Ethics in Tourism and Hospitality Industry Report

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Codes of ethics in tourism and hospitality industries
Moral standards
Utilitarian based ethics
Justice
Work place environment
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Ethics in the tourism and hospitality industries is a crucial concept much needed in driving a business. It is a crucial element in guiding strategic goals, short term as well as long term goals and objectives for a company’s sustainability. Empirical research studies indicate that ethics refers to rules that govern the general conduct and operations of a particular business establishment.

So, let’s discuss how ethics and social awareness have influenced the tourism and hospitality industry.

Business ethics take different forms and are applied at all levels and stages of its operation and management. According to ethical theorists, it is an essential practice for organizations to assimilate practices that generate positive and gainful outcomes. The emergence of these innovative approaches reflects the importance of ethics in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Frechtling and Boo (2012) state that generally applied operational principles should provide an assurance to decision makers on particular business decisions taken in accordance to defined rules and regulations of the practice. Majority of organizations do fail to achieve their maximum potential due to scouring implications of poor ethics.

In any case, this appears to be a global trend. In addition, there are myriad of key questions related to ethics in tourism and hospitality that ought to be addressed. For instance, how far should business ethics employed in an organization?

How should professional ethics be employed to achieve the highest level of both performance and organizational well being? How can professional ethics be measured? It is against this backdrop that this paper explores ethics in tourism and hospitality industry by evaluating codes of ethics.

Codes of ethics in tourism and hospitality industries

The ability to effectively articulate high levels of ethics in tourism and hospitality industry is a key determinant of the capacity for the aforementioned sector to trace its missions, achieve the set goals, objectives and visions as well as establish the best organizational cultures that anchor high levels of productivity and profitability.

Ethics based on ethical theories and principles in organizations dictate the manner in which internal and external relations are employed and coordinated. In particular, Hudson (2007) emphasizes that the driving force towards achieving the highest level of performance is critical at all levels in both hospitality and tourism industries.

Ethics in a company creates a crucial sense to both workers and clients that a company has them at ‘heart’ and therefore strongly wins the need for creativity, innovation and future sense of sustainability.

Though some managers indicate that indeed they appreciate the critically of employing professional ethics, Hudson (2007) indicates that majority of them are indeed unsure of the extent to which they should apply it.

According to Kim and Miller (2008), tourism and hospitality industry is one of the most crucial industries that perhaps require observance of the highest possible levels of ethical practice on a day-to-day basis.

Sustainable tourism and hospitality are indeed integral factors that create the need for increased understanding of ethics, proactively assess the expected impacts, analysis of the best possible alternatives and holistic multi-stakeholders involvement in promoting and reducing positive and negative implications respectively.

Kim and Miller (2008) are of the opinion that due to the high sensitivity of this industry,most managements have equally tried to maintain high levels of professional ethics in their operations.

Moral standards

Acting morally as exemplified by ethical theorists remain central in building a cohesive business environment and anchoring local and international development (Upchurch, 1998). Though classical theorists remain in agreement that both hospitality and tourism businesses always act ethically in their operations, they strongly differ in their underlying tenets of ethics.

One of the key observable considerations of the tourism and hospitality industries is the high levels of ethical standards that are evidenced in their operations. Pointing at the need to be the best service providers, the different managements of the industries have over the years anchored their demand for development on good relationship with their clients and customers.

While relation with the consumers has been perceived as the most critical aspect in the success of tourism and hospitality, Yeung (2004) indicates that the relationship between the industries and their employees has been very crucial.

According to the virtue theories, employees and their employers are supposed to adhere to high levels of virtues as a platform for character development and good habits assimilation in the organization. In agreement with Yeung, Gjerald and Øgaard (2010) indicate that a remarkable growth can only be accredited from high moral standards in the internal operations of a business.

Utilitarian based ethics

In agreement with the above argument, one of the greatest contributions of Emanuel Kant to concur with Ingram (2001) is his principle of considering employees as important ends and not means. Through this argument, Emanuel Kant strongly differed and deviated from utilitarianism proponents who are only interested by the end results.

At any time, business actions, in this case tourism and hospitality industry actions, should be focused on the expected results as well as the manner and effects it would have in achieving the best possible results.

At this point, actions must be based on correct motives that ultimately translate into the consideration of treating employees morally and in accordance with ethical requirements according to the argument put forward by Fennel and Malloy (1999).

Correct actions must therefore be guided by values that lead to positive achievement of set goals and objectives and not merely considering the end product (Upchurch, 1998). Therefore, this principle requires an industry to be capable of determining the correct means in achieving the expected good (end results).

Both tourism and hospitality industries appear to be strongly guided by utilitarian based ethics because they strongly focus on the process and do not just consider the end results to be their driving force (Hultsman, 1995). Emanuel Kant in his utilitarian model argued that the only ethical action is that which is underlain by goodwill (Fennel & Malloy, 1999).

From this consideration, application of ethics by both industries is largely based on deep values and the need to achieve the best, notably, even when the end results remain unclear. A good example is the intent and underlying goodwill that tourism industry exhibit by establishing its own standards to address global warming.

While indeed global warming is a worldwide phenomena and all stakeholders must reduce their emissions if greenhouse gases are to be reduced, tourism industry’s move is strongly based on good will because so many other companies are indeed not reducing their emission levels.

The principle is further brought out by the method the industries employ to deal with workers in its facilities. Payne and Landry (2005) explain that workers in the tourism and hospitality industry are encouraged, trained, and developed as a means towards fostering their commitment.

This has been found to be a necessary tool since working with untrained and possibly unprofessional staff is not admissible. From the training process, the industry has managed to maintain high creativity and profitability over the years. It is this culture that has donned the industry positively in the public domain and to be cited as one of the most profitable ventures both currently and in the future.

Justice

In terms of justice, Göran and Wood (2005) point out that the notion of ethics cannot be complete without an intrinsic consideration of whether it is justified or not. This ethical code should be based on the platform of ensuring that all people are treated equally and therefore no due advantage is taken against any party.

Therefore, all the applications of operation in tourism and hospitality industries must be based on fair treatment and strict observance of the established internal and national laws especially those governing various codes of ethics.

According to Macbeth (2005), the need to maintain a strong and effective system of management that generates high productivity and profitability requires a holistic legal framework for guiding the process.

At this point therefore, the author strongly suggest that management teams must resist any possible forces of corruption and other favors that may entice them to act unfairly to one or more parties.

Work place environment

Analysts generally agree that provision of the correct working environment forms one of the most critical aspects that dictate the efficiency of different operations in an organization. Any workplace environment is by far and large, critical towards the implementation of specific goals and objectives of an organization.

By providing a highly supportive environment to employees, Malloy and Fennell (1998) are quite categorical that it serves as a key motivating facet towards increasing the holistic creativity and innovation that is needed in supporting higher levels of productivity.

In other words, desirable business ethics should be based on the need to create an equal opportunity for all while providing the best environment for operation and creativity to anchor higher productivity and profitability.

This is indeed one of the major platforms that have been employed by tourism and hospitality businesses to increase commitment and hard work among their employees.

Taking into consideration that employees are the most critical elements in these organization, both industries have integrated work place ethics to ensure their employees are comfortable and in safe environments. This according to Marnburg (2006) anchors greater efficiency in their operations at all levels.

Conclusion

To recap it all, this paper concludes by supporting the thesis statement that ethics in tourism and hospitality industries are crucial concepts in driving business growth and therefore are important elements in guiding strategic goals, short term, and long term focus for business sustainability.

From the essay, it is definite that observing ethics in the tourism and hospitality industry remains as a very critical component which is needed in generating the much needed harmony for higher production and profitability.

In addition, the ability to articulate higher levels of ethics in tourism and hospitality industries is a key determinant of the capacity to trace the set missions, attaining visions as well as establishing the best organizational culture that anchors high level of productivity and profitability.

This calls for urgent need to develop a sharp focus towards ensuring that customers’ needs are effectively met. Moreover, creating a satisfied workforce through promotion and safeguarding of human rights alongside improving human resource capabilities culture through training.

References

Fennel, D.A., & Malloy, D.C. (1999). Measuring the ethical nature of tourism operators. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(4), 928-943.

Frechtling, D. C., & Boo, S. (2012). On the ethics of management research: An exploratory investigation. Journal of Business Ethics, 106(2), 149-160.

Gjerald, O., & Øgaard, T. (2010). Exploring the measurement of basic assumptions about guests and co-workers in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 22(6), 887-909.

Göran, S. & Wood, G. (2005). Corporate ethics in TQM: Management versus employee expectations and perceptions. TQM Journal, 17(2), 137-149.

Hudson, S. (2007). To go or not to go? Ethical perspectives on tourism in an outpost of tyranny. Journal of Business Ethics, 76(4), 385-396.

Hultsman, J. (1995). Just tourism: An ethical framework. Annals of Tourism Research. 22(3), 553-567.

Ingram, A. (2001). Human resource management in the hospitality industry. The Service Industries Journal, 21(2), 191-192.

Kim, N. Y., & Miller, G. (2008). Perceptions of the ethical climate in the Korean tourism industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(4), 941-954.

Macbeth, J. (2005). Towards an ethics platform for tourism. Annals of Tourism Research. 32(4), 962-984.

Malloy, D.C., & Fennell, D.A. (1998). Codes of ethics and tourism: An exploratory content analysis. Tourism Management, 19(5), 453-461.

Marnburg, E. (2006). “I hope it won’t happen to me!” Hospitality and tourism students’ fear of difficult moral situations as managers. Tourism Management. 27($), 561- 575.

Payne, D., & Landry, B. J. L. (2005). Similarities in business and IT professional ethics: The need for and development of a comprehensive code of ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(1), 73-85.

Upchurch, R. S. (1998). Ethics in the hospitality industry: An applied model. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 10(6), 227-233.

Yeung, S. (2004). Hospitality ethics curriculum: An industry perspective. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(4), 253-262.

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