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- Knowledge management and staff turnover in the hospitality industryPublication . Silva, Susana; Silva, Cândida; Martins, DoraThe hospitality industry is a business area characterized by high rates of turnover related to the seasonality and precariousness of the activity. Therefore, practitioners and researchers in hospitality have focused on the development of practices preventing employees leaving a job. Recent literature had discussed the importance of implementing knowledge management practices in order to retain talent in hospitality and, also, to share employees’ knowledge inside an organisation characterized by significant intangible assets. The main objective of the study is to explore how knowledge management is implemented in the hospitality industry. More specifically, we aim to characterize the talent retention practices, to comprehend how knowledge management is used to decrease the staff turnover in hospitality, and to understand the main challenges to knowledge management in this kind of business. In order to answer to our objectives a qualitative study was conducted. 10 hotel managers, of both genders, with a mean age of 46 years (SD=7.98) participated in the study. All the participants completed a demographic questionnaire and a semi-structured interview was conducted in order to answer the research question “how knowledge management is used to decrease staff turnover in the hospitality industry?”. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and data analysed according to thematic analysis procedures. The preliminary results showed that hotel managers value the knowledge retention inside the organisation. The implementation of practices of knowledge management is one of the main objectives in these organisations. Staff turnover is comprehended has one of the main problems in this business area and increases the loss of important knowledge acquired by employees. Thus, it can be concluded that knowledge management is a very important issue in the hospitality business; namely to increase employees’ knowledge retention. Additionally, it is crucial to implement more strategies in order to increase talent retention and decrease staff turnover rates. In this paper, we discuss the main practical and theoretical implications, and offer some suggestions for further studies.
- MICE Segment: Challenges and Opportunities to the Tourism SectorPublication . Martins, Dora; Silva, Susana; Jardim, Catarina; Silva, CândidaObjetives | Business and professional travel is one of the oldest forms of travel. Business tourism has grown exponentially in recent years and is seen as a huge opportunity for the sector. Specifically, MICE refer to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions that can be held to perform business tourism (Smagina, 2017). The Meetings refers to a number of events such as: daily meetings, annual meetings, or weekly meetings, which intended to add value through communication, celebrations or training activities, among others. Meetings can also vary in size. Meeting venues differ depending on participation and meeting style, ranging from formative meetings, lectures, seminars, workshops or panel discussions, presentations, or product launches (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2012). Meetings allow the ideals of organizations to be put into practice as well as communication processes between employees, customers, and other stakeholders (Davidson & Cope, 2003). Incentive trips are considered an important tool by organizations and have served as an introduction to human resource management theories, recognizing the work of employees, not in a monetary way, but in a tangible way (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2012). These trips have been used to motivate, recognize employees for their work and/or increase commitment between the organization and the employee (Pizam, 2005). Incentive trips, or corporate hospitality, have a more direct link with leisure tourism due to the strong recreational nature associated with them, in the sense of rewarding employees (Everard, 2010). The incentive market is made up of two sub-sectors: individual or group incentives. Group trips encourage team spirit and a sense of belonging with a large number of people, while individual trips focus essentially on the same objectives, but with a smaller number of people, usually up to 20 (Witt et al., 1992). These trips usually consist of an itinerary of accommodation, transportation, special events or other options that offer the participant a highly rewarding experience (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2012). As far as conferences are concerned, they comprise a wide range of professional events on a particular theme and organized with a formal structure. Conferences can be academic, commercial, or business or for another purpose, and can vary in terms of size and duration. The purpose of a conference is to address themes or issues which are then discussed, solutions identified, or advice given. A conference is an assembly that may involve discussion to establish facts and/or solve problems. Conferences have no connotation in terms of their periodicity and are usually held on a smaller scale than congresses (Sylla et al., 2015). This study aims to understand the future of MICE segment in Hospitality and to comprehend what are the main challenges and opportunities to the sector with these events. Methodology | To conduct this study a qualitative methodology was performed using a semi-structured interview to answer our research objectives. Our participants were 10 hotel directors in Portugal. The interviews were conducted online, taped, and verbatim transcript. Data were analyzed with thematic analysis procedures. Main Results and Contributions | Our results suggested that, as expected, during the COVID-19 period, the drop in the number of events held in the MICE segment is, on average, 69%. MICE segment are an extremely important segment for Portuguese hotels since, as well as mitigating seasonality, they create dynamism and promote cross-selling, contributing to their economic security. The data also highlights several strategies for adapting the operation to this kind of event, based on making event conditions more flexible, following up on customers' needs, and campaigns on digital platforms and social networks. For the future, our participants consider that there are several opportunities for the development of the segment, based on exploring potential markets such as the United States, or Brazil, and in business areas that will recover more quickly, such as health, banking, publishing and sport. Moreover, the participants consider that the pandemic has accelerated the use of technology due to the need for online and hybrid events and this will be a trend for the future of the sector. Other trends point to significant changes in how far in advance events are booked, fewer participants and shorter durations. Limitations | Our main limitations are related to the use of a qualitative study with a few numbers of participants making difficult the results' generalization. Additionally, our participants were the hotel directors who could be more influenced by social desirability. In future studies, it would be interesting to have other participants such as intermediate leaders and the customers. Conclusions | In conclusion, MICE segment seem to be an important strategy for business tourism contributing to the decrease in seasonality. Although it is important to develop the specific skills required in this sector.
- Online recruitment for organizational knowledge management: a quantitative studyPublication . Silva, Susana; Silva, Cândida; Martins, DoraThe process of Recruitment and Selection of new employees has a growing influence on business results and, nowadays, the use of knowledge and information and communication technologies enables this process to be faster and more complete. The need to improve the existing resources in companies has conditioned the changes in the Recruitment and Selection process and, over time, we observe the transformation of this process. Thus, Recruitment and Selection became a strategic process in Human Resources Management improving the organization's competitiveness. The objective of the study is to understand the role of online recruitment for organizational knowledge management; and to characterize the most used social networks in Online Recruitment, identifying the main reasons to use online recruitment during the process of recruitment and selection. ln this quantitative study, 112 companies fulfilled a questionnaire that evaluated the online recruitment process. The main results suggested that national companies and companies with more than 250 employees use more online recruitment. The fact that some companies have job openings available on multiple websites simultaneously, making information available 24 hours a day, reducing the time and process costs and streamline communication between candidates and the organization are some of the most listed reasons to use the Online Recruitment. Otherwise, the use of traditional methods of recruitment and the fact that the access to social networks are not allowed in some organisations are some of the reasons cited for not using this method of recruitment. Thus, it can be concluded that the Information and Communication Technologies are present in the process of recruitment and selection and that this is a reality existing in organizations as a tool to support of knowledge management.
- Soft skills in expatriationPublication . Silva, Susana; Martins, Dora; Silva, CândidaContemporary competitiveness and globalisation drives organisations to explore new markets, and provide themselves with distinctive features and value added. Additionally, the literature underlines the importance of this global environment impact the processes of managing Human resources in organisations. Therefore, the adequacy of human resources is imperative in the strategy of organisations. This study aims to understand the importance of the international assignment, to understand the soft skills most valued by recruiters and how is their evaluation. To successfully address these aims we conducted a qualitative study. The data collection method used was semi-structured interview and were interviewed ten recruiters of expatriates. Data were analysed according to content analysis procedures The results suggest that soft skills are important features in the international assignment, since that act on factors that influence the success of the assignment. The most important skills are interpersonal relationships, teamwork, communication, adaptability and tolerance to ambiguity. We discuss the main practical and theoretical implications, and offer some suggestions for further studies.
- 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.
- Knowledge transfer between european universities through the Erasmus students programmePublication . Martins, Dora; Silva, Susana; Silva, CândidaThe 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 knowledge-based 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. Semi-structure interviews were conducted to obtain qualitative data. Twenty eight Erasmus+ students (twenty female and eight male) with mean age of 25 years (SD= 6,3). The data were analysed according to content analysis procedures. 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. In conclusion, our results suggest that Erasmus+ students believed that this experience is an important way to develop personal and professional knowledge and fundamental skills to their employability. These results reinforce the relevance and the need to invest in Erasmus+ project because this seems to be an important tool to ameliorate student's skills and promote their employability.
- The LinkedIn platform in human resources recruitmentPublication . Silva, Cândida; Silva, Susana; Martins, DoraLinkedIn is one of the leading social networks aimed at professional use, proving to be a tool highly valued by human resources technicians and also by users in general. This tool helps professional to keep their information up to date. The main goal of this studywas to understand what human resource consultants look for in a LinkedIn profile, what skills are most valued, and why some companies privilege LinkedIn tool in the recruitment process. To carry out the study were selected nine human resources consulting companies that use the LinkedIn tool in the recruitment and selection process. Therefore, was conducted a qualitative method, supported on Grounded Theory technique for codding purposes. The instrument for gathering information was a sociodemographic questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. In total, were conducted nine interviews with each of the human resources consultants responsible for the recruitment of candidates from the selected companies. The results suggest the gradual use of the LinkedIn tool to support the recruitment and selection processes. However, using LinkedIn as a recruitment technique that is not used in isolation, recruiters only use it as a complement to the recruitment process.At the end of the paper the results are discussed and some future research directions presented
- Human resources management practices in hospitality companiesPublication . Martins, Dora; Silva, Susana; Silva, CândidaHuman Resources Management (HRM) has been recognized by academics and practitioners as an important element in organizations. Therefore, this paper explores the best practices of HRM and seeks to understand the level of participation in the development of these practices by human resources managers in the hospitality industry and compare it with other industries. Thus, the study compared the HRM practices of companies in the hospitality sector with HRM practices of companies in other sectors, and identifies the main differences between their HRM practices. The results show that the most frequent HRM practices in all companies, independently of its sector of activity, are hiring and training. When comparing hospitality sector with other sectors of activity, some differences were noticed, namely in the adoption of the practices of communication and information sharing, and of recruitment and selection. According to these results, the paper discusses the major theoretical and practical implications. Suggestions for future research are also presented.
- Human resources consultants: what digital skills?Publication . Antunes, Andreia; Martins, Dora; Silva, Susana; Silva, CândidaThe significant changes in the organisational environment and the frequent technological innovations that arose from the industrial revolutions over the centuries have a considerable impact on the labor market. The global economy has created a dynamic, competitive and complex environment, where organizations need to adjust and compete to achieve success. The Human Resources Consultancy sector must adjust its services and solutions to ensure organisational sustainability in the Digital Era and implement innovative mechanisms for the development of skills to offer a distinct value proposal in an increasingly globalized, and digital, market. This research’s main objective is to characterize the Human Resources consulting sector, identify the relational and technical challenges of professionals arising from digital transformation, and, finally, identify the skills required of Human Resources consultants in this digital age. A qualitative methodology was carried out within ten Human Resources Consultants, and data analyzed according to the Grounded Theory principles. The results of this study show that digital transformation is a significant challenge for the Human Resources Consulting sector, which needs to adapt its corporate culture to digital transformation and create a commitment to innovation and change. Moreover, the economic and social context, globalization, competitiveness, the market and customers’ demands, require redefining this sector’s strategy and redesigning business models based on ideas and methodologies that stand out. This result allows to start designing two other studies: one to understand the clients’ perception relatively to consultants’ actions and skills, and other to consolidate this study with a wider quantitative study.
- Knowledge management in the human resources recruitment and selection processPublication . Silva, Susana; Silva, Cândida; Martins, DoraHuman resources management is related to a strategic and provisional vision of the organisations. Several authors have pointed the need to understand the human resources practices and the way different organisations implement these practices. On the other hand, it is also important how the information is managed during the several human resources practices. The main objective of the study is to understand the perception of human resources consultants during the recruitment and selection process. It also aims to understand how the recruitment and selection process is conducted, to comprehend the motivations of the recruiters during the process, to characterize the soft skills measured, and how the information is managed. In this qualitative study, participated 12 recruiters, of both genders, with mean age of 36 years (SD=7.98). The participants fulfilled a demographic questionnaire and it was conducted a semi-structured interview. Data were verbatim transcript and analysed according content analysis. The main results showed that recruiters have a positive perception of their activity. The online recruitment was identified as a source of excellency to attract candidates. Regarding to the assessment techniques the interview is the most frequent technique used during a recruitment and selection process therefore the competence of the recruiter conducting these interviews is pointed as very important. The recruiters referred that all the process is focused in the soft skills, and they reported a large degree of confidence in the evaluation methods used. The motivation of the recruiters lies essentially in the scope of knowledge of their function and development opportunities. Thus, it can be concluded that recruitment and selection is a very complex process with several features and all the information related to these processes should be managed very carefully. We discuss the main practical and theoretical implications, and offer some suggestions for further studies.