ESHT - Departamento de Negócios e Administração
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- An overview of higher education in tourism and hospitality in PortugalPublication . Moura, Andreia Antunes; Costa, Vânia; Loureiro, Isabel Sofia; Silva, Susana; Mira, Maria do Rosário; Pereira, Sílvia RaquelObjective: This study evaluates the higher education provision in Portugal's tourism and hospitality sector, examining its evolution and alignment with labor market demands to address the growing skills gap in the industry.TheoreticalFramework: The research is grounded in concepts of labor market demands, educational alignment, and workforce development amid digital, societal, and economic transformations. Theories on skills mismatch and human capital development help understand the dynamics between education and employment in this sector.Method: A comprehensive review of higher education offerings in tourism and hospitality in Portugal was conducted, assessing the number of courses and student vacancies while analyzing job market trends. Data were collected from national educational databases and industry reports to examine the evolving relationship between educational programs and labor needs.Results and Discussion: Results indicate a notable increase in tourism and hospitality courses and student vacancies in Portugal’s higher education system, reflecting efforts to cultivate a skilled workforce. However, gaps persist in regional job distribution and the need for specialized training in certain areas.Research Implications: Thefindings suggest that higher education institutions are progressing in closing the skills gap by offering programs aligned with industry needs, which may influence workforce development strategies and curriculum design.Originality/Value: This study contributes to the literature by analyzing Portugal's educational response to labor market shifts, highlighting the growing alignment between education and industry needs, and providing actionable insights for improving human capital development in tourism and hospitality.
- Attraction and retention strategies: what matters to the millennial?Publication . Silva, Susana; Martins, Dora; Marques, AureaThe labour market is suffering many changes and transformations putting several challenges to human resources management. One of the biggest challenges is related to the attraction and retention of employees to work in several activity sectors and to retain the talent in the organisations. In particular, hospitality and technology sectors have seen robust growth since the pandemic-induced. This study aims to explore the strategies for attracting and retaining millennials. More specifically, to understand the challenges of multigenerational management, and to understand the strategies used by organisations to meet the needs and interests of the millennial generation. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using a semi-structured interview with 17 Human resources managers. Data were analysed according to thematic analysis procedures. The results showed that university partnerships are the preferred practice for attracting millennials, work-life balance, benefits, organisational culture, investment in professional development, feedback, and recognition are the main attraction and retention strategies. Participants consider the millennial Generation to be committed, and the biggest challenge in managing generational diversity is linked to the demand and impatience of millennials. In conclusion, human resources managers should consider the generation characteristics to adequate and update their human resources practices.
- Cooking up a sustainable future: insights of circular economy in the restaurantsPublication . Maia, Beatriz; Silva, Susana; Melo, António; Silva, Goretti; Azevedo, Daniel; Camões, Henrique; Melo, CarlaRestaurants increasingly prioritize promoting sustainability within their kitchen’s operations, focusing their offers on valuing raw materials as a central point of gastronomy, thus highlighting the importance of local, responsible consumption and respect for nature and the environment. The Circular Economy (CE) emerges as a new sustainability paradigm, uncovering valuable opportunities for organizations and customers, in harmony with the environment. This study aims to characterize good sustainable and circular practices in the restaurant sector, understanding how endogenous products can enhance food waste reduction. Through a qualitative methodology, nine semi-structured exploratory interviews were carried out with restaurant experts, to gain in-depth knowledge into sustainable and CE practices used in restaurants. By conducting a thematic analysis, three main themes emerged 'Positioning and Branding,' 'Circular Economy,' and 'Product and Food Waste'. 'Positioning and Branding' covers the evolution of an eco-conscious mindset in organizations, from the inception of sustainable thinking to the imperative for change. It emerges from the categories: ´Organization, actions, and partnerships’, ‘Challenges and success factors’, and ‘Awareness’. The theme 'Circular Economy,' presents circular practices within daily restaurant operations, their understanding of circular concepts, and the progress made in adopting these behaviors. It arises from three categories: ‘Circularity’, ‘Resource Management’ and ‘Transition’. The 'Product and Food Waste' theme addresses concerns related to product and food waste, including supplier selection, innovative gastronomic offerings, and food waste minimization strategies. It is based on the categories: ‘Suppliers and Raw Materials’, ‘Food Waste Minimization”, and ‘Gastronomic Offer’. The findings reveal a growing awareness of the need for sustainability and circular practices in the restaurant sector. Organizations are actively seeking ways to reduce food waste, optimize sourcing, best operating procedures and offer more sustainable menus representing significant progress toward a more sustainable future in the restaurant business.
- Digital influencers: possible roles in the promotion of tourist destinationsPublication . Ramalho, Bárbara; Silva, Susana; Silva, CândidaIn the globalisation era, digital influencers have become a key communication source of the 21st century and an important player in several business activities. They are known as content creators, they can influence large audiences who want to consume their contents and are available to be influenced by their information and behaviors. Additionally, digital platforms have played an important role in the development of new digital marketing strategies for the promotion of tourist destinations, namely integrating opinion leaders as products and service influencers. Therefore, this study aims to understand the role of digital influencers in the promotion of tourist destinations and to identify the strategies used for their promotion. To answer our objectives a qualitative study was conducted. 17 digital influencers participated in our study, of both genders, with a mean age of 26 years (SD=7.98). All the participants fulfilled a demographic questionnaire and it was conducted a semi-structured interview to answer the research question "How do Portuguese digital influencers promote a tourist destination?". The interviews were verbatim transcript and data analysed according to thematic analysis procedures. The preliminary results showed that “trip characteristics” and “influencer function” are the main categories. For the trip it is important to define the main reasons to visit the tourist destination, positive and negative dimensions related to the trip, and interests in the place. The influencer functions emerge from the communication with the followers, digital, technical and soft skills needed to be professional. Thus, it can be concluded that digital influencers can have an important role in the promotion of a tourist destination. The digital influencer should have significant communication skills but also digital, technical and soft skills. Therefore, it is crucial to train future tourism professionals to be prepared for this professional option. We discuss the main practical and theoretical implications and offer some suggestions for further studies.
- Employer branding practices amongst the most attractive employers of IT and engineering sectorPublication . Gregorka, Lea; Silva, Susana; Silva, CândidaEmployer branding is a marketing strategy that helps employers stay competitive in their markets. Although it is a concept used for over 20 years, its process and consequences have not yet been fully scrutinized. This study characterizes the employer branding implementation and the employers' perspective on it. By conducting ten semi-structured, in-depth interviews, the authors examine not only how employer branding practices have been applied, but also the role of human resources management in the process and used employee attraction and retention practices. The results suggest that although the employer branding process is not clearly structured, some stages can be identified as common. For that reason, the authors outline a stage divided framework and analyse each one of the identified stages. Furthermore, practical insights are provided about the company's departments roles and link them to the current state of the art. Finally, the authors suggest future investigation in particular stages of employer branding.
- Employer branding: the importance of retentionPublication . Silva, Susana; Calisto, InêsEmployer Branding is a new tool used in Human Resources Management which develops a corporate branding as well as creates an active relationship between the organization and the qualified candidates to recruit and retain. Nowadays, the organizations have to take special care in the retention of its employees. The retention of employees is a priority for the Human Resources Management, as it leads the businesses to achieve high levels of profitability and success. The main goal of this research is to understand how the organizations settled in Portugal retain their employees and what practices are used to do so. It is also important to realize if the organizations think that the retention of employees is indeed important, and if so, what is their vision on the subject and, if it is through the Employer Branding process that they can achieve higher rates of retention and satisfaction of their employees. For this study were analysed eleven companies in Portugal, from distinct business areas and different locations. The qualitative methodology was used and the main technique of data collection was the semi-structured interviews. Altogether, eleven interviews were held to the responsible for Human Resources of each organization, or one of the department's employees who were linked to people management. The final results of this investigation suggest that the process of Employer Branding begins to gain ground in human resource management and that the companies in Portugal are concerned with the retention of its employees, using different practices and sometimes, creative strategies to achieve it.
- Erasmus students expectations: a qualitative study in portuguese contextPublication . Silva, Susana; Silva, Cândida; Martins, DoraThe European Commission presents the Erasmus+ Programme as a tool to achieving economic growth and creating highly-skilled jobs in Europe, in order to strengthen its position as a knowledgebased economy. This programme aims to improve the quality and relevance of higher education, strengthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation, making the knowledge triangle work: linking higher education, research and business to achieve excellence and bring about regional development, and therefore improving governance and funding. The aim of this work is to analyse and understand the Erasmus+ student’s expectations that choose a Portuguese higher education institution to perform their Erasmus+ experience. 54 Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Erasmus+ students. The main results showed that the motivations to have an Erasmus+ experience were the need to learn another language and add cultural background to their personal experience. It is also understood as a good way to develop their knowledge in academic and personal learning, and to promote their employability. Erasmus+ students believe that their curriculum vitae is valued, gaining more flexibility and more competence to work in the international environment. Their expectations are to improve the domain of a foreign language, to increase personal and professional independence, to ameliorate academic and communication skills, and to have more responsibility and comprehension about professional environments. The return to the home country is also referred as a relevant moment in this experience. Students expect to be more confident in that occasion, to have more personal and professional skills that facilitate their employability. The reached results allowed obtaining the following evidences: (1) the main motivations of students in an Erasmus+ programme to choose an institution were the good weather conditions, similar culture, language facilities, good networks between the home and host institutions, and personal development.; (2) the personal development includes academic and learning aspects of development of the individual curriculum vitae as well as being a facilitator to their professional integration in the market labour since that companies value international mobility experiences, which shows personal flexibility and a more natural ability to work internationally; (3) in the mobility process is important to have good processual organization of the host institution, the teachers availability to help foreign students and the fact that all the staff in the host institution can speak English; and (4) the soft skills development of students, namely communication, independency, responsibility and confidence, as well as academic skill, which may potentiate students employability at home countries.
- Expatriation: the focus on psychological contractPublication . Silva, Susana; Santiago, Filipa; Martins, DoraIn the past few years, the number of expatriates has shown a growth trend worldwide. Accordingly, the expatriate management, which integrates the subsystem of International Human Resources Management, has now a renewed attention and has been growing as an intervention area of Human Resources Management. Therefore, the psychological contract has been seen, more and more, as a relevant factor in explaining the labour relations and the number of studies around this theme has increased. The success of expatriation is directly influenced by the psychological contract and depends largely on how HRM practices are developed (Homem & Tolfo, 2008). Understanding the reaction of workers through changes (Bligh & Carsten, 2005; Shield et al., 2002) is essential, since the response behaviour can be a crucial contribution to the success or failure of the international assignment. In the same context, we are witnessing an increasing attention on the contribution that the Psychological Contract may have under uncertainty. The individual, as an employee of an organization that decides to accept an international assignment and move to another country, needs to fit in a continuous and motivating relationship with the employer. The concept of the psychological contract is fundamental to the understanding of labour relations, based on the perceptions of those involved. Many aspects of these relationships are implicit (unwritten) which can cause different interpretations of expectations, promises and obligations between parties. Several authors argue that the psychological contract is the key to understand and manage the attitudes and behaviour of individuals in organizations (Bunderson, 2001; Kraimer et al., 2005; Lemire & Rouillard, 2005). The goal of this work is to understand the psychological contract in expatriates: before the assignment, after adjustment to the host country and repatriation. A qualitative methodology was used, and for that we applied semi-structured individual interviews and sociographic questionnaire to people who were, at the time, expatriate. In total, ten interviews were conducted and the analysis of the interviews were made through Grounded Theory. The results suggest that there is only fulfilment of the psychological contract in the stage of the preparation of the international assignment, existing, on the other hand, breach of the psychological contract during expatriation and at repatriation, according to the perception that expatriates have about the end of expatriation. However, most of the interviewed expatriates evaluates positively the expatriation experience, although organizations appear to have just a few rules to support expatriate, particularly logistical and financial support, and not having a complete and thorough program of support to the expatriation management. The results also suggest that it is essential that organizations encourage communication with expatriates and promote the continuous support, which should be constant and intrinsic to all phases of expatriation in order to avoid the “abandon” feeling.
- Expectations vs customer satisfaction: the case of luxury hotelsPublication . Santos, Sílvia; Oliveira, Mónica; Silva, SusanaCustomer expectations and satisfaction has been one of the most studied themes in marketing literature among several business areas. In the hospitality sector, these themes are crucial regarding the specific characteristics of the service but also the huge competitiveness in this field. Nowadays, in hospitality, it is current practice to evaluate customer satisfaction, but few studies relate this satisfaction with their expectations. This study aims to characterize the customer expectations with the services provided by luxury hotels and to characterize the luxury market in hospitality. To answer our objectives a quantitative study was conducted. Participated in our study 330 hotel customers, of both genders, with a mean age of 46,8 years (SD=13,9), from five luxury hotels. All the participants fulfilled a questionnaire with sociodemographic questions and several questions assessing the satisfaction level with the different services provided by the hotels. Statistical analysis, descriptive and inferential, were performed with SPSS 24.0. The preliminary results showed that luxury hotels customers made a positive or very positive evaluation of the services provided by the different hotels of the group. The relation between the same kind of service performed is significant, ie, when the customer considers the quality of the bar important also asses as important the quality and diversity of the restaurant. In the same way, the group seems to have some differences among the services provided by specific kinds of hotels. Thus, we can conclude that customers' satisfaction is very important to the services provided by hotels, namely in the luxury market. Moreover, the luxury market seems to be a tendency in the hospitality sector. We discuss the main practical and theoretical implications and offer some suggestions for further studies.
- Exploring employee experience: millennial human resources practitioners in the IT sectorPublication . Martins, Dora; Silva, Susana; Sousa, InêsThe labour market is going through a disruptive phase, characterised by changes in expectations about work. On the one hand, younger generations of employees value aspects such as purpose, personal development, and work-life balance, making these elements crucial to a positive experience at work. On the other hand, organisations recognise that employee satisfaction and well-being influence organisational success. Thus, the main objective of this study is to understand the employee experience of millennial human resources in the information technologies (IT) sector. As specific objectives, we intend to understand which (i) factors they consider influencing their personal and professional experience within organizations; (ii) organizational practices associated with the promotion of positive employee experience; (iii) organizational strategies adopted to promote a positive employee experience and, (iv) challenges linked with positive employee experience management. A qualitative research methodology was used to collect data, using a semi-structured interview with a group of 10 millennial human resources professionals joining the IT sector to answer the research question how is the experience of millennial human resources in the IT sector? The interviews were verbatim transcribed, and data were analysed according to thematic analysis procedures. Our findings show that human resources professionals belonging to the millennial generation express a greater interest in being part of organizations that offer a compensation and benefits system aligned with their performance, in addition to ensuring an effective work-life balance. Furthermore, they emphasize the influence of organizational behaviour on their job satisfaction, indicating that employee experience tends to be positive when the organization promotes a collaborative culture, fostering a work environment conducive to the development of strong interpersonal relationships, the creation of cohesive and dynamic teams, and a clear alignment between individual and organizational goals. Overall, the interviewees demonstrate satisfaction with their current employee experience, acknowledging that it meets their needs and interests comprehensively. Some conclusions for Human Resources Management are provided in the last part of the paper.