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This chapter seeks to investigate the journey of breast and bowel cancer patients at the HMC Antoniushove. It zooms in on specific touch points and the possibilities for improvements. Furthermore, it elucidates the learning process and more particular the dissemination between the hospital (staff and medical students) and hospitality students and professionals and emphasizes that looking from different perspectives and various disciplines is beneficial for all the stakeholders involved in hospitals.

Diseases are increasingly chronic; patients are more demanding and competition between different hospitals is increasing. That is why, in addition to excellent medical treatment, excellent service (referred to here as hospitality) is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare sector, including in hospitals. What does it have to meet? What do patients appreciate, what needs to be improved and how can these improvements be designed and implemented with the involvement of both patients and hospital staff?

Medical and hospitality students collaborated in this project analysing and describing the journey of patients with breast and bowel cancer. They examined the patient journey and elucidated the touch points, which patients indicated as critical during their ‘journey’.

Most important finding resulted from the learning process of this collaboration and the insight gained, a greater awareness and understanding of the non-medical needs and wishes, i.e. hospitality, of patients. Furthermore, the mutual understanding between the evidence-based stance of thinking of medical students and hospital staff at the one side and the more on soft skills–focused attitude of hospitality students on the other hand increased.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to identify innovative talent management strategies, programmes, and practices that hospitality companies use in order to identify, develop, and retain their talent. For this purpose, awardees of the Hospitality HR Award were analysed. The award is an established prize in the German-speaking area. General success factors for innovative talent management are identified and the results are compared to international research of talent management in hospitality organisations.

Methodology: The chapter uses a qualitative content analysis approach. All award winners of the Hospitality HR Award since its launch in 2013 (N=60) are analysed.

Findings: The award winners followed different talent management strategies (e.g. cultural and leadership development), programmes (e.g. apprenticeship development programmes), and practices (e.g. fast and digital recruiting processes). Reported outcomes ranged from higher job satisfaction and lower staff turnover to a better work–life balance. General success factors included, among others, the importance of alignment of owners’ and managers’ interests and an integrated view on talent management.

Practical implications: Many talent management strategies, programmes, and practices are specified that may inspire hospitality organisations to employ more innovative approaches to talent management.

Originality: This chapter provides systematic qualitative evidence for and adds to the limited body of knowledge on innovative talent management strategies, programmes, and practices of hospitality companies. Furthermore, the chapter considers both strategic and operational views on talent management.

This paper elucidates female underrepresentation on executive boards in the Dutch hotel industry through a “feminist” stakeholder perspective, which persists despite public opinion and government initiatives to resolve this enigma. It contributes to this discussion by examining Rhenish governance structures through a “feminist” stakeholder-focused rationale, complementing prevailing Anglo-Saxon shareholder-focused governance research.

Eleven in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with hotel executive board representatives and five with sublevel management representatives. Saturation was achieved by interviewing all females on Dutch hotel corporate boards regarding their career experiences compared with those of female general managers and male counterparts.

This paper finds a prevailing “masculinist” perspective of an idealized shareholder-orientated executive and a “feminist” perspective of a humanized stakeholder-orientated executive expressed within the interviews. While the former sacrifices family for their career, the latter balances their family with their career. The former fosters presupposed gender norms, with females commonly sacrificing their careers while males sacrifice their families. Notably, most executives predominantly supported the humanized stakeholder-orientated executive, while recognizing that micro-, meso- and macro-structural barriers remain.

This paper addresses a lacuna in the ethical literature in exploring female executive representation in Rhenish stakeholder-focused governance structures, as opposed to Anglo-Saxon shareholder-focused ones. It found a “masculinist” perspective of an idealized shareholder-focused executive archetype and a “feminist” perspective of a humanized stakeholder-focused executive archetype. Notably, contrary to perceived business norms, several interviewees rejected the former as it is incompatible with family and work, instead seeking the latter which balances between family and work.