The onset of globalization has seen the tourism sector change tremendously. The transformation witnessed in the hospitality industry aims at boosting the tourism business to benefit from the resulting competitiveness by capitalizing on human resource perspective.
Many factors cause or rather necessitate the globalization of tourism business and HRM. It is known that natural phenomenon and human-initiated incidents significantly influence the growth of the tourism industry. Natural occurrences of unfortunate events such as tornadoes and volcanic eruptions impact the sector negatively. However, with globalization, such events appear more localized, and their effects on global tourism become insignificant.
The need to integrate our differences for the common good of the tourism sector is very crucial. Globalization advocates for such a change as it involves putting together our strengths and joining efforts in order to realize the “famous win-win” (sic) situation required in this field. For this reason, globalization needs to be incorporated in tourism and the hospitality industry as a worldwide mechanism of change.
Human resource (HR) is the operational aspect of the hospitality industry. As such, HR needs to be incorporated in both policy and planning levels in the sector. The emergence of strategic HRM characterized the tourism sector. Coupled with globalization, this aspect increases the competitiveness of tourism activities both at the national and global arena. This scenario compels managers in the hospitality industry to ensure that human resource within the organization is active.
Effective human resource management entails the formulation of appraisal techniques to boost the employees’ morale within the organization. For instance, a declaration such as “people are our most valuable asset” has necessitated the formulation of hard HR. In HR planning, the workforce rationale is viewed as any other economic resource. The softer perspective of HR champions for the promotion of organizational culture and the employee’s commitment.
Experts argue that for sophisticated HRM to be both productive and active; any tourism sector should link with “an overall corporate strategy” and the organization must support the HRM techniques through globalization (Sheppeck & Militello 2000).
Human resource management in the tourism and hospitality industry is significantly influenced by globalization in many ways. Knowledge-based economy replaced the traditional “Fordist” production mode. Knowledge-based economy fully exploits the labor force to the maximum.
Globalization has a lot of impacts on HRM in many ways. On the supply side, incorporation of technology influenced the skills, education, and training of the employees. The formation of mergers and alliances became the internationalization medium in the tourism sector. Established firms develop human resource policy that will gather for the needs of the employees in terms of relocation. Both social and cultural sensitization program is provided for those working or rather operating internationally as tour guides.
The emergence of “new tourist” has significantly influenced human resource management. For instance, experienced consumers may demand quality services and products. The dynamic test and preference depicted by the new tourists will compel the management to train the catering staff either at the company level or by organizing pre-job preparation in colleges. (Wilson, Murray & Black 2000).
Globalization has also led to the rise of tourism activity that will utilize natural and cultural environment on the basis of marketing local products. This will impact on human resource management because the tourists will require a souvenir and the locals can benefit from the active employment provided.
There are negative impacts associated with globalization on human resource. The workforce can leave their place of birth and relocate to other areas that are unfavorable. This can as well lead to cultural pride and values loss. Some of the employment created in the tourism sector is not permanent.
For clarification on the effects of globalization of tourism business in human resource management, I will use the examples of tourism enterprise in Nepal and Turkey. The tourism industry in these two countries has received much boost from resulting economic globalization.
In Nepal, “capital flow” from other states has been necessitated by the hotel industry. The hotels in this country provide exceptionally high- quality services to the tourists. Such hotels are characterized by the active labor force. With globalization, multinational service providers and organization like KFC and Regency Hotels have significantly promoted the tourism industry in Nepal.
The tourism sector has benefited from the “economic globalization” created through such programs. It promotes the effective integration of human resources strategy in the business. For instance, the hotel management in Nepal has initiated travel agencies. This strategy aims at providing superior services to the customers. The drivers and the tour guides are required to learn three languages: English, French, and Spanish (Baum 1993).
Turkey has integrated globalization with its tourism sector. The Ankara Agreement of 1963 compelled Turkish investors to formulate new policies in order to comply with EU policy. EU social and economic policies ensured that Turkey focused on the quality of its human resource in the hospitality industry (Bayraktaroglu, Ozen, & Turkay 2004).
In order for the tourism business to thrive in the highly competitive European Union, the Turkish government has introduced new plans and policies that seek to provide more education and training for the employees. As such, traditional personnel management has given way to the more sophisticated human resource management.
References
Baum T. (1993) Human resources in Tourism: An Introduction. In Human Resource Issues in International Tourism, Baum T (ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford; pp.10-15
Bayraktaroglu, S., Ozen Kutanis, R., & Turkay, O. (2004). The Strategic Role of HRM in the Turkish Tourism Sector Within The EU Membership Journey. Globalization Tourism and Human Resource, 3-8.
Sheppeck, M.A. and Militello, J. (2000), “Strategic HR configurations and organizational performance”, Human Resource Management, Vol. 39. pp. 5-16.
Wilson, M.D.J., Murray, A.E. and Black, A.M. (2000), “Contract Catering: The Skills Required for the Next Millennium”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 70-5.