The Relevance of Human Resource Management Theory on the Management Practices of Hospitality Providers on Phillip Island Victoria‪.‬

Introduction The hospitality industry has often missed out on the benefits of human resource strategies used by management. Among the reasons is the fact that "... hospitality management has been hived off as a separate discipline in those universities which offer degrees in the field." (Price 1994: 44). Research findings in this area have been mainly published in specialist hospitality management journals which has contributed to the general attitude of insularity (Wood 1992) often found amongst academics and practitioners in the industry. Other reasons why businesses in the hospitality sector often do not adopt strategic human resource management (HRM) include the size and nature of the organisation, insufficient studies that cater for the sector (Beaver & Lashley 1998), lack of congruence between management research conducted by academics and that used by practitioners (Hughes, O'Regan & Wornham 2008) and the unwillingness of owners to implement human resource strategies that would cost them time, effort and money (Patel & Cardon 2010).