The core and the periphery: an examination of the flexible workforce model in the hotel industry

Abstract

This paper examines the complexities of the peripheral workforce in an industry traditionally known for its use of contingent labour, namely, the hotel industry. In particular, it investigates the peripheral workforce in the hotel industry, as defined by Guerrier and Lockwood (1989). While previous research has examined the flexible firm from a range of perspectives such as pay flexibility (Walsh, 1993), temporal flexibility (Walsh and Deery, 1997) and gender segregation (Bagguley, 1991), this study examines the precariousness of the hotel peripheral workforce in relation to access to the internal labour market (ILM).The study examines the perceptions of employees in relation to the ILM components of training, promotional opportunities and job security. A sample of 287 nonsupervisory hotel employees from seven Central Business District (CBD) Melbourne hotels was surveyed. These respondents were grouped into peripheral and nonperipheral clusters according to widely accepted labour force segmentation criteria.Various statistical techniques, including discriminant analysis, were used to assess differences between the clusters in terms of internal labour market components and employee attitudes. The findings question previous research that propose clearly defined workforce groups in the hotel sector.

Promoting innovation in hospitality companies through human resource management practices

“…They were presented with a definition of core customer-contact employees (i.e., "employees that are critical to your firm's customer service") at the beginning of the survey and asked to rate the two HRM practices (i.e., selection and training) that are specifically related to those employees. We focused on core customer-contact employees because it has been found that HRM practices typically vary across employee groups within a firm (e.g., Lepak and Snell, 1999), especially between core employees and flexible workers in the hospitality sector (e.g., Deery and Jago, 2002). By narrowing our focus, we could reduce the measurement error regarding the use of HRM practices.…”

Employment, flexibility and labour market practices of domestic and MNC chain luxury hotels in Australia: Where has accountability gone?

“…The way labour is managed in the hotel industry has generated considerable debate in the academic hotel literature and attention has been directed towards describing the characteristics of hotel labour markets and managerial practices. This has resulted in the categorization of a range of contingent or a typical forms of employment practices (see for example, Deery and Jago, 2002). Whilst these identify different patterns of labour use, they do not explain how such patterns come about.…”

“…Hotel employment is often portrayed as the archetype of a 'flexible and precarious' form of labour engagement (Guerrier and Lockwood, 1989;Lucas, 1996;Timo, 1999), with internal and external labour markets much more porous than previously thought (Price, 1994;Deery and Jago, 2002). Researching hotel management and labour practices is not without challenge, as there is little consensus on what defines HRM or labour management in the hotel context (McGunnigle and Jameson, 2000).…”

Human resource management approaches in Spanish hotels: An introductory analysis

“…However, these workers are actually the worst paid and least trained in tourism firms (Guerrier and Lockwood, 1989;Deery and Jago, 2002). This apparent paradox has been confirmed by many authors; for instance, Keep and Mayhew (1999) highlight the following problems in tourism and hospitality HRM: low wages, overrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities in low-level operative positions, non-existent career structures, overreliance on informal recruitment methods, difficulties in recruitment and retention of employees, high levels of labor turnover and lack of evidence about best HRM practices, amongst others.…”