دانلود مقاله ISI انگلیسی شماره 4641
ترجمه فارسی عنوان مقاله

آیا ما نمی توانیم با هم کنار بیاییم ؟ احساسات و هدایت تجربه تیم در گردشگری ماجراجویانه

عنوان انگلیسی
Can't we all just get along? Emotions and the team guiding experience in adventure tourism
کد مقاله سال انتشار تعداد صفحات مقاله انگلیسی
4641 2013 9 صفحه PDF
منبع

Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)

Journal : Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, Available online 25 April 2013

ترجمه کلمات کلیدی
- ماجراجویی راهنما - تداخلات تیم - مدیریت گردشگری - مردمنگاری - تجارب عاطفی
کلمات کلیدی انگلیسی
پیش نمایش مقاله
پیش نمایش مقاله  آیا ما نمی توانیم با هم کنار بیاییم ؟ احساسات و هدایت تجربه تیم در گردشگری ماجراجویانه

چکیده انگلیسی

Despite the volume of research identifying the importance of experiences and emotions in consumption and the impact of tour guide behavior on client experiences, investigations of guide experiences in adventure tourism destinations are limited. In particular, the impact of guide-to-guide interactions, rather than guide-to-client interactions, on experiences is needed. This study investigated interpersonal interactions and emotional experiences that occurred while working in a river guiding team in an adventure tourism destination. Critical incident data was collected by an adventure tourism guide over 112 days and used to inductively analyse emotional experiences and patterns in guide-to-guide relations. Findings highlighted potential factors associated with the experience of both positive and, more frequently, negative basic emotions in the adventure team guiding interactions in this study. This investigation appears to be the first analysis of the emotional experience of team guiding in adventure settings. The importance of studying guide interactions, implications of the findings for tourism destination management and operators, and future research directions are discussed.

مقدمه انگلیسی

Despite the increasing prominence of emotions and experiential perspectives in tourism research and management (e.g., Ritchie and Hudson, 2009 and Tung and Ritchie, 2011), emotive aspects of adventure tourism guiding require further investigation. Emotions are essential drivers of adventure tourism experiences, however, only a limited number of empirical studies have focused on adventure tourists' and guides' experiences (e.g. Arnould et al., 1998, Carnicelli-Filho et al., 2010, Gyimothy and Mykletun, 2004, Holyfield, 1999, Holyfield and Jonas, 2003, Houge Mackenzie et al., 2011, Houge Mackenzie et al., 2013 and Houge Mackenzie and Kerr, 2013). A seminal study in this vein was Arnould and Price's (1993) investigation of ‘extraordinary’ whitewater rafting experiences that examined emotive and symbolic elements of adventure tourism consumption. More recently, Faullant, Matzler, and Mooradian (2011) demonstrated the importance of emotions such as joy and fear in mountaineering adventure tourists' experiences. As adventure guides play a key role in tourists' destination experiences (e.g. Holyfield, 1999), it is important to also understand guides' emotional experiences. Research has largely overlooked a fundamental aspect of adventure guiding: the emotional experience of guiding in teams. The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 reviews literature related to adventure guiding experiences and emotions. This review integrates adventure-specific studies with a summary of adventure team guiding issues and general research documenting co-worker conflicts. A brief overview of guiding quality standards is also provided to contextualise the study. Research on emotions is then reviewed and we conclude with the research objectives. Section 3 describes the novel use of autoethnography in this study, data collection, and analysis. Results are presented in Section 4, followed by limitations in Section 5. Discussion and management implications are proposed in Section 6.

نتیجه گیری انگلیسی

One of the most pressing needs resulting from the growth of global tourism is successful management of diverse employees (Moscardo, 2004). The impact of interpersonal interactions on employee well-being has been studied extensively in organisational psychology across a range of industries. Instrumental and affective social support received from co-workers has been shown to positively influence job satisfaction and productivity, and reduce burnout, while perceptions of unfair treatment are associated with low levels of job satisfaction and high levels of psychological distress (e.g. Baruch-Feldman et al., 2002, Ducharme and Martin, 2000 and Sloan, 2012). Thus far, tourism research has focused on the impact of tour guides on customer satisfaction (e.g., Huang et al., 2010, Mak et al., 2011, Pomfret, 2011 and Van Dijk et al., 2011), rather than examining guides' emotional experiences, co-worker interactions, and their impacts on organisational indicators. The current study began to address these knowledge gaps. In line with a large body of adventure literature, data highlighted that high intensity positive emotions may accompany adventure team guiding experiences (e.g. excitement, pride, happiness). More importantly however, this study identified that adventure guides may also experience frequent high intensity negative emotions, such as anger, frustration, and anxiety. Specifically, the negative emotions reported in this study were associated with conflicts within guiding teams, which often stemmed from different approaches safety and operational aspects of adventure guiding (e.g. client training, group management, accepted guiding practices, guide roles). This finding supported one of Buckley's (2010, p. 322) main conclusions regarding river trips: “Most far-reaching in their effects are communications between guides, especially those involving operational decisions.” Although Buckley was referring to the importance of these communications in managing risks, the current study extended these findings to account for their potential impacts on guides' emotional experiences and well-being. Some data also indicated that language difficulties and perceptions of cultural or gender differences could be associated with negative emotions while guiding. This inference suggests that Cater's (2006) conclusion (i.e. guide–client interactions can be strained by differences in language, cultural norms, attitudes, and risk perceptions) should also be evaluated in team guiding interactions. These findings may also contribute to our limited knowledge base of emotional labour in adventure settings. While repetition and emotional acting for clients and has been linked to emotional exhaustion (Sharpe, 2005), our results indicate that team guiding interactions and associated emotions may merit further consideration in the emotional labour and adventure tourism literature. Data suggested that repeated team guiding interactions over a tourism season may be at least as intense and exhausting as the emotional labour associated with more ‘superficial’ short-term interactions with clients. This is an important avenue for future research considering that some of the strategies identified for coping with intense emotional experiences in tourism settings (e.g. separating self from the group, interacting with colleagues; Sharpe, 2005) may not be as readily available or effective in coping with essential co-worker interactions. In addition to traditional customer service training, strategies associated with emotion management (see Bolton, 2005 for review) and improving communications amongst adventure guides in team guiding situations may effectively reduce emotional demands. More information regarding emotional experiences during team guiding should be gathered across destinations and activities to inform the development of these strategies. The study results also have relevance for adventure tourism destinations and operators in terms of staff performance. Positive mood has been shown to increase attention to task demands, creativity, and cognitive flexibility (e.g. Isen, 2004). Adventure activities involve heightened risk that demands high levels of task attention, cognitive flexibility and, frequently, creativity to ensure safety. Thus guides' emotional experiences should be considered on a par with physical health. The data highlighted instances wherein negative emotions, stemming from poor guide communications or interpersonal conflicts, may have compromised customer service. Conversely, positive emotions resulting from cooperation and harmonious team interactions appeared to improve customer service. The current findings suggest that guide emotions, expectations, and team interactions should receive consideration in determining how to facilitate consistently optimal guiding performance. Diverse findings across organisational psychology and sport psychology literature highlight clear management implications based on these findings. The importance of emotional and motivational ‘climates’ in the effective management of organisations has been established in work and sport research. Organisational psychology scholars endorse the importance of fostering and sustaining positive emotions to promote a healthy emotional climate2 in the workplace (Ashkanasy & Daus, 2002). This literature also highlights the impact of employees' emotional experiences on job satisfaction and performance. Thus, adventure tourism employers should institute formal and on-going measures of organisational health and emotional climate (see Yurtsever & De Rivera, 2010 and Zeitz, Johannesson, & Ritchie, 1997 for measures). Sport psychologists stress the important of task-involving motivational climates3 that support intrinsic motives and thereby foster positive emotions, cooperation, and teamwork (see Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1999 for review). Motivational climates may be heavily influenced by supervisors in terms of evaluation and recognition criteria and practices, decision-making and task structures, the way individuals are grouped, and the types of interactions that are reinforced. Thus, a task-involving climate in adventure tourism settings could be achieved through strategies such as: (a) rewarding: hard work (over outcomes), effective guide collaboration, ‘helping’ behaviors, and team (over individual) efforts; (b) involving all guides in decision making; (c) ensuring all guides understand her/his and others' roles and their importance to operational success; and (d) creating a culture where mistakes are ‘valued’ as an integral part of the learning process. Lugosi and Bray (2008)'s study of organizational culture and tour guiding support these findings. They concur that guides should be rewarded for collaborative learning, and emphasise the importance of establishing physical and virtual ‘learning spaces’, training mentorships with experienced guides, and ‘communities of practice’ that encourage open exchange of ideas and collective guide development. Additional management strategies for addressing team guiding issues include: (a) regularly rotating guiding teams to decrease pressure on guiding dyads, minimise interpersonal conflicts, and maximise overall cohesiveness of guiding staff; (b) establishing a formalised pre-season or annual guide training program that incorporates all guides; (c) integrating structured team-building activities into guide training; and (d) developing a guide retreat that allows for dialogue and discussion of key roles, motivations, and expectations within that operation. Specific exercises might include shared story telling of previous team guiding experiences (positive and negative) that could both build rapport and provide personal insights into key motivations and emotional experiences that have shaped co-guides' approaches to guiding. Training should also involve communicating best practices in that destination and providing opportunities to share distinct guiding styles or methods learned elsewhere. Negative team guiding experiences might be minimised by establishing a formalised pre-season guide training program that incorporates team building and discussion of motivations and expectations with all guides. Working together to address shared challenges, establish positive team interactions, and set common goals and expectations from the outset may facilitate more positive team guiding experiences overall. This would enable guides of various backgrounds and experience levels to understand the expectations and guiding styles of their co-guides from potentially diverse backgrounds prior to leading trips together. These types of management approaches might reduce negative experiences in intensely emotional adventure guiding environments and facilitate dialogue on important team guiding topics before issues and negative emotional experiences arise. Although these new management approaches could potentially be challenging in terms of logistical organisation, finance, employee resistance to change, or initial start-up time, many of them can be easily incorporated within existing management and training structures at low cost. Simply becoming aware of guides' emotional experiences, supporting open communication within guiding teams, and rewarding team-oriented behaviors is an important, no-cost first step in this process. The range of strategies presented here could facilitate the development of ‘communities of practice’ amongst adventure guides (see Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002 for further review). The current study enriches tourism literature in a number of ways. It addresses a gap in the literature regarding the team guiding experience and associated emotions. The findings can inform guide management, organisational culture, and the establishment of communities of practice. This paper also highlights how experiential approaches, such as autoethnography, may enhance understandings of guide experiences and tourism destination experiences more generally. Finally, this study emphasises the importance of team guiding experiences in operational performance and destination success, describes strategies to improve these experiences, and identifies fruitful avenues of future study in this area.