Tourism in Libya is perceived as the best long-term alternative to the oil industry upon which the country's economy has been heavily dependent. Hotels are a key element in the tourism industry. This study focused on developing a model of workforce analysis (WFA) for the Libyan hotel sector to support the development of Libya as an internationally competitive tourism destination. Specifically, the objectives of this study were: to explore tourism development in Libya and critically analyse Human Resource Development (HRD) strategy proposed in the Libyan Tourism Master Plan (LTMP) for the Libyan hotel sector; to carry out a critical review of literature to identify HRD issues in the tourism and hospitality industry as well as alternative models of workforce planning (WFP) to inform adaptation of a unified theoretical model; to identify Human Resource (HR) issues facing the Libyan hotel sector and establish congruence and dissonance between the hotel sector, Hospitality Education Institution HEI and government views on these issues and to develop a best practice WFA model appropriate to the needs of the Libyan hotel sector. This study was carried out in four main stages. The first stage involved an extensive literature review to generate a background and develop a theoretical framework for the research. This study adopted a case study approach (Yin, 2003), incorporating semi-structured interviews with hotel managers, HEI staff and government officials. The second stage involved the use of the Delphi technique to build consensus on the best practice WFP model for the Libyan hotel sector. The third stage involved conducting further semi-structured interviews with hotel managers, HEI staff and government officials to identify key WFP issues within the Libyan hotel sector. The fourth stage provides recommendation to solve the existing human resource problems facing the hotel sector and WFP implementation strategy. The study concludes that there are some major HR issues facing the Libyan hotel sector, including: recruitment and selection; skills gaps; inadequate practical training; minimum opportunities given to overseas workers; role of public and private sector in HR development; shortage of qualified academic staff; outdated curricula; inadequacy of LTMP; funding of Libyan HEIs; lack of co-operation between the hotel sector, HEIs and the government; leakage of graduates and academic staff and poor image. To tackle these HR issues, this study proposes a best practice WFP model for the Libyan hotel sector. The WFP model comprises seven elements: the government; the hotel sector (demand side); the HEIs (supply side); gap analysis; workforce development plan (WFDP); implementation strategy and evaluation. The main contributions of this study include: the understanding of the key HR issues confronting the Libyan hotel sector; the application of Delphi technique to build consensus on the essential elements for WFP model for the Libyan hotel sector and the development of a best practice WFP model.

The vision of 2020 for Oman focuses on two main areas; the first area is to diversify the country's economy away from its reliance on oil. The second area is to focus on the Omanisation Plan (OP) through development and increasing the Omani workforce in all different sectors in the country. Tourism in the Sultanate of Oman as an alternative to dependence on oil has become one of the economic engines for the country's development. Hotels are a corner stone in the tourism industry. This study focused on the implementation of the Omanisation Plan in the hotel sector, and enhanced understanding of the issues relating to hotel employment in an Islamic/Omani context which threatens the feasibility of economic diversification through tourism for the Sultanate of Oman. This study adopted a case study approach, and was carried out in four stages. The first stage was the analysis of extant literature and documents to develop a theoretical background for the research. The second stage involved document analysis as well as incorporating semi-structured interviews with government official and tourism experts to explore the extent of the implementation of OP in the hotel sector. The third stage involved conducting semi-structured interviews with hotel employers and hotel employees to explore the main constraints that impact on the recruitment and retention of Omanis in the hotel sector, and the main social and cultural factors and the Islamic doctrines limiting the implementation of OP in the sector. Final stage was to provide recommendations to address the employment issues in the hotel sector. The study concludes that there are different issues facing the hotel industry in the Sultanate as any other country in the world such as: labour turnover and poor staff retention, issues of recruitment and selection, lack of job continuity and job security, low remuneration and poor working conditions, qualifications and training, and skills gaps and skills shortages, and lack of foreign language skills. Conversely, the industry in the Sultanate has its other issues with regards the social and cultural issues as an Arabic and Islamic country. These issues summarised as: religious issues, family and social attitudes towards hospitality careers, image of the industry amongst Omani society, and hospitality career reputation. Although these issues can be evident elsewhere in the world, however in terms of religion; these issues can be only unique to Arab and Muslim countries. Notwithstanding, these issues are shared by other Arab and Muslim countries, yet, the extent of applying these principles varies from person to another in the one society and from country to another. The main contributions of this study include its pioneering contribution to the body of knowledge of the Omani employment profile in the hotel sector in the Sultanate of Oman. This study is the first study in the Sultanate to explore the employment issues in the hotel industry in terms of exploring the social and cultural issues relating to the industry, as well as the Islamic perspectives of working in the hotel industry.

Training within the hospitality industry is a widely-debated issue with different stakeholders having differing views depending on their background and representation in the debate. This industry is therefore no different to other industries in the opinions that predominate. What is clear however is that the hospitality industry in the UK is currently suffering from an acute skills shortage. This study is concerned with analysing the attitudes of some of these key stakeholders towards the types of training that are employed in hospitality, and whether these approaches are suitable as training paradigms. The study focuses specifically on attitudes in Southeast Wales amongst employers, educators and training providers using a case-study methodology. The research was undertaken in three phases. The first two phases of the study were concerned with assessing the attitudes of the employers. In phase 1 local employers were initially questioned using a focus-group approach. The results informed phase 2 which involved a series of individual interviews with employers from a range of hospitality sectors (including hotels, restaurants, fast-food outlets, public houses, motorway service stations, and catering services outlets) across Southeast Wales. A typology of the vocational training models used in the different sectors, with clear identification of the perceived effectiveness and acceptability of these models to the different employer groups, was developed. The research findings from phase 1 and phase 2 were also developed into a pictogram which represents the key features influencing training within SMEs and larger hospitality companies. A recurring theme during the first two phases was the contrasting employer attitudes towards NVQs as a suitable training model. Phase 3 of the research explored these attitudes further by involving other stakeholders involved in NVQ delivery – the educators and training providers - as well as assessing whether attitudes in Southeast Wales are different to, or representative of, a larger geographical area. A series of individual interviews were therefore conducted with educators and training providers in Southeast Wales, the rest of Wales, and England. The results indicated that attitudes do not differ based on location, but instead several key themes were identified that were common to the participants. Phase 3 of the research also involved a quantitative approach to explore these themes more fully using a larger sample size. An e-questionnaire was sent to representative further education lecturers, higher education lecturers, and training providers across Wales and England. The results concluded that there are perceived strengths with the NVQ model, but that the weaknesses are significant and many respondents would welcome the introduction of an alternative training model. The study concludes by proposing an alternative model and making recommendations for future developments in hospitality skills training.

This qualitative research study explores the hotel franchising relationships and the psychological contract and develops a model of success factors of hotel franchising relationships. There is a rich franchising literature, but little work that focuses on hotels. Three main issues on hotel franchising relationships are identified i.e. hotel franchising triggers; psychological contract and hotel franchising; hotel franchising lifecycle and phases. Various authors have highlighted the importance of managing franchising relationship and applying a systematic approach to evaluate it at regular intervals. Existing franchising lifecycle models and psychological contract models have also been criticized as in need of updating to design a comprehensive model of the success factors of the hotel franchise relationship. A multiple case study approach was adopted involving document analysis and semi-structured interviews with hotel franchisors and a number of their franchisees to explore how hotel franchisors and franchisees approach the issues of hotel franchise lifecycle, phases and psychological contract. This study explores the nature of the relationship between franchisor and their franchisees in each phase of the hotel franchise relationship. The findings illustrated the important aspects which the franchisor and the franchisees should follow in each phase in order to have success in their relationship. These findings led to the development an initial model of hotel franchise success factors. Additionally the findings stressed the necessity of developing polices and practices used by the psychological contract to be more helpful for the success of hotel franchise relationships. This research uses cross-case analyses to identify the gaps between cases; and the gaps between franchisors and their franchisees. The conceptual framework is used as a tool to structure the layout of the analysis. This led to the development of a success model for the hotel franchise relationship. The researcher developed the final model based on the way franchisors and franchisees approach hotel franchising relationship aspects. This model tries to make a relationship between tangible and intangible issues in each phase of the hotel franchising relationship in order to achieve the research aim. This strategy resulted in the identification of success factors affecting the hotel franchise relationship. The final model should be used by franchisors and franchisees to develop their own relationship management model which addresses their own needs since it can vary from one hotel to another.

Research into Environmental Management System (EMS) started appearing in the late 1990s with most of these studies focusing on its driving forces, costs and benefits and EMS itself. In the hotel and tourism field, very little research has been done about EMS except for a few studies on environmental management, such as environmental protection practices and environmental performances of hotels. Recognising this, this research aims to explore and evaluate the application of EMS in the hotel context and the impact of EMS on hotel employees whose working attitude directly affects services to guests. An extensive review of the literature on environmental management and environmental management systems identified various approaches to EMS. To develop a richer and deeper understanding of the application of the six core EMS elements identified in the hotel context and its impact on hotel employees, a qualitative case study was employed in which data was collected from an international hotel, from three levels of employees: executive, supervisory and general. A series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews was conducted and relevant documents were collected for analysis, with the company's consent.

The research reported in this thesis investigates the impact of the effective use of management practices on performance and productivity in the hotel industry, a low skilled, labour intensive service activity, with an especial attention been paid to Human Resources practices. This research was motivated by a need to understand how service sector activities are organised for high-performance, acknowledging its importance to the economy in terms of number of employees and contribution to the GDP. This research stands in the confluence of two distinctive but complementary research traditions: one arising from HRM and the other from productivity studies.

This study investigates the effect of cultural intelligence of front-line service employees on foreign guests’ perceptions of service quality. This relationship has not hitherto been investigated. The literature suggests that culture and interactions between customers and employees affect service quality. The literature also shows that, in cross-cultural encounters, attitudes and behaviours are important aspects of cultural intelligence, employee performance and service quality. It also points to interrelationships between these constructs. A theoretical model was developed which suggests that in these encounters, cultural intelligence is likely to affect service quality through employee performance. A novel methodological approach consisting of a pilot study and two stages of empirical research were undertaken in international hotels in Karbala, Iraq. The first, qualitative stage was in the form of interviews to gain an insight into the service interactions. Thematic analysis of the data supported the theoretical model and pointed to additional causal relationships. The model was tested in the second quantitative stage. A self-report cultural intelligence questionnaire was administered to a sample of local employees (N=201). A new job performance questionnaire was designed and administered to hotel managers (N=53) to assess these employees’ performance. A SERVPERF questionnaire was also given to foreign guests (N=469) who were served by these employees. The dimensions of these measures were determined by principal components analysis (SPSS 22), and their adequacy was estimated using confirmatory factor analysis (Lisrel 8.8). The model was tested using hierarchical multi-regression analysis. The findings showed that employee performance mediated the relationships between cultural intelligence and service quality. Another main contribution is the development of an employee performance scale for use in service encounters. The study adds to the crosscultural service literature and to research methodology design. Its implications for management and employee training were discussed, as well as its limitations. Further research was also suggested.

This study investigates how managers contribute to the strategy of their firm, specifically focusing on an occupational group of hotel managers. Following the call of the Strategy-as-Practice (S-a-P) research community for heightened awareness of the managers' role and contribution to strategy, and based on the observation that strategy formation is context-specific, it attempts to generalise about the managers' contribution within a specifIc context. Generalising about the practitioners' contribution to strategy is problematic, however, requiring a conceptual linkage between managerial activity and organisational strategy. Drawing upon the S-a-P literature and the literature on managerial work activity, this study suggests that the managers' response to uncertainty provides that integrative link. This is supported by a simplifying assumption, namely the unitary view of organisation, whereby the central role of the managers within a firm is assured, assuming that power is concentrated upon them. The research inquiry itself spans levels of analysis: the level fof the individual manager, the organisation, and the organisation's context. In turn, it requires breadth to account for the reciprocal influence among those levels of analysis. This need is accommodated by a case study approach. Nine independent hotels from the island of Crete were chosen as the sample for the study, while the data collection methods used included observation, interviews and document analysis. The results show that the hotel managers' contribution focuses on developing valuegenerating strategies for their firm; a necessity as they are at disadvantage: they are fragmented, in a saturated sector, equipped with an undifferentiated product, and ultimately reliant upon their suppliers to reach their markets. Value-generating strategies are developed through the management ofthe intangible resources ofthe firm and by building a positive history of collaboration with the suppliers. In addition, the managers' contribution is inextricably linked to their everyday activity, which supports the development ofvalue-generating strategies. It is argued that an activity-based view of strategy can unearth some otherwise unobservable constructs that become apparent only through its micro-analytic approach. A focus on practitioners and their contribution can also be an additional level of analysis in strategy research, perceiving strategy formed through the practitioners' activity. As such, strategy can be redefmed as an outcome, formed at multiple levels, with strategy practice (or the practitioners' activity) to partly account for that outcome. Generalising about the managers' contribution to strategy requires a trade-off, a choice between content and context specific generalisations. This choice ultimately depends on the reference group of practitioners in question, which delineates the boundaries of the context. In pluralist organisational contexts, that reference group is confined within the organisation's boundaries. On the other hand, unitary organisational contexts allow the selection of wider reference groups. In either case, only local generalisations can be made, taking into account the bounded nature of strategy formation. The study concludes with an analysis of its contribution to the existing body of knowledge, its limitations, and further proposes potential avenues for future research.

Organizational culture has been a long-standing area of research in more traditional business management research, however to date few, if any, studies have attempted to consider how employees are servicing each other within an organization's own cultural environment. In an innovative attempt to link organizational culture (OC) to internal service quality (ISQ), this thesis develops a case study of three hotels in Malaysia based on in-depth interviews and a semi-quantitative technique, Profile Accumulation Technique (PAT). The thesis reports evidence from 36 semi-structured interviews with managerial and operational staff, complemented by 320 PAT responses. For this study, Ogbonna and Harris' (2002) framework is used to demonstrate how and where organizational culture can affect employees' ISQ performance. The concept of ISQ in hotel is based on Caruana and Pitt (1997), Paraskevas (2001) and White and Rudall (1999) but a free response PAT by Johns and Lee-Ross (1995) was used in examining the ISQ where qualitative data was collected and yet assessed quantitatively, as it provides an alternative to Parasuraman et al.'s, (1988) conventional survey questionnaires. A qualitative technique was used to construct a nine dimension organizational culture profile (OCP), and PAT analysis was used to draw a nine dimension Internal Service Quality Profile (ISQP) for all the organizations. The main findings from this thesis suggest that the linkage between OC and ISQ is weak and the evidence suggests that different types of OC have different levels of impact on the employee ISQ. Their basic organizational practices are quite similar but the emphasis varies, based on organizational needs and affordability. Employee background, such as national culture, seems to play a lesser role in influencing organizational cultures. Some of the observable trends are that the higher star hotels, for example, employ a sophisticated recruitment and hiring policy while the l s higher staff turnover. The initial understanding of the link between OC and ISQ may benefit managers in the industry through replicating or benchmarking some of the positive practices to ensure better service provider and service receiver relationships in an organization.

This study addresses the renovation and repositioning activities of the hotel industry. Specifically, the primary focus of this study is to explore to what extent hoteliers deal with renovation as a repositioning tool, to explore the perception and practice of hoteliers, architects and interior designers about repositioning and renovation and to identify and analyse some aspects of the renovation process in hotels. The study is exploratory and descriptive based on a quantitative and qualitative approach. This methodology is used to elicit and represent existing practices as well as hoteliers' perceptions regarding concepts of renovation and repositioning and the relationship between them. The research had a two-phase design which progressed from a survey (phase one) to exploratory interviews and multiple case study (phase two). In other words the research moved from the general to the specific. The primary research took place in Egypt. For the first phase, three different questionnaires were designed. The first questionnaire was for the hotel General Managers, the second one was for the hotel Marketing Managers, and the third was for the Architects, Building Contractors, and Interior Designers which make up the external parties involved in the renovation process. The findings of the survey identified three avenues that have to be considered for the second phase. First, six successful renovation projects in large hotels were selected as multiple case studies. These case studies illustrate that there are different reasons that make renovation essential for hotels. Secondly, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with the owners of 3* hotels since they were seen to be the main barrier to renovation in most three star hotels according to the quantitative survey's findings. The third avenue involved conducting ten semi-structured interviews with hotel inspectors of the Egyptian Hotel Sector as their influence was a main reason to renovate in most three and four star hotels. The study finds that renovation is used in the hotels operating in Egypt as a reactive; rather than a proactive; marketing tool. The research findings suggest that international hotels are utilising renovation as a repositioning tool more than national and local hotels. In addition, the findings reveal that there is a wide gap between the public and private hotel sectors in Egypt.