HRM and the pursuit of a service culture. Managerial encounters with competing discourses
| Date | 01 February 2005 |
| Published date | 01 February 2005 |
| Pages | 71-85 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450510569319 |
| Author | Helen Francis,Norma D'Annunzio‐Green |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
HRM and the pursuit of a
service culture
Managerial encounters with competing
discourses
Helen Francis and Norma D’Annunzio-Green
School of Management, Napier University Business School, Edinburgh, UK
Abstract
Purpose – Aims to draw attention to how managers actively re-construct inherent contradictions
characterising the employment relationship that in the service sector, are rooted in drives for increased
efficiency and customer-oriented behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach – Presents a case study of the human resource implications of
changes taking place within a contract catering firm seeking to attain “world class” service delivery.
Findings – Finds that managers’ accounts of “the reality” of change were constructed upon three
overlapping and competing discourses – labelled “enagagement”, “enterprise” and “compliance”.
Originality/value – Highlights the active role of discourse in the management of HRM and
organisational change.
Keywords Culture, Humanresource management, Catering industry
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Research in HRM has itsorigins in the manufacturing sector,focusing on investigations
into the take-up and impact of particular configurations of “best practice” human
resource practices that seek “high commitment” and flexibility (Huselid et al.,1997;
Legge, 2001; Wood, 1999). More recently, attention has been drawn to the diffusion of
new approaches to HRM within the hospitality industry which has historically been
dominated by images of poor working conditions, and underdeveloped HR practices
(Hoque, 1999; Lucas, 2002; Watson and D’Annunzio-Green, 1996; Worsfold, 1999).
Prescriptive accounts of best practice HRM in these service organisations are
represented by Korczynski in terms of “the new service management school”
(Korczynski, 2002, p. 3). Here, a critical source of competitive advantage is perceived to
lie in the pursuit of high quality service, which in turn is reliant on a sophisticated
approach to HRM, dependent on employers adopting high cost, high skill employment
strategies. These features of HR strategy are consistent with dominant concepts and
metaphors of HRM that focus on notions of high commitment and high-performance
work systems used to analyse employment in the manufacturing sector (Storey, 2001;
Wood, 1999).
Within the new “service management school”, emphasis is typically placed on “s oft”
HRM practices such as empowerment and teamwork, and the overall development of a
service culture predicated on a harmony of interests between management, workers
and customers. Key to this unitarist philosophy is the idea that workers’ and
customers’ satisfaction mirror each other; a win-win scenario in which satisfied and
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HRM and the
pursuit of a
service culture
71
Received November 2003
Revised July 2004
Accepted July 2004
Employee Relations
Vol. 27 No. 1, 2005
pp. 71-85
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450510569319
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