Ethical issues in New Zealand hospitality

1
Ethical issues in New Zealand hospitality

• An introduction to workplace problems

2
Hospitality

• Brothels and taverns
• The duty of a good Christian
• Motivated by economic rather than moral values

3
Characteristics

• Perishable and portable products
• Cash transactions
• Customers
• Part-time employees
• Low social status, low skill jobs, low pay
• High staff turnover
• Labour intensive

4
Behind the scenes

• Employee behaviour
• Illegal alcohol service
• Poor food hygiene
• Theft

• Human resource management
• Unfair dismissals
• Staff turnover
• Poor training
• Staff rights underplayed

• Working conditions
• Staff working in smoke
• Sexual (and other) harassment
• Emotional labour

5
Managements choice

• Support fiddles and theft
• Cause sexual harassment
• Emphasise responsibilities more than rights, in
  staff inductions

• Set standards by example and enforcement
• Use integrity to influence success

• or

6
Research questions

• Is unethical behaviour common in hospitality?
• Are managers aware of unethical behaviour?
• Do managers support unethical behaviour?
• Is managements support a major cause of
  unethical behaviour?

7
Research process

• Questionnaires in hotels, bars, and AUT
• June to November 2003
• 534 responses - 25 return rate
• Likert scales and open-ended questions
• Responses
• Staff 67
• Supervisors 12.9
• Managers 19.1
• Chefs 0.8

8
Profile of the sample

• Women 60
• No formal qualification 40
• Students 50
• 10 - 15 an hour 57 (2003)
• Less than five years in job 87
• Part-time 52
• Food and beverages 58

9
Working in smoke literature

• Most bars and restaurants allowed smoking until
  prevented by law
• Managers are afraid to ban smoking in case they
  lose profit (Cuthbert Nickson, 1999 Dunham
  Marlow, 2000)
• Unrefereed studies contending smoking bans
  reduce profit were funded by tobacco companies
  (Hyland, Puli, Cummings, and Sciandra, 2003)
• Passive smoking causes illness and death
  (Woodward Laugesen, 2001)

10
Working in smoke

• 55 worked in smoke regularly
• 44 objected to working in smoke
• 39 had no choice, or were unsure
• 22 worked in smoke all the time
• Having choice reduced the likelihood of working
  in smoke by more than a quarter (27)

11
Working in smoke

• Associated with
• low seniority, low pay, low job security
• under 25
• food and beverages workers
• Most managers (57) did not want to work in smoke
  and thought it unethical
• Those most likely to work in smoke frequently,
  worked in rooms division

12
Sexual harassment literature

• More common in hospitality than elsewhere
  (Einarsen et al., 1993 Eller, 1990 European
  Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2000
  European Commission, 1998 European Foundation,
  2003 Hoel, 2002 Human Rights Commission, 2001a,
  2001b).
• Occurs to 24 of UK hospitality workers
• (Hoel, 2002)
• Considered less serious than theft
• (Stevens, 2001 Stevens Fleckenstein, 1999)
• Passively supported by management
• (Gilbert et al., 1998 Worsfold McCann, 2000)
• Supervisors and managers are a major cause
• (Gilbert et al., 1998 Human Rights Commission,
  2001a Worsfold McCann, 2000)
• Leads to absenteeism and turnover (HRC, 2001)
• Affects young, low paid, part-time women in food
  and beverages (HRC, 2001)

13
Sexual harassment

• 24 had been sexually harassed
• 22 thought sexual jokes and teasing only
  minor issues
• Caused by
• Customers 39.5 Peers 26
• Supervisors 23 Juniors 11.5

14
Sexual harassment

• Front-of-house, casual and part-time female staff
• Less where staff had their own codes of ethics,
  and training was better
• Tolerance associated with a sense of duty, a
  sense of hospitality
• Not considered as seriously as theft
• Sexual favours / sexual harassment

15
Unfair dismissal literature(constructive
dismissal)

• Employment disputes more common in hospitality
  than elsewhere, with unfair dismissal the main
  problem
• (Lucas, 2002)
• Formal discipline poorly used (Price, 1994)
• Little data on incidence or cause

16
Unfair dismissal

• 22 Unfair dismissals were common
• 33 Unfair dismissals were allowed
• Caused by male supervisors
• Targets casual employees
• Many supervisors and staff in small food and
  beverages businesses thought unfair dismissals
  were allowed

17
Under-staffing literature

• Recruitment, retention, and under-staffing are
  major problems
• (Baum, 2002 Brien, 2004 Choi et al., 2000
  Gustafson, 2002 Jameson, 2000)
• Poor image hinders recruitment
• (Powell Wood, 1999)
• Staff turnover is managements fault (Rowley
  Purcell, 2001)
• Exacerbated by low unemployment

18
Under-staffing

• Occurs in 53 of workplaces
• Not seen as opposed by management
• Associated with
• poor training
• unfair dismissals
• poor pay
• theft
• thinking managers are unethical

19
Poor training literature

• Managers reluctant to train in case staff leave
  (Davies et al., 2001 Jameson, 2000 Loe et al.,
  2000 Lowry et al., 2002)
• Training is poor
• (Maxwell et al., 2004 Powell Wood, 1999
  Pratten, 2003)
• Lack of empirical studies on incidence and cause
• Training affects job satisfaction and
  organisational commitment(Lam Zhang, 2003
  Lowry et al., 2002 Pratten, 2003 E. Smith,
  2002 Taylor et al., 2001)
• Training therefore affects retention

20
Poor training

• Common in this workplace
• 32 of managers
• 36 overall
• 37 of staff
• 43 of supervisors

21
Poor training

• Associated with
• sexual harassment
• unfair dismissal
• under-staffing
• poor food hygiene
• theft

22
Training the heart of the problem
23
Alcohol to minors literature

• Half minors surveyed can buy alcohol (Forster et
  al., 1995 McDonald, 2004)
• Half NZ bottle stores sell to minors (Huckle et
  al., 2003)
• Half NZ minors not asked for ID
• (McDonald, 2004)
• Compliance relies on training and enforcement
• (Lang et al., 1998 Mosher et al., 1989
  Wagenaar Toomey, 2002)
• Management does not enforce the law

24
Alcohol to minors

• Thought alcohol was served to minors
• 10 of all respondents
• 19 of staff and supervisors
• 80 of those under 25

25
Alcohol to minors

• Associated with
• peer pressure and poor enforcement
• thinking it was allowed
• thinking there was no code of ethics
• Managers were those most likely to think illegal
  alcohol service was allowed

26
Poor food hygiene literature

• Some problems in NZ, but not endemic
• 18 of USA managers would serve food from the
  floor (Ghiselli and Ismail (1999)
• Half of those surveyed in NZ witnessed poor
  hygiene practices
• (NZSFA, 2003)
• Caused by inadequate training, negligence, and
  profit motive
• (Klara, 1999 Lynch et al., 2003)(Walczak
  Reuter, 2004)

27
Poor food hygiene

• 21 thought food had been served after it had
  been on the floor
• Associated with poor training
• Good practice supported by a sense of duty
  associated with customer care
• Seen as strongly opposed by managers

28
Theft literature

• Theft is common
• (Divine, 1992 Johnson, 1983 Mars Nicod,
  1984 B Stevens Fleckenstein, 1999 Wanhill,
  1994)
• Affects prices, profits and employee wages
  (Pankratz, 2000)
• Caused by
• cash transactions, low skill jobs, poor social
  status, highly priced commodities, small
  businesses (Geller, 1991)
• tradition of payment in kind (Johnson, 1983 Mars
  Nicod, 1984)
• staff turnover (Thoms et al., 2001 Withiam,
  1996)
• poor trust between staff and management
• (Niehoff Paul, 2000)
• organisational dishonesty (Cialdini et al., 2004)
• unfair or inequitable employment conditions
• (Adams, 1963 Greenberg, 1990, 2002 Korolishin,
  2003 Withiam, 1996)

29
Theft

• 78 said theft occurred at their work
• More theft where training was poor
• Age a determinant of theft
• Department-specific
• Strongly rationalised
• Associated with
• working in smoke
• having insufficient staff
• thinking staff and managers were unethical

30
Is unethical behaviour common?
31
Do managers support unethical behaviour?

• 55 respondents worked in smoke regularly
• 31 managers allowed poor training
• 23 sexual harassment caused by supervisors
  and managers
• 21 managers allowed unfair dismissal

32
Are managers are a major cause of unethical
behaviour?

• Behaviours weakly opposed by managers occurred
  more
• Undesirable behaviours can be reduced with
  managements overt opposition
• Management support is considered a major cause
  of unethical behaviour

33
Other hospitality causes

• Tolerance of working in smoke, sexual harassment,
  and theft
• Organisation-personality congruence (Judge
  Cable, 1997) may contribute to workplace problems

34
Principle of reciprocated loyalty
35
Reactive management cycle