Does internal reality impact external image? The sad but true story of hotel employees who do not consider their organisations a good place to work

Abstract

Where we work, who we work with, how we get along with work colleagues and how others view our job is important to us all. While the hotel industry admits to struggling to attract and retain well-qualified, skilled labour, this may be impacted by the internal image of the industry – internal reality impacting external image. For 1,547 hotel employees, the reality in terms of commitment, communication, trust and influence - their hotels Organisational Social Capital (OSC) is ‘neutral’; they neither think is good nor bad, therefore potentially impacting recruitment, retention and productivity. It’s time for a managerial paradigm shift in terms of improving OSC to secure a better future for employees and the industry!