You are on page 1of 243



Keilh Walk%
075082812 X

s a b a l l d ~
Derek T a w

Managing People
(2nd edition)
Michael Riley
Ma& 2000
0 7506 4538 Q

ProRt Plannlng Successful Pubs and

(2ndedition) Inns
Peter Henis (2nd ediilon)
1999 Michael Sargent end Tony
0 7506 4528 8 L*
0 7506 4113 4



For further details, please contact Mane Spicer at Butterworth-Heinemann, Linacre

House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP Tel: 01865 314459 Fax 01865 314455 Email:

A guide for managers in the hotel and
catering industry
Second edition

Michael Riley

Series Editor: John OConnor

: E I N E M A N N
Bu tterworth-Heinemann
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP
225 Wildwood Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801-.2041
A division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd

@A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group

First published as Hirnran Reso~rceManagenrent 1991

First published as a pocket book 1995
Second edition 2000
Reprinted 2001
Transferred to digital printing 2004
0Michael Riley 2000


any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by
electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some
other use of this publication) without the written permission of the
copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,
Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London,
England W l P OLI? Applications for the copyright holders written
permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed
to the publishers

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Riley, Michael
Managing people. - 2nd ed
1. Hospitality industry - Personnel management
1.Title. 11. Human resource management

ISBN 0 7506 4536 9

For more information o n all Butterworth-Heinemann

publications please visit our website at

Typeset by Avocet Typeset, Brd, Aylesbury, Bucks


Prefdce vii

1 Introduction 1

Part One People at work 9

2 The importance of a good start 11
3 Motivation 19
4 Negative behaviour 35
5 Groups and teams 42
6 Commitment, job satisfaction and empowerment 52
7 Understanding attitudes 66
8 Pay is never neutral 74
9 Organizations and authority 79

Part Two Some useful techniques 87

10 Productivity 89
11 The measurement of labour turnover and labour stability 107
12 Recruitment and selection 112
13 Appraisal 131
14 Grievance and dispute management 137
15 Personnel administration 144

Part Three Labour cost management 151

16 How labour markets work 153
17 Hotel and catering labour markets 164
18 Overtime and labour costs 180
19 Pay administration 186

Part Four Wider issues 207

20 Pay and hours of work - legal constraints 209
2 1 Developing labour strategies 213

Recommended firtber reading 228

Index 230


This book is about being a manager in the hotel and catering

industry; it is about managing people and controlling the cost
of labour. The book is both focused and comprehensive. It is
focused in the sense that it is concerned exclusively with one
large industry and is written to explain the opportunities, the
constraints, the problems and the solutions that face manage-
ment at any level in the industry. It is, to use the parlance of
the detective thriller, an inside job. It is comprehensive in the
sense that it is not just concerned with the social psychological
aspects of people management, but also with the economics of
labour - labour cost, utilization, labour market behaviour and
pay. These aspects are inseparable from the skills of people
management, especially in a labour-intensive industry.
The book is in four parts and builds into a coherent body of

Part One is called People at Work and relates the theories of

behavioural science to work in the industry. This section forms
the essential theoretical background for the three parts which

Part Two is called Some Useful Techniques and focuses on

personnel administration and labour utilization. This is about
being organized and using techniques correctly.

Part Three is called Labour Cost Management. This focuses

primarily on economics but no previous experience of eco-
nomics is assumed and the reader will be introduced gradually
to a portrait of the labour market which explains the skill
levels, pay distribution, mobility patterns and conditions of
supply and demand.

Part Four is called Wider issues and is concerned with the

process of strategy and policy development and with legal con-

The book is for busy hotel and catering managers. It will be of

particular relevance to those with responsibility for personnel
and training.
The book begins with a short introductory chapter which
outlines the unique and significant features of the industry.
Successful managers have to understand not just the skills,
techniques and problems of unit management, but also the
overall working of the industry.
Although some legal aspects are considered in Chapter 20
the book is not about labour law. This omission is in no way
intended to diminish the role of labour law in regulating the
relationships between management and worker. The view
taken here is that legal frameworks are one aspect of the
context in which human resource management is practised.
Although different countries have different labour laws, such
laws tend to have the same purposes. The differences that
emerge tend to be in the degree of coverage of manage-
ment-worker affairs and in the legal processes required to
apply the law. Some legal frameworks are more restrictive than
others, but they are always a context - something to live with.
Labour law shares with good human resource management a
concern for reasonableness and the long term, but there are
many areas of work life where the law stands only in the back-
ground and where economic imperatives and technological
processes are of more immediate relevance.

Michael R i b
1 Introduction

Is hotel and catering management

Every industry thinks it is unique and, in a very real sense, each
industry is right. Every technological process and each type of
service does present different problems to its managers, proba-
bly has its own labour markets and, for those who work in it,
has its own culture. What is more, the role of uniqueness can
never be underestimated in a persons psychology. We all like to
be different!
The case for the hotel and catering industry appears to be a
particularly strong one. It has, after all, a lot of conspicuous
features. What with all those uniforms, strange sounding job
titles, tipping and unsocial hours, not to mention the high
levels of entrepreneurship and labour mobility. It is not too
surprising to hear a claim for being a bit special. The unsocial
hours factor alone suggests that, at least as a life, hotel and
catering management is out of the ordinary.
Well, just when you thought it was safe to declare for
uniqueness, along come two contrary arguments which
together constitute what might be called the pure management
approach. Looked at solely as a managerial task, running a
hotel, restaurant or institutional establishment can be seen as a
set of systems and processes common to managing anything.
This approach does not ignore the special features but treats
them as things to be measured and analysed and turned into
information that will help managers make good decisions.
This is the approach of scientific management. It is greatly
undervalued, and therefore underused, by hotel and
catering managers. Perhaps the argument that is more easily
appreciated is that like any other business, hotel and catering
establishments have to make profits and maintain
cash flow and, therefore, can be run on business principles.
What both these arguments are saying is that business
is business and managing is managing whatever the industry.
They are undeniably true, yet acceptance of them does not
really contradict the case for uniqueness. They are not
mutually exclusive arguments. In addition to the business
thinking and the clinical analysis of data, there is the need to
know what you are managing, especially in a service industry.
In a manufacturing industry there is usually a time gap
between production and selling with several processes and
intermediary agents in between. This is not so with service
industries. There is an immediacy about service which requires
managers to anticipate, adjust or react in a time span. This
immediacy flows directly from four features of the industry,
which are so all pervasive that they account for most of what
might be called the character of life in the industry. These fea-
tures are:

1 Constant Jluctuations in short-term customer demand This is

often referred to by sales people as short-term sales instabil-
ity. What it means is that business fluctuates by the week,
the day, the hour. For the worker, this means that their job
has an irregular work flow. For the business, this means a
problem of adjusting labour supply to demand and hence
the use of part time and casual labour and a pay system
which alters earnings by customer demand, i.e. tipping or
some appropriate surrogate.
2 The demandfor labour is direct In the hotel and catering
industry labour is demanded for what it can produce, people
are not machine minders. This means that productivity is
based on personal ability and effort. Consequently, there are
great individual differences between workers output.
Concepts of productivity are, therefore, about judgements
of human capacity.
The subjective nature of standdrdr Concepts like hospitality,
service, cleanlinessare all matters of subjective judgement.
This means that every workers output is judged subjectively.
This has the effect of making the actual relationships
between managers and workers crucial to standards. In a
factory this would not be the case at all. There, they would
have methods of measuring output formally. When you
cannot measure formally it is difficult to build a bureaucracy
in the organization. Rules always require specified standards.
However, subjectivity means that standards are open to
interpretation. Bureaucracy can be a blessing in disguise. In
the absence of explicit standards there is a potential for con-
flicts to arise between workers and customers and between
workers themselves - housekeeping want the room to be
perfect, reception want it now; a speed versus quality
Transferability ofskills The kind of skills that workers in the
hotel and catering industry possess are generally confined to
that industry. This makes for an efficient labour market
between the various sectors of the industry. This, together
with the relatively unskilled nature of some of the work,
encourages the high labour mobility pattern which is often
such a conspicuous feature of the industry.

These features create the immediacy which so characterizes

management in this industry. It is not to say that managers
simply run around coping but it is to suggest that there is a
tendency for the short term to be dominant. Even going up the
hierarchy does not escape the sense of immediacy. The product
is perishable. A room not sold tonight is gone forever.
Sometimes the fluctuations are of sufficient volume to be con-
stantly developed in respect of the longer view. This is why the
thrust of this book is towards managing the present and organ-
izing for the future. Knowing your business means knowing
what is possible and what your customer considers to be good.
What with all this fluctuation and subjectivity around the one
thing you must be is organized! This book argues that the man-
agement of labour in the hotel and catering industry has to
accommodate the primary characteristics of the industry.
Perhaps it would be useful at this point just to list the charac-
teristics that are likely to be found in the hotel and catering

0 A set of skills specific to the industry.

A range of skills for each occupation.
0 Subjectivelyjudged standards.
0 Unevenly paced work.
0 Seasonal employment patterns.
0 Lack of bureaucracy.
0 Complicated pay systems.
An in-built speed versus quality dilemma.
Unsocial hours.
0 Part-time and casual employment.

Most of these conspicuous characteristics can be explained Ly the

@ur principalfeatures. Managers are part of the features. It is
the context in which they manage. Recognizing this, the book
focuses on the understanding of behaviour and the understand-
ing of labour markets as the two primary educational needs of
managers in the industry. It also recognizes that business is
business and managing is managing and good practice in
management applies everywhere. The immediacy of hotel and
catering management does not deny the need for good, or
excuse bad, administrative and investigative techniques. For
this reason, the book explains relevant and useful techniques of
labour administration and tackles issues that are crucial to the
corporate management of labour.

Stating the problem

The problem can be seen everywhere. Here a manager tries to
persuade a worker to do something, there a manager issues a
reprimand, another worries over the performance of a group,
yet another listens to a gripe. Meanwhile, someone else is
designing a new control system, while a colleague contemplates
redesigning a form. They all have something in common.
Everyone is making assumptions about how people will
behave. Here then is the problem. We cannot look into the
feelings and motives of our workforce, we have to work with
the only clue available - behaviour. Whether we are aware of it
or not, in everything that we do we are constantly making
assumptions of cause (what lies behind it) and deductions
about consequences (what it will lead to). In other words,
everything in management, even when it doesnt involve
dealing with people, involves making assumptions about how
people will behave. There are a few guiding stars - experience
is certainly one - but theoretical knowledge is another. The
heart of the problem is not merely the fact that you can only
work from behaviour but also the sheer complexity which lies
behind that behaviour - people are impossible to understand!
Are they? Well, yes and no. Remember there are limits to
what you, as a manager, need to understand: you are not a psy-
chiatrist. Within limits, people can be understood, but many
people give up. For them, the human aspects of management
are seen as impossible, since it is claimed that we are all dif-
ferent, anyway.
This is the original sin of human resource management. A
moments thought, however, tells us that that statement is both
true and false. We are all different, but it is plainly obvious that
we are also the same. We all have, to varying degrees of effi-
ciency, the same mental processes (motor drives, memory, cog-
nitive mechanisms, reasoning processes, etc.) and what is more,
a great deal of our behaviour is in fact similar and predictable:
social life would be intolerable were that not the case. The idea
of common behaviour is a helpful clue in attributing the cause
of some behaviour we see.
Common behaviour is behaviour that recurs irrespective of
the people involved and as such can be seen in various uncon-
nected situations. If behaviour can be seen in various locations,
at various times, involving different people and yet be essen-
tially the same, we might assume that the cause of such behav-
iour could be something external to the participant rather than
internal within them. We then must look for what that might
be - a common situational variable. This is where experience
comes into interpreting behaviour. If youve seen it all before
with a different case, then some external factor is likely to
be at work. A chef and a waiter having an argument at the hot-
plate can be seen everywhere. Speed versus quality conflict?
Even if you dont fall for the original sin, there is another line
of resistance and that is to keep it simple. Its natural but often
There are no universal principles of management in respect
of managing people. If there were, we would all simply learn
them and be good at it. Acceptance of this alone is the spring-
board for learning about the relationship between people and
work. There is a difference between keeping it simple and
being simplistic. No one can doubt that as managers get older
they find an approach to people which works for them. A
kind of melding of authority with personality. This is natural
and good but simplistic approaches are invariably wrong. This
is not to say there arent techniques which can be learnt and
which will help managers in their tasks. There are, and some of
them are addressed in Part Three of this book. After all, the
management of people is not a tea and sympathy exercise and
just because things are complex doesnt mean we shouldnt
approach them with professional skill.
Perhaps a more attractive line of resistance to complexity lies
in common sense. Everybody has common sense theories
about what makes themselves and others tick. You will find
that these are not too far adrift from the writings of eminent
psychologists. Lets put theory into perspective.

Theory is practical!
The best way to see theory (your own or academic theory) is as
a Sherpa. He will carry some of your bags and guide you up
most of the mountain, but doesnt do the climbing for you and
wont take you to the top. As there is no general theory of
behaviour, it would be more realistic to see theories as a bunch
of rather truculent Sherpas, each with their own ideas about
best routes to the top, most of them at variance with each
other. But they are necessary and helpful. Remember, the
purpose of theory is to explain practice, to explain the behav-
iour you observe. It is helpful.
If there are any golden rules, then being seen and taking in
what is going on are essential for the understanding of your
workforce. Not that the evidence of your own eyes is always
helpful. What does a motivated person look like? Workers
trooping round singing hi ho, hi ho, and off to work we go
are a somewhat rare occurrence. To make matters worse, the
productive often look lazy. It is not easy, but theory can help
you to expandyour understanding ofyour own perceptions of what
is going on.
This page intentionally left blank
Part One

People at work
This page intentionally left blank
2 The importance of a
good start

Almost everyone at some time has been surprised by someone

they thought they knew well - a close friend perhaps. Thats
not like them, thats out of character, are the kind of senti-
ments that follow. Yet the possibility exists that whatever our
friend has done may be perfectly in character, it is only that our
assumptions and expectations of them were wrong. All rela-
tionships have a taken for granted element to them. Things are
not said, just understood to be so. The manager-worker rela-
tionship is like any other in this respect.
The moment at an employment interview when the
manager says start Monday and the applicant says OK is the
moment when a relationship begins between a manager and a
worker. From that moment on it becomes necessary for each
to have an opinion of the other. From that moment, each will
influence the others behaviour. Of course they are not equal,
but nevertheless, each will affect the others behaviour. As soon
as the OK is spoken, a psychological contract has been made
which will change as the relationship develops but will last
until one of them leaves.
The psychological contract usually referred to in behavioural
science as the labour contract (note nothing to do with
employment contract) has two principal dimensions which are:

1 Effort - reward;
2 Obedience - discipline.
The so-called effort-bargain and authority relations. How
much effort do I put in for the expected reward? Which orders
do I obey? How conditional is my willingness? How much dis-
cipline will I accept? These are the trade offs and balances that
form the heart of the contract - they are universal but they
exist for the most part in the realm of private thought rather
than explicit behaviour. To see the importance of this, it is
perhaps best to start at the beginning.
The original bargain is struck at the selection interview. The
interviewer tries to assess the capacity of the interviewee in
terms of effort and general willingness. The applicants past
record and references help in this process. The interviewee is
trying to assess what is going to be required of them in terms
of effort and obedience and whether or not it is worth the
reward being offered. Both are really fishing and dealing in
imprecise quantities. The agreement they finally make is, at
that start Monday point, very imprecise. Like anything which
is imprecise, it is open to misinterpretation and is, as any agree-
ment, potentially unstable. What keeps a psychological con-
tract stable is the mutuality of the assumptions that lie behind
it. If the amount of effort expected by the interviewer is the
same as that anticipated by the interviewee, then that part of
their relationship is stable. If they arent the same, it is poten-
tially unstable. This does not mean that it will necessarily lead
to manifest conflict, because assumptions can be adjusted.
Suppose on Monday morning the worker finds the job
harder than they anticipated, but the manager less severe than
expected. Similarly, the manager finds the worker less skilled
and slower than they thought, but seems more willing than
they expected. It could lead to conflict, but it could simply be
a case of adjusted assumptions on both sides. If the latter
occurs, then what both have done has simultaneously and
secretly adjusted their contract. They will go on adjusting
expectations of each other as long as the relationship exists.
At this point, it is worth taking a rain check. Surely the role
of personnel management in the selection process is to make
everything explicit and precise? True, but it can never entirely
succeed. In other words, the labour contract is always and
everywhere, but to a varying degree, imprecise. To understand
this, it is necessary to look again at what is being exchanged in
the initial bargain. O n the one hand, the employer is buying an
unspecified potential and the employee is taking on an inde-
terminate amount of work. Good interviewing practice, job
descriptions, previous experience of the same work and clear
references can all help to make the assumptions of the parties
more precise and mutual, but a job description cannot describe
what effort will be required and therefore at the point of agree-
ment even the tangible wage offered becomes subjectively eval-
uated. This is why, despite good personnel practice, the
agreement is always imprecise.
There are, however, degrees of imprecision which are deter-
mined by the nature of the technological process in which the
job exists. In other words, some jobs make for very imprecise
labour contracts and other jobs attract more precise contracts
and the determinant of both is the nature of the job itself and
how far management can apply formal controls. To illustrate
this, it is helpful to contrast two jobs of widely differing tech-
nological mode. Suppose we have a job of pencil sharpener. A
person sits at a lathe all day and picks up a pencil, runs the end
across the lathe and places it in a box. Management could do a
pretty good description of this simple task. They would specify
the number to be sharpened per hour, the tolerances of the
point and the number of breakages allowed. All this could be
discussed at the selection interview to make things explicit.
Contrast this with the job of a waiter. All the usual conditions
such as hours of work, shift times, etc., can be specified. The
person is supposed to look smart and give good service. While
it is possible to.specih smartness, it is much harder to say what
good service is. It is possible to lay down specific routines for k
the customer-service interaction, but the only person who can $
justify whether or not it is good, is the guest. Management 8
dont have the same degree of control. 0
What is being said here is that different jobs imply a a
different form of managing the people who do those jobs. 6w
Where the job allows management to measure the output pre- 0
cisely they will use formal controls, but where the output stan-
dards can only be specified subjectively other forms of f
managerial control become necessary. An illustration may help Br
here. Figure 2.1 represents two jobs of contrasting technologi- w
cal mode. The shaded area represents the degree to which man- +
Fairly precise control
Very imprecise control

antity and quality standards 'gilance,example and

Performance measured against group norms

Figure 2.1

agement can lay down formal standards and use measure as

Notice that every job, no matter how precise the contract,
has an element which cannot be laid down.
With care and caution and with respect to generalization, it
is suggested that automated mass production industry work
produces fairly precise labour contracts with tight formal man-
agement control, but service industries contain many jobs
where very imprecise labour contracts exist and consequently
more informal control processes are needed. It follows that
labour management in manufacturing and in service industries
is a different task. The argument here is that the more impre-
cision the greater will be the significance of the labour contract
to the manager-worker relationship. What this actually means,
is that more of the relationship will be based on assumptions
and unspoken understanding rather than overt control mea-
of the
of the
One Oneof theoftraps
the traps
that that
so often
so often
fall into
fall into
is to isuseto theuse the
satisfaction-dissatisfaction frameframe
of reference
of reference as the as principal
the principal
methodmethodof interpreting
of interpreting employee
behaviour. It is Itimportant,
is important,
but itbutis itnotis the
not solethe sole
frameframeof reference
of referenceavailable.
ThereThere are are
wayswaysof seeing.
of seeing.
WhatWhat the notion
the notion of theoflabour
the labour
tells ustellsis us
is as
thattheas the
relationshipis basedis based
on unspoken
on unspoken assumptions,
assumptions, muchmuch of what of what
is so isimportant
so important is actually
is actually
The Thenature nature
of these of these
can only
can only
become becomemanifest
by being
by beingtriggered
by someby some
behavioural event. event.
For example,
For example,supposesuppose
that A,thatBA, andB C andworkC work
for you
for all
youwithall with
then then
A leaves
A leavesfor a for
a better
job and
job you
and giveyou A's givejob jobB.toYour
A's to B. Your
relationship with withC may C may
well well
have havebeenbeen basedbasedon two on two
assumptions. C may C may
have have
thought thoughtthat that
he would
he wouldget A'get
s jobA's ifjobsheifleft.
she You
left. You
to give to it
give C to
to it butCto butB.toOnly
B. Only
now now can youcan andyou and
C knowC know that that
your yourassumptions
assumptions werewere nevernever
mutual mutualand andthat, that,
of satisfaction,
of satisfaction,
your your
was always
was always unstable.
may may ensue. ensue.
example,this time
this time
on the onobedi-
the obedi-
ence-discipline dimension.
dimension. Suppose
four four
people people
workwork togethertogether
and one
and dayone the daymanager
the manager is unusually
is unusuallysevere severe
on one on member
one member
of staff.
of staff.
Either Either
intentionallyor not,
or not,
such suchaction action
may may signalsignal
to to
that that
employee and and to the to other
the other
employees that that their their
future future
expectations of discipline
of disciplinemay may
have have
to change.
to change.
This This
little little
exampleexamplemay maybe a trivial
be a trivial
in daily in daily
life, but
life, but
it illustrates
it illustrates
that that
whether whetherthey theyintend intend
it or it or 2 2
not, not,
all managerial
all managerial behaviour
behaviourmay may
be symbolic.
be symbolic. Second,Second,that that $ $
v) v)
communication impacts
on the onpsychological
the psychological
and third,
and third,that that
labour labour
are not are simply
not simplyindi-indi- 8 8
0 0
they theycan be caninterrelated
be interrelated with with
others. others.
EachEach action action
by by
managers is judged
is judgedagainstagainst
the currently
the currentlyheld heldassumptions.
The Thefollowing
statementscan be canmade
be made now now in respect
in respect of of
bw bw
0 0
how howmanagers
managers and workers
and workers relaterelate
to eachto each
other.other. z z
f f
0 A 0relationship
A relationship
at a level
at a level
of unspoken
of unspoken
understandings 2 2
and assumptions,
and assumptions,
as it were,
as it were,
any consideration
any consideration
of sat-
of sat- r r
Lu Lu
or manifest
or manifest
behaviour. I I
I- I-
0 The true nature of the psychological contract remains secret
unless triggered by some event which questions an assump-
tion held by either partner.
0 The two dimensions of the contract can be traded off.
0 Stability may sometimes be achieved by illicit means
amounting to collusion.
0 The scope for these assumptions is determined by the nature
of the job.

Managerial behaviour is a form of

In many respects, it is a frightening thought that all manager-
ial behaviour sends signals - yet it is true. All behaviour com-
municates but it is only symbolic where matters are not
explicit. It is in areas of ambiguity that symbols play such a
large part.
The hotel and catering industry is full of such ambiguity
with lots of jobs where the output is subjectivelydefined. What
this means is that if you unintentionally pass a crumpled table-
cloth in the restaurant you may be sending a message that you
dont care! What you do and what you do not do, speak directly
to your workers by helping them to reinterpret their contracts
with you. What is at stake here is your authority - a subject to
be discussed in Chapter 9.
In conditions where standards are subjective, managers
always try to overcome this subjectivity by standardization,
checklists and other aids which make what is required
more specific. In other words, they try to improve formal
methods of control. The problem is that these can never be
totally successful. What the hotel and catering industry
manager has to realize is that the effective weapons are personal.
Q Example and vigilance with the objective of achieving a shared
w value with the employees as to what constitutes good in the
various circumstances of the operation are effective controls. It
is a trust relationship. This relationship between the nature of a
job and how management can control it, leads to an important
issue for the industry - control versus personal service.
In a bureaucracy, if your problem does not fit the remit of
the person you approach, you will simply be passed on until
either you find someone whose remit embraces your problem
or you are left in high dudgeon. Hotel and catering services are
not natural bureaucracies. The concept of personal service is
about being flexible enough to respond to whatever problem a
guest brings to the desk. To make this response the employees
job must be defined in wide scope and that means a problem
for management, because the greater the scope of an
employees job, the harder it becomes to exert control. Here is
a dilemma and issue f o r managemenr.

If I want customers to have personal service, how much

control can I exert before I stifle the initiative essential
to personal service?

To understand how control might stifle initiative, it is neces-

sary to return to the idea represented by Figure 2.1 of different
jobs allowing different degrees of formal control. The first law
of control is to make whatever it is controllable. Managers with
responsibility for a particular area of activity will want to make
it controllable. This is inevitably a process of standardization
involving putting constraints on the scope of jobs. Thus, man-
agement will try to define the job and reinforce standards by
such devices as procedure manuals, training, reports and incen-
tives. Technology allows management more and more oppor-
tunity to develop formal controls. This is a natural and correct
process, yet it brings with it certain problems. It is a question I-
of role expectations. Management have expectations, but the cc
guest may have different expectations. The incumbents them- s

selves will also have expectations and will interpret their role 0
under pressure from both managers and guests. The approach
of marketing to this problem would be to suggest that a level
of service can be defined. This is only true up to a point. kw
Customers have a way of not conforming to artificial limita- 0
tions. The real alternative to personal service is self-service, but 2
once roles exist that deal with people, it becomes difficult to cc
limit the demands on those roles without incurring a reputa- BE
tion for poor service. It is a question of priorities. There are W
four natural pressures on job priorities: I-
1 To do what is required of you by the control system. In other
words, give priority to what management will see.
2 To do what you are naturally good at or find cosy in the job.
3 To do what you really like in the job.
Andfor service employees:
4 To do what the customers think is important.

The first three dynamic pressures take place in all jobs, but the
fourth, exclusive to personal service workers, can often be a
countervailing pressure to the demands of management. If you
want personal service, and that is an important qualification,
then the danger is of overcontrolling.
3 Motivation

What gets us up in the morning - habit, routine, a sense of

purpose? We make promises to do things and promises to decide
things. Some of these intentions we fulfil, others we dont - why?
Some people get more done than others; some set goals while
others drift along; some cant get started, others cant be stopped.
We are in the realms of motivation. Look at any group of people
performing the same task and the observer will be obliged to con-
clude that some perform better than others. Such individual dif-
ferences are often most marked with wide discrepancies between
the best and the worst. This can be true even when selection has
been carehl and abilities assessed as uniform. Think of your local
football team! Yet cannot differences between individuals be
explained by differences in natural ability, training and experi-
ence? Yes, they can, but it isnt enough. There is another quality
present. That quality is called motivation.
It is the very conspicuousness of individual differences that
has led to motivation taking up a central position in manage-
ment thinking and has led to a primary focus on performance.
Seeing differences in performance as attributed to motivation
has made management interested in influencing motivation in
order to increase performance and in trying to select on the
basis of identified motivation. Not surprisingly, therefore,
management is interested in what motivates and in using the
answer to actually alter employee behaviour. Hotel and cater-
ing management has a real investment in motivation because
most of its jobs require input where effort and personal char-
acter actually matter.
As one might imagine with something so important, theo-
ries abound. These theories fall into two broad categories:
those about what motivates; and those about the process of
motivation - how it works. What most theories assume is that
the best way to describe motivation is as an inner drive - some
kind of decision mechanism which incorporates the will so that
things arent just decided upon but acted upon as well. What
will become apparent is that there is a huge element of chance
in motivating others. This is the message the theories tell us
when the content and process are taken together.
Before asking questions about motivation and how to moti-
vate it is worth pausing to ask the all important question; what
are you motivating them for? The obvious answer is to work
harder and produce more at a better quality but that is not the
only focus of motivation, alternatives would include - motiva-
tion to learn new skills, to let go of old skills, to be loyal to the
organization, to accept change. Because motivation is always
associated with performance it is easy to forget that there are
wider implications and wider applications of motivational

What motivates?
If two managers are left alone for a minute they will talk shop.
After five minutes of sharing problems they will end up talking
about motivation. What is more, the conversation will turn
into a debate about whether money or job satisfaction moti-
vates! This is a legitimate argument but it is flawed. Maybe
they are not alternatives, maybe both motivate, maybe neither,
but above all it is simply too generalized. Motivation has to be
debated at a much more detailed level. A spot of theory.

n Maslow
A very influential writer, Maslows theory is based on the idea
2 of human needs. We have, he argues, physiological and psy-
2z chological needs and these needs are motivations when they are
I unsatisfied.
Maslow categorizes human needs as follows:

0 A need for self actualization (personal growth).

0 A need for self esteem.
0 A need to belong and be loved.
0 A need for safety and security.
A need for food, drink, health, sleep (physiological need).

He argues that these needs emerge as motivations in the hier-

archy as listed above so that as the need below is satisfied, the
next need emerges as a motivation capable of being fulfilled.
This puts a premium on the higher needs because they are
more open-ended and dont have an obvious finite limit. When
you have eaten you have eaten; if you have a house you have a
house; if your friends love you they love you and too much
praise can inflate the need for self-esteem but personal growth
has no obvious limits, although there must be some. It is this
last notion that is so supportive to the advocates of job satis-
faction. If people can grow at work, then as this need can never
be satisfied it will always be a motivator. To do justice to
Maslow, he does recognize there is some overlap in his hierar-
chy and that self-actualization may have limits.
Maslows theory belongs to a humanistic school of thought
which is optimistic in its view of human life and which is con-
cerned with human potential. This brand of psychology
focuses on what individuals are capable of and how they can
realize their potential. Maslow created a theory of motivation
in life not just in work. The fact that this theory has been so
widely acknowledged in the world of work could be because it
represents a humanistic justification for the job satisfaction
movement in the face of the realities of so much boring,
mundane and menial work. If human beings are growth
seeking, potential realizing animals, then industry should not
stultify this process - so the argument goes. The interest of
management in Maslows thinking is that the idea of needs
which can be fulfilled offers a target and a direction to the
application of stimuli like money, interesting tasks or recogni-
tion. This unfortunately carries with it an unfortunate blight
and that is that in trying to stimulate satisfaction managers
tend to see motivation solely in terms of satisfaction and dis-
satisfaction and to see them as one continuous dimension. It is
a matter of degree the argument goes.


Seeing motivation in terms of a continuous dimension of sat-

isfaction or dissatisfaction has the effect of suggesting that all
facets of the work situation have the capability of being both
satisfiers or dissatisfiers and therefore of being motivators. Not
so, suggests Henberg. Usually known as the two-factor theory,
he argues that the work situation can be divided into dissatis-
fiers, that is elements that cause dissatisfaction but which when
satisfied dont motivate - he calls these elements hygiene
factors. Alternatively, there are satisfiers, that is elements of the
work which when satisfied actually motivate.
Note what he is saying here. Elements which satisfy and
those which dissatisfy are not opposites. Elements such as con-
ditions of work, supervision, pay and physical conditions can
cause dissatisfaction and need to be attended to but they do
not motivate people to work harder.
Elements that do that are the work itself, responsibility,
recognition, achievement and advancement. By separating sat-
isfiers from dissatisfiers he creates a zone of neutrality so that
an individuals feelings can go from neutral to satisfaction and
from neutral to dissatisfaction.
The unique contribution of Herzberg is in breaking the
mould of one continuous dimension and at least introducing
the idea of neutrality which also opens up the possibility that
we may be indifferent to certain aspects of work. Henberg is,
however, firmly in the job satisfaction camp. Note that his
motivations are very much to do with recognition needs and
growth needs.
w It could be argued that all this human potential stuff fades
when put against the moral simplicity of having to earn a
living. This imperative argument underpins the pay as the only
real motivator school of thought. It is all a bit too simplistic.
The arguments against the job satisfaction advocates dont
actually need an alternative source of motivation and should be
taken on their own. There are two broad arguments, which are,
first, that there appears to be no great call for job satisfaction
in that a lot of people do fairly mundane and boring work
without conspicuous dissent. The second argument is that,
however one might feel about human potential, much work
simply cannot be organized to meet human potential needs.
Dishwashing and room cleaning cannot be constructed other
than for what they are - mundane work. However, the detec-
tive in you will have noticed that as alibis, these broad argu-
ments dont add up. No possibility of reconstructing the work
to make it interesting and no dissent. True, many people must
be abstracted out and feel like robots but the very lack of
dissent suggests most people have endlessly subtle adaption
systems which can turn moronic work into something, at least
worth possessing, if not even cherishing. Here then is the
dilemma of job satisfaction - the range of elements from which
satisfaction can be gained extends beyond the normal list of job
itself, pay, boss, work group, organization, working conditions,
achievement, advancement, etc. The experience of retired
people and the unemployed shows not just that work itself
makes people valuable to themselves but that individuals latch
on to an array of elements, some of which might seem strange
to the outside observer, some of which are known only to the
incumbent of the job. If managers are seriously interested in
tapping job satisfaction the message is that it is a matter of
detail. First find your satisfiers. One interesting example of the
damage which can be caused by concentrating on work as the
source of job satisfaction is the neglect of the power of the
actual finished product or service to motivate. Previously, it
had always been assumed that only craftsmen like chefs could
derive any satisfaction of this kind because of the pride in their
skills and achievement. It was, to some, astonishing that people
who contributed a fragment, or only indirectly, ro a product or
service could find the result satisfying. This example also sug-
gests that a sense of purpose might be heavily implicated in sat-
The problem with theories based on satisfaction of needs is
that sometimes we come across people who appear to be
denying themselves fulfilment. Altruism, self-sacrificing behav-
iour, even self-destructive behaviour dont, at least, appear to be
need satisfaction activities - yet they might be? A theoretical
framework which might help here is known as self theory. The
argument here is that we construct a subjective world giving
everything meaning in relation to the self.

Snyder and Williams

One of the problems of need theories is that while it may be

obvious why we need food, drink and security, it is not obvious
why we need recognition, advancement and growth and this
they do not explain. We all possess a unique view of the world
and a unique view of ourselves. How we see the environment
and ourselves in it becomes the essence of our individuality. We
develop ways of seeing the environment which enable us to
understand everything we see and like a scientist devise ways of
predicting and controlling our world. We are not new every
morning we awake with knowledge, experience, a mental filing
system for information and above all, an identity.
The essence of yourself needs to develop but also needs to be
maintained in a stable way. Its this maintenance function that
is, for self theory, the overriding need. Needs emerge because
they maintain our conception of ourselves. People who see
themselves as slim adjust their physiological needs. People who
are not sure of their ability seek recognition. It is the image of
the self which is regulating the emergence of needs. It is easy to
envisage that in the world of work an essential branch of our
self-identity would be our occupational identity.
Fundamentally, what self theory is saying is that it is our
need to define ourselves that regulates our needs. In manage-
ment terms this might be considered a further complication.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to conclude the discussion
of what motivates by considering the case of Japanese organi-
zations who answer the question by saying everything does - as
long as it all makes coherent sense! Western writers have concen-
trated on particular aspects of Japanese management such as
quality circles and culture, but have neglected the point that
everything about employment is deliberate. In other words,
every aspect of the individual environment is planned in a
coherent way. The approach embraces needs theory and
attempts to influence the self concept by designing an envi-
ronment that tells a coherent story. The debate about what
aspects of employment motivate may well hi& a truth that they all
do when held together.

How does motivation work?

The simplest way to see the process of motivation is to see it as
a stimulus-response mechanism. The individual perceives a
particular stimulus, say, interesting work or pay and responds
by working harder. Managers manipulate the stimuli in order
to change the behaviour. It is not, alas, as simple as this. When
we look at the process it is easy to see how needs theories and
self theory work together through the medium of perception.
Ask any group of people to do a job for a reward and they
all react in a different way. Not only does motivation vary
between individuals but they respond differently to the same
stimulus. This offers us a clue that the relationship between the
content and process may explain the actual differences between
people that we see.

Expectancy theory

Expectancy theory attempts to explain how a stimulus is

turned into motivation or, put more simply, how a reward pro-
duces an enhanced performance. At the heart of the theory is
something referred to as E. What E stands for is a wider def-
inition of the drive of motivation. Think of as many words as
you can that are similar to effort: energy, enthusiasm, expen-
diture, excitement. They all infer a drive of some kind - moti-
vation. How is the E to be activated? t
The theory suggests a number of simultaneous stages:

1 The strength of the need is felt.

2 The expectancy that E will produce a particular result.
3 The result will reduce the need.

What is being said here is that a person has, and recognizes that
they have, a particular need. This need will have a certain
intensity or strength to it. Management ask for more effort in
return for a particular reward. The person then assesses that by
expending more E it will produce the reward and that this
reward will satisfy their original need. To put it more simply -
the outcome is desired and the effort is expected to produce
this desired outcome. An example would be helpful. A banquet
salesperson is wondering whether or not to make a few more
sales calls. The additional sales will lead to a bonus (stimulus).
The salesperson is aware that they could do with the money
(the need). The expectancy is that by making more calls (effort)
more sales will ensue (performance) and that the bonus will be
forthcoming. However, everything in this calculus is depen-
dent upon the attractiveness of the bonus. Will the bonus
reduce the need? This aspect of attractiveness of the reward is
often referred to as the valence of the reward. If the bonus was
trivial it would reduce the motivation force considerably.
A query, a question and a useful reminder stem from
expectancy theory. The query is over whether people are always
conscious of their needs and are as calculating and rational as the
theory implies. The question that arises is, where do the expec-
tations themselves come from? On what basis do we estimate
that our E will produce the required performance and get the
reward?Previous experience of ourselves in similar circumstances
and previous management behaviour would seem to be our only
guide. This makes consistency in evaluating performance a key
area of managerial behaviour. The useful reminder which this
theory flags up is that to respond to a stimulus, however subjec-
tively, the individual must perceive it clearly and this puts a
premium on unambiguous communication.
So far the process of motivation has been seen entirely in
terms of stimulus-responseconfined within the manager-worker
relationship. Yet another powerful influence on our level of effort
is our feeling of fairness and equity towards other people. Social
Y comparisons are inevitable in a workplace and it would be
n unimaginable that they would not influence behaviour.

Equity theory

Possibly the most readily understandable psychological process,

equity is about feelings of guilt, anxiety, frustration, envy, psy-
chological discomfort, engendered by comparisons with
others. A common enough human process. At work, the focus
is on rewards, effort and investment. People will strive to
restore a sense of equity when inequity is perceived. It is this
restoring process that alters behaviour. It is based on a ratio
between inputs and outputs - the self and the compared other,
each having a ratio.

Self-outcomes < Other outcomes

Inputs Inputs

Here the ratio of the other is greater than for the self, therefore
a feeling of inequity ensues. Examples of inputs and outputs
could be:

Inputs outputs
0 Effort E 0 Pay
0 Education 0 Title
0 Training 0 Status symbol
0 Experiences 0 Benefits
0 Loyalty 0 Timeoff
0 Age 0 Opportunities for overtime

What is important here is that this comparison is trading in

perceptions only, very little may be visible or factual. Effort is
usually fairly conspicuous but other outcomes and inputs,
especially for the compared other, are likely to be guessed.
When inequity is felt, the person will either take action to
achieve equity or alter their perceptions in some way.
The problem with equity theory is that the only avenue for
rectifying inequity is altering effort. This is easy to say but not
so easy to do. Ability plays a part here. Everybody has a natural
pace to the way they work which is not easily and consistently
altered. Try walking abnormally slowly for a while! It may be
better seen as an explanatory theory of relationships between
people and of grievances rather than as a theory of behaviour
So far, the focus has been on motivation to increase perfor-
mance and the assumption has been made that motives can be
found at work and that management can, within certain limits,
influence motivation. Hold on. People dont come to work as a
blank sponge.
It is all too easy for managers to overlook the fact that what
motivates at work may originate outside work and that there
may be some limitations on their ability to motivate, yet this
must be true. Maslows need theory, for example, does not
specify that need satisfaction can only take place in the work-
place. It must be accepted that some of our need and part of
our self-identity comes from home, family, social life and other
aspects of non-work life. The argument here is that to under-
stand motivation it is necessary to broaden the perspective
beyond work.
So far we have looked only at motivation in relation to per-
formance but what makes us perform may be related to other
questions about work. There may be a link between:

0 Why we work.
Why we do a particular job.
Why we work for a particular organization.
Why we give a certain level of performance.

Job choice and motivation

If, for example, we needed some extra money for the family, we
might seek part-time work or seek an organization that offers
good pay for part-time work. The basis of our need is for
money and convenience. Therefore, motivation stimulation
related to these two aspects may be the basis of our perfor-
mance. The suggestion here is that attachment to the labour
market, occupational choice and performance may be related.
The idea that occupational choice and motivation to
perform are related must be of interest to hotel and catering
managers. For a largely unskilled and low paid workforce, what
does t h i s mean for motivation? If the model of the hotel and
catering labour markets means anything, it is that the large
majority of people who work in the industry are unskilled and
therefore have a wide range of unskilled and probably
mundane jobs to choose from. Yet the model shows also that
people tend to stay in the industry, ofien moving from place to
place, and often in and out of work, but by and large staying
inside the wide confines of the industry. If they stay, there must
be something in it; some basis of satisfaction.
Ask most people who seek a career in the industry why they
want to come into the industry and they usually reply that they
like working with people. Not a bad sentiment, but the impli-
cation behind it is that people mean variety. The unpre-
dictability of people together with the fluctuating nature of
business demand creates a variety in work which is appreciated.
Above all, however, is the fact that all jobs, no matter how
mundane, are not regimented. Even the dishwasher does not
have the iron rigidity of the factory production line. There is a
strong not factory theme sitting in this area between job
choice and motivation.
Unlike unskilled work in a factory, people have a degree of
autonomy in their work and we know that all theories of moti-
vation speak of autonomy and control as a need to be satisfied.
The point about mundane work in the hotel and catering
industry is that it at least has the potential to be personalized.
The attractiveness of unskilled hotel and catering work could
be summarized as follows:

0 Convenient;
Easy to learn;
Has variety;
0 Grants autonomy;
0 It is not a factory;
0 You meet people.

Sometimes it is easy for managers to overlook obvious sources

of motivation. In most occupations the reason why we take the
job in the first place influences our self-identity and, therefore,
the way we see things in the job. In evaluating aspects of the
job we are, to an extent, justifying our original good sense in
taking the job. The message here is that a few clues as to a
persons sense of motivation can be obtained through the selec-
tion process.
The way we live and motivation
We have all come across the workaholic who lives only for
work, or the person with a vocation who, while not living to
work, makes work the driving force of their lives in different
ways. These are extreme examples of work values dominating
social values. Is there a case for the opposite scenario where it
is the way we live in society that gives us our motivation?
We are not talking here about the transfer of habits, for
example a painstaking craftsman might well be equally fastidi-
ous at home and an accountant might not be able to resist
checking the household bills. What is at stake here is whether
motivation stems from work or from the way we live.
People have general attitudes to work called orientations to
work. There are three broad types:

1 Instrumental orientation - work is simply a means to an

2 Career orientation - where sacrifices are made for future
3 Communal orientation - simply where work and leisure are
seamlessly drawn together (listen to The Archers!).

These motivations stem from outside work in the first case,

through family-centred life and a desire for material advance-
ment, in the second case through ambition and the social
expectations of getting on and in the third case, through a
desire to live in a community. These categories are ideal types.
The controversial point is that as this big motivation is brought
in with the coat in the morning, management can only go
along with it. This challenges other motivation theories.
This focus on society as the source of motivation rather than
work suggests that society and work may be competing not just
for the time of the individual but as the source of motivation.
The location factor
a Suppose a hotel is located in a geographically isolated outpost.
5 Everyone who works there lives in the local village and the
hotel is the major employer in the locality. Now, suppose some-
thing bad happens at work. For instance, suppose management
makes a bad error which causes a grievance in the workforce.
In such circumstances, everyone will take the grumble home
with them and discuss it with their co-workers out of work.
This will have the effect of crystallizing and magnifying the
grievance. Next morning, they go into work with an anti-man-
agement attitude which is thus likely to further sour relations
and cause more trouble. However, the example here uses some-
thing negative but the process would work just as well for
something positive.
The principle at stake here is called the integration principle
and it emphasizes how such work values can be reinforced or
diluted by the degree to which the workforce is integrated in
the wider local society. If the workforce is by some means iso-
lated from the wider society, then it is likely that their values of
work will be reinforced by life outside work then brought back
to work as an attitude. The form of isolation may be geograph-
ical or related to unsocial hours. The integration argument is
that when workers go home and socialize with workers from
other industries 'talking shop' is less likely and grumbles are
disarmed by comparisons. In these circumstances, what
happens at work stays at work.
The relevance to hotel and catering is fairly obvious.
Employees in the hotel and catering industry are often
physically isolated, work unsocial hours when the rest
of the population is at leisure and live in provided accom-
modation. In these circumstances it would be expected
that work values would be fairly dominant values even out of
hours, but the message for management is that this reinforce-
ment process can work on both positive and negative raw

Motivation and motivating

One of the most common sights in management is to see man-
agers down at heart, blaming themselves when their strategies
to motivate their staff appear not to have worked. They
attribute the cause to themselves. Yet if there is one message
that comes through clearly from the psychologists it is that
motivation is, at best, a game of chance!
You cannot know another persons needs or how they define
themselves. In other words, you dont know what motivates
them. You cannot even be sure they have perceived your strat-
egy. If they have and if it works - great. If they havent or they
have and it doesnt - bad luck. The sin in motivation is not
getting it wrong but is not trying something else. Motivation is
a constant process of trial and error. Criticism should fall on
those who duck out not on those who fail.
We have learned recently that the way we attribute the cause
of a situation we see gives direction to what action we take. The
same is true for motivation. In the absence of firm knowledge
managers make assumptions about people in work. Rather like
orientation to work these are large-scale manager assumptions
about what will get people motivated. A well-known theory:

McGregor polarized the assumptions about people in organi-
zations into two extremes, then went hrther to suggest that
managers adopt either of these extremes which then deter-
mines their style of management. He coined the much quoted
Theory X, Theory Y.

Theory X
The average man is by nature indolent.
He lacks ambition and prefers to be led.
He is inherently self-centred and indifferent to organiza-
tional needs.
0 He is resistant to change.
3 He is gullible and not very bright.
a Theory Y
4 People are not by nature passive or indifferent to organiza-
2z 0
tion needs. If they have become so, it is because of experi-
I ence.
Motivation counts in everybody. Everybody has the poten-
tial and capacity to assume responsibility and to strive to
meet organizational needs.

Depending which pole you adhere to, you would use different
approaches to motivating people.
This is a stick and carrot approach - coercion versus job
satisfaction. Perhaps the real contribution of McGregor is that
he makes the point that although motivation is a separate thing
for each individual, managers tend to use a broad personalized
approach to everyone. They call it their style. Managers cannot
be different to each individual, a personal sense of continuity
and style is part of being a manager.
In a sense, what matters is not so much what motivates but
what works for me. The implication here is that, as a manager,
you have to learn from life and experience. We know that some
people are better people managers than others, but we also
know that people get better at it with experience. That is, pro-
viding that they themselves are open to learning. What this
means is looking continually at the results of your efforts and
being prepared to try different approaches.
This last contention points clearly to one solid fact in the
motivation debate - you, the manager, count because as the
motivator you will never be neutral in the eyes of those who
work for you. In fact, if you ask if there are any certainties, any
sure-fire bets in the what motivates stakes, the answer is a qual-
ified, yes. We know for one thing that no matter whether you
are an X or a Y person, or a pay or job satisfaction advocate,
there are four aspects of work to which an employee is never
neutral, these are:

1 The immediate boss;

2 The pay;
3 Their effort;
4 Their confidence to do the job.

While you come to see them as satisfiers or dissatisfiers or

whether or not they motivate, they are always salient to the
amount of drive being applied in the job.
Notwithstanding the theoretical discussion and the observable
fact of individual differences, common sense would suggest
that there are a number of actions which may or may not con-
stitute motivation but might register as good housekeeping in
this area. These are:

0 Clear communication - people cannot respond to a stimu-

lus if they cannot see it clearly, the manager must convince
that the rewards and the performance are related.
0 Offer valued rewards.
0 Do not over control.
Recognize achievement - recognition appears in every theo-
retical scheme and it accords with our common sense that to
recognize achievement will increase performance.
0 Ensure that rewards are equitable.
Teaching someone something is an excellent basis for being
able to motivate them.
0 Ensure that all aspects of employment tell a coherent story.

4 Negative behaviour

We have all, at some time, had the experience of being either

upset, anxious or angry about something and trying to forget
it by immersing ourselves in work. At first it doesnt work, the
thoughts that made us anxious keep returning. Sometimes it
doesnt work at all. Work and the anxiety compete until the
problem goes away or concentration on work eventually tri-
umphs. The point being made here is that we cannot motivate
ourselves while we are in any way anxious. If you, as a manager,
are trying to motivate a person who is anxious, they simply will
not respond because they will not see what you are doing. The
message is that anxiety intervenes in the motivation process.
This is why any serious consideration of motivation must
include a discussion of the role of, for want of a better phrase,
negative aspects.
A moments reflection tells us that we do not always behave
in a way which represents the way we feel. If you recall from
Chapter 1, our fundamental problem as managers is that we
can only deal with the behaviour that presents itself to us. The
heart of our problem is whether there is a direct relationship
between the way we feel and the way we behave. Can the
former be predicted from the latter? While acknowledging that
there must be many times when there is such a direct relation-
ship - for example feeling hungry makes us eat - intuition sug-
gests that may not always be so.
The relationship is unreliable and it would be wrong to trust
it when you are faced only with behaviour. Either with intent,
or unconsciously, an individual may distort the way they
behave from the genesis of behaviour; feeling. (Note feeling is
not the only source of behaviour, instinct and habit are also
salient, but we are only concerned here with feeling.)
In considering how a person responds to a feeling of psy-
chological discomfort two adaption processes are important,
these are distortion and dilution.

The greatest pressure for us to distort comes from negative feel-
ings. This makes the handling of grievances one of the most
difficult aspects of people management.


Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance may suggest a frame-

work for understanding the feeling and behaviour relationship.
He argues that if we hold inconsistent beliefs, or are forced into
actions we do not believe in, or find the reality of life inconsis-
tent with our expectations, we feel psychological discomfort.
He goes on to argue that we cannot walk around for ever with
such discomfort - it must be 'handled' in some way. The
theory does not suggest what we do to render the feeling impo-
tent, only that we must do something.
The obvious resolution is to take the appropriate action, i.e.
change your belief or do something else. We could also put it
literally out of mind. But we have two other options, we could
blame someone or something else for our predicament or we
could rationalize it away. The whole point about blame and
rationalization processes is that they should be automatic - a
pre-prepared response. Think of the time you tried to give up
something and the kind of excuses you used to yourself when
you failed.
This is not a psychological fancy, it is the daily reality where
tourism is being developed in economies that are still at a sub-
sistence level. Staff who are living at a subsistence level go to
work in a hotel and find themselves in close proximity to rich
tourists. This requires some kind of psychological adjustment
or adaption on the part of the employees if conflict is to be
A pre-requisite of feeling psychological discomfort is to be
aware of some adverse conditions. That awareness may result
from a comparison and may be dispersed by a different, more
favourable comparison. What may intervene between the
feeling and the need to rationalize it away, or take action to
correct it, will be the location of blame and the degree to which
action to alleviate the adverse conditions is actuzlly possible.
The more extreme the feeling of self blame, the more pressure
within to rationalize the condition away or project blame onto
someone else, e.g. management, the unions, human nature!
Indeed, projection of blame may be a form of rationalization.
Furthermore, if you cant see that action is possible then the
pressure to rationalize is that much greater.
One possible outcome of this process is the substitution of
one grievance for another. Frustrated promotion may come.out
as a demand for more money. Difficulty with a supervisor may
come out as a grumble about the amount of work. Always
assuming grievance is voiced at all, the result might be simply
leaving employment.
The process of rationalization is encouraged by a number of
influences, notably:

Your authority;
0 The articulacy of the grievant;
Likely outcome.

Authority is always slightly intimidating. There is always, in

authority relationships, a danger that subordinates will not say
what they really mean or want to say. Similarly, it is all too easy
to overlook the fact that some people may not have the vocab-
ulary to express what they feel. a
By far the commonest influence on a grievance is the indi- 3
viduals perception of the likely outcome. Will it be successful z
and what will it cost? All this adds doubt and makes the actual w
interpretation that much more difficult. Notwithstanding the w
problem of distortion, there is yet a further complication.
When considering the question of what motivates, we sug-
gested an expanded range of job attributes should be consid-
ered. However, it must be obvious that each of these attributes
will attract a different intensity offieling. For example, a chef
may hate the management, hate the pay, be indifferent to the
work group, but love what he actually does. A poor pay rise
may produce a mild grumble, but a sudden de-skilling would
produce an explosion! In other words, satisfaction and dissatis-
faction trade with each other. This is why a small thing can so
often trigger a surprisingly hostile reaction.

Conceptual framework
Figure 4.1 attempts to conceptualize the passage of a feeling of
psychological discomfort going through the influence of dilu-
tion of intensity through an assessment of possible outcome to
the individual handling the feeling.
It is clear now that the link between dissatisfaction and
behaviour may not be direct. Individuals may endure abject
deprivation, they may rationalize their grievance away and

Feeling psychological
discomfort(anger, anxiety)

i Feeling has a
particular intensity
diluted by other

Assessment of likely
courses of action and
mobable results

Put it
somebody direct substitute out of
else away action action mind

Figure 4.1
their resultant behaviour may be more strategic than relevant
to their feelings. All this adds doubt. Certainly it would be dif-
ficult to predict that a particular form of behaviour would
follow from a specific grievance, even if it could be identified!
This problem of identifying cause is unfortunately not a simple
one of seeking to unravel the processes of rationalization and
strategy; there is the serious problem of multiple causation and
cumulative causation. There may be many things wrong at the
same time and, while they may not all be pressing, accumula-
tion can occur with the result that the behaviour may be only
looking to the most salient of the grievances, making life diffi-
cult for possible solutions. It is not just a case of the pays
rotten, the tools are falling apart and I cant stand the supervi-
sor. Any one issue can cause a variety of dissatisfactions.

How should we approach

It is not managements task to solve all the personal problems
of the staff, therefore the first question posed is: How far
should managers get involved? One obvious answer is to the
extent that productivity is being adversely affected by the griev-
ance. That is not so easy to judge and it may be acting too late.
If they are out of the door there is no point in intervening.
Anyway, this whole area is a bit of a minefield. One mans solu-
tion may be another mans grievance - you may unknowingly
rob Peter to pay Paul. Is there a way through? Well, there are
three considerations here - philosophy, authority and proce-

A philosophy 3
If you went to the doctor complaining of a pain in your shoul- 3
der, he would examine you and possibly locate the cause of m
your problem as something wrong with your forearm. He
would, therefore, treat the forearm. In other words, look at the $
symptoms, find the cause and treat the cause. All very logical, Ez
scientific and sensible. Yet in the case of management, wrong!
Here is a point where management and science part company.
Managers must treat the symptoms as well as the causes. If
someone says they have a problem with pay, but you have
found the cause to be the relations with the supervisor, both
the real problem and the workers own interpretation have to
be treated seriously because they are both real to the individ-

Your authority

Your authority is a barrier. Perhaps the sensible way forward

here is to conduct your authority in such a way as to be seen as
being approachable. One way of solving this is a willingness
to come out of your territory. We are not like animals, but we
are possessive about bits of space. Listening in another persons
space at least helps to break down the barrier of your authority.


The importance of having a recognized procedure for griev-

ances is that it introduces an element of justice into the affair,
and at the same time sidesteps the problems of authority and
inarticulateness. It also has the merit of taking some of the
emotion out of the grievance. By going to the procedure, the
person has taken some action to alleviate the psychological dis-
comfort. What is left is not the desire for a full settlement of
their case, but the desire for justice. The procedure at least
offers an outcome, if not the desired outcome. There are a lot
of problems associated with grievance procedures but when
they work they are an attribute to labour management and can
prevent people settling their grievances with their feet, i.e.
walking out.
Good habits
Avoid promises.
Take what people say seriously.
Investigate thoroughly.
Avoid favours.
0 Avoid reciprocal deals.
5 Groups and teams

Go into a restaurant or kitchen or to any behind the scenes area

and you will often see some physical similarities between
people working in the same area. They might, for example, be
roughly the same age or the same sex or both. They might all
have little education or all be graduates or all have the same
social origin. What you will notice, is that as the similarities
pile up the more homogeneous the people become, the more
you tend to think of them as a group and the more they may
see themselves as having a common identity. It is not that phys-
ical similarity causes groups to form, it is just that they may
kick the thought process in that direction.
You will become aware that dealing with a group of individ-
uals is not quite the same as dealing with one individual. The
approach, the skills - something more is required when you
have to manage a group of people. Managers like to talk of
teams and teamwork but these words are both difficult to
define, let alone achieve. Giving a set of individuals a group
task to do wont, of itself, form them into groups. Putting on a
coloured shirt and running on to a field with others similarly
attired wont make them a team! Yet teamwork can be seen and
felt - it is a tangible thing. The real problem is that we organ-
ize people into groups, call them teams but dont look to see if
they are actually behaving like groups or teams. The words
group and team tend to be used coterminously, but one
expression is central to both concepts and that is common
It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that managing
people is an activity involving problems between them (the
workers) and us (the management). A few minutes acquain-
tance with people management will introduce you to another
significant dimension - the relationships between individual
workers and between groups of workers. This relationship, if
you like, between them and them is just as crucial to the
technological process and productivity achievement as the rela-
tionship between management and workers.
Managements interest in understanding group behaviour is
founded on four premises:

1 If people behave differently when they are part of a group

than when they are just a set of individuals it is essential for
managers to be able to recognize when a set of individuals is
a group.
2 Because productivity is achieved in different ways by a group
as by individuals, it is essential to be able to recognize the
features that produce productivity in groups.
3 Although managers have the choice of organizing work
either on a group basis or an individual basis (subject to
technological constraints), in real life the distinction is not
always so clear. Often work is organized either in an indi-
vidualistic mode with group overtones or the other way
around. Being able to assess the productivity implications of
this is an important managerial skill.
4 When is a group a team? If it is either, does it need leader-
ship? If so, are there any special reasons that make the role
of the leader more crucial in some circumstances than
others? This is a difficult area - leadership and teamwork.
What is clear, however, is that managers should at least
appreciate their role as leaders and be able to see when the
label team might be appropriate.
The two central questions raised here are: When is a set of indi-
viduals a group? and on what does group productivity depend?
There are two clues to the first question - if they behave like a n
group and if they display own-group favouritism. At this stage, a
this is not too helpful. In the case of productivity, if managers a
are going to organize work on a group basis, that is as a set of
interdependent tasks, then there must be something in it for
management, that is higher output. If a set of individuals
working alone could produce the same or greater output why
organize it on a group basis? The implication here is that
groups have some special quality that individuals lack - what is
it?To understand both these questions the place to start is what
psychology calls group process.

Group process
There are four principal components of this process:
conformity to norms; cohesiveness in performance; success-
ful image; and attachment. It is described as a process
because each component is dependent upon the other three. To
understand this relationship it is probably best to begin
with what we can actually observe - conformity to norms and
cohesion. Not only is it observable but we can feel it ourselves.
We are all individuals, we proclaim thus, yet on occasions we
dress and behave in the particular way which is expected of us.
As long as everybody else does it, it remains a social conven-
tion, a group norm. Put on a coloured jersey and run onto a
field and we are part of something which is more than just our-
selves. Jogging is less boring and less tiring when done with
As they are central to the process - what are group norms?
They are ideas in the minds of members of what members
should do, ought to do and are expected to do in prescribed
circumstances. The character of a norm is both that of police-
man, in the sense that if we behave in a way that departs from
the norm the group will, in some way, punish us back into line,
and a secret policeman in that we may prevent ourselves from
departing from the norm by feeling guilty. If this is what group
norms are, how do they form? It is essentially a social process.
Obviously at the very beginning there are no norms, so a
simultaneous process of interaction begins in which each
member emits a certain behaviour (talking, exhibiting an atti-
tude, expressing an opinion, posture, dress, manner, speech,
etc.) which is either accepted or rejected by others. After a
while, each member is aware of how far they can go and what
is acceptable and unacceptable. There will, of course, be indi-
vidual differences and varying interaction patterns. In a sense
this is the mechanics of norm formation, it doesnt really
explain the norms that result. In those stakes there are a
number of contenders, notably the majority view, consistency,
leadership and consensus.
In practice, groups tend to have a wide range of norms even
sometimes covering behaviour away from the group. There are
a number of certainties here. You can be sure that there will be
norms of performance in relation to quantity and quality, what
we think of the management, particular managers, the food,
the pay, punctuality and other groups. Norms are one of the
defining qualities of groups but they dont actually produce the
productivity, what does that is cohesion.
If normative behaviour is expected behaviour, then
cohesive behaviour is anticipated behaviour. The productivity
of a group depends on its cohesiveness; the ability of its
members to work like a machine anticipating each others
behaviour. Without the benefits of cohesion you might as well
break it up into a set of individual tasks (assuming that is a pos-
Normative behaviour and cohesiveness are two tangible out-
comes of group formation but there is another such outcome.
Over time, a group will create for itself a self image and a rep-
utational image in the outside environment. What seems clear
is that this image must be one of success - defined in its own
terms. The point here is that the groups way of defining
success should be managements way as well. This is not auto-
matic and it is possible for groups to define themselves in an
anti-management mode.
So far, it has been suggested that groups have norms, can
achieve cohesion and define themselves as successfbl, but all
this depends on members wanting to be part of the group. The
glue which binds them is the degree of attachment of each
member. Break the attachment and the rest falls apart. I
What we have explored here is a circular process or dynamic. 3
To be productive the group must be cohesive and to be that it 0
must be successful in achieving its norms, all of which depends a
on the maintenance of attachment. n
A number of consequences appear to be relevant to man- 80
0 Managers must not expect an individual to give their best
personal performance level in a group task.
0 Productivity depends on cohesion in a group task.
0 To break a group norm is to break cohesion and put pro-
ductivity at risk.

What you see from the outside is the degree of cohesion. Just a
few minutes watching a kitchen brigade can tell you if they are
anticipating each other. If that anticipation is not there, then
simply calling them a group wont make them anything more
than a set of individuals who happen to be all wearing white.

Group identity
At the heart of group process is the idea of attachment. If
groups are about conformity why do we do it? Why attach our-
selves to a group? Membership is rarely compulsory even at
work. In fact, one of the ways by which we might be able to
tell, from the outside, if a set of people is a group, is whether
they display group favouritism.
Part of our self-identity comes from affdiations to groups.
These attachments may be simply emotion association or real
membership, but they become defining qualities -what we are.
As group affiliations are part of our identity, we will invest our
commitment with a positive character. In other words, we seek
something positive through group associations. Crucially, this
means that we will favour any group to which we are affiliated.
The behavioural effect of this is called own-group bias. As we
would favour our own-group, we would define it as different
and better than some other identified group - the out-group.
The importance of this idea is that first of all it puts onto any
group a characteristic that can be seen from the outside, that is
w favouritism of the own-group, which can thus be used as an
identifying characteristic. Second, the concept of own-groups
and out-groups suggests a framework for understanding inter-
group behaviour.
What is being said here is that attachment carries a positive
quality which means that one way of identifying a set of indi-
viduals as a real group is if they are clearly favouring themselves
and have a clear out-group which they deprecate. Here is a
basis for understanding relationships between groups.

Intergroup relations
If we have two groups who are in some way in competition
with each other, then we might expect them to see each other
in terms of own-groups and out-groups and find ways of defin-
ing themselves as better than the others. However, the case of
competition is only the obvious one. What is being suggested
here is that groups must have some other set of people who
they distinguished themselves from they are not us and we are
not them, thank goodness!. This form of intergroup relations
can be kept on purely a perceptual level in which case it is of
only mild interest to managers. Alas, it rarely stays at this
harmless level and can intrude into operational matters as lack
of cooperation, and have serious implications for status and
prestige, not to mention pay comparisons. Front office and
housekeeping, kitchen and restaurant all have built-in con-
flicts, but they are all supposed to be on the same side! If each
saw the other as an out-group, then operational problems
could ensue.

The organization of work -

individualistic or group
The real problem with understanding groups is that work itself
rarely falls simply into either a group mode of operation or an
individual mode. Most work processes have overtones of both.
It would be appropriate at this point to differentiate purely
individual work from purely group work. cn
Individual work: n
0 Totally autonomous tasks; cn
0 Independently resourced; 3

Only vertical communication required; 2(!I

0 Individual differences in status only accepted.

Group work:

An interdependent set of tasks;

0 Uniform standards required;
0 Shared resources;
0 Competition for scarce resources.

A kitchen would clearly fall towards the group category with

independent tasks brought together by interdependence of
timing and standard. A restaurant is essentially a set of indi-
vidual tasks which are surrounded by group overtones, namely
the need for uniformity of standards and the distribution of
equipment and customers.

A useful way of seeing work groups is as follows:

0 The technicalgroup To what degree or in what combination

is the work organized on a group or individual basis?
0 The socialgroup A social group may form even when the
tasks are individualistic. For example, a group of waiters
who are the same age and nationality may form a group
which will bring group process to bear on what is essentially
individual work.
0 The earnings group Fundamentally, the pay system should
follow the technical system. If the task is a genuine group
task, why not use a group incentive scheme? Ideas such as
pooled tips are an acknowledgement that in a restaurant
individual tasks and effort exist in a group setting.

The important point here is that these formations should not

conflict with each other. You cannot do much about social
group formation, but certainly the pay system and the work
9 system should be in harmony.
g Leadership and groups
a It is quite easy to spot sets of individuals who are not yet a
I group. They meet and someone says what shall we do now? or
who is going to start first? or who is going to do what?.
Eventually someone makes a decision. At work this isnt usually
left to simply emerge, it is given to the appointed leader to
make. Herein lies a problem. If the leader is appointed, are they
part of the group - sharing its group process? A common sen-
timent such as you cant be one of the lads and expect them
to respect you suggests that the leader is outside the group.
What this expression really means is that groups have norms of
both a work-orientated and social character and that they are
interwoven and tend to be pervasive outside work as well. The
basic argument is that too much social closeness undermines
authority. The contrary argument would be that the distance
between the leader and the led would itself be a group norm.
This argument suggests that leaders can be within groups. To
see the real problem, it is best to look first at the case of the
emergent leader.
The scene is a boatload of shipwrecked souls, cast out on the
ocean with not a sailor aboard. They need a leader. Let us
suppose one of their number stands up and shouts Follow me,
I shall lead you to safety. They might well push him or her
overboard, but a challenge has been issued. If everyone in the
boat, however conditionally, acquiesces to that persons leader-
ship, they have all simultaneously agreed to be inferior to the
leader. This is the groups first norm! Thus, the emergence of a
leader and the embryo formation of a group occur causally and
simultaneously. This gives the emergent leader a running start.
In the world of work, however, most leaders are appointed.
This gives them the disadvantage of not knowing the group
norms, but the advantage of having a readymade distance
from the led. Sometimes leaders are appointed from the group.
They have the advantage of knowing the groups norms, but
the disadvantage of having to make more distance and recon-
cile conflicting interests and loyalties. This is not an arid acad-
emic debate because the question of whether or not the leader
is part of the group becomes particularly crucial when, as in the
hotel and catering industry, quality standards are subjective n

and require some form of normative agreement as to what is U
good, proper or expected. No leader can be everywhere check- 2
ing on everything and if the standards are subjectively mea-
sured, then group consensus as to what is good turned into a
norm is the maintenance process. This does not excuse the
leader from example and vigilance but does embroil them in
the group process that sets and maintains the standards.
The role of any leader in any group is always, first and fore-
most, one of communicating what has to be achieved, then
deciding on the distribution of the workload, decision making
responsibility and rewards. An integrated approach to this role
is presented by Adair.

Adair developed a concept of leadership he called action-

centred leadershipwhich recognized that in any group activity,
three things were happening simultaneously. A task was being
performed, a set of people were having to act in an interde-
pendent way and each individual was undergoing a process of
learning. The great merit of this concept was that it saw the
task, the group and the individual as part of one process which
it was the leaders responsibility to integrate. In this concept,
the leader had three objectives - to achieve the task, to build
the team and to develop each individual. Central to the
achievement of these objectives is to judge each decision by its
effect on the task, on the group and on the individual who has
to implement it. Like other good ideas action-centred leader-
ship has a simplicity which is not contradicted by psychologi-
cal theory. It has the additional merit of becoming a good
habit in a wide range of personality types. It gets easier with
Although the role of the leader is always concerned with
setting objectives and distributing resources, the task of team
building, that is getting the common identity of the group to
serve the productive aim of the group, is made harder but
w perhaps more crucial in particular circumstances. These are:

Attachment to the group is involuntary and weak.

0 The task of the group is actually an individualistic one.
0 There is structured competition within the group.
The group is not socially homogeneous.
The task is made easier if:

Attachment is strong.
0 The task is a group task.
0 The more personal characteristics the group has in common,
for example all females, all same age, all students, etc.

6 Commitment, job
satisfaction and

A concern for quality needs

employee commitment
The moment an organization adopts a policy which empha-
sizes quality then it has to rethink its approach to motivation.
In a service industry where customers are dealt with face to face
there can be no question of high quality coexisting with high
levels of labour turnover. Even when there is an efficient train-
ing function, the constant appearance of new faces prevents a
degree of continuity taking root. Such continuity is essential to
good quality service.
It is a concern for quality that has refocused the perspective
from the problems and benefits of high labour turnover
towards the idea of employee commitment. In other words,
emphasis is now on how can we keep our valued employees.
Keeping them automatically implies the question, how can we
motivate them to a level of performance beyond what might be
expected from secure employment to a level based on taking
responsibility and being actively involved?To have this greater
expection of employees is essential because continuity alone
does not make for quality service. There is always the chance
that the performance of a stable workforce can go stale.
Commitment by employees automatically means greater
commitment from managers who must possess a wider range
of motivational techniques than was the case with a workforce
that was ever changing. It is true that in most service organiza-
tions there are always stable and unstable elements in the work-
foce. However, it is clear from the analysis of the labour
markets of labour intensive service industries that managers
have, in the past, chosen to manage the whole workforce in a
style appropriate to an unstable element of that workforce.
This changes once quality becomes a priority. Management
polices must then have a style and content that suits the needs
of a stable workforce.
Whilst it is easy to imagine the relationship between job sat-
isfaction and labour turnover, the relationship between job sat-
isfaction and commitment is more complex and is, in some
respects, rather surprising. One would expect labour turnover to
decline as job satisfaction and commitment increase. However,
what is the direction of influence between job satisfaction and
commitment? If an employee is more satisfied are they also
more committed or does commitment cause satisfaction?
To understand the relationship between this trio of concepts
it is necessary to start with one behavioural aspect, that of
people leaving. Whether they leave or stay does act as an indi- z
cator of both job satisfaction and commitment. However, the
key to this matter is the pivotal concept of job satisfaction. It is
pivotal because it will be shown that both labour turnover and
commitment are dependent upon it. If a new perspective is 5
taken on job satisfaction, one which is not concerned with n
questions of what motivates, then the role of job satisfaction a
becomes clearer. The new perspective is to see it as a process 0
not just as content which gratifies needs. 0

Labour turnover; reversing the m

Why do people stay with an organization?

Habit? - a comfortable feeling like an old overcoat.

0 The self justifying nature of routine.
0 What you do you come to believe in eventually no matter
what you thought at first?
0 A need for social identity.
0 A reciprocal exchange with an organization.
0 A calculative-instrumental exchange
0 Fear of change and new horizons
0 A need for purposeful life activity.

These reasons are not mutually exclusive and often their

boundaries are blurred. Nor are people always aware of the
reasons for staying. Almost by definition the rationale becomes
a habit.

Every individual makes their own job

satisfaction; it is a process
Motivation theory shows us what elements of employment and
work can motivate. In motivational theory individual differ-
ences between people and changes within the same person in
different circumstances and over time, are explained by differ-
ent levels of individual need and changes to those needs. What
has to be explained is how changes come about? In other words
accepting changes in personal need, how does the individual
construe these changes? There must a process at work here
involving both personal needs and situational variables. Note
what is being said here, that job satisfaction is not just a matter
of satisfying needs but also of making the social and physical
environment work for them.
Every individual makes their own satisfaction. The individ-
ual puts together their psychological and social needs with all
the elements of the situation as they find it and produces a
concept of job satisfaction of their own. In other words job sat-
isfaction is manufactured. Very much a bespoke creation. The
assumption is that, even if individuals are not rational or real-
istic the situation imposes both on them. Whatever satisfaction
there is to be had must lie in their objective situation. In other
words it is only their situation which can satisfy their actual
needs. It cannot come from anywhere else. Even ambitions and
dreams have their centre of gravity in the persons current situ-
ation. The expression where do I go from here captures this
notion of things being rooted in the reality of the present. This
is not to say that everybody will be able to create an acceptable
level of job satisfaction. For some the level of satisfaction
created remains unsatisfactory which may in turn lead to
labour turnover.
There are five processes that enable people to create their
own satisfaction. Each of them works through either changes
of needs or are responses to stimuli from the work environ-
ment. The processes are:

1 Information processing;
2 Selecting particular attributes;
3 Ordering attributes;
4 Trade offs;
5 Reselection and reordering over time.

For the purposes of understanding these processes it would be

useful to work from a hypothetical example. An individual has
some personal needs which relate to work. These needs are
expressed in a range of job attributes which they look for in z
selecting a job and hope to find in the job. Not all attributes of 5
a job are selected and those that are, exist in a rank order of 5
some kind, for example, working in a stimulating group comes
before pay which ranks above interesting tasks, etc. All very
well, but how does it actually work? As the sole source of satis-
faction is the working environment then the individual takes in 6
the information there and reassesses their range and rank of Q
favoured job attributes. No good wanting autonomy if the I-
place runs on close supervision! 2
What then happens when some of the favoured job k
attributes are not available in that particular environment? (I)
One solution is to leave but another is to trade-off the costs 9
and benefits in order to get a working set of job attribute I-

satisfied. For example, the pay is poor but the boss is nice, W
the group is attractive even if the work is boring, etc. In this k
way job satisfaction is manufactured by the individual. It must
be said that if there are particular and intensely felt needs that 8
are not available then the most likely form of behaviour is to

What is commitment? It it just

motivation by another name?
No. It is a conscious affirmation of loyalty to something or
somebody. As commitment in secret is rather a redundant
idea, the concept implies some form of behaviour which
openly expresses this state of loyalty. It may be as mundane as
not leaving or something more affirmative such as extra moti-
vation. A hrther complication comes with the focus of com-
mitment. Within the work environment there are many
potential targets:

Job commitment;
Tasks within a job;
Occupational commitment;
Career commitment;
Organizational commitment;
Work group attachment;
Commitment to a profession.


the organization is the actual situation for all these types of
commitment, they are all variations on the theme of organiza-
tional commitment. They are not. If the primary aim is to
create organizational commitment then loyalty to a task, an
occupation, a profession, or to personal advancement can run
counter to the concept of the organization as the emotional
home and source of stimulus.
What is organizational commitment?
Definitions abound but perhaps the clearest way to describe
organizational commitment is to draw a picture of the behav-
iour that is likely to be found in an employee who is specifi-
cally committed to an organization.
Beyond the obvious likelihood of punctuality, reliability and
cooperativeness, three deeper aspects of commitment may be
present and visible. These are;

1 An emotional attachment to the aims and values of the organ-

ization. This attachment is often expressed through pride in
the name of the company.
2 A willingness that goes beyond normative expectations.
3 Being prepared to push instrumentality into the back-
ground. Notice, pushing it away from performance but not
abandoning it!

In a sense, commitment has one advantage for management

over motivation in that whilst motivation has to be demon-
strated to be acknowledged, commitment actually has to be
openly declared in some way by both parties. Commitment
implies going public.
A common theme that runs through the ideas on commit-
ment is the concept of exchange, that is, giving energy and
time in return for rewards.
This brings together the basic ideas of motivation theory Z
with ideas on work environment in that, people come to organ-
izations with needs, desires and skills. If the organization pro-
vides the opportunity for abilities to be utilized and for some 2
needs to be satisfied in a consistent and dependable way then 5
the possibility of commitment is enhanced. By contrast, when n
this is not the case then the chance of achieving commmitment Q
is diminished. 0
This idea of exchange not only reconfirms that the instru-
mental nature of employment is never far from the surface but
also that it fits exactly into one of the key elements of the job
satisfaction process, that of exchanging attributes. Here we
have stumbled upon the link between job satisfaction and
The exchange idea must, in operation, be a judgement made
after some time, e.g. Lets take a rain check. Im giving this
much and Im getting this back. Yes, its worth committing, no
it is not worth it. The process of forming a judgement by
summing up both sides of an equation is only possible through
the job satisfaction process itself. In other words, only after
manipulating and altering valued attributes through an
exchange process and then seeing if satisfaction is attainable, is
a decision to commit made. If this is true, then we would
expect to see commitment following job satisfaction with
perhaps a small time lag. This is indeed the case but there is an
extra twist in the tail.
If the progress of an employee is examined over a period of
time starting from the moment they agree to join the organi-
zation then a pattern emerges that slightly changes the rela-
tionship between job satisfaction and commitment just
described. At this point two new terms are introduced. These
are, entrenchment and re-commitment.
A brief overview of the progress of a newcomer into an organ-
ization would be through a series of stages.

Stage Behaviour
Pre-entry stage Anticipation
Early stage Initiation through socialization
Settling in Time to evaluate job satisfaction
Settled in If job satisfaction is high then the
employee re-commits. If job satisfaction is
low then the employee does not re-

What is happening here is that commitment is dependent not

just on job satisfaction but on job satisfaction being main-
tained to the time when a reappraisal or 'taking a rain check'
takes place. In other words, achieving job satisfaction at the
very beginning is good but not a precursor of commitment. If,
and only if, job satisfaction is maintained does the employee
commit. What follows this commitment is a form of entrench-
ment whereby the employee, so to speak, puts down roots.
What is the psychological value of
The real value of organizational commitment is in its capacity
to facilitate change. If the individual is focused on the organi-
zation rather than the job or the career or profession then the
reception accorded to change is slightly different than if com-
mitment was not present.
In the chapter on motivation it was suggested there is a need
to expand the concept a little. When applying an incentive,
what are we trying to achieve?

0 To get people to work harder?

0 Be more loyal?
0 Be flexible?
0 Be prepared to abandon old skills?
Be prepared to learn new skills?

The last three objectives all carry the fear of change and require
cooperation. The committed environment has an advantage
over mere good motivational practices in this important area.
The lessons for managers z

The main point for managers is that, given that they want a
stable workforce, then job satisfaction must be a goal. 5n
However, the strategy must be to encourage satisfaction at the Z
outset through a good induction process but more importantly z

to have an early appraisal at between four to six months to see Q

if satisfaction has been maintained. The actual point when the t;
employee considers commitment and entrenchment cannot be cn
known but it is almost certainly to be within the first six k
months. m
If commitment is a desired aim then it can be reinforced by 4
policies which make the employee a stakeholder in the organi- z

zation. Profit sharing and share holding schemes work well in I
the context of commitment. In a sense they are the public 5I
commitment of management to the committed employee.
If the trend towards organization commitment is seen as a
means to create a new organizational context then the active
principle within that context is the concept of empowerment. In
fact the ideas of commitment and empowerment work in
tandem and form the basis of the concept of quality. In order
to understand what empowerment is it is necessary to recog-
nize that it is about organizational behaviour and about
change. It is a new form of organizational behaviour and struc-
ture which has come about because of a perceived need for
organizational responsiveness and which is itself the mecha-
nism that enables organizations to be responsive.
The idea of empowerment is perhaps often misunderstood.
Such misunderstanding has led to cynicism about the authen-
ticity of empowerment schemes. Responsibility without power
is one cynical view. In a sense, this scepticism is justified
because to work properly empowerment has to be done well.
This requires management to realize what an enormous change
is required of the incumbent of a empowered role. For empow-
erment to work properly, both managers and workers have to
understand the real implications of what the change actually

What is empowerment?
Empowerment is incorporating into an employees role the
authority and means to be responsive to customer require-
ments. It enables the employees to be responsive by ensuring
that the necessary rules of order within the organization do not
interfere with the performance of a task which the customer
Put simply, this means that empowerment is giving the
employees the right to break the rules to serve the customer.
In a real sense this is a risky strategy for management because
rules are always necessary to an organization. It is a balance
between organizational rules and discretion which must be
available quickly.
The idea that employees should have authority and take
responsibility for their actions is not new but it has never
before been allied to a business objective, that is, ensuring cus-
tomers receive a defined quality of product or service. What is
new about the empowerment movement is that it takes a basic
idea from motivation theory that is, that employees respond to
autonomy and achievement, and places it in an overall design
of the production or service. Here human performance is built-
in to the product or service itself rather than being just a factor
of production like working capital.

The logic of empowerment

Perhaps the best way to see the differences in philosophies
between straightforward good management of workers and the
empowerment idea is to see how the empowerment movement
came about. The logic of giving employees authority stems
directly from three factors which have come together simulta-
neously. These are:

1 The advances in computer and telecommunication systems

have led to an increased ability to communicate and an
increased ability to specifjr and control the content of
peoples jobs.
2 Technology has granted the ability to specifjr and therefore Z

to standardize a product or service. At the same time market

competition has led to the need to use that ability to speciG

and standardize to create product differentiation through B

added value. 5
3 A desire to get closer to the customer. The idea that compa- c3
nies must understand the need of their customers has led to a
the simple conclusion that means getting close to them. 0
These three big ideas have led to a number of organizational zv,
changes. k
1 The height of the organizational pyramid is being lowered. 4
Organizations are getting flatter with fewer and fewer levels -I
of authority between the strategy decision makers and the w
shop floor. E2
2 If being able to respond to customer needs is the aim, then P
flexible work practices are essential. The implication here is 0
that roles need to be defined broadly and must not be set in
3 If understanding the customers need is the aim, then those
people who deal directly with the customers are important
employees. The new emphasis is to focus on the perfor-
mance of those employees who deal directly with customers.
4 To take advantage of the flatter organization, the flexible
work practices and the feedback from customers, there has
to be an organizational culture that values change.

In a sense, these organizational changes are the context of

empowerment rather than leading directly to it. What the organ-
izational changes imply is good human relations management
with a focus on development and on individuals. What leads
directly to the notion of empowerment is the realization that it
is never e q f o r an organization to be responsive and that there is
no one ideal structure that will guarantee such responsiveness.
Organization theory has in the past suggested two polar types
of organization: the bureaucratic structure and the organic
structure. Whilst the former is rule bound the latter is more
open, less rule bound, and capable of rapid change. Obviously
the organic model is more responsive than the bureaucratic
one. However, the question remains, is it responsive enough?
The modern answer to this question is No! Organizational
structures need rules, need goals of order otherwise nothing
can be achieved. By definition this places a limit on how
rapidly a structure can change itself. It is this reasoning that has
led to the conclusion that people can be more responsive than
structures and that therefore to go that extra mile for the cus-
tomer requires a personal response rather than an organization
response. This is the heart of empowerment. This is the logic
that leads to the idea of giving people the ability to override
organizational rules and norms to meet specific customer

The limits of empowerment

It must be clear from the context that empowerment is not
about management giving up their responsibility and giving
away their authority to employees who can do what they like.
This is a recipe for chaos. What empowerment is about is
giving employees authority and decision making power within
parameters defined by two variables which are:

1 The definition and nature of the actual product and service

being offered.
2 The boundaries of customer perception of that product or
service and the probable range of discrepancy between the
organizations definition of the product and service and the
customers definition.

In other words, the employee cannot change the product or

service but they can intervene between the organizations idea
of what the product or service is and the customers perception
of it. W e r e they disagree is where the responsiveness of
empowerment plays its major role.
Differences in expectations, the requirement for minor
changes and for minor additions, the idiosyncratic nature of
feedback on satisfaction, all these aspects are best handled by a
person rather than by a set of rules and roles.
The real limits on empowerment come in two forms which


1 Control over resources;

2 The scope of the product and service itself.
Phoney empowerment is when the employee only has the n
power to make a profuse apology but can not put the a
problem right. There must be sufficient resources under the 0
control of the person to be able to put things right. The danger
here is that they may promise more than can be delivered or

that they may extend the product or service beyond that laid
down (and costed) by management. The resource problem in 5m
the context of empowerment requires a closer relationship 4
between managers and workers. F
The management-worker relationship
in the context of empowerment
Clearly there is a strong element of trust required by the idea
of empowerment. This is why the concept is so closely linked
to the policy of encouraging organizational commitment from
employees. Commitment and trust come out of the same
knapsack. Where there is a blurring of boundaries and rules
and where there is a high level of subjectivity, trust becomes the
significant element in the manager-worker response to the cus-
However, trust is not all that is required, knowledge of the
product/service and knowledge of the organization form the
background to trust.
If an employee is going to respond to a customer they must

0 What the product or service is! This means knowing its

limits and its position in relation to other products or ser-
0 What the organization can and cannot do! False promises
end in tears. There are limits in terms of production and in
terms of costs.
0 The rules and norms of the organization. To be sensitive to
the areas of discretion.

This knowledge cannot come about by accident. It requires

careful role definition and training.

Change and learning

It was suggested earlier that the logic of empowerment is based
on the idea that organizations, even organic organizations,
cannot be quickly responsive to customers. There are limits to
how adaptive an organization can be. This is also true of indi-
vidual managers. They cannot do everything, know everything.
It follows therefore that encouraging learning by employees
takes away from managers the potential burden of knowledge
overload. Even if they have the knowledge, managers cannot
remember or be aware of everything at the moment it becomes
required by a customer.
In terms of technical production, the normal situation
would be managers laying down the product and system and
faults being picked up as they occur. This is a deficiency based
approach to quality. The problem is that it is backwards
facing. When a problem occurs it is handled. The empower-
ment approach is the key to prevent problems, to be proactive
in terms of quality. The approach required here is one of con-
tinuous learning by the employee. The development of this
learning begins with training employees to reflect on the
quality of their own work. This is followed by giving them the
authority to change their own work methods to improve the
product. The final stage is to incorporate the capacity to reflect
and change into the definition of the product or service itself.


7 Understanding attitudes

Why learn about attitudes?

What should a manager know about attitudes? This is not an
easy question to answer except that they should know enough
psychology to be able to distinguish between attitudes and
opinions, to know the limitations on how far a perceived atti-
tude indicates motivation and to understand that if an attitude
survey is required it should be designed by professionals. That
said, the sensitive manager looking for clues on employee
behaviour knows at least that attitudes are often conspicuous to
those who wish to listen out for them. This may be helpful in
building up a picture of an individual or group.

Whilst managing people can be complicated at least one aspect
of human psychology is fairly conspicuous - attitudes. They
have entered the daily discourse of managing. You hear refer-
ences to them every day. A manager reflects on selection skills
are one thing, but give me the person with the right attitude.
A manager senses things are not quite right with the workforce
right now we could do with an attitude survey. Even
American slang has entered the language in the form of ... the
problem with him is that hes got attitude meaning of course,
a bad attitude. In a sense there is good and bad news here
because the fact that attitudes are talked about illustrates their
defining quality, that is, that they are positive or negative but,
being conspicuous it is too easy for others, in this case man-
agers, to generalize the overall personality from the apparent
attitude. This is the bad news because attitudes are more com-
plicated and more important than simple guides to employees
People do not walk around with their attitudes printed on T-
shirts. We can observe behaviour because it is always there but
attitudes appear only from time to time to be spotted in the
manner of bird spotting. This quality of being occasionally
visible is shared with another aspect of human behaviour - the
opinion. Consequently one leads to judgement of the other
and more often than not the two concepts become cotermi-
nous. True, peoples opinions on matters often betray their atti-
tudes but that does not mean that attitudes and opinions are
the same thing. They are two distinguishable concepts. This
often leads to confusion in survey work when it is not clear
whether the survey is measuring attitudes or opinions.
Although close cousins they are different and must be mea-
sured differently. Whilst this problem is sometimes awkward it
is reasonably easy to solve. The real problem for attitudes is
their relationship to behaviour.
It would not be unreasonable to suppose that, as attitudes
have a positive/negative quality, then such a quality might be
translated into some form of behaviour. In other words, there
should be some consistency between peoples verbal expressions
of their attitudes towards an object and their behaviour
towards it. Although such a connection is notoriously compli-
cated it is an assumption of the advertising industry that such
a relationship exists.
In terms of learning objectives it is essential to separate atti- v)
tudes from opinions and to accept the complex relationship n
which attitudes have with behaviour. Demarcation lines t
between all the concepts involved are of necessity blurred. !i
Clear distinctions rarely occur, therefore the study of attitudes
automatically embraces opinions, values, beliefs and behaviour.
What is an attitude?
Of the many definitions of attitudes the one quoted below is
perhaps the most famous.

A mental state of readiness, organized through experi-

ence, exerting a direct or dynamic influence upon an indi-
viduals response to all objects and situations which it is

The key words here are organized, experience and influ-

ence. Attitudes are formed by experience and organized in a
coherent way within the self. They are also involved in action.
Exactly how they get involved in action is complicated but the
connection is nevertheless there. The idea of attitudes as states
of readiness is shown by another definition.

A predisposed response to situations, objects, people,

other self defined areas of life. It has both aperceptual and
an affective component. The latter produces a direction in
the attitude - positive or negative. This, in turn can influ-
ence the perceptual element - we see what we want to see!

Unlike the first definition this one draws out the elements of
feeling and evaluation attached to attitudes and invests them
with the power to influence how we see things; the love is
blind syndrome.
Neither of these definitions gets across those characteristics
of an attitude that distinguishes it from other aspects of human
psychology, particularly opinions. The key characteristics of an
attitude are firstlyfocus and&$. In other words attitudes tend
to be focused on an object, a person, groups, specific behav-
iour, particular ideas. They also tend to be fairly fixed over
time. This is not to say that they are permanent or that they
cannot be changed, they can. However, evidence suggests that
they are fairly stable in the short and medium term. Secondly,
they are closely related tofeelings whereas opinions may or may
not carry annotations of feeling. Thirdly, they live in groups.
What this means is that some aspects of being human are organ-
ized in a coherent way within the self. To carry positive and
negative components which may be contradictory, for
example, to be liberal and conservative about the same issue, is
inconsistent and will cause dissonance. The more likely
pattern, within the self, would be that someone with say, a pos-
itive attitude towards personal fitness, would also be positive
about healthy eating, clean environment, no smoking, etc. In
other words, there are rope bridges between specific attitudes
which join them together in a coherent way. The sense of
wholeness and identity depends on our inner coherence.
If anything is fixed in life we tend to assume it is anchored
to something. This is true of attitudes. The fixity we associate
with attitudes comes from anchors and reinforcers. Obviously,
a person does not go around thinking of a particular object. No
object is in constant focus therefore if the attitude is anchored,
the anchor must be broader, deeper and wider than a fleeting
focus on an object.
To what is an attitude anchored?

To values - what is desirable and meaningful across a range

of life situations and over time.
0 To culture - shared values, shared norms, shared under-
standing of symbols.
0 Habitual behaviour.
0 To approved behaviour.

If values, culture and behaviour anchor and reinforce attitudes

the question that arises is; where is an attitude anchored? Tied
to a tree like a horse? In a way, yes. The clue comes from the
second definition quoted. The perceptual element of attitudes
suggests that the attitude is anchored in perceptual categories.
If, for one moment, the mind can be envisaged as a set of lock- 3
up garages with some we have forgotten we own, some we 2
cannot remember what they contain, but some we find useful,
it is likely then we put stuff we like in some lock-ups and stuff g
we dont in others.
In other words, our perceptual categories have already been
evaluated - things we like, things we dont like. It is this quality ,(0
of positive-negative within our way of seeing that transfers u:
itself to the attitude and is itself reaffirmed by the positive-neg- n
ative character of the attitude. Mutual reinforcement had to 2
change. The message from the attitude-perception relationship
is that to change an attitude you have to change the way the
object is seen which is the same thing as saying change the way
the object is categorized, move it to another lock-up.

The character of attitudes

0 They are related to a object, a person, an idea, a piece of
behaviour within the individuals environment.
0 They influence perception by influencing the way the indi-
vidual collects information. In turn this relationship
becomes reciprocal. They influence the formation of goals.
They are learnt and enduring.
0 They imply both evaluation and feeling.

Inside an attitude - its components

There are three components within an attitude. These are:

1 Cognitive: This component is concerned with the object

in terms of attention to it, awareness of it, learning
about it, understanding it, placing it in relation to other
The words we associate with this component are con-
cerned with understanding the objects origins, location and
consequences. For example:

Will lead to causes

Goes with yields
Comes from produces
Results in costs

Theflavour is the way we see it.

2 Bebavioural: This component is concerned with the action
implicit in the perception of the object and sees the object
in terms of behaviour, intention and action.
The words we associate with the component are verbs; for
example, buy, sell, hit, vote for, kill, rent to, endorse, hire,
fire, choose, reject.
Theflavour is one of action.
3 Afective: This component is concerned with the object in
terms of interest in, evaluation of, feelings towards, belief in,
The words we associate with this component are for
example, like, dislike, love, hate, want, fear, happy, sad,
angry, bored.
Theflavour is, like it dont like it.

Clearly, the relationship between these components is not one

of constant equal influence. The relative dominance of each
will change according to these circumstances.

How much the person already knows about the object.

0 Whether or not the person can clearly identify the object.
0 How much interest the person has in the object.

Forming and maintaining attitudes

Attitudes are learnt - babies dont have attitudes! They are
learnt by absorbing the culture, through experiences and
through our own behaviour. Although they are personal they
are not determined entirely by the individual. Not only are
attitudes learnt they are also conditioned by the acceptance or
rejection of other people the individual regards as important.
This may be society itself, a group or simply people we like.
This conditioning of attitudes is known as the influence of
social norm.
Because they are personal attitudes perform certainfinctions
for the individual such as:

0 Direct people; moving from the undesirable to the desirable.

Help to define who we are.
0 They give direction to experience. We have learnt something
and our attitudes tell us what to do when the experience is
Attitudes have two distinct relationships with behaviour. It
would be wonderful if we could predict behaviour from atti-
tudes but alas this is not really possible. However, if the notion
of intention to behave is placed between attitudes and behaviour
then careful measurement can produce some predictions.
A more intimate bond between attitudes and behaviour can
be expressed in the conundrum - do I behave a certain way
because of my attitudes or is my attitude an after-the-fact jus-
tification for my behaviour? Both are true.
If we habitually perform certain behaviour then we take on
the appropriate attitude. O n the other hand, if we hold an atti-
tude rooted in some personal value and are confronted with the
need to respond to some stimulus then we are likely to follow
our attitude and behave accordingly.

Attitudes run in packs

Like wolves, attitudes run in packs. The great advantage of this
is that to find and measure an attitude you begin by rounding
up known associates rather in the manner of the police. In
fact the idea of running in packs is a rather flippant expression
of the psychological conditions of concept, organization and of
consistency. The need to be consistent within ourselves. It is
this need for consistency that is so helpful because the discov-
ery of one attitude may lead to the discovery of others. In fact
this relationship between attitudes is one of ever greater para-
meters so that each attitude is subsumed within a larger one.
In other words, each attitude group belongs to a larger atti-
tude group or construct thus forming a hierarchical basis for
internal organization. For example the attitude I hate sport
may be associated with physical laziness, a preference for artis-
tic pursuits, and be subsumed within some larger constraints
such as a dislike of competition, or strong individualism, or
a dislike of being in teams. There are many ways in which one
attitude can be interpreted and it is the task of attitude mea-
surement to find the attitude under investigation through the
manipulation of assumed known associates and assumed larger
constructs. A further example may help to make the idea clear.
If the object of an attitude study is, peoples attitudes
towards a half bottle of wine then a sample of wine drinkers
would be used in the study. To create a survey the researcher
would need to have in mind two artificial ideal types.
Characteristics of people who would be in favour of half bottles
of wine and characteristics of those who would be negative
towards the poor half bottle! The suggested ideal type below
uses constructs that are far wider than mere drinking habits.

Positive Negative
Moderate in all consumption Indulgent
Concern for drink driving Thoughtless about drink
Separates business and pleasure Mixes business and pleasure
Concern for health Not very concerned about

Whether these concepts actually represented the attitude to the

object can only be proved by testing.

Attitude measurement
Seek professional assistance.
8 Pay is never neutral

Pay and leisure

In Chapter 3, we briefly touched on the debate over whether
pay or job satisfaction motivates people; now it is time to look
at pay on its own. It is interesting how easy it is for a legitimate
opinion to overlook the obvious. The advocates of pay as the
prime motivator are, of course, right and wrong. Pay does
motivate in lots of ways, but will people go on increasing this
effort endlessly as more and more increments of pay are added?
Common sense tells us that there must be a physical limit,
but does it stop before that? Yes, it does. There must come a
point when you want to spend your earnings. In other words,
at some stage, effort and leisure begin to compete. That is why
the labour supply curve eventually bends backwards, so that in
the end you get less work for more pay. Figure 8.1 illustrates
the relationship between hours of work and pay.

Figure 8.1
The more horizontal the slope, the better is the incentive,
but the real test of an incentive scheme is to make it go up to
the turnback point, but not beyond it. We cannot have it both
ways - if today is a leisure society, then motivating people to
work will become harder at any level of pay. The model in
Chapter 17 shows that there is a strong pressure in the system
to keep pay low for a majority of workers and that these
workers often work unsocial hours. This does not mean that
the leisure equation doesnt apply to them - it does. Leisure
pursuits can become a priority over effort at any level of
income. It is too easy to think of only rich people having
leisure - they have more leisure and more expensive leisure -
but non-work time can be enjoyed, and therefore valued, no
matter what the income. Managers will notice that low-paid
staff will sometimes decline a pay stimulus such as overtime. It
is worth noting that this whole argument can be turned on its
head and leisure used as a stimulus instead of pay. Leisure has
its own motivational stimulus as well. This points again at
convenience as being the motivational area of the future. The
lessons from the relationship between pay and leisure are first,
that more pay increases the quality of leisure, but always risks
the turnback situation and second, that convenient employ-
ment which dovetails into domestic financial needs and leisure
pursuits is a genuine motivational strategy.

Grumbles, gripes and more

It has been said earlier that pay is never neutral. There are two
reasons for this. O n the one hand it is umbilically linked to
effort, and on the other it is a language everybody understands.
Because of this, you can translate anything about effort into a
value that can be communicated. Everybody needs more aa
money, it is a readily understandable sentiment. This gives 5w
grievances about pay a special legitimacy that others dont have. 2
Problems about the supervisor or some detail of the work are
not translatable currency, people would simply not under-
All of us tend to take our health for granted except when
illness strikes, but even then, at least in the short term, we tend Ga
to think in absolute terms (Im ill) rather than relative terms
(its all very well for you, youre not ill). Pay isnt like that.
When people say they are unhappy with their pay, we do not
really know what it is they are unhappy with. Pay is related to
many things and is interpreted in a number of ways which are
not mutually exclusive. One thing is certain, pay has absolute
value and a relative value.

Interpretations of pay relationships

My pay compared to:

Absolute value - Cost of living going up.. .

0 My effort - Ive worked hard for this.. .
The effort of others - He gets the same as me for less.. .
0 The pay of selected others - I should get as much as.. .
0 Profits - They make enough to pay me a bit more.. .
0 Status - Someone of my status should earn.. .
Summing up effect - This is your life.. .
0 Past sacrifices - I gave up a lot for this.. .

The fourth interpretation the pay of selected others is of par-

ticular interest. Who are the selected others and why have they
been singled out for comparison? If comparison with others is
used as a justification for a pay claim then it certainly matters
who people use for comparison purposes. It is easy to make an
invidious comparison which will certainly produce psycholog-
ical discomfort (see Chapter 4). In fact, workers dont do that.
The underlying principle of comparisons is usually similarity
of skill. In other words, workers compare themselves with
workers who have similar skills and who earn more than they
do! This gives a pay claim a touch of both common sense and
strategy. Tradition also plays a hand here. It is for both these
reasons that pay leagues tend to remain fairly stable over time,
as do company pay structures.
Hotel and catering workers have no others to compare
themselves with if the similar skills principle counts. The hotel
and catering industry is an occupational community with a
unique set of skills. This, coupled with the phenomenon of
occupational rigidity discussed in Chapter 16, means that
comparisons that are made are between employers for the same
Investigators always end up in a maze when seeking the
cause of a pay problem. There is, however, an alternative
suspect which must not be overlooked - the pay system.

Pay and pay systems

Perhaps one of the strongest findings of pay research has been
that people have quite separate feelings about pay and the pay
system which produces their earnings. By pay system, is meant
the system of overtime, bonus, basic, gratuities, etc. used to
make up the final pay packet. The model in Chapter 18 talks
about the need for flexibility of labour supply and the pay
system plays an important role in this, providing earnings flex-
ibility and, at the same time, acting as a grievance handling
mechanism in relation to the effort-reward bargain.
By what means is a pay system a grievance procedure? The
proposition is based on the hnction of the pay system as a reg-
ulator between effort and reward. The particular grievance
referred to here relates to the circumstances where the demands
of the job exceed normal expectations. An individual in their
job adjusts himself to give a level of effort in return for a certain
level of reward. When more effort is demanded, the individual
expects greater reward. This is not specially negotiated: the pay
system simply comes into action and increases the reward. Two
simple examples would be: where extra hours are required over-
time is paid; or where more production is demanded the incen-
tive system adjusts the reward. In other words, the pay system
is the means by which rewards are adjusted in line with fluctu-
arions in effort. An example of the type of pay system which
adjusts in this way is the gratuity system.
The gratuity system rewards this form of extra effort ul

through increased tips or a greater share of the service charge. d

While it would certainly be wrong to infer that staff increase >
their effort only in response to incentives, it would be unreal- z
istic to suggest that this has no influence, or that in the absence
of an adjustment st& would not feel a sense of grievance. G
What the pay system is doing is maintaining a balance
between effort and reward under fluctuating conditions. In a
sense, the gratuity system settles this type of grievance before it
is raised, but not before it is felt. The average size of work
group in the industry is small and, therefore, such effects are
likely to be felt severely. It is not difficult to see the vicious
circle which can follow from this type of situation.
9 Organizations and

Once anyone takes on the role of manager, they assume

authority. Like putting on a coat, they suddenly find they have
an additional quality. At first it may not fit too easily, but with
experience it becomes more comfortable. If we were to look for
some central or pivotal idea which formed the very heart of
understanding management we would probably find two
things - profit and authority. Our concern here is with author-
ity - the right to give orders and command obedience.
Authority owes its pre-eminence to the fact that first, it is
such an intrinsic quality of the role of manager that it becomes
part of the psychology of the role incumbent and second, that
it is the very building block of organization structure.

Perception of authority
It is not unusual for those taking on authority for the first time
to find themselves feeling uncomfortable. This feeling is
engendered by the presence of a difficult question - how do
you know when your authority is working? The answer is by
the way your orders are received and carried out by your sub-
ordinates. Everything is conditional and a matter of degree and
it takes experience to judge when things are going well.
Coterminous with the concept of authority is the idea of legit-
imacy, that is the notion that your right to give orders is
regarded as proper and acceptable by those who are on the
receiving end. Legitimacy, like authority, simultaneously exists
at a general level and rests on specific acts. Thus, in the
employees mind there is a view of management in general and
individual managers in particular. To simplifjr the argument:

1 Employees may accept managements authority in general,

but object or withdraw legitimacy on particular acts of
authority - Ill do anything you ask, but not that.. .
2 Some managers will have stronger authority than others in
the sense that they will be regarded as more legitimate - Ill
do that for her, but not for you!
3 The legitimacy of authority is related to the source of that
authority as seen by the employee. Consequently, there will
be different ways of legitimizing authority.

It is reasonable to assume that not all orders are perceived as

either a reward or a threat; some will simply be obeyed without
feeling. It is also not difficult to imagine that within one organ-
ization some managers will find it easier than others to
command respect and obedience and that any one manager
may be perceived in different ways by different individuals.
What really matters is that managers have the respect of
their employees. It is still, however, worthwhile considering the
various bases of authority. Any managers authority springs
from many sources simultaneously.

Sources of authority
0 Personality:
0 Right of office:
Type of knowledge or expertise;
Knowledge differential with subordinates;
0 Length of service.

A managers authority springs from all these sources simultane-

ously, but what matters is how the individual manager sees
their authority. Part of their self description will include why
people obey my orders. It may well be that one of the sources
is favoured in this self description. In a similar manner, as
authority requires legitimacy, subordinates will have a percep-
tion of what that managers authority is based on and will judge
their behaviour according to that. In other words, it is the
employees judgement of the managers competence that causes
respect or derision. An example would be appropriate. Suppose
a manager defines him- or herself as being highly managerially
trained with a set of skills unique to managers. Subordinates,
however, see this particular managers authority as coming
from the office backed up by organization rules. Here, the
assumptions about authority are not mutual. Does it matter?
The answer to this question is yes and no.
Examples can be found to suit both cases. Often assump-
tions about authority are culturally derived - the hotel and
catering industry would be an example where workers assume
that managers have technical knowledge of the job workers do.
Other industrial workers might be amazed if they found out
that managers could do their job, expecting them to know only
about management. What is clear is that demonstrated com-
petence can override any difficulties that may arise from lack of
mutuality over perceptions of authority.
Five points need to be made about the importance of man-
agers self perceptions of authority and workers perceptions of

1 Perceptions can change over time.

2 Perceptions of authority matter in relationships and form
the basis of obedience. c
3 Demonstrable competence can override any contradictions
between managers perceptions and the workers view.
4 The managers self perception of anything will change as a
they rise up the organization hierarchy. z
5 The managers perception of authority will be influenced by v)

the form of authority embedded in the organization

structure. 52
Everything so far has been concerned with sources of manage-
ment authority as if authority only resided in management. 0
This is true only in the legal sense - other sources of authority,
legitimate or otherwise, are always at large.

Other sources of authority

0 Employee autonomy;
0 Tradition;
0 The status quo;
0 Precedent.

You cannot have it both ways. If either the job cannot be

totally formally controlled or you deliberately ask a worker to
take some responsibility for their work, then you must expect
them to grant themselves authority over it. The consequence of
granting autonomy to a worker is that you grant authority as
well. If, as in the hotel and catering industry, service occupa-
tion standards are in the hands of the servers, then conscien-
tiousness is essential. This can only spring from trust on your
part and a sense of responsibility on the part of the employee.
The formation of an occupational identity and pride in work
is based on the individual taking responsibility for their work.
Not surprisingly, this can lead to clashes between the authority
of managers and that of workers. Two susceptible areas are
standard of output and technological substitution. In the first
case, it would be more difficult for managers to try to change
standards if they did not know how to do the work themselves
- an area where perceptions of authority really count.
Not only can workers claim authority over their own work,
but situations have authority as well. The status quo - how we
have always done things around here - has its own authority,
because it has a self-justifying rationale.
People feel comfortable and are not threatened by the status
quo. A slightly different case is that of tradition. This implies
both a value and an ideal which is worth continuing from the
past. The word traditional cannot really be used to justify
something except when it is describing some activity which is
valued. The authority of tradition lies in the value of whatever
it is maintaining. The status quo need not represent a value at
all. In a similar manner, precedent is a justification only when
it is linked to some value like fairness or equity. In the hotel
and catering industry standards can become traditional values;
when challenged by economics they can be defended only on
the grounds of being appreciated by customers.
The central point here is that these alternative sources of
authority present managers with a challenge when they wish to
make changes.

Authority and structure

This last point leads us towards the question of the relationship
between authority, as a concept, and organizational structure.
Organizations consist of sets of roles, each with areas of
responsibility and authority. These roles are normally arranged
in a hierarchy and the whole purpose of the edifice is to exer-
cise control over the activities of the organization. The organ-
izing principle behind the division of labour, both vertically
and horizontally, is functional rationality, by which is meant
dividing work groups up by clearly different production or
service activities, e.g. kitchen is separated from restaurant ser-
vices which is separated from room cleaning. These activities
must be controlled and there are three broad forms of such
control. First, the form of control could be technical, based on
the control of output or second, bureaucratic, based on rules.
The motto of the former would be the best way to do things
and the latter would be the proper way to do things. Chapter
2 discussed some limitations on technical and bureaucratic
control and therefore the third possibility is normative control
which places a greater burden on ideals and standards as the t
basis of control - the way things should be done. P
The point being made here is that different forms of control f3
require different sources of authority. If the form of control is a
bureaucratic, based on rules, then the form of authority would z
stem from the office rather than any characteristics of the
person holding the office. In such a bureaucratic structure role
incumbents are merely administering rules. If the form of
control is technical, then this too could form the basis of a
bureaucratic structure, but it is more likely to be one in which
the authority basis is technical knowledge differentials. The
greater the degree of scope and authority granted to a role, the
more likely it is that the source of authority will be personality
and knowledge. A charismatic leader does not rely on position
and structure as the source of their authority but on their own
will. There is often a succession problem in roles which use
personality as a basis of authority. Rarely does the successor
exactly match the outgoing incumbent. Replacing Caesar has
always been a problem!
One of the most striking characteristics of the hotel and
catering industry is that the rapid turnover of business requires
strict formal financial controls but the actual activities that rep-
resent that business are very hard to formally control. As long
as consumer demand fluctuates, and there are individual dif-
ferences in performance, this will always be so. For this reason,
the industry tends to have a combination of formal control
mechanisms and fairly rigid role descriptions which give it the
look of a bureaucracy, while at the same time having a struc-
ture which copes with all this variation and subjectivity
through personal authority and leadership. This appears to the
outsider to be very ad hoc.

Power and authority

If authority is a right conferred by a number of sources is that
any different from having power? The two concepts are insep-
arable, but it is important to try to distinguish them. A
common classification of types of power would be as shown in
Table 9.1.

Table 9.1

q p e ofpower Applied
Physical Force
Resource Exchange and bargaining
Position Rules
Expert Knowledge differential and learning opportunities
Personal Persuasion

This classification could just as easily be about sources of

authority. The way to distinguish between them is to see
authority as a right to give orders and power in terms of sanc-
tions and rewards which are a contingent necessity. Rules of
discipline and bargaining strength, for example, come from the
same knapsack - they are both power tools and can be used as
rewards or sanctions.
The difference between power and authority can best be
seen by what they share - both require to be legitimized but in
different ways. If a manager stopped one hours pay from
someone who was late by half an hour that might be accept-
able, but if a days pay was stopped that would be unacceptable.
What is being said here is that the rules of discipline have to be
regarded as legitimate, which in the case of power means fair.
The difference is that the response to an authority problem
would be you dont have the right to tell me to do that while
the response to a power problem might be that is unfair.
To go further, authority and power have a different relation-
ship to responsibility. If responsibility confers authority by
conferring the right to decide it does not automatically confer
the use of any sanctions or rewards. While an area of responsi-
bility justifies authority, power can be justified only in usage
and in terms of fairness and necessity. It is the idea that power
is judged by how it is used, rather than by its existence, that
brings the two concepts back together again. Clearly, if power
is seen to be constantly misused, or blatantly unfair, then sub-
ordinates will begin to question the authority of the user of
power. The less legitimate your authority is, the more you may
need to use power, which only undermines your authority still
more. It is a cycle which is all too easy to get into.
Authority and communication 8
It was suggested in Chapter 2 that all management behaviour z
communicates by sending signals to subordinates. This was v)
particularly so, the argument went, when standards were sub- 0
jective. If the manager failed to see low standards this might be
interpreted by subordinates as the manager not caring. This
idea of signals is important, because it reminds us that every-
thing managers do is connected to the perceptions of their 0
authority and that not all communication is written or oral or
even deliberate.
It is a universal tenet of management that good communi-
cation is a good thing. Like not shooting the cat, it is some-
thing hard to disagree with. Good communication is usually
seen as clear communication. The merit of clarity is usually
seen as giving the recipient of the communication a clear
unambiguous understanding of what is required. Exactly, but
the argument stops too soon. If we go on, then a connection
appears between clarity of communication and perceptions of
authority. Regular clear communication results in:

0 Employees understand what you want and why you want it.
0 Employees realize that you know what you want.
Employees see continuity in your instructions.
Employees begin to understand your logic and feel more
comfortable with your authority, because it cannot spring
0 Employees understand what you stand for.

In other words, the message here is that clarity increases the

legitimacy of your authority, and consequently the respect you
are given, because regular unambiguous communication
encourages the employee to adjust their assumptions of what is
expected of them.

Part Two

Some useful techniques

This page intentionally left blank
1O Productivity

It is not at all uncommon to find some very sophisticated argu-

ments surrounding the concept of productivity - what it is and
how it should be measured can get very complicated some-
times. Hotels and food service operations are part of a class of
units which share characteristics of having perishable products,
a within unit product range and demand which is variable in
the very short term.
These characteristics bequeath to the task of achieving and
measuring productivity two intractable problems which are:

1 Having to account for very short-term changes in demand.

2 Accounting for the discrepancy between those products and
services consumed and those provided, given that many are

These problems can be most usefully seen as two sources of

uncertainty; never being sure how many customers will arrive
and not knowing what they will consume from what is on
offer. The implication of such uncertainty is the practical
problem for management of finding ways to deploy resources
in an optimal form.
At least in the conceptual sense, labour-intensive service
industries have it rather easy for the simple reason that the
demand for labour is direct. Labour does not have the produc-
tivity of a machine. Instead, labour is demanded for what it can
produce directly - clean a room, serve a drink, escort a tour,
etc. There are two very important implications of this, which
1 That productivity is essentially about physical productivity
and human capacity with all the scope for variation that that
2 That the origin of demand for labour is sales. A pattern of
sales or forecast pattern of sales is simultaneously a pattern
of demand for labour.

It follows from this, that productivity in labour-intensive

service industries is essentially abobt the utilization of labour
and in this respect there are two essential management tasks,
which are:

1 To manage the physical output by designing jobs in such a

way as to ensure efficient working practices and best tech-
nological methods while at the same time setting a hiring
standard in terms of personal capacity to suit the job.
2 To manage the relationship between a forecast demand for
labour and the actual supply of labour. Above all else, pro-
ductivity is about efficiently matching labour supply to

The two tasks share different problems but one solution. O n

the one hand, how is physical efficiency or personal capacity on
the job to be defined and judged? O n the other hand, how is a
sales forecast to be translated into a forecast demand for
labour? In fact, the solution to the first question becomes the
solution to the second as well, and is to apply a set performance
standard. A performance standard is an expression of output
measured by a time period, for example if the unit of time is
the man-day, then the performance standard for room maids
might be sixteen rooms per man-day or for cooks 120 covers
per man-day.


3 Setting a performance standard

Two things need to be said about setting performance stan-
dards straight away. First, for every occupation they are per-
2z sonal to a particular operation and therefore not transferable
I between operations, and second, they are easier to set for some
jobs than others. That said, the setting of a performance stan-
dard requires a full work study analysis using all appropriate
techniques. The testings and timings must be done on the basis

0 The best possible methods are being used.

0 All possible technological substitutions have taken place.
0 The final timings must be based not on the best or the worst
or the average workers, but on an above average worker who
represents a standard that can be sustained by the training
and supervision functions.

The choice of measuring unit and time span should be appro-

priate to the job in question. For maids the choice is obvious -
the number of rooms cleaned, as is the number of journeys for
a room service waiter and the number of covers for a waiter.
The choice of time period depends on the problem you suspect
you have. If you suspect a part of the workforce is at some time
overstretched and at another underused, use a unit which splits
these periods, for example journeys per hour might well reveal
large variations through the day of a room service department.
A performance standard has four direct functions:

1 It allows a sales forecast to be translated into a demand for

2 It provides a guide to the hiring standard.
3 It is an objective for the training function.
4 It allows actual productivity to be compared with forecast

It is worth making the point that it is not necessary to measure

the productivity of every job, but it is important to do so where
numbers employed vary directly with the level of business.

Translating sales into a demand c2

forecast for labour l-
Once a performance standard is in place, its key function is to
allow management to translate a sales forecast into a forecast $
Figure 10.1

demand for labour. This function is crucial to productivity. To

illustrate just how crucial it is, it is appropriate to return to that
central characteristic of life in the hotel and catering industry
- short-term sales instability. Figure 10.1 shows the annual
pattern of room business for a hotel. It is fairly clear that there
is some seasonal variation.
However, while such forecasts are important, this time span
hides the minute variations which determine the hotel's actual
productivity. Figure10.2 shows two identical patterns of varia-
tion and one that strays. Line SF is a forecast of sales of a daily
basis and shows enormous variations from day to day.

Figure 10.2
If the demand for labour is direct, then a line representing
the labour demand LD would exactly shadow line SF. Now, in
a perfect world, the actual supply of labour (LS) would follow
the pattern of the other two lines exactly. Alas, we dont live in
a perfect world and the actual productivity task of manage-
ment is to make labour supply match labour demand. It is not
an exact science, because the starting point is a sale forecast
which could be wrong, but you have to work from something.
Having a performance standard allows the manager to translate
line SF into line LD.
In conditions of fluctuating business the manager has two
objectives, which are:

1 To regulate labour supply to match demand.

2 To determine the proportion of fixed labour supply to vari-
able labour supply.

The principles of workload analysis address both these ques-


Workload analysis
The objective of workload analysis is to produce an estimate of
what labour supply should be so that managers can adjust
labour supply to meet the forecast targets. Seven activities are
necessary before reaching the final stage of adjusting labour

1 Determine a system of forecasting demand (sales forecast) -

operations should have a sales forecast for several reasons
besides workload analysis. However, for whatever reason a
forecast exists, the frequency of the forecast, i.e. monthly,
weekly, daily or hourly, will depend to an extent on how
much scope management actually have to adjust labour
supply. If you can only adjust monthly, then it is pointless
measuring the workload daily!
2 The classification of the job - the jobs which really require
analysis are those which vary directly with the level of busi-
ness. However, in practice it is not so easy to classify jobs
into direct sales related and non-related - there are many
grey areas.
3 Determine an appropriate unit of measure for each direct
4 Turn the unit of measure into a performance standard - for

Job group Peformance standard Time unit (hours)

Waiterless 20 covers 4
cooks 90 covers 8
Maids 15 rooms 8
Bar staff 200 8

5 Translate the sales forecast into a forecast for the demand for
labour by using the performance standards.
6 Compare forecast labour demand with forecast labour
7 Adjust.

An example for maids:

Sales forecast 390 rooms

Performance standard 15 per man-day
Demand for labour 26 man-days (390 + 15)
Estimated labour supply 24 man-days
Adjustment + 2 man-days

It is worth emphasizing that as workload analysis works from a

forecast and ends with some kind of adjustment to labour
supply, the possibility exists that the forecast may not match
what actually happens. So it is not an exact science and adjust-
ments may over- or undercompensate.
w Earlier, it was stated that there were two objectives in the
task of utilizing labour efficiently in conditions of fluctuating
demand. The following examples show how these two objec-
tives are addressed by the technique.
Objective 1 Matching labour supply
and demand
Table 10.1 is an example of a workload analysis for a seven-day
forecast of room sales for a hotel. The occupation under mea-
surement is room maid and there are thirty-two maids

Table 10.1

1 2 3 4 5 G
Room sales PS Requirement FT staff Staf Room
dist dist

375 15 25 23 -2 -30
420 15 28 23 -5 -75
480 15 32 23 -9 -1 35
210 15 14 23 +9 +135
480 15 32 23 -9 -135
360 15 24 23 -1 -1 5
300 15 20 23 +3 +45

Column 1 = Daily estimate of room sales produced by rolling

forecast technique.
Column 2 = Performance standard.
Column 3 = Madday requirement or demand for labour
(Column 1 i- Column 2)
Column 4 = Number of full-time st& on duty or estimated
labour supply (the estimate of labour supply should be
expressed in terms of numbers on duty which will differ from
total numbers employed - to get the figure, total number
employed should be adjusted to their actual daily hours), e.g.
if maid works a five day, forty hour week and you employ
thirty-two maids, the daily supply of labour is:
32 x 40 = 1280 total LS per week
to get total LS per day + 7 x 5 = 914 hourdday
to get the LS per day + 40 = 23 maids
Column 5 = Difference between requirement (Column 3) and
estimated labour supply (Column 4). A minus means a short-
age and a plus means an excess.
Column 6 = The differences in Column 5 are expressed as
room differences simply by multiplying Column 5 by Column
2. This column can be seen as representing under or overca-
The purpose of Table 10.1 is to show the manager where
oversupply or undersupply will occur. In this example, on five
days there is a projected shortage and on two of those days it is
sizeable. The argument is that the situation is manageable in
advance once the position is clear.

Objective 2 Estimating the optimum

level of full-time employment
There is no exact way of measuring the optimum level of fdl-
time employment, but the same productivity analysis that
helps to match supply with demand also contributes to this
problem. The principle is: given any forecast of sales, what esti-
mate of mismatch is produced by every possible range of full-
time employment. Table 10.2 uses the same room forecast as
Table 10.1, but this time the room difference calculation is
carried out for a range of employment levels from twenty-eight
to thirty-six.

Table 10.2

Employment h e [
Room 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 31;

375 -75 -60 -52 -45 -30 -22 -15 - +I5

w -67 -60 -45 -30
1 420 -120 -105 -97 -90 -75
480 -180 -165 -157 -150 -135 -127 -120 -105 -90
a 210 +90 +lo5 +112 +120 +135 +142 +150 +165 +180
$ 360 -60 -45 -37 -30 -15 -7 - +15 +30
a 300 - +15 +22 +30 +45 +52 +60 +75 +90
Clearly, how these figures are interpreted will depend on the
ease or difficulty the hotel has in adjusting labour supply. Here,
34-35 looks manageable.
What has to be emphasized is that because the problem is
fluctuations in business the measurement technique is by
necessity trial and error and strongly dependent on the condi-
tions of adjustment.

The comparison of actual

productivity with forecast
In addition to being an aid to forecasting, the performance
standard also allows management to reverse the process and
ask: How productive were we? After all the forecasting and
adjusting has been done, an actual amount of business occurs
in a particular period and it is then possible to use the perfor-
mance standard to examine exactly what did happen: How
accurate was the forecast? How accurate was the adjustment?
The example shown in Figure 10.3 simplifies the process by
using only room sales on one day.

Forecast sales 390 rooms Actual sales 360 rooms

0 Performance standard 15 0 Performance standard 15

Forecast demand 26 man-days Actual demand 24 man-days

for labour for labour
Forecast labour 24 man-days Actual supply 26.5 man-days
Adjustment +2 man-days Surplus/deficit +2.5 man-days
Actual 13.6 rooms
_ _ ~
Figure 10.3

In this simple example the hotel was overstaffed which pro-

duced an actual performance standard of 13.6 rooms per maid 8
(actual sales divided by actual supply).
This concept of using the performance standard to analyse
actual business brings labour management directly into the
budgeting and accounting systems. The figure for actual labour
supply can always be obtained through timesheets or wage doc-
umentation. This means that, once broken down by appropri-
ate activities, the various performance standards can be used to
compare the performance of these activities in different periods
in the past. An example would be useful. Take a restaurant at
lunchtime, with a performance standard of twenty covers per
waiter (Table 10.3).

Table 10.3

Day I Day 2
A Actual lunch cover 133 354
B Actual labour supply 12 16
C Performance standard 20 20
D Productivity standard 7 18 ( a + c)
E Actual productivity 11 22 ( a + b)

What this means is that in Day 1, the restaurant was over-

staffed and that they really needed only seven waiters to serve
that number of guests. In Day 2, the waiters produced over the
required standard.

Managing labour supply

The key to efficient labour utility is not the measurement of
productivity, but the flexibility of labour supply which follows
from that measurement. It is through the actual adjustment that
productivity is achieved. The extent to which management can
adjust is very much subject to prevailing conditions in both the
external and internal labour markets and, where applicable, the
conditions of the union agreement. That said, the range of
options given to management is as shown in Table 10.4.
Table 10.4

Reduce demand Adjwhnent mechanismfor labour supply

~~~~ ~

Reduce services Increase personal productivity

Substitute technology Recruitment
Labour turnover
Staff adjustment
Shift realignment
Flexible hours
Increase part-time work
Days off
Contract work
Increase internal mobility
Natural wastage
Lay off

O n a day-to-day basis, not all these options are open; tech-

nological substitution, for example, requires considerable plan-
ning. Given the short time span in which adjustments have to
be made, the most common methods of extending labour
supply are: overtime, some form of bonus system, casual labour
and part-time employment. At the very least, management
should be aware of, and have compared, the cost of these alter-

Productivity and work scheduling

Perhaps the most basic rule of labour management is that as the L
work ebbs and flows management should be constantly moni-
toring those flows and scheduling workers in line with the
peaks and troughs. The example of the maids was based on a
time period of a day but in other forms of work the production
is best measured by the hour - most food and beverage work
and reception come into this category.
To do this it is not necessary to have someone standing
around all day recording the number of guests handled each
hour. A quicker method is to time stamp every bill or check
and use that as the collection base. If there is a night audit
function they can be delegated to sort the bills into an hourly
timeframe. The whole process has five stages:

1 Create a chart displaying 24-hour periods.

2 Time stamp all cheques or bills.
3 Record each cheque into the relevant time period.
4 Produce a histogram.
5 Adjust staff schedules to suit the pattern of demand.

Note the overall time chart need not be twenty-four hours and
that any period can be brought into focus.

Productivity and functional flexibility

Productivity, in an operational sense is, to a large extent, a
matter of matching labour supply to labour demand in the very
short run. Modern approaches fall into two camps which
might usefully be labelled external and internal. The rationale
for the widely adopted external approach, which uses numeri-
cal and earnings flexibility through open labour market opera-
tions to which the previous calculations apply. The basic thrust
of the approach is to manipulate labour supply through a
myriad of contingent techniques whilst keeping one eye on
quality. The internal approach tries to do the same thing but
only by using internal labour resources. This approach advo-
cates functional flexibility, with its implication of training,
multi-skilling programmes and strong internal labour market.
It is difficult to implement mainly because it has not yet proved
itself to have any economic advantage over the external
approach. It would be fairer to say that it is a good idea
without, as yet, sufficient economic underpinning. Common
sense suggests that total substitutability, that is everyone able to
do everyone elses job is unobtainable and probably undesirable
as well, but, how much flexibility is actually needed and is
there an optimal? It is a question of the cross-utilization of
labour under conditions of variable demand but with fixed
parameters (maximum capacity of the unit).
If we assume a situation in which a unit workforce contains
a number of jobs with different skills attached to them and that
consumer demand is variable in the short run (i.e. hour, day)
then, if there were no substitutability, the size of the workforce
must equal the highest level of forecast demand for each job
that occurs in the period. In these circumstances the residual
minimum and the very maximum would be the same! But if
100 per cent substitutability were the case then the residual
minimum would be equal to the highest combined forecast
demand across all jobs. Table 10.5 is an example of the princi-
ple and describes a hypothetical unit with two jobs over a five-
day period in which demand fluctuates. Two further
assumptions apply here, first, that the solution must be by
internal resources and, second, that transfer of staff between
the days is ignored in the five-day planning period.

Table 10.5

Day 1 2 3 4 5

Job/skill A 12 20 17 28 22
Job/skill B 7 10 7 6 5

With no substitutability the minimum workforce size is 28

+ 10 = 38. With 100 per cent substitutability it becomes 28 +
6 = 34 a saving of over 10 per cent. The minimum employ-
ment levels for each job, given substitutability, can be esti-
mated from the maximum total demand and the maximum
demand for the alternative job. Thus, for Job A, the lower para- c2
meter would be 34 - 10 = 24 and for Job B it would be 34 -
28 = 6 . In this example therefore, it follows that the optimum t;
level of employment for Job A is between 28-24 and for Job B
is between 10-6. The optimum combination of A and B is
within these parameters. The pairing 28 - 10 seems excessive
and the minimum pairing of 24 - 6 fails on day 4 so the answer
is somewhere between.
However, it will not have escaped your notice that at 34 we
still have excess labour on four out of the five days. This is
because we have made the assumption that all demand will be
met at the required level of quality. We have now come to the
juncture where notions of productivity actually meet ideas
about quality. If we assume that not having enough staff to
meet demand adversely affects quality and we wish to maintain
quality then logically we will have to staff up to the highest
level of demand. What this example is designed to show is that
in some cases the decision to meet all demand creates excess
supply even when you have total flexibility. This juncture,
where productivity meets quality, is also where the internal
approach has to face up to the inevitable need for the external
one. The sub-text here is either to accept fluctuating quality or
accept fluctuating profits or, to consciously decide not to meet
all demand through internal resources. In other words, in con-
stantly fluctuating circumstances, a degree of external manipu-
lation is essential.

Work study
Work study is the practical tool of the scientific management
movement. Its aim is simple: to produce the most efficient
method of doing a task. The techniques of work study are
rooted in the man-machine relationship in manufacturing
industry and the image is of a man with a stopwatch. The stop-
watch is still relevant but the techniques have spread to all areas
of work.
The primary role of work study is actually at the planning
w stage in the design of the workplace. Rarely, except through
specialized consultants, is operational knowledge incorporated
into design. Not unnaturally, the priority is always the guest.
Notwithstanding design considerations, managers have to
work with what they have got and make it work efficiently.
Work study can help.
We know already that the main productivity problem is
matching labour supply to demand. Workload analysis can
contribute, but its contribution depends on the creation of per-
formance standards. It is here that work study can play an
important role. Just a few minutes observation in any area will
show how significant to performance is the number of journeys
made by the worker - most jobs are not static. Here is an
obvious area where work study can contribute. Work study is
not just standing around with a stopwatch and timing every
task, it is a range of techniques to solve particular problems.
Some applications are as follows:

Problem 1 The efficiency of group work

Two of the factors which contribute to the efficiency of group

work are the distribution of the tasks amongst the group
members and the order in which those tasks are done by each
individual. One way to check this is simply to observe every-
one all the time and record everything that they do. This is an
onerous task and the technique of work sampling makes it a
great deal easier. The basic idea of work sampling is to take a
type of photograph of the work group at regular intervals
during the day. The procedure is as follows:

0 Draw up a matrix sheet with employees along the top and

time period along the side.
0 Choose a time period; basically the larger the number of
tasks being undertaken the smaller the time period. A
common practice is to use one-hour periods.
0 At set intervals record what each member of the group is
doing. It is essential to keep the intervals exactly the same.
Do this throughout the day.
0 Total the proportion of time spent on each activity. Note
that each sample represents the whole of that time period.

Care must be taken in interpreting the results because one

activity is unlikely to represent everything that worker did in 2
the period but with this technique it does. For this reason the 3
first three steps of the procedure must be repeated many times
before being totalled. What the technique shows is:
0 The loading on workers (distribution of tasks).
0 The amount of wasted time.
The order of tasks.

Two extra benefits follow from this technique. First, a model

can be built showing how the work tasks should be distributed
and priorities attached. Second, more detailed work can be
done on those tasks that appear to be taking a disproportion-
ate amount of time. A simplified example illustrates the proce-
We are looking at a group of waiters and porters preparing a
large banquet. In this kind of exercise coverage must be com-
prehensive, it is no good looking at part of the group. Here we
are reproducing an extract of only four staff (Table 10.6).

Table 10.6
~ ~ ~~~~

Waiter I Waiter 2 Waiter 3 Waiter 4

3pm Polishing silver Moving chairs Cleaning glasses Folding

4pm Standing talking Laying tables Standing talking Folding
5pm Folding napkins Laying tables Distributing Standing
condiments talking
6pm Laying tables Laying tables Standing talking Laying

The time span is four, one-hour periods leading to service at

7.00 pm. All the staff are surveyed and a proportion expressed
as a histogram (Figure 10.4). As banquet preparation is not a
w continuous task, to get a proper analysis several banquets
would have to be surveyed in this manner.
Remember that these are only estimated proportions.

Figure 10.4


Problem 2 The best way to clean a room


In a hotel, room cleaning is the central work activity of the

organization and as such getting it done efficiently contributes
greatly to profitability. Comparative studies of productivity in
this area always show a wide variation. Alas, the reason for this
variation is often not efficiency but differences in the factors
which create the productivity. For this reason productivity
studies and pay surveys have to be very carehlly scrutinized.

Factors affecting productivity

1 Time taken to clean a room:
Personal ability of cleaner;
Personal motivation of cleaner;
Size of the room;
Design, layout or decor of the room;
0 Standard of cleanliness required;

Order of work;
0 Number of items to be placed in the room;
Quality and appropriateness of the equipment.
2 Number of rooms cleaned in a specified period:
Pattern of demand from guests;
Proximity of rooms to be cleaned;
Quality and appropriateness of the equipment.
The process of cleaning a room contains four elements which
1 Time to accomplish each separate task.
2 The standard to be achieved.
3 The order of work.
4 The number of journeys.

The objective of work study would be to get the best methods

of accomplishing each task which is mainly a matter of the
right equipment, and to get the best sequence of work. Practice
shows that the overall time is greatly reduced if the number of
journeys is reduced and this is a function of the sequence or
order of work.
The approach is in two stages: first, to observe and measure
the performance of a worker who is considered to be a good
performer and to compare the results with observations of
slower workers who produce the same quality. Second, to
examine closely the observations of the good performer. A
quick way into this work is to examine journeys, because that
automatically gives you the work order. The technique for this
is the string diagram. Here a peg board is used with a peg rep-
resenting each place where the cleaner stands and works, e.g.
bathroom, RHS bed, LHS bed, trolley. A piece of string is tied
to the trolley peg and the observer simply simulates the
workers journeys on the board. The length of the string mea-
sures the total journey length and is compared between clean-
If this does not show substantial differences between good
and poor performers then the difference must be in the time
taken to undertake particular tasks. The next step, therefore, is
to time particular tasks such as bathroom cleaning and bed-
making. If this doesnt produce differences then the poor per-
formance must be wasting time which is a problem for
11 The measurement of
labour turnover and
labour stability

Given that labour mobility is a conspicuous feature of hotel

and catering industries, the question of measurement needs to
be addressed. There are four principal reasons for measure-

1 As explained in Chapter 16, labour turnover determines the

rate of recruitment.
2 It is an indication of the state of the external labour market.
3 High instances of labour turnover are usually seen as being
bad for the organization, although skill accumulation does
require a degree of mobility.
4 If a rate is measured, then performance can be compared
between defined categories such as organizations, individual
units, departments, occupations, age groups, etc.

The commonest way of measuring labour turnover is the

straightforward percentage. The calculation is:

Number of leavers in a specific period

x 100
Average number of employees during the period

The average number of employees during a period is simply

calculated by taking the number employed at the beginning of
the period and the number at the end of the period and finding
the average, for example:

Number of leaven during the year 200

Total number of employed at the beginning of year 400
Total number employed at the end of the year 430

20' x 100 = 48 per cent


The merits of this measure are obvious, particularly in com-

parisons. The rate of labour turnover in different departments
or in different establishments can be compared. There are,
however, two important drawbacks. These are:

1 If one of the pairs in a comparison has, during the period,

undergone a major change in employment level (up or
down) then you are not comparing like with like, because
the percentage figure doesn't capture the essential relation-
ship between recruitment and labour turnover described in
Chapter 16. When reviewing a set of percentages this possi-
bility must be borne in mind. It would be wrong, for
example, to compare a unit that had just opened with ones
that have been running for some time, on the basis of this
2 The percentage figure of labour turnover can hide areas of
stability within the target population. A figure of 100 per
cent labour turnover may be produced by the 400 per cent
turnover of a quarter of the target population, thus hiding
both a more serious problem and an important characteris-
tic of the majority.

sa Measuring stability in a workplace
P If there are many reasons for labour turnover there is one very
sound reason for having a measure of stability, and that is that
2z such a measure would be a good indication of the effects of
I policy change on the conditions in the external labour market.
What stability means is the capacity for a firm to retain its
labour force. In order for a measure to be useful, it must
express this capacity over time and allow for comparisons in
the same way as the labour turnover percentage. The stability
index fits these conditions well.

Stability index

This index simply expresses the total length of service of all

present employees in the time frame as a proportion of the
maximum possible stability. This notion of the maximum pos-
sible stability simply means: the total length of service if
nobody left in the time frame. For example, if a firm employ-
ing ten workers was ten years old and everyone who started ten
years ago was still with the firm, then the maximum possible
stability would be 100 years. If, as in this example, the length
of service of present employees is also 100 years, the stability
index = 1, which is maximum stability. The stability index goes
from 0.0 to 1 and can be turned into a percentage by multi-
plying by 100. Two examples would be useful.

Example 1 J
A hotel employs 400 people. Let us say that 200 employees z
have one years service, 100 have two years service, fifty have
four years service and fifty have five years service. The total
length of service of all present employees is 850 years.
The period under measurement is five years. The maximurn
stability is, therefore, 400 x 5 years = 2000 years.

Stability index =
850 = 0.42 or 42 per cent

In normal usage the stability measure looks backwards over

time and often the size of the firm will have changed over time.
This is purely a technical problem for the index and it is W
resolved as shown in Example 2. !-
Example 2
As in Example 1, we take a hotel with 400 employees who have
a combined length of service of 850 years, only this time the
size of the workforce has fluctuated.

Size of workforce2 years X 400 = 800

2 years x 450 = 900
1 year X 410 = 410

Maximum stability possible = 2 110

Stability index =

21 10
= 0.4 or 40 per cent

Comparing the two examples shows that size changes do make

a difference. It would be completely wrong to work from the
current size of the firm if it were known that, in the period
under examination, changes had occurred in size. The beauty
of this measure is that it is possible to make genuine compar-
isons between organizations of different sizes.
One word of caution - great care must be taken with the
interpretation of comparative data using the labour turnover
percentage or the stability index when it is suspected that some
of the firms in the sample have experienced considerable
changes of size. Where the change is an increase the labour
turnover measure becomes suspect, and where it is decreased
the stability index loses its power.

An example of how these two measures can tell a different story

is illustrated below.
The nine hotels illustrated in Table 11.1 display a similar
w level of stability, yet at the same time a wide dispersion of
labour turnover percentages. What this suggests is that a hotel
gets a similar level of service from those who stay, while an
unstable element creates turnover percentages very much larger
than the overall indicates.
Table 11.1 Labour turnover and stability indices for nine hotels

Labour turnover rate Stabiliv index

55.2 77.0
62.8 96.5
89.2 75.4
55.0 75.5
92.0 71.2
119.1 71.6
70.8 76.9
69.6 76.6
32.9 71.7

12 Recruitment and

Recruitment is at heart a 'search' process. This process contains

four main elements: the hiring standard (what you want); the
target market (where you think you will find it); the sources of
recruitment (by what means you intend to get it); and the cost
(how much you are prepared to invest in the search). Clearly
these elements are interrelated with performance in one deter-
mining performance in another. For example, if you are vague
about what you want, you will probably misread the market,
which in turn might make you choose an inappropriate source
or channel and it will end up costing you more than you
Surprisingly, there are only really three recruitment strate-

1 Ring the bell - make your organization visible in the market

by spending money on the search process.
2 Pump up the balloon - extend the size of the labour market
by paying more.
3 D o - i t y m m e ~ -Extend the size of the labour market by low-
ering the hiring standard and offering more training.

Obviously, there are many variations but what will determine

your recruitment strategy will be your approach to the four ele-
ments of the search process. Recruitment is not an exact
science but if you get the first element wrong, you may get the
next wrong as well. In other words, the key to recruitment is
defEning what you want in t b e j r s t place.
This is never easy because you need to translate a job into a
person! Or do you? Eventually, yes, but that is not the first
stage. You start with the job because a great deal of the labour
market possibilities can be estimated from the nature of the job
you are recruiting for.

First look at the job

There are five broad characteristics of labour markets. These

1 Size (large/small)

Labour markets vary in the number of people they contain.

Clearly the principal cause of this would be the level of skill.
The more unskilled the work, the larger the market would be.

2 Status (primarykecondary)

Strongly related to size, markets are classified into primary and

secondary. Primary markets contain good jobs with careers
attached and require qualifications to enter. As a consequence,
they are more stable. By contrast, secondary markets contain
largely unskilled jobs requiring no training. Consequently, z
such markets are characterized by mobility and variable attach-
ment to the market. 2
3 Response to supply and demand changes z
(f ast/slow) I-
The speed of response to changes in supply and demand varies t
with the level of skill involved. A shortage of highly-skilled
chefs cannot be made up quickly simply by raising the pay
because it takes time to train people. O n the other hand, a
shortage of room maids could be made up quickly by a pay

4 Pay level (high/low)

Markets can vary by level of pay, usually determined by level of


5 Pay distribution (wideharrow)

For any given occupation is the range of pay wide or narrow?

It is not difficult to see that if you are looking for someone
in a small primary market with a wide distribution of high pay,
it is a totally different problem from looking for someone in a
large secondary market with a narrow distribution of low pay.
The strategy will certainly be different.
How, though, can these market characteristics be antici-
pated from job characteristics? In this respect, there are four
key indicators:

1 The level of skill.

2 The degree of specificity (how specific the skills are to an
3 Whether or not performance standard can be measured.
4 The extent to which personal qualities play a part in the job.

The effects of 1 and 2 are fairly obvious - they will change the
size of the labour market, but 3 and 4 have an interesting
effect. They both represent the possibility of greater individual
differences in performance. If standards cannot be formally
specified you are going to get a variety of performances.
Similarly, if the jobs require personal characteristics, they are
going to get a variety of personal differences. Both have the
effect of producing a wider distribution of pay in the market.
To see how jobs can foretell market characteristics, it is
h e l p l l to give job characteristics a direction, for example as
shown in Table 12.1.
The reverse direction would indicate opposite market char-
acteristics. The model of hotel labour markets (see Chapter 17)
suggests that, with the exception of the skilled levels, most
hotel and catering recruitment takes place in a market which is
secondary in status, hrge, quick to respond to supply and demand
changes, and has low pay with wide diferentials.

Table 12.1

Job characteristics Direction Labour market

Level of skill The higher Produces a primary market of

small size, slow to react to supply
and demand changes, with high
pay narrowly distributed
Degree of specificity The greater Produces a small market, slow to
react to supply and demand
change, with high pay narrowly
Measured performance The greater Will produce a wider distribu-
tion of pay
Personal qualities The greater Produces a larger market which
responds quickly to supply and
demand changes and has a wide
distribution of pay

There is an active principle at work in the area where job char-

acteristics meet labour market characteristics - it is a substitu- z
tion effect. If, for a moment, it is assumed that the larger the
labour market the better chance you have of finding what you
want cheaply, then it is in the interests of the employer to
design jobs in ways that increase the ability of the organization n
to substitute one person for another in the same job. The sub- a
stitution effect becomes easier when:

The more unskilled the job.

0 The more training is offered by the company.
0 The more personal attributes count in the job.
0 The less dependent the job is on previous education.
The more knowledge can be substituted by information.
0 The less the degree of specificity.

A football manager is only allowed two substitutes in a game.

Normally it is one defender or one attacker, but eleven substi-
tutes would be more efficient and would bring down the price
of the first eleven!

Now look at the person

Nothing helps the recruitment campaign more than knowing
exactly what you are looking for. A word of caution is neces-
sary here, because the labour market will not pass up someone
who exactly meets an exacting specification. It is always a case
of approximation, therefore the specification must be focused
but at the same time couched in terms which allow a range of
quality across desired attributes to be accepted. This will allow
the selection process to be more efficient.
The device for focusing jobs and people is the hiring stan-
dard or hiring specification. The purpose of this device is to
specify the desired attributes of the person required for the job.
Three central features of a hiring specification are: essential
attainments, preferred experience and preferred education and
training. It is also useful to specify aspects you dont want. In
the hotel and catering industry, hiring specifications try to
express a balance between technical aspects of the job and per-
sonality traits deemed essential. An example of a hiring speci-
fication for a receptionist would be as shown in Figure 12.1.

Recruitment strategy
n It might be thought that recruiting in a large market is easier
2n than recruiting in a small one. This is a matter of conjecture.
8 They are two different problems. Having defined what you
want, the strategy adopted will be directed by the answers to
2z the questions:
Hiring specification
Job: Receptionist Department: Front offke
Age range: 18-30
Physical qualifications: Clear speech
Education and training
Good general education
A modern language preferred
Computer operative trained
Preferred experience
Occupation: Reservationist, receptionist, secretary, telephonist
Length: One year minimum - three years preferred
Type of establishment: Hotel, hospital or professional office
Size of work group: Prefer small work groups
Quality of work: Able to demonstrate experience of dealing
with people, preferably on the telephone. Should have good
on-line computer experience particularly with booking systems
Essential attainments
30 wpm typing
Good telephone manner
Computer experience
Able to work under pressure - not panic, not easily bored, flex-
ible, dependable
Stable domestic life
The job has limited promotion prospects and would not suit
the eagerly ambitious.

Figure 12.1

0 What is the size and character of the labour market? w

Who are the competition? 0
- Other companies I-
- Leisure 5
0 What information will attract candidates? E
The next step is to ask two more questions:
1 What information should be given out?
2 What source of recruitment would be appropriate for the

The first question depends on the size of the market. Basically,

the smaller the market the more specific and revealing the
information should be. The second question is a matter of
selecting an appropriate source or channel. Again, the size of
the market is influential. Trawling through a large market may
require a number of sources used simultaneously but fishing
with a fine net in a small market may require something very
specific and limited. The sources of recruitment are:

Employment agencies;
0 Job centres or job points;
Outplacement consultants;
Existing staff;
Waiting list;
Previous applicants;
Casual callers;
Education systems;
Casual correspondence.

If the vacancy is to be advertised you have to consider:

Choice of journal - circulation figures, readership dates,

publication dates and comparative cost.
0 Timing of advertisement - when published, best day and
resource of personnel department.
0 Cost effectiveness - display, semi-display and lineage.
W Classified sector.
Cost effectiveness of repeats.
Use of logo.

Cost and speed are always a factor. The hotel and catering
industry has a time pressure built into its recruitment func-
tions, therefore recruitment means fast recruitment. For this
reason, the processing of applicants who apply without vacan-
cies, becomes a prime source of recruitment. Waiting lists are
cheap to maintain.

The employment interview

By far the commonest method of selection is the employment
interview. Its popularity persists, despite constant criticism of
its effectiveness. Such effectiveness is usually measured in terms
of the ability of the method to predict job acceptances by can-
didates and their performance in the job. Critics cite the case
for psychological testing and biodata methods as more valid
alternatives, because they are based on more solid measure-
ments. Thus, the interview is labelled highly subjective and
unsuccessful. While this is true, and, without denying the
merits of alternative methods, the whole of people manage-
ment could be said to be subjective. Of course, interviews are
subjective and require judgement just like most of manage-
ment. The real problems with the interview are that too much
is expected of it and that it is often done badly. Fallible though
it is, the method is quick, convenient and, when done well, an
effective method of selection.

The objectives of the employment interview

An interview is a conversation with a purpose, in fact it has
several purposes all pursued simultaneously. These objectives
can be stated quite simply, and are:
* To decide if the applicant is suitable for the job, or, to put it 0
another way, to decide how suitable the job is for the appli-
To decide if the applicant will fit into the existing work 0
group and fit into the organization as a whole. a
* To attract the applicant to the job (the interview is part of
the recruitment process).
To communicate the essential expectations and require- 3
ments of the job (the interview is part of the induction YLT
The structure of the employment interview

Looked at clinically, an interview is an information-gathering,

information-distributing, information-evaluating and judge-
ment-forming activity! That makes it sound mechanical, but it
does emphasize that judgement is based on information; not
pre-conceived ideas, but gathered information. Good inter-
viewing is often described as a skill implying that there is some
set technique which is universally good. This is true, but only
up to a point. Good interviewing technique is simply somegood
habits and the skill of asking questions. Be wary of formulas and
set plans! There are dangers in overstructuring an interview.
There is, however, a format which combines activities with
thought and which constitutes a good habit.

Interview format

The message of the format shown in Figure 12.2 is that the

pre-interview stage and the interview itself are two separate
sources of information which should be evaluated at j r s t sepa-
rate4 then together, to form the judgement. Each will tell its
own story. Are they telling the same story or different ones?
The point here is not to come to judgement on the pre-inter-
view material. Just evaluate it, then combine it with the inter-
view information.

- Gather
- Evaluate + Earmarkkey +

interview information


Figure 12.2
Should you know the job?

The answer is yes, but its not an absolute pre-requisite for

good interviewing. It all depends on what we mean by know
the job. Actual experience of the job or supervising the job
brings a certain bias with it, but is, nevertheless, enormously
helpful. The task of the employment interview is to bring the
character, experience and skills of the applicant and the
requirements of the job together in a judgement. To have no
knowledge of the job is to render the interview ineffective.
Why is job knowledge so necessary? There are three main
reasons, which are:

1 It tells the interviewer what questions to ask.

2 It enables the interviewer to assess the relevance of the appli-
cants career to the job in question.
3 It enables the interviewer to discuss the job with the appli-

This does not imply that interviewers must have experience of

the job. There are other ways of obtaining job knowledge, the
most common of which is job analysis. A detailed description
of all the duties and responsibilities of a job can be obtained
through analysis of the job and laid down in a job description.
The job description can then be given to the applicant. The
problem with a written job description is that it may mean
more to the applicant than it does to the interviewer, and is
thus not too helpful to the latter in forming questions.
However, from a good job description a set of required knowl-
edge, skills and abilities (KSA) can be derived for each duty or z
responsibility. E!
Knowledge - a recognized body of information that is
required for successful performance in the job. n
0 Skill - a competence with a measurable level of performance <
that is essential to the job. z
0 Ability - A more general capability.
There are four stages in transferring a job description into an Ya
aide for interviewing, which are:
1 Job analysis produces a list of tasks.
2 Rate the tasks in order of importance.
3 Apply KSA to each task.
4 Decide which KSAs will influence selection.

Thus, the interviewer has a set of key KSAs at their disposal,

but this approach does not directly translate into questions
which will help distinguish good from poor.
Perhaps a more direct approach is to combine KSAs with a
form of job analysis known as critical incident technique. The
essence of critical incident technique is that people with expe-
rience of a job identify 'incidents' and attach to them examples
of good behaviour and poor behaviour. These incidents are
more explicit descriptions of behaviour than the simple
description of the task. A number of incidents can reflect one
task. The key requirement here is a panel of expert people, who
know the job through experience or supervision, to judge
important incidents and justify good and bad examples.
An example might be useful here. Suppose the job in ques-
tion is a Hotel Assistant Manager and you have already
obtained a list of tasks and ranked them. One particular task
has been identified, among others, as being a useful selector.
The task is handling individual guests in respect of personal
credit and settling accounts. You now need to identify KSAs.
A critical incident exercise throws up an apposite incident: A
maid reports to her supervisor that a room has been severely
damaged with mirrors and furniture broken. The supervisor
verifies this and reports it to the Assistant Manager. The guest
is not due to check out for another day.
The first task of the team is to identify what the knowledge
skill and ability are in respect of this incident. They would
come up with something like:

0 Knowledge:
- The legal position;
- The insurance position, including assessment rules;

- Rules on credit and procedures;
- Current reservation situation.
- To analyse situations into information collection area;
- To be able to devise a set of alternative strategies based on
the information collected;
- To be able to think through and anticipate client reac-
- Personal assertiveness;
- Recording formally what is required.
- A general ability to confront difficult social situations.

Clearly this situation will revolve around information on client

status, booking situation and damage assessment. The team
should then be able to produce a range of examples of what
would be good practice and bad practice. The final stage would
be to translate this into a situational interview question. This
might be either a straightforward what would you do? or the
more detailed what information would you need to handle
this incident? or would you confront the client?.
Given a set of tasks with KSAs attached to them, there are
five stages to the procedure of developing something useful to
the interviewer:

1 Through the experts, get examples of good and bad practice

associated with each critical incident.
2 Allocate incidents to just one KSA that each best illustrates.
The process collects the incidents that are selected and
rejects those that are not.
3 Translate the salient critical incidents into situations which
form the basis of a situational interview. These situations
describe an important piece of behaviour in the job.
4 Divide situations into those that would require experience to z
deal with them and those that would not. In the case of the 0
latter, additional information has to be added to the situa- 0

5 The question attached to the situation is: How would you n
handle this situation? It follows, therefore, that some guid-
ance as to what might constitute good and bad performance
is required. To do this, the panel of experts has to create a
range of answers.
The application of critical incident technique brings the dull
job content list to life. By creating situations which illustrate
the degree to which an applicant has the relevant KSA, the
interviewer gives him- or herself something concrete to assess.
One way or another, some knowledge of the job is required by
the interviewee. The more realistic and alive the knowledge,
the more likely it is that the evaluation of the answers will move
from yes, they can do it to yes, they will probably do it well.

Forming questions, question types and strategies

Time is always a constraint in an interview, therefore it is not

to be wasted. The technical goal of the interview is to get your-
self into a position to answer four basic questions:

0 Can they do the job?

Would they do it well?
0 Will they fit in?
Are they motivated?

The situational interview places the emphasis on the job and

asks: Can the applicant match up to good practice in this job?
The drawback is that the applicants are being invited to spec-
ulate in a way which will make them look good on the basis of
what they think the interviewer considers good practice. An
alternative strategy is to work solely from the reality of the
applicants past. In other words, the strategy is to probe their
previous employment in order to ascertain what the applicant
did.This approach is applicant centred rather than prospective
job centred.
If probing the past is the strategy and there is the usual time
constraint, then the style of question must be incisive without
being intimidating.
n Episodic questions
Episodic questions ask the applicant to recall some specific
aspect of the past. Table 12.2 contrasts episodic questions with
more generalized questions:
Table 12.2

General Episodic

Do you like your present job? What has been the best moment so
far in your present job?
Why do you want to work for us? Where were you when you made the
decision to apply to us?
How do you feel about moving to What happened in your domestic
this part of the country? life when you last relocated?
Do you find dealing with What happened last time you had to
the staff easy? deal with an openly uncooperative

The answers to the episodic questions in Table 12.2 will be

more revealing, because they produce more precise informa-
tion. As they say in detective stories: We got the facts, but no
motive. Episodic questions must invite the obvious rejoinder
- why did you do that? or, what alternative did you consider?
However, an interview consisting solely of these types of
questions would eventually intimidate and would leave the
interviewer with a lot of small bits of information to piece

General and open questions

A severe limitation of episodic questions is that they can easily
miss the big picture. Motivation is part of that big picture. No z
one question will give you a clue, an impression has to be
formed from a multitude of stimuli. One clue to motivation is
the applicants references and priorities. Here, the general f
open-ended question can be useful. n
Did you enjoy college? I-

Tell me about your present job.

Moving from the general to the episodic, a good strategy is to a
open with a general question which simply defines the area to
think about, then follow it with an episodic question with the
appropriate follow-up. The technique is called funnelling. An

0 Tell me about your present job.

0 What aspect do you most enjoy?
Can you give me an example of when that aspect went par-
ticularly well?
Why do you think it worked well on that occasion?

Here, the questioner has gone from the general and, working
from the responses, funnelled down to a specific piece of

Closed questions

These can be useful to clarify what is already known: How

long did you spend in sales during your training?, You left
college at 21?

Does the job make a difference to the strategy?

Clearly it should! Interviewing a prospective assistant manager

and interviewing a prospective chef cannot be the same task.
Similarly, interviewing someone for a job to which they aspire,
but of which they have no actual experience, must be different
from interviewing someone who has done a similar job before.
In this case the main thrust of the task is different. First, you
are looking for managerial ability, second, to verify qualifica-
tions and skill, third, to assess potential and ability to learn,
and finally, to verify experience.
W Perhaps the key difference is whether the job is one requir-
ing managerial skills or manual skills. Clearly, as management
is action orientated the situational interview or questioning
B based on action taken in the past might be appropriate. This
z type of behaviourally-orientated questioning is not too appro-
z priate when the job involves manual skills.
I For manual skills, it is advisable to have checklists of skills
you require and ask the applicant to record this level of com-
petence before the interview. Figure 12.3 is an example of a
culinary questionnaire.

Culinary interview checklist

What is your strongest area?

Do you have any banqueting experience?

Any insecure fields?

Which of the Which have you
following coo&edin
can you cook? your last job?

Preparation of pat6
Mousseline de sole
Chaudfroid sauce
Lobster mousse
Butter sculpture
Ice sculpture
Chocolate modelling

Figure 12.3
Pre-interview material - do leopards !-
change their spots? w
The longer you spend with this material the better. Normally, z
the kind of pre-interview information available to an inter- +
viewer falls into four categories: personal circumstances;
employment experience or career; education; and references. E3
They should be addressed separately then judged for coher-
ence. Do they tell a story? What information is missing?
In reviewing the material on personal circumstances, the key
question would be: How do the personal circumstances fit
with the demands of the job? Also: What might be the effect
of the job on these personal circumstances?,What change, if
any, is implied?
In reviewing education and formal qualifications, the
obvious question is: Are they appropriate and sufficient?
References are more difficult to handle. More than any other
aspect of the process they carry the assumption that the past
indicates the future, that performance in one job has some con-
tinuity with the next.
Do leopards change their spots? This is the usual unspoken
question which passes through the interviewers mind while
scanning a career history. Indications of work stability, skill
accumulation, can be obtained from a career history. The
important point is that judgements are not made at this point,
but questions arise to be covered in the interview.

Evaluating between applicants

There is one safe rule when several applicants are being con-
sidered, which is evaluate each one separately before you begin
to compare their relative merits. This maxim is true whether or
not youire used a structured interview.
For each applicant you will have four sets of information to

1 Domestic circumstances;
2 Previous career;
3 Organizational compatibility;
4 Suitability for the job.

The advantage of using a structured interview technique based

on KSAs, or KSA attached to situations, is that you can
compare the performance and response of each candidate
against each KSA and situation. However, a holistic evaluation
of each candidate must precede any comparisons.
Biases and traps
Perhaps the most helpful hint that can be given to anyone
attempting to develop and improve their skill at interviewing is
to be aware of the natural biases and common traps associated
with this activity. Here are some:

0 Favouring negative information over positive information.

Selecting a poor performer will be noticed, but missing a
good one will go undetected, therefore screening for nega-
tives tends to be given more emphasis than looking for pos-
0 Exaggerating the importance of aspects of the job that you
have no knowledge of.
0 Letting an impressive attitude make you forget to ask some
essential questions about skills and knowledge.
0 It is easy to become too systematic and overstructured.
Applicants can sense this and anticipate your questions.
When this happens you both begin to tango.
0 Letting first impressions (good or bad) overrule the evalua-
tion of evidence from the interview.
0 Making a judgement on the basis of the pre-interview mate-
rial, which either the interviewer spends the whole time
trying to verify or which simply renders the interview point-
0 Perhaps the most common and damaging fault is simply to
make a decision too soon, often during the interview itself.
It needs an effort to train oneself into the habit of always
reserving judgement until all the information has been gath-
ered and evaluated.

Some good habits

Often the obvious is taken for granted and thus overlooked. It U
goes without saying that applicants should be put at their ease. z
Anxiety, however mild, is a barrier to communication. Space H
can be intimidating. Thus, inappropriately large rooms and
placing the applicant and interviewer wide apart all tend to Ya
intimidate. Some writers argue that the interviewers desk is a
barrier and that both parties should sit side by side. The
problem with this solution is that it is harder to take notes on
your lap and, of course, notes must be taken. Here is the inter-
viewer's main physical problem - how to concentrate and take
notes at the same time. The worst position to be in is finding
yourself unable to recall an answer to a key question when you
are evaluating at the end. Last, but not least, allow yourself
time. Not just for the interview, but time to appraise the pre-
interview data and time to contemplate your decision.

Some bad habits

Two habits that commonly undo good intentions are first,
trying to see too many people in too short a time. In such cir-
cumstances, the squeeze comes on time for evaluation and
judgement. Second, interruptions are preventable, and if they
occur unforgivable, and that includes during the time you have
set aside to think over the applicant.
13 Appraisal

Everyone wants to know how they are getting on - its natural.

Therefore, feedback becomes part of the interaction between
the subordinate and the superior. Knowing where you stand
and if you are on the right lines are part of everyday work and,
as such, informal appraisal is continuous and part of daily life.
That an organization would want to turn this process into a
formal system is quite rational. Each part might be on the
right lines but is the whole? An appraisal system attempts to
ensure some continuity of purpose by checking the validity of
individual goals in terms of organization goals.
However, everyone not only wants to know how they are
getting on, but to know this in relation to others. Again, per-
fectly natural, but potentially problematic for a system. It
would be obvious to use an appraisal system to rate employees
for promotion, but in doing so it may introduce a note of
ambiguity in the way the system is perceived by both managers
and workers. To illustrate the point, if a worker comes to an
interview thinking that its purpose is to discuss the develop-
ment of skills, they might tell of personal weaknesses. This
would not be in their interests if the appraiser considered the
purpose of the interview to be to decide on pay in relation to
others! All appraisal systems have the potential to disrupt in
this way.
An appraisal system can promote effectiveness, job satisfac-
tion and better manpower utilization. It can also promote
organizational inefficiency, personal insecurity, distrust and
conflict; which way it goes depends on how it is done. Doing
it well means, at a personal level, the interviews being con-
ducted professionally, and at an organizational level, by the
purposes of the system being clearly defined with natural con-
tradictions resolved. To a large extent, the performance of
appraisers is dependent upon the integrity of the system.

Purposes: a case of potential

Possibly the best way to understand the purposes associated
with appraisal systems is to ask why an organization would
have a formal system. There are a number of reasons.

0 To ensure that each job is being done in the way which the
organization wants it to be done, e.g. output standards, the
right method and the right priorities.
0 To stimulate better performance.
0 To assess performance and inform those assessed about how
their performance is seen.
0 To collate aggregate information on manpower capacity.
Literally a skills audit.
To measure the strengths and weaknesses of the selection
To measure the relative performance of employees.
To highlight promotable employees.
To indicate where skills need to be developed and improved.

Looked at objectively, these purposes seem perfectly reason-

able. The problem occurs when they are telescoped down into
an interview. Why are we here? Is it to fulfil all these pur-
Is the character of the interview:

Counselling - to help the employees to overcome some dif-

Promotion - assessing the potential for another job?
Training and development - assessing future needs?
0 Pay - deciding on how much performance deserves?
An appraisal interview cannot accomplish all these objectives,
therefore to ask it to do so simply renders it ambiguous and
ineffective at achieving anything. If ambiguity exists in the
system, people will become defensive at interviews and man-
agers will become cynical about the system itself. This is self-
At the heart of the dilemma lies the absolute nature of a
development need. If an employee is not performing properly
in a particular area of the work, it matters not a jot whether
they are better or worse than someone else. When it comes to
development, relative judgement doesnt count. To remedy a
deficiency you have to look at it in absolute terms. This is why
appraisal for development and appraisal for promotion dont sit
comfortably together.

Resolving the ambiguity

An organization has to ask certain questions in order to reduce
the ambiguity of a system.

0 Is the appraisal system part of the control process?

Is the appraisal system there to allocate rewards?
Is the appraisal system for developing the needs of employ-

The answer may be yes to all three. It is a question of balance

and emphasis. What has to be remembered is that overempha-
sis on the first two will negate the third almost completely. One
approach is to let the control system do its job and let the
appraisal system address development issues.

Job alignment
Perhaps one of the most fruitful returns which an appraisal
system can give is ro regularly realign people with their jobs.
This is particularly important where the quality ofwork is both
crucial and difficult to measure.
People become comfortable with their jobs over time. A
natural bias creeps in which is to give priority to:

1 The visible results of the employees work which the control

system measures.
2 What the employee is good at.
3 What the employee likes doing.

Thus, important points of the work which arent measured, the

incumbent is not good at or doesnt enjoy are neglected. An
appraisal interview can find this bias and reintroduce the
incumbent to the priorities as seen by higher management. A
receptionist may enjoy working with the computer and find it
easy, what is more, the control system demands regular reports
but no attention is given to guest relations. What does man-
agement want? Usually it is everything, so it is a matter of
realigning priorities. An appraisal system is good at this.

The type of work and the systems

It could be argued that if the output of the job can be measured
accurately, then all you need is a control system rather than an
appraisal system. This is true only if you ignore the personal
needs of the operator. What is also true, however, is that in
certain circumstances appraisal systems become more impor-
tant. These are:

1 When the job requires a good deal of employee discretion.

2 When personal character plays a large part in the success of
the job.
3 When the job has wide scope.
4 When it is difftcult to measure the output of a job.
5 When quality is difficult to measure and requires some con-
sensus as to what is good.
6 When there is a high rate of technological change.

In other words, where standards cannot be easily measured and

where jobs are under pressure to change that is when talking a
job through can play a significant role.
Common faults of the system
That any ambiguity in the system is allowed to enter the
interview. There may be confusion over the purpose and
meaning of the exchange.
Setting artificial performance measures to please the system,
for example asking people to affect things over which they
have little control.
0 The Mr Average syndrome. Appraising employees in rela-
tion to some idealized benchmark standard. Using only rel-
ative comparisons makes a mockery of absolute
performance. If the benchmark person were to leave, every-
ones performancewould change without any actual change
taking place. This syndrome distorts the whole process and
leads to complacency.
Letting relative values dominate objective performance
values to the extent that everyone is doing relatively well, but
everyones standards are not good enough.

The appraisal interview

What skills are required

Two skills are essential to the appraisal interview:

1 Being able to give feedback. The ability to give good news

and bad news without causing exaggeration, overconfi-
dence or resentment.
2 Being able to elicitfacts andfielings. The ability to draw out
how the individual sees their job and to distinguish between
facts and feelings.

Preparation and strategy

In a very real sense, the skills mentioned above stem from

preparation and from strategy. Assuming that the interview
will be based on some performance measures and conduct
reports, the interviewer must be prepared to support com-
ments with facts. Support for comments is best achieved by
looking at performance from a variety of perspectives - behav-
iour towards supervisor, behaviour towards colleagues, achieve-
ments, quality, quantity, etc.
Again, working from the reported performance it is useful to
make a list of good and bad performance indicators. Using this
as a guide, the interview should elicit feelings about these
aspects of the job. People have priorities, and by seeking their
priorities the interviewer may also be finding out what they
like and what they dont like. This strategy follows the job
alignment principle. How far do the good performance indica-
tors relate to priorities and likes and the bad indicators to pri-
orities and dislikes?
The assumption of the above approach is that disliking
something leads to poor performance. While this is true in
general, there may be barriers which intervene and cause the
dislike or simply prevent achievement of anything. When the
interviewer comes across a barrier they must check that it is real
and not just an invented excuse. The outcome of an appraisal
interview should be:

An assessment of performance.
An assessment of priorities.
An assessment of barriers to performance.
0 An agreed plan of action for the future.

Common faults in the interview

Saying to the appraisee, Overall you were fine, but.. . and

continuing with a string of negatives.
w 0 Saying, Lets start with the bad news - leaving the good to
the end. Always start on a positive note.
0 Too much criticism - there is a limit.
Saying, You and I know each other - lets get this form off
to Personnel!
0 Entering into negotiation - bargaining and contesting the
14 Grievance and dispute

The problem of grievance procedures is that nobody loves

them! The problem of grievances is that they are, for managers,
so easy to disregard. In a sense, the first situation is a result of
the latter. Managers find it all too easy to attribute grumbles to
troublemakers or disputes to the six of one, half a dozen of the
other category, before investigation. To some, good people
dont have problems - but they do. To many managers the
formal grievance procedure is an unwanted rival to their Im
always approachable authority. Given the complexity of nega-
tive behaviour discussed in Chapter 4, some sympathy is due
to management in this respect. However, managers cannot
simply look the other way or rely entirely on their own busy
At any one time in any organization there will always be a
degree of dissatisfaction, and while it is impossible to eradicate
grievances altogether, it is clearly managements task to mini-
mize and contain such conflict. The problem facing manage-
ment is not simply a matter of the complexity of grievances,
but that they exist at numerous levels. To put it simply, there
are individual, group and workforce grievances. Obviously as
the scale of the problem varies the means of prevention and res-
olution also vary to scale.
Prevention is better than cure, but if you have a problem
there must be some means of settling it without damaging the
operation. The key elements in prevention are knowing
the patterns of conflict (labour turnover, absenteeism,
stoppages, etc.); the behaviour of supervisors and junior
managers; and the organizations operating policies, particu-
larly personnel policies. The key element in resolution of con-
flict is the operation of an authentic dispute and grievance


The pattern of conflict behaviour: the case of

high labour turnover

The hotel and catering industry has a reputation for high levels
of labour turnover - the facts confirm this. The levels are so
high that consideration of any other form of conflict behaviour
tends to be subsumed under this one problem. Two cases can
be made that mitigate high levels of labour turnover; these were
the need for numerical flexibility to match variations in
demand and the need for skill accumulation by personal
mobility. Accounting for these cases still leaves an awful lot of
conflict-related labour turnover.
The first step to prevention is to recognize the type
of problem that you have, which includes separating
the preventable from the inevitable. In relation to prevent-
able conflict, three areas of concern can be identified from

1 The arbitrary behaviour of supervisors and managers Because

of the shift system and because standards are subjectively
defined, employees face more than one supervisor, each with
their own ideas about what they regard as good performance.
Inconsistency is difficult to work with. This may be the back-
ground pattern of quitting, based on what is seen as unfair
action by managers.
2 The induction crisis The induction crisis is endemic in the
industry. Workers leave employers within a very short period
because either the job is not what they thought it was going to
be or it is incompatible with their non-work life. While
acknowledging that the pressure of the recruitment function is
often extreme, there is always a premium on getting things as
straight as possible at the outset. As a generalization, recruiters
concentrate on the person's ability to do the job, but neglect
to find out whether the person has realisticdh thought out the
job in terms of their domestic lifefor themselves. Often an inter-
viewee makes a mistake which costs the employer time and
3 Distribution of efort and reward It is suggested that because
productivity is through individual effort and does not increase
with length of service, there is no point in rewarding seniority.
While true in general, this argument loses some of its force on
the ground. People expect to be rewarded for producing more
or staying longer. With a workforce that contains both a tran-
sient population and a stable population, the lower levels of
management are confronted with an enormous problem of
how to distribute rewards and effort in such a way as to turn
the transient population into permanence, while not up-
setting the already permanent employees by denying them
privileges. Matters like the distribution of days off have no eco-
nomic impact, but have enormous significance for operational

The case of the junior managers

In the front line of people management are the supervisor and F

the junior levels of management. It is their behaviour that, to

a large extent, determines the general level of morale and inci-

dents of discontent. Given how imprecise labour contracts are 2
for service workers, there is a greater than normal probability
of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. It is difficult to
manage service workers through a set of ambiguous rules. 5)
What is more, the occasion of shift overlap means that most v,
workers have more than one manager which leads to a problem n
of inconsistency. All this points to the need for the training of a
supervisors and managers in people-handling skills. 0
Uniformity would be impossible and undesirable, but a degree
of consistency in actual skill can only be beneficial. wU
Policies that help

0 Knowing the house rules There are always some house rules
and while it is usual to get them across through the induc-
tion process, people forget. Many problems occur over a
misinterpretation of rules, therefore access to the rules and,
if necessary, an independent interpretation (possibly by the
Personnel Manager) would cut off grievances before they
start. It is the is he allowed to change my day of%?syn-
0 Individual diffiences As productivity is individual produc-
tivity in this industry, it is wise to select carefully to avoid
friction based on effort comparisons.
0 Distribution of effort and rewards Give guidelines to
departmental managers on distributing effort and
rewards. Make clear divisions between the status of
those under training and those accepted as competent per-
formers. Give clear guidelines on the privileges of long
0 Irregular hours of work Even if consumer demand is irregu-
lar, work can be organized on a continuous basis. Waiting
around for work simply breeds gripes.
Promotion and training Well-organized training and pub-
lished opportunities.
0 Pay system Easily understood and with legitimate differen-
0 Pay and benefts Competitive.

The goal of these policies is to try to eliminate unfair arbitrary

management action, unstable and irregular work, inadequate
employee status and recognition. The above policies dont,
themselves, promote harmony, but they are the bedrock on
which it is built.

Grievance and dispute procedures

There is a certain irony in the fact that neither managers nor
workers are enthusiastic to use the formal grievance procedure.
Managers see it as a slight on their authority and workers dont
trust the system, because it always supports management
authority. Looked at objectively, if workers do take their griev-
ances to the system they are in fact afirming management
authority. Grievance procedures are about justice, rough justice
possibly, but justice nevertheless.
The real merits of formal procedure are, first, that by bring-
ing the grievance out into the open they force resolutions to be
on the lines of some fair principles or precedents. Second, this
form of resolution is healthier for the organization in the long
run than the alternative form of resolution, that is an informal
settlement. Informal approaches are necessary and sometimes
preferable, but not for everything. The danger of informal
systems is that they use favours and reciprocity as the basis of
resolution which are, by their very nature, secret and open to
misinterpretation. There is plenty of evidence to show that
when the informal settlement system dominates, it ends in an
expensive mess with unofficial privileges having to be bought
out! Settling a grumble with a bit of extra overtime solves

Impact of a procedure upon a grievance

0 It helps to identify those to whom the grievance should be

put and those who may be approached for assistance.
0 It may help to clarify the issue if the grievant has to write it
down or explain it to a representative. !-
0 It may help to obtain appropriate information. W
0 It may speed up resolution in so far as it specifies time limits W
and ensures only those with the appropriate authority are 2
By requiring that records be kept it lessens the chances of
ambiguous customs and practices becoming involved. 5a
It reduces the level of emotion involved. v,

Designing a procedure 0
There is a dilemma at the heart of any judicial procedure, and
grievance and dispute procedures are no different. The (3
problem is that speed of resolution is incompatible with consis-
tency ofjustice. Anybody with a problem wants it resolved as
soon as possible. This is natural. If everything were solved
quickly that would mean everything would have to be settled
at a low level of authority. This would mean inconsistent
judgements which would, themselves, eventually become the
source of conflict. Alternatively, if one person made all the
judgements they would be consistent, but dangerously slow.
This is the design problem of all procedures - how to reconcile
speed with consistency.
Fundamentally, grievance procedures consist of a number of
dimensions. These are first a number of stages following a set
order. At each stage there is an attempt to resolve the grievance.
Second, there are levels of authority which are superimposed
onto the stages of the grievance procedure. For example, the
first two stages may attempt to resolve the grievance at super-
visory level, after which the remaining stages move to an ever
higher authority level. The big element here is the terminal
stage where the grievance must be resolved. Third, at any stage
representation or arbitration may be superimposed. Fourth,
there is the matter of formality; the degree to which the proce-
dure is written down and rigidly applied. Finally, there are
fNed time limits on the duration between each stage in order
to prevent unfair delays.

Key issues in designing a procedure

Basic structure - number of stages.

Place of the terminal stage.
0 Time limits on stages.
Roles of participants.
Recording of procedure stages.
Scope of the procedure.
0 Representation.
0 Procedure differentiation (some problems may require dif-
ferent procedures).

None of this will work without someone making it work.

This is usually a role for Personnel. Where a union is recog-
nized, it is essential to specifjr the point in the system when
union representation takes place and the point where the
dispute can go to arbitration. These matters are the subject of

15 Personnel

There is always a basic administrative function to be under-

taken; whether this is done by someone called a Personnel
Manager or by someone else, it still has to be done. Personnel
is often seen as bureaucracy which is a little unfair. Such senti-
ments are really a substitute rationale for rejecting a strong
internal labour market which is, in itself, perfectly legitimate.
The real problem for personnel in the hotel and catering indus-
try is that the normal unit size is far too small to carry a
Personnel Manager, but someone still has to maintain some
kind of personnel function. Often this function is delegated to
an Assistant Manager who is responsible for other areas as well,
or it is split between more than one person. In the case of large
companies, the response of Head Ofice Personnel is to try to
lay down guidelines in order to achieve a minimum standard
of administration. This structural difficulty could easily be
used as an excuse for poor administration, but it is really a very
strong argument for actually doing it efficiently.
If one takes a close look at the role personnel management
actually plays in the business, it is possible to identify four
points of impact. First, it was suggested that the psychological
contract was, at its inception, always imprecise. All the para-
phernalia of job descriptions, good interviewing, good recruit-
ment, trial periods, induction, etc. are, in effect, trying to make
the agreement less imprecise. The more mutual the under-
standing can be between the new recruit and management, the
greater the likelihood that the person will give the performance
expected. This is, in effect, the second point of impact - sup-
porting the economic objectives of the organization by trying
to find the most productive people. This cannot be under-
stated, because productivity in this industry is individual pro-
ductivity. It will come as no surprise that recruitment is a
prominent feature of the personnel function, but it is impor-
tant to realize that whoever is doing the recruiting is sitting at
the interface between the internal and external markets and in
fact controlling that relationship. The response of the external
feed back into the internal is through the recruiter, because no
one else knows what is happening in the external market. The
last point of impact is in coping with the fallout when the rela-
tionship between management and worker goes wrong.
Discipline, grievance handling and disputes procedures dont
work automatically - they need handling. Being part of man-
agement does not compromise the need to make whatever pro-
cedures are agreed on actually work.
None of these four points of impact are actually precisely
represented by particular roles, yet they are what personnel
activities and roles should be doing.

0 Making the relationship between manager and workers

more precise, particularly in the initial stages.
0 Recruiting the most productive people.
0 Managing the relationship between the internal and external
labour markets.
Facilitating the resolution of conflict.

It is not that a Personnel Manager wakes up one morning

and decides to make an employees psychological contract
more precise or relate the internal market to the external, but
that is what they are actually doing in much of their daily
If this is personnel managements role in the organization,
what is the contribution of administration? All that paperwork
- files, reports, etc. - what is it for? The objectives of good per-
sonnel administration are:

0 To provide sufficient information for management to make

decisions affecting individuals, groups, departments, occu-
pations and the workforce.
To promote the feeling of equity of treatment.
To give individual employees the feeling of confidence that
their affairs with the organization are being administered
To promote and maintain the goodwill and reputation of
the organization in the labour market and with external

What is actually required to achieve these objectives will vary

with circumstances, but there is a bare minimum which any
organization cannot fall below. Every activity has its basic good
housekeeping rules and personnel administration is no excep-

Essential good habits in personnel

Maintain all personal files on a comprehensive and active
basis. All files to be serviced regularly.
Maintain a management information system in respect to
Ensure that all the basic processes of personnel are effi-
ciently operated, for example:
Ensure that all aspects of pay administration are efficient
and in line with agreements and laws.
Ensure that the organization confidentiality policy operates
at all times.
Pay attention to detail at all times.

All that talk of motivation in Chapter 3 counts for nothing if

the Personnel Department loses files! News of sloppy adminis-
tration soon gets around. Beyond a basic duty toward employ-
ees, there is an obligation to produce information to assist
managerial decision making. In fact, the quality of aggregate
information produced for management is, at least to an extent,
dependent on the degree of vigilance over individual files.

Hard datalsoft data

In any organization the Finance Department produces hard
data, that is factual data, e.g. cash levels, stock levels, revenue,
etc. Although this data is open to interpretation when pre-
sented together each piece of data is hard. If a personnel file
says a person was born on a certain date that is hard data. The
number of people who leave the organization is hard data. In
contrast, a note on a file which says that Mr X left because he
was unhappy with his pay is soft data. It may be true, but there
could be other reasons and, in itself, it is open to interpretation
- so it is soft. Giving Mr X an appraisal rating of excellent is
soft data for the same reasons, it is subjective data.
The importance of distinguishing between hard and soft
data is that personnel information tends to be a combination
of both. Often they are confused and hard data is somehow
seen as more valuable than soft. Soft data is subjective data, but
that does not mean that it is less valuable. What matters is the
integrity with which the data was collected. This means that
soft data should not be generated by people with a vested inter-
est in its interpretation. This is where the independence and
integrity of personnel actually matters. An example would be
Figure 15.1 is an extract from a labour turnover report. The
numbers on the left and the right are hard data, but the reasons
for leaving are soft. z
If the reasons for leaving were submitted by the department
heads this is worthless data, but if they were the result of an exit

interview conducted by personnel staff then they would be v,

acceptable. Obviously, just one reason for leaving may be inad- 2
equate, but a degree of tolerance of the acceptability of soft a
data is made when the data collection instrument is being z
designed. Data doesnt have to be hard to be useful. z
Figure 15.1

Principles of designing personnel

data collection
0 Define the purpose of the data collection, which means
defining the activity or behaviour you are interested in.
0 Decide whether you are interested in locating the problems
within the organization in relation to this activity or moni-
toring long-term trends in the activity or both.
0 Personnel data is not designed so that you can take action
directly from the data, but should be designed to show what
the problem is, where it is and suggest what questions you
need to ask of those with authority in the identified area.
From the data in Figure 15.1 you should want to know
about selection interviewing given the number of maids
leaving for home responsibilities and hours. You should also
want to know about induction training and why there are so
few transfers between day and evening?
0 Ensure that soft data is collected in an unbiased way.
Day-to-day administration - policy

$ guideline
z In concluding Part Two, it might be useful just to list the activ-
ities that may require a guideline policy in the area. The list is
not comprehensive and many more activities could be
included. The important point in laying down guidelines is not
to put people in straightjackets, but to give them flexibility
while ensuring that people know who does what!

0 Documentation (what goes into, who has access to):

- Personal files;
- Contracts of employment;
- Job descriptions.
0 Regular procedures:
- Recruitment;
- Selection;
- Employment;
- Termination;
- Appraisal;
- Promotion;
- Status change;
- Transfer.
Occasional procedures:
- Discipline;
- Grievance;
- Legal.
0 Manning levels:
- Performance standards;
- Casual labour;
- Overtime.
- Grade structure;
- Incremental structure;
- Job evaluation;
- Overtime;
- Deductions;
- Loans;
- Advances;
- Savings plan.
- Sick pay;
- Holiday;
- Discounts;
- Entitlements;
- Health plans.
0 Training:
- Induction;
- Skills;
- Supervisory;
- Statutory;
- Management.
0 Security:
- Locker inspection;
- Security checks.
Relationship with external bodies:
- Government;
- Education.
0 Trade unions:
- Recognition;
- Agreement;
- Bargaining structure.
Individual recognition:
- Seniority;
- Long-service awards;
- Birthdays;
- Retirement.
Employee social activities:
Staff accommodation.

Seen as a list it looks daunting, but if the basic documentation

is computerized, then many of the other functions become
much easier to administer. The argument here is that if the
basic things are done properly, then management strategies
related to the business will have a greater chance of success.
Part Three

Labour cost management

This page intentionally left blank
16 How labour markets

All organizations live in a labour market environment, it is the

sea on which they sail. To complain about the labour market is
like the captain of a ship complaining about the sea. Yet labour
markets are invariably problematic to organizations because
they are mostly invisible things. In order to make sense of
Chapter 17, which analyses hotel and catering labour markets,
it is necessary to look first at some basic ideas and concepts that
appertain to understanding labour markets. These are:

0 What are labour markets?

Is recruitment related to labour turnover?
0 The idea of internal labour markets.

What are labour markets?

Labour markets exist on two levels; factual and perceptual. At
any one time, people will be seeking employment or trying to
change their jobs. Simultaneously, employers will be seeking
new employees. Wage rates will be set, recruitment policies
implemented, people will need training, people will have to
move. This is the daily life of labour markets. Thousands of
independent decisions made by employers and employees
make up the trends in mobility, the surpluses of or shortages of
supply, the excesses or lack of demand. In other words, what-
ever the state of supply and demand in a labour market, it is
brought about by the independent and unconnected decisions
of thousands of people.
According to conventional economic theory, supply
and demand will be brought into equilibrium by the
price of labour, i.e. the rate of pay. However, behind the
assumption of a perfect market is a perfect flow of informa-
tion between buyers and sellers of labour. In a perfect
world the buyers would know how many have the skills they
desire, how many would like to learn them and where
these people are. Conversely, people would know how many
vacancies there are, in what organizations and at what rate of
Labour markets run on information, but they are invariably
less than perfect mechanisms. What both buyers and sellers are
left with is their perceptions and assumptions of supply and
demand. We may think that there is no current demand for
our skills, yet it may be that there is! An employer may think it
is going to be easy to recruit a certain skill and set the rate
accordingly, but may find that it is not. In the absence of
perfect information and measurement, trial and error is both
the decision process and a learning source.
While it is difficult to know a labour market, learning about
it is a matter of reading signals in society such as the general
level of employment, education trends and major changes in
the birth rate. More important however, is to look closer to
home at the local labour market and particularly at the rate of
labour turnover, competitors pay rates, the number of vacan-
cies and the number of applicants per vacancy. It is also possi-
ble to survey local markets in various ways.

Adam Smith

It would be appropriate to begin with some older wisdom. For

Smith, it wasnt just earning more money that made a job
seeker choose a particular job, other things entered the equa-

The agreeableness or disagreeableness of the work, the

degree of hardship involved, the honourableness or dishon-
The easiness or difficulty of learning the job and its atten-
dant cost.
0 The degree of security or constancy of the employment.
0 The degree of trust and responsibility in the job.
0 The probability of success in the job.
According to Smith, all these factors influenced the price of
labour because they influenced the decision maker. Carrying
no psychological baggage, these ideas have a timeless common
sense about them.
Despite the problem of imperfect information, it would be
wrong to assume that managers do not have any control over
the labour market because they do. For a start, although all
organizations are involved in the national labour market, what
counts to the health of the organization is the performance of
its local labour market and the particular segments of it that are
salient. What arbitrates the size of these markets is the degree
of specialization of the organization. If the skills required are
very specific to the organization, then there is a choice between
fishing in a small pond or doing a lot of training. If the skills
are generally held in the wider population, then the market will
be larger and it is a case of trawling with a large net.
Notwithstanding the size of the labour markets, managers
have at their disposal a wide range of tools for meeting the
problems of labour markets, e.g. increasing pay, more training,
altering hiring standards, promoting from within, plus many
more. Increasing pay, for example, might not only attract more
people, but may do so by extending the geographical limits of
the local market by revaluing travel to work costs. Y
Labour markets are always an unknown quality, but accep- a
tance of that and a willingness to try to understand what is
going on is essential to labour management. All manpower I-
policies, but particularly those relating to recruitment and Y

training are, to a large extent, dependent on labour market 2cc

factors. 3
One concept central to labour markets is that of elasticity. It 8
is necessary to understand the economic notion of elasticity. 4
Quite simply, if pay is the driving force of the market, how 3
responsive is the demand for labour to rises and falls in the rate P

Number employed -
Figure 16.1

of pay and how responsive is the supply of labour to rises and

falls in the rate of pay? If, for example, we could obtain any
amount of labour at one particular rate, then we would say that
the supply of labour is perfectly elastic. If, however, we need to
increase pay to get more labour then the supply of labour is, to
a degree, inelastic. The graph in Figure 16.1 illustrates the
Here, pay is plotted against the number of workers - labour
supply. The line S-Sl represents perfect elasticity. The line S-
S2 represents a degree of inelasticity - in other words this line
is responsive to pay. The demand for labour can be expressed
in exactly the same terms, only this time the slope is from right
to left, as more labour would be demanded at the lower price
- line D-D1 represents a particular level of demand. You will
have deduced from all this that the slope of the line represents
the degree of elasticity.


Is recruitment related to labour

Having said that labour markets are slightly mysterious
unknowable things, it will come as a pleasant surprise to know
that there is one aspect of labour market behaviour that is uni-
versal enough to be predictable; so reliable in fact that it should
enter all calculations of recruitment. What is this potent factor?
Quite simply, it is the common sense notion that the longer a
person stays in a job, the less likely they are to leave. In reverse
this reads a person is more likely to leave a job the shorter their
period of service in that job. The uncertainties of a job and
surroundings are likely to be greater when a person first enters
a job - does it meet expectations? It is in this early period that
a person has a high propensity to leave. Conversely, the longer
a person stays in a job the more comfortable it becomes; it
begins to fit like an old overcoat.
This behavioural tendency has real significance for labour
management because it unites recruitment with labour turnover.
The golden rule is that the rate of each rises andfalh together
with just a short time lag. When recruitment goes up, so does
labour turnover. This may astound. Surely when business is
expanding people will want to stay? Maybe, but when business
is expanding the proportion of new recruits with a high
propensity to leave is higher than normal. Thus the number of
leavers increases. Some examples of the significance of this will
be helpful.

A case of expansion

Suppose a company needs to substantially increase its man-

power in respect of one particular occupation. For years it has
employed sixty in number and 20 per cent leave every year.
Half of these vacancies are filled by promotion from a lower
grade and the rest are made up by recruitment from the exter- a
nal labour market. The situation would be: 3
histing staff Labour turnover Promotion Recruitment a
60 12 6 ? 2
Lets leave the recruitment figure blank for a moment. If the 2
company needed to expand, say, to ninety, then the question of 4
recruitment and a recruitment budget become crucial. An 3
obvious projection of what might be needed would be: P
Existing staff Labour turnover Promotion Recruitment Target
60 12 6 36 90

But it would be wrong, because it assumes that the labour

turnover percentage will remain at 20 per cent, when it will
not. Expansion means recruiting more newcomers with a
higher than normal propensity to leave. In reality, the company
will have to recruit more than the thirty-six projected in order
to achieve the target of ninety. The real situation might
progress differently:

Existing staf Labour turnover Promotion Recruitment Target

60 25 6 49 90

The recruitment budget would need to be larger to be more

realistic. To repeat, as recruitment rises so does labour turnover.
It is equally important in a period of contraction.

A case of contraction

An organization wishes to reduce its staff. The plan is to reduce

staff from 600 to 300 in five years. In order to do this the organ-
ization takes the decision to use only natural wastage, esti-
mating that as labour turnover runs at 10 per cent per annum,
if they stop recruitment that will reduce the numbers down to
roughly the number required - 354. The policy of natural
wastage simply lets those who want to leave or retire do the
reducing - it is a popular policy. This is perfectly understand-
able - no one likes making people redundant and it always
appears to be an easy option. The question arises, however, of
whether it is realistic simply to stop recruitment.
The first objection is that natural wastage occurs indiscrim-
inately, so that parts of the organization will be desperately
short, while others will be overstaffed. Unless the organization
has considerable occupational flexibility the policy will break
down under the pressure of simply keeping the organization
However, the second objection is equally powerful. If we
apply the relationship between recruitment and labour
turnover, it will be obvious that when recruitment has been
stopped the rate of labour turnover will decline, because the
workforce will simply be getting older in their jobs. Table 16.1
represents a length of service profile of the organization at the
start of the period.

Table 16.1

Length of service No. of LT (%) Actual LT

in years employees

0- 1 150 16 24
1-2 120 13 15
2-3 100 10 10
3-4 130 6 8
4-5 60 5 3
5 40 5 2
600 62

As recruitment has been stopped the rate of labour turnover

will progressively decline. Table 16.2 shows the annual reduc-

Table 16.2

Year No. of employees Leavers Turnover (%)

1990 600 62 10.3 Y

1993 467 25 5.3 w
1994 442 23 5.2 a
1995 419 - - 2

The result of 419 is nowhere near what is required.

The point being made in both these cases is that as there is
a relationship between the rate of recruitment and the rate of 8
labour turnover this has to be built into manpower planning.
In an area of great uncertainty, this relationship represents a
valuable aid to realistic planning and budgeting. In fact, it is
possible to go further here - the relationship is so important
that it infiltrates, in some way, almost every aspect of human
resource management.

The idea of internal labour markets

While the conventional wisdom argues that in the external
labour market skills are distributed by the price of labour, there
may be completely different rules at work within the organiza-
tion. These rules are known as the internal labour market.
The concept of the internal labour market is based on the
idea that sets of rules and conventions form within organiza-
tions which act as allocative mechanisms governing the move-
ment of people and the pricing of jobs. Such rules are about
promotion criteria, training opportunities, pay differentials
and the evaluation of jobs, but most importantly, they are
about which jobs are open to the external labour market. It is
the concept of openness which represents the interface between
what goes on inside the organization and the external labour
Management have a choice as to what rules they use to
govern internal affairs, but should they choose not to use rules
then they open up their organization to the influence of the
external labour market. Like everything else, it is a question of
degree. It is possible to envisage two extremes - a strong and a
weak internal labour market. Figure 16.2 illustrates the dimen-
sions of an internal labour market.
It is important to add that the appellations strong or weak,
are purely descriptive; there is nothing intrinsically meritorious
about strong or pejorative about weak. The question arises as
to why managers should direct their policies in a particular
direction. The arguments in favour of a strong internal labour
market revolve around the benefits of stability.
There are three basic conditions which promote the forma-
tion of strong internal labour markets; all are concerned with
stability. First, and above 911, such markets are likely to form
~ ~~

Strong Weak
Structural features Structural features
Specified hiring standards 0 Unspecified hiring stan-
0 Single port of entry 0 Multiple ports of entry
High skill specificity 0 Low skill specificity
Continuous on-job training 0 No on-job training
0 Fixed criteria for promotion 0 No fixed criteria for
and transfer promotion and transfer
0 Strong workplace customs 0 Weak workplace customs
0 Pay differentials remain 0 Pay differentials vary over
fixed over time time

Figure 16.2 Dimension of internal labour markets

where the technological process decrees that skills in the organ-

ization are very specific to that organization. The effect of this
is to throw the burden of training on the organization, because
at best, the external labour market can only provide a general-
ized or approximate capability.
Second, where the type of skills lend themselves to being
learnt more easily and cheaply by on-the-job training, the
burden of training is taken up by existing employees. Hence
management will need stability.
Third, where jobs are not easily definable and output not yet
open to exact measurement, or where discretion and judgement
by employees are unavoidable, then custom and practice with
its continuity becomes important. Here again, stability is a
desirable state. In these circumstances, in addition to the intrin-
sic benefits of stability, management also make gains through
reduced labour turnover and recruitment costs, together with
efficient and cheaper training. For the workforce there is greater 2
job security, open promotion channels, better training opportu- Y
nities and pay enhanced by training responsibilities. a
Such cosiness could be upset by the external labour market a
supplying better and cheaper people. Basically, if it could it
would. It is only when it simply cannot, because the skills 4
needed are so organization specific, that internal labour 3
markets become dominant. P
If all these benefits are going to be realized, then it is essen-
tial for a strong internal labour market to keep the external
labour market out of the picture. If every job in the organiza-
tion is a port of entry, i.e. open to outsiders and there are no
hiring criteria, then the organization is totally open to the
outside world. Conversely, if ports of entry are restricted to a
few jobs and strict hiring standards applied, then the organiza-
tion is fairly closed to the vagaries and caprice of the external
labour market.
Once entry is restricted, then allocation of people and skills
within the organization is based on the training capacity of
existing resources and on rational progressions strongly related
to the technological process. In other words, with restricted
and controlled entry the organization can build on the job pro-
gressions and promotion sequences based on technological and
functional priorities, both arranged with suitable incentives. As
long as technological priorities remain the same we would
expect to find pay differentials remaining fixed over time.
If, on the other hand, an organization does not need the
benefits of a stable workforce, then the merits of a weak inter-
nal labour market become apparent. These merits include
granting a degree of flexibility of response to fluctuations in
demand, a strong emphasis on training the unskilled and the
injection of new blood.
If the problem is to assess an organization on the strong-
weak dimension, an obvious clue would be the rate of labour
turnover. If internal labour markets are about restricting the
power of the external, or about locking employees into a
bureaucratic employment relationship, we would expect to
find low rates of labour turnover associated with strong inter-
nal labour markets and high with weak. This, however, can
only be a rough indication. Basically, there are five areas of
measurability: the specificity of selection criteria; the degree of
w openness; the extent of on-the-job training; the rate of internal
promotions; and the fixity of pay differentials over time. This
information could be collected directly using a variety of
methods. It is also possible to collect data on management
practices in relation to manpower as these are linked to the
rules existing in the internal labour market. The rationale for
this is that, in theory, management have a complete range of
options open to them with respect to the external market, such

Alter pay and conditions.

Alter hiring standards.
Alter training policies.
Use overtime and other forms of increased labour supply.
Alter promotion criteria.
Extend ports of entry, redesign jobs.

There are others, but the point here is that choosing to foster a
strong labour market may subsequently constrain manage-
ment's use of these alternative options. In this way, manage-
ment behaviour at the interface of two labour markets is a good
general indicator of the character of the organization's internal
labour market.

The intention has been to introduce some basic ideas about
labour markets in order for the reader to understand the
anatomy of hotel and catering labour markets which follows in
the next chapter. Of particular relevance will be the notion of
elasticity and the concept of internal labour markets.


17 Hotel and catering
labour markets

If you were lost in a dense forest of pine trees, which would you
prefer to have - a compass or knowledge of the maximum
width of the forest?The first would keep you on a straight line,
but the second would be more reassuring and comforting,
because it would define the limits of your problems. It is the
big picture which really helps. The purpose here is to paint a
portrait of a labour market in such a way as to show how its
economic imperatives and technical imperatives are integrated
by structures and behavioural patterns.
The mere fact that we can speak of a hotel and catering
labour market means that in some way the market has been
defined. Usually markets are defined by a set of skills repre-
sented by occupations and supplied to particular organizations.
In the case of the hotel and catering market, the market itself
is fairly conspicuous. You dont have to be in it to recognize
certain obvious features, such as:

0 A fairly large proportion of unskilled occupations.

0 The transferability of skills at any level between a broad
range of hotel and catering establishments.
0 Often, but not invariably, high levels of labour turnover.
Low levels of pay, particularly for unskilled work.

These four features are not unconnected. A large proportion of

unskilled or semi-skilled occupations means that these jobs are
connected to the general unskilled labour market. Because they
can be learnt quickly on the job, such jobs are available to the
unskilled workforce. Parts of that unskilled workforce will not
be permanently attached to the labour market at all. In other
words, hotel and catering recruitment is not just concerned
with competing with other firms, it is also a matter of induc-
ing people into the labour market from domestic life. The
effect of the unskilled nature of the work is to create a surplus
supply, which in turn has the result of depressing the rate of
The fact that a cook can ply their trade in a hotel, a restau-
rant, a pub, a hospital, a school, an industrial canteen, a ship
or anywhere else that might need cooking, and the fact that
such a cook may perform anywhere between the highest and
lowest levels of this skill, means that such a person would
have a wide range of establishments in which to look
for work. In other words, they could transfer their skills
widely, but only within the hotel and catering industry.
Such a person would have to retrain to enter the building
industry, for example. What all this means, is that hotel and
catering skills are specific to a particular industry and in such
circumstances we expect to find mobility mainly within the
hotel and catering industry with mobility into and out of the
industry confined to unskilled jobs and to questions of attach-
ment to the labour market itself. Broadly speaking, this is what
we find.
As pay is deemed to be the market mechanism, analysis of
any labour market must focus on explaining the general level LiY
of pay. However, in the case of the hotel and catering industry a
we have a market very clearly determined by a set of skills, I
therefore the task of describing the market mechanism is 3

mainly one of explaining bow the pay structure and skill struc-
ture integrate. The purpose will be to identify and differentiate
the behaviour of the market participants, that is both employ- za
ers and workers, and then to explain the measurable activities Lu

of the market itself, such as: pay levels, pay differentials, pat-
terns of mobility and market segmentation. n
What follows is an attempt to build a model which will meet -I
this requirement. It is founded on the identification of three
major influences on the market. These are: e
1 The nature of the skills involved - a skill model.
2 The constantly fluctuating nature of consumer demand.
3 The existence of market segmentation, founded upon social
and unsocial hours of work.

The nature of the skills involved - a

skill model
The construction of a skill model is in three stages, each with
its attendant problems. The first stage is actually to describe
and differentiate skills. The problems here are:

0 Hotels employ a large range of occupations and skills.

0 Occupational titles only describe a type of skill, not a level
of skill. The term 'cook' conveys only an activity.
0 Skill levels overlap other sectors of the industry.
0 The problem of drawing a line between what is skilled and

The difficulty is to unhinge the concept of skill from the mask

of occupation. To do this, an occupational classification has to
be represented by a skill classification. The work of the UK
Hotel and Catering Industry Training Board (HCITB) is
helpful here. They used a skill classification of four tiers, which

1 Managerial;
2 Supervisory;
3 Craft;
4 Operative.

Accepting that managing and supervising are skilled activities,

the difficulty comes in separating craft from operative. The
HCITB use craft qualifications to define craft. Thus, voca-
tional qualifications in cooking, silver service waiting, wine
waiting and reception determined the craft category. Here, the
distinction used is very similar, i.e. that craft represents skilled,
and operative semi-skilled and unskilled. The distinction
between skilled and unskilled is that skill requires some form
of formal training or education and cannot be solely learnt by
on-the-job training. Consequently, unskilled implies that work
can be learnt solely on the job.
The second stage is to estimate the proportion of skilled to
unskilled per unit. There are two questions here. First, are there
occupations that vary in their classification of skilled or
unskilled by the type of establishment? Second, does the pro-
portion of skilled to unskilled vary?
The place to start here is with the occupational structure of
establishments. Table 17.1 is an example of the occupational
structure of a hotel and an institutional catering establishment
(industrial, hospital, school, etc.). There are, of course, other
sectors of the industry, but these two are always present and are
always large sectors.

Table 17.1

Hotel Proportion Institutional Proportion

% establishment %

Managers 7 Managers 7
Chefs 12 Chefs 18
Kitchen hands 8 Kitchen hands 28
Waiterless 21 Counter hands 15
Bar 13 Waiterless 12
Hotel porter 6 Cashiers 3
Housekeeping supervisor 2 Other 2 2
Maid 12 Y
Reception 8 2n:
Clerical 2 3
Cleaning 3
Maintenance 6 4
Other 2 a
In respect of the first question, is it possible to pick out which k
occupations might vary in skill status by type of establishment? n
Some reasonable assumptions are necessary here. -1
If we assume that managers and supervisors are skilled, what w
of the others? The candidate for the category sometimes 5
skilled' are chefs and waiters. It would depend on the class of
establishment. Receptionists are more likely to be skilled, irre-
spective of the class of establishment. The rest could be allo-
cated to the unskilled or semi-skilled category, which equates
in our classification to operative. Accepting that there must be
exceptions, the guiding principle for the skill model is that the
occupations which can vary between operative and craft classi-
fications are chefs and waitedess. Table 17.2 is a summary of
how the HCITB resolved the conversion of occupational struc-
ture into skill classifications. They used five sectors of the UK
industry here, three are reproduced.

Table 17.2

Hotel Restaurant Industrzal

% % catering %

Management 5 15 7
Supervisory 9 6 8
Craft 20 27 17
Operative 66 52 68

Thus an estimated model of the skill composition of a unit

might be as shown in Figure 17.1.
The question which is yet unresolved is - do the proportions


Figure 17.1
vary with size of unit? Again, some reasonable assumptions are
necessary here. There is a prima facie case for saying that the
skill proportions dont change with size. Surely as hotels get
bigger they need more unskilled maids, but larger hotels tend
to have more function rooms and higher levels of service creat-
ing more chefs and everyone knows more elaborate cooking
means more washing up! In this way, skill breeds unskilled
work. It would not be taking too much licence to say that the
skill proportions are linear and like a nest of Russian
matryoshka dolls, they are the same whatever the size.
What the proportion triangle doesnt capture is that there
must be graduations of skill within the skill category. The third
stage, therefore, is to conceive the industry as a hierarchy of
units with the same skill proportions but with the absolute
value of skill rising as the hierarchy ascends.
While it is perfectly legitimate to analyse the industry by its
component sections such as hotels, restaurants, industrial
catering, hospitals, etc., what has to be realized is that each of
these contains a hierarchy of standards representing a range of
customer or contract spending. To simplify matters, the indus-
try can be visualized in two broad components - on the one
hand, hotels and restaurants and on the other, all forms of
institutional catering. This division emphasizes different forms
of commercial trading but, perhaps more important to the
market, different demands on labour in terms of working
hours. Figure 17.2 represents the industry skill structure. The
pyramid for the hotel and restaurant sector is taller than for the to
institutional sector on the assumption that the higher end of 9

the price range demands the highest standard of skills. a

This model assumes that the mobility pattern is in three 2
streams; unskilled entrance at all levels, skill is accumulated by 3

mobility up the pyramids and a movement of skilled labour

from hotels and restaurants to institutional catering. This
mobility pattern is founded on certain crucial assumptions 2a
about the capacity of units to train. In terms of capacity of any w
one establishment, we assume that: 5
Every establishment has an upper Limit to its capacity to teach. -I
Standards are for guests not staff, and they do not change
overnight. Any movement upwards tends to be gradual. 5
Institutional Catering Hotels and Restaurants

Figure 17.2

Once the skills have been mastered, further acquisition must

be through moving to an establishment with higher stan-
0 Although skills are transferable, there are barriers within the
establishment to changing occupations. A waiter cannot
simply change to a receptionist, a receptionist cannot
become a cook, etc. This occupational rigidity is not solely
confined to the skilled occupations.
0 Every establishment has a capacity to undertake on-the-job
training and formal training to cope with the influx of
unskilled and semi-skilled people.

It has also been assumed that there exist two labour markets
segmented into one which works the same hours as the general
population and one which works different hours. These are
termed social and unsocial hours markets. This is subject to
cultural variations, but what is important here is that if it is
w assumed that both markets offer the same pay and are in other
respects the same, one has an advantage in hours. If Figure 17.2
is correct, people can transfer from hotels and restaurants to
institutional catering without loss of material benefit, depend-
ing on the pay differentials between the two sectors. Given the
circumstances of a hierarchy of establishments and an alterna-
tive market with social hours, it follows that:
Individuals in the craft, supervisory and managerial cate-
gories seeking to learn will use the hierarchy of establish-
ments to acquire more and higher skills.
Skilled individuals will sometimes work at levels below their
skill capacity.

The contribution of the skill model is that it puts forward

enabling conditions which create pressures to be mobile such as:

1 The transferability of skills across all sectors of the industry.

2 The non-transferability of skills across occupational bound-
3 The 'skill pyramid' structure of the industry offering mobil-
ity as a means of skill acquisition.
4 On-the-job training capacity.
5 The existence of a top limit to the capacity for skill and
knowledge learning in each unit.
6 The opportunity to work at below the maximum skill level
without loss of material benefit.

Thus, for both the individual wishing to acquire skills and the
individual looking to use less of their skill, mobility offers a
So far, the emphasis has been on the skilled, but before we
conclude the skill model, some discussion is required on the
nature of the unskilled work. It is one thing to say that as the
unskilled proportion is the greater the industry will always have v)

a surplus supply because it is connected to the general unskilled LY

labour market and can quickly train people, but is quite a
another to actually get them. Three aspects of hotel and cater- z
ing unskilled work are important here: 3

1 Unskilled jobs are not machine minding, they are a bundle

of low level tasks which, no matter how menial, require a $
degree of self-organization. W

2 The effort and character of individuals actually counts in

performance, therefore there will be individual differences in n
performance. -1
3 Productivity does not depend on job tenure to any large
degree. 5
The skill model and pay

The influence of the skill model on pay is as follows:

The higher proportion of unskilled job tends to create a

surplus supply which depresses rates of pay.
Competition is encouraged by the hierarchical skill structure
and by the fact that individual attributes actually count.
The skill structure encourages mobility.
As productivity does not depend on job tenure, there is no
incentive to reward long service.
The existence of alternative markets, with different hours of
work, allows workers to trade off skill and hours.

By far the most important of these influences is the encourage-

ment of a surplus of supply by the unskilled nature of the work.
This has significance for both managerial and market behaviour.
If the surplus keeps pay down, then it is always in the interests of
managers to de-skil. If there is dways a surplus, then supply will
be elastic. Figure 17.3 illustrates the probable relationship
between supply and demand in the hotel and catering industry.
In Figure 17.3 supply is considered to be very elastic but
demand fairly inelastic. The thought here is that only in the


Number employed -
Figure 17.3
long run would more people be employed the lower the pay.
However, if the large picture is substituted by a portrait of a
single unit, differences appear.

The constantly fluctuating nature of

consumer demand
It is a universal characteristic of hotels that there will be short-
term variations in demand. This produces the need to make
adjustments in short-term labour supply if labour costs are to
be controlled. This aspect is portrayed in Figure 17.4.
Figure 17.4 represents one establishment. The demand
increases from D-D to D1-D1 for just one day.
Just as in the macro picture, the supply of labour is elastic,
but only up to the point where a small surge is required by the
pattern of demand. When this happens, managers increase
labour supply by a variety of means such as overtime, employ-
ing casuals and bonus payments. In other words, extra supply
is responsive to pay at the micro level. By making these adjust-
ments at the micro level through pay incentives, the general
supply of labour during normal hours of work is unhinged
from the influence of pay. Thus only part of total earnings


Hours worked
Figure 17.4
actually fluctuates with demand. We are left with a supply side
which is still very elastic.
When business fluctuates, the commonest approach is to set
up a buffer consisting of part-time workers, casuals, overtime
and bonus incentives. Productivity is essentially the manage-
ment of labour supply.
We will consider now the skill model and the nature of con-
sumer demand together. It has been suggested that the propor-
tion of unskilled work is responsible for surplus supply which
depresses the level of pay and that the need for short-term
adjustment shows the same direction of influence. However,
they are not discrete concepts - they work together. As it is
easier to adjust the supply of unskilled labour to that of skilled,
it is always in the interests of management to de-skill. The ever-
present fluctuation in customer demand creates an ever-present
incentive to de-skill. De-skilling does not necessarily mean
replacement with a machine. It can mean simply a change of
work practice, e.g. silver service to a buffet.

Demand fluctuations and the organization

Given the need for flexibility, a high proportion of unskilled

labour and transferable skills, what kind of organization does
this produce?
The most powerful motive for constructing a strong internal
labour market is to retrain st&, because their skills are unique
to your organization. We have seen already that skills are trans-
ferable across the industry. Therefore, there is no real incentive
to do so. Why go to all the trouble of constructing the left-
hand side of Figure 17.2 if the largest proportion of your staff
are unskilled and you need numerical and pay flexibility?
Are there any circumstances which would induce managers
to go for retention and a strong internal labour market? One
speculation is important to this question. If managers could
achieve functional flexibility, by which is meant that people
can easily change their job within the unit, then that would
lessen the need for numerical flexibility and it would be worth
retaining these multiskilled staff. Alas, one of the most con-
spicuous features of hotel and catering life is functional or
occupational rigidity. People change jobs only by changing
employer. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for this, it
takes time to train people into an occupation.
Surely the skilled are worth retaining? The problem here is
that the skilled are necessary and important, but they are in a
minority and it is very difficult to operate two management
strategies in the same unit. This task is made even harder if the
unskilled can become the skilled in the same unit. One of the
strange ironies of weak internal labour markets is that the very
absence of any specific criteria for promotion often leads to a
high rate of promotion from workers to supervisors. This is the
case with the hotel and catering industry. However, the most
pressing case against building a personnel policy around
the skilled instead of the unskilled, is that the unskilled produce
more revenue and profit. Think of how many meals
a skilled chef has to cook to make the same revenue or profit
that a room cleaner can make by cleaning rooms for eight hours!
Although all the evidence points to hotel and catering
organizations running weak internal labour markets, there are
circumstances where a case could be made for strong markets.
Three further circumstances make such a case: where there is
no variation in consumer demand; a genuine skill shortage;
and where considerable time is needed to train the unskilled. It
is well worth noting that it is all too easy to label a job
unskilled. It may still need a considerable amount of training
and experience.
Weak internal labour markets and vocational U


The skill model presents a conflict over who teaches skills. The
argument is that the interests of the unit are to de-skill while
the interests of the industry as a whole are to maintain and z
enhance its qualitative capacity. Weak internal labour markets w
in a unit throw the responsibility for teaching skills on to indi-
viduals who use mobility around the hierarchical structure and n
vocational education. -1
The relationship between the industry and vocational edu- I-
cation is focused at one point - junior management and super- P
visor level. If units are promoting from within, the rate needed
to induce unskilled workers to learn more and take responsi-
bility, becomes the rate at which the products of vocational
education enter industry. This rate, formed by internal pres-
sures, may not be sufficient to induce people to undertake
vocational training. In other words, people building careers on
the job compete with those using vocational qualifications to
start their careers, and the level of pay that arbitrates this rela-
tionship is umbilically linked to the rate for unskilled st&.
It would follow from this that the influence on managerial
pay would be the output of vocational education and the rate
of promotion from unskilled to skilled.

Market segmentation
One thing is obvious, everybody working is not in the same
market. If they were, then everyone could move into any job
which is clearly not true. There are many divisions within the
overall labour market and it is worthwhile seeing these divi-
sions so that we can understand patterns of mobility and
recruitment opportunities and constraints.
So far, the emphasis of this analysis has been on what goes
on in the unit and this is an appropriate starting point to
understand segmentation in the actual labour market. Already
we have suggested that there are two types of job in the unit -
skilled and unskilled. This division suggests that the market
may have a dual character with a primary and a secondary
sector. Primary markets are usually described as requiring edu-
cation, having careers and being well paid in contrast to sec-
ondary markets which contain jobs not careers, low levels of
attachment, plenty of mobility and low pay. This picture does
not quite fit the hotel and catering industry, but there are cer-
tainly two markets.
The skill model suggests a hierarchy of skills within the unit
and a hierarchy of units. In such circumstances one would
expect the skilled to be paid more than the unskilled in each
unit and the skilled to be paid more the higher the unit in the
hierarchy. The factor which determines the pay differentials
between skilled staff is the level of service, that is the level of
skill demanded by the customers ability to pay. This factor is
crucial to understanding the relationship between the two
markets. If, for some reason, customers demand a lower quality
product, then the skills required would be less. This would
tempt management to de-skill the job which means that they
would then recruit in the lower, cheaper secondary market. In
other words, the proportional size of the two markets is depen-
dent on the tastes and ability to pay of customers.
By far the strongest influence on segmentation is the func-
tional or occupational rigidity within the unit. While most
skilled jobs require a period of training it is, therefore, reason-
able for people to want to recoup their investment by staying
in the occupation. What is surprising is that occupational
rigidity also applies to unskilled jobs. The effect of this is to
make those who want to change their occupation compete in
the external market where there is likely to be a surplus supply
anyway. It simply keeps people in one job type.
The important question of the division of the market by
social hours has already been discussed, but its contribution is
mainly in inducing mobility. There are three major ways in
which hotel and catering labour markets can be segmented as
shown in Figure 17.5.
Finer graduations of these divisions and their practical
implications will be discussed in Chapter 12 on recruitment.

Summary m

Social hours Unsocial hours

Skilled Unskilled

I a

Figure 17.5
influences on the rate of pay and pay differentials (Figures 17.6
and 17.7).

0 The likelihood of a surplus supply caused by the high pro-

portion of unskilled labour required.
0 The need for short-term adjustment in labour supply con-
necting earnings rather than pay to demand.
0 The ample opportunities available to de-skill labour with or
without technological substitution.
0 The opportunity to use mobility to accumulate skills.
0 The supply of skilled labour from vocational education.
The transferability of skills between sectors of the industry
with different employment conditions.
0 As productivity is not related to job tenure, there is no
incentive to reward long service.
0 Promotion opportunities are an alternative reward system to

Figure 17.6 Influences on the rate of pay

Levels of service - pay differentials are created by skill dif-

ferentials which follow directly from levels of service
demanded by consumers.
0 Functional or occupational rigidity - apparently operating
for both skilled and unskilled labour. If there is a weak inter-
nal labour market people are forced out on to the external
market where segmentation reinforces the differentials.
For all types of work, personal effort and character actually
count producing individual differences.
0 Different training and education duration for different
~~ ~ ~~~

Figure 17.7 Influences on pay differentials

One thing is clear from the analysis of pay influences and the
skill model and that is that the economic interests of each unit
conflict with the overall skill need of the industry. It has been
argued that in all but a few circumstances it is in the interests
of management to form weak internal labour markets. That
being so, skill development is left to either vocational educa-
tion or mobility around the hierarchically-structured units.
Figure 17.8 conceptualizes the motives for forming a type of
internal labour market and the consequent effect on the exter-
nal labour market.

Influence towards weak internal labour market (ILM)

Fluctuating consumer demand.
High proportion of unskilled workers.
Surplus supply of unskilled workers.

Influence towards strong ILM

0 Skill shortage created by consumer demand (de-
skilling not an option).
0 High proportion of skilled to unskilled workers.
Long duration for unskilled training.

Consequent behavioural characteristics of external labour

market (ELM)
0 High labour turnover.
0 Skills accumulation mobility.
0 Wide distribution of pay.
0 Dependency on vocational education for basic skills
training. cn
Consequent behavioural characteristics of ELM
Low labour turnover.
Greater differential between skilled and unskilled labour. 3

Low dependency on vocational education.
Greater unionization.
Figure 17.8


18 Overtime and labour

It would be appropriate at this point to highlight a problem

that stems directly from managements strategy towards the
external labour market. When adjusting labour supply, of all
the options open to management, perhaps the easiest to
arrange is overtime - a couple of telephone calls and it is done.
It is this very ease which makes overtime such a potentially
dangerous commodity and one which management must keep
control over. There are three basic dangers, especially when
labour turnover is high. First, it can run out of control, second,
it can undermine recruitment and third, it can undermine
supervision and therefore the quality of the service.

The behavioural implications of

The cause of this potentially disruptive power lies in the behav-
ioural reaction of people who receive their overtime. Put
simply, people like the enhanced earnings, but they get tired by
the extra work, so they make a short-term adjustment in their
method of doing the work. This short-term adjustment is rel-
atively harmless unless it becomes a long-term adjustment and
a cycle sets in. An example would help to illustrate the point.
A brigade of five chefs is reduced to four when one chef
decides to leave. The pay system automatically grants premium
pay, such as overtime, to the remaining four chefs. They have
to work hard, but the thought of the extra pay compensates for
that. If this situation persists, two things will happen. First,
they will get used to the enhanced pay and second, they will
find ways of readjusting their working practice to reduce their
effort (short cuts). The effect of the latter is to make supervi-
sion harder and to put quality standards at risk. However,
working together, more money and short cuts present a
problem for recruitment. The longer the vacancy exists, the
more the workers will get used to the extra pay and the more
they will adapt their methods to cope with the pressure.
This means that any newcomer becomes a threat both to
their earnings and to their new-found methods. In such cir-
cumstances, when a new recruit arrives they are not welcome,
which may cause them to leave thus perpetuating the situation.
This is the rejection effect of overtime. The person who has to
bear the brunt of this cycle is the supervisor. The supervisor is
having to cope with staff shortages and stem the temptation to
lower standards.
A conceptual framework may help here. In Figure 18.1 the
two circles represent the product market and the labour
The high fluctuation in demand in the product market and
the volatility in the labour market both cause fluctuations in
the demand for labour. In the case of increased labour supply
the pay system automatically enhances earnings when effort


market bargain market

r=7 Pay system

Figure 18.1
needs to be increased. If more customers turn up or if there is
a vacancy in the work department or if both occur, then the
result will be a demand for more effort - more labour supply.
The point here is that because reward is automatic, it buys
time for the recruitment function to do its job. The danger is
that it allows too much time, time in fact for the rejection effect
to take place. The key element to managing overtime is rapid
recruitment and the key measure for keeping control of over-
time is not simply the amount of overtime given, but the
number of vacancies and their lengtb!The danger signals which
tell when this kind of effect has taken hold, is when recruit-
ment and labour turnover are declining but premium pay

Labour costs and labour turnover

It has already been stated in Chapter 16 that recruitment and
labour turnover rise and fall together with a small time lag. In
which case it would be reasonable to assume that the associated
costs would rise and fall in the same way. If, however, the effect
of the behavioural ramifications of overtime are considered a
slightly different possibility emerges. Labour turnover gener-
ates two types of cost which can get very confused - some costs
come directly from the rate of labour turnover but others come
from the length of the vacancy.
When it comes to the measurement of labour turnover costs,
the conventional wisdom tends to be polarized. O n the one
hand, there is the comprehensive approach which tends to
heap everything but the kitchen sink onto the rate of turnover.
On the other hand, the simplistic approach merely measures
the cost of recruitment. The rationale behind the comprehen-
sive approach is not difficult to see. What better way to beat
managers into doing something about their turnover than to
present them with the real costs. To this end, costs are esti-
mated to include not just direct recruitment costs nor simply
the cost of keeping the vacant job going but also the time and
documentation of the personnel department, and the time and
cost of training, added to which there is the supervisors time,
low productivity of newcomers, cleaning uniforms, even
changing the sheets at the staff house, etc. Without wishing to
be scornful, a little water needs to be poured on such realism
for while correct, such definitions are redundant in the sense
that they offer no assistance in control. The basic criticisms of
such methods are that many items would not vary with the rate
of turnover. In other words, the decision to incur such costs is
not solely a function of the rate of labour turnover (e.g. salary
of personnel staff). Furthermore, even those items which do
vary with the rate are too numerous for accounting to spend
time collecting (e.g. documentation, uniform cleaning, etc.).
This approach can get out of hand and become impractical.
At the other end of the spectrum is the simplistic method of
only measuring direct recruitment costs (advertising, agencies,
transfer costs, etc.). Apart from the merit of simplicity, when
compared with actual rates of labour turnover it does give a
rough guide to the eficiency of the recruitment function.
Notwithstanding the merits of either approach, they both
assume that the result of their measurement is derived from the
rate of labour turnover. As such, both are flawed, because they
do not recognize that costs are derived from two separate
sources: the cost of replacement, which springs directly from
the recruitment-labour turnover relationship and the cost of
meeting the workload that has been vacated. This can be called
job continuity costs - that element of increased labour supply
and therefore costs (overtime, premium pay, casual labour)
which is attributable to labour turnover. What is important is
that it is derived from the length of a vacancy not the rate of
labour turnover. Figure 18.2 illustrates the different allocation
of costs for both tangible and intangible items across the two
forms of cost constituency.
If it is accepted that there are two costs involved in labour
turnover, the reason why they should be measured separately is s

based on the relationship between recruitment costs and the 3
length of a vacancy. If the assumption is made that the more
you spend on recruitment the shorter will be the length of the 3
vacancy, then there is a direct trade off between the two types z
of cost. In these circumstances, as recruitment costs rise, job

continuity costs decline. In this case, it is recruitment costs r
which are dictating job continuity costs. However, circum- w
stances may arise when it is job continuity costs which drive B
Derivedjom the Derivedjom
rate of labour j o b continuity

Tangible costs Cost of recruitment Premium pay (overtime,

Cost of training bonuses, casual labour,
Documentation for etc.)
Documentation for

Intangible costs Low productivity of Short cuts

newcomers Lower standards
Time for recruitment Supervisory problems
Time for training

Figure 18.2

both recruitment costs and the rate of labour turnover. To be

precise, the circumstances in question are the behavioural
implications of overtime described earlier.
Where staff have enjoyed enhanced earning from overtime
or premium pay it is not uncommon to find that they reject
newcomers because of the threat to their earnings. Here, one
would expect to find the rate of labour turnover, recruitment
costs and job continuity costs all rising at the same time.
However, these circumstances can persist with the acquies-
cence of management who begin to get used to job continu-
ity costs and consequently undertake less recruitment and thus
labour turnover goes down. It is in this sense that labour
turnover costs could rise while labour turnover declines. Unless
these two types of costs are measured separately, compared and
separately compared with the rate of labour turnover, it is
impossible to spot where the driving force is coming from. It is
possible to suggest that when job continuity costs start to drive
labour turnover and recruitment, management have lost a great
deal of control. Management have a choice between the two
types of costs at any rate of labour turnover requiring manage-
ment to ask - which is the most expensive?
The temptation for management is to let job continuity cost
run on because it saves money on the basic wage bill despite
the premium pay. Against this has to be judged the cost to pro-
ductivity and quality standards of employees working on per-
manent overtime. This kind of situation can 'creep up' on
management. Labour turnover is declining, recruitment costs
are going down, the wage bill is down and only overtime is up
- all looks rosy. But it can get out of hand so quickly and so

19 Pay administration

An earlier chapter discussed the potency of pay as a motivator,

but whether that is true or not, what is certain is that pay is
always philosophical! You are what you pay. This might seem
strange at first, but the way an organization pays its employees
contains a philosophy about how they are motivated. An organ-
ization which wishes to retain staff and motivate them through
loyalty might adopt a paternalistic pay philosophy whereby all
new employees receive all benefits from their first day -
nothing is conditional. Such an organization might feel that
they can best utilize labour and develop flexibility when the
labour force is stable. Alternatively, another organization may
have a philosophy of conditional merit, whereby nothing
beyond the basic is earned except by merit criteria. This
assumes a calculative and competitive motivation in staff.
What is being said here is that the way an organization admin-
isters rewards tells a story to its employees about what it
assumes is their motivation.
In any organization different occupations have a different
value to the organization, have different training periods, and
have different labour market characteristics. Consequently,
there are different levels of reward. The structure of pay differ-
entials is an intimate part of the structure and hnctioning of
the organization. That the structure is acceptable to those who
live it is crucial to the health of the organization. One thing is
certain and that is that the greater the differentials the more
salient pay is in the relationship between workers. Simply
because pay is distributed differentially by management it
follows: first, that there has to be some overall justification for
the differentials, second, that this rationale has to be acceptable
to the staff and third, that questioning the structure is ques-
tioning managements authority and judgement. It is suggested
in the model described in Chapter 17 that units in the indus-
try are dependent upon the external labour market, therefore
the rationale for whatever internal structure that exists would
be that it is the result of market forces.

What is a pay structure supposed to

Fundamentally, a pay structure has to be manageable and it has
to be regarded as legitimate by employees. What is meant by a
manageable structure? To answer this question, it is necessary
to ask what a pay structure is supposed to do. It has four
primary functions. First, to ensure that sufficient numbers of
people are attracted to the organization from the labour
market. Second, to encourage the internal labour market to
function correctly so that incentives exist for promotion and
training opportunities. Third, to ensure that feelings of
inequity are not engendered. If, for example, a particular occu-
pation was short staffed because the rate was not attractive to
either external or internal candidates and could not be
increased without causing problems elsewhere in the organiza-
tion, then the structure is not doing its job and is interfering
with the operation. Finally, to allow for the development of
new jobs evolved through reorganization or the introduction of
new technology.
Normally, pay structures grow up in a haphazard manner as
a result of many pressures, such as the labour market, customs
and practices, power bargaining and the bosss whim. The z
result, when looked at from the outside, appears idiosyncratic 0
and illogical. There are likely to be distortions between job k
content and rewards, and distortion between the rewards for v,
different jobs. However, what looks illogical from the outside,
might make perfect sense to those within. Just because there 2<
are distortions, that does not imply that management auto-
matically need to impose logic on a pay structure by such
means as a job evaluation programme. Two pre-requisites
suggest themselves: first, the existing pay structures must have
become in some way unmanageable and second, the employees
themselves must feel the inequity produced by the distortion.
To change the wage structure in the absence of either of these
two conditions runs the risk of creating more dissatisfaction.

Job evaluation
Job evaluation is about job content and pay structures. It is
not about levels of pay or pay systems, although it is closely
associated with both. It is a technique by which relative value
is given to jobs in order to confer legitimacy upon the pay
structure and, more importantly, upon pay differentials. In
other words, the work of job evaluation is to change the pay
structure which normally means making it more logical and
systematic. By pay structure is meant the hierarchy of differen-
tials between jobs within an organization. There are only two
questions pertinent to pay structures: what is the distance
between jobs, and why? Job evaluation attempts to answer
them both by asking what should the distance be?
It is worthy of restatement that job evaluation relates solely
to pay structures. Therefore, management must analyse their
problems carefully before embarking on such a scheme. They
must be able to distinguish a problem of pay structure from
other closely related ones such as income, pay systems, pay
administration and labour market. Once it has been decided
that job evaluation is needed, it might be supposed that it is
just a matter of which method? However, this is far from the
case and there are six major factors which have to be consid-
ered at the planning stage. These are:

1 The existing pay structure.

2 The selection of evaluators.
3 The appeals system.
4 The entrance of new jobs into the pay structure.
5 The effect of job evaluation on communication in the organ-
ization as a whole.
6 The system of job evaluation.

These factors must be considered separately, but they are in

reality inseparable.

The existing pay structure

It is generally accepted by experienced practitioners in job eval-
uation that a new pay structure produced by job evaluation
must bear some resemblance to the old pay structure. This is
another way of saying that a change in pay structure can never
be too radical unless you want a riot on your hands! The ration-
ale for this is simply that although a pay structure may be
illogical to an outsider, it has some meaning to those inside.
Employees will have their own views on their own value, their
own skill, the skill of others, the authority of others, etc., and
these perceptions are likely to be assailed by job evaluation.
Therefore, it follows that management must justify the changes
it proposes. The dictum of Barbara Wootton (the labour econ-
omist) that change - always, everywhere, in everything -
requires justification: the strength of conservatism is that it is
held to justify itself was never more apt.
Here, the relationship between the pay structure and the
authority structure is significant. The former supports the
latter and, therefore, a change in either will be reflected in the
other. Usually, the existing pay structure will be fairly close to
the spread of authority, therefore restructuring has to be done
with extreme care.

The selection of evaluators

In a sense, job evaluation is itself a justifying technique; it
lends respectability and authority to a process of restructuring.
However, the technique itself cannot act alone if management cT
argue well, youll have to accept it, we used a recognized tech- I-
nique as its sole justification - they could have problems. The 3
other additional approach to lend acceptability to the 5a
final outcome is to use job evaluation as part of a participation
exercise. G
At the outset, management must decide whether they main-
tain the job evaluation programme under their sole control and
impose its solution or let employees representatives partici-
pate to improve the acceptabilityof the result. The merits and
disadvantages of one are the reverse of those of the other.
However, there is a limit to the degree to which participation
can take place. That limit is normally centred around the defi-
nitions of job content; the management alone must decide.
If a participative approach is adopted, there remains the key
question of representation on the evaluation panel. An evalua-
tion panel has to act independently, but independence does not
confer the legitimacy necessary to the acceptance of its find-
ings. For this reason, the constitution of the panel is a crucial
factor. There are usually a number of key combination alterna-
tives: outsiderslemployees; unionslnon-unions; by occupation;
by level; by department. The problem with having every
department represented is that interests take over and the ten-
dency is for the status quo to be preserved. Great care needs to
be taken with the constitution of an evaluation panel. Who
evaluates is as important as the method used.
It might be suggested that expertise in personnel, job evalu-
ation or salary administration are necessary qualities for evalu-
ators - this is not so. Access to expert advice on job evaluation
is essential but the qualities needed for an evaluator are
common sense and enough knowledge to be able to under-
stand a job description - no more, no less.

The appeals system

The final outcome of any job evaluation scheme will be that
someone will earn more or less than they did before the
scheme, therefore an appeals procedure is an integral part of
the overall scheme. There are two questions here: the constitu-
tion of the appeals panel, and the rules for appeal.
Normally the constitution of the appeals panel follows that
of the evaluation panel, but it is advisable for some personnel
to change so that there can be a fresh look at the job. The rules
for appeal are important, because without them a job could be
continuously rewritten until it passes the appeal panel. Phoney
duties written in to gain a successful appeal bring the whole
system into disrepute. It follows, therefore, that not only
should management fix the job content, but that they should
also decide how far a job must change before an appeal can be
made. Other rules should include guidelines on evidence,
advocacy and refer-back.

The entrance of new jobs into the pay structure

One of the reasons why pay structures are so often chaotic is

that jobs continuously change. Pressures from the product
market, from the labour market, from the abilities of incum-
bents, and from new technology all force changes in job
content. Sometimes these changes occur imperceptibly, some-
times they are planned. In either case, the job evaluation
system must accommodate such changes so that a new job can
go through the system at any time without causing friction.
The emphasis is always upon management to keep the initia-
tive and a close eye on job content.

The effect of job evaluation on communication in

the organization as a whole

The problem with job evaluation is that it is basically irre-

versible. In this sense, the introduction of job evaluation is a
watershed for any organization. There is no going back once
logic has entered the system; it cannot be returned to chaos at
will. Only further job evaluation can change a pay structure
based on job evaluation. It is this irreversible quality which
makes management treat the technique with respect.
One thing job evaluation does is to make salaries public
knowledge within the organization. If an organization is used 0
to secrecy, job evaluation will bring a change which may k
promote less secrecy in other areas as well. Even if individual I-
earnings remain confidential, grades and the salary ranges asso-
ciated with those grades will have to be published. Employees g
will not only know their own grade and salary, but also those
of others. It is for this reason that a consciousness of the earn- i3
ings of others is a prerequisite of job evaluation. The technique
itself will result in such a consciousness and if it was not there
already, the effect could be traumatic. The message is that a job
evaluation exercise at the point of instigation has a pro-
found effect upon the communication system of an organiza-
tion. It remoulds the relationships between individuals,
between departments, and between the organization and its
employees. This effect is likely to have lasting repercussions
and in this case the communication system is permanently

The system of job evaluation

At the outset it is necessary to make clear that there is no ideal

system to meet a particular organizations needs. It is always a
case of the best fit being applied after some crude analysis of
the problems to be encountered. There are three basic
approaches to job evaluation each of which offer a number of
systems, these are:

1 Qualitative judgement alone:

- Ranking (whole job comparison);
- Job classification.
2 Quantifying qualitative judgement:
- Points system;
- Factor comparison.
3 Comparing differences in decision making:
- Castellion;
- Time span;
- Profile.

The following is a brief description of the principal techniques

W in common use. No attempt is made to be comprehensive in
this review and further study is advised. The selection of
these particular techniques is based on their popularity and
because they form the basis of many of the other techni-
ques in use.
Job ranking
This is the simplest method of job evaluation and involves
whole job comparison. In other words, jobs are compared in
their entirety without involving factor or specific criteria. Only
general concepts such as value to the organization are used. Its
principal merit is its simplicity, but its central weakness is its
vagueness due to lack of specific criteria which leaves the result
open to wide interpretation and consequently to altercation.

Step one

A set of approved job descriptions are studied by a panel of

evaluators and sorted into a rough hierarchy.

Step two

Each job is compared with every other job and jobs are formed
into groups and a hierarchy determined.

Step three (optional)

Numerical paired-comparison is applied to the hierarchy. To

do this, a job scores 2 when it beats another job, 1 if it is valued
the same and 0 if the other job is valued higher. In this way, the
top job scores:

2 x number of jobs -1

and the bottom job scores 0 as it was beaten by every other job. z
For example, ten jobs are ranked in Table 19.1. 0
Step four
The pair-comparison scores of each evaluator are aggregated >
together to produce a panel score. i
Table 19.1

Jobs Score *

A 222222222 18 18
B 12222222 15 14
C 12222222 15 14
D 111222 9 6
E 111222 9 6
F 111222 9 6
G 111222 9 6
H 22 4 4
I 2 2 2
J 0 0

* Note by using 0 for a draw, the distinctions become larger. This is an alter-
native scoring method.

Step five
Job clusters are formed which might suggest grades. In the
example, there appear to be four clusters.

A -1 8
BC -1 5
HIJ -4-0

Step six

The job evaluation exercise is now over (except for appeals). It

is now necessary to convert the findings into a pay structure. It
is very important to notice that pair-comparison does not
measure the distance between jobs, it only puts jobs in clus-
ters. Therefore, we can say that BC is more valuable than
DEFG but not by bow much. If a pay structure is justified on
pair-comparison scows, it has no validity.

The chief advantage of job ranking is its simplicity and the fact
that it can be applied to a fair number of jobs. However, it does
rely on a substantial amount of goodwill to be successhl. In
addition, it has no direct means of transfer to a wage structure
as it does not measure distance between jobs. There is also a
tendency for job ranking to closely follow the existing author-
ity structure; in other words to be very conservative.

Points method
Possibly the most commonly used method of job evaluation,
its principal attractions are its flexibility and its use of specific
criteria which lend some measure of justification to the final
results. The disadvantages are first, that using specific criteria it
is difficult to apply the method over a very wide range of jobs
and second, that it is difficult to find suitable criteria which
will be appropriate at the time of the initial exercise and later
when appeal and new jobs come forward for evaluation.

Step one

The crucial step in the points method is the selection of crite-

ria - those headings under which judgement will be applied.
The choice of criteria must be governed by two practical con-
siderations, first, the need for as few criteria as possible and
second, the need for all criteria to actually apply to as many
jobs as possible.
Examples of factors would be skill, effort, responsibility,
working conditions and hours.

Step two
After deciding upon a set of factors it is essential that each
factor is unambiguously defined so that all the evaluators are

using the same concepts. Responsibility, for example, is a k

factor which needs vigorous description before it is used. This
is not a tedious semantic argument. If the evaluators are not
sharing the same meaning of the word in question, then the
result may be injustice and delay.

Step three

Once definitions have been agreed it is necessary to divide the

factor up by degrees. In other words, to create a scale of appli-
cation for each factor, for example normal hours, fairly unso-
cial hours, very unsocial hours.

Step four

Once factors have been chosen and degrees allotted to each

factor, it remains to weight each factor and allocate points, for

Responsibility 120 points (6 degrees)

Skill 100 points (5 degrees)
Working conditions 60 points (6 degrees)
Hours 100 points (5 degrees)

Step five

All the previous stages were preparatory steps in evaluating

each job and evaluation will come to a points score. It is this
point score which will allocate the job into the hierarchy which
in turn will form the basis of the wage structure.

Step six
The differences between the points method and whole job
ranking is that the points method does measure the distance
between jobs and, therefore, is more easily converted into a pay
structure. This is never an easy task, but by allocating a sum of
money to each point, it is possible to draw a pay curve for the
By plotting pay against points divided into equal measures,
it is possible to see how jobs fall into clusters and to see the dis-
tance between clusters. Having done this, it is necessary to
form grades and there is no scientific way of doing this - the
cluster and distances between them are only a guide.
Note the overlaps between grades. This is normal as it allows
the wage structure to incorporate the workings of the pay

The Castellion method

This is a variation on the points method which uses decision
making as its unit of comparison. As such, it is primarily used
as a method of evaluating managerial jobs. The factors used are
as follows:

(a) The complexity of decision making;

diagram to
* I job clusters



Points -
Figure 19.1
(b) Pressure of work coefficient (a x b);
(c) Numerical computations;
(d) Comprehensive ability:
(e) Vigilance;
( f ) Consequence of errors;
(g) Education;
(h) Experience.

A matter of degree is applied to each factor as per the points

method. The relationship between factor a x b is recognition
that the volume of a decision depends not just on its intrinsic
difficulty, but also on the time pressure under which it is made,
for example:

(a) Decision complexity:

Simply requiring broad estimates only 60 points
(b) Pressure of work coefficient:
Few decisions taken at leisure 1.10 points
axb 66 points
Proceed as for the points method.

Key jobs or benchmark jobs

Many practitioners advocate the pre-selection of certain jobs to

be used in job evaluation in order to save time: Although pre-
cautions are taken to ensure that these jobs are representative
of all the jobs to be evaluated, the principle is a dangerous one,
particularly where job evaluation is being undertaken for the
first time. Similarly, benchmark jobs are used to speed up the
process of evaluating new jobs. By this means, a new job
or an appeal is compared with the benchmark job for the par-
ticular grade to which the job aspires. Again, there is a great
danger here from the ever-changing nature of job content. If
benchmarks are to be used they must be constantly under
It is absolutely essential to write up each stage of the job
evaluation process so that the constitution rules, i.e. those
referring to the selection of evaluators, evidence and the factor
definitions, are handed on to those who continue the job eval-
uation process. The use of new criteria or a new rule would
defeat the object of the whole exercise.

A review

Perhaps the most important benefit of job evaluation is that it

gives management a tool by which they can control their pay
structure. The accent on job content means that management
will be forced to be continually aware of employees jobs and
how they are changing - this can only contribute to the health
of the organization. Furthermore, by giving the pay structure a
logical character and a degree of legitimacy, job evaluation
overcomes problems of differentials which cause dissent and
friction amongst employees. In addition, job evaluation usually
promotes more open communication within the organization
so to achieve the purpose its results must be public knowledge.
These then are the benefits.
However, all this presumes that the exercise has been carried
out successfully, which basically means that everybody is happy
with the results. This dependence for success on the accept-
ability of the results is the central weakness of job evaluation.
It is, in fact, a pseudoscientific technique - its measurement
being purely subjective (work study is subjective to a degree).
The values it places on jobs and the distances it prescribes
between jobs are abstract conceptions. They become reality
only if you are prepared to believe them. This is why faith in
the system and trust in the evaluators is so vital to the success
of any scheme. This weakness does not, however, invalidate the
A more serious criticism of job evaluation stems from a more
general criticism of the true importance of pay structures. One
of the major influences on the pay structure is the labour
market, but is there any evidence to show that a l o g i d pay
structure is any less susceptible to pressure than an idiosyn-
cratic one? Major movements in the labour market can distort
a logical structure like any other but what is significant is that
the sheer logic of systematic pay structures may make it diffi-
cult to respond to market pressures. A less organized scheme
may have less difficulty in adjusting. Given the basic irre-
versibility of job evaluation, such rigidity may be a disadvan-
tage. To put it simply, the value which a scheme gives to a job
may not be that put on it by the labour market and sooner or
later the two values will clash.

Pressures on job content: the danger and

challenge for job evaluation

What changes?
0 Objectives;
0 Techniques and methods;
0 Quantity;
0 Quality;
0 Priority of tasks;
Degree of discretion.

How does it change?

0 Market demand changes;
0 Labour market changes;
0 Incumbent - ability, motivation, preference for tasks;
Supervision - ability, motivation, preference for tasks,
degree of discretion;
Power relations within the organization.

Possible consequences
Misdirected effort;
0 Creeping inefficiency;
0 Management lose control;
Job content of other jobs altered.

Pay structures and pay systems
As job evaluation is about job content, it does not concern
$! itself with performance. It is concern for performance that
2z forces a link between the pay grading structure produced by
x. job evaluation and the pay system.
There must be a degree of overlap between pay grades to
allow for seniority increments and merit increments. All organ-
izations need some people to stay in their jobs and such
requirements can be met by seniority or long-service incre-
ments. As the person is doing the same job, they cannot be
regraded, therefore the top limit of their grade must overlap the
higher grade. Similarly, differences in merit should not be suf-
focated by the lower point of the grade above. Merit can exist
without promotion possibilities, therefore merit increments
should be able to overtake the lower points on the grade above.
The greater the overlap of grades, the greater is the weight
given to the incumbent of the job against the value of the job

Pay surveys
It is not uncommon to find managers baffled by the wage
survey they themselves commissioned. Complex surveys do
require a degree of statistical sophistication and expert inter-
pretation. However, the situation often demands a simpler less
ambitious form of survey.
What has to be accepted at the outset is that labour market
surveys are a most difficult type of survey to conduct.

What do pay surveys measure?

Pay surveys measure the differences between occupations and
organizations in a defined labour market area in terms of:

0 Absolute value of pay.

Increase or decrease in value over time.
The rate of increase or decrease over time. 0
Obviously, the prime objective must be to find out what other +
firms are paying in the occupations you are interested in.
However, that is not as simple as it sounds. A further objective r
must be to collect data in such a way that you can understand a
it and will be able to see the relationships you want. What you ad
are looking for in a pay survey is the state of competition which
will be revealed in the relationships between the figures you
collect; but only if the information is collected with care.
There are basically three types of pay survey, each with a dif-
ferent capacity. These are:

1 Photographic shot
The most common form of survey is the one-off photographic
shot, where the surveyors collect data just once and for a spe-
cific purpose.
This type of survey usually collects data on:

(a) The absolute value of pay by occupation and by firm and

also, therefore,
(b) pay differentials by occupation and by firm.

2 Repeated survey
If a survey is repeated at intervals over time it can add other
dimensions to the data.
Repeated surveys can show:

(a) Absolute value of pay by occupation and by firm.

(b) Pay differentials by occupation and by firm.
(c) Absolute value of the increase or decrease over the time
period by occupation and by firm.
(d) Change in differentials by occupation and by firm.
(e) The rate of increase or decrease.
(f) Differences in the rate of increase or decrease.

3 Repeated surveys with indexation

5 The advantage of using indexation is that it shows the direction

n and rate of change more clearly than absolute figures.
n The normal practice is to use oneyear CLT the base year (= 100)
P and let all other years be expressed as a percentage of that base
year. Alternatively, it is possible to use one occupation as the
z base (= 100)and express all other values of pay against the base.
Example 1

Base year 1990 = 100

1990 I991 I992 I993 I994

Occupation 110 120 120 145 160
Index 100 109 118 132 145

Example 2

Base occupation x = 100

Occupation x = 110 = 100
Occupation y = 150 = 136
Occupation z = 170 = 154

It is not difficult to see that both types of indexation can be

usefully combined. The real value of using indexation is when
the surveyor is more interested in the rate of change than in
comparing the absolute value.

Some problems associated with setting up a pay


Defining the labour market you are trying to measure

If it is a local labour market, knowing the geographical para-
meters is essential. These are normally approximated by esti-
mates of travel to work times and cost. In order to avoid wasted
effort it is a good idea to know who the key firms are who rep-
resent competition. If a particular firm is known to be a pay
leader they must be included in the sample.
Like with like! v,
The basis of a survey, that is its whole validity which allows for 54
interpretation, is that like is being compared with like. >-
If occupational pay is being compared, then the occupations
must be equivalent. The same occupational title is not enough.
In order to ensure occupations are equivalent, either of two
conditions must prevail.

1 The survey should use an occupational chcsiJ3cation.The

importance of this cannot be overstated.
2 The surveyor should have enough knowledge of essential
differences between occupations to interpret the data with

It is also essential that the units of measurement are equivalent,

basic pay = basic pay or total earnings = total earnings. Is the
survey measuring starting pay or pay at some other point in

Understanding the manpower systems

At the very minimum, the surveyor must be aware of occupa-
tions which are linked in some way. Links can be for a variety
of reasons, e.g.: occupations which compete for the same
people or an occupation which is training for another.
The point about occupations that are linked is that pay dif-
ferentials can be explained by the nature of the link and in
some circumstances pay might be expected to move together.

Time coherence
In order to interpret your findings, certain additional data is

0 The date of the last increase.

0 The date on which pay levels are set.
0 The frequency of pay reviews.


Given that your survey has been properly produced so that

occupational equivalence and unit of revenue of equivalence
can be taken for granted, then interpretation is possible.
Value and increase differentials can be easily seen as their
interpretation depends on the circumstances. Questions like
Am I paying too much or too little? and How much more
would I need to pay? should be guided by the figures.
It is, however, more difficult to interpret the state of compe-
tition from a pay survey. The key indicator is the spread or
range of pay offered for the same occupation.
This page intentionally left blank
Part Four

Wider issues
This page intentionally left blank
20 Pay and hours of work
- legal constraints

Despite the portrait of a fairly open labour market described in

Chapter 15 there are constraints imposed on management in
terms of working hours and minimum pay levels. The legisla-
tive environment comes from a number of related sources,
mainly European social policy and British labour law. Whilst
laws change the recent legislation on maximum working hours
and minimum pay represent a radical and permanent change.
The focus on this body of law is on:

Limiting working hours;

Protection from pressure to work excessive hours;
Guaranteed holiday pay;
Guaranteed rest periods;
Guaranteed minimum pay.

It is worth noting that the main instrument for addressing

issues of working hours, the Working Time Directive (WTD)
has been introduced as a Health and Safety measure rather
than as an employment measure. The effect of this is to convey
the need for health and well being at work. In a very real sense
it is anti-fatigue and anti-stress in tone.
WTD details in brief

Maximum hours limitations

The WTD states that the working hours of employees should

not exceed 48 hours a week on average over a 17-week period.
The 17-week base reference period can be adjusted to 26 or 52
weeks by agreement between employers and employee repre-
sentatives. The period of four weeks annual holiday is excluded
from the calculations of average working times. Workers under
18 years of age are excluded from the 48-hour entitlement.

Extending maximum hours limitations

Employers can extend working hours beyond the 48 if the

employee agrees. The condition imposed on such an extension
is that extensive records must be kept on those who work
longer hours. These records must be available for inspection by
the controlling authority. The period of four weeks annual
holiday, any periods of sick leave and maternity leave are
excluded from the calculation of average working times.

Rest periods and shifts

The worker is entitled to a daily rest period of 11 consecutive
hours and therefore the maximum working day must not
exceed 13 hours. The worker is entitled to a minimum rest
period of 24 hours a week. The period is not necessarily to be
a Sunday. The calculation of the rest entitlement must be based
on a base reference period of no more than 14 days and this
calculation should exclude the minimum rest entitlement of 24
hours per week.
Annual holiday entitlement

All workers should receive four weeks annual paid holiday per

Night workers

Night shifts should not exceed 8 hours in any 24-hour period


A complex structure of exemption exists but unless the indus-

try is deemed exemption (which hotels and tourism are not)
then such exemptions that are possible do not include the basic
48-hour limitation and the entitlement to four weeks paid

Minimum wage details in brief

The recently introduced national minimum wage is a single
hourly rate prescribed by the Secretary of State. It is open to
change at the discretion of the Government. It applies to all
workers in the UK who are above compulsory school leaving CL:

age. z
Like the WTD minimum wage legislation carries with it the 8
requirement of employers to keep good wage records and to 2
make them open for inspection. 0
The implications of greater labour P
The industry has had a very unregulated labour environment
for many years and it is possible that operators have got used
to the idea of labour as a flexible resource but it is undoubtedly z
true that the labour market and the employment relationship >.
are becoming more regulated. The positive response to increas-
ing regulation is to improve the productivity of labour and to
increase its capacity to increase sales.
In operational terms, increased regulation means that more
planning has to take place. Even small businesses need to take
forecasting seriously and to link labour utilization to forecasts
of demand.

21 Developing labour

Labour strategy and the business

In Chapter 10 we discussed how to relate the number of people
employed to the fluctuations in business demand. This only
serves to emphasize that labour strategies are largely dependent
on business strategies. The business strategy decrees to the
labour strategy:

How many workers are needed.

0 The proportion of fixed to variable employment.
The proportion of added value available for wages.
0 The type of people the business needs.
0 The type of skills the business needs.

Two factors dominate the relationship between business strat-

egy and labour strategy, these are:

1 The pattern of demand by customers.

2 Technological change.

Yet, despite this relationship, labour strategy has a life of its

own quite distinct from business strategy. You dont change
your staff every time your business strategy changes,
nor do you restructure your organization with every change of
plan. In other words, labour is usually more permanent than
the duration of business plans and it is for this reason that the
problems of attracting, retaining, sustaining and motivating a
workforce need consideration independently in their own

What is strategy?
Usually the word strategy is associated with the word planning.
This is correct, but strategy means more than designing a pro-
gramme of action for the future. Such programmes require
objectives - where do these objectives come from? For the busi-
ness, it may well be that the objectives come from alternatives
derived from market information. But here, strategy comes
from the pursuit of targets. This is not the case with labour
strategy. Here the concern is with continuity and change and
in this respect labour strategy is more architectural in tone. The
central element to all strategy, which precedes the planning
process, is the creation of a vision. Put simply - what do I want
my organization to look like in the future?.
The creation of a vision is never easy. Common sense and
reality get in the way, but we move towards what we can see,
therefore all planning processes require a model to head
towards. Only when the model is in place can you see what
must change. In the case of labour strategy, we are concerned
with people, skills, motivation, knowledge, how work should
be organized, control and authority. These are the bricks that
make up any organization. Like any building their quality and
quantity are interrelated and interdependent, therefore any
vision and consequent design must examine the interconnec-
tions between all these parts of the organization. What is more,
organizations live in labour markets, therefore the vision
should embrace the relationship between the organization and
its labour markets.
To pick your way through this maze requires a particular
questioning technique, which at its simplest argues that the
objectives of your labour strategy come from asking:

What do I want?
Why do I want it?
What does it assume about technology, labour markets and
the behaviour of people?
0 What would need to change from the present position?

These questions need to be addressed across a range of organi-

zational issues.

Strategy and coherence

In Chapter 3 we discussed that terrible question - what moti-
vates? It is of perennial importance, but so difficult to answer.
One reasonably safe bet is to bypass all the issues on motiva-
tion and to say that whatever you are doing to motivate your
staff only has a chance of success ifit makes sense to the indi-
vidual employee. If your labour strategies are coherent, then the
individual is more likely to sense what you are doing than if
they are being pulled in two different directions at the same
time. If, for example, an individual is given close supervision
and is expected to show initiative, or has insecure tenure of
employment and is expected to be committed to the organiza-
tion. Such contradictions are often only apparent to the indi-
viduals concerned, but they undercut managements efforts to
motivate. The case for coherence in labour strategies is that
eventually the employee will sense it and will be able to make
sense of what is expected of them. In other words, whatever
you do is more likely to work if all the messages tell the same
story. This gives one criterion by which we might judge labour
strategy - coherence. (I)
The process of developing labour I-

strategies a
There are three major stages in developing labour strategies. 4
The first two are directly concerned with the business strategy a
but the third is concerned with the type of organization which
will meet the needs of the business strategy. The stages are: 9
1 Review the pattern of demand

This first stage involves reviewing the pattern of demand for

the product or service. in terms of fixed and variable labour

2 Review the pattern of technological change

It is important to be clear about what is meant by technologi-

calin this context. Here the word is used to describe any work
process not necessarily done by a machine. To change the
service in a restaurant from silver service to a self-service buffet
is a change in work process and is as much a technological
change as replacing manual work by machine.
The technological assessment which precedes labour strategy
development has, itself, three components each with a different
significance for strategy.

Technological change
Looking into the hture, what rate and type of change do you

0 Steady state (i.e. no change).

Gradual change built on existing knowledge and skills.
Gradual change based on new knowledge and skills.
Incremental change built on existing knowledge and skills.
Incremental change built on new knowledge and skills.
0 Revolutionary change.

Examples of incremental change might be computerized reser-

vation systems, sous vide and microwave cookers. The impact
I of these changes is not just on the numbers of people
employed, but on the type and depth of skill required.
P Technology and the labour market
sz As has been discussed in Chapter 12, the nature of jobs deter-
5 mines their labour market characteristics, therefore what has to
be assessed is the nature of the jobs to be done, because such
an assessment is the primary influence on future recruitment
What has to be assessed for each work category is:

The degree of specificity to the organization.

The level of training, education and experience.
How far personal characteristics count.
How far knowledge can be substituted by information.

Technology and control

In Chapter 2 we discussed how the nature of a job influences
how management applies control. The assessment here is pri-
marily concerned with how far performance standards can be
measured and what value management place upon employee
autonomy and initiative.

3 Develop strategies for organizational behaviour

- attracting, sustaining and motivating the

At the heart of this approach to developing strategies is a ques-

tioning framework. The assumption of this framework is that
strategies begin with the question what do I want?. This
emphasizes the importance of managerial will in strategy. It
also argues that the starting point is a vision of what the organ-
ization ought to be like in the future. The emphasis is on values
and primary purposes. Figure 2 1.1 is a model which shows the
progression of the question and answer sequence.
Note also that the planning process in the conventional
sense begins at the fifth point and that means enter at the next
stage. The means can be structures, systems, specific appoint-
ments, policies, etc.
Remember that this framework is simply a sequence of ques-
tions, but what are these questions about? Where do you start?
What you are trying to do is to get to the fundamentals then
to examine your position on the fundamentals of organiza-
tional design. There are six, which are:
Original values
and purposes
I organization
look like?

original values Why should

I want it? I
and purposes

I AssumDtions h What does my vision

assume about
technology, labour
markets and people?

I Assessment
of change I What has to change
from the present? I
Obiectives b I Whatmustldo? b

I Strategies b L HowcanIdoit? 1

Check for Is it consistent

consistency with other

Figure 21.1

1 Stability Concerned with the mobility of the workforce and

the relationship between the organization and its labour
2 Incentive Concerned with rewards - attraction, motivation
and retention.
3 Control Concerned with style of authority and questions of
4 Order Concerned with differentials of all types between
members of the workforce.
5 Communication Concerned with the degree of openness and
knowledge distribution.
6 Location Concerned with significance of the location of the
organization in the local society.

All this does is identify areas of concern - how do we get at

meaningful questions? The technique recommended here is to
take, for each area, extreme policy options (EPOs). Examples
would be high job security policy, or pay market leadership, or
strong worker autonomy or single status. By taking an extreme
policy option you can explore your thinking in each area. An
example would be appropriate at this point.

Example: An extreme position on stability

Original purposes and values

I want a stable organization with a constant workforce and
minimal labour wastage.
This requires a strategy to produce job security for the work-

Rationale for the original purpose and values

Why do I want stability?

I dont anticipate fluctuations in demand.

I anticipate regular technological change.
I need to increase the value of human capital because the
new technology develops from existing knowledge. (I)

Existing skills are very specific to the organization.

I want to avoid a di&cult labour market and heavy recruit-
ment costs. I-
0 I want to avoid high training costs. v)
I want loyalty and commitment. 3

I think that I will get an emphasis on quality if I offer secu-

I want flexibility and adaptability in my workforce. Pn
What does the desire for stability and its policy arm - job secu-
rity - assume?

About people

0 That the investment already made in skill is not a barrier to

learning or, if it is, that a job security policy will overcome
That people will be prepared to pass on their skills to others
- willingly. Again, the relationship between their own
investment and job security policy is crucial.
0 That by taking the sacrifice out of learning people will be
prepared to abandon old skills for new.
0 That by feeling secure people will show more commitment
to their work and to the firm. In other words, security moti-
0 That in the long term people will find their own ways of
doing things, therefore detailed specification of end (quality
and quantity) is probably better than tight control of means.
That there is a danger of dependency which matters if tech-
nology grants workers a degree of autonomy.
0 That people will value long-term personal relationships with
That the culture and values of the workplace will be contin-
uously reinforced and will, therefore, be stronger.
0 That people will either consciously or unconsciously forgo
their labour market power - weaken it in return for security.

About the labour market

0 That you wont be able to find the skills you need at a price
you are prepared to pay.
w That the jobs you have cannot easily be substituted by
people with different skills.
a 0 That after a while your firm will not be visible in the mar-
0 That you forgo the fresh air principle.
0 That you can attract sufficient people at your prescribed
port of entry. If the port of entry is subject to fierce market
competition it might endanger the strong internal labour
market you need to construct.
0 That internal training produces better skills than the open

About technology

That the type and rate of change can be handled by work-

0 That no revolutionary change is on the way.

What must I do?

0 Ensure I have a retraining capacity.

Ensure that productivity improves consistently.
Apply pay levels that will prevent temptation to leave. (Do I
want to become a market leader?)
Offer a package which is unconditional on performance.
0 Ensure managerial control over the deployment of
Promote from within.
0 Reduce ports of entry to the necessary minimum.
0 Negotiate a flexible union agreement.
0 Lower manning levels.
Possibly build a buffer of non-secure part-time employment
to account for fluctuation in demand. v)

Grant a degree of autonomy to means while keeping con-

trols of ends. G
Develop a style of supervision suitable for long-term rela- I-
tionships. a
Develop a communication policy that assumes that people

are interested and involved.

A complete review of strategy requires this process to be carried 2!
out across all the fundamentals of organization design using, in 0,
each case, appropriate extreme policy options (EPO). Figure >
21.2 illustrates this process by suggesting some key questions n
and some possible EPOs in each area. There are many more
questions that could be asked.

Questions to uncover original values and Possible EPO


How much fluctuation in demand is anticipated? Job security, high
How much technological change is anticipated? wastage, cord
Can technological change be built on existing periphery
human capital?
Just how specific are the skills I need?
To what extent do I need employees to be flexible?
What is the training capacity of the firm?

How far can I measure performance standards? Bureaucratic
How much do I value personal merit? control, structured
What role do personal characteristicsplay in the job? participation, infor-
What style of supervision most suits my mal/occasional
technology? control

O n what basis do I distribute rewards? Single status,
Should the focus of policy be on the individual, the customer skills
group or the workforce? valued higher,
Would competition within or between groups be technical skills
beneficial? valued higher,
What benefits would accrue from homogeneous codperiphery
How interdependent are the workers and their
How divisible is the workforce in terms of employ-
ment status, sex, age and skills?
a Incentives
a How far can I measure performance? Market leadership,
PBR, all benefits
How does productivity depend on motivation?
Do incentives increase the size of the labour market? on selection
z Can I buy loyalty?
2 Does loyalty lead to flexibility?
How much do they need to know to do their Worker participation
work? in all decisions, all
Would giving more information enhance salaries known,
management authority? openness
Would more information prevent or promote
How far can knowledge be substituted by

Figure 21.2

The whole purpose of following the exercise is to make your

labour strategies coherent. Extremes are valuable in two ways.
First, they point out the underlying assumptions about behav-
iour so that you can cross compare these assumptions to see
that they dont contradict each other. Second, you modify your
position from the extreme but do so with the knowledge that
you know the implications. In the example given you may not
really want a high job-security policy, but a more moderate
version of it, but you are clear now as to why you want it and
what it implies.
In real terms, you are likely to have strategies in areas like
recruitment, pay, status, promotion, selection and training.
Although they exist in their own right, these strategies should
flow from the analysis of the fundamental. That way they cn
should display coherence. w
What about the means?

Once you have decided what you want and why you want it,
and have refined this down to some objectives, then one addi- a
tional consideration arises - by what means are these objectives za
to be achieved? Obviously, the actual means used will depend 9
on the objectives, but broadly speaking labour strategies can be w
implemented in a variety of ways. 2
Through policies, procedures, systems and plans.
0 By altering the organizational structure.
By appointing specific people to implement objectives.
0 By making tactical interventions without altering policies or

Thinking the matter through is one thing, but once you reach
the point of considering means then simultaneously you have
reached the point when you have to consider how to commu-
nicate the strategy. We have discussed in Chapter 2 that all
management behaviour communicates. The great danger with
a strategic matter is that it is long term and it is about change,
so there is simply more time available for misinterpretation by
the workforce. In other words, whatever the strategy, the com-
munication of it, both intended and unintended, must be
thought through. So far, the only criterion for judging a labour
strategy has been coherence, but as everything depends upon
the authority of management, this too could be a minimum
requirement of any strategy - that it enhances the authority of

Believing in what you are doing

This chapter has not advocated any particular labour strategy,
it has only pointed out a questioning process of development.
It has, however, built the process on the assumption that it is
the whole package, that is everything about the job that counts.
The philosophy of the process is simply that a strategy is more
likely to work if you believe in it and you will believe in it if
you find your own judgements convincing. The process advo-
cated here is designed to help you think through to that con-

! A direction for the future

It will be recalled that right at the beginning of this book there
z was a lot of talk about the immediacy of the industry - the
s focus on the here and now. Yet, here we are at the end talking
about strategy. In fact, there is nothing incompatible here.
True, strategy is commonly associated with the long term, but
it always embraces the immediate. It is a fatal flaw to think of
strategy as long term and in broad outline. Real strategic think-
ing and planning starts from where you are now and projects
where you want to go to. If there is a real criticism to be made
of labour management, whether it is in the guise of personnel
management, industrial relations, manpower planning or
whatever, it is its failure to achieve completeness. The failure to
think and plan in detail. In a sense, trying to answer unan-
swerable questions like what motivates and what the industry
needs in terms of specific workforce requirements, have pre-
vented management from trying everything and from trying to
give everything a coherence. Giving workers a gleaming new
canteen, plenty of scope in their work, harsh supervision and
poor pay, is not telling the same story; neither is good pay, no
autonomy, poor conditions and good supervision. They cannot
have everything! Maybe, but if what they have points in the
same direction, is coherent, then managements motivational
exhortations may stand a better chance of getting a response. If
it is a game of chance and you dont want to bet on all the
horses, at least you can make it a handicapped race! Applied
motivation in the future is likely to be about putting attributes
together into employment and motivational packages which
tell a story to the worker. Without doubt, the technique of the
future will be employee attitude surveys. If convenience is
going to be a major factor in the decision to work in a leisure
society, then motivational packages will be built with regard
to how people live as well as what they do at work. The
industry values part-time workers, because they are conven-
ient to the economics of labour supply, but such workers
will have to be valued for much more than this. They are at the
cutting edge of productivity. Time and effort spent in
motivation here is well spent. Perhaps the future is organizing
different employment packages for skilled full time, unskilled
full time and unskilled part time, irrespective of what job they
To some experienced recruiters the argument of the model
in Chapter 17 that hotel and catering units almost always exist
in a labour market surplus might strike a discordant note.
Running around hoping to keep up with the labour turnover
doesnt feel like a surplus. Yet it is. The labour market is tough
enough without making it harder for yourself with stereotyped
notions of what you want. The search for good people is not
helped by a myopic vision of willing flexible souls. Looking
for good people means constantly looking at job content. It is
not just the person to fit the job, but the job itself to allow the
person to be maximally effective. If a genuine shortage exists in
the labour market then management are forced to look at job
content, but a modern approach to HRM embraces this as nat-
urally as expert selection procedures. When it comes to evalu-
ating competence and effectiveness, the focus is on job content
rather than the personal qualities anyway. Why not make it a
central focus in recruitment and selection?
One of the more tedious debates which permeates the indus-
try and vocational education is whether the skills of managing
are more important than knowledge of hotel and catering oper-
ations. The argument is destructive because both are necessary
and complementary. Paying attention to the skills of managing
has the advantage of overriding not only technical knowledge,
but also hnctionalism (marketing, personnel, finance, etc.).
Good practice in HRM assumes that everyone who manages
has the skills to do so. HRM has contributed to these skills by
devising methods of measuring competence. This process is
linked to managing by objectives, but the future will go
beyond setting objectives and measuring defined competences
to researching and prescribing how things are to be achieved.
Again, we see detailed thinking coming to the aid of effective-
ness. This is not Taylorism making a comeback in a suit and
tie, but a balance between researched methods of achieving
objectives in management and encouraging managers to have
the initiative to go on and find even better ways. One thing is
certain, the structure of the industry being as it is, nothing can
w be achieved in HRM strategy without stable, motivated and
skilkd unit managers.
There is undoubtedly an HRM movement in corporate life
- uncodified but nevertheless an observable trend towards an
emphasis on the long term, on getting commitment from
people, and encouraging flexibility and quality in general.
Having argued that the hotel and catering industry is, in some
ways, unique, does this mean that it is, therefore, outside such
a movement?

The answer is no, because the HRM movement itself is, to

a degree, a reaction to labour market forces - an experience not
unknown to the hotel and catering industry. Table 21.1 sum-
marizes the direction of the drift towards HRM in the future.

Table 21.1

Area of mtiviv From To

Time perspective Short term Long term

Planning Reactive Pro-active
Management-worker Compliance Commitment
Evaluative criterion Cost minimization Maximization of
labour utility
Motivation What motivates Make it all work
(employment pack-
People perspective Groups from which Individuals and their
individuals emerge group context (X will
(have we got a waiter work well, be happy
who would make a and grow in that
good X?) group)
Selection Looking for good Examine the job
people (we know the content as well as
type of person we looking for good
want) people (lets get the job
right first then go for
what we want)
Functionalism Clear boundaries Integrated with
Communication Walking the job, Attitude surveys
assessing morale
Management skills Measuring competence Researching and
prescribing how
further reading

The purpose of this list is to enable readers of this book to learn

more from texts which are also written in an accessible way. The rec-
ommended books either take some of the material in this text or
enlarge it into the generic management field or they take a closer
and wider look at particular topics.

People at work

Furnham, A. 1992. Personality at Work, London, Routledge

Hogg, M.A., Vaughan, G.M. 1995. Social Psychology; an introduc-

tion, London, Prentice-Hall

Furnham, A., Argyle, M. 1998. The Psychology of Money, London,


Some useful techniques

Eder, R.W., Ferris, G.R 1989. The Employment Interview; Theory,

Research and Practice, London, Sage
Labour cost management

Chapman, P.G. 1993. The Economics of Training, London, Harvester


Wider issues

Hoecklin, L. 1995. Managing Cultural Differences - StrateS;es for

Competitive Advantage, Wokingham, Economist Intelligence Unit,

Other texts on hospitality and tourism

Wood, R.C. 1992. Working in Hotels and Catering, London,


Wood, R.C. 1994. Organizational Bebaviour for Hospitality

Management, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann

Clark, M., Riley, M., Wilkie, E., Wood R. 1998. Researching and
Writing Dissertations in Hospitality and Tourism, London,
International Thomson Business Press

Generic human resource management

Hendry, C. 1995. Human Resource Management - a strategic

approach to employment, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann
Hales, C. 1993. Managing througb Organisation, London, Rouledge a

Adair, J., 50-1 Consumer demand, nature of,

Advertising, 118 1-2, 173-4
Appraisal, 131
Appraisal interview, 135 Data collection, in personnel,
Appraisal, systems, ambiguity 148
in, 131-4 Distortion of grievances, 36-8
Attitudes, 66-73
Authority: Employment interview:
and communication, 85-6 format of, 120
perceptions of, 79 objectives of, 119
and power, 84-5 structure of, 120-30
sources of, 80-3 Empowerment, 60-2
and structure, 83-4 limits of, 62-3
Episodic questions, 124
Bureacracy and authority, Equity theory, 26-8
17-18 Expectancy theory, 25-7
and personal service, 17-18 Extreme policy options, 221-3

Change and learning, 64-5 Festinger, L., 36-7

Commitment, 52 Formal control systems, dangers
types of, 56 of, 13-14
value of, 59 Full-time employment,
Communication: estimating levels of, 96-7
and authority, 85-6
and management behaviour, Gratuity systems, 77
16-18 Grievance procedures:
Conflicts, presentation policies, design of, 141-3
138-9 merits of formality, 40,140-1
' as a process, 54-6
and management authority, sources of, 23
137-40 and unskilled work, 23
managerial approach to,
39-4 1 KSA, 121-3
Group behaviour, 42
Group identity, 46-7 Labour contract, psychological
Group process, 44-6 nature, 12-14
Labour market characteristics,
Hard datalsoft data, 147-8 153-6
Herzberg, F., 22-3 Labour productivity, basis of,
Hierarchy of standards, 89
169-7 1 Labour stability, measurement
Hiring standards, 116-18 of, 108-10
Hotel and catering industry, Labour supply adjustment
unique features of, 1 - 4 mechanisms, 98-100
Hotel and catering labour Labour turnover:
markets, 164-79 calculation of rate of, 107
Hours of work: costs of, 182-5
legal constraints, 210-1 1 and recruitment, 156-60
HRM - future directions, Labour utilization, 90-100
224-7 Leadership of groups, 48-50
Length of a vacancy, 179-82
Indexation, of pay, 202-3 Location factors and work
Integration principle, 30-1 values, 30-1
Intensity of feelings, dilution
of, 38 McGregor, D., 32-4
Intergroup behaviour, 47-8 Management pay, 158, 176
Internal labour markets, Maslow, A., 22
dimensions of, 160-3 Minimum wage, 21 1
and vocational education, Motivation, 19
Negative behaviour, 35
Job alignment, 133-4
Job characteristics and labour Occupational rigidity, 169
markets, 114-16 Occupational structure, 168
Job choice and motivation, 28 Organizational commitment,
Job content, pressure to change, 56-8
200 Orientations to work, 30-1
Job evaluation, 188-200 Overtime, behavioural
Job satisfaction: implications of, 180-2
Pay administration, 186 strategies, 116-18
comparisons, 75-6
differentials, influences on,
176-7 Sales forecast and labour
and leisure, 74-5 demand, 91-3
rate, influences on, 178-9 Self-theory, 24-5
Pay structures, purpose of, Skill model, 164-71
187-8 and pay, 172-4
Pay surveys, 20 1-5 Skill proportions, estimate of,
Pay systems and grievances, 167
180-2 Smith, A., 154
related to structure, 200-1 Snyder, R., 24
Performance standards: Social hours, labour market,
and accounting systems, 176-7
97-8 Soft datdhard data, 147-8
need for, 90-1 Stability index, calculation of,
purposes of, 90-1 109-10
Personnel administration: Strategy, defined, 2 14-1 5
good habits, 146 conceptual framework for,
objectives of, 145 2 15-24
policy guidelines, 148-50 Subjective nature of standards, 3
Power and authority, 84-5 Substitution principle, 115-16
Pre-interview material, 127-8 Supply curve for labour, 74
actual versus forecast, 97-8 Technological change and
and forecasting, 9 1-3 strategy, 216
and functional flexibility, Theory X, 32
100-2 Theory Y,32-3
matching supply and
demand, 95-8 Understanding people,
performance standards, 90-1 problems of, 4-7
Psychological contract, 1 1-15 Unsocial hours labour market,
Question strategy, 124-7
Question technique, 124-7 Williams, R., 24
3 Work study, 102-6
Recruitment and labour Working Time Directive, 207
a turnover, 156-60 Workload analysis, 93-4
This page intentionally left blank
Printed in the United States
/ I 111llIIIIIIIl ( /I
9 780750 645362