Employees In Tourism Industry Research Articles

A STUDY OF HOW THE INTERNAL CAPACITY OF EMPLOYEES INFLUENCES KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT This research investigates the relationships between internal capacity, knowledge management and business performance in Korean’s high-tech industries. This study proposed statistical hypotheses and a structural equation model to study these based on the data sampled from employees of tourism industry listed in the yearbook published by the Korea Information Service Incorporation. This study uses a stratified random sampling method to select 150 employees in the top tourism company. By testing three hypotheses, this study finds that knowledge management is the intervening factor between internal capacity and business performance. It also shows that internal capacity has a positive effect on knowledge management, but it has not a positive effect on business performance. Finally, managerial implications are discussed and a brief conclusion is presented. Keywords internal capacity; knowledge management; business performance

Residents' Preferences for Involvement in Tourism Development and Influences from Individual Profiles

Community involvement in tourism development is a subject that has attracted the attention of tourism researchers largely due to the potentially unfair power distribution between residents and powerful interest groups. This attention, however, has not produced significant literature regarding the possibly varied levels of involvement in tourism planning and development preferred by different residents. The present study addresses that lack of information by exploring the range of residents' preferred involvement approaches based on their demographic and perceptual profiles. Study findings should help all residents with different involvement needs being fairly represented in community engagement. Extending Tosun's typology of community involvement with new content about involvement scope, this study identifies four types of involvement preferences: (1) involving all residents in decision-making; (2) involving some residents in decision-making; (3) excluding residents from decision-making; and (4) excluding residents from any tourism planning effort. Respondents' perceptual profiles, including perceived social costs, perceived environmental sustainability or costs of tourism, and self-evaluative tourism knowledge influences their preferences for involvement in tourism development, as do their demographic profiles, including tourism industry employment status and household income. The limited variance explained in the preference measures, however, suggests the need to explore additional individual profiles.

Employment characteristics of UK tourism industries in 2008

This article uses an analysis of data from the Annual Population Survey to provide estimates of the characteristics of employment in tourism industries in 2008. The results indicate that employment in these industries is more likely to be part-time, self-employed or temporary than in non-tourism industries.

Job Competency Expectations for Hospitality and Tourism Employees

ABSTRACT This article presents the findings of a central Florida study of hospitality and tourism management practitioners. It reports the findings of practitioner perceptions of desired knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It further demonstrates the overall impressions of practitioners concerning levels of preparation for entry-level positions in the industry. Finally, the authors present conclusions and suggestions for central Florida collaborative initiatives aimed at improving the preparation of individuals from secondary and tertiary institutions for successful entry into hospitality and tourism industry employment.

Styles of Learning, Workplace Problem Solving Strategies and Tourism Industry Employment Context Preferences

ABSTRACT The criteria upon which prospective tourism/hospitality industry employees depend when making career context choices is relatively little researched or understood. Styles of learning and problem solving strategies are two factors that have been regarded as important in the lives of many employees at times of career choice and change. This study has sought to examine favourability judgements in respect of major tourism/hospitality work context types, together with possible associated factors from areas such as learning preferences and problem-solving strategies among a sample of prospective tourism/hospitality industry employees. The more prominent tourism/hospitality industry work contexts were revealed to be Self Employment and Large Organisations. Large Organisation employment preferences were predicted by a learning preference involving the desire to acquire new approaches in the comprehension of material and skills in written communication; Self Employment preferences were predicted by a desire to learn creatively, but definitely not as part of a team. In regard to Large Organisational context preferences, significant differences were revealed as between those who did and those who did-not esteem the process of independent learning. Finally, an examination of an innovative problem-solving strategy as it related to choice of employment context preferences revealed significant associations for both Self Employment and Large Enterprise employment, with the latter context evidencing a dichotomous response pattern. The implications of these findings, for industry and for future tourism career pathway research, are considered.

The implications of hotel employee attitudes for the development of quality tourism: the case of Cyprus

In an increasingly competitive market, the issue of quality has grown in significance for tourism businesses and destinations alike. This has been influenced by a number of factors, such as the expansion of consumer rights and the alleged emergence ‘new’, quality conscious tourists. In particular, it is the need to retain or increase competitive advantage that has underpinned the drive for quality in tourism—certainly, many destinations, especially those operating in the highly competitive summer-sun market, are now adopting quality tourism development strategies. However, little or no attention has been paid to the role of tourism industry employees, particularly those in hotels, in the success of quality management programmes. The purpose of this paper is to address this omission. Based upon a survey of hotel employees in Cyprus, it identifies a number of factors that may support or limit the drive towards quality service provision, with a variety of implications for the destination as a whole as well as individual hotels. In particular, hotel management should implement strategies based on reward systems, empowerment and reducing staff turnover, whilst there is an important co-ordination and guidance role to be played by the national tourism organisation.

Workstress response perceptions among potential employees: The influence of ethics and trust

The ethical principles that potential tourism/hospitality employees bring to this industry have, only in the last decade or so, begun to receive research scrutiny. Fundamental ethical beliefs, it is suggested, are likely to have wideranging implications in regard to issues such as management style and workstress problem‐solving, particularly in the face of perceived indifference or injustice among prospective employers and supervisors. Ethical beliefs accompanying prospective employees are likely to be attended by expectations regarding the validity and efficacy of particular workstress problem‐solving strategies perceived to be displayed by tourism industry management. This study has examined four basic ethical principles that are at the core of optimal employee functioning: efficiency, reliability, Initiative and hardwork; the paper has also examined a range of perceived tourism industry management workstress response strategies among a sample of potential tourism industry employees, particularly as those perceptions may be mediated by basic workplace ethical beliefs. Major perceived workstress problem‐solving responses by tourism industry management were found to involve the enhancement of workplace trust, workplace communication, and global management change within the workplace. More highly rated ethical ideals involved showing initiative and responsibility, whereas lower rated ideals were efficiency and hardwork. It was also revealed that ideal ethical ratings for initiative, responsibility and efficiency were higher than perceived ethical expectations among tourism industry management; potential tourism industry employees rated hardwork lower than they believed tourism industry management would so do. The response of trust emerged as the most valued of the workstress alleviation responses, and was found to be associated with most of the ethical principles. The global management change response was also found to be associated with similar ethical principles, though to a lesser degree; the communication workstress response was also found to be a prominent management workstress response expectation, though was not revealed to be predictive of the four workplace ethical principles. Implications of these findings for human resource management operations within the tourism/hospitality industry, and for further research directions, are presented.

ETHICAL IDEALS AND EXPECTATIONS REGARDING VISITOR, STAFF, AND MANAGEMENT AMONG POTENTIAL TOURIST INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES

This study has examined ideal ethical beliefs together with perceived visitor, staff, and management ethical expectations, and also employment context preferences among a sample of secondary college students in a major Australian tourist destination, many of whom would likely later seek postsecondary college education for or immediate employment within the tourism industry. It has been found that ethical ideals generally exceeded those perceived to be held by current tourism industry staff and also tourism industry management; respondent ideals were perceived to be similar to those of visitors, except in regard to precepts such as helpfulness and frankness. Those less likely to perceive a divergence between ideal and actual staff friendliness were the ones more likely to favor tourism/hospitality/retail and also tourism/transport employment contexts. Finally, those graduands more likely to perceive themselves as holding ethical beliefs significantly different from visitors in regard to frankness were the ones more likely to deem tourism industry employment contexts as undesirable. Implications of these various findings are addressed.

The perceptions of tourism employees and their families towards tourism: A cross-cultural comparison

The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of tourism industry employees and their families in a developing country with their equivalents in a developed country. Two localities were selected exemplifying these characteristics, namely Nadi, Fiji and Central Florida, USA. A sample of 41 respondents who benefited directly from the tourism industry was extricated from a previous study conducted in Central Florida, USA and compared with a sample of 134 equivalent respondents in another study conducted in Nadi, Fiji. The results of the comparison indicated that despite the physical, cultural and economic dissimilarity between the two communities the attitude of respondents towards the tourism industry and their perceptions of the impact of tourism were remarkably similar. Both groups were highly supportive of their respective tourism industries in general terms, though Fiji expressed stronger support than Central Floridians. The impact of tourism on the community was perceived as positive from an economic point of view by both groups, but as negative in its impact on legal and environmental issues. The socio-cultural impacts of tourism were perceived as being mixed; some registered as negative whilst others were perceived as being neutral. Respondents from Fiji perceived the economic benefits to be more positive than their Central Florida counterparts.