La relación entre el soft law y las fuentes formales del Derecho

2.5.1.4.Talent is the sum of individual qualities: Competencies, commitment, and contribution

Talented workers are high performers who possess the competencies (required by the organisation), commitment to the organisation, and also have performances that are recognised by others (Michaels et al, 2001; Ulrich & Smallwood, 2012).

While some of the qualities required of talented workers in the workplace are well understood, the researcher would like to clearly identify the qualities of talented workers within the context of the Thai hospitality industry. The reasons for focusing on these are: the uniqueness of the industry and the background of the Thai context.

2.5.2.Talent Retention: The Importance of Talent for Organisations and Industry

Talent is regarded as the most important resource for achieving organisational success (He, Li, and Keung Lai, 2011; Huselid et al, 2005; Lawler, 2005; 2008; Michaels et al; 2001). This is because they can contribute much better performance compared to their co-workers (Goleman, 2006; Iles et al, 2010; Lunn, 1992).

More-so for the hospitality industry, especially in hotel sector; it is customer oriented and relies heavily on labour to meet the customer satisfaction. Thus, there is a general consensus that the quality of employee performance is the most influential factor on customer satisfaction (see Lee et al., 2015 and He et al., 2011). Having the right talent or quality workers is one of the key elements for business success (He et al. (2011). This also appears to have a significant impact on customer repurchase intentions and customer loyalty. In the hospitality industry, customer experience of services is highly dependent upon personal interaction between employees and customers (Mullins, 1998). As facilities and amenities are duplicated from hotel to hotel, the positive attitude and behaviour of employee can contribute to a favourable impression of the hotel (Lovelock et al., 2005).

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Since the hospitality industry is highly reliant on human resources, it therefore becomes imperative that they should pay a great deal of attention to the issue of employees, and in particular in the quality of its employees. One sure way is to identify, recruit and retain ‘talented’ employees. The recruitment and retention of ‘talent’ is also a function of managing employees’ expectations and satisfaction especially in the hotel industry where turnover of hotel employees tend to be very high (Mullins 1998). Thus, in this thesis, I will particularly focus on retaining talent.

2.5.2.1.Retention in Practice: Motivation and Drivers of Talent

Talented workers are unique individuals and therefore need to be treated differently from ordinary workers (e.g. Thorne & Pellant, 2008, p.81). Thus we have to understand what managers and owners of hotels identify as the drivers and motivation of their talent.

It is noted that in order to effectively retain talent, organisations have to consider among other things the career choices of talent and the needs of talent in order to encourage them to commit and stay with the organisation. These motivation techniques can be classified into extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Extrinsic motivation is external compensation (e.g. money, promotion), while intrinsic motivations are related to talent’s personal fulfilment (e.g. recognition, praise feedback, participation in decision-making, etc.). It is concluded that in order to retain talent effectively, the organisation have to consider that the talented workers are driven by the combination of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. In the case of the hospitality industry extrinsic motivation plays a more important role in motivating and attracting talent (Allen, 2008; Björkmanet et al, 2013; Govaerts et al, 2011; Hughes and Rog, 2008; Lehmann, 2009; Throne & Pellant, 2008).

However, as talented individuals are unique in the workforce they need to be treated differently from ‘normal’ workers, thus in the case of the hospitality industry we will investigate how Thai hotels motivate talent in order to keep them within the hotels.

86 2.5.2.2.Factor influencing talent retention

Both internal and external factors influence how organisations retain talent, and this includes definition of talent and retention practice (Beechler &Woodward, 2009; Hudoyo, 2014; Minbaeva & Collings, 2013; Poldech& Pimonsangsuriya, 2012b; Siow, 2013).

- Internal Factors: such as organisational policy, image of organisation, nature of job image; organisational culture

-External Factors: such as labour force demographic decline, global economic condition and competitiveness, national culture.

The question here is what influences how talent is defined in hospitality industry and the way to retain them?

2.6. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Context and Hospitality Industry

The tourism industry (hospitality industry) is one of the largest economic industries in the world (World Travel &Tourism Council, 2014b). This is especially so in some developing countries such as Thailand. This thesis focuses on the hospitality industry, and more specifically on the hotel sector; and examines how hotels define and manage talent. The focus on this sector is motivated by the formation of AEC, and the threat that is likely to be posed to the Thai hotel sector.

This section will discuss the aims of the AEC (which was due to be fully introduced in 2015) and will briefly discuss how this may affect the Thai hotel sector. The section will initially present an overview of AEC. Then we will link AEC with the Thai tourism industry through discussing about Thailand — e.g. geography, climate, and culture. After that, we will focus on the importance of the tourism industry in general and how it contributes to the world economy; and more specifically focusing on the tourism industry in Thailand. This will be followed by a more specific focus on the hotel sector (which is the main sector

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within the hospitality industry). The hotel sector is the focus of this research. Through this discussion, we will paint a picture of why this research focuses particularly on talented workers in this sector; and how the threat of AEC was the driver for the need to focus more on talented workers in Thailand.