Human resource management is a very crucial function in any modern organization that seeks to achieve its objectives. This is because people are the most important asset an organization as compared to other assets that aid in running an organization. Organizations need people and people need organizations. Organizations have a human purpose and they are always formed and maintained on the basis of mutuality of interest among their participants. People see organizations as a means to help them to attain their goals while organizations need people to accomplish their objectives. Therefore if mutuality is missing, it makes no sense in trying to assemble a group and develop a cooperation because there is no common base on which to build. Therefore for attainment of organizational effectiveness, human resource is the most important asset that must be paid attention by the management. Human resource has the responsibility to coordinate all the activities within the organization and they have to ensure efficiency in productivity of the organization. It is obvious that all firms in the different sectors of economy aim to gain competitive edge over their rivals by practicing Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). There are several factors that affect the development of good practice in human resource management in relation to tourism, hospitality, an in any organization. These factors are normally associated with what is termed as organizational fit which is a concept that reflects on the function of human resource practices in relations to organizational strategy.
The organization culture and values is a very important factor that has been neglected by several sectors including tourism and the hospitality industries. The organization culture and values in any business settings determine the way things are being done in an organization. Lack of clear definition of culture and values by the hospitality and industry sectors have resulted to formulation of human resource practices that are not in line with the set objectives or goals of these industries. Research indicates that no matter how much the human resource assets of any organization are motivated to work but there is lack of clear policies formulated by the executives of such organization, then there is possibility of failure in achieving efficiency and effectiveness in any organization.
The other vital factor that may affect the development of good practice in these industries of hospitality and tourism and the event organization itself is that of the nature of strategy employed by the human resource management. The formulation of different strategies has distinctive implication on varied human resource practices employed in various organizations. This is because organizations normally formulate their human resource practices that will foster functioning of the organizations goals without much difficulty. There has been tendency of tourism and hospitality managers having a tendency of formulating policies that do not take advantage of current economic situations, for example the respective organizations have failed to utilize cost leadership strategy even if they have enough resources to do so.
The other factor that affects the development of good practice in HRM is that of the human resource manager’s capability to perform their respective responsibilities. The secret in to success in any organization is to recruit competent managers who can employ their skills to attain the organizations goals and objectives. Research indicates that managers of tourism and hospitality industries in their respective organizations do not have sufficient human, technical, and conceptual skills in their management practices. Research further indicates that, these managers have failed to utilize their business understandings to facilitate human resource issues that include failure to instigate and facilitate changes in the organization and failure to coordinate effectively the strategic objectives of the firm. In essence, these managers have been incapable with producing consistent results that match their respective organizations strategic objectives.
The other factor that has affected the development of good practice in human resource management in relation to tourism and hospitality industries and their subsequent organizations is poor ability and lack of viable support from their senior managers. Research shows that the managerial competencies of these senior managers have been questioned and there have been increasing concern on how they carry out their responsibilities in the achievement of organizational goals. There has been evidence that there exist lack of sufficient commitment by these managers especially the way they handle decision making processes. They have also failed to come up with good and viable business strategies that can gain competitive advantage over their competitors and that is why many tourism and hospitality organizations have failed to successfully to cope with the increasing pace of uncertainty and ambiguity caused by globalization which has become the common form of carrying out contemporary business transactions. According to the latest survey conducted in various organizations of both tourism and hospitality sectors, reports suggest senior managers in this organizations have influenced the decision making process. In fact there has been reports that these senior managers does not involved the employees of their organizations in decision making which has led to a lot of conflicts arising and thus inefficiency in productivity of those organizations.
The other factor is that of employee knowledge and skills recruited in both tourism and hospitality industries. Generally employees are the important assets and they influence a lot the organization’s human resource practices. Research indicates that the competence, knowledge and skills of employees can either impact negatively or positively the expected quality of work and performance of the organizations. There has been growing concern over the policies of recruitment used by human resource department in selection and recruiting of employees. There has been evidence in the tourism and hospitality industries that senior individuals influence the recruitment process, an event which has led to sourcing of incompetent employees. More so many organizations in these industries have failed to provide further training to their employees and thus the existing employees have not been competent enough to cope with technological changes that result from globalization. Because of such failure by the organization to provide training and educational facilities to their employees has resulted to high labour turn-over because employees shifts to organizations that develop their employees through training.
The most critical factor is that of the inability of senior managers to provide necessary support for the accomplishment of organizations goals in both hospitality and tourism industries. It is evidenced that the behaviour of many senior managers has contributed immensely to poor success of the organizations. This is explicitly witnessed in the decision making process. Senior managers have adopted behaviour of self centeredness and they always think that they are the only one who makes viable decisions in relation to goals being attained. This has resulted to lower level managers and employees not to perform quality work because they are always not motivated when carrying out their respective duties. No matter how well the organization’s values and culture is drafted it requires the will of senior managers to maintain such values and cultures. The senior managers can change the attitude of their employees if only they can by example which will lead to good motivation and thus successful attainment of set objectives. Human resource is the most vital asset in any organization and senior managers have to concentrate their management efforts in their staff development in order to boost their morale and thus increase in productivity.
Strategic management in both tourism and hospitality industries is a very crucial concept because managers establish organizations long-term objectives, set specific performance objectives and develop strategies to achieve these objectives in the light of all the relevant internal and external circumstances and undertake to execute the chosen action plans. Strategic Human Resource direction is mainly concerned with the overall performance of the employees regarding to the attainment of set objectives in an organization.
However, the both hospitality and tourism industries should raise to challenges of competition brought about by globalization by developing organization’s strategic objectives that can withstand changing business activities. There should be clear understanding of human resource practice concept by all senior level managers in order to foster a good working environment and thus attainment of goals.
References
- Brewster. C (1995): Towards a European Model of Human Resource Management-Journal of International Business. Vol 26
- Bjbrkman.I and Fey. C (2001): The Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on MNC Subsidiary Performance in Russia- Journal of International Business Studies. Vol 32
- Sparrow, P. and Hilltop, J. (1994): European Human Resource Management in Transition: New York, Prentice Hall,