Personnel Instability, Personnel Management, and the Company Image of Small Tourism Enterprises in Remote Destinations : A Case Study of Abisko Mountain Lodge

Sammanfattning: In recent decades, tourism has been developed rapidly in the world. With such development, tourism sustainability has drawn great attention, especially in remote destinations. In Swedish Lapland, the studies have been focusing on social sustainability in terms of local communities and other external factors. Personnel as an important part of the tourism industry received less attention. Therefore, this research aims to provide an in-depth examination of the reasons behind personnel instability, personnel management, as well as maintaining the company image with personnel instability in small-sized tourism businesses in remote destinations. By using Abisko Mountain Lodge as the case, this research conducted five in-depth interviews with personnel, and one interview with the manager. The findings of this research revealed that personnel took the job without any aim for material needs, and the reasons for leaving Abisko include the location of the hotel, lack of living necessities, and emotional loneliness. Personnel management is mainly a flexible personnel strategy while a transformational leadership style plays a critical role. The company image of this case is ‘including’. Though new ideas are welcomed, the image will remain the same for all stakeholders. The limitations of this research include lack of interviews with permanent personnel and lack of nationality differentiation.