Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

Posts

How will the hotel industry change after COVID-19? (by Seunghyeon Bae)

The hotel industry is one example of many industries that were hit by the influence of COVID-19. The impact of the coronavirus on the lodging industry has been enormous, with travel-free environments leading to a drop in overall metrics for hotels around the world and a significant decline in monthly hotel revenue per available room, as well as average daily rates and occupancy. But Pandemic has also reinvented its business, including providing new opportunities for the hotel industry. What changes did the pandemic bring to the hotels? The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to affect changes in the type of travel, accelerating the individualization and miniaturization of tourism activities. As the tourism experience becomes richer, there is a trend of changing from group tourism to individual tourism, and COVID-19 is expected to strengthen the tendency to prefer small-scale individual tourism or free travel that can trust mutual safety rather than group tourism. Furthermore, as the dem

Immigrant-owned Small Businesses and their Handling of Human Resources (by Jocelyn Chung)

Growing up in a household of first-generation immigrants, my parents had seldomly followed American societal norms. They run a small shop in the heart of Little Saigon in Westminster, CA, selling phone cards, lottery tickets, and water, with a laundromat running in the back. Given that they are a business of 10 employees, my father had never felt the need to hire a Human Resource (HR) Specialist to produce a standardized process of maintaining employee-employer relations. When issues come up, he, as the owner, would need to handle them – from staffing schedules, recruitment processes, as well as disciplinary action. While large corporations have created a system to tackle such issues, most small businesses do not have access to the same resources to resolve similar problems. What issues may arise for mom-and-pop shops without an HR department? Corporations with many employees require structures and processes to maximize their efficiency with conflict resolution and risk management. T

Why Do Employees Leave Their Jobs? (by Lesley Garcia)

How long has the restaurant industry been treating their sick workers with no guilt? How many times have customers treated workers in the hospitality industry terribly ? As I was browsing online for the perfect article for my paper, I came across an article from Grub Street, “ The Restaurant Industry has always treated sick workers with no remorse ”. As someone who has worked in restaurants for the past years, I can confirm that what this article expressed about this situation was a real thing. When I used to work at Restaurant X, I never missed one shift, but sooner or later, I realized that other employees would call off because they were feeling sick. I remember my shift supervisors would let the General Manager know about a sick call-out, but in a way, the upper management sounded more bothered than worried because the sick employees could not make it to work. Additionally, this becomes a problem with customers as well because many call-outs create a place with slow service. Custo

The Great Resignation in the Hospitality Industry (by Nathalie Gardea)

The hospitality industry, like other sectors, has been affected by The Great Resignation, one reason that causes low staffing during COVID 19. Currently, many businesses are struggling with low staffing and dealing with higher turnovers. Many workers within the industry were "forced" to reconsider their positions and job roles due to the high demand for work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a total of 1,705,000 job openings were available in the leisure and hospitality industry in February 2022. Additionally, there were 919,000 job separations in the accommodation and food service industry. So, why are hospitality companies struggling with recruiting new workers? The main reason why few people apply for hospitality jobs is the amount of mental stress the industry holds. When returning to work, many also began revaluating their occupations and careers. When COVID 19 cases rose, many employees started experiencing an elevated level of stress and job burnout. Gene

Generation Z in The Workplace (by Adrian Laksmono)

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the COVID-19 pandemic caused hardships for individuals and families. During the beginning of the pandemic, “ tens of millions of people lost their jobs.” Job insecurity has led people and workers to reevaluate their lives and careers, which led to the event known as The “Great Resignation.” The Great Resignation is a pandemic-era event and is named in regard to the 44% of employees planning to look for a job or those who are already looking for a new job. This pandemic-era phenomenon has made it difficult for businesses that are trying to recover from the pandemic and are not able to find labor as unemployment rates are high and there is a shortage in the labor market. The most prominent group of people who are willing to resign and move on are those born between 1997 and 2012, or Generation Z. Coincidentally, they are also the ones entering the workforce in the pandemic setting. Those categorized as Generation Z look for

Wage Difference Between Genders (by Angelina Kim)

As of 2022, there is still a noticeable wage gap between men and women. While a male is earning a dollar, the average female earns around 82-83 cents. Although this may not seem like that big of a difference, women are losing close to 20 cents of their pay compared to their male coworkers. Despite the continuous debate on this issue, for the past 15 years, there has not been much of a change in how the average woman is still earning less than the average man in a similar job. Those who argue for the difference suggest that the reason for this difference is because of the lack of experience or consistency women experience in the work field because of their temporary leave. In a large number of families, women leave or take breaks from their jobs due to raising their families and taking care of the household. Due to this reason, there are many instances where employers are seeing that female workers have been on unemployment for an amount of time. When it comes to performance, there is