VOCATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE SECTOR OF TOURISM VOCATIONAL IDENTITY, FLEXIBILITY AND MOBILITY IN THE...

VOCATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE SECTOR OF TOURISMVOCATIONAL IDENTITY, FLEXIBILITY

AND MOBILITY IN THE EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKET

5TH FPHPSE-CT-1999-00042

Universitat de ValènciaIgnacio 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:• 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


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


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


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


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 • 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


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)


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


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)


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)


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


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).• 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


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


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:

• Career

• Initial and continuing training

• Working conditions

• Their images of the profession (in teaching and tourism)

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

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

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 profession1. Ready to move and to work hard and to accept what the

profession brings

2. Be patient to find something that matches expectations

2. Significance of work1. High competition, though the company is a social agent

2. You don’t work for money here, you have to be creative and innovative, and care for your team

3. Corporate references1. Self employment as a goal in the long term (cooks)


1. Labour capital1. Ethical values for optimal performance: honest, clean,

responsible, good colleague, patient, kind, willing to improve, serious, punctual, disciplined

2. Technical knowledge

2. Experience of the hierarchy1. Superiors expect from them the same as clients

2. It is their responsibility to adapt to the circumstances


1. Involvement in the product1. Your own performance is your best reward, contributing to your

self-esteem and recognition among colleagues

2. References to training1. Importance of theoretical knowledge as well as practice

2. Will to learn, to improve, be motivated, aware of innovation

3. It is their responsibility –and it takes important efforts- to keep up to date

4. 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

• 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:– 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 profession1. Ready to move and to work hard and to accept extra hours, long

working days, working on holidays2. If you work hard and you are good, they will know and you will be able

to promote

2. Significance of work1. This is a call, you have to feel it2. You find your rewards in satisfying the client and the very fact of

working with people

3. Corporate references1. Working for a well known chain is good for the conditions, not always

the prestige2. Self employment as a goal for some (cooks)


1. Labour capital1. 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

2. You have to master the trade: dedication, spirit of constant improvement, ready to sacrifice

2. Experience of the hierarchy1. Superiors may cause problems and they are perceived as a

source of conflict

The worker in the students’ discourse (3)

1. Involvement in the product1. Your work for yourself, then you do good for the client

2. The quality of your work is what pays for the working hours and low wages

3. When your work is acknowledged, that keeps you going

2. References to training1. Importance of having a qualification

2. Work experience is what counts mainly

3. Most of them are attending VET to compete in better conditions

4. 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


• 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


• 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

VOCATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE SECTOR OF TOURISM VOCATIONAL IDENTITY, FLEXIBILITY AND MOBILITY IN THE...

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