Ethics in the Hospitality Industry
Introduction
As a result of the continually changing competitive environments, tourism and
hospitality organizations must come up with ways to stay ahead of their competitors
other than the conventional ways of lower prices, more services related to a sell or better
products. Nowadays most customers believe that competing services and products are
reasonably alike in terms of quality. Tourism and hospitality managers are realizing that
competing on the basis of price alone leads to an erratic market and uneven profits.
Hospitality and tourism organizations are responding to this by creating collaborative
relationships and better partnerships with their consumers. In relation to these
relationships there has been a lot of discussion in the last few years regarding ethical
practices by hospitality and tourism businesses. Largely it has been supposed that those
businesses that do what is ethical and moral to their employees and clients generate
long-term benefits (Wallace, 2008).
Some organizations view ethics as a constraint on their profitability, they are of
the view that profits and ethics are inversely proportional. It is indeed true that adopting
ethical practices may reduce the company’s profits. However, the long term effect on
the organization’s profitability is positive. A reputation for ethical practices in any
business activity can be a competitive edge. High organizational ethical practices can
significantly contribute to productivity by minimizing the cost of business transactions,
establishing customer loyalty, creating trust with suppliers, maintaining social capital
and successful team of employees. Hospitality managers’ ethical perceptions often
change and are complicated by certain factors such as demographic structure, religion,
values, customs, manners, family and culture (Peceri, 2010).
Morals and ethics are often used interchangeably; ethics refer to a rules of
behavior that is based on moral obligations and duties, indicating how people should
behave. It distinguishes what is right from what is wrong and promotes people to do
what is right. Morals on the other hand refer to what to what is right and good conduct
and character. Some of the values that define ethical principles include honesty,
trustworthiness, integrity, fairness, keeping promises, fidelity, caring for others,
accountability, pursuit of excellence, leadership, responsibility and respect for others.
All hospitality professional should possess these values as they are critical in the success
of any organization (Stevens, 2008).
Ethics in Hospitality Industry
There is a growing concern for business ethics in the hospitality industry as
hospitality professionals are faced with ethical dilemmas in their daily operations.
Complex and interesting ethical issues affect this broad industry whose business ranges
from restaurant operations to tourism-based businesses. By virtue of its nature the
hospitality industry places customers and employees in tempting situations as well as
attracting abuse. Opportunities to steal arise in several occasions mainly because of the
widespread cash transactions and the sector’s vulnerability to dishonesty. Some of the
ethical challenges faced by hospitality managers today aren’t new and have been taking
place for a long time. For instance in 1898 Caesar Ritz and his Auguste Escoffier
manager and chef respectively were discharged from London’s Savoy Hotel for
accepting less weighing food deliveries and extorting commissions from suppliers
thereby using the hotel for their own gain and profit (Fennel & Malloy, 2008).
Currently hospitality managers keep on facing these and other complex
employee honesty issues on a regular basis. Interviews with hospitality managers about
the daily challenges they face in their operations evoke numerous ethical problems
between customers and employees, employees and employer and employee and their
colleagues. It is important to note that managers face a difficult task deciding what is
ethically right and may sometimes be controversial. The increase in diversity as well as
multicultural backgrounds in the hospitality industry makes ethical issues even trickier.
Managers often face accusations of theft, harassment, discrimination on the basis of
age, gender, race and belief often leading to complaints that may result in lawsuits. The
cost of legal actions is enormous and time consuming, no hospitality organization
wishes to face a lawsuit (Peceri, 2010).
Since the right ethical action is not often clear, hospitality managers must gain a
deeper understanding on various ethical issues and learnt different ways of dealing with
them when they arise. A lot of people deem unethical or questionable behavior
indispensable to get ahead and often makes one feel as if others are dishonest.
Researchers have disclosed that some people consider themselves to be more ethical
and moral than their colleagues in the workplace. A combination of these factors with
the hospitality sector high turnover and regular use of part time employees are indeed a
recipe for ethical issues. Concern for ethical behavior in the hospitality sector is quite
obvious. The hospitality industry can also initiate considerable changes in the physical
environment. World Travel and Tourism Council (20002) clearly identified hospitality
industry impacts as involving water consumption, energy consumption, chemical use
and atmospheric pollution, purchasing and waste water management.
Ethics in the Tourism Industry
Tourism is currently one of the top industries driving the global economy, with
virtually all countries having an increase opportunity to play a part either as the source
market or the tourist destination. The tourism industry operates in a very complex
environment, as a result of this there is a growing concern on its negative social and
environmental impacts. Tourism managers are faced with numerous ethical dilemmas
that arise in the daily operations of tourism businesses. By nature tourism industry
products to a large extent depends on cultural and environmental resources. The
industry involves activities that are continuously interacting with the natural systems
(Costello & Hogan, 2002). For instance tourists crave for scenic and secluded
accommodation leads to increased clearance of various natural areas for the purpose of
developing hotels and resorts. Additionally the transportation of tourists from one
attraction site to the other results in the use of fossil fuels which release a considerable
amount of air pollutants and other greenhouse gasses. Organic and solid wastes
produced by the hospitality industry may contribute to environmental pollution.
In addition to the interactions with natural systems, tourism activities involve
both direct and indirect contacts between local community and tourists. Agro-tourism,
eco-tourism and home stay tourism involve direct interaction between the host
community and the tourists whereas mass tourism has a lesser direct involvement. In
both situations, however, contacts between host communities and tourists cause various
problems such as importation of new culture and lifestyle, over-commercialization of
cultural commodities and conflict of values. Most of these problems are ideally ethical
in nature as they lead to pollution, economic imperialism, depletion of natural resources,
environmental degradation as well as sexual abuse.
As a result of these numerous ethical issues, there is has been a global
acknowledgment of the need to think about the concept of sustainable or responsible
tourism. Sustainable tourism is that form tourism that creates better places for tourists
to visit and local community to live in. This form of tourism broadens the concept of
sustainable or eco-tourism to include environmental, ethical and social considerations.
According to World Tourism Organization (2002) responsible tourism is a form of
tourism that relates all types of tourism with reverence to the destination, built, cultural
and natural environment and the interests of all the involved parties. This form of
tourism reduces harmful environmental, social as well as economic impacts, creating
more economic benefits for the host communities and improving the overall interests
of the destination. Various countries such as India, Gambia, Sri Lanka, America and
United Kingdom as well as tourism organizations are by now practicing this form of
tourism.
The indispensable link between tourism and hospitality industry and the social
and physical environments implies that the industry survival largely depends on its
capacity to not only maximize its benefits but also reduce its negative impacts on the
societies and environments. The quality of interactions between the local community
and tourist will lessen significantly, if the natural settings of hospitality and tourism
activities is degraded, polluted or lose its aesthetic qualities due to poor planning and
development. Likewise tourism and hospitality businesses may lose their appeal due to
social problems such as prostitution, alcohol abuse, drugs and increased crime. Hence,
the mitigation of these social problems is very vital in order to prolong the quality of
tourism and hospitality services (Hall, 2000).
It is certainly not possible to solve all the social and environmental negative
impacts mentioned above. Nevertheless, the key players in the hospitality and tourism
industry can choose to pursue expansion in a manner that allows them the chance to
respond to the changing societal structure and international environment positively
while simultaneously being swift to respond to the practices and values of sustainable
development. In the last few years responsible or sustainable tourism has emerged as a
key trend globally as consumer market trends shift towards ethical consumption.
Hospitality organizations are starting to recognize that promoting their ethical position
can be of great importance as it enhances their profits, public image, management
effectiveness as well as employee relations
