Recruitment and selection practices, person–brand fit and soft skills gaps in service organizations: the benefits of institutionalized informality

TY - CHAP

T1 - Recruitment and selection practices, person–brand fit and soft skills gaps in service organizations

T2 - the benefits of institutionalized informality

AU - Hurrell, Scott A.

AU - Scholarios, Dora

N1 - This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in Branded Lives: The Production and Consumption of Meaning at Work, authored by Scott. A. Hurrell and Dora Scholarios, published in 2011, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only.

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - Brand management is usually associated with how organizations present themselves to customers or develop product brands (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2002), but recent interest in employer branding draws attention to employees and potential recruits as important stakeholders (Gapp and Merrilees, 2006; Lievens et al., 2007; Van Hoye and Lievens, 2005). Identity-based brand management is suggested as essential if employees are to behave in ways that are consistent with a brand philosophy and remain committed to this brand (Burmann and Zeplin, 2005). Within the HRM literature, research has shown employers’ increasing emphasis on recruitment as a vehicle for building an employer brand (CIPD, 2007) and ‘brand image’ is regarded as part of a signaling process which informs potential employees of an organization’s attributes and reputation (Cable and Turban, 2006; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003). In this chapter, we focus on the hospitality industry, which is widely accepted to suffer from high levels of skills deficits and employee turnover, especially in the ‘soft skills’ that are essential for customer service. Within this sector, businesses often distinguish themselves through the creation of service brands. Contrasting two hotel establishments with distinct brand identities and different degrees of reported soft skills deficits

AB - Brand management is usually associated with how organizations present themselves to customers or develop product brands (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2002), but recent interest in employer branding draws attention to employees and potential recruits as important stakeholders (Gapp and Merrilees, 2006; Lievens et al., 2007; Van Hoye and Lievens, 2005). Identity-based brand management is suggested as essential if employees are to behave in ways that are consistent with a brand philosophy and remain committed to this brand (Burmann and Zeplin, 2005). Within the HRM literature, research has shown employers’ increasing emphasis on recruitment as a vehicle for building an employer brand (CIPD, 2007) and ‘brand image’ is regarded as part of a signaling process which informs potential employees of an organization’s attributes and reputation (Cable and Turban, 2006; Lievens and Highhouse, 2003). In this chapter, we focus on the hospitality industry, which is widely accepted to suffer from high levels of skills deficits and employee turnover, especially in the ‘soft skills’ that are essential for customer service. Within this sector, businesses often distinguish themselves through the creation of service brands. Contrasting two hotel establishments with distinct brand identities and different degrees of reported soft skills deficits

KW - recruitment

KW - work organisation

KW - skills

KW - service organisations

UR - https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/branded-lives

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781849800921

SP - 108

EP - 127

BT - Branded Lives

A2 - Brannan, Matthew J.

A2 - Parsons, Elizabeth

A2 - Priola, Vincenza

CY - Cheltenham

ER -