VOCATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE SECTOR OF TOURISM

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VOCATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE SECTOR OF TOURISM

• VOCATIONAL IDENTITY, FLEXIBILITY AND MOBILITY IN
  THE EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKET
• 5TH FP
• HPSE-CT-1999-00042
• Universitat de València
• Ignacio Martínez, Fernando Marhuenda
• Alicia Ros, Almudena Navas

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VOCATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE SECTOR OF TOURISM

• Discourses of employees, employers, teachers and
  students
• Different research tools
• Search for interactions among the different
  actors
• Some failed attempt
• Sources for identifying a collective identitity
• How they perceive challenges in the sector, how
  they face them, what expectations are raised

3
Tourism sector in Spain

• Tourism is a basic sector in Spanish economy,
  providing 33,601 million Euros in 1999.
• It is an employment-generating sector with a
  direct participation in the overall national
  employment figures of 6.2 in 1997.
• It is a growing sector, specially in 3 to 5 star
  hotels.
• Hotel sector in Valencian Community
• 352.5 million euros, with 9,981 jobs (1996).
• Recent growth in Valencia City (3 or more stars
  hotels).

4
Main challenges in tourism sector (1)

• Adapt to changes in demand
• Heterogeneous demand and segmentation of supply
• More demanding, aware and selective consumer
• Increasing need for functional flexibility of the
  workforce and organizations.
• Address the problem of seasonality
• Emerging changes in concentrating demand periods
• Seasonality consequences
• temporary and insecure secondary labour segment
• lack of longer-term perspectives for workers
• Excess of staff and lack of staff
• difficulties to face fixed costs and recouping
  investment

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Main challenges in tourism sector (2)

• c) Overcome the business fragmentation
• Small and medium-sized companies are predominant
  (1997 54 of hotels had less than 20 paid
  staff).
• Growing importance of hotel chains and other
  forms of business concentration (1997 80 hotel
  chains in Spain)
• Competitive advantages economies of scale,
  outsourcing of tasks, access to information,
  greater corporate visibility, etc.
• d) Addres job insecurity
• High level of temporary job, mainly affects low
  level posts (54 in VC)
• Flexibility in personal management, according to
  demand, but without social guarantees
• Consequences lack of career perspectives,
  difficulties entering the job and training,
  irregular work, lower quality of production
• Low salaries and accumulation of extra working
  hours (35 of hotel workers more than 40 hours a
  week)
• Weakness in terms of the presence of unions

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Main challenges in tourism sector (3)

• e) Qualifications
• New training options in tourism official
  vocational training, occupational and continuous
  training and university degrees
• Specialised qualification centres (Autonomous
  Community government)
• Low level of qualification of workers and little
  encouragement for training from employers
• Difficulties of small companies (cost, time and
  mentality)
• Workers difficulties (lack of resources, high
  dedication hours- to work, and lack of
  perspectives)
• Emerging changes in large hotels (their own
  training programs)

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Methodology

• Vocational identity, flexibility and mobility in
  the European labour market
• Objective to analyse the construction of
  vocational identities in some important and
  innovating sectors in VC
• Focus 10 hotel companies in Valencia city, (2 or
  more stars)
• 10 focused interviews to employers
• 31 focused interviews to employees
• Focused interviews (open but with a guide)
• Systematic-comprehensive analysis from
  qualitative categories (from the interviews
  discourse and theoretical contributions)
• Definition of key factors in vocational identity
  discourses
• Identify the discourse patterns that shape basic
  types of professional identity

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Key factors for a mapping of professional
identity
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The professional (1)

• Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfact
  ion).
• High level of job satisfaction and strong
  professional integration (vocation and. high
  performance human capital experience/training).
• External mobility in order to develop
  professional career
• High level of availability and polyvalence (as
  keys to professional and vocational behaviour and
  for promotion)
• The Significance of Work.
• Work as a vocation and part of personal
  development.
• Creativity conceiving work as art
• Contribution to the company common endeavour with
  ones human capital
• Group references.
• References to his professional group (groups,
  persons or the profession as an ideal
  construct) formal/informal links
• Lack of corporate identification with the
  organisation

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The professional (2)

• 4. Personal labour capital
• Human capital makes his identity distinctive and
  valuable to the company
• Specialization (knowledge of the sector, new
  techniques and know-how)
• Leadership and capacity for organisation,
  decision-making and planning
• Attitudes Dedication, ambition, imagination and
  creativity
• 5. Perception of the hierarchy
• Participation in the hierarchy is linked to
  professional development (part of the
  professional corporate culture and a personal
  goal).
• Complications management and supervision of
  human resources
• Responsibility recognising work done, making
  demands and supervising
• Relationships with superiors cooperation to
  ensure the success of the work

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The professional (3)

• 6. Sense of involvement in the product
• Autonomywhich increases with experience-reinforce
  s the sense of being a professional
• Challenge to his own potential
• Perception of forming part of a whole /
  professional has his own field
• 7. Education and training
• Learning process in the daily practice of real
  work
• Increasing importance is being given to training
  (far from real work)
• Apprenticeship model of learning as a basis for
  professional practice
• Continuous training a way for keeping up-to-date
  (young professionals)
• Fully-fledged professionals keep up-to-date
  sharing knowledge with peers
• Professionals in hotel chains internal courses
  on corporate dynamics

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The technician/bureaucrat (1)

• Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfact
  ion).
• Stable situation and expectation to follow a
  career within the company
• Keys for promotion technical knowledge,
  polyvalence and knowing the company and its
  culture
• Lack of formal criteria for promotion (evaluation
  by the manager)
• Satisfaction with the type of work and the
  experience of responsibility (but there is no
  recognition by the company)
• The Significance of Work.
• Work as contribution to the common endeavour that
  is the company sense of teamwork and global view
  of the work
• Work as a medium for personal progress (step up
  the ladder) and recognition on the part of the
  company
• Work as the practice of ones own knowledge

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The technician/bureaucrat (2)

• 3. Group references Community model.
• Identification with the company community of
  interest (workers and managers)
• Importance given to teamwork, and to the
  functional responsibility of each individual for
  the collective group
• Deactivation of the corporate labour discourse
  and individualisation of company-worker
  communication systems
• Existence of intense and formal socialisation
  processes
• 4. Personal labour capital
• Leadership skills, organisation and planning
  capacity and technical knowledge
• Attitude of effort, responsibility and the
  capacity to take decisions
• Global discourse relating to the tourist sector
• 5. Perception of the hierarchy
• Participation in the the hierarchy at
  intermediate level is the key to identity
• Relationship of functional trust with superiors
• Combination of paternalist and authoritarian
  leadership (tension between control and closeness
  with subordinates)

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The technician/bureaucrat (3)

• 6. Sense of involvement in the product
• Forming part of the hierarchy feeling more
  involved in the production process
• Responsibilities as accumulation of problems vs.
  opportunities
• Sense of autonomy within the limits of the
  department vs. awareness of forming part of a
  whole at work
• 7. Education and training
• Specialist qualifications (strong theoretical and
  technical base)
• Experience adapt initial basic knowledge to each
  job and each company
• Career in the company technical knowledge and
  experience to adapt efficiently within the
  organisation
• Continuous training increasing value, but
  difficulties in attending (time availability)
• Priority to internal training (interest in a
  career within the company)
• Focus on technical innovations, human resources
  management, leadership strategies and aspects of
  the organisational culture

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The customer service worker (1)

• Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfact
  ion).
• Stability level of integration and
  identification with the company
• Satisfaction with the type of tasks and
  dissatisfaction with working conditions
• Difficult internal mobility (career moving to
  other hotels in the chain)
• The Significance of Work.
• Significance of work the service relationship
  with customers and their recognition of this
  service (the customers well being as objetive)
• The face of the hotel vocation for service
  based on the corporate identity
• Central position of his role in the common effort
  to ensure the companys success
• Group references.
• Community reference as the face the company
  shows to the client
• Collective identity as workers dissolved in the
  company community (only functional team
  relationships)
• Discourse of the internal client care of
  members of the organisation

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The customer service worker (2)

• 4. Personal labour capital
• Relational skills appropriate behaviour, as the
  capacity to deal with the customer according to
  his characteristics and expectations.
• Technical knowledge languages and computers
  (specific software and internet)
• Attitudes Dedication and effort
• 5. Perception of the hierarchy
• Middle management close relations and respect
  for hierarchy
• Good and functional for working relations
  (communication and control)
• Direct superiors are asked for advice, rather
  than union representatives or colleagues
• Higher levels of the hierarchy distant (contact
  is through formal channels)

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The customer service worker (3)

• 6. Sense of involvement in the product
• Autonomy at work affects the identity,
  reinforcing self-confidence
• Matters which can affect anxiety levels at work
  a lack of clear objectives, guidelines and
  criteria for action and a lack of feedback on the
  work done
• Clear guidelines, more than supervision, creates
  a framework to the autonomy
• 7. Education and training
• Specific training a knowledge base in a
  systematic way with fewer errors (far from
  company realities importance of placements)
• Experience gives security, know-how and
  knowledge of the workplace and its real needs
• Continuous training programmes seldom used (only
  internal courses).
• Contents languages, computers, customer service
  and organisational culture

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The trade worker (1)

• Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfact
  ion).
• Assimilation of the value of work, experienced
  from the point of view of taking up a trade as
  ones own
• Requires a minimum level of experience in that
  trade
• Dissatisfaction because of accumulation of extra
  tasks. Demand for availability justified by an
  ethic of work and common effort
• Personal effort and efficiency as keys to
  promotion
• Need for organisation, planning and forecasting
  as keys to quality work
• The Significance of Work.
• Value of work by itself performance of ones
  functions and a job well done.
• Discourse of interiorised obligation, from a
  work ethic perspective which acts as the key to
  motivation.
• Value of the result as the key to satisfaction
  (efficiency and organisation)

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The trade worker (2)

• 3. Group references
• Community model strong sense of belonging with a
  heavily affective tone
• Participation in the organisational culture
  teamwork and common effort
• Relations with colleagues work centred and
  guided by formal channels
• Group fragmentation and dissolution of the worker
  collective in the company community (labour
  matters are dealt individually with superiors)
• 4. Personal labour capital
• Technical knowledge and specialist skills of the
  trade, based on progressive practical experience
• Effort, responsibility, work capacity, successful
  execution of tasks, order, seriousness and
  efficiency, following the norms, and a desire to
  improve.
• 5. Perception of the hierarchy
• Establishment of control and supervision
  mechanisms discipline and working without
  creating problems
• Manager as a worker who is proficient in the
  trade

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The trade worker (3)

• 6. Sense of involvement in the product
• Autonomy in the area they understand (sense of
  having a trade)
• the result is what matters a work well done
  supervised by the superiors
• Tasks must be well organised by the area manager
  (who knows the trade) which eliminates
  uncertainty
• 7. Education and training
• Specialist technical knowledge of the trade is
  acquired through experience
• Training (specially placements) provides the
  basic techniques and knowledge, although they are
  seen as deficient
• Continuous training is seen as a means to keep
  ones knowledge up-to-date, but few workers have
  attended it.
• Participation increase in courses organised by
  the company of the worker (organisational culture
  and the particular needs of each job)
• In more routine jobs, courses are not seen as
  vital for work.

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The newcomer / unconsolidated worker(1)

• Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfact
  ion).
• Identity in transition, in the process of
  integration into work
• Temporary work is considered despite their
  dissatisfaction as a normal strategic
  opportunity to accumulate experience
• Frequent changes of job are valued as learning
  experiences (but fragmentation can difficult the
  learning of the job)
• Low satisfaction with salary and work conditions
• Changing jobs without promotion finding another
  job when the current one ends
• The Significance of Work.
• Work as a way of earning a living and obtaining
  independence
• The work activity seen as a job, no more than
  that (but preferred to be related to the subject
  one has studied)
• Work as a learning experience that provides
  knowledge of the sector.

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The newcomer / unconsolidated worker (2)

• 3. Group references
• Dispersed labour model lack of group references
  (no sense of belonging in the company, no
  identification with the job and the collective of
  workers)
• Fast turnover of workers difficulties with
  respect to group cohesion
• Mutual support links between workers are
  fragmented, so that each one acts according to
  his interests and expectations within the
  company.
• 4. Personal labour capital
• The knowledge capital that the worker needs is
  still being accumulated.
• What is required is the will to learn, to work
  and to make an effort, because in practice one
  can learn what one does not know
• 5. Perception of the hierarchy
• Relationships centred on instructions,
  supervision of the work, and reporting the
  results. Contact is functional, superficial,
  correct and formal.
• The immediate superior formal channel for
  relations with the management for any matter with
  working conditions

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The newcomer / unconsolidated worker (3)

• 6. Sense of involvement in the product
• As the expectations of changing companies rise,
  the level of personal involvement drops
• Limited to fulfilling the requirements of the
  post without looking for additional
  responsibilities
• Little autonomy experience of strict supervision
  of the work
• 7. Education and training
• Importance of the practical knowledge of the job
  acquired through official vocational training
  (but distant from real work). Interest in
  placements.
• Increasing value of learning acquired through
  varied experience in a real job
• Difficulties and low motivation for continuous
  training (orientation to work)
• Difficulty of fitting periods of unemployment to
  the calendars of courses

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The worker in the employers discourse (1)

• Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfact
  ion).
• Satisfaction with the job, technical knowledge
  and a vocational sense of the work
• Good working conditions that promote his loyalty
  to the company.
• Possibility of promotional mobility and training
  according to his own interest.
• Importance of temporary work, arbitrary of
  promotion criteria and bad conditions working is
  underestimate.
• The Significance of Work.
• Feeling proud of a job-well-done as a key
  factor towards quality
• Personal satisfaction with a vocational work
• Group references.
• Community model strong corporate identity linked
  with personal identity
• Need of a stable worker identify with the company
  and commitment with his objectives, feeling that
  he is working for his own future and interests

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The worker in the employers discourse (2)

• 4. Personal labour capital
• Technical knowledge use of information
  technologies, languages and customer relation
  skills.
• Value of vocation, ambition, professional
  attitude to work, communication and teamwork and
  satisfaction with a job well done.
• 5. Perception of the hierarchy
• Functional understanding of hierarchy all the
  roles are relevant, playing their own functions
  for the global organization
• Manager team appears as coordinated working
  guarantee in the global organization
• Intermediate managers must be trusted persons,
  which share the culture and objectives of the
  company, and experimented professionals

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The worker in the employers discourse (3)

• 6. Sense of involvement in the product
• This worker is strongly committed with his job,
  having awareness of being part of a collective
  effort
• Company objectives are assumed as the workers
  own goals (he feels like working for his own
  interest).
• In intermediate managers cases the autonomy level
  demands a strong personal commitment
• 7. Education and training
• Experience is a more valued factor than training,
  as a guarantee of professional behaviour
• The importance given to formal professional
  training depends of the post in the organization
• Continuous training seems relevant because it
  also allows facing company production needs, as
  well as worker promotion and career possibilities

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• TEACHERS VIEWS

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Teachers views - Methodology

• Questionnaires sent to all 16 schools (12 public,
  4 private) with formal VET in the sector
• THE SAMPLE
• 49 responses from 13 schools, mainly public
  (approx. 25 of all teachers in the sector)
• 50 women
• 60 between 30 and 45 years old -in charge of
  placements
• 17 have MA, 13 a degree, 19 VET level 3
• 21 of them studied tourism (university or VET)

30
Teachers views Inquiry assumptions

• Working as teachers, yet teaching students to
  become professionals in the sector of tourism
• What are their notions of work (their own and
  work on the sector) and what are the effects on
  the notions their students will develop
• These might be based upon
• Career
• Initial and continuing training
• Working conditions
• Their images of the profession (in teaching and
  tourism)

31
Teachers views Areas of inquiry

• Work trajectory
• Vocational call and vocational training
• Evaluation of the training in the sector
• Perception of the sector
• Relation of the training provided to labour
  market trends and needs
• Self-appraisal as teachers
• Career expectations
• Their views on good workers in the sector

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Teachers views Work trajectory

• 42 started working before the age of 23
• 12 have less than 5 years of educational
  experience
• 17 have been less than 5 years in their current
  school
• 19 have some hierarchical responsibility in the
  school
• 16 teachers have enjoyed experience in the
  sector, 6 of which do work in the sector, with
  other 11 working out of school in other fields
• Their experience in the sector is not used for
  taking charge of students placements
• 18 are members of trade unions, mostly in public
  schools

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Teachers views Vocation

• More than half chose tourism for their call in
  the sector
• Hardly any (4) has a record of family tradition
  in the sector, though these are the ones who work
  in the sector outside of school
• Almost all (47) do have a vocation for teaching
  and working with young people
• Their vocation towards tourism does not seem to
  have a relation with their role as being in
  charge of placements

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Teachers views VET in the sector

• 16 complain about the obsolete equipment and the
  lack of budget
• 8 complain about lack of professionality and
  lack of vocation
• 9 consider the lenght of VET too short to provide
  quality training
• A vast majority of this do work in public schools
• Only 5 of them complain about the students
• Placements are highly valued

35
Teachers views Labour market

• 28 consider VET is aware and respondent to labour
  market needs, 16 consider it is not
• Those who work outside school are the ones who
  think curricula are obsolete and not attemptive
  to the context
• Those who hold responsibility posts in the school
  tend to consider it better
• Yet, it seems that those aware of inadequacies,
  particularly those who work outside school, dont
  do much with regard to it

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Teachers views Their work as teachers

• 41 are highly satisfied as teachers
• 20 of them enjoy working with young people
• 9 have serious concerns about their pedagogical
  capabilities
• 3 enjoy teaching for the wage, the autonomy, the
  holidays and the working hours
• Their sources of insatisfaction are problematic
  students, the failure of the educational system,
  relation with colleagues and the social status of
  the profession (4)
• 20 are not able to disconnect from school

37
Teachers views Career prospects

• Most of them do not perceive chances to promote
  within the school system teaching as a flat
  career
• 29 have the will to improve their work and enjoy
  it
• 2 burnouts
• 1 moving to start his own business in the sector
• 4 would move to another job in the sector of
  tourism
• It is those from public schools who would change
  something in their careers (11 of them are civil
  servants), those in private schools are happy to
  remain as they are
• More than half feel overeducated in regard to the
  sector and pedagogies continuing education is
  not highly valued

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The worker in the teachers discourse (1)

• Involvement in the profession
• Ready to move and to work hard and to accept what
  the profession brings
• Be patient to find something that matches
  expectations
• Significance of work
• High competition, though the company is a social
  agent
• You dont work for money here, you have to be
  creative and innovative, and care for your team
• Corporate references
• Self employment as a goal in the long term
  (cooks)

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The worker in the teachers discourse (2)

• Labour capital
• Ethical values for optimal performance honest,
  clean, responsible, good colleague, patient,
  kind, willing to improve, serious, punctual,
  disciplined
• Technical knowledge
• Experience of the hierarchy
• Superiors expect from them the same as clients
• It is their responsibility to adapt to the
  circumstances

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The worker in the teachers discourse (3)

• Involvement in the product
• Your own performance is your best reward,
  contributing to your self-esteem and recognition
  among colleagues
• References to training
• Importance of theoretical knowledge as well as
  practice
• Will to learn, to improve, be motivated, aware of
  innovation
• It is their responsibility and it takes
  important efforts- to keep up to date
• Your call makes you get involved in training

41

• STUDENTS VIEWS

42
Students view Methodology (1)

• Data gathering
• (i) Questionnaire
• (ii) Debate upon a case developed from the pilot
  interviews to employees
• (iii) Projective technique with slides of real
  workplace settings and situations in the sector.
• Information gathered in the subject area
  Introduction to the world of work.
• Recorded in tapes and transcribed.

43
Students view Methodology (2)

• The sample
• 8 schools that offer level 3 VET for either
  restoration or hotelry
• (i) 2 private one of them promoted by employers
  in the sector
• (ii) 2 promoted by the governmental agency for
  the development of the sector
• (iii) 4 of them public VET schools.
• Nearly 60 women
• Age range between 16 and 45 years-old
• Most of them work or have worked in the sector

44
Students view Inquiry assumptions

• Two main research questions
• How they are (re)socialized in these VET courses.
• What notions of work develop these students.
• These might be based upon
• Their notion of work.
• Their career expectations.
• Their ideal models (what a good professional
  should be).
• Information from subject areas Students work
  experience and introduction into the world of
  work.

45
Students view Notion of work

• The main atractive feature is how dinamic the
  sector is for students.
• They are so glad with the work that they dont
  mind seasonality, timetables and wages (they even
  think that wages are better than in other
  professions)
• Satisfied with training received in VET schools.
  They perceive themselves as well prepared and
  ready to start working anywhere.
• Never stop learning. Most of them want to go on
  studying.

46
Students view Future perspective

• They perceived themselves well placed in five
  years.
• All of them want to go on further education
  (university degree).
• Future workplace good wage and good
  possibilities of learning on-the-job.
• Find a job easy and quick.

47
Students view Models

• Know how to deal with public.
• Interest on learning.
• To be professional.
• Responsible.
• Patient.
• Humanity.
• To be a good mate.
• Perseverance.
• Dedication.
• Need to be able to make sacrifices.
• Autonomous.
• Creativity.

48
Students view Work experience

• Labour experience in the sector due to
• Need of pocket money.
• Learning.
• Experience.
• Need to work.
• Pay their studies.
• Most of them have an eventual relation with
  sector, but want to look for something better.

49
The worker in the students discourse (1)

• Involvement in the profession
• Ready to move and to work hard and to accept
  extra hours, long working days, working on
  holidays
• If you work hard and you are good, they will know
  and you will be able to promote
• Significance of work
• This is a call, you have to feel it
• You find your rewards in satisfying the client
  and the very fact of working with people
• Corporate references
• Working for a well known chain is good for the
  conditions, not always the prestige
• Self employment as a goal for some (cooks)

50
The worker in the teachers discourse (2)

• Labour capital
• The values of the vocation must show here for
  they are the key to professionality clean,
  responsible, good colleague, patient, kind,
  willing to improve, serious, punctual,
  disciplined
• You have to master the trade dedication, spirit
  of constant improvement, ready to sacrifice
• Experience of the hierarchy
• Superiors may cause problems and they are
  perceived as a source of conflict

51
The worker in the students discourse (3)

• Involvement in the product
• Your work for yourself, then you do good for the
  client
• The quality of your work is what pays for the
  working hours and low wages
• When your work is acknowledged, that keeps you
  going
• References to training
• Importance of having a qualification
• Work experience is what counts mainly
• Most of them are attending VET to compete in
  better conditions
• Training is a load but it comes with the trade

52
CONCLUDING REMARKS

• Common aspects in discourses of the different
  groups
• Discussion of findings

53
COMMON ASPECTS IN DISCOURSES (1)

• There seems to be a pride of working for the
  sector, and this is a topic explanation to
  justify its peculiarities
• Students as well as teachers are aware of the
  sector trends
• Students as well as teachers are aware of the
  working conditions
• The role of teamwork is important in the sector,
  insofar we are all in the same boat

54
COMMON ASPECTS IN DISCOURSES (2)

• Because of the emotional aspects of discourse,
  socialization seems to be very strong
• In the case of cooks, there seems to be a
  particular community of practice differentiated
  from the rest
• Many factors seem to contribute to the
  development of a sense of belonging to the
  profession
• There are opportunities in the sector and
  therefore professional expectations are raised at
  all levels

55
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS (1)

• There seems to be a strong influence of
  discourses of employers embedded in all other
  agents
• Such dominant discourse provides elements
  anchoring workers identities
• Socialization is purposefully promoted in both
  formal and informal ways

56
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS (2)

• The occupational role as well as position in
  hierarchy have an impact upon identity discourses
• Tensions are found between sources of
  satisfaction and insatisfaction. Anchors to solve
  those tensions are the calling, the occupation
  ethics, common effort, identification of all with
  the service provided
• Growing importance of formal education and of
  having accreditations, despite experience is what
  counts more and there is not much use of
  continuing training

57
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS (3)

• Individualization and fragmentation of labour
  relations there are no corporate discourses and
  workers assume this, despite the weak situation
  in which they find
• Employers seem to ignore the existence of
  precarity in the sector, but also workers and
  students perceive it as caused by lack of
  professionality and search for identity anchors
  like the calling to justify this