Success of any organization depends largely upon the quality and dedication of workforce

“The 20th century has seen a phenomenal increase in the number, size and complexity of the hotel and related industries like tourism, hospitality and events industry. The scope of business activities in these industries has considerably widened with rapid improvements in the means of transport and communication. The methods and techniques of the production and distribution have become highly sophisticated on account of advancements in science and technology”. (Ref: Gupta, 2003) All these changes have made management and administration a systematically organized field of activity, requiring skill and intelligence and these qualities are only owned and commanded by human beings. Here is felt the urgency of technically sound and intelligent human beings who have a will to work and also have a flair for their job. The success of any organization depends largely upon the quality and dedication of its workforce. Therefore, people are the most valuable asset of any organization. An organization having competent, dedicated and innovative people can overtake other organizations in profitability and growth and o get such a workforce the organization has to involve some “good practices” in its functioning. When talking about managing people, good practices refer to all those practices directed towards the employee’s welfare and thereby increasing the outcome and productivity of the organization.

A best practice is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward that is believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when applied to a particular condition or circumstance. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

Some components of best practice HRM are:

Employee security and internal promotion, selective hiring and sophisticated selection, extensive training, learning and development, employee involvement and voice, self-managed / teams, high compensation contingent and reduction of status differentials harmonization.”

(Adopted from pfeffer, 1998) (Ref: Wilkinson and Marchington , 2002)

“More than 30 studies in the UK and USA since early 1990 ‘s leave no room to doubt that there is a correlation between people management and business performance, that the relationship is positive and that it is cumulative. The more and more effective the practices, the better the result. (Ref: Wilkinson and Marchington, 2002)

Though all organizations are willing to adopt these good practices but all are not able to practice them. Commonly, large organizations, due to their brand name and goodwill in the market have to follow these good practices. However, deviations and modifications are still prevalent in large organizations too. The role of human resource is very ambiguous for any organization as it is a very crucial department. An organization can suffer to a great extent if the HR feels that the organization is not concentrating on them and would become subdued or will not perform actively. “A study drawn from ‘WERS 1998’ clearly shows that some of these practices are relatively widespread in UK organizations. For example, a very sizeable of the workplaces surveyed for WERS have grievance procedures in place, have a formal policy on equal opportunities, make extensive use of appraisals for a large percentage of of their non-managerial staff and have a standard induction programmed for all recruits. These features are specially marked in the public sector large organizations. On the other hand, hardly any offer job security guarantees, only a small number have problem solving groups for a sizeable proportion of the workforce and not many of the private sector firms have a family-friendly policy or an all employee share-ownership scheme.

(Torrington Ct al, 2002)

The report shows different figures, but, the conclusion is much the same- that is human resource practices are not well embedded in a majority of workplaces. Moreover, a few of these workplaces have put in place a coherent range of practices of the sort commonly associated with ‘high commitment’ or ‘high performance ‘HRM”

(Ref: Wilkinson and Marchington, 2002)

Generally, organizations which are small in size and low professionally do not practice these good practices as they feel that they are microscopic in size and think that there is no one to observe and question their organizational behavior. These organizations from the organized sector think that business expertise is not that essential in their functioning. There are no standard benchmarks laid in such organizations to allot positions in the organization. On the other hand, it is very different for the large organizations due to their reputation and goodwill in the market. They have some standards and need to follow them strictly.

The tourism, hospitality and the events industry have a great variance in its size and are diversified. Different organizations have different business needs. In a scenario of a large organization like a five star hotel, they have people coming in from the higher segment of the society and in order to satisfy these customers the organization has to present themselves well for which it has to develop good practices in the organization so that the staff is groomed properly physically, mentally and socially. An organization in which the job performance and satisfaction of every employee is high, its customer’s satisfaction level would also be high.

(Mcëwan, 2001)

Labor market is a hypothetical place which deals with hiring of people for jobs on their will. There are two types of labor markets namely primary and secondary. Primary labor market is that market which compromises of qualified people or educated professionals coming at a high cost and also have some experience. On the other hand, secondary labor market compromises of parttimers, people not eager to make a carrier in the same industry and students and housewives which come at a lower comparative cost Today is the time of, high costs, lesser margins and high volumes

which makes it difficult for the originations to take and hire from

the primary labor market. However, large organizations accept the

fact that specialized people come at a high cost. The T, H & E

industry has become very unattractive as of low salary and

unsocial working hrs. And not so good working conditions. Smaller

organizations can take shortcuts and compromises in their

organization as it is immaterial for them to lay high standards and

they do not have any fear to be scrutinized and penalized by the

authorities in a case of not following good practices, being in the

unorganized sector.

(Gallagher et al, 1997)

In this industry ‘Customer is the King’ leading to employment patterns being very unsocial due to variance in shifts. Long working hrs and being not paid for them appropriately has made this industry a very unattractive option. The hire and fire policy is still prevailing in the industry till now. These are the reasons the larger organizations have entered into some good practices leading to flexile working conditions. Now the aim of such organizations is to help their employees maintain work life balance as they think that if a person is satisfied on the social front then his contribution and performance towards the organization doubles. For e.g. Opening crèches in the organizations for working mother females having small babies and no one to look after them at home.

Government plays a very important role as it keeps a check on the

organizational behavior of the organizations in this sector whether they are following good practices or not. The larger the organization, the bigger name, the bigger size and a bigger impact if they do not follow the ideal scenario for the good practices. Any discrepancy found in the following of these practices in these organizations is noticed and observed very fast and gets mileages and penalized very fast too. On the other hand, smaller organizations in the unorganized sector do not consider the employment laws that essential and they do whatever suits them.

(Bratton and Gold, 1999)

These employment laws influence the bigger organizations on a large scale. Government •also plays an advisory role for this industry. For e.g. Investors In people is an organization in UK made by government, providing guidelines to organizations about how to do training and development of their employees. Any organization willing to adopt good practices can consult these government bodies and can get relevant help and advise from them. However, now these organizations and bodies have lost some value and esteem as they realize that they are conducting themselves n a very dynamic environment. The organizations from the industry feel that they want some modifications in these laid down policies which can prove to be the ‘best fit’ for them and suits them.

“It is clear that the HR policies and practices support one another so as to provide coherent and comprehensive human resource bundles. This has led to suggestions that there is one best way in which people management and development should be delivered and moreover that this has a positive impact on organizational performance. There is currently a good deal of interest in the high- commitment HRM performance link, and ideas that a specific bundle of HR practices is inherently superior and capable of making major contributions to the organizational success in all workplaces.”

(Ref: Wilkinson and Marchington, 2002)

However, the variance in the size and nature of organizational structure leads to differences in the follow up of these good practices. Therefore, it may be concluded that though most of the organizations are willing to adopt good practices in their operations but all are not able to develop them.