Disability, Human Resources and Behavioral Economics: The Labour Inclusion Case of Ilunion Hotels of the Costa del Sol (Spain)

Abstract

The situation of labour inclusion of people with disabilities in Spain is still too negative, in spite of the different efforts carried out by public and private sector. Previous research points to social discrimination as one of the main causes of the situation. Ilunion Hotels is one of the most important hotel companies in Spain focused on labour inclusion of people with disabilities. The objective of this paper is to explore the social inclusion case of Ilunion Hotels of the Costa del Sol, the actions that they have developed to improve the labour integration of this collective, based on a behavioral economics theoretical model (with a high relevance of the influence of social stigma, stress theories and coping to stress responses). We look into the specific situation of two of the three hotels developed as Special Employment Centres (sheltered employment contexts defined by Spanish legislation) and the possible impact of their Support Units for Professional Activity. Case study methodology is considered the most appropriate, according to the research objective, supported by semi-structured interviews with the hotel managers. The results show that, although Special Employment Centres are effective in improving labour integration in the short term and could contribute to change the long-term social perspectives about workers with disabilities, they could be also reinforcing the social stigma existing in the ordinary market.

Special Employment Centres, Time Factor and Sustainable Human Resources Management in Spanish Hotel Industry: Can Corporate Social Marketing Improve the Labour Situation of People with Disabilities?

“…In the third position, it could be found the research "Disability management practices in education, hotel/motel, and health care workplaces" [79], with 15 citations (again, note that this author, with only one document, equals or exceeds the number of citations of other authors on the list with two publications seen in Table 2). On the other hand, although papers "Hiring People with Disabilities as a CSR strategy in the Tourism Industry" [78] and "Disability, Human Resources and Behavioral Economics: The Labour Inclusion Case of Ilunion Hotels of the Costa del Sol (Spain)" [30] have no citations yet, their permanence in the portfolio has been decided due to their broad thematic affinity to the object of this research, and also because they are recent publications (year 2021, which could explain the current absence of citations). In Table 3, the most important journals (taking into account the number of documents and the number of citations) which had published the papers of this selected portfolio can be found.…”

“…On the other hand, the most cited article was [86], followed by [18,79], although it is striking that these two articles had more citations than other authors with more publications. As we have pointed out, papers such as [30,78], with no citations to date, remained in the bibliographic portfolio due to their large thematic affinity to the topic, as well as because they have been published recently (in 2021, which could be the reason why they do not have citations yet). Regarding journals, the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly and the International Journal of Hospitality Management and Personnel Review stand out (similar results than in the raw database analysis, although much more accurate to the topic after filtering, reinforcing the conclusion about the wide interdisciplinarity of this matter).…”

“…This company has different kinds of hotels, some of them are established as SEC, and the differences with the non-SEC ones are highlighted. Thus, although SEC hotels are improving the labour integration of PWD in the short term and could be contributing to modify the negative social perspectives about this collective in the long term, it is pointed out that they could be also strengthening the social stigma that exists in the regular market, so it could be necessary to keep studying this issue in the future [30]. It is the only paper of this portfolio that explicitly analyzes SEC and, although it is not proposed Social Marketing (or Corporate Social Marketing) in a direct way, it could be thought of as a possible solution according to what is concluded.…”

“…In order to improve the labour inclusion and working conditions of PWD, Special Employment Centres (SEC) have been created in Spain [30]. These protected employment centres are responsible for a high employment rate of PWD [31,32].…”

“…In the hotel sector, Ref. [30] developed a case study in a well-known Spanish tourist destination to study the possible impacts of SEC on PWD labour inclusion, as well as the improvement of their working conditions, taking into consideration psychological aspects (social stigma and stress theories) to explain the situation. Importantly, we might wonder: is the long-term impact of SEC in the labour situation of PWD clear?…”