Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and hospitality sector
A. Walmsley
Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK
S.N. Partington
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
ABSTRACT: Increasing concerns about the business and society relationship are reflected in concerns
about the impacts of tourism development. However, an area that has seen relatively little attention in
sustainable tourism is that of working conditions. From a theoretical standpoint few advances have been
made. This paper explores the relationship between the owners and employees of tourism businesses inter-
preting stakeholder theory through the lens of traditional economic theory. It thereby aims to provide a
basis for improving working conditions that extends beyond purely strategic and moral rationales.
Keywords
:
CSR, stakeholder theory, employment, working conditions
1 INTRODUCTION
responsibility (CSR). Blair's (1998) justification of
the relevance of stakeholder theory using economic
theory is discussed before being applied to tourism.
The paper concludes by summarizing the key points
and suggesting avenues for further research.
'Employees are our most valuable asset'. This is
the often-proclaimed mantra of executives in the
tourism and hospitality sector. Despite such proc-
lamations the reality of working conditions in the
sector are almost invariably described as poor by
scholars the world over. An early study from Japan
(Tomoda, 1983), for example, described working
conditions in the sector as 'unsatisfactory or even
deplorable'. Other authors such as Wood (1997)
reach similar conclusions a little over a decade
later. Fast forward another decade and the con-
clusion of Baum's (2007) review of the status of
human resources in tourism are succinctly summa-
rized in the paper's title 'still waiting for change'.
This paper addresses the discrepancy between
employer discourse and employment applying
Blair's (1998) interpretation of stakeholder theory
to the sector. It thereby provides a novel perspec-
tive with which to justify the legitimacy of con-
cerns about poor employment practices in tourism.
It strengthens the conceptual foundation of labour
relations in the sector, which is required if scholar-
ship and practice are to make progress in an area
that has witnessed little conceptual development.
The paper is structured as follows. Initially, to
set the scene for the ensuing theoretical discussion,
the paper exposes current thinking on working
conditions in the sector. Subsequently, the paper
demonstrates how working conditions relate to the
concepts of sustainable tourism and corporate social
2
WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE
TOURISM SECTOR
The tourism sector is acknowledged by the Interna-
tional Labor Organization (ILO, April, 16, 2014),
as one of the fastest growing sectors of the global
economy that is labor intensive and has significant
multiplier effect on employment in other related
sectors. It offers varied opportunities for people in
diverse sub-sectors and at different levels (Baum,
2007). However United Nation World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO, April, 4, 2014) in its latest
report emphasized that the world of work in tour-
ism is generally not well known because reliable
data are missing on tourism employment, hence
their latest joint project with ILO titled 'employ-
ment and decent work in tourism' that attempts
to address this gap. Non-Governmental Organiza-
tions (NGOs) in the UK such as Tourism Concern
who advocates ethical tourism also identified the
tourism sector '…as a fertile ground for exploita-
tion of workers at the bottom of the tourism supply
chain in countries all over the world', which echoes
Wood's (1997) bleak assessment of the industry,
in both developed and less developed countries.
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