Significant developments and emerging issues in human resource management

Sustainability and the Tourism and Hospitality Workforce: A Thematic Analysis

“…The challenges that tourism faces in terms of employment, workforce or Human Resource Management (HRM) have been very well documented over an extended period (see, for example, [1][2][3][4][5][6]). These concerns are diverse, including inter alia: challenging working conditions; dirty and difficult work; low pay; lack of gender and minority opportunity; precarious, seasonal employment; low status of work; absence of clear career structures; and high labor turnover.…”

“…Many of the challenges, or the dark side of tourism employment, addressed above represent practice that is not sustainable, including as examples:  short-termism as a result of stochastic demand and deficient business planning;  the misperception that skills are not required for many lower level hospitality jobs, thus denying workers their professional identity;  widespread employment of labor, at all skills levels, that is not from the community or even country where the operations are located, denying opportunity to the local labor market;  wide-term perception of employees as a cost and not as an asset to the business;  poor working conditions and relatively poor pay, acting as a disincentive to either join or remain in the industry;  dominance of small businesses (both in the formal and informal sectors) that limit career progression opportunities; Mazur [22] identifies three elements within sustainable HRM. These are: (1) a sustained supply of future employees; (2) workplaces that provide good treatment of employees, "decent work" in ILO terms; and (3) the engagement of employees in CSR practices, the latter based on Liebowitz's [23] (p. 50) notion that "if the management of a company hires capable people and treats them well, then those employees will be more inclined to take better care of the planet". This view is supported by other writers [24,25] who clearly link the impact of HRM practices to environmental outcomes.…”

Sexualisation and harassment in hospitality workplaces: who is responsible?

“…However, while power differentials are an important contributor to harassment, this paper argues that these are less influential than women's sex-role identity, which causes them to sexualise their labour. Cortina and Berdahl (2008) and Lucas and Deery (2004) suggested that power inequalities in business largely account for sexual harassment. After reviewing early studies of harassment (Farley, 1978, MacKinnon, 1979, Cortina and Berdahl theorised that harassers are motivated by a combination of sexual desire and a need to dominate their victims: 'power inequality facilitates sexual harassment, and conversely sexual harassment reinforces power inequality' (p. 475).…”

The effect of an emotional intelligence development programme on accountants

“…Human resources is the corporate function with the greatest potential (in theory), the key driver of business performance and also the one that constantly underdelivers (Hammonds, 2008). The optimal development and utilisation of individual characteristics and skills are crucial to greater organisational effectiveness (Hays, 1999;Lukas & Deery, 2004). In this regard, the measurement and development of EI can play a signifi cant role (Boateng, 2007;Wolmarans, 1998).…”