A Study of Challenges faced by Female Employees in their Career Progression in the Hospitality Industry of Jaipur city

A Study of Challenges faced by Female Employees in their Career Progression in the Hospitality Industry

of Jaipur city

Mr. Manish Shrivastava, Dr. Naveen Sharma*

School of Hotel Management, Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur- 302017, Rajasthan, India

manish.shrivastava@mygyanvihar.com

Corresponding Author:*Dr. Naveen Sharma, Controller of Examination

Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur- 302017, Rajasthan, India

naveen.sharma@mygyanvihar.com

Mobile- +91-9828117322

 

Abstract

The hospitality sector today has better understanding about importance of investing in female employees. Sectors believe the importance of women possessing soft skills are superior managers and, therefore, are recruiting more women at all levels to bring in the desired change. They believe that women possesses higher emotional quotient than men and are more intuitive which an essential factor in people management. Today, a woman has become the most fundamental part of the hospitality industry. They are breaking out of the stereotype roles and are representing at the topmost positions in the hospitality industry.

The hospitality experience altogether would showcase a quiet poor picture without the smiling and charming face of the women to start with. It is an obvious fact that a   woman has showed her mark of excellence not just in Jaipur, but throughout the world in Hospitality. The very existence of women and her touch brings the charm and classiness to the hospitality industry.

  Keywords : hospitality, emotional quotient, Jaipur, Pink City, Rajasthan, National Capital Region, career progression, Pune, Delhi, Agra, Metropolitan, Kota, female employees, Corporate, lucrative opportunities

 

Introduction

Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan State, is one of the major tourist destinations in the country. Situated on the Northwest part of India, it is stated to as the “PINK CITY”. The city is at a distance of 260 km from Delhi, 135 km from Ajmer, 225 km from Agra and 245 km from Kota. The location of Jaipur at the doorstep of the National Capital Region of India is very significant as it offers high potential for various developments. Besides being one of the largest metropolitan cities in the country, it is also a renowned center of education, trade, commerce and industry.

            There are many factors for the under-representation of female employees in the Hospitality industry that majorly includes conflicting work and family priorities and Male-dominant corporate culture; however for those women who are looking at reaching at top have to juggle and at times compromise between the home and work front to grab those lucrative opportunities.

The fresher women entrants in the industry especially needs to be realistic about their career progression and requires to devote time to learn and understand the culture and working of the industry as a whole.

            The hospitality industry traditionally recruits such women who have a sound career profile having a sufficient operational department experience. This experience is considered essential for the upward mobility and thus one should aim to achieve these goals early in the career before one gets married or shoulders domestic commitments. The hospitality industry requires oneself to invest in long working hours and irregular work schedules so; one requires a strong family support to go ahead in the career path. Thus, a strong family support will enable the women employees to invest their time early in their career to assemble a varied range of experience needed to succeed in the industry.

A number of factors may slow down a women’s career progression and the salary. The Hospitality industry in India has been socially accepted and perceived as a decent career option for women in the recent past only. Still the women is struggling hard to balance family responsibilities combined with work where one has to spend a lot of time to interact and entertain guests, which at times is stressful and daunting to most women. Also it’s the fact that even when one is backing home after work, one really cannot keep the work aside especially when at senior positions. All these factors at times do not make this career option very appealing for the average Indian woman. Researcher will try through this research to identify various factors that act as barriers to women’s career progression.

Grievances 

According to Parkin 2009[1], Staff related grievance is highly impacted from various issues such as wages, continuity of services, promotions, amenities, compensation, fines, disciplinary actions, leave, increments, nature of job, medical and maternity benefits, safety appliances, recovery of duties, supervision, superannuation, working conditions, and transfers.

The procedure of grievance management has various benefits, which support the hotel in enhancing its organizational culture and environment of the hospitality industry. It helps in bringing the grievances in the open, so that management could easily understand it and take necessary actions for settling down them. It even helps in preventing the grievances through assuming the threat of proportions. Type of grievances faced by a female employee in a hospitality sector has shown as under;

The problem

As far as the challenge faced by women in hospitality sectors concerned, there hasn’t been much study carried out in Indian Hospitality scenario. The studies conducted in this area are limited and numerous gaps exist with reference to Indian hospitality industry. This study adds to the existing challenges with reference to the Indian hospitality sector.

 

Review of literature

A study was undertaken by Gregg and Johnson 1990[2], through a survey of female employees in hospitality sector and stated that they had to perform much harder at workplace and do a better job than their counterparts in order to get promoted at the workplace.

According to a study conducted by Centre for Social Research in 2009[3] it was noticed that women are surpassed by men in securing top level positions and they appear to be under-represented at managerial levels in Indian Hospitality scenario. Women are a budding part of the work force in hospitality industry today.

Chawla 2009[4] quotes that women today are visible more at management and key positions. As the business growth is escalating, opportunities for women have also increased in India. He further states that by nature women is gifted with good networking and communication skills. They are good multi tasker which is proven by women who are managing business and families efficiently.

Hayfaa Tlaiss, Saleema Kauser, 2010[5] in their study carried out in Lebanon Hospitality industry reveals the perception of female managers towards their career progression gets affected by organizational culture, its practices, and networks, while mentoring and tokenism were least critical.

Vidya Patwardhan, and Venkatachalam, Balaji V 2011[6] in their study found that even if female Managers are seen at management levels and moving up, they do still face lot of challenges in reaching up this level. The various challenges faced by female employees are job characteristics, gender differences, family issues, work life balance, relationships at work, mentoring, long work hours, working environment and glass ceiling. The study reflects that women continue facing these challenges in their career in the hospitality industry.

Michele Howe 2012[7] states that traditionally male dominated nature of Hospitality industry is partly because of the culture and nature of the industry. He also emphasizes that the versatile nature and relocation of options in this job makes the senior level female employee face dilemma of having to make a choice between family and career.

Boone et al 2013[8] in her study of senior hospitality male and female executives states that there is a shift in the barriers faced by female employee and they are more so ever, self-imposed largely involving household and family. The author also gives positive suggestions to facilitate female careers in hospitality industry.

Study by Evangelia Marinakou 2014[9] suggests that women showcase equal talents as compared to their male counterparts and they acquire skills that are considered to be more effective which are essential in the hospitality industry. They are basically caregivers, possess better communication skills, adaptable to the supporting behaviors and are more successful in facing the fierce competition and any changes more efficiently.

Felistas Chimutingiza et al. 2014[10], explored the challenges being faced by women in decision making positions in the hotel sector in Zimbabwe. Scourge of patriarchy, other critical challenges, power phobia and fear of social backlash of the decision making function were few of the challenges faced.

Peshave Jyoti and Gupta Dr. Kirti 2017[11] in their article about Pune hospitality industry suggested that Pune Hospitality industry has overall low representation of women in the work force. Currently there are 14.6% women employed in the Hospitality industry in Pune. However, despite of increase in the number of women employed in the Hospitality industry over the past decade, they still constitute only 14.6 % of the work force in the Pune city. It clearly shows that the Hospitality industry continues to be male dominated. It is found that women do confront a significant number of challenges, beginning with difficulties in managing the long working hours/ irregular working hours and the work life balance to rising to the senior management position in the organization’s hierarchy.

Future scope

 The literature review confirms that women talent is not utilized to its fullest potential all over the world. Most of the literature reviews talks about the challenges and issues faced by female employees in their career progression, whereas there are very few studies that reveal women position in management, especially in hospitality sector. This paper will also give them a better insight of the challenges the female employee faces in their career progression and its intensity. Thus, it will help them to frame new policies and offer facilities to retain the talented female employees in Jaipur as well as in the state.

This research will also benefit the future researchers in the hospitality Sector. The researcher can base his/her study on this research design and study each variable in depth covering larger area. Further, the researcher can use this study as a guideline for them to develop the required career progression policies that can be used by the management of the hotels in the state.

Conclusion

There is a need to retain this women pool of talent by addressing to their challenges and issues at workplace by suggesting few women friendly policies for equal gender representation in the hospitality sector at all levels. Such policies will assist more and more women to climb up the career ladder in the state of Rajasthan.

This research will be benefited for hospitality sector in general by understanding the challenges faced by women in their career progression. Thus, the management of the hotel based in Jaipur city will able to understand deeper aspects of these challenges related to women’s career progression.

References:

  1. Boone et al 2013, Contemporary Marketing, Sixteenth Edition, South Western Cengage Learning, AuStralia
  2. Evangelia Marinakou 2014, Tourism employment: analysis and planning, Bournemouth, University  Fern Barrow, Poole,
  3. Felistas Chimutingiza et al. 2014, The perceptions of employees towards tipping and motivation in the hotel industry, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe
  4. Hayfaa Tlaiss, Saleema Kauser, 2010 Entrepreneurial Leadership, Patriarchy, Gender, and Identity in the Arab World: Lebanon in Focus: Journal of Small Business Management, Lebnan
  5. B., & Johnson, P. M. (1990). Perceptions of discrimination among women as managers in hospitality organizations. F.I.U. Hospitality Review , 8(1), 10-22.
  6. Michele Howe 2012 Every call is a website failure,  HTC, 9979 N 131st Street, Scottsdale, USA
  1. Parkin, M. (2009). The employer’s guide to grievance & discipline procedures. London: Kogan Page
  2. Peshave Jyoti and Gupta Dr. Kirti 2017, Challenges in the career progression of women in Hospitality industry-a review of literature, International Journal of Commerce and Management Research, Volume 3; Issue 2; February 2017; Page No. 158-165
  3. Ritu ChawlaMathur 2009, The NPA & Liquidity Crisis: Impact Analysis on the Indian hotel industry, Article published in Prognosis, New Delhi
  4. Study Report, Centre for Social Research, 2009, New Delhi
  5. Vidya Patwardhan, and Venkatachalam, Balaji V 2011, A Study on Career Management Issues of Women Managers in Indian Hospitality Industry, Journal of Hospitality Application and Research, Vol 7 No.1 pg 67-80
  6. [1]Parkin, M. (2009).The employer’s guide to grievance & discipline procedures. London: Kogan Page
  7. [2]J. B., & Johnson, P. M. (1990). Perceptions of discrimination among women as managers in hospitality organizations. F.I.U. Hospitality Review , 8(1), 10-22.
  8. [3] Study Report, Centre for Social Research 2009
  9. [4]Ritu ChawlaMathur 2009, The NPA & Liquidity Crisis: Impact Analysis on the Indian hotel industry, Article published in Prognosis, New Delhi
  10. [5]Hayfaa Tlaiss, Saleema Kauser, 2010 Entrepreneurial Leadership, Patriarchy, Gender, and Identity in the Arab World: Lebanon in Focus: Journal of Small Business Management,  Lebnan
  11. [6]Vidya Patwardhan, and Venkatachalam, Balaji V 2011, A Study on Career Management Issues of Women Managers in Indian Hospitality Industry, Journal of Hospitality Application and Research, Vol 7 No.1 pg 67-80
  12. [7]Michele Howe 2012 Every call is a website failure,  HTC, 9979 N 131st Street, Scottsdale, USA
  13. [8]Boone et al 2013, Contemporary Marketing, Sixteenth Edition, South Western Cengage Learning, Autralia
  14. [9]Evangelia Marinakou 2014, Tourism employment: analysis and planning, Bournemouth, University  Fern Barrow, Poole,
  15. [10]Felistas Chimutingiza et al. 2014, The perceptions of employees towards tipping and motivation in the hotel industry, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe
  16. [11]Peshave Jyoti and Gupta Dr. Kirti 2017, Challenges in the career progression of women in Hospitality industry-a review of literature, International Journal of Commerce and Management Research, Volume 3; Issue 2; February 2017; Page No. 158-165