Eli Dutton

Cultural diversity in hospitality work

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the growing importance of migrant workers to the hospitality industry of peripheral locations in the UK.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on data collected through in‐depth surveys of and focus group discussions with migrant workers in hotels in three peripheral locations in the UK.Findings – Findings point to varied experiences for international workers in terms of recruitment and selection of international workers; their work‐related and social integration within the workforce and the wider community; aspirations for training and development among international employees; insights into the futures that migrant workers see for themselves; and their overall experience of living and working in the UK.Research limitations/implications – The study is located in three regions of the UK and each study is of relatively small scale. This is a potential limitation but compensation is afforded by the depth of information collected in each location.Pract...

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.

The weakest link? Product market strategies, skill and pay in the hotel industry

There is a widely held assumption that product market strategies, skill and pay are linked. Supportive evidence is typically drawn from manufacturing and using quantitative analyses. Emergent research of the link in services is ambivalent and has methodological limitations. This article addresses this weakness. It compares the skills and pay of room attendants in upper and mid-market hotels using qualitative research. It finds that the link is weak, even decoupled. The findings suggest a reconceptualization is needed of the link in services and that interventions other than product market re-positioning are needed to deliver higher skills and better pay.

More than a feeling: using hotel room attendants to improve understanding of job quality

Recent research by Adler and Adler reveals contradictory claims about the job quality of hotel room attendants; suggesting that an objectively ‘bad’ job can be perceived as subjectively ‘good’ by workers. This contradiction resonates with wider issues about how job quality is conceived – objectively and/or subjectively. Drawing on empirical research of room attendant jobs in upper market hotels in three cities in the UK and Australia, this paper addresses the contradiction by examining both the objective and subjective dimensions of job quality for room attendants. In doing so it refines Adler and Adlers work, constructs a new typology of workers and a new categorisation of job quality informed by workers characteristics and preferences. This categorisation improves conceptual understanding of job quality by enjoining its objective and subjective dimensions.

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.