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Management of Operative Staff in a Labour‐scarce Economy: The Views of Human Resource Managers in the Hotel Industry in Singapore *
Author(s) -
Debrah Yaw A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1177/103841119403200104
Subject(s) - economic shortage , business , human resource management , hotel industry , human resources , scarcity , argument (complex analysis) , marketing , affect (linguistics) , management , economics , market economy , political science , tourism , linguistics , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , government (linguistics) , law
This article explores the views of HR managers on the management of operative staff in the hotel industry in Singapore at a period of acute labour short age. Using a case‐study qualitative methodology, it examines how external and internal environmental factors affect the HRM of operative staff. In the view of the HR managers, the labour shortage has resulted in recruitment and retention problems, high labour turnover, decline in discipline at the work place, along with other difficulties. The HR managers indicated that the external environment dictates how operative staff should be managed. The study reveals that the problems in the HRM of operative staff, as a result of the labour shortage, have been compounded by the lack of coherent and systematic HR practices and strategies in the hotels. The main argument, there fore, is that to mitigate the effects of the external environment successfully, HR managers should pay more attention to the development of internal HRM practices and strategies. It is suggested that one such strategy could be the development of an internal labour market in hotels.