This chapter aims to analyze the research from the last 20 years about human resources management in the tourism industry. The research question is: What are the contributions of the international publications on human resources management and tourism in the Web of Science and Scopus databases in the last two decades? In order to accomplish this goal, the research methodology will be a literature survey using the Scopus and WoS databases. To develop this research, first, it will be performed a literature review on HRM as strategic value, and also on the multiple perspectives of the concept of tourism. Moreover, it will be made state of the art on human resources management in the tourism industry. Furthermore, the results of the literature survey are presented. The main findings show that there is still a need for more production about human resources management in the tourism industry, which was based on the importance of one segment to the other, as well as the infinite possibilities of incremental actions that allow a mutual benefit between these two fields.
TopIntroduction
Global competitiveness has been a point of concern to both tourism market managers and researchers (Gannon & Johnson, 1995). Companies are increasingly looking forward to develop a motivational and learning environment, due to global competitiveness, to achieve acceptable results. (Marinho et al., 2014).
From this perspective, studies on human resources management in tourism are critical such as public, private, visitors, and community sectors, i.e., all stakeholders involved, benefit from this integration (Baum et al., 1997).
According to Barney (1991) and Baum (2006), human resources, with knowledge, skills, and features provided that competitors are not able to copy, are essential in the companies, with refection on the competitive advantage which they need to respond to the encountered challenges. Also, Neves (2007) states that of all the resources present in a company, the most determinant in organizational effectiveness are human resources, as the most significant responsibility in creating a competitive advantage is theirs. Apart from human resources, factors regarding the organizational process are essential, once the company’s employees (Evans et al., 2003) elaborate strategies and arrange for its implementation. Covey et al. (2012) mention that companies need to find strategies involving and commit their employees to organizational performance in order to make them stronger, competitive, sustainable, and more capable of differentiation, corroborate this.
In this perspective, human resources management is becoming more strategic, competitive and sustainable, in a constantly changing environment as a source of value and result for the company and its stakeholders (Freitas, 2012). From the same point of view, human capital is crucial for the competitiveness of companies, and especially for tourism, as well as for the sector’s development.
In this global village, business managers need to be mindful of the present, innovate, and implement strategies that signal best people management practices, so that companies are more competitive and responsive to challenges.
According to Rego et al. (2012) and Kusluvan et al. (2010), companies should strike a balance when it comes to developing entrepreneurship and human resources strategies as the implementation of business strategies implicates in human resource management.
Based on these inferences and knowing the importance of human resources management and tourism, the research problem was elaborated: “What are the contributions of the international publications on human resources management and tourism in the Web of Science and Scopus databases in the last two decades? Thus, this study has a general objective: To analyse the characteristics of publications related to the themes of human resources management and tourism in the last two decades, in the referred databases.
The article is organized into five sections. After a brief introduction, theoretical contribution will be described, explaining the state of the art of the themes, the theoretical and methodological procedures of the research, and, in the following section, the principal results found. To conclude the study, the final considerations of the study are carried out, as well as its limitations and future lines of investigation.