Abstract:
This thesis presents an exploratory study of human resource management in privately owned businesses in Tonga’s tourism industry. It focuses on the manager or business owner’s perspective, and institutional theory is employed as the theoretical lens through which I examine the research phenomena. Interviews with 10 managers were held to collect the primary data and in addition to this, archive documents were collected from The Ministry of Labour, Commerce and Industries for a triangulated approach to the research questions. A coding analysis of the data was carried out and results revealed a high contextualization of the data where the strongest influences on managers in determining HRM practices were mechanisms of coercive isomorphic pressures. Specifically, cultural and societal influences were the strongest indicators as to why managers handle HRM the way they do. HRM in Tonga is characterized by nepotism and decision-making flexibility, and although HRM practices reflect those depicted in the literature to some extent, they move away from being Western-based and are enacted in ways specific to the culture and country. There were important implications for research and practice resulting from this study concerning the perspective of employees, as well as the notion of formal and informal institutions. A most important implication concerns the unfavourable effects of the lack of labour legislation on the labour market. This is seen as the most pressing issue for industry policy makers and practitioners alike.
