Introduction

Research in brief
Improving human
resources management:
some practical questions
and answers

Nowadays in the area of company organisation,

including companies dedicated to international
hospitality, travel and tourism, nobody denies
the importance of human resources (HR) to
business success, and expressions such as ``HR
represent an investment rather than a cost''
have become quite usual. New proposals for
human resources management (HRM) have
appeared, of which, because of their topicality
and impact in publications, we highlight three:
the best practices approach, management by
competencies, and the management of
intellectual capital. The tourism industry has
not been excluded from those, and it is known,
through published papers, that certain
companies recognise the importance of people
to their businesses and include HR practices
contained in the above proposals (e.g. Florida
Theme Park (Mayer, 2002); Forte Hotel Group
(Erstad, 2001); Fivestar hotel (Haynes and
Fryer, 2000)).

Santiago Melian Gonzalez

The author
Santiago Melian Gonzalez is Professor of Human Resource
Management at the University of Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Islas Canarias, Spain.
Keywords
Human resource management, Performance management,
Company performance, Hotel and catering industry, Spain
Abstract
Practically nobody denies the importance of human
resources (HR) to company management. There are many
works which show that companies' managing their HR in a
specific way, obtain positive business results. However,
some of those studies select, a priori, organisations with a
certain type of HR practice in order to assess their impact on
performance. This work, with no prior knowledge of their
human resources management (HRM), analyses the HRM in
a number of accommodation establishments, using three
up-to-date approaches to that managerial function as a
reference. The results indicate that many of the
establishments do not follow the proposals of those
approaches. Therefore, based on those results, the focus is
on those three perspectives to make recommendations that
enable the establishments to improve their HRM.

Objectives
In some of the studies of HRM, organisations
with high performance HRM are selected a
priori. But what happens in companies with no
information published about their HRM, and
when nothing is known about it? Do they use
HRM in the same way as the companies in
previous studies? Using those questions as a
starting-point, this work attempts to analyse the
HRM in a number of accommodation
establishments about whose HRM nothing was
previously known. The objective is to check the
extent to which the precepts of the three abovementioned theoretical frameworks are reflected
in the HRM practices of the establishments. A
brief description of all three follows.

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Best practices perspective

The works of authors such as Pfeffer (1994,
1998) and Huselid (1995) propose a series of
HR practices beneficial to business results, in
which little or no attention is paid to other
contingency factors. This way of understanding
the HRM has been named the ``best practices''
or ``high performance practices'' approach. This
perspective receives more empirical support

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International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Volume 16 . Number 1 . 2004 . pp. 59-64
# Emerald Group Publishing Limited . ISSN 0959-6119
DOI 10.1108/09596110410516570

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Improving human resources management

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Volume 16 . Number 1 . 2004 . 59-64

Santiago Melian Gonzalez

than a contingency approach, although it is not

without its critics, and comprises the following
HR practices:
.
employment security;
.
selective hiring;
.
extensive training;
.
performance appraisal;
.
sharing and diffusion of information;
.
incentives; and
.
emphasis on promotions and development.

taken but do not ensure the future, and leading

indicators (unique to each company, e.g. the
employees' capabilities), that emphasise the
future because the business results depend on
them. They also distinguish between HR
performance drivers, key company capacities
related to people (e.g. productivity), and
enablers, which reinforce the drivers (e.g. a
system of incentives that stimulates a conduct).
Those authors stress that companies must
consider both the enablers and the performance
drivers, since the implementation of the
business strategy depends on both.

Management by competencies
Competency refers to actions which, by putting
into practice abilities, personality traits,
motivations and knowledge in an integrated
way, enable a task to be carried out successfully
(Levy-Leboyer, 1997; Spencer and Spencer,
1993). The added value of management by
competencies can be summed up as follows:
.
It permits its measurement and assessment.
.
All the HR practices can be organised
around competencies without having to use
different units for each practice.
.
It encourages flexibility in job descriptions.
.
It enables an integrated and coherent
management to be developed (coherence
between the departmental, business and job
competencies).

Methodology
Between November 2001 and January 2002, the
managers of 66 accommodation establishments
on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) were
interviewed in person. The interviews were
semi-structured in order to analyse the content
of the HRM (instead of centring on whether an
HR practice was applied or not, as would be the
result of a self-administered questionnaire). This
permitted an in-depth diagnosis of the HRM and
of its approach, which is the really interesting
aspect (Guest, 1997). The average length of the
interviews was two and a quarter hours.

It can be seen that the model is really full of

suggestions and Becker and Huselid (1999), in
their in-depth study of five leading US
companies, named management by
competencies as one of the common practices.

Description of the sample

Of the 66 establishments, 77.2 per cent were
hotels of the following categories: five-star, 11.8
per cent; four-star, 43.1 per cent; three-star,
33.3 per cent; two-star, 11.8 per cent and 22.8
per cent were apartment complexes of the
following categories (unlike hotels, the
apartments on Gran Canaria are classified into
the following three categories, from lower to
higher: one-key, two-key and three-key):
three-key, 20 per cent; two-key, 53.3 per cent
and one-key 26.7 per cent. The activity of the
establishments was:
.
sun and beach tourism, 76.9 per cent;
.
city or urban tourism, 13.8 per cent; and
.
rural tourism, 9.2 per cent.

Management of intellectual capital

Intellectual capital refers to intellectual
material, knowledge, skills, intellectual
property, and experience that may be used to
create value (Steward, 1997). Within
intellectual capital, human capital stands out
(Edvinsson and Malone, 1997; Becker et al.,
2001), and includes staff variables such as:
knowledge, satisfaction, motivation, leadership,
etc. The challenge of the human capital theory
lies in creating procedures for its management,
and, for example, Becker et al. (2001), when
explaining their specific method for HRM,
differentiated between two types of indicator
useful to management: lagging indicators
(mainly financial, e.g. profitability), which
reflect the consequences of decisions already

Of the companies, 43.9 per cent had an HR

department and the average size of workforce
was 146 employees.
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International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Volume 16 . Number 1 . 2004 . 59-64

Santiago Melian Gonzalez

Results

from the rest: working towards offering a

quality service (63.1 per cent of the
establishments) and improving customer
satisfaction and loyalty (60 per cent), which, as
can easily be deduced, require the support and
direct involvement of the employees. They were
also asked to name the main difficulties that
their establishments encountered and three
stood out: The low qualifications of their HR
(31 per cent), the competition (27.6 per cent),
and the shortage of workers (20.7 per cent).

The presentation of the results will be in the

form of answers to a series of questions. In that
way, the answers will be used to evaluate the
HRM of the establishments following the three
previously explained perspectives.
Do the managers believe that HR are
important?
The interviewees were asked to evaluate (with a
score of from one to five; one very little
importance; two slight importance; three
medium importance; four importance; and
five great importance) the importance of a
series of resources to the competitiveness of
their establishments. Of the 13 resources
evaluated, three directly related to HR were
placed among the top five: first, staff motivation
and involvement (mean: 4.59; std: 0.63),
fourth, management skills (mean: 4.41; std:
0.70), and fifth, staff capacity and knowledge
(mean: 4.41; std: 0.72). In addition, they were
asked to describe the actions that they
considered necessary to achieve a series of
business objectives. Table I shows the three
most named actions for each of the objectives,
all of which, except two, need actions that
involve the capacities and motivations of the
workforce.

Are the importance of HR and the need for

HRM reflected in the HR practices?
Given the answers to the two previous
questions, one would expect a high use of HR
practices, or best practices, for three reasons:
HR are important, they are necessary to
implement strategies, and the above-mentioned
difficulties.
However, 64 per cent of the establishments
had carried out training actions during 2001,
and 21.9 per cent of those had done so only for
obligatory topics (i.e. safety at work,
food-handling, and first-aid), so, in fact, only 50
per cent trained their workers in non-obligatory
matters. Moreover, the training of managers
and supervisors in management skills (i.e. staff
management and motivation) was also
uncommon (35.9 per cent).
Only 33.8 per cent used incentives as a
variable part of the salary. The most used
form of incentive was the productivity bonus
(72.7 per cent), followed by commission (18.2
per cent), attendance incentive (13.6 per cent)
and non-financial rewards (9.1 per cent). The

Do they need HRM?

The interviewees were asked to name the
strategic actions that they were implementing,
with the aim of seeing to what extent they
needed HR practices. Two actions stood out
Table I Business objectives and actions
Objectives

Actions

High level of customer satisfaction

Friendly treatment (58.5 per cent); workers' efficiency (30.8 per cent)
and correct facilities (29.2 per cent)
Friendly treatment (72.1 per cent); quality of service (32.8 per cent)
and worker efficiency (23 per cent)
Information (52.9 per cent); advertising (21.6 per cent) and varied
offer (21.6 per cent)
Cost control (44.2 per cent); negotiations with suppliers (32.7 per
cent) and suitable size workforce (13.5 per cent)
Innovation (35.4 per cent); quality products (29.2 per cent) and good
service (25 per cent)
Professionalism (53.7 per cent); training (38.9 per cent) and quality
control (22.2 per cent)

High degree of customer loyalty

Optimum use of services
Low operating costs
High consumption in bar and restaurant
Quality of services

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International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Volume 16 . Number 1 . 2004 . 59-64

Santiago Melian Gonzalez

incentives were mainly aimed at managers and

supervisors (62.5 per cent), front-line staff
(31.3 per cent) and sales positions (18.8 per
cent).
Few establishments used formal performance
appraisal systems (35.9 per cent). The most
usual method was the customer survey (56.5
per cent), followed by the check-list (30.4 per
cent), the setting of targets (17.4 per cent),
conduct appraisal (8.7 per cent) and
timekeeping (4.3 per cent).
The most frequently used technique of staff
selection was an interview with the person
responsible for the vacant position (95.4 per
cent); however, typical HRM practices were
used very little: an interview with HR
department staff (35.4 per cent), psychological
tests (9.2 per cent), knowledge tests and asking
for references (4.6 per cent in both cases).

those with no such deoartment; 2 = 17.2;

p = 0.00);
made more use of management skills
training for their managers (55.2 per cent
compared with 20 per cent of those with no
HR department; 2 = 7.1, p = 0.01);
used more financial incentives (65.5 per
cent against 8.3 per cent, 2 = 21; p = 0.00);
and
appraised the employees' performance
more (50 per cent against 25 per cent and,
although the differences were not
completely significant, the trend was
noticeable: 2 = 3.3; p = 0.07).

Finally, the interviewees were asked to give the

year's business results a score of between one
and five, with one being very bad, two being
bad, three being normal, four being good and
five being very good. On checking these results
against the presence, or not, of an HR
department, there were no totally significant
differences, although the tendency was
noticeable (contingency coefficient = 0.30;
p = 0.09). So, the managers of the
establishments with HR departments tended to
describe the business results more positively.

Are HR indicators considered in

management?
The interviewees were asked which indicators
best reflected whether they were taking the right
decisions to achieve the establishment's
objectives. The three most named were:
occupancy (76.9 per cent), customer
satisfaction (67.7 per cent), and sales (47.7 per
cent), while the HR indicators were hardly
mentioned. When they were specifically asked
about those, the most common were:
absenteeism (49.2 per cent), staff turnover and
staff satisfaction (42.6 per cent in both cases,
although satisfaction was not reflected in a
quantitative indicator, but by perceptions), and
customer satisfaction (37.7 per cent).

Conclusions and practical implications

Based on the theoretical perspectives and the
results described, we now set out some
conclusions that contain practical implications
for improving HRM in accommodation
establishments. To do this, we use another set
of questions.

Were any benefits obtained from

management by competencies?
Not in most cases, since the majority did not
use the HR practices necessary for management
by competencies. Apart from that, the little
support that the strategies received from the
HR practices makes one think that the
advantages of this method were not taken into
account.

Is it enough that the managers have a

positive opinion about the role of HR in
companies for them to obtain the potential
benefits of HRM?
Although it is a good starting-point, favourable
beliefs about and attitudes towards the
potential of HR are not enough to develop a
high performance HRM. If we want a
workforce that adds value to our activity, the
managers' positive opinions are not enough. It
also requires an HR department in order to
establish HR practices that support
management strategy and maximise the
employees' contributions.

Is it important to have a formal HR

department?
The establishments with an HR department:
.
carried out more staff-training activities
(93.1 per cent as opposed to 40 per cent of
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Volume 16 . Number 1 . 2004 . 59-64

Santiago Melian Gonzalez

(e.g. profit per employee) are useful, but those

that really ensure that the right path is being
taken towards an objective (e.g. quality of
service) are the leading indicators (e.g. per cent
of employees with specific competencies; per
cent of favourable performance appraisals of
competencies essential to the strategy, etc.). If
the establishments had a set of leading
indicators (e.g. 5 per cent of cooks able to
prepare five or more typical regional menus),
they could take decisions about which HR
practices are the most suitable for implementing
the strategy (e.g. training the other cooks in
typical regional cuisine)

Which HR practices will enable the

potential benefits of HRM to be
maximised?
The positive influence of HRM is more
probable when a set of HR practices, coherent
with one another and related to business
objectives, is used. This complementariness has
synergetic effects. Therefore, it would not be
sufficient for a company with a strategy of
improving customer satisfaction to train its
employees in customer service skills; it should
also bear the customers' requirements in mind
when selecting its employees (e.g. selection
interviews and/or personality tests). Moreover,
it should appraise their performance using data
that reflect customer satisfaction (e.g.
satisfaction surveys) and/or by actions that
ensure high satisfaction (e.g. observation by
superiors) and/or performance objectives (e.g.
management by objectives); encourage a
conduct that influences customer satisfaction
(e.g. bonus or reward for performance targets)
and train supervisors how to lead and motivate
their work team to increase customer
satisfaction.

Must all the above be applied to the entire

workforce?
The key positions in the chain of value and in
implementing the strategy must be identified,
since they are the ones that require more
attention from HRM. Why is it mainly
managerial posts that receive incentives and not
the other jobs? It is a common occurrence in
companies, but the nature of its origin may be
institutional rather than have any real influence
on strategy. If that strategy is to improve
customer satisfaction, who directly contributes
more to that, a financial manager or the
restaurant waiters?

How does one design the function of HR in

the company?
Management by competencies permits the
architecture of HRM to be suitably structured.
Starting with the strategy (e.g. to improve the
quality of service by satisfying the customers'
demands), the establishment must specify
which competencies its departments need in
order to implement it (e.g. bars and restaurants:
offering menus typical of the local region) and
then design the HR practices that ensure that
the employees have the competencies necessary
at a strategy and/or department level (e.g. select
cooks who can prepare typical regional dishes;
teach cooks about the variety of local dishes;
appraise the performance and motivate by the
degree to which the objective of offering a
certain number of typical local menus is
achieved).

References
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quality and performance: a case study'', International

Why must HR leading indicators be

considered?
It is necessary, although difficult due to their
intangible nature, to consider human capital
indicators to assess whether business objectives
are being achieved. The traditional indicators
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International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Volume 16 . Number 1 . 2004 . 59-64

Santiago Melian Gonzalez

Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,

Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 240-8.
Huselid, M.A. (1995), ``The impact of human resource
management practices on turnover, productivity,
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quality in theme parks'', International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 7 No. 4,
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Further reading
Boyatzis, R. (1982), The Competent Manager: A Model for
Effective Managers, Wiley, New York, NY.

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