Human Resource Management in Irish Hotel Market Human resource management can be dated back to the industrial revolution

days when the factories set up departments to look in to wages and welfare of workers. In the early days, workers in factories worked long hours under sterile conditions and were paid extremely low incomes. This brought about labor riots in most parts of America and Europe that was aimed at forcing the employers to address the situation. The Ludds riot of 1811 in England that resulted due to reduced wages is one example of these strikes (Armstrong & Micheal, 2006, p9). The increased strikes forced the governments to get involved. Workers were given certain rights and rules were passed that aimed at protecting the worker. In an effort to comply with the new rules, factories set up departments to look into employee maters like wages, working hours and welfare. The departments were also tasked with redressing the labor issue. These departments later became known as the human resource departments making personnel management a distinct profession. According to Golding (2010, p12), Human resource management is defined as the utilization of people with an objective of achieving the organizations objectives. Taylor and Harrison (1990, p27) in their Managers Handbook of Business Strategy define Human resource management as a function within the organization whose primary focus is recruitment o 0f personnel, management of personnel, and providing a direction for people who work for the organization. It is also defined simply as management of the employees of the company (Budhwar & Aryee, 2008, p6). Human resource management is sometimes referred to as personnel management, organizational management, manpower management, human capital management and industrial management.

Human resource management was introduced in Ireland during the industrial revolution, a similar trend in most European countries. Human resource management is now a vital sector in most industries throughout Ireland. The Irish hotel industry is one of the industries that have adopted human resource management as a procedure to ensure quality delivery of services. When it was introduced, human resource management was referred by its synonym name personnel management. It was restricted then, to activities which were crucial in the recruiting of labor, providing members with payroll and benefits, and administering their needs (Mckeena and Beech, 2008, p27). A study carried on the Hilton hotels in Ireland shows that Human resource management has undergone a series of evolution since its introduction. In the 20th century, for example, Human resource management, by then referred to as personnel management, was much rigid. It did not concern itself with operations and business strategies of the company but only focused on staff functions. The main duties of the department included employee record keeping, complying with stated policies in its recruitment, training and wage administration, putting in place measures to ensure employee welfare (medical care, housing, safe work place etc), dealing with trade unions and attempting to improve productivity by increasing employees wages and training. It also carried out appraisals on employee performance that they used to determine the salaries and promotion considerations. In the later years of the 20th century, changes were recorded in the way human resource was managed in Hilton hotels. It was discovered that there were other means of motivating employees that was not in monetary terms. For example, middle class employees feel motivated by being given the assistant manager tag due status while the operational level employees get motivated by being exposed to the operations in different departments of the organization. The

human resource managers started basing their management on popular theories like Douglas McGregors Theory X and Theory Y and Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs theory. These theories were popular for putting into consideration the need of human beings reaching a state of self actualization. It was during this period that the government intervened passing several legislative bills that gave employees some basic rights. Victor Vrooms Expectation theory, another behavioral perspective theory, emerged during these late days of the 20th Century outlining ways of motivating employees without necessarily increasing their allowances. The 21st century brought new changes to the worker management field. Personnel management approach, which was administrative and passive, was replaced with a more dynamic Human resource management approach. Workers were no longer seen as mere cogs but respected and treated well because they were considered valuable to the organization. The introduced dynamic human resource management, made employee management to be a line management function that was more interlinked to the core business operations and not just a staff function (Banfield & Rebecca, 2008, p32). The dynamic human resource management brought some changes in the way the matters of the workers of Irish Hilton hotels were handled. More efforts were now made to ensure employee commitment to their hotel jobs and recruitment and workforce training done in a more organized manner due to the direct implication they had on hotel performance. There was also a change in worker motivation techniques, for example, by creating a challenging work environment, offering fringe benefits, and creating an active social community within the workforce. Training changed to training and development, which not only focused on the workrelated skills, but also on behavior and attitude change. The way salaries and wages were administered also changed with performance related pay and stock options being introduced

which helped to improve employee efficiency. Employee efficiency in the Hilton hotels also improved due to the introduction of new techniques of employee appraisal (managing with objectives and 360 degrees) that reduced over-reliance on report-card performance appraisals. Dynamic human resource management also placed more emphasis on leading instead of the notso-efficient managing (Price, 2007, p25). The next phase in the evolution of human resource management in Irish Hilton hotels was the introduction strategic management. Strategic human resource management is defined by Legge and Karen (2004 p26) as a branch of human resource management that combines the companys strategy and management of human resources in pursuit to achieve the set objectives. This, therefore, means that the introduction of strategic human resource in the organization means accepting the human resource element as a strategic member in the formulation and implementation of companys strategies. Strategic human resource management was necessitated in the Irish hotel market because of the increased market competition, advancement in technology and proliferation of knowledge in the industry which needed the human resources to be at their performance best due to them now being a critical function of the enterprise. The workforce now became company assets that were capable of giving a company a competitive advantage in the industry if well managed. The human resource manager was now tasked with aligning the individual goals and objectives of these human assets with the corporate goals and objectives so as to ensure optimum performance. The previous technique of enforcing rules and dictating terms by managers was scraped-off and replaced with a more participative technique where the manager only acted as the facilitator.

Strategic human resource management brought in other changes in the Irish hotel market apart from the above mentioned. For example, long-term employment was no longer preferred, instead short term contracts became popular due to their element of being performance based. The employee remuneration style also changed with employees now being paid basing on the profitability of the company and the level of their contribution in the enterprise profits. This change resulted into increased employee efficiency, effectiveness and commitment knowing that this will be reflected on the pay check. The way in which training was carried out also changed. with the emphasis being placed on facilitating innovation and creativity unlike the earlier technique which mainly focused on increasing productivity. This meant that the employees were now equipped with knowledge on pursuing alternative avenues with an aim of increasing the companys productivity and productivity. Strategic management brought about enriching the employee work experience by exposing them to different departments. These proved to be one of the best non-monetary forms of employee motivation especially the middle level workers. Strategic management encouraged the use of Performance and talent management in evaluation of employees instead of performance management. Managing the performance talent of the employees meant that the managers maintain a close relationship with the employees that led to high quality output and even high quality. Strategic management, therefore, blurs the distinction of the functions of specialized Human Resource Management and operational core activities driving interventions such as total quality management (Ulrich & Dave, 1996, p35). Total Quality management according to Pfeffer (1994, p30) is a philosophy that aims at improving the product quality of an enterprise as a whole by continuously improving processes and products and enhancing efficiency of machines and people. Application of Total Quality

Management helps to ensure a proactive work system that can deal with deviations from the normal state by streamlining processes. In using total Quality management, problems in systems are identified and eliminated so as to ensure high productivity and efficiency. It addresses main areas in the organization with perennial problems such as redundant processes, unnecessary tasks, mistakes in work processes, and duplication of processes. Improvement in process efficiency, brought about by use of Total Quality management, benefits the enterprise immensely in terms of costs and time. The major benefits in terms of cost saving include elimination of non-confirmation and repetitive work, removal of waste costs and reject products, removal of repairs and reworks, improved profit per product or per service due to process efficiency, reduced warranty and customer support costs and fiscal discipline through elimination of wasteful procedures and steps. It also frees up the management time that is normally spent solving problems caused by faulty processes and utilizes it to increase production, extend the range of products or improve the existing products. Total Quality management also helps the enterprise to acquire customers satisfaction by reducing the waiting time, ensuring faster delivery and bettering on quality. Satisfied customers usually develop loyalty to the company hence improved sales. By using total quality management, the work culture of the Irish hotel market has changed. Focus is now put on the quality of the services and goods offered thus mistakes being avoided instead of correcting them. This has aided organizational development especially in Hilton hotels. Human resource management department in the Irish Hotel market has benefited a lot from the introduction of Total quality Management. It gives the employees the ownership of processes where they are able to correct their mistakes before their supervisors notice. This

motivates them to perform highly with satisfaction and enthusiasm. Total Quality management also enables employees to reach their targets faster because reduced mistakes. The free time created is used by the workers to do other things which maylike enhancing their knowledge and applying it to improve the existing products or creating new brands. Employees deficiencies are also easily identified while using Total Quality Management making the training process more specific and efficient. The enhanced productivity brought about by Total Quality Management means high profits for the company and eventual improved income for the workers (Kochan & Barocci, 1985 p40). Ireland is one of the countries in the world with the highest number of trade unions. These trade unions are set by employees so that they can have a united voice which is stronger as they negotiate with their employers. The Irish hotel employees are members of the Irish congress of trade unions, which is an umbrella union for all smaller trade unions. The Irish congress of trade unions has immensely changed the landscape of industrial relations in the country. It has made sure that zero employees, zero employers and even the government are oppressed as the three co-exist. The Irish Congress of trade unions (Congress as referred to by many) has over 140 member unions of different professions. In the recent years, the Congress has increased the range of its activities to include activities like representing its clients in cases of litigation The industrial relations relevance is, however, dwindling in the Irish Hotel market as time goes by. Most employees now longer prefer doing thing collectively instead dealing directly with their employers. The popularity decline of industrial relations can also be attributed to the introduction of strategic human resource management. Strategic human resource management has made the employees to be satisfied with their work place. This is because it proves them with challenging work experience and treats them in a respectable and appreciative manner. Workers,

therefore, has no reason to join a labor union hence decline in industrial relations. Labor unions (industrial relations) have also been criticized because of the following reasons. For example, monthly subscriptions paid to the unions have become another expense to workers, members are restricted from joining other professions and the frequent strikes organized by the unions end up affecting the employees negatively (Soskice, 1990, p46). The Irish hotel market is one of the most competitive industries in the world. It boosts of a large number of five star hotels, which are efficiently and effectively managed while using the best technology so as to maximize their goods and service delivery. The only thing that makes some of these hotels better than others is the workforce or the human resource. The best of the best in Ireland have adopted Talent management, betterment on strategic human resource management. Talent management can be defined as the implementation of integrated strategies or systems which at improving processes of recruitment, development and retention of people that have the required skills and aptitude to meet the organizations current and future needs. Talent management is slightly different from strategic human resource management in one significant way. Strategic Human resource activities are administrative while talent management is a continuous process that delivers the best workforce for the business. The Hilton hotels in Ireland are the best in the market because they put emphasis to recruit the best people from the labor market. The recruited people are assessed for further training needs and measures put to ensure that they work for the hotel for the longest period possible. This has given the Hilton Hotel a competitive edge over its competitors and the trend is likely to go on unless other hotels too adopt talent management strategies (Budd & John, 2004, p56).

The Irish hospitality industry has been facing lot problems in the past few years. First, a significant number of people in this industry are immigrants who are always looking over their back fearing new legislation may get them deported back to their birth countries. This trend has majorly reduced their productivity. The industry is also faced with the challenge of lowly educated employees who may not deliver well in some sector. This is due to people not taking hotel work as a serious profession worth taking a course. The salaries paid to workers in the industry are extremely low and the contracts offered are mainly short-term which has made people to avoid hotel employment. The Irish hospitality industry also faces the challenge of high vacancies due to lack of a willing labor market. Small enterprises in the industry are characterized by family management, which is unprofessional. This has led to poor management and stagnant development (Smith, 1994). The future of the Irish hospitality industry looks bright because of a number of reasons. The government of Ireland soft on immigrants policy is likely to lead to more foreigners entering Ireland which is a significant step towards filling the vacancies in the industry. Peoples attitudes toward making a carrier working in the hotel are beginning to change with more students enrolling for courses like catering and hotel management in the universities. This can be used as a predictor of for better future management techniques in the hotel industry. Many smaller hotels in Ireland are most likely to incorporate strategic Human resource management and Talent management in the near future. This is because the current landscape requires a company to have the best quality human personnel if it intends to do well businesswise (Wilson, 2009, p50). Although there have been talks all over the world about strategic management, exceedingly few organizations have achieved these in their human resource department. Many

organizations are still trapped in the old Human resource management system, which only laid emphasis on employee matters while playing no role in the formulation and practical implementation of the organizations objectives. Studies have shown that these human resource managers are disliked by the employees of the companies because they are seen as standing in the way of innovation. These mangers have also been accused of not giving individual treatment to star employees who bring in the best results that make companies to lose these valuable people. Finally, the Human Resource managers have also been accused of being inefficient in documenting appraisals, duties and rights of employees and disciplinary procedures (price, 2007, p56). Because of the problems associated with international human resource management, most companies have started outsourcing some components of human resource. Companies now see it be cheaper to outsource functions like recruitment, selection and training to recruitment agencies that are known to deliver perfect results. Very few young people in Universities are taking Human resource Management as a carrier. This is due to the limited human resource management jobs and limited carrier advancement opportunities. In conclusion, Human resource management is an extremely important department in an organization hence should be guarded against being rendered worthless. Alternatively, it should be upgraded in all organizations to strategic Human resource management so that to ensure the relevance of its strategies to the corporate strategy of the organization. Scrapping-off human resource management will be unfortunate for the companies. This will mean that workers will have no place to solve their grievances, forcing them to go on strikes on matters that could have been easily solved by the Human resource manager. Lack of human resource management may force employees to consider radical options in the solution of their work related problems. The

notable alternative that is frequently used is the formation of labour unions. Finally, doing away with Human Resource Management as a department will add work load on the managers because they will have to handle elements of Human resource management that cannot be outsourced. This will give the managers no free time to focus on product improvement and product innovation.

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