Assessment of Sustainable Competitive Advantage of Selected Hotels in Kumasi Using the Generic Functions of Human Resource Management Model

Abstract

It has been observed that most hospitality companies neglect the welfare of the human capital, resulting to high labour turnover in the industry. Globalization which is exposing the Ghanaian hospitality market to keen competition makes the issue of the human capital a force to reckon with. This study therefore seeks to unearth how generic function of HRM can be employed by Ghanaian hospitality industries with reference to Hotels in Kumasi to build sustainable competitive advantage. In this respect, the study attempts to review literature on concepts of competitive advantage and the generic functions of HRM and integrating these concepts to show how performance of an organisation can be enhanced through the adoption of such strategies. The research which employed the descriptive survey research design revealed that most of the hotels in Kumasi are cost leadership minded but its implementation is not effective among the lower star rating hotels. The high star rating hotels are however very effective with the implementation of differentiation strategy. Evidently, a common phenomenon that the study found among hotels in Kumasi was recruitment of low calibre of labour with little training. It is recommended therefore that hotel managers should consider long term benefit, and recruit, train and develop the right calibre of staff since this is vital to sustainable competitive advantage. Again, adapting generic function of HRM will be of great importance to the hotels in Kumasi in that by training and developing the right employees, labour turnover in the industry can be minimised since the trained and developed employees will become much loyal to the company.