Enhancing the Competitiveness of the Hong Kong Hotel Industry through Human Resource Management Practices: The Intra-Organizational Fit and Adoption Perspectives

Strategic human resource management system (SHRM) is one of the most crucial contextual influences on employee behavior and attitudes and has a critical influence on companies’ bottom-line performance. Surprisingly, however, little research has been done on how the hotel industry can benefit from the effective use of SHRM. In this study, we aim to advance knowledge of how SHRM can help the hotel industry in Hong Kong and the world in general achieve exceptional performance.

In the meantime, research suggests that the hotel industry is an interesting context in which to study SHRM. Its worldwide growth is continually increasing; the impact of software (that is, people) on firm performance is as important as, or perhaps even more important than, hardware (that is, infrastructure); companies have to face a tension between regular and contingent employees; and the average industry turnover rate is worryingly high.

The study addresses two research questions. Firstly, the extant SHRM research highlights the best fit perspective. However, understanding of this perspective remains limited and the extant work has largely focused on the horizontal fit among HR practices within SHRM and the vertical fit between SHRM and environmental factors. We are particularly interested in advancing understanding of this perspective by assessing the fit between SHRM and intra-organizational characteristics (for example, at the team level, task interdependence and team climate; at the individual level, personality and values). Secondly, an important question that deserves more research attention is why so few hotel firms actually adopt SHRM, given the obvious financial and HR returns associated with it. We aim to develop a comprehensive framework that addresses hotel firms’ opportunity, ability, and motivation to adopt SHRM.

On completion of the study, we expect to have systematically advanced conceptual and empirical knowledge about how to promote the competitiveness of the hotel industry in Hong Kong in particular and the world in general through SHRM. Concrete and practical suggestions and implications for policymakers are also expected to emerge.