A comparative analysis of best human resource management practices in the hotel sector of Samoa and Tonga
| Date | 29 July 2014 |
| Pages | 798-815 |
| Published date | 29 July 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2013-0021 |
| Author | Suwastika Naidu,Anand Chand |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
A comparative analysis of best
human resource management
practices in the hotel sector of
Samoa and Tonga
Suwastika Naidu and Anand Chand
School of Management and Public Administration,
Faculty of Business and Economics, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to comparatively analyse the best human resource
management (HRM) practices in the hotel sector of Samoa and Tonga.
Design/methodology/approach – This study examined best HRM practices used by the hotel
sector of Samoa andTonga by using self-administered questionnaires. Self-administered questionnaires
were distributed to 73 hotels in Samoa and 66 hotels in Tonga. Out of the 73 self-administered
questionnaires that were distributed in Samoa, 58 usable questionnaires were returned resulting in a
response rate of 79 per cent. In the case of Tonga, out of the 66 self-administered questionnaires were
distributed, 51 usable questionnaires were returned resulting in a response rate of 77 per cent.
Findings – The findings of this study show that there are 28 best HRM practices in Samoa and 15
best HRM practices in Tonga. This study also found that best HRM practices differ based on
differences in internal and external environmental factors present in different geographical areas.
The findings of this paper support the assumptions of the Contextual Paradigm of HRM and strategic
human resource management.
Research limitations/implications – This study is based on a single sector of Samoa and Tonga.
A single sector study limits the generalisations that can be made across different sectors in Samoa
and Tonga.
Practical implications – Human resource managers should incorporate cultural, political, legal,
economic and social factors in HRM practices.
Originality/value – None of the existing studies have examined best HRM practices used by
the hotel sector of Samoa and Tonga.This study is a pioneering study that comparatively analyses the
best HRM practices used by the hotel sector of Samoa and Tonga.
Keywords Mixed methodologies, Human resource management,
Strategic human resource management, Hotel sector, Contextual Paradigm, Samoa, Tonga
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The majority of the global service industries are labour intensive industries (Ram,
2000; Cassell et al., 2002; Edgar and Geare, 2005; Meijerink et al., 2013). The hotel sector
is not an exception to this. The perfor mance of the hotel sector is determined by the
quality its workforce (Gannon et al., 2012; Harris et al., 2012). Hotels can improve the
quality of its workforce by implementing best human resource management (HRM)
practices. Best HRM practices differ based on differences in internal and external
environmental factors in different geographical settings (Cambre
´et al., 2012; Richards
et al., 2012). Hotels need to implement best HRM practices to motivate employees to
improve the quality of hotel service delivery. By implementing best HRM practices,
right employees can be recruited, developed and retained (Chand, 2001, 2012; Bahn,
2012; Najeeb, 2013). Recently, the number of studies on best HRM practices has
increased; however, there are few studies that have comparatively analysed the best
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
Received 2 February 2013
Revised 27 December 2013
Accepted 11 February 2014
Personnel Review
Vol. 43 No. 5, 2014
pp. 798-815
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-02-2013-0021
798
PR
43,5
HRM practices in the hotel sector of Samoa and Tonga. To date, none of the existing
studies have investigated the best HRM practices in Samoa and Tonga.
The main aim of this paper is to comparatively analyse the best HRM practices
in the hotel sector of Samoa and Tonga. In order to achieve this aim, this paper will
investigate three sub-objectives:
(1) investigate the best HRM practices in the hotel sector of Samoa;
(2) investigate the best HRM practices in the hotel sector of Tonga; and
(3) comparatively analyse the best HRM practices in the hotel sector of Samoa and
Tonga.
This paper used one sample t-test to answer sub-objectives one and two. The one
sample t-test for the HRM practices for Samoa and Tonga was compared with each
other to answer sub-objective three.
This paper focuses on Samoa and Tonga for two reasons. First, Samoa and Tonga
have unique internal and external environmental facto rs. Focusing on Samoa and
Tongaallows the authors of this paper to examine the differences in best HRM practices
used by the hotels sector of Samoa and Tonga (Naidu, 2012a). Second, existing studies
have examined best HRM practices in different geographical settings. However, none of
the existing studies have comparatively examined bestHRM practices in the hotel sector
of Samoa and Tonga. This paper provides a framework for comparatively analysing the
best HRM practices in the hotel sector of Samoa and Tonga (Naidu, 2012b).
The structureof this paper is as follows.Section 2 presentsthe theoretical perspectives
and literature review. Section 3 presents the research methodology. Section 4 presents the
research findings. Section 5 discusses the research findings. Section 6 discusses the
contributions of this paper to the existing literature. Section 7 presents the organisational
implications of this paper. Section 8 presents the theoretical implications of this paper.
Section 9 concludes the paper.
2. Theoretical perspectives and literature review
2.1 Theoretical perspectives on best HRM practices from the HRM and strategic human
resource management (SHRM) literature
The global tourism sector is facing four concer ns relating to managing employees.
These four concerns are skill shortage (Naidu, 2012a, b), negative image of the hotel
sector in managing employees (Naidu et al., 2013), cultu ral barriers that may limit the
employment of women (Naidu et al., 2013), poor rewards and benefits structure (Naidu,
2012a, b) and lack of training and development of the employees (Naidu et al., 2013).
Hotels need to implement best HRM practices to address these fou r concerns.
There are six importance of implementing best HRM practices (Nai du and Chand,
2013). First, best HRM practices motivate employees to improve the quality of service
delivery. Second, best HRM practices will sharpen the knowledge, talents and skills of
employees. Third, best HRM practices will ensure that right employees are recruited
and placed at the right jobs. Fourth, best HRM practices will provide equal employment
opportunities for all. Fifth, best HRM practices will provide fair compensation and
benefits for all. Sixth, best HRM practices will reduce employee stress, workload and
improve the quality of work life for all. The theoretical perspectives used in this paper
will be drawn from the literature related to HRM and SHRM.
In the literature related to HRM and SHRM, Dewettinck and Remue (2011) presented
the Contextual Paradigm of HRM and SHRM. Citing Rousseau and Fried (2001),
799
Comparative
analysis of best
HRM practices
To continue reading
Request your trial