International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

No plantation work here: contemporary HR practices in Caribbean hotels

Anne P. Crick
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No plantation
No plantation work here: work here
contemporary HR practices
in Caribbean hotels
79
Anne P. Crick
Department of Management Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona,
Kingston, Jamaica

Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which Caribbean hotels are
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managed in a way that is reminiscent of the plantation system.

Design/methodology/approach Surveys are used to determine the human resource challenges
and the responses to these challenges in three Caribbean destinations. Survey data is collected from
110 respondents including hotel employees, hotel managers and owners, human resource managers,
policy officials and trade union officials.
Findings The study determined that service excellence is a competitive strategy in the three
destinations and managers therefore seek to attract and retain the best performers. Working
individually and cooperatively with government and other tourism stakeholders, managers have
therefore created a work environment that is empowering and participative rather than one that is
reflective of the plantation era.
Research limitations/implications The study is limited to the English-speaking Caribbean and
may therefore not be generalisable to the wider Caribbean. Future research should also examine the
views in more detail through focus groups.
Originality/value The paper responds to a commonly held view about tourism by providing an
updated and more comprehensive view of the practices in Caribbean hotels. It also differentiates
between the practices of small and large hotels.
Keywords Caribbean, Hotels, Human resource management
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
In reviewing the Caribbean tourist industry Pattullo (1996) and Samuels (2002) note
that hotels have been described as the new plantation and hotel employees, its house
slaves. Cowell and Crick (2004) have reviewed some of the arguments and suggest that
many of the critics of the industry are basing their discussion on an outdated model of
the industry. They argue that while the industry may have manifested some negative
human resource (HR) practices in its early days, there have been many changes. Their
review however stopped short of explaining in detail what some of these changes were
and the specific implications for work relations and conditions.
This paper extends the work of Cowell and Crick by examining the current human
resource management practices of Caribbean hotels as well as the nature of the work
International Journal of
that employees are required to perform. It also attempts to identify employee feelings Contemporary Hospitality
towards that work. It is determined that in the pursuit of service excellence employees Management
Vol. 20 No. 1, 2008
in hotels are no longer rigidly stratified according to job functions. Rather, employees pp. 79-89
are expected to perform multiple tasks and to be directly engaged in customer q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-6119
satisfaction irrespective of their job titles. While these increased demands make the DOI 10.1108/09596110810848596
 IJCHM jobs more challenging there is no evidence that employees are resentful of these
20,1 demands. Larger hotels used HR strategies that were strategically aligned with the
organisations goals of service excellence. Managers of smaller hotels used a
participative management style to engage their employees.
The paper continues with a discussion of the plantation concept and its alleged
relationship to tourism. The third section of the paper describes the sample and
80 methodology of the study. Section four of the paper describes the type of service that
hotels required and the strategies used by managers to achieve the compliance and
commitment of employees in achieving these requirements. The paper concludes with
an analysis of these changes and recommendations for future studies.

The plantation: past and present

Until the 1950s the Caribbean was primarily a plantation economy that under colonial
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rule supplied European countries with agricultural products. Writers have argued that
the plantation was more than just a form of production but was an entire system of
control. Lindo (1997) argues for example that the plantation was the most dominant
feature in the Caribbean for over 300 years and has left behind several characteristics
including autocratic leadership styles, top down communication with little opportunity
for feedback or participation and stratification between owners, supervisors and
production workers. Other characteristics of the plantation system include overseas
political control (Curtin, 1998), and, a relatively homogeneous labour force (Mintz,
1985).
While Lindo argues that the plantation system continues to dominate contemporary
organisations in general, critics have made a special case for the tourism industry. The
superficial similarities of Caribbean tourism to the plantation are obvious. They both
involve those of Negro descent rendering services to people from Europe, and they both
involve in many cases, overseas control from multinational hotel chains. It may even be
argued that profits are expatriated leaving the people of the country with very little of
the fruits of their labour.
The similarities do not stop there according to critics. Taylor (1975) argues, for
example, that tourism as an industry reinforced and perpetuated pre-emancipation
structures and values. In her analysis Pattullo (1996) points to the early days of tourism
in which the predominantly American tourists brought racist attitudes and behaviours
with them. She highlights the exclusion of Caribbean nationals from some of the best
beaches and the dehumanised depiction of locals in promotional literature. Taylor
(1975) also highlights the promotional literature from the early days of mass tourism
that reduced locals to anonymous, smiling and subservient beings who would, in the
words of one promotional piece, Mister Peter, please you all day long, pamper you
with homemade coconut pie, admire you when you look soft (handsome), giggle at your
jokes and weep when you leave (p. 21).
While Pattullo and Taylor may have been looking backwards, Sanders writing
about the state of the industry in 2007 pointed out the continuing existence of a racial
divide between ownership and management on the one hand, and workers on the other.
He notes that if the trend towards large-scale developments financed by overseas
entrepreneurs continues, the divide will worsen. He continues with the dire warning
that tourism may in fact become a plantation industry not dissimilar to the old sugar
plantations, with absentee owners, expatriate managers, profits sent abroad and locals
 relegated to wage earners only. And not unlike the plantation system, if the disparity of No plantation
benefits grows between foreign owners and local workers, revolts may occur starting work here
with industrial unrest but expanding to other forms of social instability (Sanders,
2007). Even some contemporary forms of hotels have the potential to bring back
memories of the plantation according to Stoddard and Cornwell (2000) who point
towards the plantation hotels that attempt to romanticise the plantation era for
commercial purposes. They argue that little thought is given to the feelings of those 81
descendants of slaves who must be part of the fantasy.
Critics therefore have painted a damning picture of the Caribbeans most dominant
industry. Cowell and Crick (2004) have argued that many of these arguments are based
on an outdated knowledge of the industry, but as the very recent analysis by Sanders
indicates, some critics believe that the industry continues to be racially divided and
exploitative in its practices. If the critics are right then this industry that is dependent
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on the willingness of employees to deliver outstanding service in a friendly and

positive way, will not do well. The negative associations of the industry will also lead
to tourism being thought of as a last resort for job seekers. Unfortunately the critics of
the industry make their case primarily on the basis of anecdotal evidence. There is
therefore no broad picture of the industry and its human resource practices. Without
this broader view it will always be possible to highlight a few cases that support the
view that hospitality jobs are akin to working on a plantation. This paper presents that
broader view. The next section describes the study that was conducted in three
Caribbean destinations.

The study
The study comprised of interviews with government tourism officials, hotel managers,
human resource managers, trade unionists and line employees (see Table I).
Interviews were conducted with all of the participants using structured
questionnaires. Hotel managers and human resource managers were interviewed to
determine their expectations of the behaviour of employees, rules governing employee
behaviour, their recruitment and selection strategies and the training given to help
employees to achieve these expectations, trade unionists were interviewed to determine
the extent of unionism in the tourism industry, the major problems that workers in the
industry encountered and the changes that they had seen in the expectations of
workers and the treatment of workers. Tourism officials were interviewed to determine
how the country was promoting and positioning its tourist industry and the challenges
that they faced with the labour supply of the industry. Hotel employees were
interviewed to determine their perceptions of their jobs.
Direct contact was made to the tourist ministries, unions representing hotel
employees and a request was made for an interview. Hotels were selected using the
destinations countrys web site and direct contact was made to the hotels general
managers using fax and telephone. Where there was an HR manager, this manager
was interviewed and where none was present the GM/owner was interviewed. The

Policy officials HR/hotel managers or hotel owners Trade union leaders Line employees
Table I.
10 15 6 79 Interviews conducted
 IJCHM goal was to include in the sample small hotels (less than 50 rooms), large hotels, locally
20,1 owned hotels, multinational chain hotels, European plan hotels and all-inclusive hotels.
The author randomly selected hotels from each category and cold called or used a
contact in the island to call and make the appointment. It was unfortunately not
possible to get a representation of all of the categories in the different destinations
because some hotels refused to be a part of the study. Managers were asked to
82 randomly select employees to be interviewed.

The sample
The three Caribbean destinations were selected as they represented different levels of
tourism development and type of tourism. While most destinations depended on the
three Ss sand, sea and sun and to some extent on a fourth S sex (Pattullo, 1996),
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individual destinations have sought to differentiate their tourism product by adding to

these four Ss. This is the case with the three destinations in this study.
Barbados and The Bahamas are both mature tourist destinations that appeal to a
cross section of tourists interested in the four Ss as well as heritage and culture. The
federation of St Kitts and Nevis emerging tourist destinations, are two independent
nations that market themselves together under the slogan two islands, one paradise.
Lacking any major attractions St Kitts/Nevis appeals to nature lovers and heritage
tourists. Both the Bahamas and Barbados are strongly unionised countries but Nevis
and St Kitts are less so, particularly in the small hotels that dominate the federations
hotel stock. All of the destinations are actively seeking to increase their room stock and
enhance the image of the destination by attracting foreign investors to build hotels. All
of the destinations are also trying to increase the level of repeat business by building a
reputation for service excellence that may be defined as world class. This is likely to
increase the centrality of employees in service quality according to Maxwell et al.
(2004).
To achieve service excellence hotel employees are often expected to be not only
efficient, but also anticipatory and responsive to the requirements of hotel guests. They
must also meet the needs of new tourists who reject the standardised packaging that
characterised the early days of tourism in the region (Poon, 2002). Authenticity is also a
goal of many visitors who wish to get behind the facade presented to visitors and to
understand more about the culture.
Tourists who want more out of a vacation than a suntan are likely to have different
demands on the people who serve them. In particular they may wish to engage them.
One response to this desire for a more authentic experience is for hotel employees to be
encouraged to befriend or at the very least to interact with guests rather than to remain
distant (Crick, 2002).
At the same time it is often difficult to get the best individuals to opt for hotel work
because of its negative reputation. Wood (1993) argues for example, that work in the
lodging and foodservice industry is seen as relatively low in status because of the
personal nature of the work. Guerrier (1999) proposes that hospitality work also has
this low status because it is associated with servility, it is seen as dirty work and is
often seen as womens work. She adds that the work is sometimes perceived as
providing lowly paid employment and working conditions while requiring unsocial
working hours.
 The question that this paper attempts to answer is whether in their attempts to get No plantation
employees to achieve world-class standards hotel managers are exploitative in a way work here
that is reminiscent of the harsh plantation era. The next section examines the context
in which these hotels were operated and their expectations of employees.

Findings
Hotel work the managerial perspective 83
Managers in the sample knew that they were in competition with every other hotel in
the world, and that a single negative experience could be recounted to millions with
just a few keystrokes. It was therefore necessary for these hotels to strive for
world-class excellence and at the very minimum, to fulfil the promises made to
customers. Their Caribbean location also meant that they were expected to live up to
specific expectations such as paradise, no problem man and friendly and
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welcoming people who always smile. Hotels were therefore in a business that was
much more than the provision of safe room and board. They were in the business of
creating memorable experiences and this required HR managers to find employees
capable of creating these experiences.
One of their major challenges was to attract what was often referred to as the
brightest and the best. Policymakers contended that this group of individuals were
not attracted to the industry and that in some cases parents and teachers were actually
steering their charges away from it. Some of the managers blamed the confusion
between service and servitude as being responsible for this lack of interest in the
industry. They also pointed out that the pool of potential employees saw tourism and
hospitality jobs as being primarily entry level jobs and in some destinations since there
were few very senior hospitality professionals who looked like the average local
person, the stereotype was reinforced.
The hotels in the sample were deliberately trying to change this image. In the large
hotels it began with the face of HR that was usually a local one. While many of the
owners and other managers were either foreigners or locals of European descent, there
were signs that changes were occurring. All of the hotels in the sample practiced
promotion from within for example. Managers also attempted to create positive
feelings about hotel jobs in two distinctly different ways external alliances and
human resource strategies.
External alliances. Hotel managers worked independently and through their local
hotel associations to try to create positive feelings in high school students at the point
when career decisions were being made. Strategies included talks by managers,
student tours of hotels and short hotel internships. Teachers, considered to be a very
strong influence on career choice, were also targeted in these outreach efforts.
Significant effort was made in these programmes to portray service work as anything
but servile.
Hotels also collaborated with other entities to try to build positive service attitudes.
One such effort was the National Initiative of Service Excellence (NISE) programme in
Barbados. The programme aimed to raise the level of service and competitiveness in
Barbados to world-class levels of excellence. The programme deliberately focuses on
the benefits to be achieved by all Barbadians if the country improves its service levels.
This focus on the individual and national benefits based was seen in other areas and
countries. For example the Bahamahost programme is a professional certification that
 IJCHM employees of the Bahamian tourist industry are required to attain. The programme is
20,1 described as being founded on the principles of personal fulfilment, national pride and
high professional standards in the industry. Significantly it also aims to build
self-confidence and awareness.
Programmes such as NISE and Bahamahost deliberately focused on the benefits to
the individual and tapped into important emotional values such as national pride in
84 order to achieve the goal of better customer service. This reflected the understanding of
the resentment and the harm caused by earlier promotions that focused only on the
tourist and ignored the feelings of those who served them. Current programmes
therefore attempted to answer the all important question of whats in it for me?
HR strategies. Hotels also appealed to the nationalism of employees by encouraging
them to see themselves as ambassadors not only of the hotel, but also of their country.
One HR manager of a large chain hotel for example expressed the desire that
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employees welcome guests with Bahamian hospitality. The focus on national pride
built on the platform created by numerous government promotions that emphasised
tourisms value to the economy. In the words of one hospitality official We focused
on building tourism awareness in the 1980s The challenge is how to get the same
message across in a different way. It is tapping into the natural pride and so on,
because Bahamians already love to show off their country.
Many of the large hotels focused on becoming an employer of choice in order to
enhance their ability to attract the best applicants. As part of this strategy, HR
managers therefore focused on the manner in which they carried out their programmes
as well as the programmes themselves. One HR manager believed for example that an
important part of the hotels success was that they were a family and deliberately
tried to reinforce the metaphor. From observation she and other HR managers in the
sample themselves often played the role of the stern but loving mother (there were no
male HR managers in this sample). Based on observations HR managers had a
comfortable and usually very friendly relationship with employees, and even in the
large properties knew them by name. They deliberately minimised status differences
and had an open door policy that appeared to function as planned.
Managers did not accept the view that tourism was necessarily a high turnover
industry and placed emphasis on employee retention. One hotel went as far as to state
in writing that the loss of any team member was considered to be a failure on the part
of the company. Unions, where they existed, were seen as an important partner in these
efforts to become an employer of choice. While managers might not have always
enjoyed their presence, they made every effort to work collaboratively with the unions.
Where unions were not present, it was clear that managers sought to treat their
employees so well that they would feel that a union was unnecessary. In any event all
employees had legal rights under the labour relations laws of the country and
managers wanted to avoid any serious disputes being aired in the public domain. They
therefore attempted to avoid disputes and when this was not possible, to settle them
amicably.
The high level of competition in the industry meant that employees were expected
not only to perform well but to be innovative, proactive and committed to their work.
Getting the right fit was therefore a priority and many HR managers used
psychometric testing or more commonly, interviews. Training and development for
line staff were very important and were ongoing. Most hotels also focused on
 leadership training that equipped supervisors and managers to motivate and guide No plantation
their workforce. work here
Managers also focused on engendering ownership of guest problems in every
employee irrespective of job function or department. The concept was often explicitly
included in employee credos and handbooks and constantly reinforced. One hotel for
example ran a programme called Yes I Can for line employees, and one for managers
called Leading Yes I Can with the goal of reminding employees of the attitude that 85
they were expected to adopt when dealing with guests. Another hotel purchased a
programme that reminded employees that even the simplest action could have an
important effect on the lives of others. Newsletters and magazines kept employees in
touch with what was happening in other departments and were also used to reinforce
the hotels values. Placards, posters and pocket cards were also used for the same
purposes.
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Smaller hotels could not afford to adopt these strategies but had their own ways of
building commitment and involvement. Most had a very short hierarchy that consisted
of owner/manager, supervisor and line employee but these were often meaningless
titles when the hotel was busy. In fact owner/managers often carried out line and
supervisory duties as the need arose. This intimate working relationship could build
commitment and one manager even argued that her hotels success stemmed at least
partially from the fact that employees knew that managers had absolutely no difficulty
in doing anything that might be required to keep the hotel running.
Managers in the small properties were also likely to refer to the relationships within
their hotels as family and while this is an overused phrase, it was an appropriate one
for two reasons. First, in the small hotels many of the employees were genuinely
related to one another. Secondly, turnover was low so employees got to know and
understand each other very well. They also depended on one another for assistance
when it was busy and understudied one another when they just wanted a break from
the routine of their regular job. Owner/managers encouraged this cross training and
themselves exposed responsible employees to aspects of their own work. Through this
cross exposure employees learned to identify with each others work and with the
hotels goals.
Out of necessity the small hotels often empowered employees to go beyond their job
descriptions and promotion was relatively easy. Just as smaller hotels appealed to a
special type of visitor, they appealed to a special type of employee. Employees who the
small hotels attempted to attract were friendly, adaptable, flexible and above all
committed to service whenever and wherever it was required.
Hotel managers therefore paid significant attention to the way in which they treated
employees. They had clear goals about the type of behaviour that they wanted to see in
employees and they developed a culture that encouraged and supported those
behaviours. There was little evidence of a coercive work environment because this
would not have benefited the hotel. In both the small and the large properties managers
aimed to have employees understand their goals and to support them. For them it was
much more helpful to design a harmonious culture in which everyone worked. These
were the intentions of managers but it would be important to determine what
employees perceived their work environments to be like. Their views are discussed in
the next section of the paper.
 IJCHM Hotel work the employees perspective
20,1 Less than 5 per cent of the sample of employees interviewed had considered hospitality
work as a career when they were in school, confirming the concerns of managers. Hotel
work had only come about when for some reason their first choice was not available.
Despite this, employees in the sample did not have a negative view of their jobs. To the
contrary, they viewed them in a positive light with some even referring to the job as a
86 calling that was suitable only for people with special qualities.
When asked to name the best thing about the job virtually all respondents indicated
that it was the interaction with guests. Employees seemed to derive a type of energy
from this interaction for several reasons. First, the interaction with visitors created
diversity and interest. As one employee pointed out excitedly It is constantly
changing different seasons, different people . . . Christmas, Old Years Summer . . . it
is a different type of industry. Another employee described these interactions as
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fitting her need for spice and variety.

Second, the interaction with visitors was challenging since their diverse
expectations, needs and personalities meant that employees constantly had to think
about how to respond to them. One respondent even described the best part of the job
as involving problem solving. The challenges made the job interesting according to one
employee who explained you meet new people every day some are troubled and
some are okay, but it is interesting. The job was also fulfilling as explained by this
employee you feel good at check out when they are leaving and you know that you
have done a good job for them. Just being there for the guest was also important
according to one employee who explained that it was enjoyable to be the first and last
person that the guest saw.
The job was also enjoyable because of the learning and growth involved. Employees
explained that they learned about new cultures and more importantly it seemed, they
learned about themselves and their own abilities to manage people and situations. For
example, a telephone operator who dealt with a lot of complaints enjoyed the
knowledge that at the end of the interaction she could calm the guests and meet their
requirements.
There were of course unpleasant parts of the job. Managers were described by some
employees as being unsupportive of them when guests complained or failing to
respond quickly enough when additional resources were needed. Difficult guests were
also another source of frustration. In the interviews, however, it was clear that while
employees could readily describe the best parts of their jobs, they often had to ponder
before responding to the question about the worst parts. Moreover, the worst parts
were often described as to be expected or even reframed as opportunities for learning
and growth.
As indicated in Table II, employees did not agree that their jobs were demeaning or
discriminatory and they did not believe that they were required to change themselves
or to fake feelings on the job.
Results of this study therefore suggest that employees generally felt good about
their jobs particularly because they were able to create specific feelings in the lives of
other people. This emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983) appeared to be somewhat
empowering since it allowed employees to make a difference in the lives of others and it
allowed them to be authentic while doing so.
 No plantation
Statement Mean SD
work here
I was expected to change my physical appearance to work in this industry 2.3 1.1
There is pressure on me to speak differently when I am work 2.3 1.1
Most of the time when I am on the job I am playing a part and I am not myself 1.9 0.8
You have to be a good actor to do this type of work 2.5 1.2
Sometimes I feel hypocritical doing this job 2.3 1.0 87
There is some amount of discrimination in this industry 3.4 1.0
Tourism work is demeaning at times 3.1 1.3
Table II.
Notes: 1 completely disagree, 3 unsure, 5 completely agree Employee responses

Discussion and conclusion

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An earlier section of the paper identified a number of characteristics of the plantation

including autocratic leadership, one-way communication, stratification and the
dehumanised depiction and treatment of employees. The results of the study do not
provide a lot of support for the concept of hospitality work taking place in a modern
day plantation.
Managers in the study seemed to focus on developing work relationships that were
empowering and intrinsically motivated. Unlike the work of the plantation that is
heavily regulated and circumscribed, work in this study was flexible. Managers
intentionally shared information with employees about their strategies and tried to win
commitment to these strategies. Managers also moved deliberately to remove barriers
between employee groups and between levels within the organisation and tried to
encourage cooperative work among all team members or associates. There was
little support for autocratic leadership styles in the industry. Rather than coercing
employees, managers sought to engage them in the service process and to seek their
participation in achieving the hotels goals.
While there is a colour difference between those who own and manage hotels and
line employees, this did not appear to be a major issue among employees interviewed.
Managers at all levels of the industry had apparently done such a good job that
employees saw the customers as their real boss and therefore were more focused on
them than on the people who had the formal title of manager or owner. Moreover the
focus on national pride encouraged them to view themselves as hosts and guests as
their personal visitors.
What explains the positive approach to human resource management and the
positive results found in this study? There are perhaps four reasons the
dissemination of HR best practices, the presence of strong unions, governmental
intervention and the exigencies of the situation.
Most of the larger hotels in the sample had highly qualified and experienced human
resource practitioners who were clearly aware of the relationship between good
internal and good external customer service. Moreover in the larger hotels they were
actively benchmarking the industry leaders. Those hotels that were part of an
international chain were of course connected to their human resource practices and
were expected to adhere to the spirit of these practices, making only those adjustments
that were required to adapt to the conditions of the local environment.
 IJCHM The unions that established detailed procedures for HR also reduced the likelihood
20,1 of ill treatment. The practice of benchmarking meant that even non-union properties
tended to adhere to these procedures. While there were of course disputes, these were
generally resolved quickly and the presence of the guidelines meant fewer disputes
since all of the parties knew the boundaries.
Governments also played a critical role in creating a positive HR climate. All of the
88 governments had active internal promotional campaigns that promoted the benefits of
the industry as well as the expectations of visitors. The training and promotional
programmes had moved away from Smile programmes to programmes such as
Bahamahost that focused on developing the self-esteem and knowledge of tourism
workers. Governments were also deliberately favouring the large-scale resort
developments that could command higher room rates and thus lead to higher skilled
and better paying jobs. While these large scale developments have been criticised for
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keeping out the less affluent local investors, they did have the positive effect of
bringing international standards of human resource management into the destinations
and setting a benchmark for all of the operations in the destination.
Finally, the local environment played a significant role in fostering positive human
resource practices. The discussion so far has focused on the larger properties which set
the tone. The smaller properties however had to be responsive to the environment.
Lacking the resources of the larger properties they had to depend on other means of
attracting and retaining employees. The autonomy given to employees and the
participative leadership style was their way of doing so. Employees who might be lost
in a large hotel property carried out supervisory functions and made decisions in these
smaller properties. The easy relationships that employees were able to enjoy with
managers and guests were in themselves empowering and a form of intrinsic pay.
Smaller hotels of course had few options because they had so few staff members. It was
therefore a win-win for managers and line employees. In the larger hotels the shortage
of qualified labour also forced them to adopt these positive Human resource practices.
While unemployment was a reality in all of the destinations, the managers in this
sample were adopting world-class standards and therefore wanted the best employees.
Becoming an employer of choice was one way of attracting and retaining these
employees.
In conclusion therefore the case for plantation management in the sector is a weak
one as far as the hotels in this sample are concerned. While there is always scope for
improvement, hotels have largely moved away from autocratic leadership styles and
rigid job descriptions to a culture that empowers and involves employees. The study
found few differences and many similarities between destinations but a more detailed
review, perhaps including focus groups might be instructive. It would also be
interesting to determine why, despite the efforts of governments and hotel associations
school leavers are still not being motivated to enter the industry. Finally, the study
should be replicated in the non-English speaking Caribbean where a different cultural
history and different practices may make a difference.

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Corresponding author
Anne P. Crick can be contacted at: anne.crick@uwimona.edu.jm

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