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
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
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).
Main challenges in tourism sector (1)
a) 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.
b) Address the problem of seasonality
– Emerging changes in concentrating demand periods
– Seasonality consequences:
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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
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
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)
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
Key factors for a mapping of professional identity
The “professional” (1)
1. Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfaction).
•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)
2. 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 one’s human
capital
3. 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
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
The “professional” (3)
6. Sense of involvement in the product
• Autonomy–which increases with experience-reinforces 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
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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
The “technician/bureaucrat” (1)
1. Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfaction).
•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)
2. 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 one’s own knowledge
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 companyworker 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)
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
The “customer service worker” (1)
1. Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfaction).
• 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)
2. The Significance of Work.
• Significance of work: the service relationship with customers and their recognition
of this service (the customer’s 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 company’s success
3. 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
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)
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
The “trade worker” (1)
1. Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfaction).
•Assimilation of the value of work, experienced from the point of view of
taking up a trade as one’s 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
2. The Significance of Work.
•Value of work by itself: performance of one’s 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)
The “trade worker” (2)
3. Group references:
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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
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.
The “newcomer / unconsolidated worker”(1)
1.Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfaction).
• 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
2.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.
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
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
The worker in the employer’s discourse (1)
1.Involvement in the profession (stability/satisfaction).
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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.
2.The Significance of Work.
• Feeling proud of a “job-well-done” as a key factor towards quality
• Personal satisfaction with a vocational work
3.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
The worker in the employer’s 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
The worker in the employer’s 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 worker’s 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
TEACHERS’ VIEWS
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)
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:
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Career
Initial and continuing training
Working conditions
Their images of the profession (in teaching and tourism)
Teachers’ views – Areas of inquiry
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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
Teachers’ views – Work trajectory
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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
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
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
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, don’t do much with regard
to it
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
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
The worker in the teachers’
discourse (1)
1.
Involvement in the profession
1.
2.
2.
Significance of work
1.
2.
3.
Ready to move and to work hard and to accept what the
profession brings
Be patient to find something that matches expectations
High competition, though the company is a social agent
You don’t work for money here, you have to be creative and
innovative, and care for your team
Corporate references
1.
Self employment as a goal in the long term (cooks)
The worker in the teachers’
discourse (2)
1.
Labour capital
1.
2.
2.
Ethical values for optimal performance: honest, clean,
responsible, good colleague, patient, kind, willing to improve,
serious, punctual, disciplined
Technical knowledge
Experience of the hierarchy
1.
2.
Superiors expect from them the same as clients
It is their responsibility to adapt to the circumstances
The worker in the teachers’
discourse (3)
1.
Involvement in the product
1.
2.
Your own performance is your best reward, contributing to your
self-esteem and recognition among colleagues
References to training
1.
2.
3.
4.
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
STUDENTS’ VIEWS
Student´s 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.
Student’s 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
Student’s 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: Student’s work
experience and introduction into the world of work.
Student’s 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 don’t 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.
Student’s 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.
Student’s view: Models
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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.
Student’s view: Work experience
• Labour experience in the sector due to:
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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.
The worker in the students’
discourse (1)
1.
Involvement in the profession
1.
2.
2.
Significance of work
1.
2.
3.
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
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
1.
2.
Working for a well known chain is good for the conditions, not always
the prestige
Self employment as a goal for some (cooks)
The worker in the teachers’
discourse (2)
1.
Labour capital
1.
2.
2.
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
1.
Superiors may cause problems and they are perceived as a
source of conflict
The worker in the students’
discourse (3)
1.
Involvement in the product
1.
2.
3.
2.
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
1.
2.
3.
4.
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
CONCLUDING REMARKS
• Common aspects in discourses of the
different groups
• Discussion of findings
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’
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
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
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
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