The Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC) represents 72 enterprises in the
hotel and tourism industry under an organization called The Barbados Hotel and
Tourism Association (BHTA). The Barbados Tourism Authority (2003), the
government’s organization, is charged with the responsibility of overseeing tourism
on the island.
Much of the research in the hotel industry has been conducted in the UK (Hoque,
1999; Buick and Muthu, 1997) and Australia (Nankervis and Debrah, 1995), which
are large developed countries. This article asks whether Hoque’s findings might also
be applicable in another national context like Barbados, which is much smaller than
the UK and has a very different employee relations history.