Cliff Lockyer

Selecting hotel staff: why best practice does not always work.

This paper considers the nature of “best practice” recruitment and selection in the hotel sector. Data from a sample of Scottish hotels indicate a reliance on informal methods, particularly in smaller hotels. In larger and chain hotels, structured procedures, including references, application forms and panel interviews, are evident, but, here too, these methods seem inadequate for dealing with recruitment and quality problems, especially in meeting temporary staffing needs. Case study evidence contrasts two alternative strategies: a successful holistic strategy based on management of social processes important for selection, and a more conventional bureaucratic strategy. Each strategy depends on a complex interrelationship between business and labour market considerations, the ownership and management structure of the hotel, and the tenure and experience of those responsible for selection. This evidence indicates that, for the hotel industry, the holistic strategy is an alternative to conventional notions

Anticipatory socialisation: the effect of recruitment and selection experiences on career expectations

Recruitment and selection experiences are part of a process of pre‐entry organisational socialisation, also known as anticipatory socialisation. Graduates are susceptible to such effects as their socialisation through exposure to professional employers begins during training. Employers’ practices are thought to contribute to the formation of realistic career expectations and the initial psychological contract between graduates and employers. The present study found that students in traditional professions reported greater exposure to employers than students in an emerging profession through work activities, more proactive engagement in recruitment events, and more extensive experience of selection processes at similar stages of study. Greater activity, in turn, was related to career expectations, including varying levels of commitment to and interest in the profession and career clarity.

Recruiting and Selecting Professionals: Context, Qualities and Methods

Evidence based on a survey of professional firms and in-depth interviews with decision-makers responsible for selection examines the most frequently used and valued methods for hiring qualified professional staff in a sample of Scottish accountancy, architecture, law, and surveying practices. The survey suggests an emphasis on personality, work experience and general attributes for senior posts, and that high value is placed on interviews and informal sources of information in assessing these qualities. Firm characteristics and context, particularly size of practice, the role of the partner in the selection process, labour supply, and perception of recruitment difficulties are shown to be related to the type of selection method used. Consistent with the view of selection as a social process, the case study evidence suggests that ‘informality’ may play an important role when partners responsible for selection have long tenure with their firm and when firms experience recruitment difficulties. More generally, informal networks and interview processes may act as effective information and communication vehicles for small and medium-sized professional practices.

The “rain dance” of selection in construction: rationality as ritual and the logic of informality

Purpose – Recruitment and selection in the construction industry is ad hoc – the search for workers to match immediate employment needs is unsystematic, usually conducted in a short‐termist manner, and often contributes to, rather than overcomes, persistent recruitment difficulties and skill shortages. The purpose of this paper is to explore the recruitment context and selection practice in the Scottish construction sector, and proposes a model of the selection decision process which may provide an explanation for this apparently unsystematic approach.Design/methodology/approach – A survey based on a sample from the 1998 Scottish Chambers of Commerce Business Survey database was used to examine the pattern of recruitment, contextual influences on recruitment, the qualities sought by employers, and the extent of use of various recruitment and selection methods. Further qualitative data was gathered from a subset of construction and surveyors firms to explore the nature of selection processes.Findings – The...

Debugging the system: the impact of dispersion on the identity of software team members

This paper looks at the impact of dispersion of groups of software workers on team and organizational identification. The paper examines at two case studies of software organizations operating in Scotland. One case study is drawn from a software division of a large national telecommunications company, the other from a medium-sized indigenous software firm. Within each organization we examined groups of employees based within and outwith their employing organizations. Our results were broadly consistent with established work within other sectors in finding that the team largely replaced the organization as a focus for identification. However, we also found that there was no difference in the salience of organizational identification between dispersed employees and those based within their employing organization. For many employees the focus on the team as opposed to the organization was a way of reducing subjective uncertainty within a changing corporate environment. Finally, we established that it is team identification rather than organizational identification for software workers that is a greater determinant of affective outcomes such as job satisfaction. The results of this study impact upon contemporary theories of HRM, which promote the design of work systems in order to engender commitment to, and identification with, the organization.

Producing Knowledge: The Use of the Project Team as a Vehicle for Knowledge and Skill Acquisition for Software Employees

This article ands that a considerable proportion of learning and skills development for software workers occurs through learning from colleagues and other software professionals. Although the authors observed that employees were generally satis.ed with the formal training they received, very little knowledge acquisition actually takes place as part of a recognized training programme. Knowledge is frequently gained through project-based work both from other team members and the team or project work necessitating individuals to update their skills set. The data used within this article were collected using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques within ve software organizations in Scotland.

Flexible friends? Lone parents and retail

This paper considers a so far unappreciated sector of the labour market – lone parents. The number of lone parents has increased dramatically in recent years. Consideration of lone parents allows for a discussion of two key issues within the contemporary labour market: the attempts by government to increase the number of lone parents in work; and relatedly, governmental initiatives which have sought to reform the tax and benefit system to make work more attractive and also address the need for work‐life balance for parents. The paper considers these issues by reporting a small‐scale piece of research that sought to address the viability of the supermarket sector as a suitable employer for lone parents. The results suggest that the increasing numbers of students entering the labour market means that supermarkets are unlikely to consider lone parents as an important, discrete source of labour.

IT jobs: opportunities for all?

This paper examines the opportunities for the unemployed to access information technology jobs. Based on original research, it indicates that, despite initial expectations about an expanding sector of high skill, high wage jobs, recent developments indicate a tight labour market, which has created barriers to these jobs for the unemployed.

LONE PARENTS, THE NEW DEAL AND THE OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS TO RETAIL EMPLOYMENT

The number of lone parents has increased considerably in recent years and the UK Labour Government has reacted by encouraging them to move from welfare and into work. This group face multi-dimensional and complex barriers to employment that the government has attempted to rectify through the introduction of various initiatives such as the National Childcare Strategy, the Working Families Tax Credit and the New Deal. The availability of appropriate employment opportunities is central to this strategy. Retail employment is perceived to be one such opportunity. This article examines the Glasgow supermarket sector as a suitable employer for clients of the New Deal for Lone Parents programme. The findings demonstrate that lone parents still experience significant barriers to work, even in a sector that is considered a viable employment option.

Municipal Microchips: The Computerised Labour Process in the Public Service Sector

The primary aim of this paper is to analyse the introduction of information technology into the labour process and work experience of white-collar staff in local government. To this end we shall draw on research carried out in a large Scottish local authority, with supporting reference to other research on the municipal sector. In pursuit of this objective, we have found it useful to reflect on both the extent and limitations of the insight provided for our analysis by existing work on information technology in the labour process tradition, and by accounts of white-collar class and gender structuration. Our deliberations suggest, however, the existing class theories in particular seem markedly inadequate in deciphering the processes under examination, and that a much greater contribution is gained from a consideration of the role of specific historical and current contingencies in shaping management and labour organisation strategy and response.