Abstract
The paper argues a case for the economic determinism of human resource management practice. The arguments put aside human agency and suggest that human resource management practice can best be understood through the influence of industrial and labour economics. The question has been asked in the HRM literature as to whether economic determinism has led to the collapse of the HRM metaphor. This paper suggests that the hospitality and tourism industry is a case of where economic determinism has prevented modern HRM paradigms from starting up. The friction between concerns for modern management practice and unchanging economic imperatives forms the basis of the paper. The conditions that might produce change are discussed.