Seasonality and Flexible Labor in Resorts: Organizations, Employees, and Local Labor Markets

Abstract

Seasonality, a chronic problem in the resort industry, is addressed in this seven-year participant observation and in-depth interview study of five Hawaiian resorts contiguously arrayed along a sandy beachfront strip. In order to operate profitably, these organizations must keep their labor costs trimmed as they move through annual cyclical fluctuations that place different labor demands on each department. We examine their use of various kinds of "flexible" employees, including both seasonally contingent and adaptable full-time workers. We examine the way these organizations expand and constrict their labor force annually. Studies of contingency labor have shown the benefits of this solution for organizations but have ignored the effects of labor flexibility on employees and local labor markets. In this article we take this broader view, looking at the integration of organizations, employees, and local labor markets and the way their interplay is forged in symbiotic and exploitive ways to maintain a system of human resources that reinforces a stratified social relations of production.