Training and Development in the Service Industry

“HRM is an inevitable consequence of starting and growing an organization” (Boxall P.F, Purcell J & Wright P., 2007, p.1) Human resource management does not only have a limited role in the organization, rather, it is to support the organizational goal and objectives and to ensure that the procedures and practices of the organization are aligned towards the employee’s motivation and satisfaction so that the organization can succeed. Literature suggests that Human Resource Management practices can play three major roles, namely; building of critical organizational capabilities, enhancing employees’ satisfaction, and improving customer and stakeholder satisfaction (Boon, C., Den Hartog, D.N. and Lepak, D.P., 2019).

 “A system of internally coherent HR practices aligned with an organizational strategy, rather than individual HR practices used in isolation, may enhance organizational performance” (CHUANG, C.H. and Liao, H.U.I., 2010.). The literature has proved with sufficient empirical evidence supporting that, high performance work systems of HR practices that include “comprehensive recruitment and selection procedures, incentive compensation and performance management systems, and extensive employee involvement and training” (Huselid, 1995, p. 635) and are designed to enhance employee ability, motivation, and opportunities to contribute (Batt, 2002; Boxall & Purcell, 2002), could enhance organizational performance (e.g., Huselid, 1995; Wright, Gardner, Moynihan, & Allen, 2005; Zacharatos, Barling, & Iverson, 2005). High performance work system (HPWS) is a specific combination of HR practices, work structures and processes that enhances employee skill, knowledge, commitment, involvement and adaptability. However, many researchers also agree that HR practices do not directly lead to better performance levels in organizations, but indirect yet has more weightage. 

 According to the findings of CHUANG, C.H. and Liao, H.U.I., (2010), “HR practices of a High Performance Work Systems have been positively associated with employee perceptions about the extent to which the organization cares about them employees as well as the customers.” Also, they found that “Employees perceive that when the organization expects, supports, and rewards excellent service through implementing HPWS practices, they are more likely to provide high-quality service to customers.” “In addition, the results suggest that when employees perceive that the store values their contributions and cares about their well-being via supportive HR practices, they reciprocate with cooperative behaviour toward co-workers.” Concludes as, the environment where customer needs were prioritized, influenced the relationship between HPWS and employee service performance, whereas when the employees were given more priority encouraged a more positive behaviour where co-workers began helping each other. Moreover, they “found that both types of employee behaviours (i.e., service performance and helping behaviour) contribute to the business unit’s market performance in terms of market share, sales growth, and profitability.” (p.179, 180) 

 Boudreau and Ramstad (2005) argued that to maintain a competitive advantage, organizations must succeed in three areas of context: finance, products or markets, and human capital. And sustenance of these key areas are dependent upon “Decision Science” that “includes, talent segmentation, or identifying pivotal talent pools where the quality and/or availability of human capital makes the biggest difference to strategic success. “Organizations all around the world spend billions for training and development. On the Employee level, Training and development provides employees a sense of belongingness, along with that it helps employees become better at their tasks in their jobs and bridge their performance gaps and errors that are based on lack of knowledge or skills. On the organizational level, these training and development activities allow organizations to adapt, compete, excel, innovate, produce, be safe, improve service, and reach goals. 

Conclusion : Frontline of any organization is critical to productivity and the reputation (Ahmed et al. 2010). Frontline is where it motivates and supports the morale of the people who do the actual work of the organization, those who design, make, and sell the products or deliver services to customers (Wright et al 2005). Hence the training and development for the frontline employees are crucial, since it could predominantly determine where any organization would stand in a market, especially when contemplating service industry. In this blog, I aim to explain why Training and development is important in the service industry such as in Tourism Industry and how to use Training and development appropriately. 

References

Ahmed, Z., Shields, F., White, R. and Wilbert, J., (2010). Managerial communication: The link between frontline leadership and organizational performance. In First Annual General Business Conference Conference Proceedings (p. 69). 

Boxall P.F, Purcell J, Wright P. (2007). The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management. Oxford; Oxford University Press. 

Boxall P, Purcell J. (2002). Strategy and human resource management. NewYork: Palgrave Macmillan.  

Batt R. (2002). Managing customer services: Human resource practices, quit rates, and sales growth. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 587–597. 

Boon, C., Den Hartog, D.N. and Lepak, D.P., (2019). A systematic review of human resource management systems and their measurement. Journal of management, 45(6), pp.2498-2537. 

Boudreau, J.W. and Ramstad, P.M., (2005). Talentship, talent segmentation, and sustainability: A new HR decision science paradigm for a new strategy definition. Human Resource Management: Published in Cooperation with the School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan and in alliance with the Society of Human Resources Management, 44(2), pp.129-136. 

CHUANG, C.H. and Liao, H.U.I., (2010). Strategic human resource management in service context: Taking care of business by taking care of employees and customers. Personnel psychology, 63(1), pp.153-196.  

Dean, A.M. and Rainnie, A., (2009). Frontline employees' views on organizational factors that affect the delivery of service quality in call centers. Journal of Services marketing. 

HuselidMA. (1995). The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 635–672. 

Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S.I., Kraiger, K. and Smith-Jentsch, K.A., (2012). The science of training and development in organizations: What matters in practice. Psychological science in the public interest, 13(2), pp.74-101. 

Verlinden,N. 'The Learning and Development Manager', Academy to innovate HR, Everything You Need to Know, Available at: https://www.aihr.com/blog/learning-and-development-manager/ (Accessed: April 16th 2022).

Wright P.M., Gardner T.M., Moynihan L.M., & Allen M.R. (2005). The relationship between HR practices and firm performance: Examine causal order. Personnel psychology, 58, 409–446. 

Zacharatos A, Barling J, Iverson RD. (2005). High-performance work systems and occupational safety. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 77–93.