Introduction
Cursory inspection of the accommodation sector might suggest that a few large chains dominate the market, giving the impression of an oligopolistic structure. However, the service hospitality sector within holiday tourism is mostly fragmented in many small units where location and the spatial distribution of accommodation are important factors determining the degree of competition. Furthermore, the wide range and quality of accommodation, its multi-product nature and seasonal variations in demand, introduce an additional dimension into the operation of the market. These aspects of the accommodation sector are considered at some length in tourism texts, of which those are good examples (Sinclair & Stabler 1997).Accordingly, different forms of structure perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and even monopoly might, as argued below, reflect the conditions of different elements of the sector, ranging from the serviced to the un-serviced self-catering segments. Notwithstanding its complicated structure, some fundamental economic factors characterize the accommodation sector. It is subject to fixed capacity with all its attendant problems in the face of periodicity; perish ability and seasonality (Hall & Tucker 2004).
Allied to this, particularly in larger units offering a wide range of services, high fixed costs drive operators to attain high occupancy rates through such devices as product differentiation and market segmentation (Hall & Tucker 2004).These characteristics tend to involve elements of both natural monopoly and oligopoly (Tolentino 2000).The hospitality/ accommodation industry is one of the most successful industries in the global economy. This industry includes business that includes hotels, casinos, tourism and food services. The accommodation sector can be a source of a profitable business. The competition on the hotel industry is based on the desire of each hotel owners and managers to provide the best service to clients. Countries rely on the hospitality industry and the business within it to assist in the countries goal to have a good economy. The competition on the hotel industry is based on the desire of each hotel owners and managers to provide the best service to clients.
Companies in the hospitality sector that face a tough competition has to make sure that its strategy can overcome the threats by the competitors. In any industry changing a strategy is a must especially if the company has difficulty in surviving in the environment. Companies should have the appropriate tools and procedures that will help them determine whether their strategies are appropriate. The strategies formulated by businesses will always be under certain issues. These issues helps a company determine which strategy is the best one for them to consider. Strategies should not only be based on changes in the local environment. The strategy of any company is affected by the different changes in the international environment. Strategies need to be globally competitive and well adjusted to the demands of the environment for it to be a success and for it to help the company in achieving its goal. This paper will focus on the PDR Hotel and Resort and its strategy on human resources.
Hotels and its business operations
Hotel chains have a long history of operating beyond national borders. Some of them started international operations more than a hundred years ago. Certain hotel chains are extremely global. Others are not. The globalization of service industries, notably some professional service industries, brings about new forms of organization of international business activity, which do not exist in manufacturing. In the production of goods, Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are a cluster of firms incorporated under the laws of different countries, all of which are wholly or partially owned subsidiaries of a parent firm (Aharoni & Nachum 2000). In contrast, the expansion of professional service MNEs to new markets is often achieved by a network of several autonomous partnerships. Each partnership gives up some of its autonomy to achieve minimum common standards, and to gain more reputation and thus work. These organization forms are unique characteristics of these firms, and they have important implications for the ways advantages are generated in international competition and diffused within the multinational enterprise (Aharoni & Nachum 2000).
In several service industries, competitive pressures forcing larger Transnational corporations (TNCs) to adopt strategies of following other companies to establish a presence abroad have also contributed to increased foreign direct investments (FDI) by TNCs in important markets aimed at strengthening their respective international market positions in relation to major competitors. The industries mainly affected by this kind of strategies include banking and other financial services and, in some locations, other services such as management consultancy, advertising, air transportation and hotels. International franchising is frequently associated with service firms, such as hotels, retail outlets, and quick service restaurants. These firms often have strongly identifiable trademarks and try to guarantee the customer a uniform and consistent level of service and product quality across different locations and over time. However, the high degree of standardized operations makes the replication of the format across diverse markets difficult (Mowforth & Munt 2003).
Global economic restructuring and development are the most pertinent factors in the study of globalization. Economic globalization is reflected in footloose capital and the growth of less nationally regulated industrial, banking and commercial sectors, a process that is also clearly represented in the global tourism industry’s principal economic sectors with mergers and buyouts between international airlines and hotels (Mowforth & Munt 2003). Hotels provide paid lodging on a short or long term basis. It provides accommodations to various kinds of clients who may be are tourists, business people or people who want to experience the hotel service. Hotels are ranked depending on their capability and the kind of service they provide. Hotels help countries to improve its image to the tourists that visit the state. Hotels consider various aspects so that they can maintain their operations. One aspect they consider is the welfare of their human resource. The human resource group of PDR hotel undergoes various changes that coincide with the changes of the external environment.
Changes in workforce
Organizations are downsizing, restructuring, merging, and reinventing themselves. Mid-level management layers are diminishing. Functions are being eliminated and replaced by online automation and networked infrastructures. Knowledge workers with technological and people skills must manage processes and themselves in cyberspace with speed, efficiency, and accuracy. These and other changes continue to impact the relationships, rights, and obligations between employee stakeholders and organizations. Organizations saw their workforce as permanent, and tried to build loyalty among employees by making financial investments in training and by providing guaranteed long-term employment (Sims 2003). Employees were committed to the organization and expected steady advancement up the corporate ladder. The seeds of change are taking root, and with these changes new social contracts are developing between organizations and their members. No longer is the traditional social contract that once existed between the organization and the employee valid. Changes like those cited thus far have profoundly changed the ways in which organizations and their employees relate (Boyd 2003).
They want employers who provide them with opportunities, recognize their accomplishments, and communicate openly and honestly. These workforce changes have contributed to a newly emerging social contract between employers and employees. Failure to understand and effectively manage the rights of employees can create many ethical dilemmas for organizations and further strain the social contract with employees (Sims 2002). Many social investors are concerned about the ethics, social responsibility, and reputation of organizations in which they invest; and the growing groups of brokers, financial planners, portfolio managers, asset management, and mutual funds have made themselves available to help investors evaluate investments and purchase stock in ethical organizations for their social impacts (Cooper & Murphy 2000). As the world changes so thus the situation in the workplace changes particularly the attitudes of personnel. The personnel have changed the way they beliefs with regard to employment and opportunities. Their beliefs are focused on achieving what is best for them rather than what’s best for a company.
The personnel of this generation are more peculiar on opportunities rather than loyalty. They would rather go to different jobs that provide better monetary opportunity than stay in a job that can help them learn new things. The employees of this generation have undergone significant changes in the way they think. They cannot be taken for granted because they make sure that every aspect of the company works fairly well in their favor. This causes dissension between the company and the employees. It also causes certain things to be left undone thus the products cannot be delivered to clients and proper service cannot be offered by the company. To solve such change in the workplace companies need to have an effective hr group that will use strategies such as motivation, satisfaction and commitment so that the employees will not easily change jobs and be a hindrance for the company’s success.
Welfare of employees
The argument that welfare work was a business proposition, not charity, shifted responsibility from the shoulders of the individual entrepreneur to the more abstract entity of the modern corporation. Welfare work took shape as company- or plant-wide policy rather than as special favors granted on a case-by-case basis at the employer’s discretion. Whereas nineteenth-century employers had exercised benevolent paternalism as isolated individuals, those who engaged in welfare work participated in a national movement that defined labor relations as an essential management responsibility. A few firms adopted employment stabilization as a conscious part of their welfare programs. Welfare managers used their understanding of the relationship between home and work lives to argue for shorter hours as well. Although higher wages, steady employment, and shorter hours were deemed essential, welfare advocates never believed that these alone could solve the labor problem (Mandell 2002).
Welfare advocates offered workers a broad agenda of programs designed to inculcate the middle-class work ethic and foster a desire for a middle-class standard of living. Of the two strategies, economic and cultural, the latter proved to be the most popular among welfare advocates and came to dominate the actual practice of welfare work (Hanlan 2004).Two factors account for this development. Most obviously, employers resisted both the challenge to their authority and the costs associated with raising wages, stabilizing employment, and shortening hours. Hired welfare workers generally reinforced their employers’ preference for cultural strategies over economic ones. On a practical level this minimized the potential for conflict between welfare workers and their employers. It focused the welfare worker’s energies in an arena where she, rather than her employer, could claim expertise teaching and enforcing proper standards of conduct. Welfare workers supported decisions to charge all expenditures for employee welfare to a single welfare account. There was little dispute that some features, such as libraries and company bands, should be charged to welfare work. However, features that touched production phases of a firm’s operations could generate controversy (Hanlan 2004).
An important thing that business owners should be concerned of is the welfare of the employees. Employees who are properly cared for can work well and they can be an asset of the company. They perform better and help the company in achieving its various goals and objectives. Employees who are properly cared for can be competitive with employees of rival firms. PDR hotels and resorts make sure that they show their care to the personnel. The company makes sure that they threat their personnel with outmost respect for human dignity. PDR hotel and resorts provide outmost concern for their personnel through their human resources division. The human resources group makes sure that they know the every need of the personnel The human resource group makes use personal communication, the internet and other techniques to know the needs and wants of the personnel. The human resource group has created weekly meetings that aim to gather the thoughts and ideas of the personnel.
Employee Motivation
Managers who want their employees to participate in performance growth and development plans need to recognize that employees have reasons for everything they do. Managers should realize that employees choose to perform the way they do because of some internal or external motivation. Employees participate when the goal they have chosen to pursue is attainable. To ensure greater participation, managers must understand this simple motivational principle. Employee motivation can be greatly enhanced when managers understand the seven assumptions that underlie change behavior (Boughton, Gilley & Maycunich1999). To motivate the personnel rewards are given to them. Rewards can be defined as something verbal or tangible. Verbal rewards have generally been found to increase measures of intrinsic motivation. According to cognitive evaluation theory, all rewards are experienced as controlling by individuals, but verbal rewards provide an informational function that overrides the feelings of control. Rewards classified as tangible include money, candy, gold stars, good player awards, theater tickets, opportunities to engage in preferred activities, and so on (Cameron & Pierce 2002).
Rewards that are promised to participants are referred to as expected rewards; unexpected rewards are those delivered at the end of the experimental session but not promised beforehand. Expected tangible rewards were found to produce a negative effect on the free-time measure of intrinsic motivation; unexpected reward had no impact. Unexpected rewards do not affect feelings of competence, self-determination, or locus of control because the controlling process only takes place when the rewards are in progress. With unexpected rewards, individuals do not know that they will receive a reward, and thus, intrinsic motivation will not be affected (Cameron & Pierce 2002). Non-competency-contingent rewards are those given for merely doing, completing, or repeating an activity and are most likely to reduce intrinsic interest. Competency-contingent rewards, on the other hand involve rewards given for mastery. This type of reward contingency is said to develop perceptions of self-efficacy and task interest. Rewards given for achieving challenging standards are also indicative of competence (Cameron & Pierce 2002).
To motivate employees, companies should first know the behaviors of employees and why it changes. By doing this companies can know how to approach a certain employees and what motivational strategy can be used towards them. To motivate the personnel DRP provide rewards to employees that perform well. Rewards come in different forms. It can be in the form of physical gifts such as monetary incentives, trophies or the like. It can also be in the form of verbal praise or commendation. DRP has regular rewards session wherein they present plaques of appreciation to outstanding employees. DRP hotels and resorts place the award winners on bulletin boards and then give them the award within a special program created for them. The company makes sure that it double checks the performance of the personnel so that the appropriate reward can be given to the right personnel.
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