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Approaches to HRM in the Barbados hotel industry

Article  in  International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management · February 2006

DOI: 10.1108/09596110610646655

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IJCHM
18,2 Approaches to HRM in the
Barbados hotel industry
Philmore Alleyne
94 Department of Management Studies, University of the West Indies,
Bridgetown, Barbados
Liz Doherty
Faculty of Organisation and Management, Sheffield Hallam University,
Sheffield, UK, and
Dion Greenidge
Department of Management Studies, University of the West Indies,
Bridgetown, Barbados

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure the extent of the adoption of human resource
management (HRM), the existence of a formal HR strategy, and the development of the HR function in
the Barbados hotel industry compared with Hoque’s sample of hotels in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative survey, covering 46 hotels out of a population of
75 hotels was conducted with the respondents being the hotel’s management: a general manager, HR
manager or line manager.
Findings – It was found that the adoption of human resource (HR) practices was more prevalent in
Barbados hotels than in the UK sample. With respect to the existence of a formal HR strategy, the
results were mixed. The results also show that in many respects the Barbados hotels are ahead of their
UK counterparts in the development of the HR function.
Research limitations/implications – The research focused on a small sample in a developing
country. In addition, responses were obtained from top management rather than all levels of staff.
Practical implications – The findings about HR practices were based on management assertions.
There is need for a follow-up with more tangible evidence.
Originality/value – The paper highlights the importance of HR practices in a developing country.
These findings were unexpected, given that the UK is a mature western economy, where Barbados is
classified as a developing country. They may be explained by the better-developed formal systems for
the management of employment relations at an industry-level in Barbados.
Keywords Human resource management, Hotels, Barbados, United Kingdom,
Human resource strategies, Personnel administration
Paper type Research paper

International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality
Management
Vol. 18 No. 2, 2006
pp. 94-109
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-6119
DOI 10.1108/09596110610646655
Introduction
People are one of the greatest costs and also one of the main assets of contemporary
organizations. The extent of a company’s success in terms of its survival and
competitive position is determined by, inter alia, workers’ qualities, attitudes and
behaviour in the workplace. The management of people has become a critical issue for
the hotel industry in recent years, as more emphasis has been placed on quality. The
hotel industry is necessarily labour intensive and this makes it particularly important
that it develops effective human resource practices and policies to achieve competitive
success (Pfeffer, 1998). Barbados is a small island where tourism accounts for as much
as 70 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. Further, tourism employs 13 per cent of Approaches to
the island’s labour force and in 2000 it contributed 11.3 per cent to the island’s gross HRM
domestic product (International Labour Office, 2003). Barbados targets a high
spending tourist from the very top of the market through to more modest hotel
accommodation, which, nevertheless, represents a once in a lifetime vacation. Thus, the
effective management of people in the hotel industry is important to the overall
competitiveness of the whole country, which depends on the consistent delivery of 95
excellent service.
This paper seeks to understand the extent of the adoption of Human Resource
Management (HRM) practices, the extent of the development of the personnel function
and the existence of a formal HR strategy in the Barbados hotel industry by using
Hoque’s (2000) methodology. Following Hoque’s (2000, p. 50) comparative study of
United Kingdom (UK) hotels with manufacturing establishments, we will “. . . look at
the extent to which HRM practices have been adopted . . . and test whether the usage of
the practices asked about is any more widely reported . . .” in the Barbados hotel
industry than in the UK hotel industry. The findings presented here are part of a larger
study that used both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the development
of HRM in the Barbados hotel industry and also investigate the relationship between
the adoption of HRM and performance in Barbados hotels. Findings based on the part
of the study that looked at HRM and performance can be found in Alleyne et al. (2005)
and Alleyne et al. (2006). This article concentrates solely on the development of HRM in
Barbados.
The structure of the paper is as follows. The first section discusses selected
literature on HRM. The second section presents an introduction to Barbados and some
of the key features of employment there. The third section discusses the research
methodology used. The results are presented in the fourth section, and conclusions are
drawn in the final section.

Selected literature review on HRM

HRM concept
Throughout the 1990s, there has been a good deal of debate about the differences
between Industrial Relations/Personnel Management (IR/PM) and HRM as distinctive
approaches to the management of people (Storey, 1992 and 1995; Sisson, 1994; Guest,
1995; Legge, 1995). It is often argued that HRM began as a US concept (Beaumont,
1992) with its emphasis on individual (as opposed to collective) management of people
and the application of human resource methods intended to win employee commitment
to organisational goals (McGunnigle and Jameson, 2000).
Although there has been some debate about the precise definition of HRM
(Worsfold, 1999; Noon, 1992), the differences between IR/PM and HRM are best
summed up in Storey’s (1992) seminal work in which he takes the heuristic device of
“ideal type” from Weber (1949) to present an abstract conceptual framework of both
IR/PM and HRM. The main aspects of HRM that distinguish it from IR/PM are a
unitarist frame of reference (closely linked to individual as opposed to collective forms
of management), alignment between organizational strategy and the way people are
managed, a belief that people, if managed properly, are key to competitive advantage,
an emphasis on employee flexibility, and the utilization of an array of human resource
techniques or “levers” (Storey, 1992) which are intended to engender employee
IJCHM commitment. However, it should be noted that Storey’s approach has been criticised,
18,2 not least by Legge (2001) who argued that the differences between the two approaches
were less pronounced than suggested by Storey (1995). This paper will focus more on
HRM rather than engage in the IR/PM debate.
Recently, there has been considerable debate about the best possible ways in which
HRM can be utilized to contribute to a firm’s success. The literature has postulated two
96 main approaches, one based on the “best practice” school and the other based on the
“best fit” or contingency school of strategic HRM (see Boxall and Purcell, 2000 and 2003).

“Best practice” school

Pfeffer (1998) suggested a number of HR practices (best practices), which should
improve organizational performance, with little or no focus on other contingency
factors. Pfeffer (1998) identified these HR practices as selective hiring, extensive
training, employment security, diffusion of information, teamworking, reduction of
status differences, and performance related and incentive pay. Boxall and Purcell’s
(2003) overview of “best practice” models shows that these tend to stress the
importance of building employee ability through good recruitment and training, the
role of strong financial incentives and the value of enabling employees to contribute
their ideas through work design and indirect forms of employee participation. One
criticism that can be made about the “best practice” approach is that it is very much
based on a US style of management that tends to be individualistic in terms of both
national culture and resistance to trade unions. Thus, the “best practice” prescriptions
may not apply in more collective or unionised environments.
Further, the research evidence demonstrates that “best practice” has not diffused
across all industrial sectors – much depends on whether firms can afford, or see the
benefits from, particular best practices (Boxall and Purcell, 2000). Consider, for example,
the case of a company like MacDonald’s that adopts a cost based strategy. It would not
make economic sense to invest heavily in the training and development of its front line
employees, nor would it be efficient to operate sophisticated employee empowerment
schemes where the emphasis is on scripted, mass service encounters, rather than
customized interactions that call for high levels of employee discretion (see Lashley,
2001). All of this suggests that features such as the national and sectoral context and the
market position of the company influence approaches to the management of people.

Contingency theorists
In contrast to the “best practice” school, there is the contingency theory or “best fit” model.
This is closely related to strategic human resource management (SHRM), which seeks to
have some “fit” between an organization’s HRM policies and practices, and its overall
competitive strategy or position. Contingency theorists argue for external and internal fits
(Schuler and Jackson, 1987). External fit may be defined as situations where there is an
integration of the HR systems with overall business strategy and the proposition that
aligned HR systems will perform best. MacDuffie (1995) argued for “positive bundling”
whereby excellent combinations of HR policies and practices should be sought: for
example, a commitment approach may require the bundle of HR practices of selective
staffing, training and performance related pay. Internal fit refers to the “synergistic
benefits resulting from the introduction of HRM as an institutionally supported package
of practices that cohere with and mutually reinforce each other” (Hoque, 1999b, p. 422).
 Building on the Porter (1980) strategic typologies, Schuler and Jackson (1987) Approaches to
matched three generic organizational strategies of cost reduction, innovation and HRM
quality enhancement with three generic HRM philosophies of utilization, facilitation
and accumulation (Hughes, 2002). They proposed that organizations following a cost
reduction strategy, would seek to minimize labour costs, provide little job security, and
place little emphasis on promotion. Firms adopting a quality enhancement strategy,
would strive to select good staff and place emphasis on training and provide adequate 97
job security. Firms following an innovation strategy/facilitation strategy would stress
creativity, teamwork, flexibility, and excellent job security. Schuler and Jackson (1987)
argued that HRM would prove effective only where the organization emphasizes the
importance of either quality enhancement or innovation.
One of the most significant and influential pieces of work, which explored the
relationship between external fit, internal fit and organizational performance, is
Huselid’s (1995) often quoted US study. He found a statistically significant relationship
between internal fit and employee turnover, productivity and financial performance,
but only a limited relationship between external fit and the same performance
measures. Huselid’s research has spawned much UK debate about the extent to which
external fit occurs and the problems of measuring it (see, for example, Purcell, 1999).
There have also been some attempts at replication of his study in the UK and one of the
best examples of this is Hoque’s (1999a) and (1999b) survey of the hotel industry, which
has informed our investigation of the Barbados hotel industry.
Whether “best practice” or “best fit” is advocated, the argument put forward is that
investment in people through the application of the HRM approach will lead to
improved organizational performance. Whilst it remains difficult to prove this causal
link, the proposition that happy staff are more likely than angry or dissatisfied staff to
offer good service quality is compelling.

HRM in hotels
There are conflicting views about the extent to which the hospitality industry has
invested in its human resources. The literature has shown that some companies
recognize the importance of people to their businesses (e.g. Forte Hotel Group, Erstad,
2001; Fivestar Hotel, Haynes and Fryer, 2000). Several other studies conducted in the
hospitality industry support this and have highlighted good HRM practices of appraisal
systems, training, top quality management, empowerment, team working and a shift
from an autocratic to a more consultative management style (Watson and
D’Annunzio-Green, 1996; Anastassova and Purcell, 1995; Buick and Muthu, 1997). Set
against this positive impact, the management of people in hotels and catering in the UK
has traditionally been regarded as poor, with considerable evidence of low employee
discretion, low pay, an autocratic management style with no consultation, unsocial hours
of work and poorly rewarded work (Price, 1994; Lucas, 1996; Haynes and Fryer, 1999).
The employee relations climate has also been characterized as poor, with high
labour turnover and high rates of absenteeism, dismissals, accidents, grievances and
disciplinary cases (Lucas, 1996; Kelliher and Johnson, 1997). Price (1994, p. 57) argued
that in the UK industry, there was “a dearth of sophisticated human resource
management practices.” The industry therefore has a negative image with vacancies in
the hotel and catering sector being more difficult to fill than any other industry, and the
considerable use of casual and part-time workers (Price, 1994; Lucas, 1995; Guerrier
IJCHM and Lockwood, 1989). Hoque (2000, p. 46) sums up the evidence like this: “there are
18,2 compelling arguments suggesting that HRM has a potential contribution to make, but
equally compelling arguments that its role will always be restricted.”
In his work, Hoque (1999a) draws attention to the strand of literature, which stresses
the importance of service quality and the contribution that HRM can make to the
provision of high quality service in the hotel industry. He also argues that, in forming a
98 view about the nature of HR practice in hotels, insufficient direct comparisons have
been made between the hotel industry and other industries and that not enough
attention has been paid to the size of establishments. His empirical research was based
on a sample of large hotels and similar sized manufacturing units. He measured
practice in relation to terms and conditions, recruitment and selection, training, job
design, quality, communication and consultation, pay systems and HR planning. He
demonstrated that on almost all measures the hotels had gone further towards meeting
the HRM model than the manufacturing units and concluded “It seems that, as
managers have accepted the importance of service quality, they have taken on board
the need to find new ways of employing their staff” (Hoque, 1999a, p. 74). In addition,
he found that “the occurrence of specialist personnel managers within the industry is
more widespread than previously acknowledged” (Hoque, 2000, p.65).
Hoque’s findings are consistent with the findings from a recent study of
management careers in the hospitality industry conducted by a team of researchers
drawn from several universities (Doherty et. al., 2001). This was based on twenty-nine
case studies of large employers (almost all of which operated multiple units and
employed many hundreds of people) drawn from all sectors of the hospitality industry.
This study generated a good deal of material about the extent to which HRM
approaches were applied to managerial staff. The overwhelming and most surprising
finding from the whole study was that:
Contrary to all expectations, all sectors of the industry and the vast majority of the companies
within the sectors have displayed a high level of sophistication in and considerable commitment
to their human resource policies and procedures. Most companies had developed clear
competency profiles for their managers against which performance was assessed. Management
development programmes were in place and in operation. Career structures were defined and
established. Paths of development could lead (after appropriate training activities) from
front-line operative to senior management in many organisations (Doherty et. al., 2001, p. 6).
Thus, it does appear that some parts of the UK hospitality industry (including hotels)
are increasingly adopting aspects of the HRM approach to the management of people.
This is particularly the case in larger organizations and those that emphasize service
quality. It seems likely that some aspects of this practice may well have become
established as a form of accepted “best practice” or “tablestakes” (Boxall and Purcell,
2000) simply as a base level for attracting people to the industry, and that some
employers may be adopting this good practice as part of a deliberate policy of “fitting”
HR practices to their service standards and market position. Our next task is to find out
how this UK picture compares with the situation in Barbados.

Managing people in Barbados

The Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), the largest and oldest union in the country, is a
general workers” union, drawing its membership from organizations in the different
sectors, including hotels, of the Barbadian economy. The total number of unionized
workers (out of 135,500 employed) gives a union density of 36 per cent (International Approaches to
Labour Office, 2003, p. 9). Hotels and hotel based restaurants account for over 60 per HRM
cent of the work force of 13,000 in the sector and 40 per cent (3,500) is organized by the
BWU, giving a union density of 27 per cent for the sector. This is a very different
picture to that found in the UK where union density in the hotel and catering industry
is only 4 per cent (Culley et. al., 1999).
The Barbados Employers” Confederation (BEC), comprising the employers, 99
represents 72 enterprises in the hotel and tourism industry under an organization
called The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) (International Labour
Office, 2003). There is an industry-level collective agreement between the BHTA and
the BWU, which ensures that the industry is well regulated. The agreement covers
hours of work, basic pay, service charge, grievance and disciplinary procedures, to
name a few. The Barbados Hospitality Institute (BHI) is a full service hospitality
training facility, which provides certificate, diploma, and associate training in all
aspects of the hospitality industry. Service quality is the aim of this training.
This short introduction to Barbados shows that the employment context is very
different to that found in the UK. The trade union presence in the hospitality industry
and the use of industry-wide collective bargaining is far more widespread in Barbados
than in the UK and this means that aspects of IR/PM will be part of the employment
relations context as well as aspects of HRM.

Research methodology
A quantitative survey was used to examine the approaches to HRM in the Barbados
hotel industry. Saunders et. al., (2003, p. 92) have pointed out that the quantitative
survey “is a popular and common strategy in business and management research,” and
surveys enable “easy comparisons and appear to be authoritative.” In this case, the aim
was to make direct comparisons between human resource management practices in the
UK and in Barbados. The survey is a useful tool for analyzing and assessing HR
practice and the HR function in a systematic way and it has allowed us to gather
similar data to that acquired by Hoque (1999a; 2000). The survey sought to look at the
extent to which HRM practices had been adopted in the Barbados hotel industry, the
existence of a formal HR strategies, and the extent of development of the HR function
within the hotel industry. This article compares the findings in Barbados with Hoque’s
UK hotel sample.

The survey population

Hoque’s survey only included hotels that had 65 or more rooms, but given the size of
the Barbados” hotel industry (i.e. only 75 hotels of varying sizes), all the hotels were
invited to take part in the study. The questionnaires were sent by post to either a
human resource manager, general manger or deputy general manager between June
and August 2003. As Saunders et. al., (2003, p. 155) pointed out “The Economist’s
(1997) advice of a minimum number of 30 for statistical analyses provides a useful rule
of thumb . . . ” and it was hoped to yield a sample population of at least this size.

Questionnaire design
The survey was designed to obtain quantifiable information on the hotel industry in
Barbados, with a view to understanding HRM. The questionnaire, which, as
IJCHM mentioned, earlier formed part of a larger study, was based to some extent on the
18,2 approach taken by Hoque (1999a; 2000) and it is described fully in the following
paragraphs.

Background
Section A of the questionnaire requested respondents to give details about their hotel
100 such as the size of the hotel’s staff (number of full time and part time employees), and
number of rooms.

Human resource management practices

Section B of the questionnaire sought to measure the extent of the adoption of HRM
practices by asking about the same range of specific human resource practices that
Hoque (2000) covered; these included terms and conditions of employment, recruitment
and selection, training, job design, quality management, communication and
consultation and pay systems (Table I shows the full list of questions asked in each
area). Hoque’s list of 21 HRM practices is a summation of best HRM practices, derived
from Wood and Albanese (1995) and Guest and Hoque (1994). Hoque’s survey of HRM
practices elicited “yes” and “no” responses. The survey used the three scales of “Yes”,
“No” and “Partially” to allow a more partial adoption of HRM practices to be explored.
Hoque may have really forced respondents in one way or the other and most may well
have chosen to show themselves in a good light. This may indicate that respondents
may have embellished their responses by saying “yes” when they only partially
adopted HRM practices.

HRM strategy
Section C dealt with testing for the extent to which a formal HRM strategy had been
adopted. The first issue relates to strategic integration of HR decision making with
business strategy, that is to say the extent to which external fit was pursued. Following
the theories of Schuler and Jackson (1987) and Kochan and Barocci (1985), Hoque (2000,
p. 59) sought to find out the importance of HRM as an approach, which “should be
consciously tailored to meet the needs of the individual business.” Thus, following
Hoque’s methodology, the following question was asked: “Has an attempt been made
by your hotel to deliberately integrate HR strategy with your hotel’s overall business
strategy?”
Second, strategic integration focuses on internal fit which means that those HRM
“. . . practices should cohere with each other and form part of an integrated mutually
supporting package rather than being seen as systems operating in isolation from each
other” (Hoque, 2000, p. 59). To this end, a question was asked: “Are your hotel’s HRM
practices or policies deliberately integrated with each other?”
Third, to determine the strategic importance attached to HR issues, three questions
were asked:
(1) Is there an HR strategy, formally endorsed and actively supported by senior
management at the hotel?
(2) Does your hotel have a mission statement?
(3) If so, does it explicitly refer to HR issues?
 Approaches to
Barbados sample
and partially Hoque’s UK HRM
% yes % yes results %

Terms and conditions

Harmonized terms and conditions between management
and non-management staff 67.4 89.1 76.2 101
Single status for all staff 19.6 45.7 59.3
Internal promotion the norm for appointments above the
basic levels 58.7 80.4 89.9
No compulsory redundancy 15.2 26.1 41.3
Recruitment and selection
Trainability as a major selection criterion 89.1 91.3 89.7
Use of psychological tests as the norm for the selection of
all staff 13.0 17.4 7.2
Deliberate use of realistic job previews during recruitment
and selection 78.3 84.8 53.4
A formal system for communicating the values and
systems in the company to new staff 63.0 78.3 88.5
Training
Deliberate development of a learning organization 65.2 80.4 70.5
An explicit policy requiring all staff to spend a specified
minimum period annually in formal training 32.6 43.5 39.1
Job design
Flexible job descriptions that are not linked to one specific
task 56.5 69.6 76.8
Deliberate design of jobs to make full use of workers’
skills and abilities (i.e. use of job enrichment and/or
autonomous work groups) 30.4 63.0 57.3
Work organized around teamworking for the majority of
staff 69.6 89.1 79.7
Staff involvement in setting performance targets 28.3 63.0 52.9
Quality issues
Production/service staff responsible for their own quality 19.6 56.5 65.2
A majority of workers currently involved in quality circles
or quality improvement teams 13.0 47.8 30.2
Communication and consultation
Regular use of attitude surveys to obtain the views of staff 23.9 58.7 50.2
A system of regular, planned team briefing or cascade of
information from senior management to the lower
grades/shopfloor during which work stops 65.2 78.3 81.2
All staff are informed about the market position,
competitive pressures and establishment and company
performance as a matter of course 63.0 87.0 79.9
Pay systems
A merit element in the pay of staff at all levels 17.4 47.8 43.7
Formal appraisal of all staff on a regular basis at least
annually 58.7 65.2 89.9
Notes: No. of valid cases (n ¼ 46); “yes” and “partially” responses have been combined to denote a Table I.
“yes” response; percentages shown reflect the new “yes” response Usage of HRM practices
IJCHM Similar to Hoque (2000), it was felt that these questions (which required either a “yes”
18,2 or “no” response) would assess the level in the hotel at which HRM decision-making
takes place. In addition, Hoque (2000) felt that the mission statement could reflect the
seriousness given to HR issues.

The human resources function

102 Section D measured the extent of the development of the HR function. The
development of the HR function was examined by asking questions about job title,
qualifications, average percentage of time spent on personnel matters, number of staff
employed in the HR department (support staff), and the number of courses attended in
HR/personnel management. The intention here was to “simply relate to the extent to
which personnel managers are in existence within the hotel industry, rather than the
functions they perform” (Hoque, 2000, p. 65).

Caveats
Readers should be aware that the data on the UK against which Barbados is being
compared, were collected in 1995. The situation in the UK may well have moved on since
then. Another caveat to be taken into consideration is the small size of the sample in this
study; Hoque’s sample was 230 while the Barbados sample was only 46. Furthermore,
Barbados is a very small country with a population of just over 250,000 people and it is
classified as a “developing” country. By comparison, the UK is much larger and termed
as a developed country. In addition, the results were based on management’s perception;
hence bias may exist with respondents seeking to embellish the results.

Results
Characteristics of the sample
Table II categorizes all the hotels in Barbados by size and the number of hotels that took
part in the survey also categorized by size. 46 responses were received, achieving a
response rate of 61.3 per cent. This response rate compares favourably with Erras’ (2002,
p. 65) report of empirical studies achieving an average response rate of 43.3 per cent,
while Baruch (1999) found an average response rate of 55.6 per cent. Table II shows that
the final sample was reasonably representative of the Barbados hotel sector as a whole.
It has been shown that the final sample achieved is broadly representative of the
hotel sector in Barbados, but that just over half of the sample hotels were smaller than
those included in Hoque’s survey. The number of employees covered by the survey

Room size Total hotel population No. of respondents Respondents (% of population)

,25 18 8 44.4
25-49 15 10 66.7
50-64 8 5 62.5
65-99 16 12 75.0
100-199 16 9 56.2
200+ 2 2 100.0
Table II. Total 75 46 61.3
Profile of hotels in the
survey Source: Barbados Tourism Association (2003)
totaled 5,271, of which 4,935 were permanent and 336 were part-time, showing a 6 per Approaches to
cent level of part-time workers. The median size of hotel by number of employees was HRM
80, with a mean of 114.6, and ranging from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 700
employees. The sample covered 3,688 rooms. The room size ranged from a minimum of
13 to a maximum of 340 rooms with a mean of 80 rooms and a standard deviation of 64
rooms. In Hoque’s (2000) sample, the average number of rooms was 155.6. Thirty six
hotels (78 per cent) recognized the union, which was indicative of the strength, density 103
and recognition of the union as the bargaining force in the hotel industry.
When Price (1994) conducted her survey of employment practices in the UK hotel
sector it was based on a 10 per cent random sample of all the hotels included in the
1992 AA Guide to Hotels and Restaurants in Britain and Ireland. This yielded a more
representative sample of UK hotels than Hoque’s (2000), as it was not constrained by
size. It is illuminating to compare aspects of Price’s sample with the Barbados sample.
The main points of interest are that the Barbados hotels are generally larger than those
found in the UK (the median size of establishment in the UK was only 25 employees),
that they are far less likely to employ part-time workers (31 per cent of people in the UK
sample worked on a part-time basis) and that they are far more likely to be unionized
(only 9 per cent of the UK hotels recognized a trade union).

Usage of HRM practices

Table I shows the HRM practices adopted by the respondent hotels and these are
compared with Hoque’s findings. Previous surveys conducted in the UK (Price, 1994;
Hoque, 2000; Doherty et. al., 2001) have shown a clear correlation between size and the
adoption of more sophisticated human resource practices So, given the inclusion of a
majority of hotels that were smaller than Hoque’s cut off of 65 rooms, and the smaller
average size of the hotels in the Barbados sample, one might have expected to find
rather less take-up of HRM practices in Barbados than was found in the UK. However,
a comparison with Hoque’s findings shows that the frequency of the adoption of the
HRM practices in Barbados exceeded those in the UK in 13 out of the 21 practices.
Where the take-up was greater in the UK, the difference was generally only a few
percentage points. Of course, it could be argued that the opportunity to tick a partial
up-take may have pushed more of the Barbados respondents in a positive direction.
Nevertheless, this is a very positive finding in relation to Barbados.
The practices relating to the area of training are more widely reported within the
Barbados hotel industry than in Hoque’s UK hotel sample. The picture was not
clear-cut in other policy areas such as terms and conditions, recruitment and selection,
job design, quality issues, communication and consultation, and pay systems.
However, the results do support the view that Barbados hotels are ahead of the UK
hotels in terms of the adoption of HRM.
With respect to terms and conditions, only harmonized terms and conditions
between management and non-management staff were more highly utilised (89.1 per
cent) in Barbados. Further, the adoption of single status, internal promotion and no
compulsory redundancy were all higher in the UK sample.
In terms of recruitment and selection, it was found that trainability tests, the use of
psychological tests and deliberate use of realistic job previews were all used more in
Barbados compared to the UK. However, a formal system for communicating the values
and systems in the company was higher in the UK sample. More aspects of job design
IJCHM intended to involve staff in their work had been adopted in the Barbados sample – this
18,2 included the deliberate design of jobs to make full use of workers” skills and abilities,
team working arrangements and staff involvement in setting performance targets. Only
the use of flexible job descriptions was more prevalent in the UK.
There were mixed findings in relation to the adoption of quality measures that
involved staff. Quality circles were more prevalent in Barbados, while having
104 production/service staff responsible for their own quality was higher in the UK. In terms
of communication and consultation, HRM practices were utilized more in Barbados
hotels in two out of three areas. Barbados hotels had a higher proportion of respondents
who claimed to have attitude surveys, and to keep all staff informed about the market
position, competitive pressures and establishment and company performance as a
matter of course. However, a system of regular and planned team briefing was much
higher in the UK. Looking at pay systems, it was found that merit pay was used more in
Barbados, whilst regular formal appraisal was used more in the UK.

The existence of a formal HRM strategy

Table III shows that UK hotels approach the management of human resources in a more
strategic manner than the hotels in Barbados. It would appear that 65.2 per cent of the
hotels in Barbados are less likely to report that there is an HR strategy, formally endorsed
and actively supported by top management in comparison with 76.6 per cent in the UK.
This may suggest that responsibility of HR may be further down the hotel’s hierarchy. It
can also be seen that only 47.8 per cent of the Barbados sample (compared to an
overwhelming 84.7 per cent in the UK) are likely to have a mission statement. In addition,
only 68.2 per cent (compared to 75.3 per cent in the UK) of those who have formal mission
statements are likely to have mission statements which refer to HR issues.
However, a higher proportion of the Barbadian respondents (82.6 per cent)
compared to 77.2 per cent in the UK sample, claimed to have their HR policy
deliberately integrated with business strategy (external fit). Similarly, with respect to
internal fit, the Barbadian hotels (80.4 per cent) are more likely to have HR practices
deliberately integrated with each other than the UK sample (74.2 per cent). These
findings are interesting. The positive evidence of both internal and external fits
contrasts with the less well developed approach to formal and deliberate

Barbados
hotels Valid cases UK hotels Valid cases
HRM Policy (%) (n ¼ 46) (%) (n ¼ 230)

Is there an HR strategy, formally endorsed

and actively supported by top management? 65.2 46 76.6 227
HR policy deliberately integrated with
business strategy (external fit) 82.6 46 77.2 224
Formal mission statement 47.8 46 84.7 229
Table III.
If there is a mission statement, does it
HRM strategy within the
explicitly refer to HR issues? 68.2 22 75.3 186
Barbados hotel industry
compared with Hoque’s HR practices deliberately integrated with one
UK sample another (internal fit) 80.4 46 74.2 221
strategy-making. This could be interpreted to mean that HRM is approached less Approaches to
strategically in Barbados. This could be because there is less of a case for a HRM
differentiated strategy in a context where the whole of Barbados targets high-spending
tourists and all hotels emphasize quality rather than cost. Another interpretation may
be that there is less deliberate engagement with strategy (organization-wide and HR) in
Barbados and more of a sense of emergent strategy (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985).
Overall, the results show mixed support for the importance of the contribution of 105
human resources to the achievement of the goals of the business in Barbados.

Extent of development of the human resource function

Of the 46 hotel industry respondents who gave a job title, only 43.5 per cent (20) had the
term “human resources” within their job title, indicating a rather low level of
importance being attached to naming HR specialists with the words “human
resources.” This may suggest that they may have wider responsibilities than personnel
matters, or that there is no need to rename positions inherited from the past.
89.1 per cent (41) of the hotel industry HR specialists held qualifications ranging
from Diplomas to MBAs. The other five had a secondary education with at least five
“O” level certificates. This compares favourably with Hoque’s finding of 79 per cent in
the UK. The HR practitioners or persons responsible for HR issues showed a high
formal qualification rate, with at least four holding Masters degrees and 19 holding
Bachelors degrees, representing 50 per cent of the sample. The support for the
Barbados Hospitality Institute (BHI), the training institute, was evident with another
23.9 per cent of the respondents holding a qualification from that institution. 10.9 per
cent of the sample had a specific degree in personnel management or human resources
management. Table IV shows the statistics for the personnel function within the
Barbados hotel industry compared with Hoque’s UK sample. It was assumed that
people taking at least three or more courses in HR/personnel management could be
deemed to have the equivalent of a formal qualification in such matters. Interestingly,
54.3 per cent had done more than more than three courses in HR/personnel
management (such as organizational behaviour, human resource management and
industrial relations) during their period of study. This compares favourably with
Hoque’s formal qualification rate of 47.8 per cent in the UK.
It was found that 78.3 per cent of the HR specialists had followed courses in
hospitality. It would appear that the criteria for appointment or main interest, is in

Barbados
hotels Valid cases UK hotels Valid cases
Personnel function (%) (n ¼ 46) (%) (n ¼ 138)

Average percentage of time spent on personnel

matters 48.1 46 70.5 127
Respondent spends $ 50% time on personnel
matters 38.1 46 85.8 127 Table IV.
The personnel function
Respondent has formal qualification in personnel
within the Barbados hotel
management 54.3 46 47.8 138
industry compared with
Support staff present 67.4 46 59.4 138 Hoque’s UK sample
IJCHM hospitality matters first, with HR qualifications and experience playing a secondary
18,2 role. Table IV shows that 38.1 per cent of the sample spent more than 50 per cent of
their time on HR issues compared to Hoque’s UK sample, which showed that 85.8 per
cent spent 50 per cent or more of their time working on personnel issues. Finally, in
Barbados, 67.4 per cent of hotels have staff other than the most senior manager
responsible for personnel, working specifically on personnel issues, compared with
106 59.4 per cent in the UK sample. Two hotels (4.3 per cent) had the HR departments
merged with the quality assurance departments.
Overall, the results show that HR specialists in the Barbados hotel industry are
more qualified than their UK counterparts, and are more likely to have support staff.
The fact that 48.1 per cent of the HR specialists in Barbados spent less time on HR
matters compared to 70.5 per cent in the UK sample, may suggest that there are fewer
problems in the industry, staff may be quite satisfied with working conditions,
turnover is lower and less time is spent on recruitment activities.

Conclusion
These findings were unexpected, given that the UK is a mature Western economy,
where Barbados is classified as a developing country. Overall, the results show that
Barbados hotels seem well organized when compared to the UK sample of hotels. With
respect to the usage of HRM practices, Barbados hotels scored higher than the UK
hotels in the areas of recruitment and selection, training, job design, and
communication and consultation. Indeed, Barbados hotels scored better on 13 out of
the 21 HRM practices when compared with the UK hotels. It could be argued that the
collective agreement has ensured that good terms and conditions are applied
throughout Barbados and that the kind of practice associated with IR/PM has
influenced the widespread adoption of good employment conditions.
There were mixed results with respect to the existence of a formal HRM strategy.
UK hotels were ranked higher in terms of the formal endorsement and actions in
support of HR strategy by top management, the existence of a formal mission
statement and the fact that the mission statement explicitly refers to HR issues. In
contrast, Barbados hotels had a higher frequency with respect to HR policy
deliberately integrated with business strategy (external fit) and HR practices
deliberately integrated with each other (internal fit). This finding is still positive as the
meshing of HR strategy and business strategy, as well as deliberately integrating HR
practices may be a push for investing in HR practices that contribute to a high
standard of service in the Barbados hotel industry.
With respect to the extent of the development of the HR function, these results show
that the HR specialists in the Barbados hotels are ahead of their UK counterparts in
terms of formal qualifications in HR/personnel management and support staff present
in the HR/personnel departments. It was also found that the Barbados HR specialists
spent a lot less time on HR matters. This could be a result of a peaceful work
environment, and a need for HR practitioners to be multi-skilled.
Hoque’s (2000) list of 21 HRM practices is a summation of best HRM practices. More
evidence of this “best practice” is found in Barbados and it seems that this may be
partly because of the stronger collective bargaining/union presence. Thus, contrary to
expectation, it appears that many aspects of best HRM practice are encouraged in a
collective as opposed to an individualized employee relations environment. The mixed
messages on HR strategy and fit suggest that the “best fit” argument may be less Approaches to
important than the “best practice” argument. It could be argued that in a situation HRM
where “best practice” is adopted anyway, the need to develop sophisticated,
custom-built strategy evaporates, especially in a tourism environment where there is a
heavy emphasis on quality everywhere.
These findings show how important it is to collect objective information about HR
practices in different country contexts. It would be easy for HR managers to assume 107
that practices in Barbados would be less advanced than those in the UK, or to assume
that Western ideas about the management of people could be transferred easily to
developing countries. These findings have shown that collective approaches to the
management of people may be more appropriate in some country contexts, and that
this can help establish a level of “best practice” that in many ways surpasses the level
of investment found in more individualized country contexts such as the UK. The
promotion and adoption of “best practice” may be the most effective approach for
achieving competitive advantage across an entire, though small, country like
Barbados, which depends so much on its people to deliver consistent levels of excellent
service.
Finally, readers should be continually aware of the fact that the UK data is about ten
years old and as such the employee climate may have changed since then. Thus, future
research needs to be done to obtain objective data on the shifts in the HR climate in the
UK hotel industry over the last decade.

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Further reading
Barbados Tourism Authority (2003), Hotels, Apartments and Guest Houses Registration, BTA,
Barbados.
Miles, R.E. and Snow, C.C. (1984), “Designing strategic human resource systems”, Organisational
Dynamics, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 36-52.

Corresponding author
Philmore Alleyne can be contacted at: philmore.alleyne@uwichill.edu.bb

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