For service organisations the interaction between front-line personnel and the customer is crucial as they aim to create high quality service encounters. Much research has focused on attempts by organisations to inculcate the "right" kind of attitude in their front-line employees. This paper seeks to extend this analysis by pointing to the increasing importance not just of having employees with the "right" attitudes, but also possessing aesthetic skills. The emergence of aesthetic skills reflects the growing importance of aesthetic labour in interactive services. That is, employers' increasingly desire that employees should have the "right" appearance in that they "look good" and "sound right" in the service encounter in retail and hospitality. The evidence from the questionnaires suggests that employers in the retail and hospitality industries are not generally looking for "hard" technical skills in their front-line personnel, but rather "soft" skills. Such "soft" skills encompass attitude and, importantly, appearance - what we term "aesthetic skills" - and the latter is often underappreciated in academic and policy-making debates
The voluntary sector is an important source of employment in the UK and is increasingly providing services previously provided by the public sector. However, the ability of the sector to provide such services is dependent on the quantity and quality of suitable labour. This article examines recruitment issues in seven case‐study voluntary organisations offering social care in Scotland. Interviews were conducted with 137 managers and employees in these organisations. In addition, to assess potential labour supply, interviews and focus groups were conducted with careers advisers and potential employees. The findings suggest that, with a tightening labour market, uncompetitive pay and misconceptions about the sector, recruitment is a problem. However, job satisfaction is high for current employees, and potential employees whose values are commensurate with the sector might be attracted. The findings thus have relevance not just for the case‐study organisations, but for HRM in the voluntary sector generally.
Recent research by Adler and Adler reveals contradictory claims about the job quality of hotel room attendants; suggesting that an objectively 'bad' job can be perceived as subjectively 'good' by workers. This contradiction resonates with wider issues about how job quality is conceived-objectively and/or subjectively. Drawing on empirical research of room attendant jobs in upper market hotels in three cities in the UK and Australia, this paper addresses the contradiction by examining both the objective and subjective dimensions of job quality for room attendants. In doing so it refines Adler and Adler's work, constructs a new typology of workers and a new categorisation of job quality informed by workers characteristics and preferences. This categorisation improves conceptual understanding of job quality by enjoining its objective and subjective dimensions.
The purpose of this paper is to address the growing importance of migrant workers to the hospitality industry of peripheral locations in the UK. The paper draws on data collected through in-depth surveys of and focus group discussions with migrant workers in hotels in three peripheral locations in the UK. Findings point to varied experiences for international workers in terms of recruitment and selection of international workers; their work-related and social integration within the workforce and the wider community; aspirations for training and development among international employees; insights into the futures that migrant workers see for themselves; and their overall experience of living and working in the UK. The study is located in three regions of the UK and each study is of relatively small scale. This is a potential limitation but compensation is afforded by the depth of information collected in each location. The study suggests that employers are unwilling to invest in the development of international staff who have high levels of general education and training that is not sector specific. Promotion opportunities are seen to be limited. The paper points to the need for hospitality management to make more effective use of this source of labour. This paper is the first to undertake a study of the migrant worker experience in peripheral areas of the UK and to focus on a diverse skills sector such as hospitality
There is a widely held assumption that product market strategies, skill and pay are linked. Supportive evidence is typically drawn from manufacturing and using quantitative analyses. Emergent research of the link in services is ambivalent and has methodological limitations. This article addresses this weakness. It compares the skills and pay of room attendants in upper and mid-market hotels using qualitative research. It finds that the link is weak, even decoupled. The findings suggest a reconceptualization is needed of the link in services and that interventions other than product market re-positioning are needed to deliver higher skills and better pay
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