Human Resource Management Practices in the Hotel Industry in Sri Lanka

Human Resource Management as a discipline has been in existence for decades. However researchers have continued investigating various HRM practices and whether these practices are influenced by various demographic factors pertaining to industries and organizations. Researchers of this study are in pursuit of identifying HRM practices in the hotel industry in Sri Lanka in relation to demographic factors such as ownership of hotel and type of hotels. For the purpose of this study, ownership is defined as whether the hotel is owned by a foreign investor or domestic investor. Type of hotel is defined as whether the hotel belongs to a hotel chain or an independent hotel. The set of HRM practices of hotels was identified using the list of HRM practices prepared by Hoque for his research on HRM practices and performance of hotel in UK. Hoque’s list of HRM practices covers eight areas of HRM practices and each area comprises of several HRM practices belonging to that particular area of HRM. Seventy six hotels responded to the questionnaire belonging to six tourist destinations in Sri Lanka. Overall there are 25 HRM practices in the list. Based on finding, it was concluded that there is a significant relationship between the type of hotel and HRM practices.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/kjm.v2i2.6552 Kelaniya Journal of Management Vol.2(2) 2013:88-98