COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.

Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

MODULE 3
LEARNING MODULE
BLENDED FLEXIBLE LEARNING
Micro Perspective in Tourism and Hospitality (THCC 214)

AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever been interviewed by someone from human resources when you a
applied for part-time or summer job? Do you know someone that was interviewed by
them? As we all know, Human Resource is involved in hiring new employees, but it
might surprise you to learn that it is only a small part of the responsibilities involved
with human resources management. Let's look at what we mean by 'human
resources,' and then we'll examine the broad scope of responsibilities and functions in
the field of human resource management.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this module, you should be able:
1. To identify the scope of human resource management.
2. To classify the different functions of of human resource management.
3. To identify the different downfalls caused by improper management of
human resource.
4. To distinguish the different objectives of human resource management.
5. To relate the different roles of human resource to the employees in real
world perspective.

LEARNING RESOURCES

3G E-learning., (2019). Micro Perspective of Tourism and Hospitality, 3 G E-

learning LLC, USA

LEARNING INPUTS

LESSON 9 DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

What is Human Resource Management?

In simple words, HRM is a process of making the efficient and effective use of
human resources so that the set goals are achieved. Let us also consider some
important definitions of HRM.

According to Flippo “Personnel management, or say, human resource

management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

procurement development compensation integration, maintenance, and separation

of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives
are accomplished”.

The National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) has defined human

resource/personnel management as “that part of management which is concerned
with people at work and with their relationship within an enterprise. Its aim is to
bring together and develop into an effective organization of the men and women
who make up an enterprise and having regard for the well-being of the individuals
and of working groups, to enable them to make their best contribution to its
success”.

According to Decenzo and Robbins “HRM is concerned with the people

dimension in management. Since every organization is made up of people, acquiring
their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of
performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the
organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is true,
regardless of the type of organization-government, business, education, health,
recreation, or social action”.

Thus, HRM can be defined as a process of procuring, developing and

maintaining competent human resources in the organization so that the goals of an
organization are achieved in an effective and efficient manner. In short, HRM is an
art of managing people at work in such a manner that they give their best to the
organization for achieving its set goals.

What is the scope of Human Resource Management?

The scope of HRM is, indeed, very vast and wide. It includes all activities starting
from manpower planning till employee leaves the organization. Its scope consists of
acquisition, development, maintenance/retention, and control of human resources
in the organization. The same forms the subject matter of HRM. 

(D
on
’t

forget to answer the Self – Check Question 3.1 and Activity3.1!)

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

LESSON 10 IMPORTANT OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The primary objective of HRM is to ensure the availability of a competent and

willing workforce to an organization. Beyond this, there are other objectives, too.
Specifically, HRM objectives are four folds- societal, organizational, functional, and
personal.

 Societal Objectives: To be ethically and socially responsible to the needs and

challenges of the while minimizing the negative impact of such demands
upon the organization. The failure of organizations to use their resources for
the society’s benefit in ethical ways may lead to restrictions. For example, the
society may limit HR decisions through laws that enforce reservation in hiring
and laws that address discrimination, safety or other such areas of societal
concern.

 Organizational objectives: To recognize the role of HRM in bringing about

organizational effectiveness. HRM is not an end in itself. It is only a means to
assist the organization with its primary objectives. Simply stated, the
department exists to serve the rest of the organization.

 Functional Objectives: To maintain the department’s contribution at a level

appropriate to the organization’s needs. Resources are wasted when HRM is
either more or less sophisticated to suit the organization’s demand. The
department’s level of service must be tailored to fit the organization it
serves.                 

 Personal objectives: To assist an employee in achieving their personal goals,

at least insofar as these goals enhance the individual’s contribution to the
organization. Personal objectives of employees must be met if workers are to
be maintained, retained and motivated. Otherwise, employee performance
and satisfaction may decline and employees may leave the organization.

(Don’t forget to answer the Self – Check Question 3.2 and Activity 3.2!)

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

LESSON 11 DOWNFALLS CAUSED BY IMPROPER HUMAN RESOURCE

While most companies work toward avoiding mistakes caused by hiring the
wrong person for the job, the following are the common things that result from
not being able to manage human resource effectively.

1. High Turnover Rate

For human resources, high turnover rate is the ratio of employees leaving
the company versus the rate at which they are being hired (or the number of
employees at the start of the evaluation period). High turnover rate usually
equates to turnover costs which include the following costs.

 The cost to hire a replacement – includes recruitment costs such as ads and
headhunters, interview costs, travel costs, credential testing, pre-
employment screening tests, signing bonuses and relocation bonuses.
 The cost to train a new hire – training costs include training materials, time
converted for training, benefits, administrative processing such as opening
of accounts, emails, and enrollment to payroll.
 The cost for that new hire to reach the same productivity level as the one
who left – which mostly involves hours of production or office time.
 Opportunity costs – costs involved in not getting a sale or project because of
your lack of employees to handle it (while these are probably consequential
and hard to measure, these opportunities are real and otherwise wasted).

2. Complacent Employees
Employees who seem to not be doing their best when it comes to their work
must have reasons. For the most part, the reason would be demotivation. Most
employees would feel demotivated having to cover for leaving employees and
waiting for the replacement to take the additional load they are doing.

Another reason may be for policies not being followed to the letter. Strict
implementation of the rules should accompany proper procedure and
disciplinary action in fairness to the violation made.

3. Discrimination Cases
Discrimination cases happen when there is a lapse on the side of
management to clearly define the boundaries for discrimination. By clearly

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Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

stating it in your personnel policy and having an employee understand the

policy clearly prevents such cases from arising out of the workplace.

4. Being Fined for Occupational Hazards and Unsafe Practices

Penalties and fines make up for a substantial cost and a plain slap-in-the-
face bad rep. Human resource management aims to maintain a company’s good
image, and having bad reputation on these matters leaves a somewhat bad
taste in managers’ mouths.

5. Employee Discontent
Happens when employees feel they are being undervalued and underpaid in
the company. This is a clear indication of human resource management failure
that aims to promote satisfaction from both employee and employer. Mostly
this results from poor salary-rate analysis and review and simply not paying
attention to employee satisfaction surveys and interviews.

Courses of action to take to solve this issue:

 The root cause of the problem should be immediately identified and
resolved.
 Proper expectations should be set to help employees clearly understand
what to expect in terms of pay, benefits, and promotions.
 Another way to go about it is approaching the situation in a personal
manner and treating employees as part of one big business family. This way
you can both be honest and straight to the point in discussing what you
want and what the other needs.

6. Decrease in Production Efficiency

Most notably happens when new processes are introduced to the working
environment. All goes back to the training and re-training of employees to
handle the new processes. Human resource management should be able to
track and identify the measure of skill and effectiveness for each employee and
identify which ones need further training or re-training.

7. Unfair Labor Practices

As human resource management is directed at hiring only the best
candidates and keeping skilled employees, enforcement of standards in terms

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Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

of labor laws and codes should be strictly followed and not compromised. Doing
so would considerably boost employee performance since labor practices are
only geared toward the welfare of employees.

While there exists no sure silver bullet to avoid mistakes in managing

human resources, one easy way would be to look at your current employee
satisfaction. This can easily be done through various methods available, such as
surveys and exit interviews. Remember that retaining employees who already
know the ins and outs of your business is far better and way cheaper than going
through the process of hiring new employees and crossing fingers on the hope
that they do well.

(Don’t forget to answer the Self – Check Question 3.3 and Activity 3.3!)

Lesson 12 FUNCTIONS OF HRM

Keep in mind that many functions of HRM are also tasks of other department
managers, which is what makes this information important, despite the career path
taken. Most experts agree on seven main roles that HRM plays in organizations.
These are described in the following sections.

 Staffing

You need people to perform tasks and get work done in the organization. Even
with the most sophisticated machines, humans are still needed. Because of this, one
of the major tasks in HRM is staffing. Staffing involves the entire hiring process from
posting a job to negotiating a salary package. Within the staffing function, there are
four main steps:
1. Development of a staffing plan. This plan allows HRM to see how many
people they should hire based on revenue expectations. 
2. Development of policies to encourage multiculturalism at
work. Multiculturalism in the workplace is becoming more and more
important, as we have many more people from a variety of backgrounds in
the workforce.
3. Recruitment. This involves finding people to fill the open positions.
4. Selection. In this stage, people will be interviewed and selected, and a proper
compensation package will be negotiated. This step is followed by training,
retention, and motivation.

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Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

 Development of Workplace Policies

Every organization has policies to ensure fairness and continuity within the
organization. One of the jobs of HRM is to develop the verbiage surrounding these
policies. In the development of policies, HRM, management, and executives are
involved in the process. For example, the HRM professional will likely recognize the
need for a policy or a change of policy, seek opinions on the policy, write the policy,
and then communicate that policy to employees. It is key to note here that HR
departments do not and cannot work alone. Everything they do needs to involve all
other departments in the organization. Some examples of workplace policies might
be the following:

1. Discipline process policy

2. Vacation time policy
3. Dress code
4. Ethics policy
5. Internet usage policy

 Compensation and Benefits Administration

HRM professionals need to determine that compensation is fair, meets industry

standards, and is high enough to entice people to work for the
organization. Compensation includes anything the employee receives for his or her
work. In addition, HRM professionals need to make sure the pay is comparable to
what other people performing similar jobs are being paid. This involves setting up
pay systems that take into consideration the number of years with the organization,
years of experience, education, and similar aspects. Examples of employee
compensation include the following:

1. Pay
2. Health benefits
3. Retirement plans
4. Stock purchase plans
5. Vacation time
6. Sick leave
7. Bonuses
8. Tuition reimbursement

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Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

 Retention

Retention involves keeping and motivating employees to stay with the

organization. Compensation is a major factor in employee retention, but there are
other factors as well. Ninety percent of employees leave a company for the following
reasons:

1. Issues around the job they are performing

2. Challenges with their manager
3. Poor fit with organizational culture
4. Poor workplace environment

 Training and Development

Once we have spent the time to hire new employees, we want to make sure they
not only are trained to do the job but also continue to grow and develop new skills in
their job. This results in higher productivity for the organization. Training is also a key
component in employee motivation. Employees who feel they are developing their
skills tend to be happier in their jobs, which results in increased employee retention.
Examples of training programs might include the following:

1. Job skills training, such as how to run a particular computer program

2. Training on communication
3. Team-building activities
4. Policy and legal training, such as sexual harassment training and ethics
training

 Dealing with Laws Affecting Employment

Human resource people must be aware of all the laws that affect the workplace.
An HRM professional might work with some of these laws:

1. Discrimination laws
2. Health-care requirements
3. Compensation requirements such as the minimum wage
4. Worker safety laws
5. Labor laws

The legal environment of HRM is always changing, so HRM must always be aware
of changes taking place and then communicate those changes to the entire
management organization.

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

 Worker Protection

Safety is a major consideration in all organizations. Oftentimes new laws are

created with the goal of setting federal or state standards to ensure worker safety.
Unions and union contracts can also impact the requirements for worker safety in a
workplace. It is up to the human resource manager to be aware of worker protection
requirements and ensure the workplace is meeting both federal and union
standards. Worker protection issues might include the following:

1. Chemical hazards
2. Heating and ventilation requirements
3. Use of “no fragrance” zones
4. Protection of private employee information

 Communication

Besides these major roles, good communication skills and excellent management
skills are key to successful human resource management as well as general
management. 

 Awareness of External Factors

In addition to managing internal factors, the HR manager needs to consider the

outside forces at play that may affect the organization. Outside forces, or external
factors, are those things the company has no direct control over; however, they may
be things that could positively or negatively impact human resources. External
factors might include the following:

1. Globalization and offshoring

2. Changes to employment law
3. Health-care costs
4. Employee expectations
5. Diversity of the workforce
6. Changing demographics of the workforce
7. A more highly educated workforce
8. Layoffs and downsizing
9. Technology used, such as HR databases
10. Increased use of social networking to distribute information to employees

(Don’t forget to answer the Self – Check Question 3.4 and Activity 3.4!)

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

MODULE 3
OUTPUT
Micro Perspective in Tourism and Hospitality ( THCC 214 )
SUNRISE HOTEL AND BEACHSIDE HOTEL HUMAN RESOURCE CASE STUDY

This is a case of two competing hotels, Sunrise Hotel and Beachside Hotel
that are both located in a medium-sized, tourism-based town in the Northeast U.S.
The hotels are both competing for the same set of guests, as well as the same set of
potential employees. They are both budget hotels, right next door to each other,
with 60 guest rooms each and a view of the beach. The occupancy during peak
season for the Sunrise Hotel is 98%, but during the winter months goes down to
65%. The Beachside Hotel has a peak season occupancy of 90% and off-peak
occupancy of 50%.

Joe is the General Manager of Sunrise Hotel and has been in his current
position for 5 years. He has been with Sunrise Hotel for a total of 10 years. He
worked his way up at Sunrise Hotel from front desk agent to front desk supervisor,
and finally to Assistant General Manager before he became the General Manager.
He does a good job of screening potential employees for his front desk area of the
hotel because he realizes the importance of that area of the hotel, especially in
tourist areas. He also has incentives set up for the excellent performance of the front
desk agents and training and development programs designed to give everyone
information that will help them do their job better. There is a sense of teamwork at
Sunrise Hotel and that helps everyone want to do a good job. His guest satisfaction
ratings for his hotel are overall excellent. On a rating scale of 1–10, his hotel
averages a 9. The average length of tenure of his employees is 4 years, and his
current front desk supervisor was promoted from within, along with his Assistant
General Manager. Because of the small size of the hotel, Joe is involved with all of
the hiring decisions and helps to give training programs himself, along with his
leadership team. The employee turnover at the Sunrise Hotel is 25% overall and that
is primarily when hourly employees graduate high school or college and leave the
Sunrise Hotel for a career somewhere else.

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Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

Brian is the General Manager of the Beachside Hotel and deals with a very
different situation. Brian was brought in from another hotel in the same hotel group
about 6 months ago. He was told by his boss that he needed to “fix” this hotel so
that it would start having better customer satisfaction ratings and more return
guests. Despite the fairly high occupancy noted during peak seasons, the off-peak
season occupancy is only 50%. Also noted by his boss, the occupancy should be as
good as the Sunrise Hotel. Brian has been with his hotel group now for 2 years and
he came out of the accounting and finance department in his old hotel. He has a
great understanding of the numbers in the lodging industry but has not been
involved with the human resource aspects of the job. The turnover of hourly
employees at the Beachside Hotel is 120% and that means that Brian is constantly
running the hotel short handed and with new employees. The Beachside Hotel has
been doing the hiring through a human resource practitioner in the hotel that was
put in the position because she really could not handle serving guests at the front
desk very well. Mary was promoted to human resources a year ago after she had one
too many altercations with the guests at the front desk. The owner of the hotel
wanted to make sure that she would not make any of the other guests angry, so he
promoted her to a human resources practitioner. Since that time, she has been busy
trying to keep up with hiring and she has had no time for training employees.
Because she is so busy, paychecks often come out to employees late, there are no
policies written down for employees to use as a guide for performance, customers
are treated badly by new and poorly trained employees, and the departments of the
hotel do not communicate very effectively and therefore everyone blames everyone
else when things go wrong. The average length of tenure of the front desk agents at
the Beachside Hotel is 3 months and the customer satisfaction rating at the
Beachside is a 6 out of a 10 possible rating. Most of the front desk agents that are
hired come from other hotels in the area after they quit or are fired. Brian is not
involved in the hiring for the hotel at all, and does not get involved with training and
development. He spends most of his days looking at the financial reports for the
hotel and analyzing the average daily rate, and occupancy rates.

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Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

Brian knows that he has many problems to deal with and so he goes to the
Sunrise Hotel to observe things over there for a while. He sees a happy crew and
talks to Joe about how he is making that happen. Joe is happy to help but wants
Brian to go back and observe his employees first and come up with ways that he
specifically can help guide Brian.

Write at least 5 systems, processes, initiatives, and programs in each question.

Do not copy your answers on the internet.

1. What systems or processes should Brian implement to start changing the

human capital (knowledge, experience, and skills of an employee) practices in
the Beachside Hotel? Expound your answers.
2. What could Brian learn from Joe in terms of the human capital aspects of
running a hotel? Expound your answers.
3. How could training and development programs be implemented in the
Beachside Hotel to help with turnover and occupancy rates at the hotel?
4. What other human resource initiatives could be undertaken by either the
Sunrise Hotel or Beachside Hotel to help with the overall performance of
their respective organizations? Expound your answers.

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