Human resource management and quality in the UK hospitality industry—where is the strategy?

Abstract

Evidence suggests that for the UK hospitality industry as a whole neither quality management nor human resource management (HRM) is being embraced as a management function, but that they remain divorced from and subordinate to strategic business planning. Perennial problems exist in the industry (Wood, 1992), and the effects of the prolonged economic downturn are being acutely felt. Conversely, in a relatively recently opened, successful hotel in Edinburgh, both quality management and HRM are well developed and integrated. That this is the case suggests that there may be a direct association between commercial success in the hospitality industry, quality and HRM. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between strategic HRM and quality in the UK hospitality industry from theoretical and practical perspectives, and to identify the implications of this for the industry.