Sustainable Workforce Research Cluster for Hospitality and Tourism, AUT

Permanent link for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10292/15456

The aim of the Sustainable Workforce Research Cluster is to carry out studies that further the creation of a sustainable hospitality and tourism (H&T) workforce in Aotearoa and beyond. By sustainable workforce, we mean a workforce composed of individuals available or engaged in work that provides dignity, recognition, and fair reward (of at least a living wage) in a fiscally responsible enterprise. It is our aspiration to contribute to government policy and industry practice to achieve a hospitality & tourism sector that provides sustainable employment to all its employees, at all levels. A bridge between academics and our industry partners is promoted by open access journal Hospitality Insights-for a sustainable industry, which provides short, accessible summaries of contemporary academic research for the hospitality industry and community.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that this research contributes to:

Goal 5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

The collective’s priorities are:

To provide data on the current situation of our H&T workforce through relevant, and timely empirical studies.
To collect data on the H&T career paths for employees in the sector in Aotearoa.
To carry out commissioned studies on behalf of state organisations and industry partners that further our collective’s aims.
To understand the influence of gender, ethnicity, and age on employment in the sector.
To establish meaningful research collaborations with international and local sustainable workforce researchers and networks to provide a power voice that advocates for sustainable workforce interests in H&T, for example, The Global Hospitality research Alliance.
To collaborate with human rights organisations and state agencies that investigate human trafficking and exploitative labour in the hospitality industry in Aotearoa.

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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

The Career Constructions of Hospitality Students: A Rocky Road
(Intellect, 2018-02-27) Mooney, S; Jameson, S
This article presents the first set of data from an ongoing three-year longitudinal study, which explores how hospitality undergraduates develop a career identity during the course of their studies. Previous, generally quantitative, studies have discovered that many hospitality students choose not to follow a hospitality career after they graduate, however, these studies do not attempt to discover when their career intentions change, nor explain why. The New Zealand study on which the article is based, employed an interpretative, social-constructionist approach informed by intersectional theorizing, using data collected from semi-structured interviews with first-year hospitality and culinary arts degree students. Career construction theory is used to interpret positive or negative career adaptive behaviours and effects are analysed at macro, meso and micro levels. A fusion of global and societal factors and personal characteristics influenced the construction of participants’ professional hospitality identities. Age, gender and ethnicity-based intersections were evident in the ways students developed career adaptive behaviours. A significant contribution of this article is that negative workplace experiences appear to change students’ motivation to follow a hospitality career because they reduce the individual’s belief of being suited to the industry under current prevailing conditions. This finding can shed light on the type of student who is likely to eventually pursue a career in hospitality, the potential role of the internship in the development of career identity and the responsibility of employers. Employers should be aware and validate the idea of ‘the hospitality career as a calling’ by recruiting and developing highly motivated employees and facilitating the development of a professional hospitality identity in their younger workers.
Covid-19’s Impact on the Hospitality Workforce – New Crisis or Amplification of the Norm?
(Emerald, 2020-07-29) Baum, T; Mooney, SKK; Robinson, RNS; Solnet, D
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality workforce in situ between mid-April and June 2020. Design/methodology/approach This is a viewpoint paper that brings together a variety of sources and intelligence relating the impacts on hospitality work of the COVID-19 pandemic at three levels: macro (global, policy, government), meso (organisational) and micro (employee). It questions whether the situations faced by hospitality workers as a result of the pandemic are seed-change different from the precarious lives they normally lead or just a (loud) amplification of the “normal”. Findings In light of the fluid environment relating to COVID-19, conclusions are tentative and question whether hospitality stakeholders, particularly consumers, governments and the industry itself, will emerge from the pandemic with changed attitudes to hospitality work and hospitality workers. Practical implications This raises questions about hospitality work for key stakeholders to address in the future, some of which are systemic in terms of how precarious labour forces, critical to the global economy are to be considered by policy makers, organisations in a re-emerging competitive market for talent and for those who chose (or not) to work in hospitality. Social implications This paper contributes to ongoing debates about precarious work and the extent to which such practices are institutionalised and adopts an “amplification model” that may have value in futures-orientated analysis about hospitality and tourism. Originality/value This paper is wholly original and a reflection on the COVID-19 crisis. It provides a point of wider reference with regard to responses to crises and their impact on employment in hospitality, highlighting how ongoing change, fluidity and uncertainty serve to magnify and exacerbate the precarious nature of work in the industry.
Long Hospitality Careers - a Contradiction in Terms?
(Emerald, 2016) Mooney, SK; Harris, C; Ryan, I
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore why workers remain in long hospitality careers and to challenge the frequent portrayal of careers in the sector as temporary and unsatisfactory. Design/methodology/approach The study took an interpretative social constructionist approach. Methods used were memory-work, semi-structured interviews and intersectional analysis. Findings A key finding in this study is that career longevity in hospitality is not solely dependent on career progression. Strong social connection, a professional self-identity and complex interesting work contribute to long careers. Research limitations/implications The study contributes detailed empirical knowledge about hospitality career paths in New Zealand. Conclusions should be generalised outside the specific context with caution. Practical implications The findings that hospitality jobs can be complex and satisfying at all hierarchical ranks hold practical implications for Human Resource Managers in the service sector. To increase career longevity, hospitality employers should improve induction and socialisation processes and recognise their employees’ professional identity. Social implications This paper significantly extends the notion of belonging and social connection in service work. “Social connection” is distinctly different from social and networking career competencies. Strong social connection is created by a fusion of complex social relationships with managers, co-workers and guests, ultimately creating the sense of a respected professional identity and satisfying career. Originality/value The contemporary concept of a successful hospitality career is associated with an upwards career trajectory; however, this paper suggests that at the lower hierarchical levels of service work, many individuals enjoy complex satisfying careers with no desire for further advancement.
Onboarding for New Managers? Yeah, nah
(School of Hospitality & Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, ) Watkins, C; Mooney, SK
This article explores the onboarding process for new managers joining food and beverage organisations, and the role of Organisational Socialisation. Our study identified a heavy reliance on informal training practices, most frequently through on-the-job learning, meaning that newcomers were found to depended on their subordinates’ support to gain vital institutional information. To mitigate the disconnect between hiring and becoming an accepted leader, Human Resource Managers have an opportunity to adjust their managerial onboarding.
POTS and PANdemic: Chef wellbeing amidst COVID-19
(School of Hospitality & Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, ) Robinson, RNS; Mooney, SK; Brenner, ML; Doan, T
As most developed nations emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic period, amid exceptionally high hospitality labour shortages, it is timely and important to understand the state of chefs and cooks’ mental health and wellbeing (MH&W) and individual and organisational outcomes of the pandemic. A survey (pending publication) by this article’s authors, of Australasian chefs in Australia and New Zealand during late-2021, aimed to give insights into these two interlinked factors.
Rethinking Tourism’s Definition, Scope and Future of Sustainable Work and Employment: Editorial for the Journal of Sustainable Tourism Special Issue on “Locating Workforce at the Heart of Sustainable Tourism Discourse”
(Taylor & Francis, 2022-05-24) Mooney, S; Robinson, R; Solnet, D; Baum, T
This special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism showcases research that addresses an identified gap that is the relative neglect of the sustainability concept in a workforce context. The special issue presents 10 papers, each making a unique and distinct contribution to knowledge. This extended review/editorial presents a critique of current definitions of sustainability in an employment, and specifically in a tourism employment context, acknowledging and critiquing extant literature. The review then moves on to summarising all the submissions to this special issue, uniquely recognising the themes from both submissions as well as accepted papers. These exercises culminate in the presentation of a refreshed conceptualisation of sustainable employment, before we introduce the final selected papers. The submissions are mapped onto a proposed conceptual framework, which recognises the multi-dimensional influences of the evolving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recent Sustainable Human Resource Management (SHRM) and tourism literature, and the hot-off-the-press contributions to theory of this special issue. Finally, the paper offers concluding remarks that we hope will influence and guide future research endeavours.
Sustainability and the Tourism and Hospitality Workforce: A Thematic Analysis
(MDPI, 2016) Baum, T; Cheung, C; Kong, H; Kralj, A; Mooney, S; Nguyễn Thị Thanh, H; Ramachandran, S; Dropulić Ružić, M; Siow, ML
This paper is about the position of workforce and employment considerations within the sustainable tourism narrative. The paper aims to address the relative neglect of this area within the discourse of sustainable tourism and highlights references to the workforce within the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The discussion follows the emerging field of sustainable human resource management and the contribution that this can make to meeting both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to enhancing the recognition of workforce and employment issues within the related debate in tourism. The body of the paper highlights examples of key dimensions of work and employment across varied tourism contexts, where sustainability is of increasing consequence and significance. The paper concludes by drawing together the implications of these “mini-cases” and locating them within key principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Warm Workplace Relationships: How to Retain Hospitality Employees
(School of Hospitality & Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, ) Mooney, S
This article addresses the significance of workplace social connections for hospitality workers. When examining high turnover in hospitality, the focus is generally negative, such as shift work and low pay [1]. Surprisingly, for a sector that employs one in 11 people [2], little attention focuses on the positive aspects. In New Zealand, hospitality work is considered inferior, to be endured while waiting for more exciting opportunities [3]. Yet a recent New Zealand study shows that hospitality employees at all levels are fulfilled by being recognised as professionals and from the variety, challenge and growth possibilities of their work. The study drew from boundaryless career theory about the social competencies that enable career success for individuals [4]: knowing ‘why’ they are engaged in this career (individual motivation and identity); knowing ‘how’ they are supposed to perform (skills and expertise); and; knowing ‘who’ – significant networks (relationships and reputation). In the qualitative study, data were firstly collected through focus groups with hospitality professionals who had left the industry after working there for at least 10 years. Then, interviews took place with current hospitality employees in a variety of roles, from general manager to kitchen porter with an average of 25 years’ experience. Thematic analysis was carried out separately on each study before results were combined.
What Happened Women Working in the Hospitality Industry When Covid-19 Struck?
(School of Hospitality & Tourism, Auckland University of Technology, ) Chen, L; Mooney, S
No abstract.

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