IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM INDUSTRY

WHY ETHICS IS SO IMPORTANT IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY?

Competitive Industry  If Customers and Employees are dissatisfied they leave fast  When
you do any business, TRUST is the main key for success  Profits and Ethics are inversely
proportional  long term effect on the organization’s profitability is positive  May reduce
the company’s profit4. BENEFITS OF ETHICS IN HOSPITALITY

 contribute to productivity by minimizing the cost of business transactions

 establishing customer loyalty

 creating trust with suppliers

 maintaining social capital

 successful team of employees

BASIC ETHICAL PRINCIPLES FOR HOSPITALITY MANAGERS

1. HONESTY Hospitality managers are honest and truthful. They do not mislead or
deceive others by misrepresentations

2. INTEGRITY Hospitality managers demonstrate the courage of their convictions by

doing what they know is right even when there is pressure to do otherwise

3. TRUSTWORTHINESS Hospitality managers are trustworthy and candid in

supplying information and in correcting misapprehensions of fact. They do not create
justifications for escaping their promises and commitments

4. LOYALTY Hospitality managers demonstrate loyalty to their companies in

devotion to duty and loyalty to colleagues by friendship in adversity. They avoid
conflicts of interest; do not use or disclose confidential information; and, should they
accept other employment, they respect the proprietary information of their former
employer

5. FAIRNESS Hospitality managers are fair and equitable in all dealings; they neither
arbitrarily abuse power nor take undue advantage of another’s mistakes or difficulties.
They treat all individuals with equality, with tolerance and acceptance of diversity,
and with an open mind

6. CONCERN AND RESPECT OF OTHERS Hospitality managers are concerned,

respectful, compassionate, and kind. They are sensitive to the personal concerns of
their colleagues and live the Golden Rule. They respect the rights and interests of all
those who have a stake in their decisions
 7. COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE Hospitality managers pursue excellence in
performing their duties and are willing to put more into their job than they can get out
of it

8. LEADERSHIP: Hospitality managers are conscious of the responsibility and

opportunities of their position of leadership. They realize that the best way to instill
ethical principles and ethical awareness in their organizations is by example. They
walk their talk!

9. REPUTATION AND MORALE: Hospitality managers seek to protect and build

the company’s reputation and the morale of its employees by engaging in conduct that
builds respect. They also take whatever actions are necessary to correct or prevent
inappropriate conduct of others

10. ACCOUNTABILITY :Hospitality managers are personally accountable for the

ethical quality of their decisions, as well as those of their subordinates

Ethical Principles for Tourism andHospitality Managers

Honesty
Integrity
Trustworthiness
Loyalty
Fairness
Concern and Respect for Others
Commitment to Excellence
Leadership
Reputation and Morale
Accountability

Honesty
To be honest means that we behave honorably –thatis, according to the principles of
honesty and integrity.

To have integrity is to be morally sound, and to bemorally sound requires honesty in all
situationswhether anyone knows about it or not.

Our personal and business lives are not reallyseparate. We want to be able to trust the people
wedo business with.
If we have been lied to, cheated, or stolen from, wemost likely will not continue to
patronize that business.

Instead we will probably tell other people about ourbad experience, perhaps even for years
afterwards.

We do not do business with corporations such asKFC or Imperial. We do business with Joe
or Cindy,or whoever the person is that serves us, cleans ourroom, or checks us in.

They are the faces who flesh out and represent thebusiness, although it is management
who ultimatelyis responsible for their behavior.

As managers, we must not only hire people whohave the capacity to behave honestly, but
then wemust train them to behave honestly.

Since the managers are very visible, the best wayto go about this is to model honest behavior
forthem.
At the start of our professional lives, it is sometimesdifficult to care or even think about the
state of our future reputation.

The daily decisions we make determine how weturn out in the long run, and when we are old
andgray it is too late to change the things we may besorry for.

To be honest is to not lie, cheat, or steal. To behonest we have to be able to honestly look
atourselves and recognize our lies, our cheating, andour thefts –and to correct those
behaviors.

Integrity

Tourism and Hospitality managers demonstrate the courage of their convictions by doing
what they know is right even when there is pressure to do otherwise.

To refrain from cheating on an exam and get a lower grade than someone who did cheat can
seem unfair.

To do more than others yet still get the same pay or grade can make us angry and resentful.

To have integrity is to do the right thing –follow all the ethical rules –no matter
what anyone else is doing.

To have integrity is to honestly appraise our own feelings and motivations, and then follow
the rules regardless of any outside pressure.

Because we make ethical choices every time, people can predict what we will do or say in
most situations.

Integrity implies wholeness –that our behaviour matches our values.

As managers, if our behaviours do not match our values, employees will quickly learn what
kind of actions get rewards and that is what they will do.

Integrity means that our actions are not selfish and that our decisions are made objectively
with out justifications and excuses.

Trustworthiness

Tourism and Hospitality managers are trustworthy andsincere in supplying information and
in correctingmisapprehensions of facts. They do not create justifications for escaping their
promises andcommitments.

We are social beings, and without each other wecould not survive.

Business is also about relationships betweenemployees, managers, regional and

corporatemanagement, local staff members, suppliers,competitor, and the surrounding
community.

Trust is the fundamental issue in relationships andrelies on two components: the ability to
predictbehavior and the existence of similar values.
To be able to trust people or organizations,we must be able to predict their behavior85-90%
of the time.

When someone’s actions do not match hisor her words, we should always choose to believe
the person’s actions.

M a n a g e r s w h o a r e i n c o n s i s t e n t – w h o o n e minute are nice, the next angry, who

say something we do is fine one time and say it i s n o t f i n e t h e n e x t t i m e – c a n n o t
b e t r u s t e d because we cannot predict their behavior.

If we go to work for a company whose values are different from our own, we may find
ourselves uncomfortable with our responsibility to model and enforce certain policies we do
not agree with.
Is the person’s behaviour generally predictable? Do we have similar values?
Understand that if we do not endeavour to answer these questions in our personal orbusiness
lives, the relationships we experience may end in pain and frustration.
Loyalty

Tourism and Hospitality managers demonstrate loyalty to their companies in devotion to

duty, and loyalty to colleagues by friendship in adversity. They avoid conflicts of interest; do
not use or disclose confidential information; and, should they accept other employment, they
respect the proprietary information of their former employer.
We cannot be loyal to someone with whom we have no trust. Feeling of betrayal and
disappointment occur when we fail to recognize that someone is not worthy of our trust.
Loyalty is the glue that bonds people together in communities, organizations, or families.
If there is no loyalty between management and employees, or between employees and the
company, self-interest and fear for survival can take precedence over the goal.
When we are loyal, we are trusting that the organization has our best interests at heart.
If we do not trust the organization, our loyalty will most likely dissipate, taking with it the
sense of community and belonging that enables is to care about what we do.
Trustworthiness inspires loyalty, and loyalty is the bond that holds organizations to get her so
they can meet their goals.
Fairness

Tourism and Hospitality managers are fair and reasonable in all dealings; they do not
arbitrarily abuse power, nor take undue advantage of another’s mistakes or difficulties. They
treat all individuals with equality, with tolerance and acceptance of diversity, and with an
open mind.
We expect the same pay for equal work. We want the credit we feel we deserve. We want
our fair share, and when we don’t get these things we say, “That’s not fair!”
We all recognize what is unfair when it happens to us, but this can sometimes be a narrow-
minded reaction.
We need to stand back and consider the larger picture: Does what one person deems fair
treatment come at the expense of another?
Unless we seriously reflect on our beliefs and where these beliefs came from, we may not be
aware that our attitudes are biased.
These unexamined beliefs and attitudes can result in unfair behaviour; and when
perpetrated by management can facilitate a reduction in employee performance.
It causes resentment, lowered morale, increased turnover; and ultimately equates to
less success for both the manager and the business itself.
When we have honestly identified our strengths, weaknesses, and beliefs, and then chosen
a company whose values are compatible with our own, we must then manage with
consistency.
In that way our employees can learn to trust us and maintain a reasonable expectation of
fair treatment.

Concern and Respect for Others

Tourism and Hospitality managers are concerned, respectful, compassionate, and kind.
They are sensitive to the personal concerns of their colleagues and live the “Golden
Rule.”They respect the rights and interests of all those who have as take in their decisions.
When concern and respect is mirrored in all the company’s policies and decisions, employees
respond in terms of longevity and loyalty.
We need to be aware that although we each have our own unique qualities, strengths, and
weaknesses, we are more alike than not. We all have the same emotions and feelings.
Because a person is uneducated and of a lower socioeconomic class does not mean that he or
she does not feel joy, fear, love, anger, compassion, and so forth. In fact, emotional maturity
does not have anything to do with job status.If we fail to exhibit compassion to an employee
in the midst of some personal crisis, we run the risk oflosing an otherwise good worker; who,
once through the crisis, may return to his or her prior consistent performance. We, as
management, have as much chance of finding ourselves in a life crisis situation as any of our
subordinates.
The Golden Rule;““Do unto others as you Do unto others as you would have others do unto
you would have others do unto you””.
To live the Golden Rule means we must consider how our actions will affect others and then
imagine ourselves as the others being affected by our actions. If we would not mind it
happening to us, then we may go ahead with the action.
The benefits of living the Golden Rule are that our employees will not be retaliating or
reacting negatively to our behaviors. They will feel better; work better; and be moreloyal to
the company.

ealize that we are capable and thatwe can and should do good work all thetime.

Commitment to Excellence

The choice to do our best at all times is oursand ours alone to make.

Excellent work is not, however; valued byeveryone. An excellent worker with athreatened
manger, though, may find thegoing too rough under these circumstancesand decide that they
would be best servedby finding employment elsewhere. Self-preservation is sometimes the
only avenueopen to us.