Contingent management plans awaiting a contingency: the GFC and workplace change in the Australian hotels sector

Abstract

The global financial crisis (GFC) has had a major impact on individuals, companies and countries. This paper reviews literature on managerial strategies in economic downturns, focusing on corporate downsizing. Empirically, the paper examines managerial strategy within one sector of the Australian economy – the luxury hotels sector. While much of the Australian economy has survived the GFC well compared with many other nations, hotels faced the double burden of reduced international travel and reduced domestic corporate demand. In the face of these concerns, we examine the way that managers at three different organizations attempted to ameliorate the impact the GFC would have on their business, while maintaining a positive experience for as much of their contingent labour as possible.

Keywords:

• Australia
• global financial crisis
• hotels
• human resource management
• people management

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor John Burgess for his helpful comments and suggestions in developing this paper, in addition to Professor Julia Connell and the anonymous referees. This research has been funded under the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant Scheme (LP0989151) with the support of the Queensland Government's Private Sector Industrial Relations group. In addition, Georgina Cohen provided excellent research assistance throughout the course of the project.