This paper looks at the way skills and knowledge are valued by management in tourism and hospitality firms and at how that valuation is reflected in the configuration of human resources management (HRM) and the structure of labour markets. Based on a resource view of the firm and using the concepts of human resource architecture, it is argued that tourism and hospitality are not just examples of the internal spot-market mode in which acquisition dominates employment strategy, but rather constitute a special case in which the nature of labour productivity intervenes. The authors argue that labour is, in the main, separated from quantitative concepts of productivity and adds value only in qualitative terms. This sets up a dichotomy for human resource strategy between economic imperatives and the desire for quality. The resolution of that dichotomy, it is argued, is aggravated by the way individuals value their human capital, which has the effect of segmenting a general unskilled labour market and creating rigid occupational identities. This is the background against which modern ideas of HRM, such as employment flexibility, have to contend.