Questioning the impact of the ‘graduatization’ of the managerial labour force upon the management of human resources in the Scottish hotel industry

Abstract

AbstractThis paper outlines the findings of a questionnaire survey returned by 125 Scottish hotels from a sample of 500 small and middle‐sized enterprises. We asked questions on the level of impact that hospitality graduates have had upon human resource management practices within individual units. The research reports that, although the cumulative graduatization of the managerial workforce appears to be under way, the main route to a permanent management post still remains one of practical work experience, rather than the attainment of a hospitality‐related degree. Although manpower planning is widely used by line managers for managing the conditions of local/external labour markets and operatives’ jobs, there is less evidence of a systematic approach to the management of graduate careers/skills or of the management of internal job structures and labour market processes in order to improve the quality of customer service. Our work suggests a need for smaller hotels to strike a fresh balance between traditional operationally driven approaches to people management and strategic human resource management frameworks.