A neglected pool of labour? Frontline service work and hotel recruitment in Glasgow

Date01 September 2019
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12172
Published date01 September 2019
AuthorKnut Laaser,Sharon C. Bolton,Darren McGuire,Ashley Duncan
A neglected pool of labour? Frontline service
work and hotel recruitment in Glasgow
SHARON C. BOLTON,
1
KNUT LAASER,
1,2
DARREN MCGUIRE
1
and ASHLEY DUNCAN
3
1
Stirling ManagementSchool, Stirling, UK
2
Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany
3
Independent Researcher, Dublin, Ireland
The paper presented considers soft skills in the hospitality sector and explores how managers in four hotels in
Glasgow, Scotland enact recruitment and selection processes. Empirically, the analysis is based on a rich cross case
comparison including interviews, observations, attendanceat training events and analysis of hotelsrecruitme nt and
selection policies. Conceptually, the analysisdraws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and AndrewSayer, portrayingan
understanding of social class as a social, economic, and cultural category and peoples agency as shaped by their
habitus and lay normativity. Crucially, the paper reveals the pivotal role individual managers play in enabling and
constraining opportunities for employment in the enactment of hotel recruitment policy and engagement with job
applicants and new recruits. Overall, the analysis suggests that, despite many deterministic analyses of class, an
organizations recruitment, learning and development strategies, plus managements commitment to make a
difference, can positively impact on those who might otherwise be part of a neglected pool of labour.
Keywords: recruitment; discrimination; class; hotel industry; habitus; agency; lay normativity
Introduction
Over the last two decades, the heterogeneous service
industry has become a driving force of the EU economy,
being responsible for a significant proportion of the
overall growth in productivity and employment. The
hospitality sector is particularly significant, accounting
for 17% of net employment growth in the UK between
2010 and 2014 (Oxford Economics, 2015). Despite its
growing importance as a major European employer, the
sector reports that a significant proportion of job seekers
lack essential service skills vital in hospitality jobs
(CEDEFOP, 2015; European Commission, 2015;
UKCES, 2014). It is well documented that the hospitality
industry is non-strategic in its approachto recruitment and
selection (Lockyerand Scholarios, 2004; Nickson, 2013),
and yet research focusing on the role that management
plays in alleviating or exacerbating the so called soft
skills gapremains scarce (see Hurrell, 2016).
The soft skills gaphas led to vibrant discussion
concerning the nature of skill; questioning whether soft
skills that feed into effective customer service are innate
or can be developed;asking who might possess such skills
and whether they are skills at all (Bolton, 2004; Bryson,
2017; Grugulis et al., 2004; Hampson and Junor, 2010;
Hurrell et al., 2013; Nickson et al., 2012). Whilst the
notion of skills is contested and may be seen as a blunt
instrument, it opens up lines of inquiry that may not
otherwise emerge quite so clearly. For example, in what
is described as a gentrificationof skill, interactional and
aesthetic qualities, essential for customer service, are
identified as middle-class attributes, cultivated through a
lifetimes training of the presentation of self (Bolton,
2004; Nickson et al., 2012; Warhurst and Nickson,
2007a). It has been argued that middle-classnessis
inherent in an understanding of soft skills (Macdonald
and Merrill, 2009; Nickson et al., 2012), meaning the
long term unemployed or those who embody poverty
remain excluded from the labour market (Gatta, 2011;
Standing, 2014).
Drawing on empirical case studies of four major
international hotels in Glasgow, this paper explores the
demand for soft skills in frontline hospitality sector jobs;
considering how soft skills are conceptualized in line
with company recruitment, selection and branding. In
particular, we consider whether the observed recruitment
and selection processes offer opportunities for social
mobility for those from working class backgrounds and
Correspondence: Knut Laaser, 3A20 Cotrell Building, University of
Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, United Kingdom. E-mail knut.laaser@stir.
ac.uk
DOI: 10.1111/emre.12172
©2018 European Academy of Management
European Management Review, Vol. 16, 56 5 , (2019)
78
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