Labour recruitment in the hospitality industry : a different lesson in the sustainability of small and island states

Abstract

Smallness and its consequences are generally understood to have implications on various features of the small social universe. My intention is to extend this concern to the sphere of human resource management. I therefore propose an investigation into how the condition of smallness has implications for relationships between people, particularly between manager and managed at work. The chapter will draw on select comparative interview material relating to the issue of recruitment. The empirical fieldwork from where the material is culled was carried out by the author in two large luxury hotels, one in Malta and one in Barbados. The account and analysis suggest how the dynamics between managers and employees in the hospitality industry of developing micro-states may illustrate the idiosyncratic cluster of opportunities and limitations of operating in such a small-size and small-scale environment.