The hospitality industry is known for the employment of large numbers of part time employees due to diversity in the jobs and the seasonality in the tourism sectors. Most hotel industries hold that part time workers should have written patterns of work that specifies the hours and days work as well as their employment patterns (Ashton, Maguire & Spilsbury, 2016). Since the sector is characterized by long trading hours it normally resolves to use student employees to ease labor shortages. However, most managers feel that students are a non-reliable source of labor because they leave work to return home at the end of the term (Mooney & Jameson, 2018). A recent study in New Zealand showed that both small and large business in the hospitality sector are seeking sustainability and efficiency of service delivery since tourism contributes greatly to the GDP. However, part time employees face a lot of challenges like the unpaid wages, loss of wages and poor remuneration compared to their full time counterparts in the same job specifications.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the causes and effects of discrimination between the part-time student employees and full time workers in the hotel industry. Certainly, the hotel industries prefer part time workers because they help them in meeting labor demands during peak seasons, low costs of labor, diversity, skills and reduction in the workloads for others (Broadbridge, 2017). However, the problem is that there still exists discrimination between part time student and the full time workers. It has been reported that the part time student’s employees do not get promotions and other benefits like medical care received by the full time employees (Lucas & Keegan, 2008). Also, managers tend to treat them less favorably due to lack of reliability and lack of commitment to work. In 2016, an Indian international student working in New Zealand revealed that they are they were not adequately remunerated because they had signed no contract is making it had to pursue legal options. According to most employers working for over 32 hours a week qualifies someone for full time employment benefits.
Students’ motivates for part time employment is majorly economic, and thus they seek to earn money for general daily upkeep while also getting experience in the job markets (Gbadamosi, Evans, Richardson & Ridolfo, 2015). On the other hand, employers in the hotel industries prefer part time students for a couple of reasons. First, part time students provide a flexible workforce in the service sectors like tourism and consumer service industries. In most countries, it is argued that nonstandard employment like part time employment provides easy, cheap and flexible labor due its ability to be tailored to meet the seasonal surges in the labor requirements (Poulston & Jenkins, 2016). Also, hospitality industries prefer young workforce which is hypothesized to be effective in services delivery. Besides the use of part time worker also allow employers to adjust to the fluctuations in the workload since labor demands are often consistent with student study patterns like during the weekends, evenings or non-class hours (Alberti, 2014).
Secondly, part time students help employers to achieve their labor demands at a lower cost than full time employees. The recruitment of students for part time employment in the hotel industry helps to meet odd hour need at a lower cost since most of the agreements are often informal and there is no liability to employers like insurance, medical and retirement benefits. Due to the seasonality of business in the hospitality sector, employers benefit by maintaining a flexible workforce that is expanded according to the requirements thus low wage bill in the industry (Poulston & Jenkins, 2013). However, been established that the part time workers are facing a lot of unfair treatment and exploitation. First, there is no specific number of hours for full and part time workers thus they end up working for a long hour without proper payment. An article posted by the guardian in February 2016, the part time student employees from the London metropolitan university experience unconscious discrimination related to return to work, payment rates and professional progress. Most of the students interviewed confirmed that they were not accorded similar opportunities for training and career development as their full time counterparts. Also, they reported low wages, delayed payments or lack of payment at all in most cases due to lack of a properly signed legal contract (Mooney & Jameson, 2018).
Organizational culture theory.
Culture refers to the values, visions, beliefs and habits expected and accepted in the organization. Therefore, the culture enhances a firm’s performance by affecting core practices like recruitment and providing guidelines for the behaviors of organizational members (Sargeant, 2016). Therefore, a healthy organizational culture helps to eliminate discrimination within the organization. An organization that adopts an adaptive culture can listen to the requirements of their customers and employees and effect the necessary changes that promote harmony and prosperity. Therefore, cultural functional is characterized by the managers paying close attention to the demands of their critical constituencies affecting changes. For instance, in the case of the part time workers who are facing discrimination within the workplace, a functional culture allows managers to establish a forum for airing their grievances and providing an amicable solution.
Functional organizational culture provides for substantive equality (Baum et al. 2016). The constitution and labor relation laws provide for equality in remuneration and treatment of workers based on the job prescriptions and the amount of time taken for that job. Substantive equality also provides for the deferential treatment as long as it promotes the rights of the disadvantaged people like immigrants who have the right for equal treatment. The part time students are entitled to proper remuneration for the hours they work a day and for overtime works just like the full time employees. In the past few years, there have been various concerns about the nature and extent of discrimination of part time students and full time employees in the various service industries (Mooney, 2016). Therefore, the adoption of a functional organizational culture will ensure that there are technical measures to facilitate equality and eliminate mistreatments like pay rates and ageism.
Consequently, the creation of a clan culture helps to hold the organization together thus promoting development. The clan culture cultivates the development of a friendly and fair working environment where employees are technically treated equally. The clan culture framework emphasizes the bonding and development of the human resource department. In this organizational culture, success is defined regarding caring for people and addressing the clients and the employees’ needs (Buonocore, 2010). Therefore, unfair discrimination is a great problem that hinders the success of any organization that intends to succeed.
Discussion
The major problem faced by the part time students working in the hotel industries across the world relate to the lack of a specified number of hours that makes up the full or part time in most institutions thus part time workers end up working for long with minimal benefits. Part time worker needs to get the same treatment as the full time workers on the uses of payment rates. All workers are entitled to equal pension opportunities and benefits, sick leave pay, maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay (Marco-Lajara & Úbeda-García, 2013). Therefore, if the problem of discriminating part time and full time workers is not resolved immigrants and students will be greatly exploited by the industries seeking to capitalize their returns.
Also, part time workers are entitled to training and career development services (Mohsin & Lengler, 2015). A research that was done at London metropolitan university showed that out of 649-part time students working in various hotel and tourism firms, only 23 had been promoted by last year. During the research, various students confirmed that they were not getting their fair share of the tips or the worst scenarios not getting paid at all. Discrimination of grounds of age, ethnicity and race contributed to the lack of job progression since most of the students were either international students or immigrants (Mooney, 2014). A Sudanese student who worked at a fast food restaurant reaffirmed that British students were likely to be promoted even though they may be experienced.
To eliminate discrimination between part time and full time workers in the organization, managers should consider following the law and continuously assessing the employees’ needs. Through following the law, the company develops a proper policy that prohibits discrimination. Therefore, the company can adopt a constructive organizational culture which encourages reaching out to every employee to understand their need for the law. In that case, the employees not only feel that of the organization that understands their contribution to the organization’s well-being thus reducing discrimination (Nickson, 2013). The commitment of an organization’s fairness, meritocracy and equal opportunity should be evident in all the leader’s actions in the events like recruitment or promotion of the employees.
Conclusion
Perception of discrimination has firm-wide repercussions since it may cause various forms of negative outcomes in the entire firm like low levels of psychological well-being and commitment. Various research has proven that positive or constructive organizational culture have various impacts on employee morale. Therefore, treatment of both part time and full time employees equally through adequate remuneration will help in eliminating the perception that part time workers are less committed to their jobs. Also, part time workers can be reliable in the hotel industry which is labor intensive if the terms of services are favorable and that there is complete transparency in the organizational norms.
References
Alberti, G. (2014). Mobility strategies, ‘mobility differentials’ and ‘transnational exit’: the experiences of precarious migrants in London’s hospitality jobs. Work, employment and society, 28(6), 865-881.
Ashton, D., Maguire, M., & Spilsbury, M. (2016). Restructuring the labor market: The implications for youth. Springer.
Baum, T., Cheung, C., Kong, H., Kralj, A., Mooney, S., Ramachandran, S., … & Siow, M. L. (2016). Sustainability and the tourism and hospitality workforce: A thematic analysis. Sustainability, 8(8), 809.
Broadbridge, A. (2017). 8 Ageism in retailing: myth or reality? Revival: Ageism in Work and Employment (2001).
Buonocore, F. (2010). Contingent work in the hospitality industry: A mediating model of organizational attitudes. Tourism Management, 31(3), 378-385.
Gbadamosi, G., Evans, C., Richardson, M., & Ridolfo, M. (2015). Employability and students’ part?time work in the UK: do self?efficacy and career aspiration matter? British Educational Research Journal, 41(6), 1086-1107.
Lucas, R., & Keegan, S. (2008). Probing the basis for differential pay practices of younger workers in low paying hospitality firms. Human resource management journal, 18(4), 386-404.
Marco-Lajara, B., & Úbeda-García, M. (2013). Human resource management approaches in Spanish hotels: An introductory analysis. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 35, 339-347.
Mohsin, A., & Lengler, J. (2015). Exploring the antecedents of staff turnover within the fast-food industry: The case of Hamilton, New Zealand. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 14(1), 1-24.
Mooney, S. (2016). Wasted youth in the hospitality industry: Older workers’ perceptions and misperceptions about younger workers. Hospitality & Society, 6(1), 9-30.
Mooney, S. K. (2014). How the intersections of age, gender, ethnicity and class influence the longevity of a hospitality career in New Zealand (Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology).
Mooney, S., & Jameson, S. (2018). The career constructions of hospitality students: A rocky road. Hospitality & Society, 8(1), 45-67.
Nickson, D. (2013). Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge.
Poulston, J., & Jenkins, A. (2013). The persistent paradigm: Older worker stereotypes in the New Zealand hotel industry. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 12(1), 1-25.
Poulston, J., & Jenkins, A. (2016). Barriers to the employment of older hotel workers in New Zealand. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 15(1), 45-68.
Sargeant, M. (2016). Age discrimination in employment. Routledge.
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