An Evaluation of the Relationship between Human Resource Practices and Service Quality: An Empirical Investigation in the Canadian Hotel Industry.
Authors:   , Khassawneh Osama 
Published: August 2021

Human resource management (HRM) practices have been recognised as a key function in enhancing organisational productivity and sustaining competitive advantage for organisations. It has been noted that most studies that are based on the relationship between HRM practices and performance indicators (e.g., service quality) in hotels hide an important element that tells hoteliers which factors to concentrate on in cases of poor performance. There is a lack of qualitative studies to highlight the effect of HRM practices on service quality in Canadian hotels. Therefore, this research aimed to examine the influence of HRM practices on service quality in the Canadian hotel industry. This study aims first to propose a working definition of service quality in hotels and then to develop a conceptual model to help hotel managers improve service quality in the light of HRM practices. This study seeks to investigate how employee recruitment and selection, training, rewards and incentives, and internal career opportunities help to improve the quality of service in the hotel sector. An exhaustive review was conducted to establish existing facts about the concept of service quality and its significance for the hospitality sector. Likewise, sources that addressed issues in the HRM discipline were analysed to assess the role of HRM practices in ensuring service quality. The qualitative research method was employed in the study. Three sets of semi-structured interviews were designed to obtain a perspective on the relationship between HRM practices and service quality from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy within hotel organisations in Canada. They were semi-structured and face-to-face. The sample was made up of 6 HR managers, 6 supervisors and 22 non-management employees. The findings of the research indicated the presence of a strong association between recruitment and selection and service quality. The themes obtained from interviewees suggested that an established process of hiring of induction for new employees is an effective first step in ensuring that any new person joining the organisation is aware of service quality standards and expectations. The findings further indicated that recruitment and selection help in hiring and selecting skilled people to deliver service quality. This suggested that recruitment and selection play a key role in impacting the service quality. It was found that training and development, incentives and rewards, and internal career opportunities have an effect on service quality. Moreover, the relationship between all the HR practices as a bundle and service quality was reported as having an effect to improve service quality. A key contribution of this study that it offers a workable definition of service quality and then a robust model for the relationship between HRM practices and service quality that contributes to enhance knowledge of the causal relationship between them. In addition, this study contributes by identifying which HRM practices a hotel could adopt to gain a service quality advantage in the marketplace. Moreover, the proposed conceptual framework contributes by improving our understanding of the causal relationships between HRM practices and service quality. Managerial implications, research limitations and research avenues were then captured.