Challenges in managing peripheral workers within diverse environments.

This paper explores the HR issues that tour operators experience in the planning, coordination and management of tours revolving around cycling events. It does so by using a tour operator based in the UK as a case study and by deploying a qualitative ethnographic approach. This methodology was deemed as the most fitting to enable an in-depth and rich analysis of the issues that characterise the complex management of core (office-based employees) and peripheral workers (tour guides on the event site). Not only do the different operations, time frames, environments and activities within which the employees operate result in the company’s workforce division into two distinctive groups, but they also determine low levels of professional satisfaction and motivation among the tour guides. Investigating the stances held by the company’s employees in relation to the difficulties encountered in the workplace is necessary to develop a strategy that allows for retaining peripheral workers, for creating synergy between the two different teams, and consequently for ensuring the achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives. The findings highlight how the adoption of HR practices that aim at enhancing the company’s internal marketing would entail an optimistic shift in the tour guides’ perception of their position within the company, resulting in improved product delivery and reduced absenteeism, burnout and turnover challenges