form by most organizations. (Torrington & Hall, 1995)

Links of Corporate Strategy and Human Resource Management -- An Analysis

Modern strategic human resources management requires that there is a successful increased reaction between human resources management and business strategy for any successful organization. When any successful executive works in conjunction with a talented human resources manager they together can provide the basis for a very successful business operation. Ultimately, it is the design, culture and people combined with a certain set of accepted values that together gives the sustainable competitive advantage for the organization, which can be built by their co-operative efforts. This method of gaining competitive advantage, according to both the practitioners as also the published literature, is the strategic deployment and management of the employed personnel. Some experts even say that the human resources of a firm are the basis of the competitive advantage of any business organization. The experts are of the opinion that the human resources are the most important assets of any human organization. (Bratton & Gold 1999)

Thus the human resources of any organization are viewed to be very important, but, at the same time, it is also felt that these should be in perfect fit with the management and it has to be possible for the management to utilize them for the strategic plans of the management. Thus, though the importance of human resources management is recognized overall, the practice of such management has been often seen to be very difficult in practice and this has been achieved only to a limited extent. (Rowland & summers, 1981; Lorange & Murphy, 1984; Nkomo, 1984; Golden & Ramanujam, 1985; Mills, 1985; Buller & Napier, 1993). Success seems to have been achieved only in very few instances according to the published literature in these issues. In cases where the final success has yet to be achieved, the presently available literature gives details of standard models, those models-based which still require empirical testing and of practical experiences. Thus literature on the 'how', or practical implementation of human resources management seems to be much more difficult to obtain than the literature based on the description of human resources management. (Truss & Gratton, 1994). We can attempt to study business strategy and human resources management and distinguish the three available aspects of their integration. These three aspects are useful in classifying the literature available and may be seen in most companies and other business organizations.

The relational aspects between business strategy and the management of human resources constitute the first aspect of this integration. This aspect also provides the definition of the position of personnel and human resource management as compared to the other important internal factors like economic, technological and financial of the organization. The issue of importance provides the relative aspects of the different functions in the management of business enterprises, and their practitioners. Another issue concerns with both the strategy and practice of human resource management. This also tries to understand the business results of the practice of one method as compared to another for the management of any human resource. Given the existence of a certain situation X, it becomes necessary to decide as to the approach, which is best suited for another situation Y. In certain types of situations this may be treated as a business strategy for the deployment of X, and a human resource management situation for Y. (Beardwell & Holden, 2001)

This is however a rough and ready method and this may not be the correct view for the entire problem, and the real solution may be to treat the entire problem from the reverse angle, or may be a combination of many other factors. The final aspect refers to the different ways in which business strategy and human resources management may be integrated. The importance of this aspect is often not realized or accepted, and probably that is the reason why it has not received adequate attention so far. There is however a very many good reason why this aspect should receive far more attention than it has received. The study of this aspect will help the practicing managers to understand the ways by which the two apparently different business strategy and human resources management can be integrated to form a cohesive whole. A good study in this will also possibly tell us the ways by which this integration can take place, and may be, how this can take place, which may also be equally important from a business point-of-view. Once proper attention is given to these processes, it may provide us the clues as to how these processes may be optimized.

The study of the relational aspects of the integration between business strategy and the management of human resources employed in the business depends on the internal relationships between the influencing factors for both, as also the participants. Speaking more simply, to understand this process, the relative importance of human resources management in business strategy has to be studied. We know that both these areas of business are policy areas and have to given distinct shapes in certain situations, but the relationship between them need not be related to this aspect. Both the practicing managers, as also the expert writers on management seem to have given a lot of importance to this. One of the results of this discussion is that in many organizations, the senior-most human resources person is designated as a member of the board of directors or a member of the topmost management team. In many countries like Netherlands, and such, the human resources function or department has also been professionalized as a result of this aspect.

Many people feel, and a lot of others assume that that when the senior personnel manager is invited to take part in the discussions of the top management, the importance of the function is being realized. It is also felt that this is probably the best way to guarantee the strategic importance of the department. This has given rise to the theories of the characterization of the personnel department within an organization in terms of the relative weight that it is given in terms of the business strategy of the organization. The study of this relational perspective was first evaluated in the work of Golden and Ramanujam (1985). They had separated between the administrative linkages, one-way linkages, two-way linkages, and integrative linkages between the different organizations for business strategy and human resources management. They ultimately found that there was an integrative link between the two in only one of the ten firms studied by them. Another study on the same subject by Buller (1988) found comparable results. He had also used methods similar to Golden and Ramanujam, especially in the characterization of the firms.

Many other researchers like Rowland & Summers (1981); Lorange & Murphy, (1984); Nkomo, (1984); Mills, (1985); Buller & Napier, (1993); and Brewster in 1994 have studied the same relationship between business strategy and human resource management. All of these studies give comparable results, and the total integration between business strategy and human resource management is normally not achieved in most cases. The first such study by Golden and Ramanujam had distinguished two important factors as critical factors and decisive for achieving certain desired levels of strategic organizations. These were separated into two groups which were found to be organization specific and human resource specific. They had found that all specific factors related to the human relations factors within the firm were ultimately linked to the personnel department, sometimes also called the HR function within the firms. The study found that most line managers or key operational executives spend very little time on the issues regarding personnel functions or HR. Thus it may be fair to assume that the framework of Golden and Ramanujam talks in essence about the co-operation and communication of the personnel department with the top management, and is not only about the integration within the firm between business strategy and human resource management.

Another very important aspect was the study of the evolution of the relationship aspects within the organization in these matters. When we look at the four evolutionary stages discussed by Golden and Ramanujam, we may see that they may be treated as evolutionary rather than separate stages. This gives us the concept that the firms will evolve through all the stages over time, which is also supported by their study being one to address the management role and the role of the personnel function. This may also lead to assumptions that co-operation and communications within the firms would improve over time and certainly, this would be beneficial to the firm itself. However, this does not assure us that this would lead to an integrated strategic human resources management. In spite of the absence of a clear answer to this question, the studies show that this development would certainly require many discussions about the positions and roles of the different functions within the organization. Whether as an end result, we shall achieve a better level of integration between business strategy and human resource management remains to be seen, but the matter in itself seems quite interesting. (Brewster, 1994).

All these studies have however concentrated on the desired high level of integration as the ingredient necessary for optimal performance of most firms. This seemed to have been first contested by Buller (1988) when he first stated that an absolute level of integration was not of a great importance, but later he had added that striving for two-way linkages or integrative linkages could be an advantageous tool for most firms, as this would help them meet the dynamic and unpredictable environments now present in most situations. In such highly competitive situations, firms with higher levels of integration between business strategy and human resource management would have an advantage. But, in all these studies, it has always been assumed that the level of integration achieved is always under the total desire of the firm. This basic assumption has been challenged by other authors who have stated that the level of integration that any firm can achieve depends a lot on the contextual and political factors then present (Quinn, 1980; Hendry & Pettigrew, 1986; Buller & Napier, 1993) Thus it seems clear to most people that one would be rather impractical in linking strategic human resource management only with the relationship between business strategy and human resource management. To maintain this assumption, we have to make many assumptions that become very difficult to accept. At the same time, there seem to be many other aspects that seem to be of as great an importance, and the total relationship is related to the content of the strategies of the organization and the human relationship policies and practices of the organization.

Image-Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry is known as the second largest industry in the United States, and contains different segments like lodging, gaming, dining, cruise, airlines and other travel related services. This industry is known to be very people oriented or high- touch, and in this industry the issues for recruiting and other related tactics are very different from the industries which have high-tech. Enormous rewards and challenges come in this industry from certain distinct features that this industry has. The nature of operations in this industry makes it highly labor intensive and this offers great opportunities to the personnel managers. The labor force itself has three levels of line, middle management and executive. Most of the employees are concentrated in the line level and they make up about 65% of the total workforce. The information regarding staffing is carried out through newspaper advertising, community relations and word of mouth publicity. (Roberts, 1995)

The hospitality industry however has provided many young people the knowledge to maintain a schedule, get to work on time, and learn how to dress appropriately for the job. This also makes them amenable for the acceptance of guidance and direction from the supervisors, observe safety in workplaces, adjust with other employees, and observe business ethics, protocols and other workplace rules. The people entering the industry have to have certain skill levels and cannot be compared to the veteran professionals in other industries. The industry hires a lot of first time workers with no skills and experience. In this industry, people can join without any knowledge, then learn and prosper from the positions of washing dishes or preparing food to become executive chefs at $42,000 a year or more. The industry recruiters earn their living mostly from the recruitment of mid-managers. The salaries in United States range from $30K to 90 K. And the volume of recruitment is huge considering that there are more than 65,000 hotels and casinos, in additions to 450,000 restaurants. They all need people.

The executives in this industry differ from other industries in the sense that most of them develop totally in this industry and do not come over from other industries. Among the very few specialized search firms in this industry, there are the AESC members like HVS Executive Search, Dennis O'Toole Associates, and Robert Dingman Company - who are the leaders. This industry has a very high turnover rate, which causes a lot of problems and solves others. The rates are as high as 200% per year at the line level and nearly 85% at the middle management level. This leads to the existence of a large number of recruiting and staffing agencies. The industry is further affected by a very cyclical nature and totally dependent on discretionary spending. Supply and rates also affect the industry to a very large extent. Right now hospitality is not in terms with hospitality, though it had very good profits in The industry has also consolidated over the past few years, and this has led to the demand, which has become cyclical with regard to its stocks. The Wall Street interests had funded this massive consolidation in hospitality industry about two years ago. The greatest factor in this sector of the service or hospitality industry is that one knows that they are selling Customer satisfaction. The channels of communicating with the guests and others have also changed and the related distribution opportunities have also changed dramatically. Hotels are no longer viewed as being the salesmen of rooms or places to sleep. They would like to think that they sell comfort and customer satisfaction. Restaurants also sell service, luxury and comfort and not only food.

Organizational Behavior

With the development of the world, there is a continuous development in the effective management of people, the transfer of information and improvement in customer relationships, which have today become the intangible assets of all industries- and this will progress even further in the new century. The management of personnel has always been viewed as a very important part of the management of any organization, but today there is even greater significance in selection, training and supervision of staff than ever before. These are today crucial for the profitability of any organization. At the same time, this is becoming more difficult due to the differences within the workforce. (Storey, 1992)

The differences in age between workers in the same level are very high; they come from different cultural backgrounds; have different levels of education and motivation in doing their jobs. The independence of the human mind and spirit has increased to a large extent. There is now a concept of life long learning which is accepted by many people, and would like their personal careers to match up with their spirits of personal development, personal values and fun in their working environment. This has brought new challenges to the management to find out tools to measure, manage and influence these intangible qualities so that they can satisfy their potential employees, as also increase these intangible values of their own organizations. The subject of personnel management has become not just a question of completing the necessary legal paperwork, but also to guide and develop the available staff. (Mullins, 1998)

Trends in Hospitality Management

The relationship and transactions between the people working in the units is today seen as the most fundamental changes in the hospitality industry. This has occurred due to the very large amounts of information that is now being generated and readily available. The people who can get hold of this information are trying to make the greatest use of this information. To use this information, the concerned managers are now learning to develop new skills. In the earlier years, the aim of the hospitality manager was to work 18 hours a day so that he could meet the needs of his guests. His employed staff then was strictly divided according to their highly segregated skills, and was divided in strict hierarchies. His performance was not being daily monitored by observant shareholders. It is felt today that these people were highly knowledgeable about their operations, excellent in their guest handling skills and competencies, but totally lacking in today's requirement of managing their business. In those days, the teaching of hotel management skills were a lot dependent on the skills of the operational aspect with a great emphasis on accumulated experience and management skills in marketing, finance and human resources and basically on the technical and communication skills with the clients. Today, the emphasis is on the change and uncertainty in the business environment.

The hospitality industry itself has changed dramatically over the last ten years or so. Today, most of the people in the hospitality industry seem to think that the future of the industry is fairly consistent. They all feel that the future of the industry will ultimately be decided by one of the two most important aspects of "Technology" or "Branding." As we have stepped into the twenty-first century, the technology within the hospitality industry seems to be changing very rapidly. These new technologies are affecting the totality of operations and only those operations, which can keep pace with that change will be able to survive and get to be the leaders of the new, look industry. The new concept of branding in the hospitality industry seems to be changing the entire marketing of the industry. This has led to a situation where most of the industry leaders are eager in their search for the support of the international hotel chains, though some independent hotel chains still exist. (Boella, 2000)

Outside the very important hospitality industry, many small units have been started recently with the basic objective of providing services to the public or similar clientele and are being now managed totally as service companies. They are however mostly covered by client organizations to which they only provide the food service. They are gradually making way for service contractors in an increasing number of areas. Thus the contract-managed companies have rapidly changed the roles for the hospitality management graduates working with them. In the requirement of multi-level services, there are now many clients requiring multi-department servicing like universities, business and industry, secondary education, sports arenas, and healthcare. Even earlier the hospitality industry had managers in their restaurants and hotels with special skills in the supervisory area, but today skills are required in diverse areas of operation and the concept of multi-department managers have come in.

Human Resourcing strategies in Hospitality Industry

All sectors of the hospitality industry swear that they sell customer service and customer satisfaction, irrespective of the section of the industry they are in. This makes their challenges much more difficult, and more of management commitment is required. (Riley, 1996) The staff has also to gather better levels of skill in prevention of conflict with the clients and customers. They have to gather better skills in doing things better when things go wrong with the service provided, and to stop squabbling among themselves, and avoid internal conflicts. Some of the staff in the industry might react badly with customers that customers do not like, and it is not always done on desire, but most of the time it is the language they use which is often like throwing gasoline on a fire. These members of the staff often end up creating customer problems where none existed before. In management terms, with co-operative communication, the entire trouble could have been avoided and that is just a matter of proper handling. (Jones & Pizman, 1993)

This results in prevention of escalation of conflict and disagreement, and also prevents stress through keeping the situation under control. This makes everybody happy, and customers feel that they are being treated well, leading to higher repeat sales. It also reduces stress among managers who do not often have to interfere in customer disputes. When the staff do not act in harmony and in concert, it is certainly very difficult to provide good customer service. The full complement of staff, have to be working to the same goal and pulling in the same direction and not each in his way. This is almost like an art, and the people have to be taught how to do it and avoid internal conflict, and not even let it start. (Lucas, 1995)

Many operational concerns like customer service, productivity, control of manufacturing costs, avoidance of litigation, morale, etc. are now seen to be depending a lot on the effective management of the employees, according to the view of the industry leaders. Wright and McMahan (1992) had come up with a few theories to integrate human resource management with business strategy. Their theories cover important aspects like behavioral theory, resource-based theories and interactive theories- all of which are based on open systems theory. The fundamental basis of these theories is that a certain type of employee behavior is necessary for realizing certain business goals. In these theories, there is a bridge between business strategy and the performance of the firm built on the employee behavior. According to this theory, the importance of human resources and practices are to "...elicit and control employee attitudes and behaviors" (Wright & McMahan, 1992).

This strategy is believed by some to assist the realization of the firm's strategy. This helps in changing the required behavior and attitudes of the employees according to the aims of the organization and for this purpose the strategy of the firm is the principal determinant. Thus the strategies motivating employees, creating effective teams, managing a diverse workforce, coaching and monitoring, managing conflict in a constructive manner, and creating employment policies and practices which will be seen as both fair and legal are today deemed to be very important in the hospitality industry for it to deserve its best results. The most important factor for the success of any hospitality industry is today thus seen to be the personal interaction between the people who work within the particular unit.