Contingent Employment Relationships Between Tour Guides and Tour Operators in Ecuador: Human Resource Management Practices and Attitudinal Outcomes

This study examines a unique contingent employment relationship—that between tour guides and tour operators in Ecuador. Linkages among tour operators’ HR practices, interactions between operations managers and tour guides, and the tour guides’ attitudes toward both the tour operator and the ultimate tourist-client are investigated. Tour guides are found to exhibit dual commitments to both operators and tourist-clients. Affective commitment to the tour operators was found to partially mediate the relationship between organizational entry HR practices, compensation related HR practices, operations manager interactions, and tour guides’ commitment to the tourist-client, suggesting that tour guides’ perceptions about the tour operator may affect their ultimate customer service delivery. Satisfaction with tips was more directly related to commitment to the tourist-client, as was the interaction of pay administration satisfaction and tip satisfaction, supporting the notion that contingent pay beyond base pay provided by the tour operator and its delivery may impact tour guides’ motivation to provide quality service to the end client. Practical implications for the tour operators, and tourism ministries are offered.